Second Chances for Nathan Chapter 9, Part 3, Page 56

"It's a good thing that Barrett is such a great watch dog!" Jack confided in Emily. "That barking that woke you up last night, was him protecting his family from the group of coyotes roaming around. Luckily, he scared them away or your chickens might have been their dinner."

"Oh my Jack," Emily felt a shiver run through her, "what do you think we should do?"

"It's already taken care of. I made an outside latch that should hold the door on the coop securely. You'll have to make sure that it's closed every night. Barrett is protecting his family by watching and barking. The barn doors will have to be secured every night." Jack directed. "Seems them coyotes have been bothering farms around the town looking for prey. Anyways, here's your eggs."

"Well the Grant family farm is not open to those thieves." Emily declared. "Thank you for your help again Jack."

Being Friday, Allie was excited to start baking with Oma and Karen. "First we need to clean and do our laundry."

After their chores were done, it was almost noon. Karen arrived and after a quick bite for lunch, they were ready to start. "Ladies, we have several recipes to choose from, so what did you two decide?"

"Almond stollen and yule log" Allie suggested.

"Angel, those are Christmas desserts. They do taste very yummy. I hope someday I'll be close enough to you that we can bake those for Christmas, but today, let's stick with Apfelstrudel and Kirsch Käsekuchen. I think these are good to start with. Let's get the recipes out, put on our aprons, wash our hands, and collect the ingredients!" Oma called out.

It took several hours, but the desserts looked wonderful. "So, my taste testers, what's the verdict?"

"Delicious, they taste even better than they look!" the girls smiled with big grins.

"Wonderful, wonderful!" Oma laughed, tomorrow, we'll bake two different kinds."

"We're going outside to play with the puppies." Allie announced.

"Aren't you two forgetting something?" Oma asked while looking at the dishes.

"Can we do them later?" Allie begged.

"No, my angel, as we both no that later never comes." Oma nodded.

Dee stopped by after closing up the music store to give Allie one more practice for Sunday's church service music. Karen watched intently. Dee was so patient and encouraging that Karen started to get interested. When Dee began singing, Oma joined them and relaxed. What was very surprising was when Karen began singing along. Dee was smiling and stopped singing to listen to Karen. "You have a lovely voice Karen! Please keep singing." When the song was over, Dee clapped her hands and invited Karen to join her in the next song. "How about you sing a duet with me at the church service? Allie will be playing and we'll sing."

"Do you really think I'm good enough?" Karen asked.

"Yes, Karen you are. I think you would be a great student. Then you'll learn how to control your voice and breathing that will help."

"All right, I'll ask my parents!" Karen ran over to Allie, "We can be music buddies now." as they hugged.

Nathan walked in to Lee's office. "Hello Lee, remember my dad, Archie?"

"I do, I do, come on in. How are you?" Lee asked. "How can I help you?"

"He saw the ad Rosemary put in the Valley Voice looking for help and showed up at my office a little while ago, so here we are." Nathan look bewildered.

"Oh okay, well Archie, I need help such as lumberjacks, hauling, all definitely hard work. To tell you the truth, I'm looking for a few strapping young men who are strong. I'm sorry I can't help you." Lee shook his head. Rosemary and Elizabeth came in the door just then and said hello to Nathan and Archie.

"Hello Archie." Elizabeth greeted him. "Nathan, I didn't know you dad was back in town."

"I didn't either until about an hour ago. He's been looking for work and saw the ad in the Valley Voice for help here." Nathan explained.

"Well now," Rosemary injected, "this is quite a surprise. Welcome to Hope Valley, again."

"Did you talk to Henry?" Elizabeth suggested. "Perhaps he has work for Archie?"

"That's a good idea," Lee agreed.

"Then we'll check with Henry," Nathan nodded. "Just so you know, dad will be staying with me until, well, I'm not sure. We'll just see how it goes."