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“They’re pity cookies,” Will told her as he took another one.
“Still taste divine.” Janessa broke off a piece of the cookie she held and popped it in her mouth. “Your mom can pity me any time she wants.”
“I didn’t know you liked gingerbread cookies.”
“I like a lot of the cookies we only seem to get at Christmastime.”
“True. My mom also makes these cookies she calls pecan snowballs for the holidays. They’re my second favorite cookie.”
“Are those the ones that are rolled in powdered sugar?”
“Yep.”
“Guess she doesn’t feel sorry enough to make both kinds of cookies?”
Will chuckled. “Guess not. Though I’m pretty sure that if I asked her to, she would.”
“Reese would definitely take advantage of that,” Janessa said. “Isaac too.”
“It’s like you know my siblings or something.”
“That’s what happens when we all grow up together.”
There had been times over the past few months when Will had longed for the anonymity of living in a big city. Or, at the very least, the option of attending a different church. But that would have started evenmorerumors and would have negatively affected his parents.
Having these friends—who’d taken up protective positions around him when they’d seen his ex with her new boyfriend—was worth staying in a small town and having to bump into Daphne every week.
“Are you ladies going to play volleyball with us?” Jay asked.
“Is it still going to be you and Will against the rest of us?” Janessa asked.
“I’m going to stay with the kids,” Charli said.
“So six of us against the two of you?” Gareth clarified.
Jay shrugged. “I’m good with that.”
“I’m not!” Will told him. “Give us at least one more person. Just not Jackson.”
“What’s wrong with me, man?”
“Sorry, Jack, but you’re worse than I am at volleyball. Jay’s handicapped enough with me.”
“Fair enough,” Jackson said with a laugh.
“We’ll take Misha.” Will figured he could be the one to make the choice.
Jay put his arm around Misha’s waist. “I’m not going to argue with that.”
“Just keep focused on the game and not each other,” Will told him.
“I make no promises.”
There was a pang of hurt in Will’s heart as he watched Misha gaze up at Jay with love in her eyes. Had Daphneeverlooked at him that way? He didn’t think so.
“Let’s play,” he said, not wanting to let that thought drag him down when he was finally feeling better after what had happened that morning.
For all that Janessa hadn’t been happy to workout at the gym, she didn’t complain about playing volleyball. She went to the spot Gareth told her to, which was opposite Will. Grinning at him, she rubbed her hands together.
