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She led them to the pew that had only a couple of people. Once they were seated, her mom on one side, Janessa on the other, Misha let her gaze wander over the people gathered there.
There seemed to be a wide range of ages, including a good chunk of young people. As she’d suspected, the racial makeup of the congregation was primarily White, but there were morepeople of color than just them, Jay, and Janessa. Misha wondered how many people there she might see at the clinic in the weeks to come.
Her gaze landed on Jay as he walked down the center aisle with a shorter man at his side. They stopped to talk to a woman in one of the pews, then Jay kept walking while the man sat down next to the woman. A young man with dark hair stopped Jay, then motioned to the pew he was standing next to.
“That’s my youngest brother,” Janessa said. “The one with Jay. They’re close because Cole is a basketball fanatic like Jay.”
Cole and a couple of other young men seemed to be joking around with Jay, and he cracked a smile at something Cole said. Gareth and Aria paused to talk to them for a moment, then continued hand in hand to the front row.
“Gareth plays the drums for the worship team, so he and Aria sit at the front.”
“Do you usually sit with them?”
“Sometimes,” Janessa said with a shrug. “Most often, I sit with Charli or Jay. With such a large family and friends attending here, I can always find someone to sit with.”
“Do you have a boyfriend?” Misha asked, realizing belatedly maybe church wasn’t the best place to be asking the question.
“Nope. It was sweet watching Aria and Gareth fall in love, but I’ve also seen Jay struggle with his former relationship. I’m not sure that I want to take the chance of a broken heart.”
Well, that answered the question she’d had about Jay’s relationship status. Not that it should matter. She didn’t need to complicate the changes in her life by even thinking about getting involved with anyone, let alone Jay. She admired some ofthe things she’d seen of him so far, but she wasn’t interested in becoming a rebound if he’d just gone through a breakup.
The two senior Dr. Halversons walked in with a couple who looked close to their age. The couple continued down the aisle, but the doctors came to sit in the row in front of them.
Cathy turned to face them with a smile. “Did Ciara do okay last night?”
“She did,” Misha said. “Only woke up once and went back to sleep fairly quickly.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful. Kids that little can sometimes struggle with changes.”
Before she could respond, a man spoke over the speaker system, drawing their attention to the front. Gareth had gone up onto the stage and was now seated at a set of drums behind a plexiglass shield.
For the next hour, Misha couldn’t help but compare this church service to the ones they’d attended in Atlanta. There were some obvious differences, but also things that were similar. Most importantly, however, her mom seemed to be enjoying it.
Maybe life would be okay for them in Serenity.
Was it too soon to have that kind of thought? Perhaps. But she needed to think positively about what lay ahead, and not focus on what they’d left behind.
CHAPTER SIX
Jay stared at the text on the screen of his phone and realized that he was going to have to block Casey’s number. Even after telling her he didn’t want to get back together with her, she was still contacting him, promising things would be different this time. Even going so far as to hint that maybe they could get married. At one point, that would have been enough to draw him back to her.
If there was one thing that he’d learned about himself from his eleven-year relationship with Casey it was that when he fell in love with someone, he fell deep and he fell hard. It was why he’d gone back to her over and over again, hoping desperately that each time would be different. That she’d be as completely devoted to him as he was to her.
This time, though, he refused to be drawn back in again.
This time, he would stay strong and protect his finally healing heart.
It had taken far too long to detach from his feelings for her, and he’d made a mistake in going back to her that last time, even knowing that his feelings had changed. It wasn’t a mistake he was going to repeat. This had to be the end so that they could both move forward with their lives and, hopefully, other partners.
Jay drew in a deep breath. Casey was his first and only love. His high school sweetheart. It still hurt to think of not having her in his life, but it was just a dull ache now. Not the sharp jabbing pain it had been months ago. His bruised and broken heart was nearly healed.
After a moment, he tapped out the harshest message he’d ever sent her, but he needed to present a finality to theirrelationship. Why she couldn’t seem to accept it was truly over, he had no clue. It wasn’t like she seemed to actually want to be with him most of the time.
Casey, you need to stop contacting me. We agreed to end things for good, and these texts aren’t helping either of us to move on. My feelings for you and our relationship have changed, so there’s just no chance for us anymore. If you keep contacting me, I’m going to have to block your number. I don’t want to do that, but I will, if you send me more texts like this one.
Jay turned off the sound on his phone and put it in the top drawer of his desk. He had other things he needed to focus on. Misha was coming in soon to fill out paperwork in preparation for starting work in a couple of days. He didn’t want to be upset with Casey when he needed to be focused on that.
Picking up the file he’d prepared for Misha, he looked through it to make sure he’d included everything she needed to sign. It was such a relief to all of them that she was coming on board at the clinic. He knew that his parents were thrilled with her, as were Gareth, Janessa, and Aria.
