Chapter 1.
Florence held her baby daughter against her shoulder and stared out the window of her small cottage watching the sun rise. Carter was still upstairs asleep and, barely able to keep her eyes open, Florence wanted nothing more than a little extra sleep herself. They’d both woken during the night, taking it in turns to calm their baby who wasn’t a good sleeper.
As she did most mornings, Florence stood on tippy toes to glimpse the next-door orchard. There wasn’t much to see except for the treetops. She’d heard from the girls that Levi was doing better with managing it. He’d even pruned the trees with the help of her half-sisters and she hoped they did it well. A certain amount of knowledge was needed. Each plant was an individual and deserved individual attention. The older trees needed more experience to prune than the younger. It’d taken her years of watching her father prune before she had enough confidence to do it herself so to think of Levi out there with a saw hacking at her trees made her heart ache. When thoughts like that arose, she had to remind herself that they were no longer her trees and neither was the orchard hers.
She moved away from the window. She could no longer worry about the orchard she was no longer going to inherit. Being married to Carter and having their child was worth more than a hundred orchards. However, life would be wonderful if she could have it all.
In the back of her mind was the belief and faith that God always answered prayers even if He took longer than expected. And sometimes His answers came in unexpected ways. It wouldn’t surprise her at all if one day the orchard landed back in her lap through some kind of miracle.
Be thankful for what you have, she cautioned herself.
Now that their baby had safely arrived into her world, it was time to think about her own orchard again. She’d left the planting up to her advisor, who was her late father’s good friend. For some reason she hadn’t seen him lately and she didn’t know why. Surely they could start planting now. It was April, after all, the perfect time for planting.
With her baby now relaxed, finally resting her head against Florence’s shoulder, she sat down on the couch and closed her eyes.
Sometimes she looked back fondly on her old life with Wilma and the girls and the way life used to be. It had been far more hectic and stressful, in those days, with the many roles she'd had to play—orchard manager, household manager, half-sister manager, and squabble manager. Then she had to wonder what her Amish bonnet sisters—as Carter called them— were doing today.
* * *
In the Bakers’ Apple Orchard household, Bliss Bruner sat at the kitchen table ready to pen a letter to Adam, her secret crush. Now that her stepsister Cherish no longer liked him, she hoped there might be a chance for her and she was ready to take a risk and find out.
She figured if she wrote thanking him for allowing her to have the rabbit, that would open up communication between them. He had been upset on hearing the rabbit had got away from their house where he was supposedly being kept safe, and had been chased by a dog. It made her like Adam more to know that he was so caring about animals.
“What are you doing?” Cherish breezed into the kitchen and sat down opposite, grabbing at her letter.
She batted Cherish’s hand out of the way. “I’m writing a letter to Adam Wengerd.”
Cherish leaned back into the chair. “Ah, that’s a name I want to forget. For the past few days my anger has been brewing against him. It was a dreadful thing he did, telling me Bruiser was a male. Judging from all of his recent offspring, it’s clear he's a she. The worst thing was, Adam made me a part of his deception because I then gave the rabbit to you and passed on the information he gave me.”
“Nee, it was a mistake. No one would do that deliberately. You shouldn’t let anger get a hold of you, Cherish.”
“Don’t you start. I’m tired of being told how I should feel and how I should be all the time. Don’t be mad, forgive, let people trample all over you …”
“You don’t mind me writing to him, do you? I didn’t think you still liked him. Do you?” Bliss held her breath. If Cherish said she did, then she wouldn’t be able to write to him. It wouldn’t be right. The only thing she could do was forget about him and look for someone else. Trouble was, there wasn’t anyone as nice as he was.
Cherish made a sour face. “How could you think I still like him after everything that’s gone on? Of course I don’t. If he knocked on the door I wouldn’t even talk to him. I’d close the door on him. Anyone would have to have lost their mind to like him.” She tapped the side of her head.
“Well, I’ll keep writing to him.” Bliss looked down at the letter wishing Cherish would leave her in peace.
“Didn’t you hear what I just said?” Cherish asked, leaning forward.
“I did and I respect your opinion about Adam but I don’t share it.”
Cherish’s mouth dropped open. Normally, Bliss would’ve gone along with anything she said. “I’m angry at you for not being more sensitive to my feelings. You should be upset with Adam on my behalf since you keep going on about how pleased you are to have siblings at last and be part of such a large family. You should care more about me.”
“Oh, Cherish, don’t be mad. I just want to be happy and love everyone. I can’t be happy when you’re upset with me.”
“Okay, well, I’m not upset with you. You can’t help being weak-willed.”
Bliss smiled. “Good. I’m not sure what you mean by that, but I’m pleased you’re not angry with me.”
Cherish’s eyebrows drew together. “Adam was so awful to me and he didn’t even wait to hear the full story.”
“The full story about Cottonball?”
“Cottonball?”
Bliss’s face lit up. “Jah, I’ve just decided to change his name ... her name, I mean, from Marshmallow to Cottonball.”
Cherish rolled her eyes. “Just choose a name and stick with it, would you?”
“I have and … I am. Cottonball. I thought of Snowball, but I know someone whose cat is named Snowball and I wanted something unique.” Bliss looked back at the blank page and visions of Adam danced in front of her face. He was so handsome. “How shall I start the letter?”
“Dear Adam, I hope this letter finds you UNWELL.”
“Unwell?” Bliss spluttered. “Cherish! How could you say that?”
