Read Online Lorie's Heart by Amy Lillard - Free Book Online Page B

had started off with the inspiration to paint a picture of the car that she had left with Luke. It was the biggest thing she had from her father and represented the dual life he’d been living. But somehow when she started painting it wasn’t the cute little orange car but the handsome face of the Englischer Zach. She studied it now with critical eyes. She should have never started the painting. It was wrong of her to paint a portrait of another man when she was practically engaged to Jonah. Not that he would ever know about it unless she made the point to tell him. Still, it seemed wrong somehow.
    With a shake of her head she put it aside and took out her last blank canvas. She set it up on the easel and stared at it for a moment. Then she closed her eyes and imagined what needed to be painted there.
    Over the years she had painted almost everyone she knew and the people who had come into her life—Caroline, Andrew, and Emma. She had even painted one of Caroline’s parents who had moved to Wells Landing from the very conservative Swartzentruber district in Ethridge, Tennessee. With the exception of Caroline and Emily, none of these people knew she had painted their picture. And it was a secret she would forever keep.
    She opened her eyes and the purple paint beckoned. She answered by squeezing a large dollop on the cutting board she had turned into a paint station. She dipped her brush into the oil paint and ran it across the canvas.
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    â€œCome walk with me.” Caroline Fitch ran her arm through Lorie’s and didn’t give her much choice in the matter as she led her out of the house and into the yard.
    They had all gathered at Caroline and Andrew’s for a summertime get-together. She and Jonah. Emily and Elam. Even Andrew’s cousin Danny and his wife, Julie. Lorie was glad for the diversion, but still she felt as if her every step was weighted by secrets and lies.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” Lorie asked as they tromped across the yard. The others had settled in to playing a rousing game of Scrabble. She was glad for Caroline’s demand to walk with her. Lorie couldn’t concentrate long enough to form more than a three-letter word.
    â€œThat’s my question.” Caroline led her toward the barn where her husband housed his newest horses for his budding breeding business. Andrew had taken over his uncle’s house and land when his onkle Abe had married Esther Lapp and moved into town. Now Andrew leased part of the farm to horse trainers and other breeders while he used the other part to support his own business. Abe’s shop sat to the other side of the yard where he came out and made the furniture pieces too big to build in the backroom at his shop in town.
    â€œDo I look like something’s wrong?” She had been so careful of late, smiling when she didn’t feel like it and trying to keep going when so many questions ate at her very being.
    â€œ Nay. ” Caroline led them over to the fence where the horses munched on the grass and released Lorie’s arm. “But that’s the problem. You look like nothing is wrong and I know better.”
    Lorie shook her head. How could she tell her friend when she didn’t understand everything herself?
    â€œThere’s just a lot going on right now.”
    â€œAnd?” Caroline urged.
    â€œI just need some time to adjust.”
    â€œUh-huh. What about your trip to Tulsa?”
    It had only been a week since Lorie had returned from Tulsa and her discovery that she had a grandmother tucked away in a home there. Seven days of thinking about the new relative who didn’t know Lorie existed. About the car she’d left at Luke’s and the handsome Englischer she’d run into again. Seven days of wondering if she should tell her mamm or do as Emily and Jonah suggested and “just let it go.”
    One thing was certain, she wouldn’t be able to move forward without