A Simple Vow Read Online Free Page B

room, where the tables had been placed end-to-end and covered with long white tablecloths, Luke bit into a perfectly seasoned chicken thigh with a groan of satisfaction. When he spotted his wife, with her auburn hair tucked up under her kapp and her freckled face alight with a smile, he let his gaze linger on her. Last spring at this time he’d been footloose and determined to remain uncommitted—a bachelor of thirty determined to live in a state of never-ending rumspringa —yet now he craved the company of his unconventional wife, and was contentedly immersed in the Mennonite faith they shared.
    As though sensing his attention, Nora turned and smiled at him. Luke’s heart fluttered. The crowd ceased to exist for a few moments as her green eyes made him hold his breath. When he saluted her with a chicken leg, they both laughed and went on about their visiting. As he glanced at Millie, so like her mother, and at his younger brother Ira while the newlyweds accepted plates of pie from Naomi Brenneman, Luke sent up a prayer. Let them find the same happiness You’ve granted me with Nora, Lord.
    “Quite a party you’re puttin’ on for the happy couple,” a familiar voice behind him said.
    Luke turned as his older brother Ben clapped him on the back. “It’s the least I can do, considering how you’ve helped pay for their new home.”
    “Oh, let’s not forget that the aunts kicked in on that, as well as Ira.” Ben smiled mischievously. “I felt sorry for you and Nora, what with bein’ newlyweds yourselves—maybe lettin’ Ira and Millie move into your place rather than expectin’ them to bunk in the apartment above the mill.”
    “Aunt Nazareth and Aunt Jerusalem are so glad to see both of us younger bucks belonging to a church—and married—they said their house money was a thank offering to God,” Luke remarked with a chuckle. “Ira and I did keep them on pins and needles for a long time.”
    Ben, who’d preached the main sermon at the wedding today, shrugged. “I was older than you boys—thirty-five—before I found my Miriam,” he said with a nostalgic smile. “Who knew we’d all meet our matches and set up businesses when we came to Willow Ridge? It’s a gut thing God knew what we needed and got us to the right place at the right time, jah? ”
    “And who could’ve predicted that I’d give up my English life to join the Old Order and open a clinic here?” Andy Leitner chimed in as he came to stand with them. “Every time I see my kids’ smiles—and the rosy glow on my Rhoda’s face as she swells with our new baby—I have to pinch myself and give thanks.”
    “We’re blessed to have ya here takin’ care of us,” Ben said with a nod. Then his smile brightened with curiosity. “Say, Andy, have ya heard anything about that acreage down the road from your corner—directly across from the Riehl place and Bishop Tom’s—goin’ up for sale?”
    “I’ve heard the English family who owns it is selling because the dat and mamm can’t manage living there by themselves anymore,” Bishop Tom said as he joined them. “Guess they’re goin’ to something called an assisted-living facility.”
    “Why aren’t those kids lookin’ after their parents?” Ben asked with a shake of his head. “I can’t imagine havin’ to move away from the farm you’ve lived on most of your life, into a place where ya don’t know the other residents—or the ones who’ll be taking care of ya, either.”
    Luke considered this information as he looked across the crowded café to see his brother Ira smiling into his new bride’s freckled face. “Might be worth my while to check into that land,” he mused aloud. “Not sure what I’d do with the house that’s on it, but the tillable acres would be a gut place for raising more of our specialty grains for the mill, or—”
    Behind them, the bell jangled when the door was thrown open. “Where’s Andy Leitner?” a woman cried out. “We’ve found a