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Not that he was interested in having a relationship with her.
That truth shouldn’t hurt, but it did. Far more than she would have thought it would.
“I know I can trust Will,” she told Aria. “And hopefully the woman he ends up with will know that, too.”
“I wonder how Jay feels about this double date,” Aria mused. “Gareth didn’t think it was a good idea, given that Jackson hasn’t had a lot of positive experiences in the dating department.”
“Can’t blame a woman for not wanting to be on her own the first time she meets a guy,” Janessa said. “Do you think Jackson tried to talk Wade into going with him first?”
Aria laughed. “I think he probably didn’t even bother with that. We all know what Wade’s response would be.”
“Jackson probably assumed that Will would be easier to convince.”
“And he was right, apparently, since Will agreed to go with him.”
Janessa leaned forward to snag a cookie from the plate on the tray. The desire for a treat had died when she heard about Will’s date, but at least nibbling on a cookie would give her something to do.
“You and Jackson are complete opposites,” Aria said. “He seems desperate for a relationship, while you couldn’t seem to care less about having one.”
Janessa shrugged. “We’re all different in how we approach relationships. For example, I thought it would take Jay much longer to get involved with a woman after his bad experience with Casey.”
“Just takes the right person coming along, I guess.”
Janessa knew Aria was probably offering those words as encouragement for her, but she didn’t respond to them. “I just hope that Will doesn’t get too distracted by the new woman in his life until after the Fall Dinner.”
Though truth be told, she could probably manage it by herself. She just didn’t want to have to. However, if Will was going to get all gushy about this new woman, Janessa would definitely prefer to work alone.
“I suppose you could ask him all about his date tomorrow night when you see him.”
She could, but she wasn’t going to. “I don’t think Will would want to discuss that within earshot of his students. Most of our group is made up of kids from the high school.”
“Yeah. Probably not.”
“It’s one of the reasons he wasn’t interested in Marissa. Her brother is in one of Will’s classes.”
“Speaking of teens, Charli said that Skylar is moving in with us this week?”
Janessa nodded, grateful for the change of subject. “Mom and Dad leave on Wednesday.”
“But not to Haiti this time?”
“No. They’re going aboard a medical ship for three weeks.”
Janessa tried very hard not to think of all the things that could go wrong when her parents left Serenity Point. She knew they believed they were going where God wanted them, so if anything happened while they were there, it was God’s will. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t make losing them any easier if the worst should happen.
“Have you ever thought about going with them?” Aria asked.
Janessa shook her head. “I’m happy sticking close to home and helping run the clinic. Would you like to go if Gareth wanted to?”
Aria shrugged. “If he wanted me to, I’d probably go, but I’m happy here, too.”
Janessa wondered if there would be another generation who would take on roles in the clinic if, at some point down the road, Gareth and Misha decided to follow in her parents’ footsteps and offer their services in other countries. She knew that Misha’s heart lay with serving low-income communities, so it wouldn’t surprise her if she wanted to do that beyond Serenity at some point in the future.
She’d never asked Skylar and Cole how they felt about their parents’ decision to leave for extended periods of time. Of all the kids, they had been the ones most affected by their parents’ absence. Cole wouldn’t notice it as much anymore since he wasn’t living in Serenity, but Skylar still had to move in with someone else whenever their parents left.
Aria covered her mouth as she yawned. “I need to go to bed, or I’m going to be useless tomorrow.”
“And then your co-worker would have to pick up the slack.”
