Chapter One

Not again.

Charlotte held up Christopher’s newest pants and sighed. Another hole in another knee after he’d already ripped two pairs of pants this week.

She tossed them in the washing machine and turned it on. She’d have to have a chat with him about being more careful. He had older clothes to wear for his chores.

As the machine filled with water, she took the other clothes out of the dryer. As she folded, her mind ticked over the jobs for the day. She’d have to get Emily and Christopher to help her in the garden. It needed weeding again. And the windows outside needed washing. She had promised her sister-in-law, Rosemary, that she would help her set up a quilting display in her fabric store later this afternoon. Also, her dear friend Hannah had been under the weather the past few days, and Charlotte had said she would visit.

Her son Bill, his wife Anna, and their two girls and baby boy were coming for dinner on Sunday after church, and there was cleaning and baking to be done.

On top of that, somehow she had to find a way to keep her grandchildren busy for the rest of the summer. Though it was their second year of living on the farm, they still needed a prod now and again to get things done.

She rolled up a pair of socks and set them on Sam’s pile of clothes in the laundry basket, picked it up, and walked into the kitchen.

She frowned at what she saw.

A bowl sat on the counter, the mixer lying at a haphazard angle beside it. The milk and eggs stood to one side, and bananas, already peeled, lay on the countertop. Where was Emily? The banana bread Charlotte had asked her to make was supposed to be baking in the oven by now along with a batch of cookies.

Charlotte glanced over to the family room, but the only person there was Sam, hunched over the screen of the computer.

“Sam, what game are you playing?”

“I’m not playing,” he muttered. “Grandpa sent me in here to look for some silly part for the haybine. He said to look on this one site, but I can’t figure out what he wants.”

“What’s wrong with it?” Charlotte felt dread at Sam’s words. All week Bob and their son Pete had been fretting about cutting the hay and a host of other things that needed to be done immediately. As a true farmer’s wife, Charlotte often took on the same worries as her husband and son. The farm’s livelihood was everyone’s concern. “Do you think you’ll be able to find it?”

The only reply she received was Sam’s laconic shrug.

“Do you need me to run into town for anything?”

Sam leaned closer to the screen and shook his head. “I don’t even know what we need yet. I’ve gotta teach Grandpa how to work this thing so I don’t have to do this,” he muttered again.

“I thought Christopher gave him a few lessons awhile ago,” Charlotte recalled.

“Yeah, well, they didn’t seem to sink in,” Sam replied.

“Where is Christopher anyway?” Charlotte wondered out loud.

“Haven’t seen the little dude all morning,” Sam said.

“I thought he went outside with you after breakfast.”

“He did, but Uncle Pete wouldn’t let him drive the tractor, so he took off.”

“You said you would watch him,” Charlotte said, trying not to express her annoyance. She glanced back at the milk still sitting out and went back to put it in the fridge. In this heat it would go sour in no time.

“I did. And then he took off so I couldn’t watch him anymore.” Sam leaned closer to the screen, sighed, and shook his head as he navigated to another page.

“And you don’t know where he went?” Charlotte pressed, picking up the eggs as well.

“I told you, Grandma. I haven’t seen him since Uncle Pete said he couldn’t drive the tractor.”

Charlotte stopped herself from reprimanding her grandson. Sam had been testy the past few days, and Charlotte knew he struggled with his own set of worries.

College lay ahead of him. His girlfriend, Arielle, was heading off to Grace University in Omaha while he would be staying home and commuting to Central Community College in Grand Island.

Charlotte knew Sam wondered how he and Arielle would manage the separation and how they would maintain the relationship over the distance.

Charlotte had her own concerns about Sam. It had taken him some time to decide where he would go to school and what he would take. The brief return of their estranged father into the children’s lives at Christmastime hadn’t helped Sam’s equilibrium.

She just hoped and prayed he wouldn’t change his mind about college, even though there was some concern about how it would get paid for.

Now the haybine was broken down …

Stop! Charlotte told herself. How many times had she worried about the farm? About the children? About how she and Bob would cope with taking care of grandchildren who barely knew them when they first came to the farm? How many times had she worried about their lives, the big and little things?

In spite of her years, it seemed she still had to trust God daily that they would be given strength to handle whatever came their way.

Sam muttered some more, but Charlotte chose to ignore it. She had to deal with Emily now.

“Emily, where are you?” she called, setting the bananas on a plate.

“Sorry, Grandma,” Emily answered, running down the stairs, phone in hand. “I was … uh … talking on the phone.”

Charlotte gave her an are-you-kidding-me? look, one she had learned from Emily. “Who or what was more important than baking banana bread?” she asked as she washed her hands.

“Well, you see …,” Emily started.

Charlotte had a pretty good idea of what had happened.

Troy again.

When Emily and Troy first started dating, Charlotte and Bob had had their doubts. Troy wasn’t exactly boyfriend material, yet he was kind to Emily and seemed to be improving in nature.

And he loved talking to Emily on the phone.

“Surely you can talk to your boyfriend and mix dough at the same time?”

“She could, but she didn’t want me listening in,” Sam said.

Emily just rolled her eyes in another classic teenager move.

Then the porch door slammed, and Christopher burst into the kitchen. “I thought the banana bread would be ready by now,” he said.

Charlotte had to smile at how quickly her other small worry had been eased away. Christopher was obviously fine.

“It’s coming, it’s coming,” Emily grumbled, dumping the bananas into the bowl.

“I was hoping for some banana bread too,” Sam said scribbling something down on a piece of paper beside the computer.

“Oh, you never mind. If you and Arielle ever get married, you might have to learn to bake banana bread yourself,” Emily retorted.

“Great big emphasis on the if.” Sam stood up, shoved the chair under the computer desk, slapped his hat on his head, and slouched out the door.

“I wish Sam wasn’t so grumpy,” Christopher said, walking over to the cookie jar and lifting the lid. “This is empty too?”

Charlotte ignored his complaint. “Sam is worried about college. And if you don’t have anything to do, Christopher, I’d like you to help me in the garden.”

Christopher made a face. “Why can’t Emily help you?”

“Emily is helping me,” Charlotte said, “as soon as she’s done baking the banana bread and cookies I asked her to make.”

Charlotte caught the tail end of Emily’s eye roll and chose to ignore it. There was a time when that would have really annoyed her, but taking care of teenage grandchildren had taught her the valuable lesson of choosing which battles to fight and which ones to let slide.

The phone rang and Emily dove for it. Then she made a face, covered the phone, and handed it to Charlotte. “It’s for you, Grandma.”

Charlotte took the phone but first glanced at her grandson. “You get started, Christopher, and I’ll be there as soon as I’m done with this phone call.”

“Hello?” she said, answering the call and simultaneously organizing the loose papers that had gravitated to the desk near the cordless phone’s base. Every day more mail was added to the pile, and the job of sorting through it all always fell to her.

“Charlotte? Oh, Charlotte, I need to talk to you. I need you.”

“Hannah? Did something happen? Are you OK?” The frantic voice on the other end was almost unrecognizable as that of her dear friend and neighbor. “Hannah, calm down. What’s wrong?”

“I’m at the hospital in Harding. You have to come.”

Charlotte’s heart leapt into her throat. “What happened? What’s going on?”

“It’s Frank. He’s had a heart attack.”

“YOU SURE I CAN’T HAVE another cookie?” Christopher stared longingly at the pile of cookies Emily carefully placed in the cookie jar.

“You’ve already had four,” Emily said, flicking her fingers at his hands as he tried to sneak another one. “I don’t want you to spoil your appetite.”

“Do you think Grandma will be back in time to make supper?” Christopher licked the chocolate off his fingers and pressed his thumb down on some errant crumbs on the countertop.

“I’m not sure.” As soon as Grandma got to the hospital, she had phoned Emily to tell her she would be there a while. That was three hours ago, and it was getting close to suppertime.

“If Grandma doesn’t come home on time, what are you making for supper?” Christopher asked, sweeping the rest of the crumbs into his cupped hand and tossing them into his mouth. “Can we have cereal? And can we watch TV when we eat?”

Emily bit her lip as she glanced at the clock. She had finished baking the cookies and had taken the clothes out of the dryer and folded them. She and Christopher had weeded the garden and kept busy while waiting for Grandma to come back.

But she still wasn’t home, and suppertime was creeping closer.

“No, we can’t have cereal. Grandpa and Sam will be hungry after working all day outside.” Emily tapped her finger against her lip, trying to think.

The phone rang, and she jumped to answer it, hoping it would be Grandma saying she was coming home.

But it was Ashley.

“Hey, friend,” Emily said. “What are you up to?”

“Remember that Bible camp thing I told you about that we were too late to sign up for? Camp Whispering Pines? I heard there were some last-minute openings so I got a couple of application forms. You wanna come?”

Emily frowned. When Ashley brought it up toward the end of the school year, Emily hadn’t been too stoked about the idea, mostly because she was ashamed to admit she had no idea what Bible camp was. So she had been kind of glad there weren’t any openings then.

“I don’t know.”

“I mean, you don’t need to come …”

Emily sensed Ashley’s disappointment and wished she could be more excited. “Well, it’s just I’ve never been to a Bible camp. What do you do all day? Read the Bible?”

Ashley laughed. “Of course not. There are a lot of other things to do. Hiking, canoeing, horseback riding, swimming. We play games, do crafts—hey, I know it sounds lame, but it’s really a lot of fun.”

“No, if that’s what it’s like, it sounds like it could be great.” Anytime she could get away from the farm and her brothers was a good time. “You should have told me the first time.”

“Sorry. I … uh … I just thought you would know.”

“I grew up in San Diego, remember? Mom was too broke to send us anywhere.”

Though it had been a couple of years since her mother died, Emily still felt a gentle pang whenever she thought of her. It didn’t hurt as much as it had the first half year after she and her brothers had moved to the farm to live with their grandparents. But it still hurt.

“Sorry. I keep forgetting. Sometimes I think you’ve been here all your life.”

“Where does the Bible part come in?” Emily tucked the cordless phone between her ear and her shoulder as she dug through the freezer, hoping that by some miracle Grandma had a casserole hidden away among the packages of meat and bread and assorted frozen goods.

No such luck.

“Well, there’s usually a speaker in the evening who talks about different parts of our faith life,” Ashley said. “And we sing songs around the campfire and do devotions every morning.”

Emily closed the freezer and walked back into the kitchen, listening and thinking at the same time. Christopher was in the family room playing on the computer. He wasn’t supposed to be on the computer in the middle of the day, but summer days on the farm kind of stretched out and could get boring.

She wasn’t going to tell him he couldn’t, not after he had helped her weed the garden in the hot June sun. Suddenly the thought of being on a lake sounded pretty cool, in every meaning of the word.

“I’m not much for that kind of stuff, but I’d put up with it so I could do all the other things.” When Emily, Sam, and Christopher lived in San Diego they had never gone to church, but since moving here, they’d gone every Sunday with Grandma and Grandpa. Rules of the house.

Emily understood church and God were important. Once in a while, when she was really scared or confused—like when their dad, who hadn’t seen them in years, came to visit last Christmas—she felt like praying. And the few times she did pray after that, it seemed like maybe someone was listening.

So maybe the Bible part could be okay.

“If you want to go, that’d be awesome,” Ashley was saying. “I don’t feel like going if you’re not.”

“I think I’d like to go.” Then Emily had another thought. “But what about Troy? He never said anything about coming. Would he want to?”

“You don’t have to do everything with your boyfriend,” Ashley said with a sigh. Ashley and her boyfriend Ryan had broken up awhile back, and Emily knew she was feeling a bit out of sorts that Emily and Troy were going pretty strong.

“How long is this camp anyway?” Emily asked.

“Ten days.”

“That’s a long time to be gone,” Emily said. “I wonder if that’s such a good idea.”

“You’d rather be at home, milking the cow, gathering eggs, and weeding the garden while I’m out riding horses, paddling a canoe, and working on my tan?”

Emily leaned on the counter and looked out the window overlooking the garden, which would need weeding again in a week or so. She thought of the chores she had to do every day and how boring it could get on the farm.

“And besides,” Ashley continued, “Troy will miss you and when you come home he’ll be all smoochy and clingy and huggy. How can that be bad?”

Emily had to laugh at the thought. Troy was a great guy, but he wasn’t one for much affection.

“Might be good for him if you’re gone for a bit,” Ashley said. “Maybe he’ll realize how lucky he is to have you.”

“Or maybe I’ll realize how lucky I am to have him,” Emily said, a flash of reality hitting her. “What does this camp cost?”

“Nothing. The church pays for kids from our congregation to attend.”

“Really? It’s free?” Well, that settled it. “I’m so coming,” Emily said.

“You will?” Ashley squealed in Emily’s ear. “That’s great. Awesome. Amazing. You won’t regret this. It will be so much fun. Now we need to make plans. I can drop the forms off today, and the lady who takes them said that was okay. Your grandma will probably have to sign something, but I’m sure they’ll reserve your space.”

“When do we have to be there?”

“The bus leaves Monday afternoon. Camp starts Monday night.”

“How far away is it?”

“Only an hour.”

“Awesome.” Emily was getting more excited about the idea all the time.

Then Emily glanced at the clock, and her heart jumped. “Rats. Ashley, I gotta go. I have to make supper, and I have no idea what to make.”

“Where’s your Grandma?”

“She had to go to the hospital with our neighbor Hannah, and she’s not back yet. And Grandpa and Sam and Uncle Pete have been working outside all day so I know they’ll be hungry.” The more she talked, the more panicky she got. “And if they’re hungry and I don’t have anything to make them—”

“Why don’t you make sloppy joes? Or chili?” Ashley suggested.

“Nah, it’s too hot for that. Maybe I could make pasta with some vegetables.”

“Sounds good to me,” Ashley offered.

“OK, well, if I gotta cook this stuff, I better get going.”

“Don’t forget to ask your grandma about the camp thing.”

“I won’t. I’m pretty pumped.” Emily felt a shiver of excitement at the idea of being away from the farm for ten days. It would be so much fun.

“We can get together tomorrow and make plans,” Ashley said. “Get Sam to drive you if you can’t borrow your grandma’s car.”

“Excellent idea,” Emily said. She said good-bye to her friend and grinned. Ten days away from Sam, Christopher, and the farm.

It was going to be so, so cool.

Twenty minutes later, she had pasta boiling on the stove and was mixing some garlic butter to spread on the bread she would heat up. The whole time she worked, she imagined being at camp, meeting new people, and having a new adventure.

Then, while she checked the pasta, misgivings nudged at her. Would Grandma really let her be away for ten days? Even if she was going to Bible camp?

What could she do to convince Grandma to let her go?

She put the wooden spoon down on the spoon rest and suddenly had a brainstorm. If she cleaned the house and folded the laundry, Grandma would be so impressed with her. And if she was impressed, she’d be in a good mood when Emily asked her about camp. Then she’d probably let her go.

Genius. Sheer genius, Emily thought, starting with the kitchen counters.