Free Christmas in Sugarcreek by Shelley Shepard Gray

entered Judith’s eyes. If Ben hadn’t been so transfixed, he would have been wary. She looked mad enough to spit nails.
    “You didn’t ask me about working late tonight, Daed.”
    “I’m telling you now, daughter. What more do you want?”
    Mr. Graber looked so clueless, and Judith so hurt, Ben ached to say something, anything, to make things right. But what could he say? This wasn’t his business, and this wasn’t his family. Really he was only a paid employee, and a temporary one at that.
    For a brief moment, Ben thought Judith was going to challenge her father. Her lips pursed and she drew a breath. Ben paused, half hoping she would protest, just so he could see what she was like when she was angry. But then, looking around at the many customers milling around, she slumped. “Where will Ben sleep?” she asked softly.
    Which, of course, hurt him more than any harsh words of condemnation. She looked resigned to her fate. No matter what.
    So though he’d been determined not to get involved, he did. “You know, I surely don’t have to do anything but drop off Judith—”
    “You don’t have to—”
    “We want you to be with us,” Mr. Graber said firmly. Interrupting Judith’s protest. Turning to his daughter, his voice had a new edge to it, one that surely brooked no argument. “Ben will be sleeping tonight in Joshua’s old room. Daughter, you surely don’t have a problem with this, do you? Surely you haven’t forgotten how to be hospitable?”
    Twin flags of red colored her cheeks. “Of course not.”
    And Ben noticed that she wasn’t looking at him. He’d never felt like anyone’s burden. But at the moment he definitely did.
    But more than that, he refused to be the source of discomfort or pain for the woman he so admired. “You know what? It might be better if I just went home to my own place—”
    “Nonsense. Right, Judith?”
    “Right. We’d be happy to have you stay.”
    Did it matter if her words sounded wooden and forced?
    “Well, now. I’m verra grateful that is all settled.” Mr. Graber clapped his hands together. “All right, then. Now that our plans are made, I’m going to leave things in your four capable hands while I go back to the office and try to dig myself out from under a mountain of paperwork. After that, I’m going to the farm. Let me know if you need anything.”
    He turned before either of them could say a word.
    Though the store was filled with customers in sweaters and coats, all chattering with each other, the space between him and Judith felt as if it was their own world. He wasn’t aware of anyone else but her.
    This could have been the setting for things that dreams are made of, but unfortunately all he felt was her extreme disapproval. Felt it all the way to his toes. He couldn’t say he blamed her, either.
    “Well, that was awkward,” he said. “I’m sorry about all of this. I promise, I didn’t invite myself to your home.”
    “Oh, Ben, I know you didn’t.”
    Though he should have been assured, he wasn’t. There was a note of sadness in her voice that he couldn’t ignore. “Judith, what would you like me to do to get out of it? Say I can’t work late?”
    “You’d do that?”
    “Of course I would. I’ll do whatever you need me to do. The last thing I want is to force my company on you.”
    “It’s not that I don’t want to be with you, or to have you at our house, it’s that my father never thinks to ask me . Sometimes I just get so sick and tired of always doing what’s expected of me.”
    “I understand.”
    “Do you?” Those blue eyes of hers turned translucent, and he wasn’t sure whether they were that way from her emotion or because tears were threatening to fall.
    Just as he was about to admit that he’d had lots of experience of living without choices . . . that he’d acted up when he was young because he’d felt like he had no other outlet . . . they were interrupted by a customer.
    “Excuse me?” a man in a