Page 1 of Geeb & Ada: The Yoder Sisters

Prologue

Geeb

Two Months Ago

I feel like I'm in a damn time warp. I am sitting in a room of men I respect and consider my friends, but it is like I don’t know them. Or more like they don’t know me. “Geeb you have been awfully quiet.” Mayor Hollow says. I look and all of the men are staring at me like they expect something profound to come out of my mouth.

“I’m just listening. Really I don’t know why I am here. None of this has anything to do with me.” Maybe if I take an outsider's stance it will work.

“On the contrary my friend. It has everything to do with you. You might not have been born and raised here, but you spent your summers with us, so you know as much about this town as any of us and you came back here. That says something.” Damn it. I hate it when people use logic I can’t refute. Asshole.

“Well, I am not agreeing to any of this. I have no need nor desire for a woman, marriage or babies. I'm fine as I am.” I used to think I wanted a wife and a family when I was younger. I saw how my parents loved one another and my sister and me. I wanted that for myself.

However, high school and college took those thoughts right out of my head. I have always been a big guy. A football player yes, but also just an overall big guy. I guess you could call me a taller, nerdier Jack Black.

Throughout my school career, girls would come up to me and pretend to be interested and initially, I would fall for it, hope allowing me to be a fool once more. Then inevitably for two weeks she would be my fake girlfriend even though I would think it was real. Chest puffed out, happy and excited to have a girl as beautiful as her interested in me. And then the boom. She would need me to take an online test for her or give her the answers if we are in the same class at different times. Of course when it was done, she would dump me, laughing in my face about how stupid I was to believe she could be interested in someone like me.

Finally, my freshman year of college, I had enough. I was hurt for the last time. So, now, I don’t date, I don’t think about women, and I don’t fantasize about things that can’t happen. “Very well Geeb.” Lloyd says, reminding me we are in the middle of a conversation. “Alright gentlemen. Thank you for your time and your cooperation. Most of you.” He says dismissing us but looking at me with his last comment.

Good. Now I don’t have to worry about this. The last thing I need is a wife to make me feel worse about myself.

I have been running the West Virginia division of my family’s paper for the last five years. The Hearst family has been acquiring smaller papers and companies for the last decade. Our most recent acquisition is a Dating/Matchmaking Service called HeartStrings. The owner Gladis Horner has been running it successfully for quite some time but when she was ready to expand the company to other states, she needed a partner. My father, Artemis Hearst saw her proposal and immediately he wanted in. The deal was that she was able to stay owner, and main operator but we were in on the plans for expansion. That is what brought me back to Hollow’s Hollow.

My father also acquired the newspaper down here and sent me here to oversee it. Definitely didn’t plan on having a wife.

Prologue

Ada

Coming here was the best thing I’ve ever done. I realize that as I clean my new brother-in law’s living room. I love to clean, it calms me and not to brag, but I am really good at it. Besides, it’s the least I can do as he was gracious enough to let me and my sisters come here even though he didn’t need to. Jasper Sutton married my sister, Sadie, one week ago. I am ashamed to admit that I am jealous of my sister. I don’t think Sadie knows that her husband is totally in love with her. She doesn’t move with the ease and grace that I’d expect in someone who is in love.

I want that. I want to fall in love with a man. I want him to love me in return. I want to take care of him, and our house and I want to do it without the watchful eye of my parents. They had already picked out my husband, Brother Matthew. He’s not old, or even unattractive. He just rubbed me the wrong way. I knew that somehow, someway I was getting out of Ohio. I am just thankful that the Lord gave Sadie the idea to do this through Charlie.

Matthew is ten years older than I am. Two years ago, when I was almost sixteen, he tried to take what I would never freely give a man who wasn’t my husband. He put his hands on me in violence and I will never let another man touch me like that. He’s a monster and there was no way I could raise a family with him. Though I try to push it from mind, it sometimes haunts me, especially while I sleep. I can still smell the hay bale he shoved me down on. First he slapped me. I was stunned by this. No one had ever dared touch me like that, not even my parents. I was a good girl. I never did anything that would require punishment. He then proceeded to pummel his fists into my belly and my ribs, my thighs, anywhere covered by prim clothing. He knew just where to hit me so that no one else would see that he’d hurt me. He called me a little bitch and cock tease. I had never heard language like that before. He told me that I was his, just as soon as my father signed me over to him. He told me no one would care if he sampled his purchase first. I refused to cry even though I was in so much pain, but I was fighting with all I had, which admittedly wasn’t much. I remembered that when we were younger, my twin Lavinia and I kind of knew when something was wrong with the other. I called out for her in my head, not really believing that she’d hear me.

The barn was so far from the house, my screams wouldn’t be heard. I knew that and didn’t waste my energy on that. Matthew looked so angry as he pushed my skirt up my legs. He fumbled with his pants and when they were down around his ankles, the door to the barn ripped open. Lavinia burst into the room, breathing heavily. She’s not the most athletic girl but I knew she ran here. To save me. Matthew was so rude to her, calling her mean thing about her weight, but she didn’t care. Nothing phases Lavinia. She’s the bravest one of all of us.

She yelled at him and told him to get his tiny prick, which was yet another word I didn’t know, away from me. When he didn’t move, she beat him with the rolling pin in her hand. He reached out and punched me in the chest again before running off with the promise that one day I would be his and there wouldn’t be anything anyone could do about it. Lavinia cleaned me up since my hair was messed up and my lips split and bleeding. She didn’t leave my side for two years after that, not until we came here. She kept my secret because we both knew if we told anyone my parents would have made me marry him sooner for fear of being ruined and in turn ruining my sisters. Luckily, Matthew didn’t say anything either. When we arrived in Hollow’s Hollow, I finally felt safe. I felt like this is where I am meant to be. Great things will happen to me hear. Only great things.

My experience with Matthew didn’t break me though. I refuse to give him the satisfaction. I am determined to get married. I want to be a mother more than anything. I want to be the best wife and mother. I want to be in love. I want to be loved. I want to be needed by my husband. I want a husband who would never hurt me in any way. I want so many things that I never thought I would get to have. I don’t think I am asking for too much. I’m glad I didn’t have to wait too long; I think as I prepare to marry a stranger. I have seen him around town and when he’d come over to the ranch.

Geeb Hearst.

I noticed him right away. The day Jasper and Sadie got married he came to the house for the little party Jude arranged. He’s handsome, tall, and big. A shiver of anticipation rushes through my body as I begin to walk down the aisle toward him. He doesn’t look happy, but maybe that’s just nerves. He makes me feel things I’ve never felt before. Things I can’t wait to explore with him.

Only him.

ChapterOne

Geeb

“This is bullshit!” I tell my sister who is currently fixing a tie I wouldn't need if she had minded her own damn business.

“Shut up, big baby. You should be thanking me. If I hadn't answered the ad for you, you’d be dying an old man and alone.” Sounds good to me.

“It’s better than being married to someone who can’t look at me.” I tell her trying to loosen the tie she just tightened. She smacks my hand and fixes it.

“She is not going to be like that. Besides, I sent her a picture of you, and she still said yes. That has to mean something.” Yeah, that she is desperate to get away from something. Maybe she too is doing this under duress. Although that doesn’t track either. I am not an idiot. Jasper's wife Sadie came here with five sisters. It is only logical one of them was chosen for me, but I have no idea which. I met each of them once for a moment.

---