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response with a warm thank-you and a wide smile. “So then what? The oldest son has to buy his own farm?”
    “If there’s one available in the area, yes. If not, he must decide whether to move out of state to a different Amish community with more readily available land, or pursue a different occupation altogether.”
    “And the wife?” Callie interjected. “Does she have a say?”
    Diane shrugged then rose to her feet to begin the process of gathering dirty plates from the table. “I imagine they talk about things together. But once an Amish girl marries, she does not work outside the home. Her attention is to be focused on her husband and the children they will soon have.”
    Claire heard the gasp as it left her lips, sensed the questioning eyes that followed suit. Yet all she could truly focus on was Diane’s words and the rush of sadness they started.
    “So . . . when Esther and Eli marry, Esther won’t be able to work at Heavenly Treasures with me anymore?” she whispered past the lump forming in her throat.
    “When that day comes, no, she won’t be able to keep working with you. But like anything else in life, dear, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
    Claire blinked rapidly against the tears that pricked the corners of her eyes; the quiet and steady friendship she’d found in her Amish employee was on the verge of being tested by the strains of real life.
    It was a test many friendships faced, yet theirs had the added twist of having formed across, and in spite of, two very different worlds. With the common ground of Heavenly Treasures removed from the equation, what would happen?
    “Claire? Are you okay?” Diane hurried around the table. “Is there something wrong?”
    Inhaling deeply, Claire brought her aunt up to speed on Esther’s news, the implication of her friend’s engagement igniting a foggy haze around her heart. “Six weeks from now, if I’m still lucky enough to even
have
a bridge, we’ll be on the other side of it.”

Chapter 4

    S he was just tossing a bag of trash into the container behind Heavenly Treasures when she heard the telltale
clip-clop
of Eli’s buggy as it turned into the alley separating Claire’s gift shop from the Amish-owned bake shop next door. Looking over her shoulder, Claire raised her hand in greeting only to let it fall back down to her side at her incorrect assumption.
    Nearly four weeks had come and gone since Eli’s older brother, Benjamin, had made any of the half-dozen or so daily runs between the Miller’s farm and Shoo Fly Bake Shoppe. Milk was still delivered each morning, pie boxes were still assembled each evening, and Ruth—Eli’s twin sister—was still looked after and assisted during Shoo Fly Bake Shoppe’s busiest spurts, but lately, those tasks had fallen completely on Eli.
    Sure, she could chalk Eli’s stepped-up presence to the young man’s desire to see Esther as many times throughout the day as possible, but when he still showed up again and again on days Esther wasn’t working, Claire knew it pointed to more. Much more.
    She forced her breathing to remain steady despite the near Pavlovian response to Ben’s presence that had her heart beating faster and her hands growing damper by the minute. Somehow, she’d hoped the time apart would have dulled her senses where the handsome Amish man was concerned, but reality, and the way the late-morning sun shimmered off his deep blue eyes, was rapidly proving otherwise.
    Wiping her moist hands against the sides of her formfitting black trousers, Claire willed her feet toward the buggy and her mouth into some semblance of a natural smile. “Ben! It’s so good to see you.”
    The tall, lanky man with the clean-shaven face, high cheekbones, and scrap of dark brown hair visible beneath his hat jumped down from his seat behind the horses and held out his hand to Claire. “Yah. It is good to see you, too.”
    Her hand disappeared inside his strong, callused counterpart, the tingle