My Amish Love

Better In Time

Daniel's POV

I stood in front of the church with all of my friends and family surrounding me. The bishop was standing next to me, rubbing my shoulder and telling me not to be too nervous. I felt like my legs would give out underneath me as trickles of sweat ran down my forehead. The doors at the front of the church opened and Casey walked forward looking more beautiful than ever.

She wore a long white dress with an orange and white flower crown. Tears flooded her eyes as she walked down the aisle. She smiled at me as her bottomed lip trembled and she struggled to hold her tears back. The closer she got, the more love and fear I felt. Soon, tears began to flood my eyes as well. I quickly turned to the side so I could wipe my eyes and the bishop patted me on the back.

Suddenly, Casey was standing in front of me, flashing that perfect smile of hers. I couldn't help but smile back.

"Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?" The bishop asked me.

"I do," I smiled.

"And do you," he said, turning to Casey, "take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I-I-I can't."

Gasps erupted around me and I blinked slowly at Casey. Tears ran down her cheeks and she slowly stepped away from me.

"You can't?"

"You're not ready, we can't do this. When we get married, I want us to be ready, not just me," she said unhappily.

"Yes, I am. I am ready. Please, Casey, don't do this."

"You're not ready."

"Casey-"

"I'm sorry. Goodbye, Daniel."

Casey ran out of the church, but I followed behind her. No matter how fast I ran, though, I couldn't catch her. She was leaving me, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Jumping up, trickles of cold sweat ran down my head. I woke up with a lot on my mind. The thought of marrying Casey excited me and scared me at the same time. I wanted to be the best husband that I could be for Casey. She deserved it. I was ready to marry her, I was sure of it. Why would she doubt that? Could she really be doubting it?

As much as I wanted to stay in bed and think about marrying Casey, I had work to do.

I quickly got dressed to meet my father outside. Every morning we fed the animals, cleaned up after their messes, and let them out of the barn to roam around the yard. I went out of the backdoor to the barn and my daed was already separating some hay for the horses. I went to get the sheep and goats to let them free in the yard. As soon as I opened the gate, they shot out of the fence. I quickly ran in front of them to guide them in the right direction. My daed was laughing so hard that he couldn't stand up.

"A little rusty aren't we, Daniel?" He laughed.

"Ach, jah. I'm fine," I said.

After we finished tending to the animals, Abigail made her way to the barn.

"Mammi said it's time to wash up," Abigail stated.

"Alright, we'll be in shortly," Daed answered back.

Abigail walked away while my father and I began to wrap things up.

"Daed, how have you and mom stayed together so long? What's the key to a successful marriage?" I asked him as we walked towards the house.