Return to Paradise. Barbara Cameron

      Copyright Page

      Return to Paradise

      Copyright © 2016 Barbara Cameron

      All rights reserved.

      No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission can be addressed to Permissions, The United Methodist Publishing House, 2222 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., P.O. Box 280988, Nashville, TN, 37228-0988 or e-mailed to [email protected].

      The persons and events portrayed in this work of fiction are the creations of the author, and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

      Macro Editor: Teri Wilhelms

      Published in association with Books & Such Literary Agency

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Cameron, Barbara, 1949- author.

      Title: Return to paradise / Barbara Cameron.

      Description: Nashville, Tennessee : Abingdon Press, [2016] | Series: The

      coming home series ; book 1

      Identifiers: LCCN 2016001891 (print) | LCCN 2016009631 (ebook) | ISBN

      9781426770883 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781501816284 (e-book)

      Subjects: LCSH: Amish--Fiction. | Paradise (Lancaster County, Pa.)--Fiction.

      | GSAFD: Christian fiction. | Love stories.

      Classification: LCC PS3603.A4473 R48 2016 (print) | LCC PS3603.A4473 (ebook)

      | DDC 813/.6--dc23

      LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016001891

      Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

      Dedication

      For Monica

      For cheering me on. Wishing you bestsellerdom!

      A Note to the Reader

      A Note to the Reader

      What does home mean to you? Family? The place you live?

      I began thinking about this in the last year or so after losing two members of my birth family within a few months of each other. It became more important to me to be physically closer to my grown children, so with the help of friends, I sold my home of twelve years in a small town and moved to a big city about an hour and a half farther north where I would be closer to my daughter and her little son.

      While my little yellow house hadn’t been my dream home, it had become a nice, quiet sanctuary for me, and a place to own and also foster a number of dogs. I didn’t realize how wrenching it would be to leave it, even though we found a small house that was brighter and located just fifteen minutes from my daughter.

      Jennifer, a woman who had started as someone helping me organize and take care of my home, became a good friend and she got me through alternating and unexpected bouts of crying as we packed. I veered between happiness when the house sold quickly—and anxiety about the process of leaving my safe little area and venturing into a big city. I am really a small town girl who doesn’t like big cities much.

      But life is all about change and growth. I started thinking about what would happen if a young man who’s always only known his Amish community but struggled with a difficult father would do if he left that community . . . and then found he needed to return.

      How would the woman he left behind feel about his return and his desire to rekindle their relationship?

      I proposed the idea of an Amish series called Coming Home to my editor, Ramona Richards, and want to thank her for her enthusiasm for the project. Abingdon Press has been the home for my Amish books for a long time, and I appreciate everything Ramona and everyone at the company does to bring my work to readers.

      I also want to thank my daughter, Stephany, and her son, Kasey, for finding me this home. They called me on her cell phone with the speaker on to tell me they had found this development which, I could hear him piping up, “has lots and lots of flowers . . .and bushes!” He sounded just like one of the hosts on the HGTV network shows he likes to watch with his mother.

      Now I sit happily in a home office with a stencil on the wall behind me that says, “Home is where your story begins.”

      Of course, my biggest thanks goes to God for giving me life and helping me to tell stories of hope and faith and love.

      Chapter 1

      1

      You’re sighing again.”

      Lavina looked up from the baby quilt she was sewing and stared at Mary Elizabeth, her schweschder. “What?”

      “You’re sighing.”

      “I am not.”

      “You are,” Rose Anna, her youngest schweschder, said quietly. “Ever since we sat down to sew.” Her blue eyes were kind. “What are you thinking about?”

      “Who,” said Mary Elizabeth. “A better question is who is she thinking about?”

      “I’m not thinking about anyone.”

      Both her schweschders frowned at her. Lavina was twenty-three, the oldest of the three, but the way they looked at her she felt as if she were a kind. The three of them were barely a year apart and looked so alike with their blonde hair, blue eyes, and petite figures they could have passed for triplets.

      “Maybe I’m just tired.” Lavina set the quilt aside, got up and walked over to look out the window. Leaves the color of gold, red, and orange danced in the wind, heralding autumn. It used to be her favorite season. The long, hot summer and all the work of harvest, canning, and preserving was over.

      But weddings were taking place now. This time last year she’d thought she and David were getting married . . .

      “She’s doing it again,” she heard Rose Anna whisper behind her.

      “Tea,” Lavina said, and she turned and gave them a bright smile. “Anyone want a cup of tea?”

      “Schur.”

      She walked into the kitchen, filled the teakettle, and put it on the stove. Her glance went to the calendar on the wall. She looked away at how many weddings were noted for the month.

      This