Smitten by Colleen Coble EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Colleen Coble
- Language: English
- Genre: Amish & Mennonite Fiction
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 4 MB
- Price: Free
Natalie Mansfield’s heart swelled as she stood on the perimeter of the
town square and watched her niece and the other children decorate the
town for Easter. A gigantic smile stretched across five-year-old Mia’s
face as her Sunday school teacher lifted her to place the lavender wreath at
the top of the clock.
Mia saw her and waved. “Aunt Nat, look at me!”
Natalie waved back, her smile broadening. “She’s growing so fast,” she
told her great-aunt, Rose Garner. “I love her so much.”
Black threaded Rose’s silver hair, and her smooth skin made her look
twenty years younger than her seventy-eight years. “I still remember the
first day I laid eyes on you.”
“How could you forget? I was a morose ten-year-old who snapped your
head off every time you spoke to me.”
Her aunt pressed her hand. “You changed our lives, honey. Now here you
are providing a home for your niece. A full circle, just like that wreath. I’m
so proud of you.”
Her aunt’s words made Natalie’s heart fill to bursting. Being part of their
family, along with her four cousins, had healed her heart. “You gave me the
only stability I’d ever known. I want to do the same for Mia.”
Aunt Rose wasn’t listening. A small frown creased her brow.
“Something’s wrong.”
Natalie looked at the men standing a few feet away in front of the
hardware store. Their heads were down and their shoulders slumped. The
dejection in their stances sent her pulse racing.
She recognized one of her coffee shop patrons, Murphy Clinton, and
grabbed his arm as he walked past. “What’s happened, Murphy?” she
asked.
He stopped and stared down at her with a grave expression. “The mill’s
closing.”
“That’s not possible,” she mumbled. Her thoughts raced. The mill was an
institution and the main employer in Smitten. If it closed . . .
He finished her thought. “This town is finished.”
The aroma of the freshly brewed coffee overpowered the less appetizing
smell from the drum roaster in the back room. Natalie let her cousin Zoe
handle the customers at the bar, as Natalie took the hot beverages to the
seating area by the window where she and her friends could see whitetopped Sugarcreek Mountain. Spring had come to their part of Vermont, and
the sight of the wildflowers on the lower slopes would give her strength.
“So what are we going to do?” she asked, sinking onto the overstuffed
leather sofa beside Reese Mackenzie.
“Do? What can w e do?” R eese a sked. Her blond ponytail gleamed in
the shaft of sunlight through the window. She was the practical one in the
group. Reese was never afraid of hard work, but while Natalie saw only the
end goal, Reese saw the pitfalls right on the path. “We can’t make them
keep the mill open.”
While rumors about the mill had been floating for months, no one had
really believed it would fold. The ramifications would be enormous.
Natalie’s business had been struggling enough without this added blow.
She took a sip of her mocha java.
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