Free The Amish Christmas Kitchen by Kelly Long Page B

raisin-filled cookie recipe to perfection. He never would have guessed that his future love would be riding on a cookie, but it was nonetheless.
    Friday morning dawned bright and clear, and Daniel went down before anyone else was awake to make the all-important batch of cookies. He’d just started the filling, using a combination of black and golden raisins, when his da shuffled out into the kitchen.
    â€œStill courtin’ by cookin’, buwe? ”
    â€œMaybe, Da,” Daniel laughed, flouring the table.
    â€œWell, the angel says that ya can’t force the widow’s hand. She’s got to choose. Do you understand?”
    His grandfather scratched his beard and ambled back out of the kitchen as Daniel’s hand hovered over the secret ingredient that made the cookies so gut. She’s got to choose.... Bowing his head for a moment, he pushed aside the container, knowing he was leaving the contest wide open for Clara to win—and for him to lose—forever.
    * * *
    Clara was plagued by an insistent thought, but she tried to push it aside a hundred times. Leave out the secret ingredient in the praline cookies? Let Daniel win, and then he . . . and I . . . He’d be so happy, she thought with sudden clarity, and pushed the glass jar away from her.
    Blinks bleated.
    â€œ Ach, shush,” Clara scolded lightly. “I know what I’m doing.”
    She finished the rest of the recipe, then baked the cookies and pulled them out to rest on cooling racks while she went about her normal chores. And then, somehow, the day had flown by and she had to hurry to finish getting ready to go to the school with Daniel.
    He arrived on time, as usual, and she had just put on her bonnet when his firm knock sounded at the door. She gathered up her foil-covered cookie platter and opened the door. She didn’t know what she’d been expecting, but after not seeing him for nearly five days, she was unprepared for his quiet words of greeting.
    â€œHello, Clara. You look beautiful tonight.”
    â€œ Danki, ” she said, feeling shy around him. She wet her lips and indicated her cookie tray. “I made the pralines.”
    â€œAnd I made my raisin-filled cookies.”
    She wondered why he sounded faintly sad, but then he smiled as usual and helped her into the sleigh. They were both quiet on the way down, but it was a comfortable silence—like that of two old friends, she thought, wondering why the thought depressed her. She stroked Blinks’s fur with her free hand and the goat baa ed gently into the nacht air.
    * * *
    The schoolhouse was ablaze with lantern light when they arrived, and folks were pulling up before the garland-wrapped front step banisters and exchanging festive greetings.
    â€œI’ll stable Blinks with my horse,” Daniel said as he helped Clara down. He turned for a moment to watch her mount the school steps, feeling that he was letting her go forever and it hurt him deeply inside. But, just the same, he went through the motions of housing the animals and returning the greetings that came his way.
    He met his mamm on the way in and quickly took the cookie plates from her hands as she juggled two of his fussing siblings at her skirts. “I’ll put the cookies on the table, Mamm,” he said.
    â€œ Jah, sohn .” She leaned close. “And gut luck to ya tonight.”
    He smiled and entered the school to discover a wonderland of light and decorations. Although his people normally didn’t decorate much for Christmas, Jude Lyons and the kinner had outdone themselves with green and red loops of cut paper, festive ribbons, and a large hand-painted banner that hung atop the long tables lining the walls where the cookies were being placed by eager participants.
    Obviously, the idea of a Cookie Bake Off appealed to the bakers of Ice Mountain, as nearly everyone he knew had turned out to pay their dollar entry fee and accept a number for their