CHAPTER 11
Elsa
He took me slowly to the car as I wondered what had happened back there. I’d only heard the whistle and smiled at them in surprise before Aidan was up and had thrown the guy onto the ground. It was scary to watch but exciting for me to see someone doing something like that for me. I knew that Daddy and Adam would protect me but not the way that Aidan did, not the way that he just seemed so natural to it. There was something different about this man, and it wasn’t just that he wasn’t Amish.
Aidan was different. I felt so much more attracted to him now that I’d seen him do that for me, and I stared at him in the car as we drove to a bar that he’d noticed near the hotel. He looked at me as he parked and went inside of the bar before he led me to a table in the corner near a window. I watched as Aidan walked up to the bar and leaned against it as he ordered our drinks, and I blushed as my eyes dropped down to where his pants fit him so well as I felt something stirring inside of me.
I was also very nervous. I watched as Aidan walked over to us and set a large glass of something amber in front of me with a smile. “I figured we should start with something basic, being that it’s your first drink.”
Drinking had always been frowned upon at home. I’d never been tempted by the idea since it was so forbidden and I licked my lips nervously as I watched him sit down across from me with something in a small glass. “What’s that?”
“This is strong,” he told me before he tilted his head back and drank it all down.
I pulled my glass closer to me as I told myself that this was a regular part of Rumspringa. Everybody drank and tested the waters, and I frowned as I looked at the window and saw a familiar figure pass by as I stood up. “Adam?”
I pushed my way through the door and looked to the left and the right for my brother. I sweat that was him, but there was no possible way he’d leave the farm, was there? Adam had done all of this and more and chosen the Amish life. He was going to be married soon, and there was no reason for him to be spying on me. I didn’t see Adam or anyone else that looked like him now, and I leaned against the building as I took a deep breath.
I was scared now, and I took a deep breath before I walked back into the bar and sat across the table from Aidan. “Are you okay?”
“I think I saw my brother, Adam. I can’t believe that he would follow me here. He’d have to have a car, and Adam chose the farm.” My hands shook as I looked at him. “He’s always been protective of me, but I didn’t think…I mean, I saw the way he looked at you but, I didn’t think he had this in him.” I stared at the glass and shook my head. “I don’t want that yet. I have a lot to think about before I do that.”
I watched as Aidan sipped what he’d told me was beer and frowned. “My family is everything to me. In some ways, we’re all that we have, and I love them. Life is just so…dull, though. I wake up early and make breakfast with Mama, and we all work on the farm. I help with the gardening and making the food and the laundry while Adam spends a lot of time with Daddy in the barn and doing the harder work. I am always with them apart from church or when we visit another family. Even then, it’s dull.” I stared at him. “My brother didn’t tell me about his rumspringa. My older friends didn’t say much because we were never alone long enough for that and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do versus what I’m not expected to do. I feel a little lost right now, and I just need not feel that way.”
I looked at him as he watched me with an intent gaze on his handsome face. “Tell me about you. Tell me about dating. I need to hear something funny right now.”
Aidan smiled and leaned back as he took another draw from the beer. “Dating can be disastrous, but it’s also got the chance of being everything that you’ve ever wanted for just a little bit of time.”
“How many girlfriends have you had?” I asked him and watched as his face fell serious for a long moment.
“I haven’t had a lot of serious relationships, but my first girlfriend was this girl in high school. I played football you see, and she was a cheerleader, which was as natural as the sun setting. She was a cute girl, but she always wanted to party and would you believe it if I told you that she trashed my Mama’s house one night when she was gone for the weekend?” He laughed and shook his head. “She was fit to be tied, and I was grounded for a month, in which time the cheerleader found another boyfriend and did the same to him. I dated a smart girl after that, and she looked a little like you. She was sweet enough, but I broke her heart.” As Adam went on, I realized how many women he’d been with and how little I knew about any of that. Aidan talked about a girl that he met when he was gone the first time in another country that he spent the weekend with as well as another one that he met somewhere else. Aidan had a lot of experience, and I knew that it wasn’t just sex. I could see in his eyes that he’d felt strongly for some of the women and had his own heart broken and in fact, a part of him was broken now.
Aidan laughed and joked as he kept telling me story after story and I laughed with him as he softened this detail and smoothed that one out. It was all lighthearted and fun and meant to amuse me, and he did that even as he charmed me further. “How old were you the first time you…you know?” I asked, and he cleared his throat.
“I was fourteen. She was an older girl that lived down the street, and we lasted just a few weeks.” Aidan admitted as I nodded and he looked carefully at me. “You’ve never done anything, have you?”
“It’s forbidden before marriage. You are the first man that I’ve touched in any way, apart from hugging Daddy or Adam.” It sounded so bleak compared to his life, but something shone in his eyes as he looked back at me.
“Do you want to wait until you’re married?” He asked as he leaned closer to me and I licked my lips. I shook my head. ‘No?”
“That’s one thing I want from this. I need to know what it’s like before I make my final choice in life, regardless if I go back or not.” I laughed and shook my head a bit. “That sounds silly, considering that I didn’t have even one sip of that drink, but it’s the truth. There're so many things that I need to know about life.” I stared at him. “You’ve lived life, Aidan. I can see it in your eyes. I’m jealous of that.”
“I was jealous of the peace that you had in your life. I sensed it the moment that my car broke down there that there was a stillness that I’d never known.” Adam told me as I frowned at him. “I saw how close your family was, even as your brother tried to act tough around me and your father gave me the warning looks that I’ve seen before. Not a lot of fathers want me around their daughters, and I saw it the most in him, but I don’t think that he sees you. I don’t believe that he understands you and how vibrant that you are.”
“Amish people aren’t vibrant,” I told him as I smiled. “The women all dress that same in one muted color or another. They do their work, and they don’t complain about anything. I have never seen a man react the way that you did back there, and I don’t even know what they said.”
“He said something that he wanted to do to you, Elsa. He said something crude and vile and I never want you to hear that kind of talk. Hell, if you’d been on your own, I don’t know what would’ve happened to you.” Aidan said as his eyes went wild and I saw something start to snap inside of him. “I don’t blame your brother if he did follow you, Elsa. I would do the same thing if you tried to leave me.”
“You would?” He nodded.
“I am not leaving you during this time. Not unless you want me to,” I assured him as he rested his head in his hands.