Rebecca studied Levi, who still had his face pointed to the floor and his elbows planted on his knees. "You do not like to talk about your dad."

"I probably shouldn't have said that about his new wife."

"Said what?"

"Her name is Sherry." Levi stood and paced around the gazebo. He tried to smile at Rebecca, with little success. "I get so mad whenever anybody mentions my dad. His new wife is a bleached blond who gets her nails done twice a month and wears skirts so short, they're almost invisible. She's the complete opposite of my mom. It's like my dad parked my mom in a used car lot and bought a different model. Like Mom doesn't even matter."

"Like you don't even matter."

Levi plopped himself onto a plump pillow. "Yeah, that's how it is."

Rebecca put her legs up on the seat of the bench. "Okay, let's talk about something less upsetting. Like roller coasters."

"Hah," he said. "That's only slightly less painful."

He came over to her again. She swept her legs off the bench and he sat next to her. "I told you, Rebecca, I can't stand it." He rubbed his forehead. "You might think this sounds insincere, but it's not. Everything in my life revolves around you."

She wanted to laugh it off, to tease him about shoveling manure, but the intensity of his gaze made her pause.

"When I'm with you, my protective instincts kick into high gear. Then you force me to watch as you attempt to kill yourself. It ain't fun, kid."

"It's less fun for me, champ."

The ghost of a smile passed over his face. "Like Mohammed Ali." Levi reached out his hand and stroked hers. "I'm asking you to go home and rethink your list. I don't think Dottie Mae would want you to die in the attempt to finish it."

"Dottie Mae would scold me for not having a sense of adventure. She had so much energy. It was like all the lights went out when she died."

"She meant a lot to you."

Rebecca nodded.

"Why don't I ever see you cry?"

"About Dottie Mae?"

"About catapults or lakes or Dottie Mae."

"Crying is weak."

Levi shook his head. "It means you're brave enough to show how you feel. Even if you look like a fool."

"I'd rather show that I'm in complete control of my life."

He maneuvered his arm around her shoulders and stared at her lips.

"Don't kiss me," Rebecca said. "If you kiss me, I'll forever associate kissing with the nausea of the Catapult."

He released his hold, stood up, and started pacing again. "I won't kiss you," he said. "I'm trying to be mad at you."

Had he been about to kiss her?

Gute thing he didn't try. She would never dream of letting Levi Cooper kiss her, no matter how handsome, no matter how kind or generous or wonderful he was. Rebecca frowned at the twinge in her heart that felt something like regret.

"Everything in my life revolves around you."

Rebecca sighed and looked away. Levi had an adorably infuriating habit of holding nothing back. She knew exactly what he thought every minute-exactly how he felt about her. That boy took too many risks with his heart. How did he know that Rebecca wouldn't drop him like a hot potato tomorrow?

He didn't.

He was willing to let his heart get stomped on.

Why?

She was nothing special-a penniless Amish girl who bossed her siblings around and caused nothing but trouble and expense for Levi. And yet he kept coming back for more. The sudden gratitude and tenderness she felt almost took her breath away-gratitude for his caring about her, for being her champion when no one else even noticed. She had a sudden urge to fly into his arms and promise him that she would never shatter the heart he had so freely given her.

But that would mean she would have to show vulnerability, and Rebecca couldn't bring herself to do it. If she loved someone that much, she gave them the power to hurt her. No one would ever gain that much power over Rebecca. Not even Levi.

New and interesting varieties of flowers were much safer. "Can I go look at the roses over there?" she said.

Levi glanced to the side of the house where a jumble of roses burst from the bushes standing in the sun. He snapped out of whatever contemplative mood he was in. "Okay. I'll come with you to make sure you don't prick your finger on a thorn. With your track record, you'd probably bleed to death. I know how to make a tourniquet."

"Are you a doctor?" she said, happy to be on safe ground.

"Nope."

"Then you are not touching my finger."

Chapter Twenty-One.

Rebecca dribbled the last of the paint onto the roller tray and handed it to Levi. "This is it," she said.

Levi looked at her measly offering. "Perfect. Enough to touch up two or three spots and then we're done. I can't believe how precisely you calculated the paint we would need. You got it right, down to the last drop."

"The paint is all!" Max yelled from his ladder.

Rebecca handed the empty paint bucket up to him. "Here, get what you can out of this. That is all we've got."

The barn stood two stories tall, a good stretch for their ladder, but at least it wasn't like some of the barns in the area that towered three or more stories into the air. Max and Levi could reach everything with the ladder and a roller extension.

Mamm sat under the shade of the porch, watching them finish up the painting. A pleasant breeze teased wisps of Rebecca's hair away from her face and kept the painters relatively comfortable in the late August sun. Linda, Levi, and Max each positioned themselves on their own sides of the barn, busily painting, while Danny and Rebecca worked on the fourth wall. They wore painting clothes, and Danny managed to cover more of himself than the trim with bright white paint.

"Cum," Levi said, slipping into Deitsch, as he so often did when he worked on the farm. "Walk around with me and see if there are any spots we missed."

He put down the tray and his brush, and they strolled around the corner of the barn to the side Levi had been painting where they were all alone. Levi slipped his hand into hers with an easy, relaxed motion that seemed as natural as breathing. Hand in hand, they examined the north wall and trim for any flaws.

He pointed to the barn wall. "We patched a hole up there before we painted."

For some reason, Rebecca found it difficult to concentrate on paint coverage after the touch of Levi's hand. She chided herself and pulled away from him. He seemed bent on stretching the bounds of propriety every time he got a chance.

He simply smiled, put his hands behind his back, and kept walking. "This side look okay to you?"

Rebecca nodded.

"And the trim?"

"Jah, very nice."

"Gute, because nothing is finished until it passes your approval," Levi said. "I want this barn to make you smile every time you look at it. Like a picture right off a Hallmark Christmas card. You like it, don't you? The cardinal red with the white trim?"

"The trim makes it look crisp and clean. Like a true Amish barn."

They turned the next corner to find Linda reclining on the grass, her paintbrush sticking out of her empty bucket. "I am never, ever painting anything again," she said, wiping her brow with the back of her forearm. "Ach. I will never get the paint off my hands, and I am supposed to go to the gathering tonight with Mary Jane."

Rebecca pulled Linda off the ground by her paint-encrusted hand. She took the bucket and brush from the grass and handed them to Linda. "Here, go wash these out, and you will still have time to clean up for the gathering."

Linda rolled her eyes and flounced to the hose, where she quickly rinsed the paint off her brush and hands. Leaving the bucket by the hose, no doubt hoping it would put itself away, she stomped up the porch steps and into the house.

"Are you going to the gathering?" Levi said.

"Nae, of course not. I still have floors to mop."

Levi leaned his hand against the red wall of the barn-dry since they'd painted it last week. "Gute, because according to your mom, there are at least three Amish boys competing for your attention, and I don't want anyone else making a play for you."

"Three boys? What boys? That is nonsense."

Levi got that twinkle in his eyes. "Oh, no. Your mom even said their names the other day. Peter, Yiddy, and Melvin or Merlin or something like that."

Rebecca giggled. "That's Peter, Giddy, and Marvin. And they are not interested in me."

He stroked his chin. "Yet you seem to know exactly who I am talking about. Very suspicious."

"They are boys about my age. Mamm thinks everyone wants to marry me."

"They probably do," Levi said. He pushed away from the wall and pinned her with a serious look. "The real question is, are you interested in them?"

"Nae. I don't...I am...I am not," Rebecca stammered, suddenly aware that she couldn't look away from those piercing eyes.

His face relaxed and his eyes crinkled with his smile. "Gute. Because I will not go skiing with a girl who is engaged to someone else."

Max and Danny appeared, each carrying one end of the ladder, with Max kicking the empty can of paint on the ground in front of him.

"School starts on Monday," Max said, "and I've spent my whole summer working."

"Is the trim done on that side?" Levi asked.

"Jah," Max said. "I knocked down three wasps' nests too. Got stung."

Levi opened the barn door so they could put the ladder away. "You're tough. I probably would have cried like a baby."

Danny put his side of the ladder on the ground, and Max hoisted it onto a large hook screwed into the wall of the barn. "Are you bringing supper again?" Max said.

"It is already here," Rebecca said. "It's a great big pizza that I just need to stick into the oven."

Danny gave Levi a high five-a move Levi had taught him last week. "Pizza! I love pizza." He bolted to the house. "I will go shower."

"Hang your clothes outside," Rebecca called. "And don't get paint on the floor."

"I will go wash," Max said. He picked up the empty paint can as he went to the house. "And denki for the pizza," he said over his shoulder.

"No prob," Levi said.

They watched Max go into the house and waved to Mamm, who sat watching them.

"Your mom seems to be feeling better," Levi said.

Rebecca gave a slight smile. "She is especially chipper on Wednesdays. She never sits out this much on other days."

"If her suspicion of me gets her out in the fresh air more often, that can't be bad." Levi took off his hat and scratched his head. "What did she tell your fater about me?"

"As far as I know, the subject hasn't come up. Fater is pleased the work is done and doesn't ask many questions."

Smiling, Levi put his hands into his pockets and nudged her with his elbow. "Let's look at the rest of the barn," he said.

Together they inspected each wall and the trim then walked all the way around again for good measure. When they returned to their original spot, Mamm was gone.

"I am so happy," Rebecca said, making a sweeping gesture. "Denki for this. It is beautiful."

"A beautiful girl deserves a beautiful barn."

She gave him the look that told him he was piling the flattery thick. They both laughed.

"Every girl should have her own barn," she said, wishing she didn't enjoy Levi's company so much. It would make it that much harder when they had to say good-bye. "I should go put the pizza into the oven."

"I'll clean up. If I run out of things to do, I'll muck out the stalls. The barn always needs to be mucked out. But I'm going to stink for dinner while the rest of you smell nice. I might have to eat outside by myself."

Rebecca didn't know what possessed her, but she picked up a bucket of water sitting near the dirty paintbrushes, and while he was turned, she dumped the water down his back. "You can have a shower out here," she said.

Yelling in surprise, he scanned his surroundings for something to help him retaliate. He sprinted to the hose, snatched Linda's empty bucket, and turned on the spigot full blast. Even at that, the filling was slow.

Giggling like a schoolgirl, Rebecca ran into the barn to the faucet used for watering the animals. Before the water was even an inch deep in her bucket, she heard Levi run into the barn. He paused to locate her among the stalls then let out a whoop and circled in around his prey.