When she smiled at him like that, something inside of him twinkled like he was a string of lights going off in multiple bursts of color.

Him. Bodie Lewis. Twinkling.

It was enough to make him want to slap his hand across his forehead and see if he could knock his brain back into gear because apparently his injuries had extended to his head, after all.

Tough soldiers didn’t twinkle.

He winced. He might not be a tough soldier anymore, but he wasn’t embracing twinkling, either. The sooner he finished this job, the better.

Her gaze holding his, she held up a finger as if to say to hold on and she’d be off the phone in a few. Rather than wait for her to finish, Bodie pulled his truck key from his pocket and tossed it to her.

Catching it, she looked at the key, then back at him.

Putting her hand over the mouthpiece of her phone, she asked, “What’s this?”

“My truck key.”

Keeping her hand pressed over the mouthpiece, she veed her brows in question. “I know that, but what am I supposed to do with this?”

“Get your tree.”

Her jaw dropped a little as she realized what he meant. “You want me to drive your truck to Harvey’s Farm?”

“If it makes you happy.”

Because, more and more that seemed to be what motivated his every move. Making Sarah smile.

Sarah stared at Bodie in disbelief. They’d only known each other a short time. That he trusted her enough to let her borrow his truck had her insides filled with warm fuzzies.

“You going with me to get my Christmas tree would make me happy,” she admitted, hearing the bit of longing in her voice and not really caring if Bodie heard it, too.

“Well, if you want me to go, I will,” Maybelle said over the cellphone.

Oops. She’d forgotten about her conversation with Maybelle and had neglected to keep her hand over the mouthpiece to block out her conversation with Bodie.

“Not you,” she clarified, then winced as she realized how that sounded. She should have muted her phone or ended the call. Something.

She took a big breath and tried to dig herself out of the hole without ending up in a deeper mess.

“I mean, of course, you going with me would make me happy, Maybelle. But I was talking to Bodie. He just came into the kitchen and—”

“Bodie going with you to get a Christmas tree would make you happy?” Maybelle interrupted, her voice full of curiosity.

Sarah could feel Maybelle’s matchmaking instinct going into full-fledged overdrive from over the phone line. Not good. She’d been fighting tooth and nail to keep the Butterflies away from Hamilton House so Bodie could work in peace. So far, she’d succeeded. Any more slip-ups like that one and they’d be camped out on her doorstep wanting to know more.

“No,” she insisted. Then, wondering if Bodie could hear what Maybelle had asked, she met his gaze and corrected her answer. “Yes.”