He chuckled again. She wasn’t wrong. Her tree was more like a branch compared to the one he and Henry had picked out and set up last week.
He thought about Willow all by herself in the apartment with her tiny tree and felt a little pang of sympathetic loneliness.
“Let me at least carry it to the door,” he said.
“Fine,” she told him. “If you insist.”
There was that sweet smile again.
He hopped out of the car, grateful for the cold air against his heated skin, and a break from her delicate perfume.
The tree was light enough to carry one-handed, and he turned to her when he passed her window to see if she was laughing at him for insisting on carrying the little thing. But she was turned toward the backseat, like she was talking to Henry again.
It was funny how Henry had taken to her. He normally clammed up completely with new people. He wasn’t exactly being chatty with her, but it was pretty impressive that Willow had heard him speak at all on their first meeting.
Jensen bypassed the front porch and went up the spiral fire escape staircase on the side of the house, leaning the tree against the wall at Willow’s doorstep. He couldn’t help taking a quick glance in the window while he was up there.
The space was small but neat and tidy. He could see a kitchenette and the opening to a bedroom with the foot of a bed and its soft pink comforter just in view.
Jogging back down the stairs, he found Willow still turned around talking to Henry. He grabbed her bags out of the back and started to carry them up too.
“Wait,” she called out to him.
He turned to see she was hopping out of the truck.
“Let me see those,” she said.
He came over obligingly and she grabbed the bag with the pies, set it down in the passenger seat, and began rummaging through it.
“Here we go,” she said brightly, pulling out a familiar white box with the Cassidy Farm logo. “A cherry pie for you and your dad, Henry.”
“My favorite,” Jensen said.
“I remember,” she told him with a shy smile. “It was nice to meet you, Henry, and you too, Dusty.”
Henry didn’t reply, but Jensen couldn’t help noticing that the stuffed bear wiggled in Willow’s direction in a friendly way.
“I guess I’ll see you around town,” Willow said, handing the box to Jensen.
She looked a little sad, and he wanted to say something more. But what was there to say? He could ask about Ransom, but she might feel weird answering.
I wish things could go back to how they used to be.
But he knew that wasn’t on the table, and there was no point even thinking about it, let alone saying it.
“Sure,” he told her instead. “Good luck with your tree.”
That earned him a beautiful smile, and the next thing he knew, she was carrying her own bags up the spiral stairs to her door.
He waited until she was inside before he got back in the truck.
“Pie,”Henry practically squeaked.
Jensen smiled and looked in the rearview mirror to find Henry grinning at him.
His heart warmed instantly, and the world was bright again.
Henry had always been small for his age, so gettinginto a front-facing seat was something they had waited for. It was so much fun to be able to see his little face now.
