Home Sweet Home

By Amy Clipston

Down on their luck and desperate after they are evicted from their small apartment, Chace and Mia O’Conner reluctantly take Chace’s Amish boss up on his offer to rent them the daadihaus located on his property. They are certain they will never feel at home in the rustic cabin without any modern conveniences, and they start to blame each other for their seemingly hopeless situation. But with the help of their new Amish friends, Chace and Mia begin to enjoy their cozy cabin and realize that home really is where the heart is.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Feb 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9780718023669

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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© 2017 by Amy Clipston

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

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc.

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

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.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

CIP data available upon request.

Printed in the United States of America

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CONTENTS

Glossary

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Discussion Questions

Acknowledgments

Recipes from Home Sweet Home

Black Raspberry Pie

Barbecue Meatloaf

An excerpt from A Flicker of Hope

Also by Amy Clipston

About the Author

DEDICATION

With love and appreciation for my friends at Morning

Star Lutheran Church in Matthews, North Carolina

GLOSSARY

Ach—Oh!

aenti—aunt

boppli—baby

daadi—grandpa

daadihaus—grandparents’ house

dat—dad

English—non-Amish person

freind—friend

freinden—friends

gut—good

haus—house

mamm—mom

mammi—grandma

mei—my

ya—yes

CHAPTER ONE

THE COLD AIR SEEMED TO SEEP INTO THE MARROW OF MIA O’Conner’s bones, and her teeth chattered as her husband steered their pickup past a large white farmhouse. Rain splashed against the windshield and beat a steady cadence on the roof of the old Chevy truck as the tires crunched on the rock driveway beside two large barns. She held her hand over the vent and shivered. Only brisk February air whooshed through. If only they had the money to fix the heater . . .

That was the least of their worries. She glanced down at their five-month-old daughter bundled under a blanket in her car seat between them.

Well, this is it, Chace said as the truck came to a stop. The headlights sliced through the dark and illuminated the front door of a rustic, one-story cabin. Welcome to our new home in Bird-in-Hand.

Mia blinked twice as she studied the building. It featured a small front porch and two windows. She shivered again, hoping the tiny house was warm.

What do you think? Chace shifted the truck into Park. It’s not much, but it’s more than reasonable. Isaac is charging us next to nothing. He paused. Isaac Allgyer is the best boss I’ve ever had.

Mia turned toward her husband, and his handsome face and Caribbean-blue eyes focused on her. Well, it’s not—

Kaitlyn’s sudden screech interrupted Mia’s response.

Mia unbuckled Kaitlyn and pulled the sobbing baby into her arms. Mommy is right here, sweet pea. She snuggled Kaitlyn closer to her chest, wrapping the blanket around her little body. I guess she’ll have to sleep with us until we scrape together the money for a crib.

Chace’s lips formed a thin line. We’ll figure it out.

Mia swallowed a sigh as Kaitlyn’s sobs subsided.

Chace pushed his door open, and a blast of frigid air filled the cab of the truck. Mia gasped and held Kaitlyn even closer. She longed to be able to afford the warm snowsuit she’d seen at a department store after all the snowsuits had been snatched up from her favorite consignment shop. Surely her baby was cold, and the guilt that had haunted her since Kaitlyn’s birth flooded her once again.

Chace pulled up the hood on his navy blue sweatshirt to cover his sandy-blond hair as he stood by the open truck door. Rain beat down on him, drenching his sweatshirt and worn jeans, and no doubt his work boots too.

Why don’t you get her inside? he called over the rain. It has to be warmer in there than it is in here. I’ll help you, and then I’ll handle emptying out the bed of the truck.

Mia nodded before Chace shut the driver side door and ran to her side of the truck.

She retrieved a blanket from the diaper bag she’d bought at Goodwill before Kaitlyn was born. After draping the extra blanket over Kaitlyn’s head, Mia shouldered the diaper bag and her purse, then leapt out of the truck when Chace opened the door. She hustled through the icy rain and up the front steps of the cabin, where Chace had run ahead to hold the door open for her. It must not have been locked.

Mia stepped through the door and shivered once more as the chilly air from inside the cabin seeped through her damp jeans. She caressed Kaitlyn’s head. I think it’s colder in here than in the truck.

We just need to get the coal stove going.

Coal?

By the light of the truck’s headlights shining into the cabin, Chace found a Coleman lantern that sat on a small table by the door. He flipped it on, then shut the door against the wind.

The bright yellow light allowed Mia to take in their new home. Her heart sank when she realized it was only slightly bigger than their apartment had been. She had hoped for more. A tiny kitchen with a small refrigerator, a stove, a sink, a few cabinets, and a short counter spilled into an area with a table and four chairs. Off to her right, a worn brown sofa and dark green wing chair served as a family room. Beyond the sofa were two doorways.

How many bedrooms are there? she asked.

One.

Oh. Mia adjusted Kaitlyn in her arms. Their apartment had only one bedroom. They could make do.

Chace crossed the room to a large black stove in the kitchen. He placed the lantern on top and began examining it.

Mia balanced Kaitlyn with one of her arms and ran her free hand over the wall. Where are the light switches?

Chace chuckled and shook his head. Normally, the warm sound of his laugh would make her smile, but tonight she frowned.

What’s so funny? Her sense of humor waned with every passing moment.

I’ve told you Isaac and his family are Amish, Mee. He leaned back on the kitchen counter behind him and held up his arms as if to gesture around the cabin. There’s no electricity.

What? Mia snapped, louder than she’d meant to.

Kaitlyn gasped and then began to cry again, her wails echoing throughout the cabin.

There’s no electricity? Mia crossed the small room and stood in front of Chace. She ignored Kaitlyn’s screaming as she gaped at him.

What did you expect me to find with our income and credit? His eyes narrowed to slits. I’m sorry it’s not the Hilton.

Mia ground her teeth as fury boiled through her veins, exacerbated by the combination of Kaitlyn’s unrelenting screams and her husband’s caustic remark. She opened her mouth to deliver a biting retort just as someone knocked on the front door and called out. Chace?

When Chace opened the door, a tall man with dark brown hair and a matching beard that fell past his chin stood in the doorway. He was dressed in black broadfall trousers, a plain black coat, and a black hat. He looked to be in his midforties. Chace! You made it.

Isaac. Chace’s face brightened as he greeted the man and invited him in with a nod. A woman and four children, two girls and two boys, filed into the cabin behind him. The woman and girls wore long, solid-color dresses and black coats, and their heads were covered with black bonnets. The woman, who looked to be in her early forties, had an amicable smile.

This is my family. Isaac pointed to each one as he introduced them. My wife, Vera, and our children, Rhoda, Susannah, Adam, and Joel. All the children had dark hair and eyes, like their parents.

Chace shook Isaac’s hand and then Vera’s. He gestured toward Mia and then raised his voice over Kaitlyn’s howling. This is my wife, Mia, and my daughter, Kaitlyn.

The couple both spoke, but Kaitlyn’s keening drowned out their words. Mia bounced the baby in her arms as a migraine brewed behind her eyes. Could Kaitlyn sense her frustration? Mia moved Kaitlyn’s fine blond hair to one side and kissed her little head. Kaitlyn continued to sob as large tears streamed from her bright blue eyes and down her pink cheeks.

May I hold her?

Mia looked up at who she thought must be the