Read Online Seeing Your Face Again by Jerry S. Eicher - Free Book Online

there was a problem with Alvin that no one else knew or had addressed yet.
    â€œHel–lo!” Paul shouted near her ear. “Wake up, Debbie. The ball might come your way. This is our last round in the front line for a while, and I need spikes set up for me.”
    Debbie stared at him blankly, but when the ball came her way moments later, she set it up perfectly for Paul. While Paul celebrated his successful spike, Debbie’s thoughts drifted back to Alvin. Could she have done more to assure him of her affections? She couldn’t see how. Things were done differently here. A girl could be considered too aggressive. And she had done her part. She’d tried to get across to Alvin at Verna’s wedding that Paul meant nothing to her. Yet look at her tonight. She was playing beside Paul in the front row. Did Alvin perhaps know more about her than she did? Come to think of it, she hadn’t protested Paul’s maneuvers out loud. A protest would have caused a scene, and one didn’t do that with Paul. Maybe that’s what Alvin had seen—the inevitability of Paul. Perhaps Paul’s persona had acquired a life of its own in Alvin’s mind and driven him to hopelessness.
    Debbie stole a glance at Paul’s handsome face. He could be more persistent than men like Doug had been. She liked it in a way—this inability to bend a man’s mind once he had it made up. That response came from deep inside of her, unbidden and without her permission. It seemed like a primordial instinct that lingered from an era when a woman chose the strongest man in the clan and wed him out of necessity, not love.
    Paul’s voice cut through her thoughts again. “Your turn to serve, beautiful. Get on back to your place.”
    His tone commanded and condescended at the same time.
    â€œI’m going!” she snapped.
    Paul laughed.
    The man infuriated her! But she dutifully took her place behind the serving line. She mustn’t let him get to her. Her whack at the ball sent it on a crash course to the outer barn wall, well out of bounds.
    â€œHey, don’t do that!” Paul scolded.
    Debbie ignored him. If he hadn’t distracted her, she wouldn’t have made such a bad play. Volleyball might not be her best game, but she was reasonably proficient.
    Paul cheered up when the following serve by the opposing team landed in the net. The serve changed again, and the ball was now in Paul’s hands. With a confident whap, he sent the ball over the net in a high arch. It landed just inside the boundary line without a hand touching it. He gave Debbie a sharp look as if to say, “Now that’s how it’s done.”
    â€œI know that!” Debbie wanted to shout at him, but she didn’t. What Paul thought of her didn’t matter in the least. She watched as he served again and gained two more points. He lost the next serve when their teammate Betty Miller hit the ball out of bounds.
    While they waited for the serve from the opposing team, Paul turned his attention back to Debbie. “I heard your little boy left the community.”
    She gave him a fierce glare.
    He laughed. “Don’t blame me. I had nothing to do with it.”
    â€œYes, you did!” she wanted to snap back, but she kept her mouth shut.
    He leaned over to whisper, “I suppose your date card—or whatever you Englisha call it—will be open now.”
    â€œAnd I suppose you’re wanting to fill it?” This time the words didn’t stay inside.
    â€œI see my eligibility has not escaped your esteemed notice.” His smile was triumphant.
    â€œYou don’t have to talk so high-brow,” she whispered back.
    Paul’s smile widened. “Just letting you know I’m both available and suitable for a fine lady educated in the ways of the world—not like someone else we both know.”
    â€œThe ways of the world? So you’re also thinking of leaving?” Debbie