Devout In Lancaster An Anthology of Amish Romance

By Elaine Anthony

Naomi and Jacob have been attached at the hip since grade school. Jacob was the town bad boy, always in trouble while she was the good girl bailing him. They were two peas in a pod until the day he disappeared. Shunned by the Amish elders, Jacob was sent away with little explanation. Flash forward years later and Jacob returns to the community. He gets a chance to speak to Naomi and the sparks fly again. They are different now. Older but in a lot of ways still the same. They try to start again where they left off but Naomi struggles with what Jacob may have done and the hurts of the past. Can they overcome what was...for what might be?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trellis Publishing
• Release date: Jun 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201686451

Book preview

Lancaster City, Pennsylvania, 2017

Rock music blasted off a boombox speaker. A mechanic in blue overalls crouched beside a dismantled motorcycle, the deep thump of the bass rattling the tools littered around him.

—Yoder! Hey, Yoder! The shout cut through the music and jolted Jacob from his focus. He stretched out an arm and dialled the volume on the boombox down.

Did you hear what I said? The assistant manager of Jim’s Auto Repair, Pete, stuck his head into Jacob’s work space.

No, sorry, said Jacob, taking off his cap to run a hand through his unwashed hair. He stopped mid-motion and blinked down at the engine grease coating his fingers. Say it again?

Don’t take this the wrong way, okay? said Pete coming forward to stand in the middle of the little garage space, I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t relevant.

What is it? Jacob sat up straight. You’re making me nervous talking like that.

You’re Amish, right? said Pete.

I was, said Jacob, rubbing the tattoo at the back of his neck and looking away. But what does that have to do with anything?

There’s some Amish people out there. I think they might be looking for you.

Jacob stared at Pete, thinking maybe he’d heard wrong. They were looking for him? It had been almost twenty years since he’d had any contact with that world. Time and new technology had changed many things here on the outside—the internet, smartphones, Google, Facebook, Youtube, Amazon, Netflix. . . But Jacob didn’t doubt that the Amish lived exactly the same way now as they did two decades ago. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to see the proof of that with his own eyes though. It was a past he’d left behind long ago.

Oh, and uh, Pete said, there’s a pair of police officers with them.

When Jacob went to meet the strange group standing outside in the hot, dusty yard of Jim’s Auto, the police officers immediately came up to him. Are you Jacob Yoder, said the taller, older-looking officer, grandson of Benjamin Yoder?

Yes, that’s me. said Jacob, looking between the officers and the Amish group standing a few feet away. They avoided his