STORY EXCERPT

Reuben doesn’t answer his door. I knock on the door of the workshop. He doesn’t answer.

“He’s not home. He went to Park City.”

I turn to see who is delivering this news. It’s his nephew who shares the Tootsie Roll secret.

“Moeder said for you to wait at our house. Reuben will be home soon.”

“Okay.” I accept the offer.

We walk together down the path. “Reuben told my moeder and fader that you left, because you don’t want him to take care of you. Do you not like for people who love you to show it?”

Innocent eyes look up at me with confusion.

“It’s not that simple,” I explain.

“Seems simple to me. He loves you. I think you love him. Get married and have a lot of kinner for me to play with!”

We reach the mudroom door. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe it is that simple,” I concede.

“You fraas complicate things.”

“Something tells me you heard that from Reuben.”

“Yep!” He grins.

Sarah meets us. “Let’s go outside,” she suggests. One of the children looks up and smiles as he continues playing checkers with one of his friends. They are in their easy after-dinner mode.

We stroll to the porch in silence. We sit in the wooden rocking chairs, staring out at the pastures that line the road.

“He teaches kids without fathers to use tools and to make little things out of wood. He meets with them every other Friday evening.”

“That’s nice of him,” I state evenly. However, she knows me well enough to know that it melts my heart.

Her oldest daughter brings us lemonade, and I thank her. She shyly smiles and wordlessly leaves.

“He loves you,” she declares.

“You say it like it’s so simple.” I smile at her.

She does not smile back. “It is.”

Silence fills the air.

“Do you want to spend the rest of your life with him? Can you picture your life without him?” she asks.

I don’t answer. “I do want to spend the rest of my life with him. However, we have some major differences.”

“Find common ground. Pick your battles. He’s not perfect, but he is a hard-working, thoughtful, godly man.”

“I try to be,” a voice quietly interjects from the doorway.

He walks onto the porch. “Can we go to my house to talk this out?”

I nod. “Thank you for the drink and company.” I hand her the glass. “I’ll see you Tuesday.”

We walk down the path. I reach for his hand, which he gladly accepts. “How was your class tonight?” I quietly ask.

“It went well. I wouldn’t call it a class. We’re just a group of guys teaching a group of boys.” He shrugs modestly.

“I’m sure they learn a lot from you.”

We walk into his living room. Reuben turns on a lamp. “You have electricity in your house. I just realized that.”

“I may be old-fashioned and plain. However, I’m not Amish. I use electricity. I just only use it when necessary. I plan to install a windmill and solar panels too. I like the idea of staying off the grid as much as possible.”

We sit on the brown, well-worn couch. “I love you. I want you to be happy, but I also want to take care of you.” He looks at me. “Do you understand?”

“I think.” I trace my thumb over his palm absentmindedly. “I believe you feel if I make money or have success outside the home, you won’t be doing your part.”

“I suppose. I don’t want you or anyone else to think I’m a slacker, that I cannot support my family.”

I nod. “Even the woman in Proverbs Thirty-One worked. She just did it around her family’s needs,” I explain.

He says nothing.

“She got up before her family to sell cloth. She bought land. For the record, I’d rather buy and sell land than cloth. With all her hard work and dedication, she made her husband well esteemed.”

I peek over at him. He gently strokes my ponytail. “You’re right. We can make this work. But family has to come first with us. Well, God, family, then work.”

I nod. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” I kiss his cheek. “I do most of my work at home. When I do have to go somewhere, I can take the baby with me. Isn’t that what plain women usually do when they work?”

“Yes. They just usually don’t make a lot of money.”

“If me making a lot of money bothers you, we can find a way to donate a lot to charity. We could live on what you make, save a little of what I make, and donate the rest.”

“That sounds like a wonderbaar compromise. What is your favorite charity?”

“Red Cross, Appalachian Service Project…”

“Are you serious about that? Will you let me provide for you and our children?”

I nod, and he pulls me close to him.

“I’m serious. I also promise to rarely, if ever, work when you’re home and awake. Where will we live?”

He kisses my forehead. “I guess it depends on when you want to marry,” he answers.

ADULT EXCERPT

He whispers in my ear,“Will you promise me that once we marry, I will be the only one to see your hair down?” He strokes my ponytail, and he kisses my neck.

I lightly moan. “Reuben, oh, um…yes…”

“Promise me,” he whispers urgently while he nibbles on my earlobe.

“I promise,” I whisper breathlessly.

His hand cups my breast, rubbing my nipple through my shirt. I feel heat gather in my core. My panties are now soaking wet. I smell my juices. Does he?

I start working on his buttons while I kiss him, making love to his mouth.

“Oh, Elizabeth! I need you now!” He slides my panties down to my ankles, throws them to the side, lifts me onto the table next to the blocks, and worships my pussy with his tongue and fingers. He shows it so much love. He teases my clit with the tip of his tongue. I rub my cunt back and forth over his eager tongue, building up to a much-needed release.

The release comes suddenly. I press his head to my cunt, rock back and forth, and scream his name.

He stands up. “Let me taste it,” I demand. I lick my juices off his mouth. I trace the outline of his hard cock with my index finger. “I still feel so good!” My head is spinning. “I want more, but let’s go to your house. I would hate for one of the kids to walk in.”

He grabs my panties off the floor, throws me over his shoulder, and carries me to his house.

“If you think the caveman act is turning me on, you’re right.”

He rubs my butt through my dress. “I can be a lot more caveman than this,” he assures me.

He sets me down, standing up, in front of a king-size bed that screams manliness. It has only the necessary lines and earth-tone colors. It is basic, and it is covered with a patchwork quilt.

In one motion, Reuben lifts my dress up over my head. He takes in a sharp breath and releases my bra. Suddenly, I realize that I am not at all concerned about my sagging breasts or my stretch marks.

He licks and sucks my nipples, alternating between the two. “Beautiful,” he whispers. “Just beautiful.”

We doze off with my head on his chest and my leg over his. It is at that moment that I realize that plain or not, he is simply a man. He is a man I want to forever commit to.

I awake from my catnap when he wraps his hand in my ponytail, kissing me hard. “Please take your hair down for me.” I hear the need in his voice.

I step back from him and slide the rubber band holder from my hair. My hair falls down my back. I feel a little shy. This is so intimate. I instinctively run my fingers through it, finger combing it.

Reuben just stares at me. Finally, he pleads in a gravelly voice, “Tell me you’re mine.”

“I’m yours,” I reassure him.

He gently runs his fingers through my hair. He begins kissing me as only a man with pent-up sexual longing can. I finish unbuttoning his shirt. I run my hands over his taut muscles—muscles developed through real work, not workouts. His dark brown chest hair disappears beneath his broadfall pants.

I push his suspenders down. He wrestles free from his shirt. I kiss him tenderly as I work the buttons on his pants. In one motion, I push them and his underwear down.

The most magnificent cock awaits me. It takes my breath away. It is clearly uncircumcised and standing at attention, curving toward his belly button.

“What a wonderful, massive cock,” I admire. I lick his balls and my tongue makes its way up the underside of his cock. “It’s just so perfect.” I run my tongue around the glorious, mushroom-shaped head.

He groans. Through clenched teeth, he demands, “On the bed. I need to be inside you now!”

I lay back on the patchwork quilt, spreading my legs wide for him. “I promise lots of foreplay in the future. Right now, I just need…God, I need you.”

He kisses me. “Fuck me, Reuben. Fuck me hard!” I yell out. In one stroke, he is inside me. I feel him tense up.

“So fucking tight!” he groans. His wide cock makes me feel like a virgin again. I realize at that time my husband had a pencil dick. He enters me deeper with each stroke until his balls slap my ass.

I wrap my legs around him and my clit starts to tingle. “Reuben, Reuben! Make me come!” He takes the challenge seriously, picking up his speed and changing angles to hit my G-spot. The tingle overwhelms me in waves. I moan and thrash under him.

I feel Reuben tense up and increase his speed. “Elizabeth! Yes, here it is!” My clit is still tingling as he shoots his load inside my cunt.

He bends down to kiss me. “That was so perfect,” he whispers. “Don’t be offended if I fall asleep. I just feel so relaxed.”

“Can I sleep with you?”

“Nothing would make me happier.”

I realize that we did not use protection. It was just one time. Surely one time will be okay. I make a mental note to make a doctor’s appointment to get birth control. Truth be told, I love having his seed inside me.