A Baby for Hannah by Jerry S. Eicher Read Free Book Online

don’t think so,” Hannah said, dishing out the ice cream. “But I want to hear it anyway. A love story is always worth telling.”
    “You are really encouraging,” Mr. Brunson said, taking the bowl of ice cream offered him. He tasted a spoonful, a look of delight spreading over his face.
    “I’m sure Mary can also make ice cream like this,” Hannah said.
    “Hannah,” Jake said, “Mr. Brunson wouldn’t marry for such reasons.”
    “I know,” Hannah laughed. “I’m being bad.”
    “Maybe I would,” Mr. Brunson said. “Now that I think about it, I haven’t tasted ice cream like this in years. Perhaps never.”
    “You’ll get all the cherry pie and homemade ice cream you could possibly want if you marry Mary Keim,” Hannah said, placing the pie on the table. “I hear she loves to bake.” She sat back down, a bowl of ice cream in front of her.
    “So you’re really serious about this?” Jake asked, glancing at Mr. Brunson.
    “As serious as I have been in a long time.”
    “Tell me the story then,” Hannah said. “I want to hear.”
    A smile crept across their guest’s face. “Well, I pulled in for a carton of fresh eggs one day, on a whim since I usually buy them at the grocery store. I knew the woman was Amish. I mean, that was obvious. I told her good morning, and made my purchase, and then I left, thinking no more about it.”
    “Did she sell you rotten eggs?” Hannah asked, giggling.
    “No,” Mr. Brunson said. “They were perfect eggs, and they fried much better than the watery store-bought ones, so I stopped in again. This time the conversation went a little further—about the weather and such things. She told me she knew who I was—that I was your neighbor and the man who had shot the grizzly bear last year. Funny to be known that way, but I didn’t mind.
    “Her eyes were what got me first—their kindness, their alertness, their look of life, as if she loved living. I wondered about that. Here was a woman who had so little of the modern things of life and yet she looked so happy. Excuse me for thinking this, Hannah, since I know you are the same way, but to see it in someone my age made it feel different. She was so alive and in so many ways. Perhaps in ways I’m no longer alive myself. I wanted to speak longer with her, to understand her life, to see how she lived.
    “Anyway, my first thought was that she was married and that her husband had something to do with her obvious happiness. I felt embarrassed for my interest in her but overcame it enough to ask about her in town. They told me she was a widow.”
    Mr. Brunson paused from eating his ice cream, a gentle smile on his face.
    “I’m waiting,” Hannah said. “I want to hear the rest of the story.”
    “Let the man eat his ice cream,” Jake said. “Then we can move to the living room. It’s much more comfortable in there.”
    Mr. Brunson laughed. “I think I’d rather finish the story here over homemade ice cream and cherry pie. It seems fitting.”
    “Whatever you wish,” Jake said, taking another bite.
    “It’s too bad Hannah isn’t the minister,” Mr. Brunson said. “I think she’d let me marry the woman on the basis of my story alone.”
    “You have always been a charmer,” Jake said. “But I’m listening.”
    “I’m not trying to convince you,” Mr. Brunson said. “This story is for Hannah’s benefit, and for the sake of a wonderful woman named Mary Keim. I mean, how many women can sweep an old man like me off my feet?”
    “I’m not sure that’s a good thing,” Jake said.
    “Don’t listen to him,” Hannah said. “That’s the preacher in him talking. He’s a romantic at heart.”
    Mr. Brunson sighed. “I’m afraid it will take more than a romantic heart to solve this one. Anyway, I started thinking about Mary after I found out she was a widow. You know how it goes. I told myself, ‘No, it isn’t possible.’ That we lived in two different worlds, that it would never work, that she