Read Online Huckleberry Christmas by Jennifer Beckstrand - Free Book Online

are the most frustrating person to be mad at. If you fought back, I’d feel a lot better about myself.”
    Tyler didn’t know what to do. He didn’t have much practice at fighting back. “Okay. What do you want me to say?”
    A giggle escaped Beth’s lips. “Just . . . just stop talking.”
    “Can I just tell you—?”
    “Nope,” she said, with her face still buried in her hands.
    Tyler shut his mouth and tried not to move a muscle except when Toby pointed to the bowl of scrambled eggs. “Mommy.”
    Tyler picked up the bowl and mouthed, Do you want these?
    “Mommy.”
    He spooned eggs onto Toby’s tray and watched as Toby gathered them up in his chubby little fingers and popped them into his mouth. He spit each bite out, played with it, and put it back in his mouth for further tasting.
    Beth finally lifted her head and wiped an errant tear from her cheek. Tyler’s throat sank to his toes. He hadn’t meant to make her cry. “Beth, I’m really sorry.”
    She held up her hand as if to stop traffic. “I’m fine. I cry when I’m angry. Don’t apologize.”
    “I cry when I’m angry too.”
    Beth twisted her lips into a wry grin. “You do not.” She shook out his exquisitely folded napkin and blew her nose on it. “In a few days, we’re going to laugh about this. Well, I’m going to laugh about it. You’re going to sort of smile about it.”
    Tyler confirmed her prediction by smiling. He couldn’t help it. She was so cute.
    “Look at that,” Beth exclaimed. “You’re smiling already.”
    “I’m thinking of bacon.”
    “Even if we’re mad at each other, we shouldn’t let this food go to waste.”
    Tyler wasn’t mad. He felt like smacking his own forehead. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
    They said silent grace, and Beth helped herself to a pancake. Her lips curled in pleasure when she bit into it. “Hmm. Delicious. They taste like bacon and maple syrup.”
    Tyler didn’t know if he should eat. Would she be cross if he saved her all the biggest pieces of bacon? “My mamm’s recipe.”
    Beth smothered her eggs with pepper but no salt. “Do you know yours is the second proposal I’ve had in the last twenty-four hours?”
    “You’re kidding.”
    “Alvin Hoover.” She picked up the sunflower that she had beat the petals off of. “He brought sunflowers.”
    Tyler had never felt so foolish in his entire life.
    “I’m sorry I overreacted. You caught me off guard, that’s all. I thought I had you figured out. I didn’t want you to turn out to be like all the others.”
    “The others?”
    “Wallace Schwartz proposed at the market where I bought groceries. He had three children and five cats that needed a loving mother’s care. Yost Byler was a sixty-year-old bachelor. He wanted someone to look after his ailing father. He tried a little harder than Wallace. He brought me zucchini from his garden and Mary Ellis romances from the library. But when he started knocking on my bedroom window late at night, that’s where I had to draw the line.”
    Tyler managed a smile, even though he felt like a creep. “Were there ‘other’ others?”
    “Amos’s twin brother Isaac ran them off.”
    “I’m glad somebody watched out for you.”
    “Not Isaac. He told everyone that I was engaged to him.”
    Tyler’s mouth fell open. “What did you do?”
    Beth’s dimple disappeared, and her hand trembled slightly as she put down her fork. “I begged him to leave me alone, but he was nasty about it, insisting I had a duty to marry him because he is Amos’s brother. Then his mamm said if I truly loved their family, I would agree to a marriage. The pressure made me miserable. When Mammi’s letter came, I packed my bags and got out of there right quick.”
    Beth had asked if Tyler ever got mad. Jah, he did. He couldn’t stand the thought of anyone bullying Beth. He balled his hands into fists and took several calming breaths. “I’m not like the others.”
    She laid her hand on his arm. His skin tingled at