Read Online Her Brother's Keeper by Beth Wiseman - Free Book Online Page A

couple of hours to finish the fourth potholder in the set, but she wanted Mary to have them. Hannah had been making these for her home, the one she would have shared with Ethan. Two were solid red in the shape of a heart, and two were red and pink, also shaped like hearts. She hadn’t worked on finishing the last one since Ethan’s death. It would feel good to give Mary the set to take home with her.

    Charlotte squeezed her eyes closed and tensed as she told Ryan about her date with Isaac, even though there was no reason it should be awkward. “You know, it’s just to try to get information. It’s not really like a date .”
    â€œIt kinda sounds like a date.”
    Charlotte frowned, even though she could picture Ryan grinning. “Well, it’s not, I assure you.” It was still early in the evening, and she could hear activity down the hall, so she lowered her voice. “It wouldn’t matter how good-looking this guy was, or how charming he might turn out to be, I certainly couldn’t live the way these people do.” She dabbed at the sweat on her forehead.
    â€œAh-ha. So, he’s a handsome fellow.” Ryan chuckled. “We just never know who might step into our lives from one day to the next. Maybe this has been God’s plan for you all along, to hook up with a nice Amish man.”
    Charlotte had listened intently in an effort to note any jealousy in Ryan’s tone, but he didn’t seem bothered in the least. “Very funny,” she said, making a mental note that Ryan just mentioned God again. If he had any notable flaw, it was being so overt about his religion. But something was bothering her, and she decided to run with the thoughts even if it might bring on a conversation she wasn’t comfortable with.
    â€œI’m pretty sure God didn’t send me here to end up with an Amish man.” She sighed. “But I’m forced to sit in on the devotions now.” She told Ryan the story she’d told Hannah, why she didn’t know their dialect. “Hannah shared my big fat lie with everyone else, so now they rarely speak Dutch around me. And they assumed that was the reason I wasn’t joining them for devotions.” She paused, took another breath. “Anyway, I can’t figure a way to get out of it, but all this praying is making me feel bad about myself. And I don’t know why that is. It’s making me think about things and feel . . . weird.”
    â€œThat’s not surprising. When a person first begins to develop a relationship with God, it’s like a cleansing of the soul or something. I didn’t find God until I was an adult, but when I did, it was like every sin I’d ever committed in my life ran through my mind as I moved toward a different and better way of life.”
    â€œI said I’m forced to pray with them. I don’t see that as any kind of spiritual cleansing,” she said softly, deciding that she didn’t want to pursue this conversation after all. “I hear someone coming down the hall. I gotta go.” She was drowning in sin . . . mostly lies. She didn’t want to feel any worse about that than she already did. On that note, she ended the conversation.
    She pulled out her yellow pad. Despite her longing to clear her mind of spiritual matters, the thoughts continued to haunt her, so she wrote them down.
    God, if You exist, I’m going to need some kind of sign . . .

    Hannah was surprised that Mary asked to ride into town with her the following day since the traffic on Lincoln Highway scared her so much. Hannah hoped that maybe this was a sign that Mary wanted to be friends as well as cousins, but it may have just been that she mentioned going by Miller’s Furniture Store.
    â€œIsaac is usually not at the store even though his family owns it. Besides, I thought he was going to give you a tour on your date on Saturday.” Hannah glanced at her cousin as she