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spy on him from behind the trees by the river.”
    Mandy’s eyebrows nearly flew off her forehead. “You’re not serious.”
    “I am too.” She waved her hand in the direction of the horse. “Go, Mandy. I don’t want to miss him.”
    Surprise rendered her incapable of movement. “Krissy, thirteen-year-olds spy on boys, not nineteen-year-olds. It’s childish.”
    Kristina stuck out her bottom lip. “Dori Rose and me spied on Noah all summer, whenever he was out working someone’s field or raising a barn or fixing a water pump.” No one could whine at quite the pitch Kristina achieved. “Come on, Mandy. I want to see him. He’s so handsome. I just want a peek.”
    “All summer? But why would you spy on him when you were courting and could have seen him anytime you wanted?”
    Kristina suddenly became very interested in her fingernails. “I just like looking at him. You understand, don’t you, Mandy? You’ve seen him. You know how handsome he is.”
    Jah, she knew how handsome he was. She also knew how disagreeable he was. “I don’t want to spy on Noah Mischler. You need to put him out of your mind, Krissy. He’s no gute.”
    Tears pooled in Kristina’s eyes. Big, plump tears that splashed onto her cheeks and made her look utterly pathetic. “I love him. I want to see him again. You’ve never been in love. You don’t know how it feels.”
    “That’s true,” she admitted. She might have had her eye on a boy or two back home, but romance was completely foreign to her.
    Kristina sniffed and stuttered violently. “There’s no harm in sneaking a look. He never sees us.”
    In truth, as reluctant as she was, Mandy would do anything to stop Kristina’s tears. She hated to see her friend so unhappy, especially when she had the means of transportation to take Kristina where her heart wanted to go. Who was she to stand in the way of love?
    Mandy heaved a sigh. “Okay. I’ll take you.”
    Kristina clapped her hands and exploded into a smile. All was right with the world again.
    Mandy raised her voice to be heard above Kristina’s squeals of delight. “But I refuse to stay for longer than five minutes. Do you understand? Five minutes is all I’m giving you.”
    Nothing could dampen Kristina’s mood. “Okay, five minutes. That’s all I need.”
    Kristina pointed Mandy in the direction they needed to go. When they approached Coblentz’s pasture, they couldn’t just stop the buggy next to the field and stare at Noah from ten feet away. Oh no. Kristina knew a secluded trail near the river where they parked the buggy and then hiked ten minutes through the thick woods. Kristina giggled like a schoolgirl as they came to the edge of the woods about a hundred feet from the pasture.
    To their left, Mandy could hear the river slapping against the boulders in its path. It ran alongside Coblentz’s cornfields for nearly a mile. Three people stood in the field looking at the idle corn picker. Mandy and Kristina were close enough to hear muffled voices. Before Mandy got a good look at any of them, Kristina grabbed her arm and pulled her behind a maple tree at the water’s edge.
    “Stay behind the tree,” Kristina said, giggling as if she couldn’t stop herself. She was a little too excited about this whole spying thing. Did she really adore Noah that much? “We don’t want them to see us.”
    Kristina leaned her head around the trunk to take a peek, gasped, and quickly pulled back. “He’s over there,” she whispered breathlessly. Mandy had to strain to hear her. The river roared not five feet away. “He’s with Alvin and Jethro.”
    Mandy planted herself firmly behind the tree. Let Kristina look if she wanted to. She’d be mortified if anyone discovered her spying on Noah Mischler. Maybe she should hike back the way they’d come and wait in the buggy.
    Kristina seemed to be having the time of her life. She peeked around the tree again. “He’s holding up one side so Jethro can look at it. Oh,