Instant Family

by Donna Gartshore

  “Tree! Look!” Al said.

  Ben looked out the window again and hoped for an answer, but it wasn’t there.

  “Yes, Dad,” he said again. “Rae drew you a nice picture of trees.”

  * * *

  Frankie spent the day walking and thinking. She had found that she couldn’t stand the thought of staying in her cabin knowing that Ben was across the way getting ready to leave. Off and on in her head, she tried to practice how she would tell Rae, and concluded again that a straightforward approach was best and that Rae would cope the way she always had. She was truly grateful for the emotional healing that God had brought into her daughter’s life this summer, and she prayed it would continue.

  She also thanked God for the healing He had brought into her own life, and, although she was hurt over Ben’s decision, she found herself thinking of all the ways that he had helped her and Rae and been there for them over the summer. To her surprise, she found herself not dwelling on her own disappointment as much as trying to think of a way to help soothe the pain that Ben carried within him.

  Is this what it means to love again, Lord? To put the needs of someone else above my own? Your word says that there is more joy in giving than there is in receiving, but how? How can I get through to him?

  But the biggest question of all was if she was willing to risk her heart again to do so.

  At the scheduled time she met Rae at the library and as they walked slowly back to the cabins, she told her about what had happened with Al that day and how Ben felt that he had to take his dad home.

  Rae was pensive. “They won’t leave without saying goodbye, right?”

  “No, they especially want to say goodbye to you.”

  They ate what they called “breakfast for supper,” which was one of Rae’s favourites, but she was very subdued and didn’t even ask for more syrup to dip her bacon in.

  “Can we go now?” she asked as soon as they were done eating. “Please, can the dishes just wait?”

  “We might as well,” Frankie said.

  She was wrought with nerves and emotion as they tapped on the cabin door, and when Ben swung it open, his face seemed to reflect her feelings.

  Rae glanced at Ben with an unreadable face and made a beeline to Al and his picture.

  “Will you sit?” Ben asked, sounding like his throat hurt.

  Frankie sat.

  “Coffee? Or anything?” he asked.

  “No, thank you, we just had supper.”

  Frankie gripped the sides of her chair. If they were going to part ways on such a formal note, she didn’t know how she’d be able to live with it.

  “I’ve been thinking all day,” she blurted out. “I’ve hardly done anything but walk around and think, and I know I care for you, too. I just don’t know if there’s any point to it.”

  Hope and defeat wrestled on Ben’s face. “You care for me?” Then defeat won out. “But it doesn’t change anything. Maybe if I knew Dad had forgiven me, I could forgive myself, but, as it is, I just don’t know what to do other than to keep doing what I’m doing. It wouldn’t be fair to you, or to Rae.”

  Lord, help me find the words, Frankie prayed almost desperately. Help me to give the right answer.

  “Mom, come look,” Rae said. “Al loves the picture I gave to him.”

  “That’s great, Sweet Pea. It’s a really great picture.”

  “He likes the trees,” Ben said. “He keeps talking about them.”

  “I think he really wants you to come and look, Mom,” Rae said. “He keeps pointing at one of the trees.”

  Slowly Al raised his head from the picture and looked directly at Frankie. And, in one of those rare, inexplicable times of clarity, the fog of the disease fell away and his eyes probed hers directly.

  “He loves...” Al said. “I loved...” Then his face clouded over once more, and he began to pat the picture again.

  Frankie’s heart sped up. From the look on Ben’s face, she could tell he had noticed the brief, strange connection, too. He went and peered over his father’s shoulder to see exactly what he was looking at.

  “So, that’s why he keeps talking about the tree,” Ben murmured. “I’d almost forgotten that Dad proposed to Mom here at Silver Lake, under a tree. It’s a big part of our family lore. You know...” he said, as if a thought was slowly dawning, “even if they’d known what was coming their way, I don’t think they would have traded a second of the time they had together.”

  Suddenly, Frankie knew what to say to him.

  “You can know that your father forgives you, Ben,” she declared. “You do know it.”

  “I do? How can I?”

  “Because you know what the Bible says about forgiveness, and you know the man your father was and what the Bible meant to him. Think about it, Ben! You know, if you just stop being angry with yourself for a moment and really think about it, you already know the answer.”

  Ben’s hands gripped hers and he sought her eyes for answers.

  “I don’t want to give up on us, Frankie,” he said. She watched as her words caused his face to strengthen with new resolve. “I really don’t.”

  Frankie thought about all the things that God had taught her this summer. Now it was clear that the greatest lesson of all was that there was no love without risk.

  “Then don’t give up,” she said. “I don’t want to give up, either. We can help each other and God will help us both. Besides, I want to hear the story of the proposal under the tree.”

  Ben’s face lit with surprise and renewed hope and what she wholly trusted was love.

  “You would?” he asked.

  “Of course,” Frankie said. “Since I’m falling in love with you, I’d like to know more of your family history.”

  “I love you, too, Frankie.”

  His voice was a whisper that held a thousand wishes and promises.

  Epilogue

  Frankie stood at the back of the church at Camp Kindle. Her hands smoothed her ivory silk wedding dress. Its lines were simple and elegant. Silk rosebuds, the peachy-pink color of the sky at dawn, adorned the narrow shoulder straps, with a slightly larger one at her waist.

  Eleven-year-old Rae twirled, making the skirt of her light purple dress flare out. She had grown two inches in the last year and had surrendered her braids to a shoulder-length bob that swayed and bounced when she walked.

  Frankie’s eyes misted at the thought of how Rae was growing up. Then again it didn’t take much to fill her eyes with happy tears these days.

  It had been quite a year: a year of moves, as Ben and Al came to live in Regina. A year of adjustments, some very painful and difficult, like getting Al settled into the care home where Frankie worked; some painful in a different way, as Rae came to accept Ben as a permanent part of their lives. A year of new challenges, as Frankie enrolled in her nursing classes, and a year of accomplishments, as Danny sent emails to update them on how he was doing and how much he liked visiting the seniors in the Saskatoon nursing homes.

  And, through it all, with God’s help, she and Ben had learned that they didn’t have to be ashamed of their weaknesses, which could turn into strengths when they faced them together and supported each other. And when they relied on God’s unending strength.

  “Doesn’t Al look nice?” Rae whispered. “I tied his bow tie for him.” She scanned the guests and announced, “I see Danny.”

  Then the melodic strains of music began. Rae gave a happy little gasp and smoothed her dress. Frankie took her father’s arm and prepared to marry her best friend. She felt like she was going to float away with love and joy. Her heart swelled with a deep thankfulness to God, who had taken what they felt would drive them apart and redesigned it to bring them together.

  When she reached Ben, she took his dear, warm, familiar hand and saw all the love and promises he held i
n his eyes and answered back with her own. And, as they said their vows, she thought of all the challenges they would face with God’s help and of all the rewards they would reap—together.

  * * * * *

  If you enjoyed INSTANT FAMILY,

  look for these other emotionally gripping and

  wonderful stories:

  SECOND CHANCE RANCHER

  by Brenda Minton

  THE BACHELOR’S UNEXPECTED FAMILY

  by Lisa Carter

  A BABY FOR THE DOCTOR

  by Stephanie Dees

  Available now from Love Inspired!

  Find more great reads at www.LoveInspired.com

  Keep reading for an excerpt from AN AMISH ARRANGEMENT by Jo Ann Brown.

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  Dear Reader,

  I’m so excited to share my debut novel with you! Thank you for coming on this journey with Ben and Frankie.

  It meant a lot to me to write this book for a few different reasons. My father suffered with Alzheimer’s disease before he passed away and, like Ben says, I missed the person he had been long before he actually died. He wasn’t a pastor like Ben’s father, but was a journalist who taught me my love of books and writing and always encouraged me to write. Many of Al’s behaviors are modeled on my dad’s, but I know that it’s a complex disease that can affect people in many different ways.

  I am also a single mom like Frankie—my husband passed away of heart disease several years ago. In writing about Ben, I thought about my husband’s kind heart, sense of humor and work ethic.

  More than anything, though, I wanted to write a book about second chances. Of course, I thought a great deal about my dad and my husband, and sometimes had a few tears, but more than anything I thought of the many blessings that I’ve been given as life has continued on—my daughter, my family, my friends, my writing community and, now, readers like you.

  Life has unexpected turns, but I believe in God and I still believe in happy endings!

  I’m active on social media. Find me on Twitter at @gartshoredonna and on Facebook at facebook.com/dlgartshore. Feel free to email me at deelynn1000@hotmail.com. Come find me—I love to talk about books and writing and hear what people’s goals and dreams are.

  Thanks again!

  Donna

  We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Love Inspired story.

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  An Amish Arrangement

  by Jo Ann Brown

  Chapter One

  Harmony Creek Hollow, New York

  The day had started out as Jeremiah Stoltzfus had planned.

  It didn’t stay that way after a woman dropped into his arms.

  For most men, playing the hero for a beautiful woman would have been a dream come true. But most men didn’t discover that woman trespassing on a tumbledown farm in northern New York. A farm Jeremiah couldn’t wait to call his own.

  He’d been invited by the current owner to visit when he reached Harmony Creek. In a couple of days the farm would be his.

  At dawn Jeremiah had left his family’s home in Paradise Springs, Pennsylvania. He was joining others to build a new Amish settlement near the Vermont border. He’d made arrangements during the past few months, purchasing the farm based on a few photographs sent by his Realtor. After saying goodbye to his mamm, brothers and sisters along with their spouses and kinder and knowing it was unlikely he’d see them again for a year, he’d taken a train north to Albany. There, he was met by a van, which drove him the last fifty miles to Harmony Creek Hollow.

  The valley edging the creek was set outside the tiny town of Salem. Rolling hills covered with trees and meadows would support dairy farms for the Amish families moving into the area.

  The owner of the sixty-acre farm he was buying, Rudy Bamberger, had invited him to stop by before the closing in two days. Jeremiah suspected the old man wanted to size him up first.

  Rudy had already asked him a lot of questions through Kitty Vasic, Jeremiah’s Realtor. Personal questions that Kitty told Jeremiah he didn’t have to answer. However, Jeremiah had no problem with the questions, because the old man had been selling his family’s farm. Jeremiah had written a long letter, explaining his background and his plans for the farm and his future. His answers must have satisfied Rudy, because the old man accepted his offer on the farm the next day.

  When he’d arrived, Jeremiah had carried his two bags as he crossed the snowy yard past neglected barns. No tracks had been visible. Nothing had gone in or out of the big barn since the last snowstorm. Allowing himself a quick glance at the other outbuildings, which needed, as he’d known, a lot of repairs, he’d walked through the freshly fallen snow to the main house.

  The large rambling home had a porch running along the front and the side facing the barn. Through a stand of spruce trees, he could see another house, where a tenant family once would have lived. The few remaining shutters hung awkwardly at the windows, a sure sign the house was a fixer-upper, too.

  He looked forward to beginning—and finishing—the tasks ahead of him as he made the farm viable again. His skills as a woodworker would be useful while renovating the barns and the sap house near the sugar bush farther up the hill.

  Climbing onto the porch, he’d set down his bags before he knocked snow off his well-worn work boots. He’d gone directly to the side door. Rudy had told him to use that door when he arrived.

  “Don’t knock,” the most recent letter had instructed him. “My ears don’t work like they used to, and I don’t want you standing in the cold while you bang and bang. Come in and give a shout.”

  He’d thrown the door open. “Rudy, are you here?”

  A shriek had come from close to the ceiling. He’d looked up to see a ladder wobbling. A dark-haired woman stood at the very top, her arms windmilling.

  He leaped into the small room as she fell. After years of being tossed shocks of corn and hay bales, he caught her easily. He jumped out of the way, holding her to him as the ladder crashed to the linoleum floor. His black wool hat tumbled off his head and rolled toward the wall.

  “Oh, my!” gasped the woman.

  She was, he noted because her face was close to his, very pretty. Her pleated kapp was flat unlike the heart-shaped ones his sisters wore. Beneath it, her hair was so black it gleamed with bluish fire in the fading sunlight coming through the door and tall windows. Her brown eyes were large with shock in her warmly tanned face, where a few freckles emphasized her high cheekbones. She wore a pale pink dress with white and green flowers scattered across it in a subtle pattern. No Amish woman from Paradise Springs would use such fabric. It must be allowed in the new settlement along Harmony Creek. What els
e would be different here?

  But first things first.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, not surprised she wasn’t the only one who sounded breathless. His heart had slammed against his chest when he saw her teetering. And from the moment he’d looked into her lustrous eyes, taking a deep breath had seemed impossible.

  “I’m fine. I had just a little farther to go. Just a little...” Her voice trailed away as the shuddering ladder, which had landed on its side, clattered to the floor.

  Jeremiah frowned. There was nothing on the wall to prevent her from falling. He saw the ruined wallpaper and chipped crown molding along with scraps of paper she’d already pulled off were piled on the floor. Why was she tearing off wallpaper in Rudy’s house?

  “Who are you?” he asked at the same time she did.

  “I’m Jeremiah Stoltzfus,” he answered. “You are...?”

  “Mercy Bamberger.” Her face shifted into a polite smile, and he guessed she’d collected her wits that had been scattered by fear. “Thanks for catching me.”

  “Why are you here?”

  Instead of answering, she said, “You can put me down.”

  Jeremiah was astonished his curiosity about why she was in what would be his house had let him forget—for a second—that he was still cradling her in his arms. He set her on her feet, but caught her by the elbow when she trembled like a slim branch in a thunderstorm.

  Hearing uneven thumps upstairs and hoping they heralded Rudy’s arrival, he steered her to the left. There, a staircase was half-hidden behind a partially closed door. Seating her on the bottom step, he picked up his hat as he asked, “Are you all right?”

  “I am.”

  He didn’t believe her, because her skin had a gray tint and her voice quivered. He wouldn’t push her, because he guessed she was embarrassed by the circumstances. But one question remained: What was Mercy Bamberger doing in his house?