“Anyway,” she said. “I’m thinking it’s better if I don’t hop in your truck again today. Just until things are normal again.”
“Sure,” he said again. “We can avoid each other for now, if you think it’s best.”
Avoid each othersounded harsh, but she guessed it was what she was asking.
Jensen’s voice had a note of sadness to it, and for a second she wondered what that was about. But any reminder that he and Ransom weren’t close anymore probably hurt.
“Anyway, thank you, Jensen,” she told him. “I really appreciated your help yesterday.”
“It was my pleasure, Willow,” he said, his deep voice sending a tingle through her chest, even over the phone. “I’m here for you, always.”
When she headed back into the kitchen, her two companions were sitting at the little table, eyes big as saucers, like they had been listening in.
“Was that my nephew?” Reggie asked.
Oh heavens, that’s right. All I need is the town’s busybody thinking there’s something going on between Jensen and me…
“Yes,” Willow told him. “He was just letting me know my car is ready at the shop. Ryan Jackson called him since he didn’t have my number.”
“I see,” Reggie said, but his eyes were twinkling. “You want a ride over there?”
“I’m just going to walk,” she said. “It’s pretty out, and I could use a chance to stretch my legs.”
Reggie nodded and she headed over to the sink, quickly finishing off her delicious coffee, and washing out the mug before heading back upstairs to put on her boots and coat.
When she was ready to go, she headed out using thefire escape this time to avoid further conversation. Shivering in the morning cold, she found herself fretting all over again about Ransom.
It’s not a big deal that Reggie knows that Jensen called me,she told herself firmly.There’s no reason for it to get back to my brother, because it’s not exactly hot gossip.
Besides, what was Ransom going to think? It wasn’t like Jensen was going to encourage her to enlistagain.
She crunched down the snowy drive and out to the sidewalk, heading down Park past the ballet theater toward Harvard Avenue.
Cars came and went slowly and one or two bundled-up moms with strollers passed her on their way to the morning story hour at the library. She wondered vaguely if Jensen took Henry to those. He probably did. It would be kind of weird not to.
Maybe he has to work though.
She had heard the sad news from her mom when his wife passed a few years ago, and that was when he moved home to Trinity Falls. She figured he wanted to raise his son in the same small town where he had grown up himself, with family nearby to help out.
That made sense. But what could he be doing for work?
She thought she would have heard if he was working at one of the local businesses. Maybe he had some kind of remote job or online gig like so many people did these days. But that didn’t necessarily mean it would be easy for him to pop out to library activities.
Stop thinking about him,she reminded herself, turning her attention to the house she was passing instead.
The Branford place always made her smile. Trinity Falls might have some new things happening, but plenty of things stayed the same. Mrs. Branford had always loved the holidays so much. Every single tree and bush in the yard was hung with lights. She’d hung those same lights every year when Willow was a little girl, as well as homemade decorations that her children made. Now it looked like there were even more homemade decorations in the yard, and Willow smiled at the idea that they must be from the Branford grandchildren.
Willow walked on, finally turning right on Harvard and heading toward the corner of Ambler, where the auto shop was located.
It was lucky that Trinity Falls had its own mechanic, and especially nice that she could walk to it from the village. Hopefully, she wouldn’t need it much, but she was driving an older car, so maintenance was going to be key.
“Hey there,” one of the guys at the shop said, waving to her. “How can we help you?”
“I’m here for the old station wagon Ryan brought in,” she said.
“Right,” he replied. “Hang on.”
She headed into the open shop. Once she had her car back, she wouldn’t be cooped up at home. Then maybe she could stop thinking about Jensen.
