Falling for the Amish Bad Boy


 
 
 
 “My dat can be a handful...”
 “I’m not worried about that.” Jack pulled off his sunglasses to meet Beth’s gaze. “I reckon he’d stay right here with us.”
 She eyed him suspiciously, trying to figure out why he was so set on her dat being here. Did he really want him or did he have some ulterior motive? “Why would you want to take responsibility for him? He’s not your dat.”
 “Because he wants to be here.” His grin was lazy. “And because I like you, Beth. I like doing something nice for a pretty girl like yourself.”
 Beth’s mouth went dry and she stared at him for a moment, his comment taking her completely off guard.
 Was he flirting with her?
 She quickly looked away. She prided herself in being a person who always knew what to do and say in any situation, but not this time. Men as good-looking and confident as Jack didn’t flirt with women like her. They flirted with girls like her sister. He couldn’t possibly be interested in her.
 Could he?
 
 
 Emma Miller lives quietly in her old farmhouse in rural Delaware. Fortunate enough to have been born into a family of strong faith, she grew up on a dairy farm, surrounded by loving parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Emma was educated in local schools and once taught in an Amish schoolhouse. When she’s not caring for her large family, reading and writing are her favorite pastimes.
 Books by Emma Miller
 Love Inspired
 Seven Amish Sisters
 Her Surprise Christmas Courtship 
 Falling for the Amish Bad Boy
 The Amish Spinster’s Courtship
 The Christmas Courtship
 A Summer Amish Courtship
 An Amish Holiday Courtship
 Courting His Amish Wife 
 Their Secret Courtship
 The Amish Matchmaker
 A Match for Addy
 A Husband for Mari
 A Beau for Katie
 A Love for Leah
 A Groom for Ruby
 A Man for Honor
 Visit the Author Profile page at LoveInspired.com for more titles.
 
 
 FALLING FOR THE AMISH BAD BOY
 Emma Miller
 
 
 
 With God all things are possible.
 —Matthew 19:26
 
 
 For Candace, a compeer and friend who has become family.
 
 
 Contents
 Chapter One
 Chapter Two
 Chapter Three
 Chapter Four
 Chapter Five
 Chapter Six
 Chapter Seven
 Chapter Eight
 Chapter Nine
 Chapter Ten
 Chapter Eleven
 Chapter Twelve
 Chapter Thirteen
 Chapter Fourteen
 Chapter Fifteen
 Chapter Sixteen
 Epilogue
 Dear Reader
 Excerpt from The Widow’s Hidden Past by Rebecca Kertz
 
 
 Chapter One
 Beth adjusted the reins in her gloved hands and eased out onto the blacktop road in the family wagon. Her father’s mild-mannered driving horse lifted his velvety nose and took a deep breath of the fresh spring air as he fell into an easy trot.
 “I’m glad you decided to come with me,” Beth told her sister Willa, seated on the wooden bench beside her. “You needed to get out of the house and it’s such a perfect day for a ride.” She lifted her chin to enjoy the heat of the sun’s rays. It had been raining for days, which was good for the soil but tiresome after a long winter. Spring was finally in the air, and Beth felt more alive than she had in a long time.
 “Ya, it was time. I can’t hide from Jack forever.” Willa, the prettiest of her six sisters, chewed on her bottom lip. “I know that.”
 Taking the reins in one hand, Beth squeezed Willa’s with the other. “He’s not worth another moment of unhappiness. You know that, ya? It’s time to put Jack Lehman behind you. It’s a beautiful day, and there are as many boys out there waiting to walk out with you as blades of new grass.”
 Willa chuckled and glanced at the field across the street from their farm. Elden Yoder, betrothed to her twin sister, Millie, was pulling a plow behind his workhorse in the distance. He was too far away for them to call to him, but both sisters raised their hands in greeting and he waved back.
 A gentle breeze ruffled tendrils of hair that had escaped Beth’s black wool scarf she wore tied beneath her chin. She hadn’t bothered to put on a white prayer kapp for their outing because they were only going to Raber’s Seed & Feed store three miles from home. When they returned from fetching the chicken mash, she and Willa would mop every floor in their farmhouse. There was something about spring-cleaning that Beth always loved. Every year when the crocuses began to peek out of the soil in flower beds, around trees and alongside the road, she felt a renewed sense of well-being. “To everything there is a season.” That’s what the Bible said.
 The last two years had been a season of sadness. Their mother had fallen ill with kidney disease and passed away. Around the same time, their dat was diagnosed with early-onset dementia, so in many ways, they lost him, too. Or rather they were losing him, one day at a time. As Beth and her sisters had ridden the waves of grief, they had clung together, reminding each other that it wasn’t their place to question God’s will. While they sought firm ground again, they tried to focus on all they had, not what they didn’t have, and God’s goodness was always the first of their thanksgivings. They simply needed time to adjust to the changes in their lives.
 For Beth, however, it hadn’t been until her sister Millie’s romance with their handsome neighbor that she began to feel a lightness in her heart. And now, with the sun shining brightly on her face and the scent of freshly turned soil on the breeze, she was beginning to feel like herself again. For two years, she’d been going through the motions of being Beth Koffman, but she’d felt like a shadow of the girl she had been. It was as if she were watching herself go through the