A Beautiful Mess by Kristy Noel Gillinder

Author:Kristy Noel Gillinder
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: River Birch Press

12

Time flew by as they moved toward semester exams. Jeff and Danni were closer than ever. They were both excellent students, like Jana. Sharon stuck her tongue out at all of them and did her best to skate by so she could stay in school and be near her precious Dan.

Jeff and Danni brought out the best in each other, and they each encouraged the other to work hard. Danni had happily agreed to spend Christmas with the Kingstons. Iris had raged and cried and done everything she could to make Danni come home to Mountainview, but she refused. Instead, Danni bought Iris a pretty scarf and a pair of earrings, wrote a poem, and mailed everything in a care package. She got small gifts for Kurt and Ruby out of a sense of obligation but never received any acknowledgment. Danni was only hoping for a card, but one never came.

As Jeff and Danni reached the airport this time, she felt sadness mixed with relief. At least she wouldn’t be lonely this Christmas like she had been every other Christmas before.

This time, Jana had insisted on driving them to the airport. “It’s the only way I get to see the two of you,” she laughed. Jeff and Danni had loaded Jana down with Christmas packages before leaving the apartment. Jana, Sharon, and Dan were touched by Jeff’s generosity. He never bragged about it but seemed truly grateful and loved to share with others.

“Jana, I’m telling you, you and your family must come up to visit my family sometime. My parents live for entertaining. Besides, you need to meet some of my friends up there. You’d love them,” Jeff said.

Jana’s eyes widened. “If you’d told me that sooner, I’d have gone too. You’re such a rat, Jeff. Shame on you!” Jana said, laughing.

Janna dropped them off, waved goodbye, and was gone. They checked in and didn’t have to wait long before they were happily settled on the plane. “I think Jana is really worried about Sharon too,” Jeff said.

Danni sighed. “She was so trying hard to be full of Christmas cheer that I didn’t want to bring it up. I’ve been busy with you and work and Bible study and exams, so I haven’t really seen Sharon as much as I normally would. But something is definitely wrong. Jana said she called Dan the other day, at his work, just to check on Sharon, to see if he knew what was wrong. He didn’t seem to know either, but he sounded really sad,” Danni said.

“Do you think she and Dan are having problems?” Jeff asked. “I haven’t spent a lot of time alone with him, but the few times we went to play basketball at the gym, he seemed fine,” Jeff said.

“I agree. I think whatever the problem is, Sharon may have kept it from Dan too.”

“Whatever it is, we are going to enjoy our holiday, pray for them, and help if we can,” Jeff said, squeezing her hand.

They fell into a pensive silence and finally began to talk of other things.

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