The Heart's Journey: Stitches in Time Series #2 by Barbara Cameron

just don’t want you to burn.”
    “I won’t. And if I do, I’m not going to blame you.”
    “Naomi, please put some on.”
    “I don’t need it,” she insisted, frowning at him. “Can we please change the subject?”
    He hated the thought of that exquisite skin burning, peeling. Causing her pain. But she turned back to stare at the ocean, her posture rigid, her chin thrust out. He recognized the signs that she wasn’t about to budge.
    Nick liked to think he was a smart man who knew when not to argue with a woman. If she was right, well, she wouldn’t burn. But if she was wrong, she was going to suffer, and he didn’t want that to happen.
    Her stubbornness surprised him. He’d never seen that before. Of course, he told himself he hadn’t ever spent that much time around her before—just driving her and her cousins and grandmother to and from work.
    He asked himself why he should care so much if she learned an unpleasant lesson. Why wasn’t he repelled by this stubbornness? Who wanted to be argued with when you were just being concerned?
    Was this how she behaved with her fiancé? he wondered. Not that he blamed her. He didn’t know much about John Zook, only that he’d moved to Paradise from another Amish community on the other side of the state. He seemed … charming, but the funny thing was, the time he’d met him at the shop he’d gotten the distinct impression that Anna didn’t like him. Although some people assumed that because the Amish led a traditional lifestyle the husbands might be more controlling than Englisch husbands, Nick hadn’t found that to be true. They seemed to be better about working in partnership together.
    He thought back to that day when he picked up Naomi and Leah. John had been standing at the end of the driveway of Leah’s home that morning. He’d offered to stop and let Naomi talk to him, thinking she wanted to say good-bye.
    But he remembered how Naomi hadn’t wanted him to stop. She hadn’t wanted to say good-bye to John. He’d wondered about it at the time, but now he remembered how her chin had been thrust out stubbornly, how her arms had been folded across her chest. And how she’d stared forward, refusing to look at John.
    Now, he wondered again if they’d had an argument, wondered if John was too controlling.
    Well, it didn’t matter why Naomi resisted his advice just now and turned so stubborn. All he had to do was say that it was time to get lunch or head home.
    He looked over at her and saw that she was watching a family near them. A mother and father were playing with a little boy who looked about two years old. The Amish loved children but Naomi looked sad, not happy.
    This was a woman who was supposed to be getting married soon. He’d have thought she’d be thinking of her wedding, of children in the near future.
    The little boy jumped up and down, excited as his mother rooted inside a picnic basket. When she held out a treat, he wrapped his arms around her neck and kissed her, reaching for it at the same time.
    Naomi stood abruptly and brushed the sand from her skirt. “I’m going to go take a walk.”
    “Okay,” he said, and by the way she started off, got the message that she didn’t want company. “I’m hungry. Back in fifteen?”
    “Back in fifteen,” she called over her shoulder and continued striding down toward the shoreline.
    He watched her stop and slip off her flip-flops, dangling them from her fingers as she walked, her head bent.
    Anyone who thought that because they lived a simple life the Amish were simple was dead wrong. Naomi was one complicated lady.

    Her face was on fire.
    Groaning, Naomi turned her face into the cool fabric of her pillow. But the material chafed like steel wool against her cheek and she moaned.
    She got up and padded to the bathroom. Sure enough, her face was shades and shades pinker than when she’d gone to bed. She turned off the light and went into the kitchen for a glass of water, then a second. Her