Merry's Christmas: Two Book Set (Amish) by Susan Rohrer

straight in the eyes. It was a gaze that said she wasn’t going to let this go. “What do you want this Christmas?”
    Daniel didn’t answer at first. It was a loaded question for him, Merry realized. I’m his employee , she thought. He was under no obligation to answer her, she knew, yet something in the moment had seemed to disarm him completely.
    “I want...” Daniel started. “It’s not much really, but then again, it’s...” Daniel paused again. “I want to see my family happy again. I’d like to go back to church together. We haven’t been much since Amanda’s memorial—my fault really—and I don’t know. Maybe Christmas morning would be a good start. I do want to make some new memories...not to replace the old ones, but to somehow...”
    “...take the broken pieces and make something beautiful with them?”
    Daniel took awhile to consider Merry’s response. He looked at her, what almost seemed to be through her, for the longest of times. Finally, he spoke. “You’re easily underestimated, aren’t you?”
    Merry nodded self-deprecatingly. “I’ve been told I make a better second impression. That is, if I get a chance to make a second impression?”
    Time stood still. At least it seemed to as Daniel studied Merry. Clearly, she thought, he had fully intended to fire her on the spot, but thank heaven, something was making him hesitate.
    “Let’s see what the week brings,” he concluded.
     
    When Daniel ambled in to check on him, Ollie was sprawled on his stomach on his bedroom floor, doing his math homework. “There’s always that desk I got you.”
    Ollie hardly looked up at his dad. “I can work stuff out better here.”
    It wasn’t often that Daniel Bell sat cross-legged on the floor, but on this particular night, that’s exactly what he decided to do. As soon as he got down to his son’s level, he was glad he’d gone to the trouble. He noticed Ollie’s quivering lip, but decided not to make anything of it. “So... What do you have going there?”
    “Long division,” Ollie muttered gloomily. “Mrs. Finkelston says it’s useful in every day life.”
    Daniel leaned back quizzically. “You have Mrs. Finkelston? I had her. What, is she ninety?”
    Ollie pushed his math aside and sat up. Crocodile tears rolled down his cheeks, streaking through the dirt of his ill-fated, heirloom-breaking deed.
    Daniel opened his arms and drew his son close for a very welcomed embrace. “I’m sorry I broke your family china,” Ollie blubbered.
    “It’s okay,” Daniel assured. “And it’s not really my family china. It was ours. Just something your mom’s family has passed down for the past few hundred years.” Daniel broke the embrace. He checked around, then signaled Ollie closer and whispered conspiratorially. “Want to know a secret?”
    Ollie wiped his nose on his sleeve, clearly intrigued.
    Daniel leaned toward him. “I always kind of hated that platter.”
    Ollie’s eyes widened. “You did?”
    Daniel sat back. “Yeah. I always thought it was kind of snooty and girlie. Not a guy’s kind of plate, you know? Guys like us, we don’t go for that stuff. Your mom wasn’t so crazy about it, either. But we were stuck with it—it being in the family that long—so actually, you kind of did me a favor.”
    A crooked little smirk returned to Ollie’s lips. “I did?”
    “Did yourself one, too. Because guess who would have gotten it next.” Daniel circled a finger toward Ollie.
    Ollie exhaled dramatically. “That was a close one.”
    “Yeah, scary close,” Daniel agreed. “You know, Merry. She seems to think we should make these lists, so... What do you really want for Christmas?”
    Ollie didn’t miss a beat. “A worm farm,” he repeated.
    Daniel eyed his son, amused. “Still with the worm farm, huh?”
    Ollie nodded decisively.
    “Worms, they don’t do much, you know,” Daniel went on. “Not so big on thrills and chills. Can’t race ‘em or goof with ‘em. Just kind