Her Amish Chaperone and the Amish Baker's Rival by Leigh Bale

Author:Leigh Bale
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-11-29T17:04:15+00:00

* * *

As the sting of guilt shimmied up his back, Noah pressed a hand on Emily’s shoulder and hurried her across the street to his Farm-fresh Grocery, Delicatessen and Bakery. Mary hadn’t mentioned his store, so apparently she hadn’t realized who he really was, but she would soon enough.

He liked Mary, but the town was too small to support two bakeries. The pit of his stomach roiled at the thought of what was probably going to happen to her bakery. His store in Iowa City was very successful, and he had every reason to believe it would be equally so here in Kalona.

While he locked the door of his store behind them, Emily took off running toward the office. “I’m going to play games on the computer.”

“Okay, but only for an hour, then you can sweep the floor.” At the sound of shuffling feet and moving cartons, he turned and found Jenny stocking shelves. He scanned her handiwork. “Looks good.”

Jenny finished placing serrated knives on a display stand. “I’m still wondering if this was the right move. This town is so small. What did the baker say when you went to get Emily?”

“I didn’t tell her we owned the new store.”

“Noah, you coward. You should have been honest.”

He took a step back from the impact of her words. “She gave Emily and me a free cupcake and said for you to stop in for yours. I didn’t have the heart to tell her right then. You can tell her.”

“Thanks a lot.” She rolled her eyes.

“Since you’re going to attend nursing school in the fall, you won’t be here if there’s fussing.”

She tossed him a disgusted look.

He took a step closer to Jenny. “Why don’t you go over there and say hi? Her name is Mary. Since the Amish shunned our parents, we need to make friends in the Plain community before they find out who we are.”

Jenny huffed as she set a few baking timers on the shelf. “We don’t know that our parents were shunned. We know nothing about what happened after they left their Order. The only thing that’s clear is that they left during their rumspringa, had a civil wedding and never went back to the faith. They said they didn’t want to live by the Ordnung and the church rules. They wanted to live like the Englisch.”

Naoh shrugged. “But you know as well as I do that we didn’t live like the Englisch. Mom homeschooled us, and we weren’t allowed to play or associate with Englisch kids at the park. We couldn’t go to the movies or hang out with the neighbor kids our age. Our parents might not have wanted to be Amish, but our upbringing was strict and definitely not Englisch. And if our parents didn’t join the Amish church, they weren’t shunned.”

Jenny set the last timer on the shelf. “If the community did shun them, maybe we shouldn’t have opened a store here.” She took a step closer. “And what makes you think that our relatives want to meet us?” She raised a brow, turned and headed toward the office.

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