Her Mistletoe Protector

“Is everything okay?” Nick asked from the doorway.

Joey’s big green eyes once again filled with tears. “I’m sorry, Nick.”

“Hey now, don’t cry.” Nick sent her a pleading look. “I don’t care about that bottle of aftershave, it was old anyway.”

But Joey shook his head. “No, I’m sorry about the knife,” he said. “I was being careful like you said, but it slipped and I didn’t want you to know I cut myself.”

“I’m not mad at you, Joey, so don’t worry about it, okay?” Nick flashed her son a reassuring smile.

Rachel was glad to see that the cut wasn’t that deep, and she held Joey’s hand under the warm water as she rummaged in the open medicine cabinet. “Do you have any tape and gauze I can use to keep it clean and dry?” she asked.

“We still have Jonah’s first-aid kit in the kitchen,” Nick assured her. She relaxed and nodded, remembering how she’d used it to change the dressing on Nick’s wound.

“All right, let me put a towel or something around his thumb,” she muttered. “Keep your hand in the water, okay?”

Joey nodded and did as she asked, while she searched for something to use. She found an old but clean hand towel in dark brown and figured the bloodstains wouldn’t be too noticeable. “Okay, here, let’s wrap this around your hand.”

Joey sniffled again but allowed her to wrap the towel around his thumb. He turned toward the door, but his foot slipped in the slight puddle on the floor, making him wrinkle his nose in disgust.

She led the way into the kitchen, getting Joey settled in one of the kitchen chairs on the opposite side from where they’d been working on the timeline, while Nick brought over the first-aid kit.

“There’s some triple antibiotic cream in here, too,” he said, handing over the supplies.

“Good thing.” She put a dollop of ointment over the cut and then carefully wrapped it in gauze and tapped it securely in place. “There, how’s that?” she asked when she was finished.

Joey nodded. “Can you make the smell go away?” he asked.

She didn’t quite understand why he was so upset about the smelly aftershave. It actually wasn’t awful, the brand was well-known and obviously had remained popular over the years. She exchanged a perplexed glance at Nick. “Ah, sure, I’ll clean up the bathroom floor, okay?”

“Are you hungry?” she heard Nick ask, as she walked down the hall to clean up the mess in the bathroom. “I can heat up some soup.”

She filled the sink with soapy water and took yet another hand towel and did her best to clean up the spilled aftershave. But even after she finished, the scent still lingered.

There wasn’t much she could do other than try to cut through the scent with a stronger cleaning agent.

She went back into the kitchen and found Nick heating up some chicken noodle soup for Joey. “Do you have any bleach or vinegar?” she asked in a low tone.

He grimaced. “I doubt it, but check in the pantry.”

Calling the rough wooden open shelves a pantry was a bit of a misnomer, and she examined the contents but couldn’t find anything she could use to help eliminate the odor.

“Don’t worry,” Nick said reassuringly. “I’m sure it will fade over time.”

“No!” Joey shouted. “I don’t like the smell! Make it go away!”

She rushed to Joey’s side, wrapping her arms around her son. “Shh, sweetie, it’s okay.”

“Wait,” Nick said, coming over to put a hand on her shoulder. “Does the smell remind you of something, Joey?” he asked.

Realization dawned slowly, and she pulled away just enough to look down at her son’s face. Joey gazed up at her and then looked over at Nick. He didn’t speak, but he slowly nodded his head yes.

Her heart clenched in her chest as the implication sank deep.

“What does the smell remind you of, Joey?” Nick asked gently. “Can you tell me?”

There was a long silence before Joey answered. “The bad man,” he whispered.

“The bad man who put a hood over your head and carried you away after the crash?” Nick asked.

This time, her son shook his head no. “The other bad man. I didn’t see him, but he spoke in a mean voice and he smelled bad. Like the bottle I accidently spilled in the bathroom.”

The second bad man? For a moment Rachel couldn’t move. Could barely comprehend what Joey meant.