Harvest of Blessings Read Online Free

to add on to it after she’d been born because nearly fourteen years had passed before baby Ella came along a couple of years ago.
    Millie blinked. For a moment, she’d been looking at her home with a sense of utter detachment, as though she’d never been inside it. She’d lived in this place on the far edge of Willow Ridge forever, yet the windows gazed back at her like empty eyes, devoid of feeling.
    “Ya got quiet on me,” Ira remarked. “Need to go inside for anything? Or for a little smoochin’?”
    “ No , let’s—well—” Millie flushed, wondering how to give him the answer he wanted. She craved the kisses Ira was hinting at, yet the scrap she’d had with Dat had set her on edge. “Who knows when my parents might come home? They weren’t exactly enjoying the wedding celebration when I left.”
    “Sorry,” he replied with a shrug. “I thought—”
    “ Jah , well, thinkin’ can get ya in trouble,” Millie quipped. “You’ve told me so yourself.”
    As the next several minutes passed in silence, Millie kicked herself for acting like such a wet blanket. Was it her imagination, or was this outing with Ira getting more awkward by the moment? She racked her brain for something safe to talk about. “So how’s your new mill comin’ along? Will your store open soon?”
    “Got the gas refrigeration units installed this week. The shelves for the bulk foods are all set, too. So, jah ,” Ira said with a confident nod, “we’ll open in a week or so. How many dozen eggs can I sell ya, girlie? Laid by certified free-range chickens that’re eatin’ organic feed.”
    Millie let out a laugh. “Why’s it such a big deal that chickens are peckin’ in the yard instead of livin’ in coops?”
    “Lots of English are convinced the eggs taste better if the hens aren’t confined,” he explained with a rise of his dark eyebrows. “They think cages are inhumane—so Luke and I are sellin’ them what they think they want. Organic specialty grains are all the rage, too. Along with millin’ local farmers’ corn and wheat, we’re offerin’ spelt and millet and quinoa we get from Plain mills around the country.”
    Millie’s eyes widened. “If I have no idea how to cook with that stuff, does that make me stupid?”
    Well, ya just begged to be made a fool of. What’s with ya today ?
    Ira squeezed her shoulders. “Nah, it makes ya Plain, Millie. Simpler. Nothin’ wrong with that.”
    And yet, as they circled the outer limits to the north of Willow Ridge, past homes that belonged to Schrock cousins and other Mennonite families, Millie sensed that Ira did find something wrong with being Plain. She wondered if the Hooley brothers might drift all their lives, never committing to the Old Order or to marriage. Maybe her dat had known that all along, even if her mamm allowed her to go out with Ira.
    Why does this have to be so complicated? Why am I not having the fun I’d hoped for today ?
    As the rig headed back toward town, the Wagler place came into view. Millie sat taller, taking in the two-story structure with an addition that had put on a porch and extended the front room and the kitchen, years ago. “Adam and Matthias have done some painting and fixin’ up,” she remarked, gazing eagerly at the home where Annie Mae and her sibs would live. “Used to be, you could tell by the difference in paint colors which was the old part and the newer part. It’ll make them all a real nice home now,” she added wistfully.
    Ira glanced at her as though she’d sprouted a second head. “That’s what happens when a woman enters the picture,” he teased. “Adam painted all the rooms and refaced the kitchen cabinets, too, usin’ the money he got from sellin’ that antique motorcycle he’d stashed in his barn. And who knew about that ?”
    Annie Mae knew. And she believed Adam was sufferin’ deep down inside, the same as she was. And now they’re both so happy I can hardly stand to watch them.
    Millie sighed,