“Well, would you look at that,” Mom said fondly. “I can’t believe it.”
“Didn’t you say he was shy, Judy?” Mrs. Lennox asked.
“I guess our Willow has a magic touch,” Mom declared. “How nice that you two have a fire going. Why don’t I take Henry on up to bed? He can sleep until you head home, okay, son?”
“Thanks, Ma,” he replied, moving to get up.
“No, no,” Willow said right away. “I’ll just go up with you. He might stay asleep if I carry him.”
“That’s nice, dear,” Judy said as Willow stood carefully.
“Oh, look at that,” Mrs. Lennox laughed. “You got into your brother’s cookies.”
“I didn’t tell him I was coming by today,” Willow said. “So I’ll just stop by his place with more cookies tomorrow.”
Jensen watched the three of them disappear up the hillside to the house until the sound of their voices faded away, leaving him alone.
Without thinking about it, he grabbed another cookie and turned back to the fire, eating it slowly and allowing the simple pleasure of the warmth and the chocolate consume him while he let the image of Willow Wright’s ocean-blue eyes linger in his mind for just a moment longer.
You shouldn’t be thinking about your best friend’s little sister like that,a little voice in the back of his head whispered.And you shouldn’t be eating his cookies either.
He stood and grabbed the plate, feeling frustrated with himself. Life had actually been relatively simple up until now, and he hadn’t even appreciated it.
Losing Lara and raising Henry alone was a devastating challenge, but at least it was the kind of struggle everyone on the outside could understand. And though he was prone to getting stuck here and there along the way, the path back to normal moved in one direction, with family and friends to hold him up when he thoughthe couldn’t go on, and cheer him on when he found his footing.
But now that Ransom and Willow were home, he felt unmoored again, like before. And he realized how much he had isolated himself, even here at home.
For a big part of his life, the two of them had been his whole world, and now the tension of having unresolved issues with both of them was making him restless, especially knowing that he could bump into either of them at any moment. There was no roadmap to getting back to normal when you had wrecked a friendship. And there was no way to define the wild emotions Willow kept stirring up in him.
There’s one way,the little voice whispered.
But Jensen would never allow that to happen. He needed his best friend right now, maybe more than ever. And he was pretty sure Ransom needed him too. They were both single dads now, trying to make good lives for their children.
Telling himself that he could make things right with Ransom while he was falling for Willow was deluded at best. And if he wasn’t careful, he was going to ruin things with both of them.
It was real…
But Willow admitting that she’d had a teen crush on him wasn’t the same thing as saying she cared about him now. These days, she was probably dreaming of falling madly in love with a doctor at the hospital where she was about to work. They would get married, and she would live in a big house and drive a fancy car and never want for anything at all.
Willow was a good person. She deserved all that and more.
So the best thing he could do if heactuallycared about her was to pull these strange feelings out by the roots, and ignore the electricity that seemed to spark through his veins every time she was close.
How hard could that be?
9
WILLOW
Willow walked around the Open-Air Market the next day, trying to focus on all the fun at hand instead of obsessing about the events by the fire with Jensen last night.
The market’s huge model train set was up and running, and children and their parents had gathered around to watch it. It had attracted such a crowd that she couldn’t really see what was happening. But from the reactions of everyone gathered there, she could tell it was a hit.
She had been manning the first aid station for most of the day so far, but when Sam sent another volunteer over to sit in the booth for a little while, Willow had taken the chance to stretch her legs and get something to eat. In the unlikely event that there was some kind of medical emergency while she was gone, she was only a call and a quick jog away.
I wish I had someone to walk around with,Willowthought to herself, her mind going to Jensen and her brother, as it so often did.
She could have texted Mal and her friends, or anyone else she’d known growing up in town. But somehow last night had left her feeling like a sailboat in a big storm—tossed around too much to focus.
