All she wants for Christmas is to not fall in love...
She’ll be their Christmas nanny...
But a permanent family’s not part of her plans.
Embarrassed by an unrequited crush, Amish maedel Sadie Dienner needs a vacation from her life in Pennsylvania—and from romance. Until Christmas, she’s working in Maine as a nanny to Amish widower Levi Swarey’s twins. But Levi is frustratingly overprotective and they just can’t see eye to eye on anything. And the worst part? Sadie can’t seem to stop herself from losing her heart...
Amish of Serenity Ridge
“I’d like to ride with you, if I may.”
“Jah. Unless there’s a blizzard,” Levi said. Without thinking, he muttered, “Sadly, there’s little hope of that.”
Sadie lifted her eyebrows. “You don’t want to go to the wedding, either?”
“Either? Does that mean you don’t want to go? Why not?”
“You tell me why you don’t want to go first.”
Levi stalled. He couldn’t express the real reason to Sadie. “Oh, er, it’s that they last all day and it’s hard on the kinner to miss their naps. They get cranky and then I worry they’ll misbehave. Why don’t you want to go?”
“I—I won’t really know anyone there. I haven’t even met the bride or groom yet.”
Was that really the reason? “Then we should stick together,” Levi replied. “That way, you can help with the kinner and I’ll introduce you to everyone. How does that sound?”
“Not quite as gut as a blizzard, but I like it,” Sadie said.
What Levi didn’t know was if it was her smile or the hot chocolate warming his insides like that...
Carrie Lighte lives in Massachusetts next door to a Mennonite farming family, and she frequently spots deer, foxes, fisher cats, coyotes and turkeys in her backyard. Having enjoyed traveling to several Amish communities in the eastern United States, she looks forward to visiting settlements in the western states and in Canada. When she’s not reading, writing or researching, Carrie likes to hike, kayak, bake and play word games.
Books by Carrie Lighte
Love Inspired
Amish of Serenity Ridge
Courting the Amish Nanny
Amish Country Courtships
Amish Triplets for Christmas
Anna’s Forgotten Fiancé
An Amish Holiday Wedding
Minding the Amish Baby
Her New Amish Family
Her Amish Holiday Suitor
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.
COURTING THE AMISH NANNY
Carrie Lighte
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
—Philippians 4:6–7
For my parents,
with gratitude for our Maine adventures
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Epilogue
Dear Reader
Excerpt from The Rancher’s Holiday Hope by Brenda Minton
Chapter One
“If you go to Maine now, you’ll miss hochzich season here,” Sadie Dienner’s stepmother, Cevilla, protested as she mixed water with flour to thicken the juice of a roast into gravy.
Jah, that’s exactly my plan, Sadie thought. “I’m happy for Sarah and Rebekah, but we aren’t exactly close friends,” she said. “It’s not as if I’m a newehocker in either hochzich.”
She hardly expected to be asked to be a wedding attendant; the brides were each four years younger than twenty-five-year-old Sadie and she rarely saw them except at church. Sadie’s closest friends had been married for years and she was painfully aware that once Sarah and Rebekah married their suitors this fall, she’d be the only single woman in Little Springs, Pennsylvania—with the exception of Elva Wyse, a ninety-two-year-old widow. And Elva had been married three times, so it wasn’t as if she was considered a spinster.
“What about Harrison? Won’t he be hurt if you don’t attend his hochzich to Mary?”
Not nearly as hurt as I was when he told me he was marrying her. The news had come as a shock to Sadie, who had long imagined marrying Harrison herself. In fact, he was the primary reason she wanted to flee Little Springs during wedding season. Not because she still entertained any romantic feelings toward him, but because her pride was wounded and the prospect of attending his wedding was too humiliating to bear.
Sadie cringed to remember what a fool she’d made of herself after Harrison and Mary’s wedding was “published,” or announced in church, a few weeks back in mid-October. The Old Order Amish youth in her district fiercely guarded their courtships, keeping them as secret as possible, so Sadie had assumed Harrison was interested in her and no one else. Come to find out, she was wrong on both counts.
“I didn’t know you were courting someone from another district! All this time I thought—I thought you liked me,” she’d wailed to him at work the Monday after his wedding was announced.
Perplexed, Harrison furrowed his brows. “I do like you. We’re friends. I consider you a gut pal.”
“A pal?” Sadie spit out the word.
“Jah. In some ways, I like spending time with you more than with Abe or Baker,” Harrison had said with a grin, as if Sadie should have felt complimented she outranked his other buddies.
“But what about all the times you gave me a ride home from work?” Sadie sniffed, half enraged and half heartbroken, astonished he didn’t return her romantic affections.
“What about it? We live in the same part of town. I’d do that much for anyone.”
“Wh-what about the gifts?” The catch in Sadie’s voice meant she was dangerously close to tears.
“Gifts?” Sadie could practically see the light dawning across his features. “Oh, you mean the Grischtdaag gift last year?”
“As well as the birthday present in March,” Sadie reminded him, referencing the leather-covered diary Harrison had given her. The same diary in which she’d written all her dreams about him marrying her. “I thought those gifts meant something.”
“They did. They were a reflection of how much my familye and I appreciate your work at the shop. Listen, Sadie, you’re a valuable employee and—”
“Not anymore I’m not!” Sadie shot back. She already felt pitiful enough; she couldn’t stand to listen to a consolation speech about the merits of her productivity at his family’s furniture store when she’d hoped to hear declarations of love.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I’m quitting,” she declared. Her mouth made the decision before her mind thought it through, so she added, “You’ve said sales are waning and you’ve been struggling to pay two clerks. Sereta Miller is supporting her eldre and suh. She needs the job more than I do, so I volunteer to have my hours eliminated. Would you like to tell your eldre or do you want me to tell them?”
Harrison shook his head as if Sadie was speaking gibberish. “It’s only a temporary lull. We expect business to pick up again in December. There’s always a surge after Thanksgiving.”
“By then, you’ll be married and I’m sure your n
ew wife will be glad to help out at the store,” Sadie said with a shrug. At that point, she couldn’t quite bring herself to acknowledge Mary by name.
That was nearly a month ago. Since then, Sadie had ruminated long and hard about how she had misinterpreted Harrison’s gestures. She had convinced herself he was interested in her romantically but was too shy to ask to be her suitor. What a joke that was! He apparently hadn’t been shy about asking Mary to become his wife.
Why isn’t any man ever so enamored of me that he can’t wait to ask for my hand in marriage? Sadie silently groused. This wasn’t the first time a man had indicated, in so many words or actions, he thought of Sadie as a friend and nothing more. Something similar had happened with Albrecht Smoker and with Roy King, both of whom had actually walked out with her before deciding they weren’t interested in continuing a courtship. Having grown up with seven brothers, Sadie wondered if there was something about her personality that caused men to feel comfortable around her but not drawn to her as a romantic prospect.
Either way, she regretted exposing her unrequited emotions to Harrison and she’d finished out the week at the furniture store feeling ridiculous in his presence. They’d stopped eating lunch together and she’d walked four miles home in the dark rather than accept a ride from him again. Not that he’d asked. He must have thought she was pathetic, because he’d gone as far out of his way to avoid her as she had to avoid him ever since. The way Sadie saw it, she’d be doing them both a favor by not attending his wedding.
“Harrison will have so many relatives there I doubt he’ll even notice my absence,” Sadie told her stepmother, retrieving a stack of plates from the cupboard. “Besides, ever since I qu—I agreed to give my hours at the shop to Sereta, you’ve been telling me I need to find another job.”
“Jah, but I meant a job in Little Springs.”
“Your cousin’s nephew needs help. And it’s only temporary.”
Cevilla chewed her lip and Sadie knew she’d made a good point. Her stepmother’s cousin’s nephew Levi was a widower with four-year-old twins. He owned a Christmas tree farm in Maine, where his mother had been minding the children for him, but she’d passed away in July. Apparently, the other nannies he’d employed hadn’t worked out and now he was coming into his busiest season. After Christmas he was moving back to Indiana so his in-laws could help raise the twins, but until then, he was in desperate need of someone to care for them.
“I suppose that’s true,” Cevilla reluctantly admitted. “Besides, you’re old enough to choose what you want to do.”
“I want to go,” Sadie firmly stated. “I really do.”
Cevilla nodded but added, “Your brieder will miss having you here.”
Sadie had three older brothers, who were married and lived locally in Pennsylvania, and four younger brothers at home, whom she doted on. “Tell them not to worry, I’ll be back with their gifts just in time for Grischtdaag,” she joked, but Cevilla was serious.
“I’m going to miss you. Maine is so far away,” she said. “You’ve never even left Lancaster County.”
That was because even when she’d had the opportunity, Sadie hadn’t wanted to leave. But now she felt like she couldn’t get far enough away. She set the last plate near her place at the table and crossed the kitchen to embrace Cevilla.
“I’ll be back before you know it,” she assured her stepmother. And by then, hochzich season will be over and I’ll be able to hold my head up in front of Harrison again.
* * *
Levi Swarey firmly grasped the hands of his four-year-old twins, Elizabeth and David, as they skipped along beside him on the way to his mother’s daadi haus across the lawn from his own home. Her death had hit him hard and he’d rarely been inside her house since she’d passed away in July. Afterward, the women from his church district had visited to collect her clothes for donation and give the place a good scrubbing down. They’d said they washed all the linens and stowed them away in the closet, so Levi figured that besides making up a bed there was little for him to do before Sadie moved in, but he wanted to double-check that she had everything she would need.
“I can smell Groossmammi,” Elizabeth announced tearfully moments after they entered the empty house. “I want her to kumme back.”
“Groossmammi can’t kumme back. She’s in heaven with the Lord and with Mamm,” David said solemnly, repeating the explanation Levi had given the children countless times since his mother died.
Levi said, “Jah, and all three of them would want you to wilkom Sadie, so we need to make sure the daadi haus is cozy and clean. It looks pretty nice in here to me, what do you two think?”
“There’s a big spiderweb in the corner.” David pointed to the wall above the thickly cushioned armchair. “Sadie might be afraid of spiders.”
“That’s not a spiderweb. It’s a cow web,” his sister corrected him.
“You’re right, it is a cobweb,” Levi agreed. “I’ll get the broom.” He headed toward the kitchen. The broom wasn’t hanging on its nail beside the refrigerator. Neither was it in the pantry, so he checked the bedroom, where he found it propped against the wall. He returned to the living room to discover David balanced on the back of the sofa. The boy jumped up and swiped at the cobweb with a doily he must have removed from an end table.
“Absatz!” Levi shouted for him to stop as he lunged forward and grabbed his son from the sofa. “How many times have I told you not to climb on furniture?”
David’s lower lip quivered and tears bubbled in his eyes. “I was only trying to help wilkom Sadie, Daed.”
“And he took his shoes off so he wouldn’t get the couch dirty,” Elizabeth defended him.
Levi picked David off the sofa and set him on the floor. Settling onto the cushion so he could be eye to eye with his son, Levi said, “I understand you wanted to help, but you could have fallen and broken your leg. And that would have broken my heart.”
David’s expression was one of anxiety as much as contrition and Levi knew he was overreacting. Again. He couldn’t seem to help himself. As Levi sat there in his mother’s house, it was almost as if he could hear her scolding him, What happened to Leora was a baremlich thing, suh, but it’s time you started trusting the Lord.
He did trust the Lord. But trusting the Lord didn’t relieve Levi of his responsibility to keep his children safe. He hadn’t been able to protect their mother—on the contrary, it was his carelessness that had led to her death when the children were toddlers. He wasn’t going to make that mistake with his children, no matter who thought he was overly protective.
And plenty of people did, which was why he’d lost the four nannies he’d had since his mother passed away. Levi’s mother was the only person other than himself he trusted with their care, and he even caught himself looking over her shoulder, especially as the twins grew older and became more mobile.
“I know you’re sorry,” he told David. “But remember the rhyme I taught you?”
The twins duly chorused, “Keep safe and sound with both feet on the ground.”
He insisted on this rule because of Leora’s accident three years ago. She had been cleaning the windows when she must have lost her balance. After falling and cracking her skull on the stone hearth behind her, she’d suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage and died. Although Levi’s mother had come to live in the daadi haus by the time, on that particular day she had been out of town. Leora and the children had been home alone. But the Lord had been merciful; a neighbor happened to stop by for tea and discovered Leora sprawled across the floor, a kettle screaming from the stove and the twins wailing in their cribs. Even now it horrified Levi to consider what else might have happened if no one had come by before then. He’d never forgiven himself for failing to return Leora’s stepladder to its spot in the pantry. He had used it the day before when he was trimming dead limbs from the apple tree at the back of the house and then he�
�d forgotten it there. Leora must not have wanted to leave the babies while they were napping, so instead of fetching the solid stepladder, she’d stood on a chair from the kitchen. Borrowing household items and not returning them was one of Levi’s habits that had nettled his wife to no end, but until then, he had never imagined his carelessness would result in tragedy. What kind of spouse was so thoughtless about his wife’s needs? Levi came to believe he hadn’t deserved to be a husband, and sometimes he wondered why the Lord had entrusted him with children. But as long as they were his, he would do everything he could to keep them safe.
The twins might not have understood the origins of the rule about keeping their feet firmly planted, but they understood they were meant to obey it. “I won’t do it again, Daed,” David promised.
“How about if you and Elizabeth take turns sweeping and I’ll open the windows to air out Groossmammi’s place a little?”
“So her smell doesn’t make us sad anymore?” Elizabeth wondered.
If only it were that simple. Levi swallowed the lump in his throat. His children had lost so much at such a young age. They’d hardly known their mother, their beloved grandmother had died of congestive heart failure, and although they didn’t know it yet, they were about to have to bid their home and community goodbye, too.
Given his mother’s death and the lack of suitable nannies in the area, Levi had realized he had little choice but to move back to Indiana, where Leora’s parents would help provide Elizabeth and David with the kind of stability and long-term care they needed. As grateful as he was for their help, Levi was concerned about how difficult the relocation would be for the children—and he had his own qualms about moving in with Leora’s family, as well. He hadn’t been especially close to his wife’s parents when she was alive, and after she passed on, Levi sensed they blamed him nearly as much as he blamed himself for her death. Not that he had ever told them—or anyone—about his part in his wife’s accident, but Leora’s parents had been terribly nervous when he and their daughter had ventured off to Maine. After Leora died, Levi imagined they felt their fears had been justified.
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