“What are you doing here!”  Willow’s voice sounded more pleased than confused.

“I go in at ten but at seven I woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep so I decided to come out here.”  He glanced above her doorway, sighed, and kissed her cheek.  “Mind?”

“Well, I shouldn’t since I put it up there.”

“No, silly,” he protested laughing.  Do you mind me intruding on your Christmas Eve?”  The pile of journals on the floor by the couch told him he’d interrupted a memory fest.

“Oh, I thought you meant the mistletoe.  Of course you’re welcome!”

“Just a second, I forgot something.”  Chad hurried to his truck, brought several beautifully wrapped packages into the house, and stuffed them under the tree.

“You created beautiful packages!”

“Not really.  Melba Torquin wrapped them.  She’s a bit steep but it helps supplement her income and keeps her in heat during the winter so we all take our packages to her house.”

Chad hunkered down on his heels and read the tags on Willow’s gifts.  He finally found the one with his name.  “It’s either a copy of your mother’s journals or a book you think I should read.  The shape gives it away.”

“I’m not saying anything more than that you’re wrong on those two accounts.”

Chad shrugged off his work coat and stuffed his gloves in the pockets.  His belt he hung next to them and then offered to heat some cider.  At the kitchen doorway, he turned back to her.  “What’s with all the mistletoe?  There wasn’t any yesterday.”

“I just put it up a bit ago.  I wanted your parents to feel at home.”  She looked a little nervous about what that might mean to the Tesdalls.

“Willow, they’re not going to make out in the middle of your living room.  No worries.”

“Make out?”

With a shake of his head, he refocused on heating cider for them.  How do you explain making out to someone with no concept of why you’d want to do it in the first place.  A thought crossed his mind.  He stood in the doorway and waited for her to notice him there.

“Making out.  Definition.  Smashed lips leading to lip lock and then culminating in swapping spit and finally tonsil hockey.  Often includes various methods of cuddling that I’d rather not get into right now.”

“Kissing.  Got it.”  A silent pause followed and Chad nearly burned his hand when her voice called out from the living room, “Did you really just say swapping spit?”

He carried mugs to the couch and handed her one.  “In older vernacular, yes.”

“I thought old was smooch.”

“Do you really want to sit here and discuss the sixty-six terms for kissing in the English language?”

Her eyes widened in amazement.  “Are there really sixty-six-”

“Oh hush and drink your cider.  What are you doing tonight?”

“You just told me to hush,” she protested laughing.  “I can’t do that and answer your questions at the same time.”

He smiled at her.  “I missed you.”

“I saw you last night.”

“For ten minutes max.”

Her brow furrowed, she leaned closer to him sending his panic buttons into overdrive.  As he floundered for a way to get out of an intimate situation, Willow sniffed his cider.  “Doesn’t smell fermented but-”

“Oh knock it off.  I’ve hardly seen you since Wednesday and we’ve kind of gotten to be a nice habit of mine.”

Willow set down her mug and crawled across his foot to grab his present from under the tree.  “Here.  It’s Christmas Eve.”

“I’ll be here before mom and dad are!”

A pleading look filed her eyes.  “I think I’d rather you open it now if you would.”

Chad grinned.  “Good answer.”  Reaching under the tree, he pulled his gift from the pile and handed it to her.  “Open yours.  I think you’ll like having quiet to enjoy it anyway.”

She held her gift waiting for him to open his.  “Go on.  I’m getting impatient now.”

Chad carefully fastened the edges of paper and folded it carefully beside him.  Inside the box, in a thick bed of quilt batting, the fly case lay reflecting the firelight of the candles all around him.  “Oh Willow-”

“I thought maybe you’d like something for your apartment but I didn’t think you’d want something stitched and my painting skills are very primitive.”

“Did you make this case?”

“Mother did.  For my sixteenth birthday.  I thought about buying something for the flies but I wanted you to have a piece of Mother too.”

His heart filled with emotions he wasn’t ready to decipher.  He leaned across the couch, hugged her tightly, and whispered, “Thank you,” in her ear.

Willow nodded.  “There is a condition.”

“What’s that?”

With sly smile, she nudged his knee.  ”You have to actually use them- preferably with me.”

“Deal.  Open mine.”

She teased the bow, ran her fingers over the smoothness of the metallic paper, and simply drove him crazy as she enjoyed the textures of the package.  Finally, taking pity on him before Chad burst, Willow released the tape on one end and slid a box from its wrappings.  She lifted the lid, folded back sheets and sheets of tissue paper, and lifted the dulcimer from within.

“Oh Chad!  Where did you find- How did you know- What-”

“Actually, there’s kind of an embarrassing story behind that dulcimer?”

“Embarrassing to you?”

Chad nodded.  “Yep.”

“Let’s hear it,” she demanded impishly.

“You’re so bad.  I was thinking about the instrument thing after we talked that night and I decided that now was a perfect time to learn a new instrument so I went online and found-”

“You’re going to have to show me the online thing.  I’m really sick of Alexa’s book.”

Chad chuckled and continued ignoring the interruption.  “-the perfect dulcimer.  The pictures were beautiful.  It said, ‘assembly required’ but I didn’t think anything of it.  I thought, pegs and strings and stuff.  It arrived in precut pieces.”

“You made this?”

“Assembled it.  Yep.  I went to Luke’s a few times when I should have been sleeping and he instructed me.  I kind of hoped he’d take over and do it for me like he did when we were little but I guess he figured that game out.”

Her fingers plucked the strings.  “Oh it’s horribly out of tune.  I wonder how to make them sound right?”

Chad rifled through a few of the packages and pulled two out that looked nearly the same size.  “Oh Willow, I’m sorry.  I don’t know which one goes with that.  I didn’t think to tell her to mark it some way other than your name.”

Even as he spoke, she slowly tightened strings until a better sound, however off key it still was, resonated from the instrument as she plucked it.  For several minutes she plucked, tuned, plinked, and tuned some more.  By the time she was finished, the strings plinked harmoniously if not in the exact notes it was designed to play.

“I love it Chad.  How did you know I’ve always wanted a dulcimer?”

“I didn’t,” he confessed.  “I just tried to think of what instrument fit you and your life and a dulcimer did.”

Her hands fingered the smooth surface of the instrument.  “It’s so beautiful…”

Chad put his case back under the tree, retrieved the dulcimer and placed it under there with the other gifts, reached for her Bible and handed it to her.  “Your turn.”

“For what?”

“To read Luke.”

Willow’s eyes filled as she took the Bible.  “But I never-”

“You can’t read any worse than I do.”

“I don’t.  I’m a much better reader actually.  I’ve just never-”

Chad laughed as she realized what she’d said.  “It’s ok, I know I’m not very good at it.”

“Mother always read,” she explained.  “I don’t think I’ve ever read the Christmas story aloud.”

A fresh wave of understanding washed over Chad.  He settled comfortably in the corner of the couch, and motioned to her.  “Come here.  I’ll help.”

She handed him the Bible as she slid across the cushions but he didn’t take it.  Instead, he pulled her close, rested his hands on her shoulders, and encouraged her once more.  “Go on, read it.”

“I-”

Chad’s voice, low and soothing, urged her.  “Come on.  It’s not Christmas Eve without it.”

She read.  Every other sentence was punctuated with a sob, a sniffle, or the choked sound of her voice trying not to sob or sniffle.  It was truly the most endearing and horrible reading of the passage Chad had ever heard.  As she finished, he enveloped her in a warm hug.  “I’m proud of you.”

She relaxed weeping occasionally until the clock chimed a quarter till ten.  “You’ve got to go.”

He nodded, stood, and donned his gun belt, jacket, and gloves.  “Get some sleep if you can.”

“I’m glad you came Chad.  It’s like my first Christmas without any family but family is here.  Not everyone has that blessing.”

He crossed the floor, cupped her face in his hands, and kissed the top of her head.  “Well this family isn’t going to stand for you being alone on Christmas.  We’re funny that way.”

“Merry Christmas, Chad.”

At the door, he turned, smiled, laid his finger aside of his nose, winked, and shut the door behind him.  Her laughter reached him outside when she heard his voice cry out, “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

***

Chad unlocked Willow’s back door and slipped into the kitchen using his flashlight to find the lamp on the table.  Just as he’d expected, cookies and a note sat on the table.

Dear Chad Santa,

I didn’t think cookies made a very filling diner so I left a glass of milk and a sandwich in the icebox.  I hope your sleigh is warm and you can visit me again in the morning.  I have company I think you’d enjoy.

Love, Willow

P.S.  I was a good girl this year.  Well, except for the itching powder in Mother’s bed to drive Chad crazy.  Shh.  Don’t tell.

As he ate the delicious roast beef sandwich, Chad reread the note laughing to himself as he folded it and stashed it in his pocket.  He rinsed his dishes and crept through the house, up the stairs, and into Willow’s room.  Moonlight streamed through the window illuminating her face as she slept.

His heart constricted.  As much as he tried to be family to her, he was still an inadequate replacement for her mother.  As much as his parents loved and invested in her, they’d never be her parents.  Perhaps he’d been wrong to be wary of the Finleys and the Solaris.  Chad leaned against her dresser, munched on his cookie, and watched her sleep as he prayed.

“Lord, I don’t know what to do.  I’m torn.  She needs someone here.  It’s not that I’m immune to her but I’m not in love with her either.  It seems so wrong to marry someone and not love them like that.  Then again, it seems wrong to leave her alone so much.  I practically live here and yet I don’t.  I’d ask her about it but it’s not something you want to bring up carelessly.  ‘Marry me and then I can sleep over.’  Yeah.  That makes sense.  I can’t even think about well- I’m human Lord!”

A strand of hair escaped from her braid slipping down her cheek.  Chad smoothed it back behind her ear before turning toward the door.  “Did you find your sandwich?” she asked sleepily.

Chad jumped.  He glanced back at Willow but she showed no sign of consciousness.  “It was good, thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” she murmured lazily.

***

The scent of coffee woke Willow.  Throwing her robe over her shoulders, she dashed downstairs.  “Chad!  What time is it?”

“Seven.  Animals are covered.  Just drinking a coffee before I crawl into your mother’s bed until mom and dad get here.”

She shooed him upstairs with a glass of milk.  “You don’t need coffee if you’re going to sleep.  I just changed my sheets yesterday but I slept on them.  It’s warm though- if you want to climb in.  I’m going to start baking pies as soon as I get dressed…”

She chattered as she grabbed her clothes and hustled from the room dumping his duffle on the bed.  He stared at it in surprise.  “How’d you?”

“You taught me to be observant.  Go to sleep.  You’ve got about three hours before your parents get here.  Sleep!”

Chad grabbed his sweats and lumbered to the bathroom.  He was tired.  This was nearly the equivalent of a triple shift and he knew he’d be tired by dinnertime.  Once changed, he glanced at her room and then Kari’s.  He felt strange taking her bed.  What if she got tired?  She might not feel like resting on her mother’s bed.  Mind made up, he pulled back the covers to Kari’s bed and slipped his feet under cold sheets.  His head craned and glimpsed the rumpled warmness of Willow’s bed.  Seconds later he snuggled under the flannel sheets, shades pulled down and room darkened.  As he drifted to sleep, the relaxing cool scent of lavender wisped around him.

For the next three hours, Willow baked rolls, pecan pie, and caramel apple pie.  Fresh batches of sugar cookies were ready to go in the oven immediately after lunch and mulled apple cider simmered on the stove.  She heard car wheels crunch on the driveway and hurried out to meet Chad’s parents.

“Hi!  I’m so glad you came.”

“If we can’t have family at Christmas one way, we’ll do it another!”  Marianne insisted as she gave Willow a hug.  “Don’t you look lovely?  That sweater- Tell me you didn’t make it.”

“I didn’t.  Mother did two years ago.”  Willow’s hands ran lightly over the sleeves.

“That pattern is pretty.  Does it have a name?”

“Fair Isle.  Would you like to stretch your legs and see the barn and the animals or are you ready to get inside and have some cider?”

Christopher pointed to the greenhouse frame.  “What’s going there?”

“That’s my new greenhouse.  I have a boy from town helping me assemble it.  He’s been a great help.”

“Ryder- the one who broke in, right?  I couldn’t believe you did that,” Marianne said shaking her head at Christopher.  “Leave the packages, we’ll get them when we’re done out here.”

As she led them into the barn, Christopher saw the place through his ‘food industry’ glasses.  While the barn had a livestock scent to it, the floors were clean, the stalls padded in fresh straw, though most of the animals were outside.  The pens behind the barn were just as clean and the animals seemed contented and healthy.  Willow walked them back to her swing tree, down to the alfalfa field, and showed the Tesdalls the area their son had harvested for her.

“I would have died if he hadn’t been such a pest about that phone.  I would have died if he hadn’t brought it back here that first day.”

“Chad was so worried about you during that time.  He called and prayed with us daily.”

Marianne’s words struck a special chord in Willow’s heart.  “He’s a good friend.  I am blessed to know him- all of you really.  Today would be a very horrible day without you all here.”

“Let’s see the chickens.  Chad says you let them roam around outside even as cold as it is.”  Christopher Tesdall had stomached all the emoting he could handle for the moment.

Willow led them back up the hill, around the barn, past the mulched garden plot and to the chicken yard.  “Looks like about half of them are out at the moment.  They come in and out as they please until nighttime or if it gets too cold.”

Saige trotted past the chicken yard, a rabbit in her mouth.  Marianne’s eyes widened and her head whipped to see Willow’s reaction but Willow was already sending the dog behind the barn.  “If I don’t make her eat them back there, I get entrails strewn everywhere.”

Around the house she pointed out her flowerbeds, her lilac bushes, and from the porch, she pointed at the lone oak tree.  “Mother is out there.  If you care for a walk after lunch, I recommend going out there.  Chad’s headstones are beautiful.”

“Headstones?  Plural?”

“He made one for my dog too.  Othello just didn’t seem to care to live without Mother.  He died soon after she did.”

Willow welcomed Marianne into the house while Christopher retrieved the gifts from the trunk of their car.  Marianne was instantly taken with the farmhouse.  “Oh Willow!  It’s beautiful in here.  I just love it.”

As Willow unloaded the packages from Christopher’s arms and placed them under the tree, she pointed upstairs.  “Chad’s still asleep I think but I can show you around down here.”  She spun in a slow circle, her hands outstretched.  “This is obviously the living room.  We heat with that stove and mostly spend our evenings in here.  Now Chad comes and tries to beat me at Chinese checkers or sex-yahtzee.

“Sex what?”  The alarm on Marianne’s face nearly sent Christopher rolling in laughter.

“You know how there are six columns on a Yahtzee pad?  We play them all at once.  I thought Sex-zee was a good name for it but Chad’s face looked something like Christopher’s does now and he suggested I find another name.  I just stick with Sex-Yahtzee for now.”

“I see.  We’ll have to see about helping you with that name.  You’re right, it doesn’t have the kind of punch you were looking for does it?”

“Nope.  I thought Sex-zee was cute but,” she shrugged and then looked confused as Marianne and Christopher burst out laughing.

Mid laugh, Marianne remembered something.  “Did you say Chad is asleep?”

“Yes.  He’s up in my bed sleeping.”

At that moment, they all heard a door open, another door close, and the shower come on in the bathroom.  Willow smiled.  “Guess he’s waking up.”

She turned from her guests and led the way to the kitchen entirely missing the look that passed between Marianne and Chad.

***

Chad stretched and rolled over.  The darkened room let a stream of light in around the edges of the window.  He reached for the shade and pulled it letting the light flood the room.  He closed his eyes in protest and waited for them slowly to grow used to the change.  A journal lay on the table next to the bed.  He fluffed her pillows and curled up with it reading.  Though he rarely enjoyed reading, he loved Kari’s journals.

December-

It’s cold now.  My life is both empty and full simultaneously.  I miss my mother.  My heart feels lost without her when the wind rattles the shutters and sends a chill through the old windows.  We really should replace those windows.

My heart is full, however.  As much as I miss her, I am thankful for new friends-

Chad flipped through the journal and realized it wasn’t Kari’s.  Feeling awful for intruding, he returned the book to the bed table and closed his eyes.  She still felt alone but at least she knew she wasn’t.  As he wondered how to help lessen the pain of her loss, he heard his parent’s laughter downstairs, jumped up, and raced for the bathroom.

As he lathered with the lavender soap, dried with towels hung in the upper hallway and then stored on shelves with lavender sachets, Chad smiled.  She’d taken over the house with her preferences.  Kari hadn’t liked lavender as much as Willow did.

Chad pulled the sweater over his shoulders and glanced at the mirror.  Unable to see anything but a shadowy figure in the steamy fog covering it, he took his towel and wiped the steam from the mirror and glanced at his reflection again.  He liked how it looked.  It was warm and comfortable but soft.  He just hoped it wouldn’t be too warm!

“Mom!  Dad!  You found us ok.  Can I get you some more cider?”

The Tesdalls watched fascinated as Chad refilled their cups, checked the stove’s wood supply, and pulled on a jacket by the back door.  “I’ll be right back.  The wood box is getting low.”

Willow smiled.  “He’s very good about keeping me in wood.  I almost never have to bring in wood anymore.  Come on upstairs.  I’ll give you a tour.”

Chad entered an empty kitchen and listened in horror as Willow took his parents on a grand tour upstairs.  “I didn’t make her bed-” he groaned inwardly.

Marianne raved over the craft room, loved her hallway clothesline, and stepped almost reverently into Kari’s room sensing that little had changed since the woman died.  “This is a lovely room.”

“I see Chad realized how cold those sheets are with that room closed off,” Willow commented as she straightened the covers and fluffed the pillow where he’d sat on it.  “I guess that means my room won’t be very tidy!”

They stepped across the hall where Chad’s duffel bag sat on the corner of the bed with the rest of the sheets and blankets tumbled in complete disorder.  “Yep,” she laughed as she zipped the bag and dropped it on the floor at the foot of her bed.  She pulled the sheets up to the top of the bed as she answered questions about the wood trim, the ‘wallpaper’, and the rugs.

“Mom?  Dad?”

“Coming laddie.  Willow is just showing us the rest of the house,” Marianne called back to him.

Downstairs, Chad grinned like a child.  “So, presents before or after lunch,” he asked glancing at the clock.  It wasn’t quite eleven o’clock.  Too early for lunch.

“He’ll never grow up,” Christopher groaned.

“Better do gifts now or we’ll be miserable all through lunch!”

Willow watched the familial banter wistfully.  Times like this, she realized how much she’d missed by not having anyone but her mother in her life.  She knew she had advantages that others couldn’t fathom but the repartee and good-natured ribbing tugged at her heart.

“Who is Santa?” Marianne asked suddenly.

Without thinking, Willow answered.  “He’s both a mythical and legendary man who gets more credit for the love and giving demonstrated at Christmas than he should.”

“Bravo!” Chad clapped laughing.  “I’m Santa this year.  Chris gets it at home so I’ve got dibs here.”

He dug under the tree pulling out gifts for everyone.  Seeing his name on one from his parents, Chad looked up quizzically.  “But I thought we were doing our Christmas at New Year’s?”

“We weren’t going to bring gifts for Willow and not have anything for you.  You’ll just have less to open later,” his mother explained.  To Willow she turned and said, “You will come with him, won’t you?  We’re all hoping you’ll come.”

“Of course!  Thank you for inviting me.  If I can get Caleb or Ryder out here, I’ll do it!”

Chad passed a package to Willow from Cheri.  She glanced at it and smiled before setting it aside.  “Open it Willow,” he urged eagerly.

“I don’t want to.  I’m saving it for Christmas at your house.  Everyone will feel awkward if they’re opening gifts and I’ve already been enjoying mine.”

Marianne’s eyes sought her husband’s once again.  Willow watched the ocular conversation wondering how two people could communicate so well without saying anything.  Chad smiled at both of his parents when they looked at him.  “I know.  Wow, huh?”

“Wow.” Christopher agreed.

Without another word, Chad passed Willow another of his gifts.  “Hopefully that’s what goes with the dulcimer.”

“Did I tell you?  I picked out a tune that sounds like Greensleeves today.”

“Rock on!”

“Huh?”

“Willow,” Chad began, “Your eloquence is absolutely mind numbing sometimes.”

Everyone began unwrapping their presents.  Marianne’s was wrapped like a Christmas cracker and as she unrolled the paper and the cardboard tubing, she pulled Willow’s table runner from the pile of wrappings.  “Oh Willow!  It’s beautiful!”

“Did I get the colors right?  I hoped-”

“They’re perfect, thank you sweetie!”  Marianne jumped to hug the young woman she prayed would be her next daughter.

Christopher pulled a tie from his box and the room erupted in laughter.  Willow’s eyes roamed from person to person trying to decipher what was so funny about a monogrammed silk tie.  “Did I do something wrong?”

“No, no!  It’s been a standing joke in our family for all these years that no one has ever given him a tie.  He swore if he ever got one, he’d wear it every day for a month,” Chad explained.

“Well,” Willow said grimacing.  “I hope you like brown.  I would have made it a little more interesting if I had known.”

“How did you get the monogram colors so perfect?” Christopher asked marveling at the almost imperceptible satin stitching at the bottom of his tie.

“I pulled strands of thread from the side of the fabric before I cut it out and used those instead of floss.  We learned to do that when we wanted a subtle pattern.”

Marianne stared at her son, her lower jaw fighting to hit the floor and prevented only by sheer willpower.  “You weren’t kidding Chad.”

“Open yours Willow.”

Once the package was devoid of all wrapping and trimmings, Willow opened her box to find a CD holder filled with her old Viewmaster cards.  “This is so wonderful- how?”

“I saw them upstairs when I went to get the loom, which is finished by the way, and realized that they’d be better protected in a case.”

“I am so glad Mother talked me into the old vintage maps on that box instead of the Viewmaster reel I wanted.”

Around the room, the packages were opened one at a time.  Willow refused to open any but Chad’s box that went with the dulcimer and one package from Marianne and Christopher.  As she pulled two tickets from the jeweler’s necklace box, Willow raised an eyebrow in question.

“Chad said you liked Argosy Junction and we heard they were coming to New Cheltenham this February so I thought maybe you’d like to go,” Marianne explained.

“You mean the singers are coming here?  To Rockland?”

“They started in Rockland actually but they’re coming to New Cheltenham.”

“Oh that is so exciting!  Thank you!  Chad can you take me?”

“I hope so!  Why do you think I suggested it?”

“I should be ashamed of you Chad,” his father warned mockingly.

“But you’re not.”

Chad swooped the wrappings up in the largest piece he could find and rolled it in as tight of a ball as he could manage.  He shoved the wad in the woodstove and clamped the door shut fast.  Then, without a word, he passed Willow her dulcimer, settled into his favorite corner of her couch, and waited.

Willow felt extremely self-conscious.  She didn’t know how to hold the instrument properly, she knew it was not tuned correctly, and her attempts to play were primitive at best.  However, Chad had given her the instrument and the least she could do was show him she’d tried to learn to use it.

Tentative plucks to the strings made no discernable tune at first but by the chorus, the sixteenth century song reverberated plaintively through the room.  Though her awkwardness and hesitations showed her for the beginner she was, the fact that she’d managed to find the notes and produce a discernable tune impressed the Tesdalls immensely.

“Ok, enough of me showing off what I don’t know.  I think it’s time for sandwiches and soup.”

Chris stood and clapped a hand on Chad’s shoulder as he started to follow Willow to the kitchen.  “Willow, do you need Chad’s help in there?”

“Oh, I’ll help her, you guys go exploring.  Get Chad to show you that stream.  Maybe you can come fish with them next summer.”

Oblivious to the underlying conversation, Willow disappeared into the kitchen with Marianne hot on her heels.  Chad followed his father out the front door, down the porch steps and into the yard.  “What’s wrong dad?”

“Well, there are a few things actually.  First, you might want to find a name for your version of Yahtzee.  She called it Sex-Yahtzee a bit ago.”

“Well that’s better than Sex-zee like the first suggestion.”

“So we heard.  In the wrong company, this would not be good.”

Chad nodded. “You’re right. We’ve never brought it up since that night and I forgot all about it.  I’ll fix it.  What else?”  He knew there was more to his father’s expression than a poor choice of a numerical term.

“Have you thought about our conversation at Thanksgiving?”

This he hadn’t expected.  His father seldom harped and never nagged.  He’d watched his parents all morning and his mother wasn’t doing most of the non-verbal dialogue.  “Yes, I have thought and prayed about it and it’s not something I’m comfortable with.”

“Because she’s not attractive enough?  Because you don’t get along with her?  Because you’re immune to her?  What?”

“None of that is true and you know it.  I’m very fond of Willow.  She’s like Cheri but better because she’s here and I don’t have memories of her embarrassing me in Jr. High or pictures of me in the bathtub with her.”

“You’re playing house here Chad.”

His father’s words dropped between them like an anvil on both of their feet.  It hurt, and neither of them could move.  “What do you mean?”  Chad knew exactly what his father meant but he prayed he was wrong.

“You know what I mean son.  You’re playing house.  We drive up to this house where you make yourself at home, sleep in your girlfriend’s bed-”

“She’s not my girlfriend!”

“Chadwick, don’t play semantics games with me.  I am not the fool you think I am and that I am seriously beginning to believe you are,” Christopher began.  “This is a young unmarried woman’s reputation.  You’re going to tarnish her severely by your willingness to have almost all of the privileges of marriage without the commitment that no decent man would take her when you’re through.  You’ll ensure the best of both worlds- for you.  Meanwhile, she’s a wife with all of the work and emotional investment but none of the perks and yes,” he added at the sight of his son’s shocked face, “I mean sexual ones.  She may be asleep sexually but she’s not dead.  You’re going to arouse in her things she’d never have to deal with if it wasn’t for you but you’re denying her the appropriate ground to allow them to grow and flourish.”

Chad stared at his father dumbstruck.  Christopher’s words hit closer to home than Chad allowed himself to consider.  “Dad, I don’t think you understand-”

Squeezing his son’s shoulders, Christopher held his son’s gaze for several seconds before speaking.  “Chad, I love you.  I see that you love that girl.  You may not be romantically attached to her but you would be if you gave yourself half a chance.  You drove away the city man, you drove away Chuck-”

“I didn’t!  She-”

“Neither one of you realizes it, but you did.  Chuck isn’t the most observant man in the world but he’s not the dumb fool you mistake him for.  He’s talked to me about how much Willow’s friendship meant to him and now he feels like he’s lost it.”

“Well that’s his problem for presuming more-”

“No!” Christopher interrupted.  “No.  You can lie to yourself all you want.  I can’t stop that.  You will not, however, lie to me.  You’re making a fool of that girl and it needs to stop now.”

Chad leaned against the fence and stared across the farm.  “I love it here.  It’s like being at Uncle Zeke’s but better.”

“I can see you do son.  Make an honest woman of her.”

“But,” Chad argued, “I can’t help but wonder what’ll happen if someone comes along and she falls in love with him and I’ve tied her to me.”

Christopher turned to walk away but paused.  “And, what happens to the woman whose reputation you trashed in your selfish enjoyment of your friendship when another woman comes along and you fall in love with her?  How will Willow feel when she’s cast aside because Miss Heartthrob doesn’t want you hanging around another woman all the time?”

“Oh Dad really!  How callous do you think I am?”

Chad’s father’s shoulders slumped.  “Obviously more than I realized.  Think about it son.  I’m concerned enough that if you don’t reconsider your behavior one way or the other, I’m going to consider taking this to your pastor.”

The full impact of his father’s words hit Chad as Christopher walked away from him and rejoined the ladies in the house.