Page 13 of Soldier’s Christmas Crush (Trinity Falls: Home for Christmas #4)

“Here we go,” Willow said holding out the basin.

Jensen took Henry’s hands and plunged them into the water. She could see the instant that they began to sting, because he whimpered and his lower lip began to tremble like the tears were coming back.

“You are doing a great job,” Willow told him. “You’re making sure your hands are nice and clean so the magic spray can work.”

Jensen rubbed his thumbs over Henry’s little palms very gently.

“That’s fine,” Willow told him. “Let’s rinse with nice, cool water. Hold your hands up for me, Henry.”

Henry stopped whimpering when his hands were out of the water and eyed the water bottle with interest.

“This water is nice and cool,” Willow told him, removing the lid and tilting the bottle over his hands. “Ready?”

He nodded, and she poured the water very slowly and gently onto his little hands.

He wiggled and whined a little, but didn’t cry.

“You are very brave,” Willow told him, placing the bottle down. “Now it’s time for magic spray. ”

She grabbed the bottle of antibacterial spray used for burns and scrapes. It had a mild analgesic that would numb the pain in Henry’s little hands.

“Here we go,” she said, misting a little over one hand so he could see it didn’t hurt. “And a little more.”

Henry watched her spray both hands without complaint.

“Now we dance,” she told him, demonstrating by waving her own hands around. “That helps the magic spray to dry.”

Henry smiled at her, but didn’t wave his hands around, he was content just to watch her. That was fine though, because she was so relieved to see him starting to smile a little.

“Okay,” she told him after a minute. “Now you get to choose some Band-Aids.”

The Band-Aids were really mostly for fun.

The real work had been making sure there was nothing embedded in his hands, and getting him cleaned up and some antibiotic on him.

But even if the Band-Aids only gave a temporary opportunity to keep the abrasions clean, she was pretty sure they would distract him.

She pulled out the small bin of cool Band-Aids she had been collecting for just such an occasion. Henry grinned and watched as she spread out a handful of the bigger ones on her table. When she put down one that was covered in a pattern of bears, he let out a huff of delight and pointed to it.

“Oh, Dusty will like that one, won’t he?” she asked him. “Okay, let’s pick one more, and then we can put them on. ”

She kept laying out Band-Aids until he chose another one with cowboys.

“Great choice, Henry,” she told him cheerfully as she put the others back in her little bin. “Now, which hand gets the bears?”

He thrust out his right hand and watched with great interest as she carefully removed the Band-Aid from its backing and smoothed it onto his little palm.

“And which one gets cowboys?” she asked.

He held out the other hand, giving her a real smile for the first time today.

“Excellent,” she told him, putting the other bandage in place.

When she was finished he held out his own hands, palms up, and studied them.

“Great job, Henry,” she told him. “Now if you want, I can get you some cold water bottles to hold. Would that feel better?”

“ Nah, nah ,” he said, his eyes sparkling.

“No water bottles?” Willow asked.

“I think Henry wants a knock-knock joke,” Jensen said.

“Oh,” she said, smiling at her little friend. “Knock, knock.”

Henry beamed up at her.

“Who’s there?” Jensen asked.

“ Tank,” Willow replied.

“Tank who?” Jensen asked.

“ You’re welcome,” Willow replied with a big smile.

Henry laughed and the sweet, happy sound filled Willow’s heart. It was so nice that he was feeling better .

“You used to love those jokes when you were a kid,” Jensen said fondly. “How do you remember so many of them?”

“My mom used to put one in my lunch bag every day,” she told him, touched that he remembered so many things about her. “It was kind of our thing. She must have done hundreds of them. You don’t forget the best ones.”

“Hey,” Jensen said suddenly. “What are you up to tomorrow?”

“Not much,” she said automatically. She honestly had no plans at all.

“Henry loved the trains today,” Jensen said. “River Young was telling me that there’s a train you can ride over at an arboretum about an hour and a half from here. I was thinking of taking him tomorrow. Would you want to go with us?”

She should say no.

“Yes,” she said immediately. “I’d love to.”

“Great,” he said. “We’ll pick you up around eight, if that’s okay?”

“Perfect,” she said.

Henry hopped off the bench and took off toward a little girl who was holding a big apple cider doughnut.

“That’s my cue,” Jensen laughed, getting up. “We’ll head home now, but see you tomorrow.”

“See you then,” she said, smiling as she watched him catch up to Henry, who was eyeing the little girl’s doughnut, but not grabbing for it.

Jensen waved to the girl’s mom, crouched to talk to Henry, then scooped him up and the two of them disappeared toward the front of the market .

We’re going on a day trip tomorrow, she thought to herself happily.

She felt a pang of guilt immediately afterward, but it was easy to push it aside. After all, they were traveling far outside of Trinity Falls. They were unlikely to bump into anyone they knew. And maybe they could talk during the drive about ways to get Jensen together with her brother.

The band onstage thanked the crowd and began carrying their instruments offstage. The radio came on just as “Jingle Bells” was winding down.

“Thanks for listening to WCCR,” the deejay said. “I’m Ho-ho-Hope Holiday and we’re playing all Christmas music, all the time, from November to New Year’s. We’ve got more Christmas classics coming right up. But first a word from one of our sponsors.”

The sound of sleigh bells on the radio was followed by a female voice sharing the news that the Trinity Falls Co-op Grocer now offered fresh-squeezed orange juice daily.

Willow smiled at the idea that the Co-op had radio ads these days.

“Fresh-squeezed goodness from Florida gems,” a very familiar male voice added. “ ORANGE you glad we’ve got juice?”

“Jensen?” she murmured, amazed.

The first strains of “The Nutcracker Suite” began to play on the radio, but half the people in the market were laughing, looking astonished, or both.

So she wasn’t imagining it, that really had been Jensen Webb. Or at least, it had sounded an awful lot like him. And based on the reactions here at the market, it was the first time they were hearing it, too.

Why in the world did you make a radio commercial, Jensen? And why didn’t you brag about it to your friends?

One more thing to ask him about tomorrow…