Santa's Seven-Day Baby Tutorial - Meg Maxwell

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that you’ll commit to being Amish and spending your life as a wife and mother in our village.”

      She’d even said no to her best friend, Caleb. Handsome. Kind. Loyal. They’d grown up together, but even when she was a girl she didn’t dream of marrying Caleb Yoder. She dreamed of what was up the road beyond her sights. She dreamed of hiding in Grass Creek so that the buggies would leave without her. And last year, when Caleb had said he’d waited long enough and had given her an ultimatum, agree to be his wife or he would ask someone else, Anna’s heart had broken in two as she’d sobbed that she was sorry but she couldn’t marry him.

      “If you can’t marry Caleb, your best friend, who can you marry?” her onkel Eli had asked as he’d dropped off a crib for her to paint. “Who will ever be the right man if not him?”

      Those words had gotten inside her and scared her like nothing had. She couldn’t say yes to anyone until she knew what life was like outside their village. If she was meant to be Amish. If she was meant to be English. If she was meant to be an Englisher’s wife, as she believed deep in her heart.

      Maybe not this dashing, 007-type Englisher, who hunted mobsters and vacationed in Macchu Pichu.

      Definitely not this Englisher. Who wasn’t looking for a wife anyway.

      Maybe she would meet her soul mate while in Blue Gulch, and she would know, instantly, that he was the one, that she was meant to be in the English world.

      But how could she feel more attraction for any man than she felt for Colt Asher without spontaneously combusting? When she looked at Colt, she felt what she never had when she’d looked at Caleb, who was very good-looking. Who’d sat with her to look up at the stars. Who’d brought her wildflowers. But who didn’t really wonder what was beyond their village. He was an Amish man with a wonderful sense of humor and a sparkle in his dark eyes, but he was content. Anna had never been. For the past year, when she ran into Caleb, he would be polite, but unusually reserved, and make an excuse to walk the other way. He was seriously dating someone now, but still hadn’t proposed to her, a fact that made her feel guilty. She wouldn’t flatter herself to think he was waiting for her. But part of her did wonder if he was waiting to see what happened, if she would leave and return disappointed, the way her mother had when she’d taken her own rumspringa at age sixteen.

      Would Anna want to go home at the end of her time away? She really had no idea. How many times had her aenti and onkel told her she was romanticizing the English world and that a week out there would show her how wonderful and simple life was at home?

      You’ll know soon enough, she told herself as the elevator doors opened. But so far, every moment of this rumspringa felt like Christmas morning.

      And in moments she would be inside Colt Asher’s home. A whole new world.

       Chapter Four

      The elevator opened and they emerged into a vestibule. Colt opened a door leading into a pale gray hallway with lovely artwork on the walls. They passed seven doors on both sides, and finally at the end of the hall, Colt stopped to open number 32-8.

      Inside his condo, Anna didn’t know where to look first—the view of the city out the wall of windows, or the large living room with the stone fireplace, the dark brown leather couches and gorgeous rug and artifacts on the tables and paintings on the walls. On the side of the couch was a big playpen with a few toys inside. Above a couch was a gorgeous framed painting of a world map.

      “The guest room is in there,” Colt said, pointing to an open door. “In the closet and dresser, you’ll find my sister’s things. Help yourself.”

      “Okay on your own with the twins?” she asked.

      “I can handle ten minutes,” he said, taking off his leather jacket. “Maybe fifteen.”

      She laughed, but then realized he was serious. Hmm, perhaps I’ll spend this week showing your uncle how to care for kinder so that he’ll be able to handle a half hour. Or even a whole day. What do you say? she silently asked adorable Noah as she set him down in the playpen. Colt put his brother beside him, and the two began shaking their brightly colored little toys.

      Without his jacket, she could once again see the muscles at work beneath Colt’s shirt, how the shirt disappeared into the waistband of his dark gray pants. There were fit Amish men, their muscles honed by construction work, but Anna had never seen anyone as sexy as Colt Asher.

      He was staring at her—and she realized it was because she was staring at him. Eek, she thought, dragging her gaze away from his amazing body.

      “Well, I’ll be quick then,” she said and disappeared into the room he’d indicated. She was grateful to have a moment alone, to collect herself. She was acting like the love-starved, romance-starved and, yes, let’s just put it out there, sex-starved woman she was. Oh, God, did Colt Asher know she was a virgin? He must know. But then again, he’d said he didn’t know much about Amish culture.

      Sex before marriage was against their faith. Once, she and Caleb had come very close, and to be honest, she very likely would have had sex with him but he’d called a halt to things. “If I’m not the one for you, Anna, then don’t give yourself to me. I don’t want to cause you trouble down the road.”

      She’d cried at that. That was how much he’d cared about her. But the supposed trouble down the road would only matter in the Amish world, if she chose to marry an Amish man. She didn’t tell Caleb that English men didn’t expect their wives to be virgins. At least they didn’t in the books she’d read. Women had boyfriends and lovers and varying levels of experience. Apparently, it all depended on the woman and how she felt about such matters. An English woman could have a different lover every day or a serious boyfriend or wait until marriage. Anna liked that. She would do what felt right to her. That was all she could go on.

      She took a look around the guest room, which was nicely decorated. A bed with a blue-and-white quilt with stars embroidered. A bureau with a mirror, which she also recognized from her village’s marketplace in Grass Creek. She opened a drawer. T-shirts and sweaters.

      She pulled out a soft cropped-to-the-waist V-necked red sweater and held it up against her in the mirror. There was a thin cotton camisole and she took that, too, then looked in the closet for pants. There was a black jersey wrap dress, a pair of black pants and two pairs of jeans. Luckily, neither was the “skinny” kind that she couldn’t imagine being able to breath in.

      She took off her dress and put on the camisole, then the sweater, soft and fuzzy against her arms. She put on a pair of jeans, which did not fit like her daed’s overalls. They weren’t too tight but they certainly weren’t baggy. Or modest. She zipped up the zipper, something that was forbidden on Amish clothing, and snapped the snap.

      She stared at her reflection in the mirror.

      Her mouth dropped open.

      She looked...like the women she saw in Grass Creek. She looked like an Englisher! The sweater and jeans showed off every curve she didn’t really know she had. The Amish didn’t have mirrors, which were viewed as promoting vanity, and so Anna only caught her reflection in shop windows in Grass Creek, or in mirrors in the stores she’d explore if there was time on market days. But she’d never seen herself in clothing like this. Clothing that made her feel...sexy.

      She took her long hair out of the bun and let it fall.

      There was a pair of heels and a pair of sneakers in the closet. Anna took off her boots and tried on both pairs. They fit! Anna kept on the comfortable navy blue sneakers, then once again stood before the mirror. As she stared at herself, a shadow crept where her joy had been.

      “I don’t know this person,” she whispered to her reflection. She bit her lip and turned away. She started to take off the sweater and find something more...Amish. Even a big, button-down shirt would do, but then Anna looked in the mirror again. For the next week, you are this new person. And sometimes it’s not going to feel comfortable.

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