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“Just wondering.” He’d shrugged. “You and Dan seem close. He’s been my friend since high school. He’s had a ton of girls after him over the years, and I don’t want to see him hurt.”
She’d needed to count to ten before calming sufficiently to answer. “I like Dan a lot, but I’m notafterhim. He’s only a good friend. Is that all right with you?”
Boyd had muttered some sort of apology, but she still got the feeling he didn’t really approve of her. So when Dan had mentioned as they started driving home that Boyd and Patrik were staying the next few days with him, she’d decided she wouldn’t hang around. Nope, it was best to avoid all of them, for lots of reasons.
But avoidance wasn’t so easy a few hours later, as Dan and his guests sat at Ange and John’s dinner table. God bless her aunt’s insatiable gift of hospitality. She’d insisted on having the guys come for a “proper meal,” knowing they’d be tired from the previous few days.
As they conducted an informal debrief of the camp and what type of follow-up might be necessary, Sarah found it difficult to concentrate. It was hard to ignore the person sitting across from her and yet somehow draining to look away anytime she found Dan’s eyes on her. It was like her eyes were operating differently to her brain, so constantly were they drawn to him. What was wrong with her?
* * *
What was wrong with her?Dan couldn’t help but notice the lack of eye contact with Sarah. Every time he looked up she shifted her gaze away, as if the ice princess was back and those fireside glances had never happened. Dinner had been nice, but the lack of attention from Sarah almost had him believing Boyd’s words from earlier today, that she wasn’t interested in him and would remain fixated on Stephen forever. That thought filled him with a jabbing kind of pain, and he tried to ignore it, tried to stay focused on the conversation.
Ange leaned forward. “So, Boyd, how are things progressing with Joanna?”
Dan swallowed the snicker as Boyd looked up from his steak like a scared rabbit. Maybe Boyd would realize how it felt to have his love life scrutinized, only this time under the pastoral microscope.
Love life? Oh man…
Boyd took a sip of water. “These things take time.”
“Any more time and you’ll be old and gray and in a wheelchair, my friend.” Dan clapped him on the back.
“Better to take things slow than get it wrong and have to live with the consequences.”
Consequences? That shut Dan up. He shot a quick look at Sarah, but she seemed oblivious to the loaded comment. He speared a slice of cucumber as a new pang shot through him. Sarah was so innocent that she and Stephen had probably never done anything more than hold hands. And she was a minister’s daughter…
His guts twisted. Nope, much as he liked her, had even thought maybe one day she might like him, she’d always be much too good for him.
Dinner felt a little tasteless after that, and he was glad when Patrik’s yawns provided sufficient excuse to head back. When his guests finally switched off their lights, he stole out to the dock, lying down to stare up at the sky. The heavens declared the hugeness of God: glorious, all-powerful, and majestic. The vast expanse of black velvet dotted with stars also reminded him of another verse, something about how God had taken his sins away from him as far as the east is from the west.
He sighed. If only his soul could remember that too.
Chapter 11
Sarah lay on the hammock, trying to readPersuasion. Silly Anne Elliot. Fancy giving up on the man you loved just because somebody else persuaded you to. How dumb was that? She slapped over another page as her uncle’s voice wafted from the open kitchen window.
“We haven’t seen much of Dan lately.”
Sarah’s ears pricked up. Then she slumped back down. Why’d she have a special radar-like sense that enabled her to hear that name? She shook her head.Get it together, girl.
“He should be back from that hockey function by now.”
What hockey function? Why didn’t she know? She was Dan’s friend. Even if she hadn’t been acting much like it in the past five days, with her self-imposed absenteeism from next door.
“Maybe we should have him over for dinner tonight.” The back door slid open, and Ange called to her. “Sarah? Do you mind popping next door to ask Dan if he’d like to come for dinner? It’d be good to catch up with him. Tell him anytime this week will be fine if he’s busy tonight.”
Sarah’s mind raced through different responses:Actually, I do mind. I hope he’s busy. And I really hope Boyd isn’t still there. Can’t you text him?She settled for, “Are you sure?”
Her aunt looked at her strangely. “Of course I’m sure. He’s your friend, isn’t he?”
“Yeah, he is.” Sarah bit her lip. It was about time she started acting like it.
She wandered through the trees to Dan’s lovely home only to hear the sounds of male laughter coming from the back. Heart dipping, she walked around to the deck. Dan sat with some men she didn’t recognize. She took a step back, but one of them saw her and leaned over to Dan. Dan glanced around and stood up, beckoning her to join them. She sighed and slowly walked closer. Hopefully Dan’s friends would be nice and kind like him, not disapproving like Boyd.
Dan smiled. “Hey, Sar. It’s good to see you again.”
Her heartbeat skittered at his smile. It was almost too good to see him. He wore the usual Leafs T-shirt, shorts, and bare feet combo, but he looked…perfect.
