Read Lifted Up by Angels for Free Online

Although the dance had been a flop, she’d hoped that their evening together might have lasted longer.
    Ethan didn’t drive the buggy to the place where her car was parked. Instead, he took them across a bumpy field toward a wooded area. At the edge of the tree line, he halted the buggy, hopped out and helped Leah down. “Come,” he said. “I will show you a place like no other.”
    She followed him through the woods. A soft summer breeze stirred through scented pine needles, making a whispery, papery sound. They came into a clearing where a giant rock rested on a cushion of leaves and needles. He lifted her up and settled her on top of the boulder.
    “This is my favorite place,” he said. “Here, I feel peace. Whenever I am confused or angry, this is where I come.”
    She turned her face heavenward. A thousand stars twinkled above her. Moonlight bleached the ground snowy white. “It’s really beautiful, Ethan. This is where the Christmas tree came from, isn’t it?”
    “Yes.” He stood gazing down at her, his face lit on one side by the silvery moon.
    Leah said, “It’s more like a church than some churches I’ve been in. I’ve been going to a church back home, you know.” She wasn’t surewhy she was telling Ethan this, except that she knew his faith was important to him. “I figure I owe God something, I mean, since my bout with cancer and all.” She reached for Ethan’s hand and rested it on the knee where her cancer had been discovered. The warmth from his palm spread through the material of her skirt. “I’m glad you were there for me. I’m not sure how I would have made it if it hadn’t been for you and Charity.”
    “Knowing you has been special to me, Leah.” He touched her hair.
    Her heart skipped a beat. “I’m sorry your friends don’t approve of me.”
    “I do not care what my friends think.”
    “What did Jonah mean when he said
‘schnitzel’?
Is it a bad word?”
    He chuckled. “It’s a made-up word that some Amish use for ‘kissing.’ An older Amish girl usually kisses—
schnitzels
—a boy when he turns sixteen.”
    She felt the stirring of jealousy. Had the kiss she and Ethan shared in the hospital truly been his first? “So tell me, do I measure up? Do I
schnitzel
as well as an Amish girl?”
    He cupped her face in his rough, work-wornhands. “I do not know. You are the only girl I have ever kissed.”
    Her body began to tingle. “It’s hard to believe you weren’t kissed before.”
    “It is the truth.” He offered no other explanation.
    Leah burned with curiosity to know why not.
    “But,” he said, “I want very much to kiss you now.”
    All other thoughts fled her mind. She slid off the rock to stand facing him. “I would like for you to kiss me.” She raised her arms to encircle his neck.
    He pulled her body closer, pressing his hands against the small of her back. He lowered his mouth to hers, touching her lips with a velvet softness that left her dizzy. And longing for more.

S IX

    “H i. I’m Kathy Kelly. You must be Leah.” A cute girl with a tangle of brown curly hair grinned at Leah.
    Leah returned the smile. “I guess we’ll be working together.”
    The two of them stood in the hallway of the Sunshine Inn Bed and Breakfast, dressed in the shapeless uniforms that Mrs. Stoltz insisted her helpers wear. Kathy said, “This is my second summer working at the inn. I’ll only be here through July Fourth weekend, though. Then I’m off to cheerleading camp. How about you? You ever do this kind of work before?”
    “No. I worked in a fast-food place when I lived in Dallas.”
    “Dallas—wow, lucky you. I’ve been stuck here in Dullsville since my parents moved here when I was in seventh grade. I’m saving for college. How about you?”
    “Just living here for the summer.”
    “You mean you
chose
to spend the summer here?”
    “It’s a long story.” Leah certainly didn’t want to go into her life history at the moment.
    “You’re not