Spring Is in the Air: A Seasons of an Amish Garden Story

By Amy Clipston

In Amy Clipston's new novella collection, young Amish couples manage a community garden to raise money for a good cause, harvesting friendships and love along the way.

As the youth of Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, plant a garden in memory of their friend, Katie Ann begins to worry that her older brother, Ephraim, is dating her best friend. What if she somehow loses them both? But Christian, a new boy in the community, also works in the garden—and falling for him may be exactly the distraction, and lesson, that Katie Ann needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Jan 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9780310354338

Amy Clipston

Amy Clipston is an award-winning bestselling author and has been writing for as long as she can remember. She's sold more than one million books, and her fiction writing "career" began in elementary school when she and a close friend wrote and shared silly stories. She has a degree in communications from Virginia Wesleyan University and is a member of the Authors Guild, American Christian Fiction Writers, and Romance Writers of America. Amy works full-time for the City of Charlotte, NC, and lives in North Carolina with her husband, two sons, mother, and four spoiled rotten cats. Visit her online at AmyClipston.com; Facebook: @AmyClipstonBooks; Twitter: @AmyClipston; Instagram: @amy_clipston; BookBub: @AmyClipston.

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COPYRIGHT

ZONDERVAN

Spring Is in the Air

Copyright © 2019 by Amy Clipston

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

ISBN: 978-0-310-35433-8 (e-book)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication

CIP data is available upon request.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

Printed in the United States of America

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CONTENTS

COPYRIGHT

GLOSSARY

FAMILY TREE

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

For my amazing editor Jocelyn Bailey, with love

GLOSSARY

ach: oh

aenti: aunt

appeditlich: delicious

bedauerlich: sad

boppli: baby

brot: bread

bruder: brother

bruders: brothers

bruderskinner: nieces/nephews

bu: boy

buwe: boys

daadi: grandfather

danki: thank you

dat: dad

dochder: daughter

dochdern: daughters

Dummle!: Hurry!

fraa: wife

freind: friend

freinden: friends

froh: happy

gegisch: silly

gern gschehne: you’re welcome

Gude mariye: Good morning

gut: good

Gut nacht: Good night

haus: house

Ich liebe dich: I love you

kaffi: coffee

kapp: prayer covering or cap

kichli: cookie

kichlin: cookies

kinner: children

krank: ill

kuche: cake

kuchen: cakes

kumm: come

liewe: love, a term of endearment

maed: young women, girls

maedel: young woman

mamm: mom

mammi: grandmother

mei: my

naerfich: nervous

narrisch: crazy

onkel: uncle

schee: pretty

schmaert: smart

schweschder: sister

schweschdere: sisters

sohn: son

schtupp: family room

Was iss letz?: What’s wrong?

Wie geht’s: How do you do? or Good day!

wunderbaar: wonderful

ya: yes

FAMILY TREE

Featuring The Christmas Cat novella characters from the collection An Amish Christmas Love.

Thelma m. Alfred Bender

Mandy

Rhoda

Leona m. Marlin Blank

Darlene m. Uria Swarey

Ephraim

Katie Ann

Emma m. Henry (deceased) Bontrager

Hank the Cat

Darlene m. Uria Swarey

Savannah

Rebekah

Marietta m. Roman Hertzler

Clara

Gertrude m. Elvin King

Wayne

Feenie m. Jeptha Lantz

Arlan

Christian

Saloma m. Floyd Petersheim

Jerry

Biena

CHAPTER 1

Katie Ann Blank’s stomach tightened as she marched up the steps leading to Emma Bontrager’s back porch. When she reached the door, she squared her shoulders and swallowed a deep breath. The brisk April breeze sent the ties of her prayer covering fluttering over her shoulders, and the crisp air seeped through her black sweater, black apron, and blue dress.

Today was an exciting day, and the thoughtlessness of her older brother, Ephraim, wouldn’t tarnish it.

Or would it?

Shoving the thought away, she knocked on the storm door and then did her best to force her lips into a smile. The door opened, and Emma stood before her.

Katie Ann! Emma pushed the door open wider. I was beginning to wonder if you were going to join us. Her warm brown eyes sparkled in the late afternoon sunlight as she stepped out onto the porch. Although Emma was in her late sixties, Katie Ann had always thought she looked a decade younger because of her smooth skin and the dark hair that revealed only a hint of gray.

I was delayed, but I’m here now. Katie Ann held up the plate of peanut butter cookies she’d baked yesterday. "I brought kichlin."

"Danki. Emma pointed toward the inside the house. I have barbecue meat loaf in the oven."

My favorite. Katie Ann smiled. Did the meeting start?

When Emma nodded, Katie Ann felt her shoulders deflate.

But you haven’t missed much, Emma added quickly as she beckoned her to enter the house. "Kumm."

Katie Ann followed Emma into the house and set the plate of cookies on the mudroom bench before removing her sweater and hanging it on a peg. The aroma of the meat loaf filled her senses, and her stomach growled its approval.

As voices filtered in from the kitchen, renewed disappointed buzzed through her veins. How could her own brother have forgotten to pick her up for the meeting? After church, Ephraim had taken his girlfriend, Mandy, home to visit with her family. But before going to the Benders’, he’d promised to pick up Katie Ann on his way to Emma’s house. Katie Ann had waited and waited for Ephraim’s horse and buggy to appear in the driveway. When he was more than thirty minutes late, the truth hit her like a thousand bales of hay falling from the loft in her father’s largest barn—Ephraim had forgotten her. And the oversight cut her to the bone. Her brother had never left her behind before.

Surely he’d apologize as soon as he saw her, and then everything would be okay—more like it was four months ago, before he began dating her best friend and everything changed.

Mandy’s voice sounded from the kitchen. Now we need to make a list of what we want to plant in the community garden.

Katie Ann followed Emma to where Ephraim and Mandy sat at one end of the table. Mandy was writing on a notepad while their friends Wayne King and Clara Hertzler looked on. Another young man, someone she didn’t think she’d ever seen, sat beside Wayne.

Katie Ann! Clara waved her over and pointed to the empty chair between her and the young man Katie Ann didn’t know. I was wondering where you were, but Ephraim thought you’d be here soon.

Did he? She shot her brother a glare, and he shifted in his seat as his golden-blond eyebrows lifted, a question in the honey-brown eyes they’d both inherited from their mother. At twenty-three, he might be two years older than Katie Ann and much taller than her at six feet, but he had to know when his little sister wasn’t happy with him—even when he didn’t seem to know why.

Katie Ann. Mandy’s bright-blue eyes sparkled as she smiled. I’m so glad you made it.

"Ya, I am too." Katie Ann divided a look between her brother and her best friend. Surely Ephraim had told Mandy he was supposed to pick her up.

Katie Ann set her plate of cookies on the counter, and then she walked around the table and sank onto the empty chair. She set her tote bag on the floor and began to dig through it for her notepad and pen. When something soft