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County in Pennsylvania. Though her mother had wanted Elizabeth to come along, Elizabeth hadn’t been all that eager to live with a stepfather. Milton was a nice enough man, but he had particular ways of doing things, and Elizabeth knew she would have had to follow his rules.
    Of course, that hadn’t been the only reason she’d stayed behind. Though she’d volunteered to take care of her grandmother, everyone also knew that Elizabeth had only been biding her time until Randall Beiler finally proposed.
    To her shame, she realized that she’d been hoping he would suddenly change his mind and come back to her. Realize that she could actually help him and his family once they got married.
    She would have done that gladly, too. She liked looking after other people. She liked cooking and sewing and planning and fussing.
    But he never had come back. Actually, he’d never even looked back. Just as she’d never tried to convince him that things could work out. All they’d done was try to avoid each other as much as possible.
    Now she was trying to take care of her grandmother on a shoestring budget and spending the rest of her time living in the silence of her regrets.
    She’d lost weight and couldn’t seem to lift the cloak of disappointment that surrounded her now. It was a difficult thing to realize that one conversation could remove all the joy from her life.
    It was even worse to realize that she had no earthly idea how to get it back.

chapter two
    â€œI don’t know if you already know this, but you’re planting your potatoes too close together,” Levi Beiler said when he came to a stop just two feet away from where Elizabeth was kneeling in the dirt the following morning.
    Elizabeth was so irritated she didn’t even bother asking him why he had stopped by. Or what had possessed him to take an interest in her root vegetables. After glaring at the row of seedlings she’d just planted, she raised her chin to meet his gaze. “Are you sure about that?”
    Levi used one finger and slowly tipped up the brim of his hat. When his blue eyes came into view, he met her gaze and nodded. “I’m real sure. Believe me, I’ve planted my share of ’em.” With a grimace, he mumbled, “We’re kind of fond of them at our haus these days.”
    â€œI can’t believe this. Levi, I’ve almost finished planting the whole row.”
    â€œUm, I don’t think so.”
    She set down her spade. “What do you mean by that?”
    He stuffed his hands in his trouser pockets. “I’m just sayin’ that you won’t have finished much if the plants don’t have room to grow. All you’ll be getting is a mess of undergrown veggies. Ain’t so?”
    â€œI guess you’re right. It’s just so hard, though. I’ve been out here for three hours.”
    Levi looked at her crooked row, at the basket of tiny seedlings that she no doubt had paid too much money for, and sighed. With a look of distaste, he rolled up his sleeves and held out his hand. “Hand me that spade.”
    Hope, followed by the smallest amount of guilt, led her to pick the spade back up. “Are you sure?”
    â€œI’m sure.”
    Since it was a sin to be prideful, Elizabeth handed it to him without another word. She needed help and was even willing to get it from a know-it-all sixteen-year-old.
    She sat down on the hard ground and watched Levi nimbly walk to the beginning of her row. Then, without a bit of fuss, he dropped to his knees, dug up her seedlings, made each hole a little deeper, and then replanted every other one. He completed the task in under fifteen minutes.
    Then, to her amazement, he started on the next row.
    To say it took him less than half the time to dig each hole was putting it mildly. Actually, he looked a bit like an Englischer’s fancy machine, his muscular arms making easy work of the hard soil. The entire