“And if he’s upset?” she asked.
“What do you think?” Jensen asked.
She almost lost herself in that warm, gray gaze. She had always loved the way he stopped to focus on her. No one else in her life had ever listened to her like that.
But then she thought of her big brother, who had always protected and loved her, and tried to stand in for the father figure they didn’t have. She pictured him on his own in the A-frame cabin with those two precious children, trying to adjust to life back home under such challenging circumstances, and she knew she couldn’t make his life harder than it already was.
“If Ransom says no, the answer is no,” she said, her voice bell-clear in spite of how shaky she felt.
There was pain in Jensen’s eyes, but only for a moment. Then he smiled at her and nodded, and she felt like she could survive anything, do anything for him to smile at her like this again.
“Agreed,” he said.
His eyes moved to her lips, and she felt a shiver of anticipation slide down her spine.
“We’ll just have to avoid each other until Christmas,” she said, wrenching her eyes from his. “It’s only a few days. And it’ll be easier that way.”
“Agreed,” he chuckled. “It’s the only way.”
She chanced a glance up at him and found him smiling at her warmly again.
“Eat up,” he told her, rising from the table to grab hisown meal. “We’ve got to get you back on the road before too much snow falls.”
“Thank you,” she said, picking up a sandwich half and almost moaning when the cheese stretched out between the pieces.
“Oh, wow,” Jensen said.
“What?” she asked, looking up to see that he had raised the curtain to look out the window.
She was on her feet instantly and moving to his side.
Out the window snow was falling so fast and hard that she couldn’t even see the trees that framed the house.
“I wonder if the road is already covered,” she worried out loud, jogging out to the living room to look out the front window, even though she was pretty sure she knew what she was going to see.
She could hear Jensen’s footsteps behind her and hear his intake of breath when she pulled the curtain back.
Her car was nothing but a hill of snow. And the driveway and the road beyond it had completely disappeared.
18
WILLOW
Willow woke up the next morning, feeling cozier and more rested than she had since leaving the service, and it took her a few seconds to remember that she was in Jensen’s guest room.
There was almost no light coming in the windows, but she knew it couldn’t be nighttime. She stretched, and then slipped out of bed, padding over to the window to take a look.
The snow was still coming down, big flakes flying in briskly at an angle, as if they were under orders to bury the whole town in a thick blanket of white.
I guess I’m not going back to the village just yet.
She was almost ashamed at the happy feeling that thought gave her.
She and Jensen had agreed to avoid each other until Christmas, but it seemed that the very heavens had opened up to force them together, and there was no way she could argue that.
It’s just as well,she thought to herself as she tiptoed down the hall to the bathroom.Henry’s not feeling well. It’s good for him to have a nurse in the house.
Besides, she and Jensen were adults. They could handle a little temptation without breaking. She freshened up in the bathroom and then made her way quietly out to the living room, expecting to be on her own for a bit.
