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“I don’t like women,” he said after a long moment after he’d pulled his shirt apart and set it on the chair, too. “Lord, I hate havin’ to dress up.” He gave a deep laugh. “I prefer my overalls.”

“You don’t like–”

“Women, no. I’m what our parents and the preacher would call a deviant.”

“You…”

“I tried to fight it, Debbie. I promise you, I did. But I can’t. I tried to pray. I went to the preacher and confessed my sins. Well, I lied to him about the specific sin because I can’t tell him what I did or who I am, but I tried to ask God to make me better. When my pa told me that you and I would get hitched, I was glad about that because I could see something of me in you. You like Harriet how I like someone. If you promise to keep my secret like I’ll keep yours, I’ll even tell you who he is.” John David smiled then, and it was the first time she’d seen him happy all day. “He’s the best man in the world, and I love him how I should love you.”

“You love another man?”

“I do. And I’m hoping that you and I can come to some type of an arrangement because I can’t have the town knowing about the two of us, and I can’t stop being with him, either, Debbie. So, I thought we could work that out tonight instead of…” He pointed to the bed.

“You don’t want to do that?”

“No.” He laughed. “Not with you. But that’s because I don’t want any woman like that. I’ve never been with one.”

“But you’ve been with a man?”

“A few, yes,” he admitted. “Can we agree on the secret, Debbie?”

“Yes,” she replied quickly, feeling immediately better about just about everything in her life.

“I’ve been with two men before I fell in love. They were more about me finding things out. Now, though, I know, and I love him.”

“Who is it?” she asked.

John David pulled off his undershirt, revealing a toned physique from hours and hours of manual labor on the farm, and blushing, he said, “It’s Jacob Lansing.”

“Jacob?!?” Deb covered her mouth after hearing how loudly she’d just said that.

“Mama and Pa are down the hall.” He laughed again. “Now, I’m going to take off my pants because we’re going to sleep, but that’s the only reason, all right? If I go out there, they’re going to wonder why I’m not just changing in front of you on our wedding night.”

“All right,” she replied softly.

“And yes, Jacob,” John David said as he unbuttoned his pants. “We’ve been together for over a year now.”

“He’s supposed to marry someone soon, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, he is. He’s also not as lucky as I am to have you being like you are and wanting another woman. He’ll have to pretend with her.”

“I’m sorry, John David.”

“So am I. But we’ll figure things out how we can.”

Deb turned away when he stood there in his underwear and waited for him to put on his dressing gown.

“I’m decent,” he said.

She turned back to see that he was.

“I was thinking that once my parents are gone from here, we might consider us being in different bedrooms,” he added. “It’s not that uncommon, and we can pretend like we don’t, but at night, we just sleep in our own rooms.”

“I’d like that,” she confessed.

“And if you want Harriet to come over sometimes, that would be all right with me. Jacob will start working on the farm to give us a reason to spend time together. I’ve already hired him, and Pa is fine with that because he has no idea about me and Jacob.” John David moved to the head of the bed and pulled back the solid white, handmade blanket. “I was thinking that we could work out some kind of way for them to sleep over sometimes without them or us getting caught. I know it couldn’t be all the time, but all this sneakin’ around can wear and tear, and I think having some private time in the house will help.”

“That would be…” Deb faded at the thought of being able to fall asleep and wake up next to the woman she loved.