Naomi’s Christmas Read Online Free PDF Page B

better.”
    “I think you are right.” She felt a little disloyal saying that about the place that
     had been her home all her life, but it was true. “I’ll pack a few things tonight and
     bring them when I come to work tomorrow.”
    “Gut.” Paula gave a satisfied nod.
    “What will you do about the offer from Nathan?” Hannah said, her tone gentle. After
     many years away, Hannah had returned to the Mennonites of Pleasant Valley only earlier
     this year, but now she was happily married to William Brand, raising her small son,
     and as settled as if she’d never left. “If the situation is as good as you say for
     your beehives…”
    “I know.” Naomi could talk about it with Hannah, who was a loyal friend despite the
     differences between them. “I just…I feel as if all anyone values in me is my ability
     to take care of other people’s children.” She shook her head ruefully. “It sounds
     so selfish when I put it that way.”
    “You are gifted with children,” Hannah said gently. “Look how my Jamie attached to
     you. But there’s nothing wrong with wanting something else for yourself as a way of
     working. What about your bees?”
    Naomi blinked. “What about them?”
    “You know how everyone loves your honey. You could be packaging it and selling it
     yourself, making a nice business of it.”
    “Ja, for sure.” Paula, ever the businesswoman, jumped in immediately. “All you need
     is to label the jars and decide on a price. We could put a display right on the counter
     and folks would snap it up.”
    “That’s right.” Hannah’s eyes sparkled. “I know you give away most of your honey,
     but people would be glad to pay for it. You could even expand your business—get more
     hives, process more honey.”
    “I could.” The idea took hold and would not be dismissed. Naomi couldn’t have done
     it while living at home and taking care of all the gardening, the house, and the canning
     and preserving, but she could now. Betty was taking over all those tasks. “But that
     brings me back to where I’m going to put the hives. How could I take care of Nathan’s
     children when I’ve refused my own brother?”
    “That’s entirely different,” Hannah said. “This is only for a few weeks, not for life.
     And think of the rewards.”
    “But my work at the bakery—”
    “We can handle that if we need to,” Paula said. “It doesn’t change anything.”
    Everything they said made sense, and Naomi discovered she couldn’t find any good reason
     to keep arguing.
    Any good reason except the one she couldn’t speak—that each time she got too close
     to Nathan King, she felt again like that sixteen-year-old who had to say no to the
     things she wanted most in the world.
    By late afternoon the next day, Naomi had begun to feel as if she’d been swept up by
     a tornado and put down in a totally different world. She stood behind the counter
     at the bakery, stacking fresh loaves of cinnamon bread in the wire basket, something
     she had done a hundred times before, but still, it was completely different today.
    She had spent the morning checking on various farms where she might be able to put
     her hives. Several folks had offered her the space, apparently willing to risk her
     daad’s disapproval, but none had been so good a situation as the one Nathan offered.
    This afternoon she had moved a few of her belongings into the spare bedroom in the
     apartment over the bakery, settling her buggy horse in the stable behind Katie and
     Caleb Brand’s shops just down the street. It was an obvious outward sign of her new
     life, and she’d half expected a clap of thunder to admonish her at her open flouting
     of her father’s wishes.
    Nothing had happened, and doing the familiar work was steadying. Still, she couldn’t
     quite relax.
    Her choices had narrowed when it came to the bees, and she’d promised Nathan an answer
     today. She must get over her foolishness, it seemed, and say yes to