Santa's Seven-Day Baby Tutorial. Meg Maxwell

      “Ja,” she said, spotting his unforgettable face through the windshield. “I wonder what he wants.”

      As the FBI agent parked, her aenti and cousin emerged from the barn, Sadie wide-eyed.

      Colt got out of his car, the engine still running, the windows lowered halfway. “Anna, I was hoping to speak to you.”

      “About?” her onkel asked, stepping forward. “I’m Eli Miller, Anna’s uncle.”

      To the Amish, men were heads of the household, but this was Anna’s house and she ran her own life. Something her onkel didn’t forget but ignored. Still, she wouldn’t show disrespect to Eli in front of a stranger. But later, she would let him know she would speak for and answer for herself.

      “A job offer,” Colt said, his gaze on Anna.

      While Anna stared at him, she could see out of the corner of her eye that her cousin and aenti were looking at each other with wide eyes.

      “A job offer? What do you mean?” Anna asked, stepping forward next to her onkel.

      “If you come over to my car, you’ll see,” Colt said, gesturing all of them over to the black SUV.

      They all looked at one another, then followed him to the car.

      Anna peered in. The front seats were empty. In the back were two car seats, rear-facing. She moved to the back of the car so she could look at the babies. They were about six months old, she’d say, and not identical but did look a lot alike. Both had wispy dark hair and big cheeks. Both were also fast asleep, with little stuffed animals on their laps. One baby had his toy clutched in his tiny fist.

      Colt was married? A father? Had she been fantasizing about a married man? He didn’t wear a wedding ring, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t married. Disappointment and shame hit her hard in the stomach.

      “Your children are beautiful,” Anna said, forcing herself not to sound disappointed.

      He smiled and shook his head. “They’re not mine. Noah and Nathaniel are my nephews. My sister and her husband were scheduled to leave for a cruise today but their nanny had the dates wrong and couldn’t watch the twins. That leaves me as the babysitter.”

      All four Millers gawked at him. “You’re the babysitter?” Sadie said with a grin.

      “I am. But I could use some help. I would like to hire you, Anna, to be the twins’ nanny for the seven days.”

      Anna was so gobsmacked she could hardly think, let alone speak.

      “Not in your home,” Onkel Eli said to Colt, lifting his chin.

      Her aenti nodded. “That would not be proper.”

      “Not in my home,” Colt said. “Now that I’m on baby duty, my plan is to visit my twin brother and his wife, who have a newborn. They live in Blue Gulch, a few hours’ drive from here. I would book two rooms at an inn downtown, one for me and one for Anna. I will pay her well for her time and expertise.”

      Onkel Eli was frowning. Aenti Kate was thinking—Anna could tell. Sadie’s eyes were as big as saucers.

      “I accept your offer,” Anna said. She wouldn’t think about it. She wouldn’t ask her aenti and onkel for their opinions. She was being offered a very good way to have her rumspringa, years late, and she would take it.

      “Anna, I don’t know,” Onkel Eli said, rubbing his beard. “We don’t know this Englisher.”

      She was taking this job whether overprotective Eli liked it or not. But she could see genuine concern in the man’s eyes. “Onkel, Colt Asher is an FBI agent in Houston. I will be safe with him.”

      Colt took his badge from his pocket and showed the Millers, then put it away.

      “I think Anna should take the job,” her aenti said. “This is her opportunity to have her rumspringa. To experience life in the English world. Either she will return to us and commit to the Ordnung and be baptized in the faith. Or she will not.”

      Her onkel frowned again, but nodded. He extended a hand toward Colt, and Colt shook it.

      “The job starts immediately,” Colt said. “Or at least I hope it can. I barely survived fifteen minutes on my own. I think I could handle one baby okay. But two? Nope.”

      “Nope,” Sadie repeated with a grin.

      One quickly raised eyebrow from her mother let Sadie know that nope was not to be added to her vocabulary.

      “It’s very nice of you to take on the bopplis for your sister,” Kate said.

      Colt tilted his head, and Sadie said, “Boppli is Amish for baby.”

      “Boppli,” Colt repeated, smiling at Sadie. He looked at Eli and Kate. “Well, I may not be much of a boppli-sitter, but I’d do anything for my sister.”

      Anna glanced at her aenti and could tell the woman liked that response. Both Millers seemed more comfortable by the second with the idea of Anna riding off in a car with a stranger to take a weeklong job.

      Except the strain on her aunt’s face told Anna that Kate knew her niece might not return. That was the very purpose of this rumspringa. To finally know where she belonged. Here? Where she’d been born and raised and lived and worked? Or in the English world, a place and culture she’d only truly experienced in books and magazines?

      “Let’s help Anna pack quickly,” Kate said to Sadie. “We should get her ready to go before the little ones awaken.”

      Sadie put her hand in Anna’s, and the three headed into the house.

      What Colt Asher and her onkel were talking about outside, Anna could only guess. Furniture. The village. Anna’s farm. She would have to make arrangements for the three calves to be moved to their owners; they were ready to be returned anyway.

      Anna led the way upstairs to her bedroom. She pulled her suitcase from the closet and set it on her bed, flipping open the top. For a moment Anna just stared at it, the empty suitcase lying open, her entire life about to change.

      “Are you sure, Anna?” Kate asked.

      Anna nodded. “I’m sure.” She looked in her closet. She had many dresses, several inherited from her mamm. Her father’s two overalls. She had no idea what to pack. Three dresses would do for the week. She moved to her bureau for her undergarments and head coverings and pajama gowns. Would she wear these things while in the English world, though? She had no other clothes.

      The suitcase packed in less than a minute, Anna turned to Kate. “Thank for always supporting me, Kate.” She hugged her. “You’ve been wonderful to me.”

      Kate hugged her back tightly. “I want you to be happy.” Then she whispered, “I want you to know where you belong.”

      Me, too, Anna thought.

      “I’ll send you postcards, Sadie,” Anna told her cousin, kneeling down in front of her.

      “Oh gut! Danki,” Sadie said. “I’ll miss you so much, Cousin Anna.” The little girl wrapped her arms around her. “You’re so brave.”

      For a brave woman, she sure was shaking inside. But she’d never been so excited in her life.

      * * *

      Anna barely knew Colt Asher, but she was pretty sure she detected relief on his handsome face as she got inside his car. He closed the passenger door, then rounded the vehicle. In the rearview mirror, she saw three sets of worried eyes looking at the car. She’d said her goodbyes and it wasn’t like the Amish to stand around.

      Were the Millers nervous that Anna was leaving? Or that she might not return? Both, most likely. And concerned for little Sadie, who adored her “different” cousin. No matter what happened at the end of the rumspringa, Anna would need to take care with the girl.

      Colt