Page 29 of Unforgiven

“I guess. But maybe it sounds like the truth too?”

Against her will, she tensed. Then noticed that her insides were shaking a bit. Leon had done such a good job of making sure she didn’t voice an opinion about anything, she still felt like she was about to feel his displeasure.

Seth’s expression softened. “Listen to you, Tabitha. You’ve sure come a long way in a short amount of time. Now you aren’t only talking to me, you’re throwing out words of wisdom.”

She supposed he was right. Doubt set in. “If I’m being pushy, then ignore me. I don’t want to overstep.”

“You aren’t,” Seth said quickly. “Forgive the teasing. I don’t think it’s possible for you to overstep, at least not as far as I’m concerned.”

“All I want is for you to feel better.”

“You are helping with that and more. You have a way of making all my worries fade away,” he said.

Really? “How so?”

“I first started coming over here as a way to forget all my problems.” Resting his palms behind his head, he kicked out a leg. “You know, I thought if I helped you for a couple of hours a week, I would find some peace inside myself.”

Thinking back to all the things he’d done—the way he’d shoveled her entire driveway when they’d had an unexpected burst of October snow, dropped off fresh meat and groceries, weeded her garden in the heat, and chopped wood during the fall—Tabitha shook her head. “If you needed peace in your life, I think you could have gone a different route. You’ve done way too many of my chores to feel a sense of peace.” Smiling at him, she added, “More likely, all you got was a backache and a lighter wallet.”

“I was glad to give you a helping hand. I promise, I’m not lying. Helping you makes me feel good.”

“I think that sense of peace works both ways. Helping you might make me feel good too. And since chopping wood at your house isn’t an option, we’ll have to settle for talking.”

“Hmm.”

“So, what’s going on?” she asked.

Bending over toward Chance, he scratched behind the dog’s ears. He shrugged. “I think my parents should be looking after my sister better.”

“How old is Melonie now?”

“She’s seventeen.” He raised his eyebrows.

“So she isn’t a child at all.”

Seth frowned. “I didn’t say that. I think she’s close enough to being one, don’t you?”

“Maybe you don’t want to see her as almost an adult because she’s your younger sister. Most Amish seventeen-year-olds are responsible.” She shot him a meaningful glance. “They’ve got jobs and apprenticeships. Some women even become schoolteachers.”

An awareness flared in his eyes before he tamped it down. “I know that.”

Unable to stop herself, she continued. “Some women are married at seventeen, Seth. Others are being courted.” When he scowled, she gentled her tone. “I know you don’t want to hear it, but that’s the way of our world.”

“I don’t have to like it. I think she’s too young.”

“I know.”

He grunted. Almost impatiently. “Don’t you wish you had waited to marry?”

“I wish I had done a lot of things differently with Leon, but I can’t honestly say that things would have turned out better for me if I had been older when I married him. I really did feel like I could handle anything back then.”

“That was a bad example. Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. It was a good question, and I didn’t mind answering it. Now, how about I ask you a question. What’s happened with Melonie that has you so spun up?”

He exhaled. “I just wish I was closer to her. I wish she felt like she could confide in me. But every time I ask her something too personal, she shuts me down.” He groaned.

“I hate to say it, but she might not be shutting you out because she doesn’t trust you. I think you might be just encountering a seventeen-year-old girl.”

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