The Wonder of Your Love - By Beth Wiseman Page 0,81

hot Amish guy, he was standing in front of her in his black pants, black coat, and one of those funky black hats.

“That’s okay. Can you give her this?” He held up a brown paper bag, but Danielle was still summing him up. He reminded her of some of the hockey players back home—tall and athletic, although he wasn’t missing any teeth.

“Sure,” she finally said as she accepted the bag.

“I’m Levi Detweiler.” Mr. Handsome extended his hand, and Danielle slowly latched on. “My mom is a friend of Martha’s, and she asked me to bring her this rhubarb jam. I think Martha goes into withdrawal or something if she runs out.” He almost smiled. One side of his mouth curved up, but it was brief.

“You wanna come in?” Danielle paused. “I mean, Martha will probably be back soon, if you want to wait.”

He grimaced a little. “Is anyone else here?”

Danielle felt her heart skip a beat. Why would he ask that? Would he hurt her in some way if she said no one was home? “Uh, no. But I just remembered Martha will be back any minute.”

“I gotta go. Nice to meet you.”

Danielle watched him leave. He was intriguing, almost in a creepy sort of way. He had those weird clothes that soft voice, and his mouth was crooked in a way that made it hard to tell if he was smiling or angry. But she didn’t think she’d ever seen a hotter-looking guy.

“LEVI’S THE QUIET one,” Martha said as she plopped a bag of groceries on the table. “A fine fellow. His brother, Jacob, got married about a year ago, and his sister Emily just got married this past November. I guess Levi’s still looking for his someone special.” She pulled a frozen pizza out of the bag, along with some Fritos and a six-pack of soda, and put them all on the table. “We’re splurging on junk food tonight, but don’t get used to it, missy. I just don’t feel like cooking.”

“I’ll be his someone special,” Danielle said as she pulled the bag of Fritos open. “He’s hot.”

Martha put her hands on her hips. “That is no way for a nice girl to talk, Danielle.”

Danielle chuckled. “You’re kidding me, right? Just yesterday I heard you say the mailman had nice buns.”

“Are you familiar with the expression ‘Do as I say and not as I do’?” She reached up and tightened her butterfly clip.

“Well, the Amish guy sure was cute. Levi. I asked him to come in, but he got kinda weird about it. Then I thought maybe he might be dangerous or something.”

Martha cackled. “Dangerous? Levi? Uh, no. He didn’t come in the house while you were here alone because it wouldn’t be proper.”

“I think Amish people are weird.”

Martha pointed a crooked finger at her. “There will be no talk like that in this house. There’s no finer group of folks.”

Danielle shrugged. “Whatever.”

Martha stared at her for a moment, then shook her head. “I’m going to heat this pizza. Now would be a good time to shower if you want.”

Danielle started to argue that she’d prefer to take a shower closer to bedtime, but the woman had bought pizza, Fritos, and soda for dinner, so she’d go along with her on this. “Okay.” She crossed through the living room toward the stairs, then turned around. “Martha?”

“What?”

Danielle waited until she turned around. “Thanks for letting me stay.”

Martha rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

Danielle grinned as she headed up the stairs.

MARTHA WAITED UNTIL the oven heated up before she popped in the frozen supreme pizza. Arnold was going to the gym in town this evening, something he’d started doing twice a week. He said it helped his arthritis. She’d made it pretty clear that she had no plans to join him in that particular activity. Exercise made her nauseous. Besides, she was hoping maybe she and Danielle could chat a little. It bothered Martha that Danielle had no interest in God. Only once since their stay in the hospital had Martha broached the subject, and the girl turned red and marched upstairs. Danielle seemed angry with God. A few years ago Martha would have let it go. But when Arnold, Emily, and David opened her heart to the Lord, her life had changed. She wanted that for Danielle too.

But one thing she was learning about teenagers—if they think you want them to do something, they will do the exact opposite. So Martha knew she needed to approach the subject carefully. She smiled,