An Amish Flower Farm

by Mindy Steele

  “He lived a happy life,” Tabitha started. “I don’t think I ever saw Dawdi frown once.” Belinda thought on that and concluded she hadn’t either. “He built a beautiful home and raised a family. And...” she pinned Belinda with a soft look, “he had the love of his life.” The sisters simply stared at each other. It was reassuring, for the most part, that Saul Graber was spending his last days surrounded by some of his children. And Tabitha was right. He loved their Mammi Graber very much. She hoped she was half as blessed as they had been.

  “So I noticed Adam drove you home last night. Late last night.” Tabitha pinned her with a knowing look. Belinda flinched instinctively, but the giddy feelings inside could not be tamped down for long.

  “Jah.” She grinned, teasing her sister by saying nothing else.

  “Belinda, stop keeping me in suspense,” Tabitha begged, and leaned on the counter beside her. The previous night, Tabitha had apologized more times than necessary for tricking her into going to Zimmerman’s and Belinda had forgiven her. Not only because it was the right thing to do, but because she could see her sister truly meant well. And while the trip hadn’t gone quite as Tabitha had planned, it had worked out for the best in the end. In fact, if not for Tabitha’s meddling, Adam would have never had to find her, which meant he wouldn’t have felt compelled to drive her home, and without that drive, who knew how much longer she would have had to wait for her first kiss?

  “I think I love him,” Belinda muttered, then laid her cup down. “No, I know I do. It’s crazy, and wunderbaar, and,” she took a breath as she tried to gather her thoughts and speak clearly. She loved Adam Hostetler. The man next door. She loved his grouchy moods and his strong constitution. She loved his protective nature, now seeing how it was reflected in his awareness of her, and attentive way of always making her feel included. She loved how her name rolled off his lips, even—or maybe especially—when he shortened it. Belinda touched her cheek, smiled as she remembered the tingling that went through her when he pressed his lips just there. She loved her strawberry kiss, because he loved it too. He made her stronger, braver, and made her feel...appreciated. Mammi was right about that.

  “I’m so happy for you.” Tabitha embraced her, a laugh on her breath. “Mudder is going to be so pleased.” Tabitha pulled away. “And no two people were more meant to be.” Belinda felt a sting of tears.

  “I can talk to him about anything. I don’t even remember when it started. He is so patient. And last night when I freaked out and hid in the storage room...”

  “You hid in a storage room?” Tabitha’s voice hitched in horror.

  “I know it was stupid, but Abner just wouldn’t go away.” Belinda explained the rest of the details and how the back of Zimmerman’s store had seemed her only refuge at the time. “But Adam came,” she said dreamily. “Like he knew right where I was and that I needed him right then. He didn’t get upset when I drew flowers on his hives and he thinks my birthmark is a strawberry kiss.”

  Tabitha smiled and gave the birthmark a slight brush with her fingers. “It does sort of look cute when you think of it like that.”

  “He thinks I’m beautiful, and admitted that he used to stare at me all those years back when we were in school because he thought so then too. Who would have guessed he cared for me all these years, and I was too stupid to notice?” She looked to her sister again. “Tabitha, I didn’t know love could feel like this. Like, I’m bigger or something.” Her voice rose. Tabitha laughed at her sister’s wide eyes and sudden awareness.

  “I never heard love described quite that way before,” her sister teased. “It’s sweet. I’m almost envious.”

  A knock came at the door. “I’ll get it. Adam said he wanted to show me something special today.” Belinda couldn’t conceal the joy in her voice.

  “Oh, I’ve got to see this.” Tabitha followed her, just as enthralled in her sister’s current state of bliss as she was. Belinda opened the door, but no one was there.

  “I guess I imagined it.” Belinda took a step back to close the door.

  “Wait. Look,” Tabitha said, before stepping out on the porch. Belinda watched her sister bend over and retrieve something. “It’s...paint.” Tabitha stood up with a small green tube with a yellow ribbon and handed it to Belinda.

  “Green paint?” Belinda hiked her brows, perplexed. “Why would someone leave this? How did it get there?”

  “Look,” Tabitha pointed to the walkway at the bottom of the steps. Another tube lay there, also tied with a yellow ribbon.

  “Blue.” Belinda picked it up, shot her sister a surprised look. “I don’t understand.”

  “I think he is leaving you a trail to follow,” Tabitha grinned.

  “For sure?”

  “For sure.” Tabitha’s softened expression told that her sister knew more than she was Ω“Did you know about this?”

  “I know everything, little sister,” Tabitha said. “Now come. Let’s see where it ends.” Tabitha cupped Belinda’s arm and they both searched for the next tube. “Or begins. Depends on how you look at it.”

  Next they found a sign with an arrow, so they crossed the road and followed the path. “This is so exciting, like a scavenger hunt,” Belinda said, with a hint of thrill in her voice.

  “I must admit, I never thought Adam would prove to be such a romantic.”

  “Oh, but he is. He even told me he was going to kiss me like a real gentleman before he did it. So I could say no if I didn’t want him to. That is the kind of man he is.” She was the luckiest maedel in all of Havenlee. As her eyes were searching for the next tube, Tabitha gripped her arm and brought her to a halt.

  “And what did you say?” Belinda’s cheeks warmed. “Bee, did you and Adam kiss?”

  “It’s not proper to talk of such things. Courting is private.” Belinda smirked and resumed walking. They had kissed for what felt like hours, but no one needed to know that.

  Along the fencerow, through pasture grasses freshly cut, Belinda gathered more tubes of paint, nine in all.

  When they reached the rise above May Fisher’s orchard, Belinda spotted Adam in the meadow to the north where trees outlined the property’s borders. He wasn’t alone. Mica, Ivan, and Tobias were with him. Ivan drove stakes in the ground while Mica and Adam held a measuring tape stretched out between them. Tobias was carrying what looked like a huge rock. It was a strange sight for men who were supposed to be building Mica’s blacksmith shop on the Graber property. Tabitha’s hand tightened on her arm.

  “Why are they all out here? Tabitha?”

  “You’re not getting nervous and running this time, sister,” Tabitha warned. “Let’s go see what they are doing.” Confused though she was, running was certainly the last thing on Belinda’s mind. With nine tubes of paint in her apron, Belinda walked along with her sister until they reached the others. She noted the sly smiles, even on Mica, the small collection of rocks Tobias was adding to, most likely gathered from the field, and there in the forefront of it all was the man who had captured her heart. He was dressed in a crisp blue shirt she suspected he wore only for church on Sundays. Nothing made sense, but for once the unknown, that knot of nerves twisting in her belly, didn’t scare her. They excited her.

  Adam looked up and was aware everyone’s gaze was currently aimed behind him. That meant that she had arrived. He closed his eyes and whispered a mental prayer. He could do this, he reminded himself. Like that first walk down the streets of Havenlee with a bouquet of flowers, he could step out of his comfort zone and give Belinda the proposal Nelly had sworn she dreamed of.

  He turned to find her standing there, Tabitha at her side, with her apron gathered in one delicate hand, most likely securing her paints. When their eyes locked, he felt that same jolt of lightning he had the first time she looked up at him from her garden. It had been a cool May evening, and a shy maedel with violet-blue eyes had, with her
promise of help, stopped his world from spinning out of control. Now as August heat burned down on them, he shivered. Ivan was so right—Daed too. How could he imagine a life without her?

  “Hey,” Adam said as Belinda and her sister approached. It wasn’t normal for a man to be so romantic, so public. Private and simple was the Amish way of life, but Belinda deserved more than simple. She should have something just shy of embarrassing, and overflowing with a love worthy of her. Something she could look back on in years to come and smile about. Something storybook and unforgettable.

  “Hey. I found the paints.” Her sweet lips curled into a grin and a second chill overcame him. He wanted to kiss those lips forever, every second of every minute of every hour of every day. What a life they would have.

  “I hope I got every color you will need,” Adam said, closing the distance until there was barely a foot left between them. Tabitha moved away and joined the audience he knew would be mocking him for the rest of his life after today.

  “Need?” Belinda’s face scrunched adorably. Adam turned back to her, and couldn’t help but smile.

  “To paint all the hives,” he said, and watched her eyes light up in that way that always made him grateful for Gott’s creations.

  “You want me to paint all of them?” Belinda glanced around; trying to understand what was going on. What were they all doing out here in the middle of nowhere, and did he really want all the hives painted? She would do it, of course, but why?

  “We are partners. What is mine is yours. So paint away, my dear.” His pearly smile reached inside and made her heart pound a little faster.

  “Partners?” Belinda regained a little composure and met his smile. Partners didn’t kiss for hours at a time. Partners didn’t look at each other like they were right now. No, they had crossed over that connection and the newness of that “more” they were building together made her cheeks flush.

  “In everything, I hope.” His words melted her heart. Before she could respond, Adam dropped to one knee. Her hands shot to her mouth. Paint spilled to the ground, but she barely noticed. She scoured the faces of her siblings and friends, all smiling, except Tabitha, who was crying into her apron front.

  “Adam?” She looked back to the man kneeling before her. Kneeling the way she had always imagined a man would. But despite all the stories she’d devoured, no fictional book had prepared her for what was coming.

  “You snuck up on me, when things were the hardest. I thought I didn’t have room in my life for love, but you showed me I was wrong—because everything in my life is better when you’re a part of it. I love you, Belinda Graber.”

  Tears made their way out, and one blink was all it took to set them free-falling onto her cheeks. Adam only deepened his smile.

  “I’m pretty sure I have since you were, like, eight,” he said and chuckled. Was this really happening? If her hands weren’t trembling so badly, Belinda would pinch herself awake right now. Adam took one hand, squeezed it gently. “I want you as my forever partner. I don’t want a life without you in it.”

  He was asking...asking to marry her. Her heart felt like it was about to gallop out of her chest, and tears, those pesky embarrassing tears, made a full out spectacle of her.

  “But I can’t even keep a house like Ada,” she stupidly muttered.

  “I don’t have allergies, so that’s no problem.” Adam grinned, sensing her nervousness.

  “I hate shopping for anything, much less groceries.” She started to back away, but his grip prevented it. Had he thought this through?

  “Good thing you’re a wonderful gardener then,” Adam chuckled, and slowly rose to his feet.

  “But...but I...”

  “Have run out of excuses,” he interrupted and placed a callused hand on her cheek. “Do you know how much it hurt to get on bended knee for you, Belinda Graber?” His smile was infectious, making her smile too. It didn’t matter if she worried that she wasn’t good enough for a man like him. All that mattered was that Adam thought she was enough, enough to bend though he still wasn’t fully healed, and enough to buy her paints and propose marriage to her in front of those close to them just to please her. Amish men didn’t do this, she recollected.

  “Go ahead and answer the man, so we can get this house marked out.” Mica’s deep voice penetrated the moment.

  “House?” Was that what Ivan and Tobias were doing here? Marking out a house?

  “We’re going to need one, ain’t so?” Adam turned. “I can spread out the hives good. I made a few arrangements to rent some to a few neighbors too.”

  “So you’ll have your hundred hives.” He nodded. “And the ground here is perfect.”

  “Perfect for what?” she asked.

  “Our flower farm,” he said, matter of fact. “I can see rows of lavender trailing the drive and catching the breeze. People will smell it for miles. Tulips in spring, in every color possible. Down there,” he motioned toward a dip in the earth, “a pond to keep everything watered. Over there,” he pointed south, “the biggest sunflower field in Indiana.”

  She could almost see it. If not for the tears that blurred her vision, she would have seen it as clear as he described it.

  “And best of all, Marcy will send a driver out to you, four days a week during peak season, and neither of us will have to deliver. We can stay right here, working together, loving one another.” On her flower farm, the one she had always dreamed of.

  “You’re building me a flower farm?” Belinda swiped a tear from her cheek. She didn’t care that her siblings were there, wouldn’t have cared if the whole town had gathered to watch. Control and reasoning were no longer present. She wrapped both arms around Adam’s neck and kissed him straight on the mouth. When they pulled apart, Adam leaned his forehead to hers, whispered another “I love you.”

  “My honey, your flowers, our love, will be more than enough for a family.” What a life she would have, with this man. His passions were so purposeful and promising; their livelihoods were equally connected. To think it all started with a neighbor in a fix and a brother who volunteered her up. Belinda shot a quick, grateful glance toward Mica, and then turned back to face her future.

  “I love you too, Adam Hostetler, and”—she lifted her chin in utmost confidence as excitement ran through her veins—“I’m ready for this adventure.” Belinda had never been more ready for anything in her life. “But Daed might need to know your intentions,” she playfully added.

  Adam chuckled. “Over the phone, he seemed right pleased to know I had fallen in love with his dochder. It seems that Hattie has always wanted a September wedding.” He grinned so irresistibly that she had to kiss him again.

  Someone cleared his throat. Belinda blushed as she pulled away. Who would have thought her so spontaneous and careless, kissing a man in front of others? The old Belinda would have been embarrassed, but today, she didn’t care. She had wasted enough time not kissing Adam. “What kind of woman would want to marry a bee farmer?” he whispered, green eyes sparkling.

  “One who doesn’t like smelling mucked-out stalls all day,” she teased.

  “And one who loves singing to bees, growing flowers, and baking honey cookies,” he suggested.

  How had she become so blessed? A future that had only lived in her imagination was now here, right in front of her, waiting to be lived. She couldn’t wait to get started.

  Gazing into his eyes, she said, “And one who loves you.”

  The End

  About the Author

  Raised in Kentucky timber country, Mindy Steele writes Amish romance peppered with humor, using rural America and its residents as her muse. Steele strives to create realistic characters and believes in engaging all the senses to make you laugh, cry, hold your breath, and root for the happy ever after ending. A hopeless romantic with a lyrical pen, she hopes readers will find something of themselves within
her pages.

  Bee Sting Cake for Two

  In An Amish Flower Farm, Belinda helps Adam with his honey business... and he’s amazed that no matter what she does, she never gets stung! Before long, this bee charmer is charming Adam, too. This cake is inspired by their sweet story. It’s the perfect size to share with anyone you love.

  Prep Time: 15 minutes

  Cook Time: 30 minutes

  Serves: 2

  Ingredients

  1/3 cup milk, room temperature

  1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

  2 large eggs

  3/4 cup all-purpose flour

  2 tablespoons granulated sugar

  1/2 teaspoon salt

  3 tablespoons honey

  2 cups flour

  Preparation

  Preheat oven to 400°F.

  Coat a 9x13 cake pan with non-stick cooking spray.

  In a medium bowl combine milk, butter and eggs.

  Gradually add in sugar, flour and salt. Mixing well.

  When batter is smooth, add 3 tablespoons honey and continue to mix.

  Place the dough in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for an hour.

  Bake 25 to 30 minutes.

  For the topping:

  Combine 1 cup of almonds with 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 4 tablespoons honey, stirring well.

  Apply to top of the cake in layers; you will lose some in the process but continue adding layers until you run out.

  Thank you for reading An Amish Flower Farm!

  If you enjoyed the story, please support the author by leaving an online review.

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