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“Unfortunately.”
Janessa wasn’t sure why she was so concerned about Will, but her heart ached a bit at the thought that he was hurting. “Okay. I’m going to go see how he is.”
Reese lifted a brow but didn’t say anything, just nodded.
As Janessa stepped into the sanctuary, she spotted Jay first, which wasn’t a surprise since he was taller than most people, even sitting down. Misha was beside Jay on one side, and Will was on his other side.
Janessa walked to the outside aisle, then made her way down to the row where they sat. The couple who were sitting along the outside aisle graciously stood to allow her to move past them. As she settled down beside Will, he glanced over at her before focusing back on his phone.
“Still able to walk, I see,” Jay said as he leaned past Will to talk to her. “Must not have worked hard enough.”
“I’ve had a whole day to recover,” she told him.
“Oh good. Then you can join Misha and Will on Monday evening.”
“Ha.”
Janessa looked back over her shoulder, spotting Daphne and her new boyfriend on the opposite side of the sanctuary. Daphne’s gaze met hers, and Janessa refused to look away before she did. The woman’s eyes narrowed briefly before she turned her attention to the man beside her.
Church wasn’t where she should be staring down Will’s ex. Realistically, she shouldn’t be staring down his ex at all. Reese could get away with it, but it wasn’t Janessa’s place.
It wasn’t that she was upset that Daphne had broken up with Will. She’d never really gotten along with the woman. Just like she’d always thought Jay could do better than Casey, she’d thought Will could do better than Daphne.
The issue Janessa had washowDaphne had ended their relationship. She didn’t know the details, but from what she could see, Daphne had done more than just break Will’s heart. She’d broken something else within him, and he didn’t deserve that.
He also didn’t deserve for her to bring her new boyfriend to a place where she knew without a doubt that Will would be.
This wasn’t an accidental run-in, like if they’d bumped into each other at a restaurant or a store. Nope. Daphneknewthat Will would be at church, and she’d still chosen to show up there with the new man in her life.
Just thinking about Daphne’s actions made Janessa want to turn around and glare at her again.
Thankfully, the worship team began to play, drawing her attention away from Daphne. That was absolutely necessary in order to put her mind in the right state for worship and listening to the sermon from Will’s dad that day.
She didn’t know how Will would be able to get into the right mindset, since he had to be even more upset by Daphne’s presence with her boyfriend than Janessa was. Still, he went through the motions without revealing anything about what he might be feeling, which was probably for the best, Janessa realized.
People, maybe even Daphne, were probably watching him to see if he showed how he felt about his ex and her new boyfriend being there that morning. Any sign of upset by Will would be fodder for those who liked to gossip, and despite them being in a church, unfortunately there were more than a few who liked to do just that.
Janessa just hoped that the unbothered attitude Will was displaying was a close reflection of what he was really feeling inside. That would mean he was healing, which would be a very good sign.
Despite the anger she’d felt toward him earlier that year, Janessa wanted him to be happy and healed again.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Will wanted to leave the church as soon as the service was over, but he would not give anyone anything more to gossip about. So he visited briefly with the people who’d been seated in front of them during the service, then followed Misha and Jay up the aisle to the foyer with Janessa at his side.
She was chatting about how she’d spent her Saturday, and since she didn’t usually talk to him about stuff like that without prompting, Will could only assume she was doing it as a distraction for him. He appreciated that because otherwise, he’d probably be looking around to see if Daphne had left already.
But Janessa made it easier for him to keep his focus on her and not on his ex and the man she’d had with her that morning. He still felt a little sick as a result of the mess of emotions that had madly swirled inside him when he’d first spotted Daphne and her companion, who he could only assume was her new boyfriend, given the way they’d been interacting.
Will had known that moment would happen, eventually. He wasn’t dumb. But he’d kind of hoped that it wouldn’t be until he was a little more prepared for it. But when that would have been, he didn’t know. His mistake had been in not bracing himself for the eventuality right from the start.
Seeing her with someone new had made him realize that she’d been a lot further removed from her feelings for him by the time she’d finally ended things than he had. He didn’t feel like he was ready for a relationship yet, but clearly, she was, and he had no choice but to accept what it said about the last few months of their relationship.
It wasn’t that he’d held out any hope of getting back together with Daphne. In fact, he’d never wanted that. The reason he’d struggled seeing Daphne with another man was that it brought back all the hurtful things she’d said right at the end. And how she’d made it clear that any man she dated in the future would be completely different from him.
So he’d seen the guy with her as a representation of everything he wasn’t, and it had been a difficult pill to swallow so unexpectedly.
“Want to go to the park this afternoon?” Jay asked when they reached the foyer. “Or go for a hike?”
