The Ultimate Amish Romance Boxed Set Collection (1-8)

by Becca Fisher

  "Yup, big game against the Vipers," Adam said, pretty proud of his gift. A little too proud.

  "Oh, but they’re for tomorrow though," Hank replied, deflated.

  "Is something the matter?"

  JR entered the doorway with a basket of apples and hard cider.

  "There you are Boss. I didn’t want to leave without giving this to you," JR brown nosed.

  "You got him apples?" Adam cracked, convinced he'd finally upstaged the little punk.

  "Tomorrow I’m competing in the charity bobbing contest at the La Quinta Apple Festival," Hank said, far more enthusiastic about JR's gift than Adam's.

  "By the way, good luck Sir," JR rubbed it in.

  Hank added insult to injury. "JR, maybe you’d like these."

  JR looked at the tickets. "Three hundred level. Big spender, aren’t you Adam?" JR mocked.

  Adam defended himself. "Hey, those weren’t cheap."

  Hank meanwhile was focused elsewhere. "My wife is going to love this basket. Thanks JR."

  Hank moved off with the basket as Adam stewed with frustration.

  "Thanks for the cheap seats, Smith. Think I’ll scalp them for lunch money."

  *********

  Adam meanwhile had a lunch date with a stethoscope.

  "God, you look awful," Doctor Carpenter said, not impressed by Adam's recent check up. But James Carpenter was not one to mix words, especially when it came to one of his oldest patients health.

  "Nice to see you too doctor," Adam cracked.

  "For the last time, call me JC." The Doctor continued his exam. "Have you gained weight too?"

  "Just four or five pounds," Adam rationalized. "I’m still in good shape for my age though. And compared to the rest of the country--"

  "The rest of the country doesn’t have a heart defect. Adam, you can’t just be in good shape. You have to stay in great shape."

  "Ok, I got it. Now what can you tell me about my ribs?"

  "Your rib isn’t broken. Matter of fact, there’s nothing wrong with your ribs. It’s your heart again. We’re going to have to up the dosage on your medication."

  "Speaking of that. Is there another brand we can go with? A generic maybe?" Adam pleaded.

  "Generic?" Doctor Carpenter repeated, bursting into laughter. "How are the pharmaceutical companies supposed to gouge us with a generic? Why don't insurance companies just lower your rates while they're at it?"

  Doctor Carpenter was too busy cracking up to notice Adam's hard stare. "But seriously," the Doctor continued. "You have to relax. Take a vacation. Maybe put in less hours at work."

  "Now you must be kidding."

  "Adam, your heart is like a active volcano. You have to start taking it easy, or one day it will just erupt."

  "Great. I’m sure my boss will be happy to let me kick up my heels and relax."

  "He’ll like it better than hearing about your funeral."

  Four

  "What have you done to make the world a better place?" a sandal-happy granola cruncher asked, looking like he'd stepped straight out of the 1960's.

  But Julie didn't need a door to door reminder of how wayward her life had drifted.

  "Now's your chance to make a difference, change the world," the bearded twenty-something continued, on a mission.

  Julie was floored. Not by the tie-dyed sales pitch to save the rainforest, but by the mere fact that a guy going door to door with a clipboard and a script made her take stock of her life.

  But the fact was, Julie hadn't done anything to make a world a better place. I mean sure she'd thrown some spare change into a few donation plates, dropped off a can or two of non perishable goods into the local holiday drive, but that was nothing to brag to God about. In the big picture, she'd drawn a blank. She was too busy trying to figure out what to do with her own life to think about how to help anyone else’s.

  Then almost on cue, the universe threw Julie a bone. Animal Control had been lurking in the neighborhood since wrangling the boa constrictor the day before. But as an Officer caged a stray dog from the neighborhood, Julie immediately knew what was missing from her life.

  *********

  "I know they look a little rough around the edges," a Shelter worker explained. "But if you give them a chance, they'll be the best thing that's ever happened to you."

  Julie looked on at the helpless animals desperate to be adopted. Their entire lives fit into a 4x6 cage just because people thought they were expendable. A burden. So they sat there day after day, desperate for someone to take a chance on them--craving nothing more than a home.

  "It's an amazing feeling knowing you've made a difference in an animals life," the Worker continued.

  "Polish off that employee of the month trophy," Julie remarked.

  "Actually, I'm only a volunteer," Shelter Worker said. "I'm just here because I love animals."

  Suddenly Julie knew what she had to do.

  *********

  The last thing Adam needed to come home to was a picket fence hanging from it's hinge. Just another repair that would have to wait. But as two dogs greeted Adam at the front door, he knew the surprises weren't over.

  "Why is there a basset hound in my living room?" Adam asked, entering the kitchen.

  "Isn't Mr. Floppy adorable?" Julie remarked, bursting with energy for a change.

  "But why does he have to be adorable in my living room?" Adam insisted.

  "Who's ready for dinner?" Eve asked, trying to change the subject.

  "He's a good dog. Just a little lost. He just needed some attention. Some affection. Someone to believe in him," Julie explained.

  "You can't just bring a dog home out of nowhere," Adam insisted.

  "Isn't that what you did with Petunia?" Julie countered.

  "I wasn't living with my parents at the time," Adam fired back.

  "Dad, I finally found something that makes me happy. Besides, you're always telling me to put my degree to good use."

  "Yeah, making money. Not adopting strays."

  But Adam didn't get it. Where he just saw a four legged problem, Julie saw her chance to do more for the world than charge them an eighty dollar renewal fee for their sedan. Helping animals had always brought meaning to Julie's life. But she realized she didn't need to become a vet to make a difference. Sometimes donating time and attention was enough. It was strange how the universe worked. Remarkably enough, it took a bunch of lost animals for Julie to find out what was most important to her.

  So Julie just smiled at her father and said "there's more important things than money."

  Adam could have lectured his daughter about mortgages, air conditioning bills, and the cost of raising three kids. But the universe seemed content to let Julie have her epiphany.

  Adam meanwhile was faced with another calamity.

  "Adam, we have to talk," Eve urged, emerging from the hallway. "It's urgent."

  *********

  "How can you possibly explain this?" Adam snapped, holding a joint up in front of his defiant son.

  But Paul barely looked up from his sketchbook.

  "Why is mom snooping in my drawers anyway? What ever happened to privacy around here?" Paul replied.

  "She wasn't snooping. She was putting away your laundry. But let me tell you, this is the last you're ever going to see of privacy in this house. What are you even thinking?"

  "It makes me feel good, alright?"

  "Feel good? Is this what feeling good is all about?" Adam cracked, looking at Paul's gloomy bedroom. "Vampires are more cheery than this. I don't get it."

  "It takes the pain away," Paul said, without a hint of irony. "Besides, they give out prescriptions for pot."

  "Yeah, for people with cancer and debilitating pain. Not punk teenagers," Adam countered, in a fury. "What happened to you? You used to have so much ambition, so much potential. Now you don't even have common sense."

  "You don't understand."

  Adam started muttering to himself. "I knew I should have forced you to
go to Church Camp again this year."

  "I'm never setting foot at that camp again," Paul insisted.

  "Of course. Why do something enriching when you can toke up all day," Adam fired back.

  "Are you kidding? The reason I toke up is because of that camp."

  Adam shook his head. "I swear, it's like I'm talking to a stranger. I don't even know what goes through your head half the time. All you seem to care about is that girl in that sketchbook of yours."

  Adam grabbed for the sketchbook out of frustration. Paul pulled the sketchbook back.

  "Keep your hands away from Mary," Paul warned.

  "You named the girl in your sketchbook?" Adam replied, confused.

  "Mary is the kindest, happiest, biggest Jesus freak I've ever met," Paul proclaimed. "Was," he continued, correcting himself. "The only thing she loved more than that camp was Jesus. But God just let her die. He didn't even let her make it to her fourteenth birthday. But she still loved Jesus right to the end, even after the leukemia had taken over. I won't make that mistake."

  Adam's face sunk. "Oh Paul, I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

  "I refuse to believe in a God that cold. That cruel."

  Adam stared at Paul. For a chance, he didn't see just some lazy kid. He saw past the jumble of hormones. All he saw was an all too familiar misplaced rage.

  Adam calmed his voice and opened up. "When my mother died, I almost lost all my faith. I didn't know how someone so sweet and generous could be taken so young. I couldn't make sense why it was happening. It seemed like the universe was just punishing me."

  "So why do you believe in a God that would do that to you?" Paul argued.

  "Because I realized the universe wasn't punishing me, but rewarding my mother. Has it ever occurred to you that maybe God decided she'd already learned her lessons and didn't need to stick around and struggle any longer? That she was ready for heaven a little earlier than expected. And that she gets to spend the rest of eternity inside the pearly gates."

  For once, Paul's head wasn't lost in his sketchbook. Instead it was in the clouds. Contemplating the mysteries of the universe. Thinking that maybe his old man could actually be right about something. But Paul still had his doubts.

  "If that's true, then what does it say about us that we're still here?" Paul asked.

  "It says that we still have work to do to earn our place in heaven. But I'm going to do everything in my power to get there. And you can too."

  Paul had no wise cracks to that. No snark. No sneer. He just stared, deep in thought--wondering if his questions had produced an unexpected answer.

  *********

  Eve was spending a lot of time stuck in her thoughts. Wondering how different her life could have been. How it should have been. And asking herself what if.

  The memories of her Amish upbringing were no longer relegated to the background. She had visions of her family in Lancaster County. Living plain and simply. Rose colored dreams of an uncomplicated life. They were Eve's dreams, but she wondered if they could have ever been a reality had she never left home. Would drama had courted her life so completely if she hadn't have ran off to California? Eve would never know for sure, but she had her hunches.

  Soon Eve found Adam joining her. But Eve was only ready to share half of her thoughts with her husband. She wasn't sure he could handle her regret. So Eve just stuck to self preservation.

  "You know, sometimes I just sit here and wonder what could have been," Eve said, full of regret.

  And suddenly Adam realized he'd become the resident fire marshal. A lot of people had their dreams put in neutral during a recession, but most people didn't have to stare failure in the face so literally.

  Right off of their kitchen though, Adam and Eve had the beginnings of what was meant to be a great room. Instead it was just a of dust, two by fours, and tarp. And it was right there amidst their broken dreams where Eve decided to have her breakdown.

  "Rough day on the job market?" Adam asked, dealing with back to back blues.

  "It's official. We are utterly sunk unless your mother moves in," Eve lamented.

  "What about Costa Rica?" Adam insisted, ready for a permanent tropical vacation.

  "We'll have to pack up her stuff at assisted living this weekend," Eve continued, completely ignoring Adam's suggestion.

  "Eve, don't give up on Costa Rica. The community I found is called Paradiso--paradise."

  "We thought Eden was paradise once too," Eve fired back. "And now look."

  But Adam didn't want to look at his not so great room. He just wanted to find a way make his life great again.

  "Sometimes you just need to escape," Adam explained.

  "Escape what? Our life? Our family? Our friends?"

  "I meant to start over fresh."

  "I think the last thing we need to do is start something new. I think it's time to finish what we've already started," Eve said, with conviction. "We can't just run away from our problems. We've spent twenty five years building our life in the desert. Stop pretending like it's all been a mirage."

  "I'm just saying that Costa Rica could be the oasis we've been looking for."

  "Face facts Adam. Paradise is just a dream." Eve nudged her head towards their unfinished dream room. "This is our reality. Your mother moves in on Monday."

  Five

  Eve couldn't wait to get out of the house. Sure Adam's mother had brought financial stability, but she was also another soul in an already crowded house. And though she never mentioned it, her necessary presence was just a visual reminder of Adam and Eve's failures.

  Eve had more pressing worries of her own though. The job market seemed to have no interest in her. So Eve did the unthinkable.

  "Talk about irony," Samantha said, too smug for comfort. As the owner of Samantha's Jobz Zone, Samantha had been Eve's chief rival. But it seemed after weeks of failed job hunting, she'd become Eve's last resort.

  "Actually, irony is the last thing I want to talk about," Eve insisted.

  Samantha skipped over Eve's resume and instead continued to prattle. "I’m just saying, you were my main competition for fifteen years, and now here you are looking for a job. You have to admit it is pretty funny."

  "More like terrifying. Look, it wasn’t exactly easy coming in here--"

  Eve knew she couldn't expect grace from Samantha. She just hoped there would be more professional courtesy. Eve was wrong.

  "You didn’t exactly take it easy on us all those years," Samantha added. "Uh oh, looks like karma just bit you on the butt."

  "You know what? I think I made a mistake," Eve said, tired of the brow beating.

  "Pride’s not going to pay your mortgage," Samantha said.

  "What?"

  "You’re obviously desperate. I know this had to be your last resort. So if you can swallow your pride, we should be able to find you something. We are the employment experts after all."

  Eve wanted to bolt. To run away. Paradiso didn't seem so bad after all. But it wasn't in Eve's nature to give up. So she hunkered down, no matter what blows her ego were about to take.

  "Look, I know we've had our differences, but I'm a great worker," Eve insisted.

  Samantha made it clear she had no intention of taking Eve seriously though. "You know what? I've got your resume. I'll let you know if anything opens up." Samantha decided to add insult to injury though. "Now if you'll excuse me, those food trucks are calling my name."

  As Eve left the employment agency, she realized what a complete waste it had been to even set foot in there. An absolute soul crusher. The nail in Eve's employment coffin.

  As Eve left Samantha's employment agency, she felt like a complete failure. Like hope had abandoned her. And she no longer knew what to do. But just as Eve was about to hold her head in shame, she saw something out the corner of her eyes. She looked across the street and was instantly captivated.

  Eve's eyes developed a laser focus. Of all the things to catch Eve's eye in the middle of the desert, she never
thought an Amish Halloween costume would be one of them. And yet there she found herself in front of a costume shop staring down a remnant from her past.

  But what would just be window dressing for some gave Eve pause for thought. She started imagining herself in Amish clothes once again. Living an Amish life. And suddenly, a smile crept across Eve's face.

  *********

  Adam meanwhile had problems of his own picking Lewis up from the Sports Complex.

  "There’s no point to keep running. I’ve already lost," Lewis said, resigned to failure.

  That was just the heartbreak Adam was afraid of. "What happened?" he asked.

  "Drake Davis," Lewis answered.

  "Who’s Drake Davis?"

  "The boy who’s going to beat me. He’s so fast. I can’t run like that. It’s over."

  But Adam wasn't about to let his sons track dreams be shattered so easily. "It’s not over. You haven’t even raced yet. Look, it doesn’t matter how bad the odds look--you never know who’s going to win until you actually race."

  "But if I don’t win, I’ll just be a loser."

  "You’ll never be a loser to me."

  "I don’t want to race anymore. If you can’t be the best, what’s the point of even doing it at all?"

  "Lewis, listen to me. Sometimes it isn’t about winning or losing. Sometimes it’s just about giving it all you have. Sometimes it’s just about finishing the race."

  "It is?"

  "You’ve trained so hard for so long. Don’t you want to know how it will turn out?"

  "Do you really think I could win?"

  "I think you should do the best you can, and you’ll be amazed what can happen."

  *********

  With Lewis riding high on his pep talk, Adam was content to head home and savor whatever delicious meal Eve had planned for dinner. Just then Adam's cell phone rang. And like that, he knew overtime was in his future. Little did he know the after hours work would be at a bar. But when your Boss wanted to meet for drinks, you didn't turn him down.

  Adam dropped Lewis off at home, his mind on fire with anticipation. Hank had said over the phone that he had a big announcement for Adam.