Christmas in Sawyer Falls Read Online Free Page A

tomorrow night and I’ve never been known to turn down a home cooked meal.”
    “Wonderful! Why don’t you be here around six. ”
    “Six it is. You folks have a good night, I’m glad I was able to bring Shadow back to his boy.”
    *
     
    The door had barely closed behind Ben Murphy when Tess let out a whoop. She couldn’t hold her excitement in any longer. You’d think she’d just won the lottery.
    “Did you see the way he looked at you?” She started clapping her hands like a tween at a slumber party. “Just yesterday I was wondering to my self how you’d ever meet a man to date when God answers my prayers by bringing one right to our front door!”
    “And my prayers, too, Grandma!” Andrew yelled out from the kitchen.
    “Slow down, you matchmakers! First of all, I’ve already told you that I’m not interested in dating right now and second, we don’t know anything at all about this man that you already have me married to!” Hannah said, exasperated.
    “ Well, darling, that’s exactly why we’re having him over for dinner-so we can all get to know him better. And what I do know about him is that he couldn’t keep his eyes off of you!”
    Hannah grabbed her pants, “Oh yes, how could any man resist the beauty of sweatpants and a ponytail?”
    “So, Tess, you weren’t asking Ben over to dinner just to thank him for bringing Shadow back?” David asked, looking slightly confused.
    “Welcome to the party, David,” his wife winked at him, “Are you just figuring that out now? Of course I’m thankful that he brought Shadow back, but fate brought him to our door and we might not get a chance like this again.”
    “ We ? W hat do you mean by ‘we’ ? You keep saying ‘we’ as if this involves you , Tess . Maybe you should let Hannah worry about her own love life and not meddle with it. Nothing good comes from meddling.” David knew that though his wife loved her daughter dearly, sometimes she needed a reminder to take a step back.
    “And I don’t even have a love life to worr y about, so nobody else should either.” Hannah added. “I have my family. You are the loves of my life. And that’s enough for me right now.” But even as Hannah said the words, she felt that she was trying to convince herself more than her family. And though she was trying hard, she could n’t get Ben’s smile out of her mind.
    Andrew walked in with Shadow. “It wasn’t fate that brought him here , Grandma. It was Shadow. Maybe Shadow wasn’t going to our old house, Mommy, maybe he was going to get Ben .”
    Tess smiled and put her arm around her Grandson. “You are so wise, little one. We need to look towards building a happy future and not the pain of the past.”
    “Yeah, just like that Bible verse that Mommy taught me . Hope for a future. ”
    Hope. It was easy for Hannah to talk about hope when it was about Andrew’s future, but with herself, she was hypocritical. She had hope for a future with her son but couldn’t bring herself to hope for love again. She’d already had her chance at that and the cost was too great.
    “ Ok, you two. Enough with th e romance, please. Let’s just spend some time with Shadow. Remember Shadow? H e was the one who we were so worried about just a short while back?”
    They spent the rest of the night playing video games and being grateful that Shadow was back home . He got a lot o f belly rubs and ear scratches that night. Several times throughout the evening, however, Hannah’s mind wandered and she caught herself t hinking about the way Ben had gazed at her. It had been so long since she’d had anyone look at her like that, too long. She so missed the feeling of being in love, that giddy, head over heels high that you get when you are falling for someone.
    Not that she was falling for anyone, she reminded herself. Stop thinking about his smile . She was trying to convince herself to think with her head and not her heart. And Ben was just coming over for dinner the