Katie's Choice(29)
“So can I walk with you?”
“If’n you wish.” She turned to make her way behind the kinder. What else could she say? The man had no other means to get home, and she was positive he couldn’t manage the feat by himself. He had only been there three days.
He held out a small brown paper sack toward her. “Would you like an Astro Pop?”
She shook her head. “Danki. No.”
“You’re not on one of those low-carb diets, are you?”
She had no idea what he was talking about, so she just shook her head and made her steps a bit faster. She was determined to keep her students in sight until the turn-off toward home.
Zane Carson lengthened his strides to match hers, and Katie Rose knew she’d be out-walked in no time. “Why do I get the feeling you don’t like me very much?”
“That’s bunk, Zane Carson. I have no reason to have feelings for you one way or the other.” But she did. As much as she hated to admit it, she did.
“Bunk?”
“Nonsense. Poppycock. Drivel.”
He laughed. “I know what it means, I just didn’t know anyone used that word any more.”
His laugh stopped Katie Rose in her tracks. “Are you callin’ me backward?”
He shrunk back, and she immediately regretted her harsh words. “Of course not. It’s just not every day a person hears the word bunk used in that way. That’s all.”
Heat crept up her neck and flooded her face. It might have been a lie, but if asked, she could blame it on the wind, the sun, the exertion of trying to keep ahead of such a tall man. In truth, it was embarrassment that reddened her cheeks. Surely the Lord would allow her one little lie. She said a silent prayer for even thinking such a thing and kept on walking.
“Why would I think you’re backward?”
She shrugged. “It’s a common thought among the Englisch world.” Katie Rose chanced a look at him through her lowered lashes, surprised to see color filling his handsome face as well. “Tell the truth, Zane Carson, did you not think us backward when you came here?” She studied his carefully schooled, if not a little flushed, features and tried not to drown in the rich chocolate of his eyes.
“I didn’t know what to expect. I’d never really given the Amish much thought. Sorry.” He grinned to take the sting from his words. “I’m a war correspondent. I’m normally in some third world country where backward has an entirely different meaning.”
“Why aren’t you there now?” She owed the Good Lord many prayers of forgiveness tonight.
He shrugged. “My editor thought I needed a change.”
Katie Rose opened her mouth to ask him what it had been like to be off in the world, but she stopped herself. It didn’t matter how Zane Carson lived. It wouldn’t change her past. She wouldn’t be able to find the reason that Samuel Beachy had left her just months before they announced to their families their plans to marry. He’d told her there had to be something more out there. Something he was missing. She just couldn’t understand what. And trying now wasn’t about to change the course of events. The Lord had different plans in mind for her, namely, teaching the children and serving Him and their district. That was what her life consisted of now. And she was happy with it that way. Very happy.