Love in Store

By Vannetta Chapman

It’s never too late for love, but danger could spoil the heart’s plans.

Stella Schrock works at the Old Mill in Nappanee, Indiana, with new employee David Stoltzfus, a recent widower. When strange happenings begin occurring around town, it appears as if someone wants to close the mill. Stella and David have to work together to solve the mystery of what is happening at the Old Amish Mill, and in the process they might just find that God has more in store for their future than they would ever have dreamed possible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Feb 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9780718023591

Vannetta Chapman

Vannetta Chapman writes inspirational fiction full of grace. She has published over one hundred articles in Christian family magazines, receiving more than two dozen awards from Romance Writers of America chapter groups. She discovered her love for the Amish while researching her grandfather’s birthplace of Albion, Pennsylvania. Her novel Falling to Pieces was a 2012 ACFW Carol Award finalist. A Promise for Miriam earned a spot on the June 2012 Christian Retailing Top Ten Fiction list. Chapman was a teacher for 15 years and currently writes full time. She lives in the Texas Hill Country with her husband. For more information, visit her at www.VannettaChapman.com

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Love in Store Copyright © 2016 by Vannetta Chapman

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.

Thomas Nelson titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [e-mail].

Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Bible, Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™ and the New King James Version®. © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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.

ISBN 978-0-7180-2359-1 (eBook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

CIP data available upon request.

CONTENTS

Glossary

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Discussion Questions

Acknowledgments

A Recipe from Love In Store

An excerpt from Love Birds

About the Author

DEDICATION

For Jodi Hughes

GLOSSARY

daddi—grandfather

danki—thank you

dat—dad, father

Englischer—non-Amish person

fra—wife

Gotte’s wille—God’s will

gudemariye—good morning

gut—good

kapp—prayer covering

kinner—children

mamm—mom

mammi—grandmother

nein—no

rumspringa—running around; time before an Amish young person has officially joined the church, provides a bridge between childhood and adulthood.

schweschder—sister

willkumm—welcome

wunderbaar—wonderful

ya—yes

youngie—teenaged to young adult

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord . . .

—COLOSSIANS 3:23

How pleasant and good it is when brothers are peaceable, when their doings are in agreement.

—AMISH PROVERB

PROLOGUE

NAPPANEE, INDIANA

MARCH

David Stoltzfus didn’t wake planning to save a child’s life. He’d worked the first half of his shift at the Old Amish Mill and then walked over to the market building. In the back, past the Plain merchandise and the canned goods, was a bakery where he liked to sit and enjoy his lunch. The first bite of his sandwich tasted delicious. He was about to take a second when he heard a woman scream in alarm. Looking up, he saw her standing next to a child that was probably not yet a year old.

Cough, Cami. Cough! the older woman said.

The little girl’s face was turning blue. David didn’t hesitate. He hurried to the child’s side, scooped her up, and held her facedown over his forearm. Holding her jaw with his left hand to support her head, he used the heel of his right hand to slap the area between her shoulder blades. With the third slap a grape popped out and rolled across the floor. The child pulled in a deep breath, pinking up immediately. David breathed a prayer of relief and handed the little thing back to her grandmother.

I was cutting them in half. Tears coursed down the woman’s cheeks as she clutched the child to her chest. I turned around for a minute and I guess . . . I guess she managed to grab one off my plate.

Stella Schwartz had hurried from the register to the woman’s side. Would you like us to call an ambulance?

No. No, I think she’s all right now.

Let me bring you another hot tea—to calm your nerves. And perhaps a bottle of juice for your granddaughter?

The woman nodded and then suddenly seemed to realize that David was still standing there. How can I thank you?

"Not necessary. Glad I could help. You have a gut afternoon." David went back to his sandwich, but the rest of lunch was not to be the peaceful half hour he had envisioned. The manager of the Mill must have been called. He checked on the woman and child, and then he thanked David and Stella for their help.

Quick thinking and calm in a crisis, Bobo McPherson said. We need more employees like that.

David only nodded as he gathered up his trash. But his mind wasn’t on the child as he made his way out of the restaurant. Instead David was thinking of Stella, the gracious way she had helped the grandmother, the tender way she had looked at the child, the look of pure gratitude she had shared with David before returning to her work and her normal, somewhat dour, disposition. Stella was an enigma to David, as most women were. He’d been fortunate to have one woman by his side for most of his adult life. He still felt Beverly’s love like a blanket that comforted him. He supposed he always would.

But what was Stella’s story?

His daughter had told him that Stella had never married. Why?

And why the perpetual bad attitude? If David hadn’t seen her with the child, he never would have believed she could be tender and compassionate. But he had seen her, and it wasn’t a sight he would soon forget.

CHAPTER 1

APRIL

Life took more turns than a country road. David Stoltzfus was currently navigating one of those turns, and he marveled that he could still feel peaceful about it. Then again, his parents had been an example of faith in daily living, not even worrying through the long Wisconsin winters. Yes, he’d had good people to bring him up in the faith, and faith was what would see him through this current crisis.

He nearly laughed to think what his mamm and dat would say about his living in Indiana. They’d already passed before his daughter had married and moved. Though David loved the area where he’d been born and raised, he also found these first few weeks in Nappanee, Indiana to be a pleasant change. Anywhere family resided was a wonderful place to be, in his opinion.

David walked toward the icehouse on the northern side of the property of the Old Amish Mill complex, known to locals as simply the Mill. The property had close to forty buildings, including a large gift shop, market, café, and theater. The majority of the buildings were historic in nature—either from the original farmstead or restored buildings that had been moved to the site. He whistled as he walked past each one. Why wouldn’t he whistle? It was a fine spring day—the temperature in the forties but projected to rise to a balmy fifty-six. He had a job that he enjoyed, and he was now living with his daughter. He was grateful for the chance to help Rebecca during her time of trouble.

Yes, life was good. He thanked the Lord each night that in spite of their troubles, they were able to enjoy the small blessings of life.

"Gudemariye, David." Peter Yoder raised a hand in greeting. He worked in the maple-sugar camp, and their buildings were adjacent to one another.

Peter was a few years older than David, surely in his early sixties. David had recently turned fifty-two. Though they’d only known each other a few weeks they were fast becoming friends. In fact, Peter was the one who had mentioned the job opening at the Mill to Rebecca. The community had certainly rallied around Rebecca since the death of her husband. It had been a tragedy for sure and for certain, but now David was there to help her with the three children and provide a little extra income.

It’s a fine morning indeed, David said. Reminds me of when we’d rise early to work in the fields.

"Only now our job is to escort Englischers, teaching them our ways."

David and Peter stood with their backs against the wall of what they called the sugar building and studied the fields that