“I borrowed Ethan’s buggy. Can I give you a ride home?”
“I’ll run and tell Daed.”
When she returned, Noah walked her to his buggy. She settled on the seat a foot from the man she wanted to marry. She could feel his warmth just inches from her. Noah reached across the expanse and took her hand in his, her heart beating faster by the moment.
She turned toward Noah as he shook the reins and turned the buggy down the drive and out onto the road.
Noah winked. “I was worried you wouldn’t say yes.” He guided the buggy to the side of the road and stopped. He pulled her into his arms, his face bathed in a smile so wunderbaar it stole her heart.
He lowered his lips to hers for a tender kiss. “I love you, Mary, with all my heart. I never want to let you out of my arms.”
“Ich liebe dich, I love you, Noah Miller.” She drew in a deep, shuddering breath as his lips touched hers once again. Jah, he was the man she wanted to marry, and she’d spend the rest of her life making him forget the Englisch ways.
Epilogue
One year later
After returning with Noah from their twenty-minute premarital talk with the ministers, Mary sat next to her attendants, sidesitters Amanda and Nettie. Heat burning her cheeks remembering the ministers’ words as they explained what it meant to be a frau and ehemann.
Her heart pulsed with an overwhelming love for Noah, sitting on the bench parallel to hers. His attendants Ethan and Jacob, sitting next to him. She’d always remember this moment, and how her love bubbled over for this man.
The three-hour service focused on marital relationship, the obstacles, the joys, and working together to raise a family. The bishop gave examples of biblical marriages and walking the road of a frau that were inspirational.
Her heart raced and her throat tightened as the time to take her vow drew near. She blotted her hands together.
“Mary, calm down. You look like you’re ready to faint,” Amanda whispered.
She winked at Amanda and her cousin Nettie. “I’m fine, just nervous.”
Bishop Yoder rose and walked to the front of her daed’s barn. “Noah and Mary, will you please join me?”
Mary rose and walked beside Noah to stand before the bishop.
“Will you join hands?” the bishop said with a soft voice.
“Are you willing to enter into wedlock as God ordained?” the bishop asked.
“Yes,” they replied in unison.
“Noah, do you believe Gott has ordained Mary to be your wedded frau?”
“Yes.”
“Mary, do you believe Gott has ordained Noah to be your wedded ehemann?”
Her throat grew dry and tight as tears teetered at the edges of her eyelids. “Yes.”
The bishop placed a warm palm over her and Noah’s clasped hands. The bishop’s voice was rich and reverent. “May the Gott of Abraham, the Gott of Isaac and the Gott of Jacob be with you and bless you abundantly through Jesus Christ. I now pronounce you ehemann and frau.”
After the service, Noah grabbed her hands and pulled her close. “Now you are all mine for the rest of our lives,” then he smiled. “But right now, my lovely frau, we must greet our guests.”
Jenny and Emily threw their arms around Mary. “Welcome to the family, Mary. You look lovely.” Jenny crushed her new sister-in-law to her then stepped back and let Emily hug Mary.
“We’re sisters now, Mary.” Emily beamed. “Jenny helped me make a cake for the Eck, the bridal table. It’s the tall vanilla one with lots of frosting.”
“Danki, I’m so proud of you. I will make sure I have a piece of it. I’m going to enjoy having sisters to talk to and share my secrets with.” Mary squeezed Emily again.
Jenny grabbed Emily’s hand and tugged her away. “We’ll go get our places and see you at dinner.”
As wedding guests started to drift toward the dinner tables, Noah leaned close to her ear and whispered, “Come, Mary. I have something to show you.” He tightened his grip on her hand, pulling her across the lawn over the driveway and toward his buggy.
“Stop, Noah! We can’t leave our own wedding.”
He laughed. “Mrs. Miller, I would sure like to, but instead, I have a wedding gift for you. Stand right here, close your eyes and hold your hands out. Wait just a minute.” There was a rustling sound from his buggy, and then something soft and heavy was laid in her arms. “Okay, open your eyes.”
Mary blinked and dropped her jaw. Tears filled her eyes. It was the quilt her real mamm had made her. “Where did you get it?”
“Sarah saw it sticking out of your bag after she told you they couldn’t afford to give you the thousand dollars for an espresso machine. She figured you took it to the consignment shop. It upset her. And when she stopped into my store to see what you were competing against, she told me.”
Mary wrapped her arms around him, squeezing the quilt between them. “Danki, Noah. You’ll never know how much my heart hurt that day or how much it is filled today knowing you are my ehemann.”
A man huffed and puffed as he ran toward them, his feet scuffing the stones on the driveway. Noah released his hold on Mary and turned.
“Oh, no you don’t. You’re not leaving your own wedding just yet.” Bishop Yoder heaved out the words with a lot of gasping and gulping.
Noah laughed. “Bishop, did you run across the yard? We’re not going to leave. I was giving Mary her wedding gift.”
The bishop plunged his hand in his waistband, pulled out a handkerchief and patted his forehead. “I didn’t want you escaping before the guests could actually see you two were married.”
Mary shook a finger at the old man. “Ach, Bishop Yoder, it’s a wonder we were ever married the way you were always trying to push me toward Seth.”
The bishop laid his right hand on his heart. “Mary, you know I only want what’s right for you. As you’ll recall, I only relayed Seth’s request to you. I never insisted you marry him. And what better way to get you to not marry Seth then to nudge you toward him? You are Sarah’s tochter for sure and for certain. She, too, always went her own way. Sometimes Gott takes away so He can give you something that’s right for you.”
“Mamm was right, Bishop.” Mary nodded. “You are an old softy.”
The bishop jerked his chin in the air. “No one will ever believe that, and don’t you repeat it. I have an image to uphold. So, Mary,” Bishop Yoder changed the subject, “what will you do with Sweet Delights now?”
She glanced at Noah, and he raised a brow. “Noah is going to continue to help his grossdaddi, and I’m going to combine Sweet Delights with Noah’s store, so to speak. We’ll sell all the baked goods at Sweet Delights. Sarah plans to run the bakery with me, so we’re combining the two families back into one bakery as it had been long ago. Did you see the sign that Noah hung in both our shops? ‘Food nourishes the body on its journey, but it’s love that gives the real taste to life.’”
The bishop nodded at Noah. “And will Jenny be joining the Amish as well?”
“Nein, Bishop, I don’t think so. Jenny wasn’t brought up in the Amish church and doesn’t have the same urge to live among a family she doesn’t know. She has picked a church that suits her. I was angry with God for taking our parents, and He was taking me on a journey to reconcile my heart back to Him.” Noah squeezed Mary’s hand. “And that led me straight to Mary.”
“Jah, and what did you learn on this journey?”
“That God doesn’t cause car accidents, men do. But God used the situation to bring my heart home to where it was meant to be.”
Bishop Yoder patted Noah on the back. “Jah, but you had to find the right path. Willkommen to our community.” He turned and headed back across the drive. “And don’t be too long, you two. You have the rest of your lives together.”
Noah pulled Mary back into his arms and
pressed a long-overdue, tender kiss against her lips. “I love you, Mary.”
“Ich liebe dich. I love you, Noah, with all my heart.”
* * *
If you loved this story,
check out more books from Marie E. Bast
The Amish Baker
The Amish Marriage Bargain
Available now from Love Inspired!
Find more great reads at
www.LoveInspired.com
Keep reading for an excerpt from Opening Her Heart by Deb Kastner.
Emily’s Peanut Butter Bars
Bars
½ cup butter or margarine, softened
½ cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg
⅓ cup peanut butter (chunky or smooth)
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
1 cup instant oatmeal
Frosting
1 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup powdered sugar
¼ cup peanut butter (smooth works best here)
2-4 tablespoons of evaporated milk
Cream butter and sugar, add egg, then peanut butter and mix. Stir in vanilla, baking soda and salt. Add flour and oatmeal one at a time.
Butter a 9x13 pan and spread batter evenly into pan. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees (do not overbake).
When bars are done, the edges should be a light golden brown. Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over hot bars. Let stand for
5 minutes.
After chocolate chips have melted, spread evenly with a knife. While the chips are melting, mix the powdered sugar and peanut butter, and add enough milk so it makes a thin spread. Drop tablespoons of the spread all around the bars, then swirl the peanut butter mixture through the melted chocolate chips for a marble effect.
Cut into bars when cooled.
Dear Reader,
Thank you for traveling over the Washington County, Iowa, roads again to meet the Brenneman family. In The Amish Baker, Mary Brenneman was thirteen and her brother Jacob was six when baker Sarah Gingerich came into their lives. Now grown, Mary manages the Sweet Delights bakery for her stepmother.
However, Mary must work to save the bakery from competition with Noah Miller, an Englischer who’s opened a grocery, delicatessen and bakery across the street. Although a strong-willed young woman, Mary meets her match when handsome, amber-eyed Noah Miller visits her bakery. While their professional lives clash, their constant contact brings them together in a relationship that could spell trouble, but God has a plan.
I love to hear from readers. Tell me what you enjoyed or what inspired you. Email me at [email protected], visit me at mariebast.blogspot.com; MarieBastAuthor.com; or facebook.com/marie.bast, or follow me on Twitter @MarieBast1.
Blessings,
Marie E. Bast
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Opening Her Heart
by Deb Kastner
Chapter One
“Avery? Earth to Avery...”
Thirty-five-year-old Avery Winslow snapped out of her thoughts and turned her gaze to her best friend Lisa Gibbons, who was dangling a set of keys in her hand right in front of Avery’s nose and grinning like the proverbial cat who’d eaten the canary.
Avery’s heart welled until she thought it might burst clear out of her chest. She had been waiting absolutely forever for this moment, and now it was finally here. She wanted to pinch herself just to make sure it was real.
Technically, forever had actually only been a few months, but she was one of those people for whom, when she decided to do something, she wanted it done now. It was time to put those dreams into practice. Christmas had just passed, and she was finally able to look after her own interests instead of just her family’s Christmas-tree farm.
“It’s perfect,” Avery murmured. “Don’t you think it’s perfect, Dandy?” she asked the black Lab mix at her heel. She always tried to take one of the service dogs in training from A New Leash on Love, her service dog ministry, with her whenever she went out, and today was no different.
Dandy sat and gestured with a paw.
“Good boy,” she said, slipping him a bit of bacon for exhibiting the proper behavior. To Lisa she said, “See? Even Dandy approves.”
Lisa grinned. “Did I tell you, or did I tell you? The moment I saw it, I knew you’d love it—and Dandy, too,” she said with a laugh. “Gotta get his opinion in there, of course.” She swept her arm toward the cabin in a big gesture that fit Lisa’s gregarious personality, and what made her such a great real estate agent. “Talk about it being worth the wait! The cabin won’t even be formally listed yet for another week, but I managed to speak to the owners and snag the keys so we can take a look inside,” she said in a singsong voice. “Get ready to be blown away. You aren’t going to believe this.”
“Was I impatient?”
“As if you have to ask,” Lisa said with a snort. “You’re pushy, too, by the way. It’s a good thing you picked me to be your real estate agent and not someone else. They’d never understand your motivation the way I do. This is by far the biggest passion project I’ve ever seen you take on. You’re usually too buried in the family businesses’ financials to lift up your head and see the world. You think in spreadsheets.”
“Just tell me what I need to know,” Avery insisted, ignoring Lisa’s jibes. They’d been best friends since kindergarten in Whispering Pines, Colorado, and even though they were now adults and Lisa had a family of her own, they still managed to get together for coffee at least once a month.
So, of course it made perfect sense to hire Lisa as her real estate agent when the timing was right for Avery to set her plans in motion.
As they approached the front door, Lisa supplied more information. “You already know the Meyer family from church. They built this cabin when their brood started growing, and they’ve lived here ever since.”
While Avery was familiar with the Meyers, she’d never visited them at their home. She knew they had five children and were faithful Christians.
“The kids all grew up and moved away,” Lisa continued, “and the place is obviously too big for just the aging couple. Six bedrooms and four baths, plus a separate mother-in-law suite. Tell me it’s not perfect for what you have in mind. It couldn’t get better than that if I’d planned it that way.”
Avery examined the outside of the cabin. Tucked into the woods so it was nice and solitary, the peace surrounding the place was tangible. It was only a fifteen-minute drive to the center of town and ten to Winslow’s Woodlands and the dog rescue, A New Leash on Love, which was the real key to the cabin’s location.
“I adore the gorgeous wraparound porch.” She was in love. And she was already making lists in her head—changes she wanted to make, tools and materials she’d need to purchase. Names of contractors to do the work for her.
Organize and Prioritize. That was her motto. “If I add a porch swing in that corner and some outdoor furniture, along with—”
She’d been about to share her thoughts about year-round landscaping and a vegetable garden, as well as a playground for visiting children, but at that moment, the roar of a car’s engine overtook the sound of her voice.
What on earth?
Suddenly, a shiny red Mustang came around the curve of the driveway at a speed far too fast for the dirt road, and when the vehicle slammed to a stop, it fishtailed and nearly hit the side of Avery’s blue SUV.
Avery gaped, bu
t no sound came from her throat.
Seriously?
Who drove that way, especially on unpaved mountain roads?
“I thought you said the owners wouldn’t be here this afternoon,” she managed to squeak out.
“They aren’t. I can assure you that person is not one of the owners,” Lisa said, annoyance lining her tone. “As you well know, the Meyers are a lovely older couple who are moving to Arizona for retirement. And that—”
The man unfolded himself from the driver’s seat and stood to his full over-six-foot height, let out a whoop of pure pleasure and waved his black cowboy hat in the air before combing his fingers back through his thick, dark hair and settling the hat on his head. He straightened it as if he were looking at his reflection in a mirror and wanted his image to be just so.
Lisa croaked something else out, but it was entirely inaudible.
Two things struck Avery simultaneously. First, the man who’d exited the vehicle was most definitely not even close to retirement age, and second, she’d never seen him before in her life.
It wasn’t so much that they didn’t have strangers occasionally visiting Whispering Pines. Avery’s own family brought in customers from all over Colorado who wanted the full Christmas-tree-cutting experience or who sought to purchase specialized landscaping during the rest of the year. People needed evergreen bushes or aspen trees, and Winslow’s Woodlands offered a little bit of everything. They were known for being the best.
So, yes, there were often strangers in town.
But this man?
He was as out of place as a blue spruce in an orange grove. And he was on land she intended to purchase—before anyone else was supposed to know about it.
Yes, he sported a cowboy hat and boots similar to those that the men around the Pines wore, but his suit, complete with obsidian cuff links that he highlighted with an annoyingly obvious adjustment, was way over the top for a quiet mountain town. Their lawyers and judges didn’t wear such obnoxiously expensive suits. The whole getup probably cost more than Avery made in a year, and his new boots gleamed from a fresh polish.
The Amish Baker's Rival Page 18
