“You’re helping people in the community now. You deliver hay to them.” His father continued to re-braid the rope in his hands.
“I want to do more.”
“You don’t even know what it would take to run a bakery, much less what it would take to buy it,” Simon said, still not looking up from the table.
“I stopped at the bank today and I know what it will take to buy it.”
“So why are you telling me?”
Daniel knew what his father’s answer would be, but he had to ask anyway. “I have enough money for the initial payment, but I need someone to co-sign for the financing. I was hoping you would do that for me.”
“Nee. I need you here, delivering hay.”
“I’ll admit you need someone to deliver hay, but it doesn’t have to be me. There are several young men that could take over. Jacob Weaver, Abel Beiler, Henry Zook, any of them would be happy to work for you.”
“Nee,” he said again. “Matthew would never…”
“I’m not Matthew.” It came out harsher than he’d planned, but he was at the brink of losing his temper. “I know Matthew is a hard worker and I’m sorry that he moved away. What I’m really sorry about though, is that no matter what I have done or will do in the future, it will never be as good as what Matthew did or would have done.”
Simon just stared at him with narrowed eyes and furrowed brows.
Daniel continued, “but it doesn’t matter. I don’t care anymore. What does matter though is that you will need to find someone else to deliver hay for you, because after next Friday, I’m done.”
Daniel spun on his heel and left the barn, stalking into the house. Kathryn opened her mouth and closed it as he walked past her and down the hall.
A few minutes later, he heard the back door open and slam shut. His father’s loud voice could be heard from the kitchen. Daniel was pacing in his room. He was still angry but a certain level of relief was starting to wash over him. He didn’t know what he’d do about a co-signer, but he was confident that he’d figure it out. He also knew that he was extremely glad and relieved to be done with delivering hay. This was a new turning point in his life, and he was grateful for the change. He felt ready to meet the challenge ahead.
He heard his mother call him down for dinner. As hungry as he was, he wasn’t in the mood to deal with more harsh words or angry glares from his father. He was feeling frustrated and upset, and needed time to calm himself down.
“No thank you, Mamm. I’ll be downstairs for breakfast,” he called.
He changed into dry night clothes and climbed into bed. He tried to tune out his father’s angry voice while his mother tried to reason with him.
Gott, please work this situation out for Your gut. You know the desire of my heart, but if Your will is for me to own the bakery, please change Daed’s heart.
* * *
The next morning, he stayed in his room a little later than usual, trying to brace himself for the conversation to come. He heard someone walk down the hall and then heard his mother’s voice call, “Daniel, will you join us in the kitchen please?”
Daniel exhaled deeply and slowly made his way to the kitchen. His mother and father were sitting at the table.
“Go ahead and sit down,” Kathryn said motioning to the table.
He thought about telling his mother he’d rather stand but he wasn’t upset with her. He pulled out the chair at the head of the table across from where his father was sitting. It had been Matthew’s chair for as long as Daniel could remember, and no one but guests sat there now. It wasn’t a conscious decision on Daniel’s part, he just wanted as much distant between his father and him.
“Your daed and I have been talking,” Kathryn said and then looked over at Simon.
Simon cleared his voice. “This morning, we will go to the bank and I’ll co-sign the paperwork so that you can buy the bakery.”
Daniel looked at his father in shock and then at his mother who smiled, and then back to his father. He could hardly believe his ears. “Danke, Daed.”
Inwardly, he couldn’t help but to pray, danke, danke, Gott for changing Daed’s heart. Danke for showing me that this is Your will for my life.
* * *
The drive to town was quiet; both Daniel and his father were silent. Thankfully, the rain had let up and his father was soon directing the buggy into the carriage shed.
Daniel was surprised when Simon cleared his throat and began to speak. “I apologize about not being supportive of this idea when you came to me. I want you to know, you are hard working and responsible and I know that you will do everything you can to make this a success.”
“Danke. I appreciate you saying so, Daed.”
The next few hours went by in a blur. Daniel and his father first spoke with the banker, Robert Callahan. Then the owner of the bakery, Roy Eicher was called and when he arrived, they all met. A pile of papers were signed and Daniel was now the official owner of the bakery.
As they walked out of the bank, Daniel said, “Danke, again, Daed. I appreciate what you did for me.”
Simon nodded.
“Once we get back home, I’ll handle the few deliveries that we have for today. And while I’m at the Beiler farm, I’ll check with Abel to see if he’d like to work a few days a week.”
“Abel is a good choice. He’s a hard worker and pretty smart.”
* * *
Later on that day, Daniel was back in town to make a delivery. Roy Eicher had spotted him near the harness shop.
“Daniel, I’m glad to see you again! I want to congratulate you on your new venture!” Roy called as he came closer to Daniel. “Would you like to come over to the bakery? I could introduce you to everyone and your mother would probably love to give you a tour of the place.”
“Jah, I’d like that.”
“I think you will really like owning the bakery,” Roy told him as they walked along the town square. “I certainly enjoyed it but I live on the other side of the valley and I with the weather we get here it was just a little too far of a ride every day.”
With all of the deliveries Daniel had made in recent years he could definitely relate to that. “Jah, it makes it hard.”
After a few moments they reached the bakery.
“Come on back,” Roy said, then turned to motion to the employees. “Can everyone gather around for a few minutes? I have a quick announcement.”
“I’m sure you all know Daniel Hochstetler, Kathryn’s son. I’m pleased to announce that Daniel is the new owner of the bakery.”
Everyone started talking and congratulating Daniel.
Roy tapped Daniel on the shoulder. “Well, I’ll leave you be, and the others will be more than happy to show you around.” With that he quickly left.
“Danke. I’m very happy about this and looking forward to working with all of you. As you know, my mamm, and my shveshtah, Elizabeth, have worked here for years. Most of you have known me most of my life and I see that as a great gift. We may have some obstacles ahead, but I’m certain that with Gott’s grace and hard work, we will be successful.”
“Will you change the name from Eicher’s Bakery?” one of the employees asked.
“Yes, I think that would be a good idea.”
“What will you change it to?” Elizabeth asked.
He shook his head, because he hadn’t even thought that far ahead.
He looked over towards Naomi and she sent him wide smile. He still couldn’t get over how her smile brightened his day, like a ray of sunshine.
It just hit him and he before he could stop himself he announced, “What about The Sunshine Bakery.”
“That’s perfect,” Kathryn said, nodding.
“I really like that,” Naomi agreed.
“I do too,” Elizabeth agreed.
* * *
Naomi could hardly believe that Daniel had saved the bakery. She watched him talk to the others and thought about how he seemed to be the answer to all of their prayers. The
thought would have surprised her last week, but now she could see that this was Daniel, pure and simple. She was so proud of him for taking the leap to do something different.
A few moments later, she found him in the back of the bakery having just finished with a quick tour.
“How could you not tell me?” Naomi asked, enjoying the surprised look on his face.
Daniel shrugged. “I wasn’t even 100% sure I was going to buy it the last time I talked to you. Apparently my mamm knew though, but I was still overthinking it, as she says.”
“She does seem to know you pretty well,” Naomi said, then laughed.
“Jah, she does. I almost talked to you about considering it, but I knew you and others depended on your jobs here.” He looked around the bakery. “I was afraid to get anyone’s hopes up in case it didn’t work out.
“Daniel, you are so kind and thoughtful. I appreciate how much you think about other people’s feelings.”
He looked down at her and grinned sheepishly. Her heart fluttered and she took a breath and went on. “No wonder it’s so hard for you to make a decision; you are so concerned about how it will affect everyone else.”
“Jah, my mamm said the same thing.”
“Caring about others should never be seen as a bad trait. You are doing something wonderful here. I can’t wait to see it what happens next.”
* * *
Chapter 5
A week later, Daniel was sitting around a table in the bakery with his mother, Elizabeth, Naomi and Lucinda Yoder, a friend of Elizabeth’s. It had taken Roy several days to get his part of the business wrapped up, and the bakery was now completely in Daniel’s hands.
“I’m pleased that you are all here. Danke.”
“I’m so glad you asked for our help,” Naomi said, and the rest of them agreed.
“You all know Lucinda. She is joining us today and she might be coming to work with us full time.”
Lucinda smiled. “Happy to be here, I hope I can help.”
Daniel had paper and a pen in front of him. “I’d like to hear your ideas about adding to what the bakery offers. Right now, we can add a few things and look into adding more as we go.
Elizabeth spoke up. “I think we should go with your idea from the other day about adding a lunch menu.”
“I agree,” Kathryn added.
Daniel wrote a notation on his paper. “Perhaps two soups per day? We could offer rolls to go with the soup.”
“Great idea.” Naomi agreed.
Daniel looked to Lucinda. “Do you have any thoughts?”
“Soup is inexpensive to make and at this time of the year it would be an easy sell. I think by adding the rolls and perhaps some simple sandwiches you will have a very busy and successful lunch hour.”
“Great. Danke. Perhaps you and Elizabeth could team up to plan the lunch menu?”
Lucinda looked at Elizabeth who smiled and they both replied, “Jah.”
“Okay, any other ideas?”
Naomi leaned in. “I spoke with my friend Theo, the owner of the coffee shop. They ship in all of their baked goods. They end up having to freeze some of it to make it to the next shipment.”
“I didn’t realize that,” Kathryn told her.
Naomi paused before saying, “they would love to buy from us. They understand that right now we are limited but they feel that having a limited choice of fresh bakery goods is more important than having ten choices of not so fresh goods.”
Daniel was in shock. “Naomi, that’s great!”
“Jah, let me know and I can schedule a meeting with you and Theo.”
“I’ll let you know. Danke, Naomi.”
“Mamm, what did you find out about our weekly orders to the places out of town?”
“Everyone has been notified of the new ownership and they are happy to be staying with us.”
“More good news.” Daniel checked it off his list.
“The next thing on my list is the new sign. We can’t leave the Eicher’s sign out there, but right now a new sign isn’t in the budget. Any ideas?”
Naomi shyly raised her hand. “Marianna might be able to make a sign.”
Daniel looked at her curiously. “Your sister, Marianna?”
“Jah, she is really good at lettering,” Naomi explained. “Marianna does all of the signs for Diane’s gift shop and Laura’s quilt shop.”
Lucinda added, “she does the signs for my mother’s candle shop too.”
“Okay, that’s a start. Marianna can definitely work on lettering a sign. Other ideas for the sign?”
“I think it would be nice to have something that goes with the Sunshine idea.”
Naomi spoke up again. “She also does some painting, she has some good design ideas.
“How wonderful,” Katherine asked.
“Jah, she uses some quilt designs and paints them on tiles, and panels. She’s even painted some fabric wall hangings. She might be able to do one that would look like a sunburst.”
“That sounds good. What does everyone think?” Daniel looked around the table.
“Jah, I like the idea,” Elizabeth agreed.
“I’d really like to meet with Marianna to see if she’d like to paint our sign.”
“I’ll talk to her tonight.” Naomi smiled at him.
He stared at her for a long moment and then realized everyone was looking at him, and he quickly turned away.
“Uh…well this was great meeting. Danke. We’ll meet again next week and see how things are progressing.”
He looked over at his mother. “Let’s take another tour of the kitchen.”
As they walked through the kitchen, he asked, “is there anything specific I need to know about right now?”
One of the bakery employees approached them.
“Uh, Daniel?”
“Jah, Tyler, what is it?” he asked.
“This oven doesn’t seem to be working properly.”
“What do you mean it’s not working properly?” Daniel asked.
“It doesn’t heat up all of the way. It heats things but doesn’t bake very well, if at all.” Tyler was the son of one of the shop owners in town and had been working at the bakery for a few months.
Daniel was trying not to panic. He turned to his mother. “This is a bakery. We need the two ovens to bake.”
Kathryn nodded. “Jah, and a new oven would be costly.”
“This is not good news—terrible news, really. I can’t believe this is happening.” Daniel walked out the back door.
He paced in the area outside of the door. He started to wonder for a moment if buying the bakery was mistake.
Naomi was standing in the doorway. “Are you okay?”
“One of the ovens isn’t working. All of these people are depending on me. What am I going to do?”
“They’re depending on you, but Gott will help you. You know that, right?”
Daniel realized that she was right. “Jah, I’m figuring it out.”
“I have some good news, too. Theo at the coffee shop said he is free now if you are.”
Daniel looked around and shrugged. “Jah, I’ll be right there.”
He waited until she walked inside and he closed his eyes in silent prayer.
Dear Gott, I’m trying hard to follow your will. Help me to work everything out. I feel discouraged right now. I need some sort of sign that I’m following the right path.
* * *
Naomi and Daniel walked into the coffee shop to meet with Theo.
Naomi was so happy the bakery was staying open and she thought about how Daniel was doing such a great job so far. She knew there would be some setbacks, but they were all working together now.
“Hello, Theo,” Daniel said, shaking Theo’s hand.
“Congratulations, Daniel. I’m so happy to help get the bakery off to a good start. I’ve watched so many of you grow up,” Theo told them. “I had told Naomi that I’d be interested in ordering some bakery goods from you. Right now, I offer a
few different pastries and bagels.”
“How about muffins and cinnamon rolls instead of the pastries?” Naomi suggested.
“That would be a great idea,” Theo told her.
“Are they Kathryn’s cinnamon rolls?”
“Of course,” Daniel replied.
“Then absolutely yes!”
They all laughed.
“I’m looking forward to the first delivery. Let me do some calculations and I’ll call and let you know how much I’ll need.”
“Great! Danke. Please ask for Naomi, she’s in charge of our local orders.”
Naomi beamed. She was so happy to be helping and pleased that Daniel trusted her to take care of the orders.
They left the coffee shop, both of them with a smile on their face.
“This is a lot of work, but so much better than driving around in the cold weather.”
“Jah, I’m sure. I’m really excited about the new changes for the bakery.”
The phone was ringing when they walked back into the kitchen.
“I’ll get that,” Naomi called out and went into the office.
“Sunshine Bakery, this is Naomi.”
“Event? Absolutely. Let me put you on hold for a moment so I can grab the appointment book.”
Naomi put the phone down and took a second to look around the office. The appointment book was gone and there was nothing on the board or on the wall showing the order.
Naomi rushed out to the kitchen.“Kathryn! There’s a woman on the phone asking about an order for an event this weekend.”
Kathryn frowned. “I was afraid something like this would happen.”
Naomi followed Kathryn back to the office. Kathryn pulled open a drawer and pulled out a stack of papers.
She found a note that had the words, ‘the last weekend of January’ scribbled at the top.
Kathryn picked up the phone. “Hello? This is Kathryn.”
“Jah, the Sunshine bakery. We have new owners, but we are committed to great service and the freshest baked goods.”
“Of course, let’s go over your order just to confirm everything.”
“You wanted fifty loaves of wheat bread, fifteen loaves of cinnamon bread, twelve dozen dinner rolls, twelve dozen sandwich rolls and 25 dozen cinnamon rolls?”
AMISH ROMANCE: The Amish Bakery Boxed Set: 4-Book Clean Inspirational Box Set - Includes Bonus Book Page 3