Page 15 of Soldier’s Christmas Crush (Trinity Falls: Home for Christmas #4)

WILLOW

T hat afternoon, Willow stood on the snowy ground, holding her phone up in front of her as she took in the festive sights all around.

Every tree in the arboretum seemed to be adorned with a different arrangement of lights, decorations, or both.

A few inches of snow covered the ground, and the people wandering around among the trees and trains were all laughing and smiling, carrying souvenirs in recycled shopping bags from the gift shop in wrapping paper patterns.

After riding the Christmas train around the arboretum so many times they had lost count, and looking at all the little trains under glass, Henry was finally ready to say that this would be his last ride.

Since the train only allowed two riders per car, Willow and Jensen had been taking turns accompanying Henry. This last time she had convinced Jensen to ride, so she could take a video of them.

The sun had already set, but she found an area where thousands of Christmas lights would illuminate the riders enough to show their faces. As she waited for the train to come around, she drank in the fresh, frosty air, and smiled at the thought of the amazing day they had shared.

It wasn’t just the trains, it was walking among the beautifully lit trees, hearing Henry speak a few times about the trains and the snow, and even eating lunch in the small cafeteria, where they had bumped into the conductor who was also taking his lunch break.

He’d introduced himself as Ralph, while smiling at Henry over his bowl of soup. And said that Henry had been his favorite passenger today. Henry had grinned up at him, practically speaking through his joyful expression.

But she couldn’t help getting a little stuck on what happened next.

“Quite a kid you two have there,” Ralph had said, obviously mistaking them for a couple.

Willow had been too surprised to say anything, and Jensen had just smiled and thanked the man. Honestly, Jensen seemed pretty quiet all day. Not in a bad way, but ever since their talk in the car about Henry, Jensen had looked happy but also really thoughtful.

A rumbling on the tracks alerted her that she was about to miss her last chance to get a good video of the Webb boys.

She took a deep breath, focused on the spot where the train would come into view, and willed her hands not to shake.

A moment later, the little train appeared, moving at a sensible but brisk pace. Jensen and Henry were in the car right behind the conductor’s, and though Henry was slumped against his daddy like he was tired, he was smiling ear-to-ear.

Willow began recording, pleased to find that the glow of the Christmas lights was more than enough to light their faces.

As they passed, Henry noticed her, and cried out something with an expression of happy excitement. It sounded like wow , but she suddenly realized he was saying Willow.

Jensen’s eyebrows lifted in surprise and then he leaned down to kiss the boy on top of his woolen hat.

“ Wow, ” Willow echoed, forgetting for a moment that she was making a video.

By the time the last ride was over, Henry was half-asleep on his daddy’s chest. Jensen carried him back to the truck and opened Willow’s door for her before going to the back and getting Henry settled in his seat.

Happily, the little guy was sleepy enough that he allowed himself to be strapped in without too much fuss. Jensen handed him Dusty, and Henry hugged the little bear to his chest.

“What a day,” Jensen said as he hopped into the truck himself. “Did you have fun?”

“It was amazing,” Willow told him honestly. “This place is incredible, and you guys are so much fun to hang out with. ”

Henry whimpered in the back, and she turned to see what was wrong and how she could help.

“Are you okay, Henry?” she asked.

“He’s just sleepy,” Jensen said. “Aren’t you, buddy?”

Henry nodded, a betrayed expression on his face, like he couldn’t believe his daddy would keep him out when he was tired.

“Well, you can take a nice nap in the car,” Jensen told him. “Should we have some music?”

Henry didn’t argue with that, and Jensen was already tapping the button for the radio anyway.

A pretty rendition of “Angels We Have Heard on High” was playing, and Henry did seem to relax as soon as Jensen got the truck moving.

They got out of the arboretum parking lot, down the backroads and onto Route One while “Angels We Have Heard on High” melted into “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”

By then, the heat had kicked in, and Willow peeled her coat off again and placed it on her backpack. As the last strains of the song faded out, a female voice suddenly announced that the Trinity Falls Co-op Grocer now offered fresh-squeezed orange juice daily.

Jensen reached for the radio dial, but Willow put her hand on his to stop him.

“No way,” she told him. “There’s no way you’re changing the station right now.”

“Fresh-squeezed goodness from Florida gems,” Jensen’s voice sang out from the radio. “ ORANGE you glad we’ve got juice?”

“You know that’s me?” he asked, his voice sounding a lot more resigned here in the car beside her than it had booming out of the speakers.

“ Everyone knows that’s you,” she said, trying her best not to laugh, but unable to keep a smile from her face. “It’s awesome. How did you not tell me about it when we were catching up?”

“I didn’t even really mean to do it,” he said gruffly. “It just kind of happened.”

There was a brief moment of silence while Willow tried and failed to figure out how that could be true.

“I feel like that doesn’t really explain it,” she said at last. “I mean, people try to break into acting their whole lives. You didn’t accidentally make a juice commercial. Unless you were just saying that stuff anyway, and someone recorded you?”

She held her breath, hoping that making light of the matter might help him feel less guarded about things.

“No,” he said, after a moment. “I wasn’t just walking around saying orange you glad we’ve got juice.”

She couldn’t help laughing at that and he chuckled too, glancing over at her with real warmth in his eyes.

“Well, you don’t have to tell me about it if you don’t want to,” she told him. “But you should know that I think it’s the coolest thing ever. And with all the attention you’re getting, I’d say people are thinking a lot about orange juice—so you’re definitely helping the Co-op too.”

“My work has been slowing down,” he said suddenly.

She nodded, pressing her lips together so she wouldn’t make any sound that might stop him from sharing what he clearly needed to get off his chest.

“We’ll be fine,” he went on. “I have savings from when I was working in the city, but I really want to save that for Henry’s education. Anyway, my online corporate trainings have been tapering off, and my freelance work is always slower this time of year.”

“I guess that’s natural for any business,” she said, nodding. “It ebbs and flows sometimes, right?”

“Exactly,” he agreed. “Anyway, I did an online training once for a casting office in Philadelphia. One of the agents there called me once or twice to ask if I wanted to do commercials. She said my voice and my look were really good.”

Willow just managed not to giggle at the expression of horrified disbelief on his face when he said look .

Though her heart went out to that casting agent, because as far as she was concerned Jensen Webb most definitely had the voice and the look to be a star if he wanted.

If she was in charge of casting, it would be pretty much impossible for her to not want to call him in for every leading man role that came up.

And how could anyone not love that voice?

“Anyway,” he said. “I never really thought too much about it. I told her I had a little boy and couldn’t travel to the city for that kind of thing.”

“That makes sense,” Willow agreed.

“Well, last time when she got in touch I was having a really slow month,” Jensen said. “And she mentioned that this would be voiceover work and I could record at the radio station here in town, so no traveling at all.”

“Wow, that’s perfect,” Willow said.

“She sent me my lines and they were just exactly what I would say in the commercial,” he went on.

“My contract was with the agency, not the Co-op, and it just said Grocery Store OJ Spot . I know this sounds dumb, but with the lines I have, I figured it was for a supermarket chain down in Florida, so I didn’t think too much about it. ”

“Fresh-squeezed goodness from Florida gems,” Willow repeated, nodding.

“It definitely never occurred to me that it was for the tiny co-op store in my own hometown,” he said, shaking his head at his own ignorance.

It hurt her heart to see him feeling foolish.

“You did this for Henry,” Willow said firmly. “Was the pay good?”

“Surprisingly so,” he agreed. “We’re set for December and I already have a couple of offers for other spots, though after last night, I’m not too eager to take them.”

“You managed to get through a slow month without touching your savings,” she said. “You’re a single parent. I’d count that as a pretty big win.”

“I guess so,” he said, steel-gray eyes focused on the road.

If they were strangers, she might have thought he was mad. But she knew Jensen well enough to recognize that look. He was just thinking it through.

Hopefully, he was giving weight to what she had said. After all, her own mother was a single parent, and Jensen knew how much Willow and Ransom admired her for always finding a way to have food on the table and school supplies in their backpacks.

“Besides,” she added. “You’ve given the whole town so much pleasure. You can’t even imagine what it was like at the market when it first played. I wish you’d been there. ”

“Oh yeah?” When he glanced over he wasn’t smiling, but his eyes were twinkling.

“People were smiling,” she said, picturing it all in her head. “Some were even repeating your catchphrase.”

“It’s not my catchphrase,” he told her. But he was actually smiling now.

“I had kind of forgotten while I was away,” she told him.

“But there’s just not that much that goes on around here.

You start to treasure these fun little surprises when they crop up.

And you’ve got a real gift. Hey, if you play your cards right you could be going out to dinner on this story for years. ”

He chuckled and kept his eyes on the road, but she could see his shoulders sink just a little as he relaxed into the idea.

If she had helped him view the situation in a different way, she was glad about it. He was a wonderful father, and she didn’t think he should be ashamed of doing what it took to provide for his boy.

“Thanks for putting it that way,” he said after a moment. “And I guess that’s more than you needed to know about my work situation.”

“Sounds like you’ve got your work situation under control,” Willow said with a smile. “Besides, I think I probably shared more than I should have myself the other night.”

It was a weak joke, meant to dispel what remained of the obvious tension from the other night. But Jensen didn’t even crack a polite smile. He just drove on into the winter night, his tight jaw somehow making him more handsome than ever, and his expression one she had honestly never seen before.

Willow sucked in a breath and tried hard not to die of embarrassment.

We can’t be that far from Trinity Falls, can we?

Route One stretched out in front of them in the darkness and she literally couldn’t think of a single thing to say that would move them off the topic of her stupid confession.

Even Henry had betrayed her by falling asleep in his car seat so she couldn’t distract herself or change the mood with a few good knock-knock jokes.

Another mile or two melted away and when she realized they were close to home, she stole a glance at Jensen. He was gazing at the familiar road with that same look from before, the one that she knew meant he was now deep in thought.

Probably trying to figure out why he brought me out today.

He turned onto Ambler, and she was relieved to focus on the familiar sights of childhood.

The big, gorgeous homes on the north side of town were strung with icicle lights that reflected in the snow.

And as they traveled south toward the village, the houses got closer together and the decorations got more and more festive.

By the time they turned onto Park and were pulling up in front of Carla’s Place, she had almost forgotten her earlier embarrassment.

“Willow,” Jensen said as he turned the truck off.

She turned to him. Even in the relative darkness she could see there was something intense about his gaze .

“Thank you so much for letting me tag along today,” she heard herself say brightly.

But she was sure that he knew her too-light tone was just covering up her nerves.

“Would you like to go to dinner with me?” he asked.

She was so surprised that she didn’t say anything for a moment.

“You can think about it—” he began.

“ Yes ,” she said quickly. “I’d love to go to dinner with you, Jensen.”

“I’ll text you then,” he said, hopping out of his truck and jogging to her door, opening it for her like a prince in a fairytale.

Willow wanted to pinch herself, but she tried her best to stay cool.

She wasn’t some teenager in puppy love, no matter how much he might make her feel that way sometimes.

She was a grown woman, and though she was mature enough now to understand that he wasn’t without flaws, she still liked him so much.

Too much, she thought to herself helplessly. I’ve always liked him too much…

“I can’t walk you all the way up with Henry in the car,” he said, his voice so deep she could feel it in her belly.

“That’s okay,” she told him.

“I’ll text you,” he told her again, his gray eyes burning.

She nodded, feeling breathless.

When he reached out to cup her face in his warm hand, she thought for sure that he was going to kiss her, and her heart began to race .

But he only leaned down and kissed the top of her head instead, making her heart ache with his sweetness.

“Good night, Willow,” he murmured stroking her cheek with his thumb once before letting go. “I’m going to watch you walk up.”

“Good night,” she said, feeling like she was in a dream.

She practically floated up the fire escape, and when she got to the top she turned to see him standing there, leaning on his truck, his eyes fixed on her.

She waved to him before opening up her door and slipping inside.

Somehow, her small apartment didn’t seem big enough to contain her happiness. She wrapped her arms around herself in a big hug, smiling from ear to ear.

When her phone buzzed almost immediately in her pocket, she didn’t think it would be Jensen already.

But there was his name on the screen.

Jensen Webb

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