When Jenna released his hand, Brad sat straighter in his seat. “Okay. We’ll do that.”
It was all Dylan could do not to stare at her with his mouth gaping open. He’d never seen her like this before, so generous and selfless, so focused on someone else’s need. She was…different.
Don’t go there. You can’t afford to. Not again.
“That’s great.” Jenna pushed back from the table and stood. “Now why don’t you all get back to the hotel? You probably could use a relaxing day after yesterday. We’ll take care of some of these details and have you resettled in no time.”
Reacting to her cue, Dylan came to his feet. The others around him stood, as well.
“In no time,” he repeated, stepping over to shake hands with Brad.
Jenna was less formal, hugging Kelly first and then bending to offer each of the boys a squeeze. They only grimaced a little.
As she moved on to hug Brad and the minister and his wife, Dylan slanted a perplexed look her way.
He couldn’t help but think about how she’d tried to make it easier for the Denton family to accept assistance, seeming to care as much about their feelings as their physical needs. The Jenna he remembered wouldn’t have thought to reach out to anyone else. She’d always been too preoccupied as the epicenter of her own universe. But was it possible that she had changed.
Again, he forced himself not to read too much into her efforts. She was probably just hurrying the process along so they could finish their charity project and get on with their Christmas activities.
Preoccupied, he didn’t see it coming, but Kelly caught up with him, wrapping her arms around him in a fierce hug.
“God bless you for your kindness.” Kelly squeezed again and then released him. “Let us know what we can do. We’re not afraid of work.”
“We definitely will…after you relax today.”
Dylan had to admit that Jenna’s suggestion was a good one. And he preferred not to have the family present for some of the delicate discussions that might have to take place with additional donors.
He stole another glance at Jenna, who was reassuring the boys about Santa, and his breath caught. Today would be tough. He grimaced. If he was having this much trouble ignoring her with a crowd around them, he couldn’t imagine how hard it would be when the two of them were alone together. Maybe if they kept busy the whole time, it wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe he could even send her off shopping for clothes while he took on another part of the project. Independent subcommittees, so to speak. Yes, staying busy and dividing duties, that would help. No time to look into her beautiful eyes. No time for her to bring up the day that forced him to put her out of his life. No time for him to change his mind.
Jenna didn’t have to look Dylan’s way to know he was watching her, instead of the Dentons, as they crossed the parking lot to return to their hotel. The way he’d been studying her the past twenty minutes, she wanted to tell him to turn up the microscope’s magnification and take a good look.
She hated guessing that shock was the reason for his sudden curiosity. Was he really so surprised that she’d been kind to the Dentons? Someone would have to be missing a heart not to want to reach out to that great couple and those sweet little boys. Did he believe she was that type of person? Sure, she’d been a little narcissistic in the past, but she couldn’t have been that bad. At least she hoped not. And even if she had been, she was different now.
He might not realize it, but she wasn’t the only one who’d changed, and from what she’d seen so far, some of his changes hadn’t been for the better. He might be this new assertive-doctor type, but where were his sweetness and vulnerability? The qualities that made him Dylan? He was barely recognizable under all of that authoritarian veneer.
Frustration welled up inside her. Dylan would never give her a chance to restore their friendship. She didn’t know why she’d ever thought he would. Four years had passed. If he’d wanted to reconnect with her, he would have done it by now, and if she’d expected to have the chance to make amends, she should have tried before now.
She didn’t want to believe it was too late. Hadn’t her mother always told her it was never too late to do the right thing? It had to be the right thing for her to at least apologize for hurting him, whether he forgave her or not. And even if he didn’t believe she was the kind of person to think of others, she intended to help the Dentons have the merriest Christmas possible. She had too many blessings in her life not to share them with others.
She would work with Dylan, even if he wasn’t happy about working with her. She would pray through the process that they would somehow reconnect. He wasn’t the same boy she remembered any more than she was the same girl, but Jenna sensed that buried deep inside him—maybe intentionally hidden from her—was the person she’d once been closer to than anyone else. With God’s help, she was determined to find him.
“This is one thing you could have done without me.”
At this newest round of Dylan’s grousing, Jenna looked over her shoulder at him and grinned. “And have you miss all this?”
She gestured toward the rows of sweaters in the discount store’s women’s department. He was bored, but if she had agreed to his suggestion that they divide the list of stores and meet up at the end of the day, she wouldn’t have had the chance to see him all afternoon. So much for not forcing him to work with her. She sighed. This was getting more complicated by the minute.
“Have some mercy, will you?”
Dylan leaned his elbows on the hand grip of the shopping cart and rubbed his eyes, yawning. They’d already found several outfits and coats for Brad and the boys at the charity clothes closets and resale shops she’d marched him through for hours, but they were purchasing a few clothes for Kelly now. Jenna was in her element, and she wanted her purchases to be just right.
“Okay. I’ll be finished here in a minute.” She made her final selections and dropped them in the cart. “How does someone so impatient survive a job where you stare at people’s eyeballs all day?” she teased.
She would have taken the strange sound he made as a laugh if he’d chuckled at any of her other jokes today.
“Believe me, even just asking, ‘Better or worse?’ and ‘Which is clearer, A or B?’ is more interesting than shopping for women’s clothes.”
He did chuckle that time—at least something had brightened his spirits. He checked his watch again.
“You see,” he said, “I was right. At least in this one store we could have gotten more done, faster, if we’d separated and met up at the cash register later.”
Jenna frowned as she gathered several items in her arms. “We also would have gotten half as many things for twice as much if we’d done that. Haven’t you ever heard of comparison shopping? You can’t just march up to the undershirt display and pick the brand with the best commercials. You have to look at price. We only have so much money, and we want to get as much as possible.”
“But I could have handled toiletries.”
“Probably.”
“Probably? How do you think I earned my professional degree? Bid on it on an Internet auction site?”
When she whirled to look at him, Dylan had his arms crossed. Even with his chin tilted up that way, he looked…oddly appealing.
“No. Not the Internet. But can you tell me what kind of shampoo wouldn’t sting a kid’s eyes or would give long hair like Kelly’s a nice shine?”
At first he frowned, but finally he raised his hands in defeat. “Fine. You win.”
With