Christmas at the Amish Bakeshop by Shelley Shepard Gray

Author:Shelley Shepard Gray
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2021-06-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Last night after Miriam went to bed, Lizzie had finished cleaning out the pantry and dragged Mrs. Heise’s full garbage can to the curb. She’d placed boxes and cans from Mrs. Heise’s cupboard on the empty pantry shelves and prayed Miriam wouldn’t notice the difference.

Not that her aenti seemed inclined to do any cooking or much of anything else. Maybe being in a wheelchair disoriented her, and her energy would return when she could walk again. Lizzie hoped so.

Right now, Miriam silently scooped up the last of her oatmeal as Lizzie wrapped aluminum foil around two huge pot roasts from Mrs. Heise’s refrigerator.

Before breakfast, Lizzie had browned the meat and chopped onions, carrots, celery, and potatoes to spread over the top of the roast. She’d dumped one can of cream of mushroom soup over each one and sprinkled packets of onion soup mix, water, and spices on top. After sealing the packages, she set them in baking pans and turned the oven to two hundred. By the time they returned from work, the meal would be done.

Scraping on the front sidewalk startled her. She rushed to the window to find Christian shoveling their sidewalk.

Lizzie opened the front door. “I can do that.”

“I’m almost done. I’ll be right there to get you.”

He’d always been thoughtful when they were young. Not only had he done kind deeds, but he’d also apologized when their pranks had accidentally hurt others. It seemed he hadn’t changed.

By the time Christian knocked, Lizzie had washed the breakfast dishes and helped Miriam into her coat.

His smile brightened the early morning grayness. “I salted the walkway, but some spots are still slushy. I’ll take Miriam out first and come back for you. I wouldn’t want you to slip.”

She could walk to the buggy herself, but she waited for Christian to return. He offered her his arm, and she took it. Although she shouldn’t cling to his arm this way, being so close to him made her want to cuddle up. At that thought, she stiffened.

“Is something wrong?” He slowed, and in the streetlight, eyes as brown as melted chocolate met hers.

Lizzie’s heart galloped like a runaway horse. She had to rein it in. An impossible task with her arm tucked through his. “N-neh.”

“I thought you were about to fall.”

He was right. But she already had. She’d fallen for him.

* * *

The imprint of Christian’s arm against hers lingered as Lizzie decorated cupcakes. She hadn’t finished yesterday’s list, but more order sheets had been pinned to the corkboard in the hallway. She wouldn’t even look at those until she finished these. Miriam sat by the counter watching intently as Lizzie created icing Christmas trees on top of each cupcake and added icing dots for colored lights.

“Pretty trees,” her aenti whispered as Lizzie boxed them up.

“They are, aren’t they?”

Her face serious, Miriam looked up. “Trees are for Englisch-ers. We don’t decorate trees.”

“That’s right. This is for an Englisch Christmas party.”

“I see.”

Her aenti seemed to be carrying on a conversation, and Lizzie rejoiced.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.