A Kauffman Amish Christmas Collection

by Amy Clipston

  “No. I’m visiting from Ohio. My sister lives in Bird-in-Hand.” Caleb glanced around the office, which was a small room that led to the large work bays. “My daughter and I are here for the holidays, and I’m considering moving back.”

  “Oh.” Riley rubbed the stubble on his chin. “You’re from around here originally?”

  Caleb nodded. “That’s right. I moved to Ohio about ten years ago after I got married. My wife passed away two years ago, and I don’t have any family there, except for a few of her cousins.”

  Riley frowned. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

  “Danki.” Caleb smiled. “I’m thinking that I want to come back here so that my daughter has some family around her while she grows up.”

  “Yes, family is important.” Riley leaned on the counter behind him. “I know quite a few Amish families around here. Who is your sister?”

  “Sadie Kauffman.” He jammed his thumb toward the door as if in the direction of the road. “Her husband’s family owns the furniture store a few blocks down.”

  “Oh!” Riley nodded. “I know Eli Kauffman quite well. Nice family.”

  “Yes.” Caleb stepped over to the door and looked toward the bays, imagining his toolboxes and supplies lining the walls while he built buggies. He could see himself coming here every day and working to make a living. “This is a nice place you have here. Have you owned it long?”

  “Oh yeah.” Riley limped toward the bays and motioned for Caleb to follow. “This land has been in my family for years. My father built this shop about fifty years ago, and I added on twenty years ago. I ran a towing company and did some minor car repairs on the side.” He patted his thigh. “I’ve got a bum leg, so I can’t work much anymore. My kids have all married and moved away, and my wife and I decided it was time to retire and move to Florida. But we need to unload this place before I can buy my condo.”

  Riley gestured toward the row of toolboxes and workbenches. “I’ll have all of this cleared out soon. My youngest son is supposed to come and get the tools at some point. I don’t want to take any of them to Florida.” He smiled. “Well, just a little box with the basics for the honey-do lists my wife likes to make to keep me off the sofa.”

  Caleb walked the length of the shop, imagining how he would set it up if it were his. The building was bigger than the shop he worked in back in Ohio. “This is quite spacious.”

  Riley moved the curtain and pointed toward a brick home behind the shop. “The house is out back if you’d like to see that too.”

  “Danki.” Caleb followed Riley out a side door and down the driveway.

  “We have a barn out back too,” Riley said, pointing toward a small fenced pasture. “It’s not big, but it’s functional if you have a few animals.”

  “How many acres are here?”

  “Six,” Riley said as they approached the brick ranch house. “The house has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The rooms are fairly big. We raised four boys without any problems. Would you like to come in? My wife is at the market right now, but I would be happy to show you around.”

  “That would be great,” Caleb said.

  While Riley led him around the house, Caleb imagined making a home for him and Susie. The bedrooms were a good size, and the woodwork on the trim in the little house was also nice. The house was nothing fancy, but Caleb didn’t need fancy.

  Before he could move in, he would have to have the electricity removed from the house in order to keep with his Amish traditions. He would also need to convert to gas appliances, but that wouldn’t be a problem.

  Caleb glanced around the kitchen, trying to imagine his table and chairs in the center of the room. His heart warmed at the idea of being home in Lancaster County, celebrating holidays and milestones with his sister and her family, worshipping with her church district and his old friends. He would also make new friends, and he would possibly get to know a very special friend better: Naomi King.

  His last thought caused him to smile to himself. He would definitely enjoy spending time with Naomi, as would Susie.

  Caleb turned to Riley, standing in the doorway to the family room. “May I see the barn?”

  “Sure.” Riley led him out through the small one-car garage toward the pasture.

  Stepping into the barn, an overwhelming calmness enveloped Caleb. He glanced around at the horse stalls, and he knew — this was the house. This was meant to be for him and Susie.

  This was the sign from God he’d been waiting for.

  Smiling, Caleb faced Riley in the doorway. “What’s your final price, Mr. Parker?”

  Later that afternoon, Caleb steered the buggy into Sadie’s driveway. After putting up the horse and buggy, he grabbed his armload of bags from his shopping trip and headed up the back steps. Entering the kitchen, he found Susie sitting at the table eating cookies with her cousins.

  “Dat!” she called when she spotted him. “Look at the cookies we made at Naomi’s today.” She held up a plate with assorted Christmas cookies. “Levina and Sylvia invited us over after school. We had fun.”

  “Oh my.” Dropping his bags on the floor, Caleb swiped a chocolate chip cookie from the plate and took a bite. “Appeditlich!” He finished the cookie in two big bites and then hung his coat on the peg by the door before kicking off his boots.

  Susie leaned over and examined the pile of bags. “What’s in there?”

  He picked up the bags and held them close to his body. “Nothing for you to be concerned about.” He backed out of the kitchen. “Enjoy your cookies, girls.”

  Caleb crossed the family room and into his parents’ former apartment where he’d been staying. He walked through the small sitting room to the bedroom and dropped the bags onto the bed. He then opened the closet to make room for the gifts. He was placing the bag from the bookstore onto the top shelf of the closet when a knock sounded on the door frame.

  Sadie stepped into the room with a curious expression. “How was your visit to the Parker place?”

  “Gut.” Caleb lowered himself onto the bed, and it creaked beneath his weight.

  “Oh?” She raised her eyebrows with curiosity.

  He crossed his arms over his wide chest. “I made an offer.”

  She gasped and clasped her hands together. “My bruder is moving back home!”

  He nodded and smiled. “I think so.”

  “Ach! This is wunderbaar gut!” Sadie gestured widely with an equally wide grin. “Our kinner will go to school together. We’ll worship together and also celebrate birthdays and holidays together! This is a dream come true. I’m so froh!”

  “Don’t get too excited just yet,” he said, standing. “I have to try to sell my farm and then it will take some time to get my business going here. I’m hoping I can make a smooth transition from Jonas’s shop to my own.”

  “Wait.” She held a hand up. “You shouldn’t open your own business just yet. You should work for Hezekiah Wagler until you have enough money to open your own business. That way you could —”

  “Sadie,” he began, his voice firm. “Stop trying to set me up with Irene Wagler.”

  “What are you implying, Caleb?” Her surprised expression was forced. “I’m not trying to set you up. I’m just looking after your finances.”

  He glowered at his older sister. “I can look after my own finances just fine, danki. I’m a grown man. I also will decide if and when I’m ready to court women.”

  She frowned, looking hurt by his words. “Caleb, I only have your best interests in mind. I want you to make the right decisions for you and Susie.”

  “I can make my own decisions, danki.” He spotted Susie crossing the sitting room and heading for the door, and he bit back the angry words that were bubbling forth from his throat.

  “Dat!” Susie bounded into the room. “Where did you go today? I thought you’d be home sooner.”

  “I told you,” he said, forcing a smile for his daughter’s sake. “I ran a few errands.”

  “Erran
ds?” Sadie asked.

  He nodded at Sadie and then glanced at Susie. “I just had a few things I needed to pick up at the store while I was out.”

  Susie looked curious. “Oh. Did you have a gut day?”

  “I did,” Caleb said. “Did you have a gut day?”

  Susie nodded. “I had lots of fun with my cousins.”

  “I’m going to go start supper.” Sadie stepped toward the door. “Did you tell Susie the exciting news?”

  Susie’s eyes rounded. “What news?”

  “It looks like we’re going to move here,” he said slowly. “I talked to a man about a house today.”

  “Yeah!” Susie wrapped her arms around Caleb’s neck, and he hugged her.

  Caleb glanced toward the doorway. Seeing that Sadie was gone, he breathed a sigh of relief. While he loved his sister, he grew weary of her constant interference. He hoped that moving closer to her wouldn’t be a mistake. However, in his heart, he knew this was the best plan for him and Susie. Besides, he could get to know Naomi better and see if his growing feelings for her would turn into something more permanent.

  And that was when Caleb realized the truth: he was planning this move for himself as much as for Susie. God wanted him to break free of the loneliness that had hung over him like a black cloud since Barbara’s death. Caleb believed he was entitled to find happiness again even though Barbara was gone.

  CHAPTER 11

  I can’t believe Christmas Eve is tomorrow,” Naomi said as she walked through the indoor flea market on Friday.

  “I know.” Lilly stopped and glanced at the candy concession stand. “I should get some candy for Hannah’s kinner.” She smiled at the clerk and began rattling off a list of candy.

  Lizzie Anne sidled up to Naomi and tapped her shoulder. “Are you okay?” she whispered. “You’ve been sort of quiet since Wednesday. Is everything all right?”

  Naomi held back a sigh. Her younger sister was quite intuitive. Naomi had been quiet since her discussion with her mother Wednesday night, after her shopping excursion with Caleb and the girls. And Naomi’s reticence was caused by the conflicting thoughts swirling through her head. Her mother had warned her not to allow Caleb to return to Ohio with her heart. While Naomi knew that the advice was sound, she feared that Caleb Schmucker already had possession of it.

  Naomi tried to smile, but her lips formed a grimace. “I have some things on my mind.”

  “Is something wrong?” Lizzie Anne asked, her brown eyes full of worry.

  “No,” Naomi said, glancing toward the counter, where Lilly stood talking to the candy clerk. “Everything is fine. I just have a lot to get done. I still have to make a batch of butterscotch cookies for Dat and then get all of the gifts together for the little ones.”

  Lizzie Anne tilted her chin in question. “Are you certain that’s it?”

  “Ya.” Naomi pulled her list from the pocket of her apron. “I need to pick up a few gifts for Mamm. She wants me to get some little gifts in case we go visiting tomorrow.”

  “For the Kauffmans, ya?”

  Naomi’s eyes snapped to her sister’s face. “The Kauffmans?”

  “Ya. We were invited to Sadie’s tomorrow night for the Kauffman Christmas Eve get-together,” Lizzie Anne said with a smile. “I have to pick up something special for Lindsay,” she said, referring to Rebecca Kauffman’s niece who lived with her. “You know she’s my best freind.”

  Nodding, Naomi had wondered when she would see Caleb again. Although the thought of seeing him again sent her stomach into a knot, she also couldn’t wait. She’d enjoyed the time spent baking and laughing with Susie and her sisters yesterday afternoon. She felt her attachment to the girl growing, but she also knew the attachment wasn’t limited to just the girl. She had deep, growing feelings for Susie’s father, and it both scared and excited her at the same time. And this feeling was nothing compared to what she’d believed she felt for Luke Troyer and Timothy Kauffman once. This attachment was more meaningful. The risk of heartbreak was high, but for some inexplicable reason, Naomi felt a willingness to take the risk.

  “Naomi?” a voice asked.

  Naomi turned and found Lilly studying her.

  “You okay?” her friend asked.

  “Funny,” Lizzie Anne began with a grin. “I just asked her the same question.”

  Naomi blew out a defeated sigh. “I feel like I’m on trial here.”

  Lilly took Naomi’s arm and pulled her through the knot of shoppers. “Let’s go get some fudge and talk.”

  “Fine.” Naomi gave in with a grimace. Getting fudge would bring back memories of her shopping day with Caleb. How ironic.

  After ordering the chocolate, they sat at a small table. Naomi felt her sister’s and her friend’s eyes studying her as she broke off a piece of milk chocolate fudge.

  “What’s going on?” Lilly asked between bites of her dark chocolate fudge. “You’re very distracted and quiet.”

  “That’s what I said,” Lizzie Anne said while wiping a piece of milk chocolate off her sleeve and balancing her slab of remaining fudge in her other hand.

  “I have a lot on my mind,” Naomi said with a shrug.

  “Such as?” Lilly prodded.

  Naomi knew neither of them would back down until she spilled her heart to them. It was time to confess her feelings, and she wasn’t certain she could put them into coherent words.

  “On Wednesday, I went shopping with Caleb Schmucker, Susie, Janie Kauffman, and my younger sisters,” Naomi said, keeping her eyes on her block of fudge. “In fact, we came here, so Susie could do some Christmas shopping for little gifts for her cousins and new friends.”

  “What?” Lilly’s voice nearly squeaked with shock. “Why didn’t you tell me this yesterday?”

  “I didn’t think to tell you.” Naomi felt wretched for telling a fib, but she continued, despite Lilly’s hurt expression. “That night, my mamm gave me a lecture on not giving my heart to Caleb because he’s a widower and also because he’s going to go back to Ohio. She said I’m just setting myself up to get hurt.”

  “Why would Mamm say that?” Lizzie Anne asked while wiping more stray crumbs off her sleeve. “Why does Mamm think you like Caleb?”

  “I don’t know.” Naomi’s cheeks heated. She wasn’t very good at lying.

  “Oh,” Lizzie Anne said with a wide smile. “You do like Caleb.”

  “Mamms have a way of knowing these things,” Lilly said, patting Lizzie Anne’s arm. “Sometimes they know before we do. It’s their job.” She then turned her gaze to Naomi. “How did shopping go? Did you have a gut time?”

  Naomi nodded. “We had a wunderbaar time. He’s so easy to talk to, and he’s so very sweet and thoughtful.” She frowned and shook her head. “I’m doomed. I never should’ve gone out with him.”

  “Why do you say that?” Lizzie Anne asked. She bit into the fudge, and the crumbs were finally under control. “It sounds like you’re gut freinden. Why can’t you be freinden with him? Susie obviously likes you. I’ve seen how she talks to you and follows you around.”

  “It’s more complicated than that,” Naomi said with a gentle smile. She ate more fudge and wished she could turn off her feelings for Caleb. But did she really want to turn them off? When she was with him, she felt a true happiness that she’d never felt before.

  “You’re not going to listen to your mamm are you?” Lilly asked before popping a final piece of fudge into her mouth.

  “I don’t know.” Naomi shrugged. “I don’t know what to do. My mamm is right about him leaving. He’s going to go back to Ohio, and where will that leave me? I’ll be right back where I was when Timothy and I broke up — alone and nursing a broken heart.”

  “Maybe not,” Lizzie Anne said. “Maybe he’ll want to court you, and he and Susie can move here.” She shrugged. “He may like you too, and he may want to be back by his family since Susie’s mamm is gone.” She looked between Lilly and Naomi. “It’s a possibility, right?”


  Lilly nodded. “You could be right.”

  Naomi shook her head. “That would be a big move for him.”

  “Or you could move to Ohio,” Lizzie Anne said. “I would hate to see you go, but we could visit.”

  Naomi shook her head. “I don’t know if I could leave Mamm, Dat, and all of you.”

  “It would be difficult, but my cousin did it,” Lilly said. “She misses her family, but she keeps in touch with letters and occasional phone calls.”

  “Lilly is right.” Lizzie Anne wiped her mouth. “If it feels right for you to go with him to Ohio, then you should think about it. You need to follow your heart, Naomi. That’s what you used to say.”

  “I was wrong,” Naomi whispered, thinking back on her failed relationships.

  “No, you were never wrong about following your heart,” Lilly chimed in with a knowing smile. “You simply did it at the wrong time. Don’t judge your future by your past. Things happen in God’s time.”

  “Ya!” Lizzie Anne snapped her fingers. “It’s like the verse Dat read last night during devotions. Remember? I think it went something like: ‘I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.’”

  Lilly grinned at Lizzie Anne. “You are one smart maedel.”

  Lizzie Anne smoothed the tie of her prayer covering. “Sometimes I have a gut thought or two.”

  Naomi smiled while finishing her fudge.

  “It’s like what you told me the other day,” Lilly said. “You said that in the past you were too eager and you didn’t wait for God’s time for love. Maybe now it’s God’s time.”

  Naomi nodded slowly while considering the words. “Maybe it is.” I hope you’re right, Lilly.

  Lilly wiped her hands and stood. “Let’s shop, ya?”

  Naomi tossed her dirty napkins in the trash can. “I have a store I want to go into.”

  Lizzie Anne chatted about the weather report and threat of more snow as they weaved through the crowd toward the antique store.