Page 27 of The Billionaire Benefactor

Before Roman could go, she grabbed his hand. “Thank you, Roman.” The words seemed too small, but she tried to convey more with her eyes. His slate-blue eyes warmed, and he squeezed her hand once before patting Matt on the shoulder and heading out of the church. Jenny tried to focus on the last stanza of the song, stepping over a seat so she could be next to Matt. He was looking back to where Roman was trying to escape before too many people asked for autographs.

“I come bearing chocolate!”

Before Denise could even get through the front door, Jenny was hugging her and Tiny was dancing around them. “It’s been too long!”

“Oof! Be gentle. I’m nursing a baby. I can’t take being squeezed! I might explode and shoot milk everywhere. And I saw you four days ago. Are you okay?”

Jenny laughed and loosened her grip on Denise. “Sorry. I forgot how that feels! It’s been a while since I’ve had a baby. Oh my gosh, how did my kids get so old? Get in here. We have a lot to catch up on.”

Denise set down a CVS bag on the kitchen table and Jenny got them both bottled water to drink. “Are the kids down already? I wanted to tell them hi.”

“They are. Matt might still be awake, but I think he fell asleep reading.”

“Aw, boo. Next time.”

“How’s Levi?” Jenny asked. “Is he six weeks now?”

“Seven,” Denise said. “And he’s amazing. I mean, other than the fact that I’m never sleeping and hardly get a moment to myself. Chad barely let me come tonight. He looked so panicked—it was adorable. Anytime Levi so much as makes a noise, Chad thinks I need to feed him. I mean, it’s kind of true, but not really.”

Jenny laughed. “Sorry. I just remember that so well. Will he be okay?”

“He’ll be fine. But I probably can’t stay long. So let’s get down to business. Chocolate and conversation.” Denise dumped out the bag from CVS, revealing a few gourmet chocolate bars and one bag of Peanut M&Ms. Chocolate and conversation was something they had tried to do once a month or so since they’d met in college and was just what it sounded like—a time to catch up. With chocolate.

Jenny opened a bar of dark chocolate with sea salt. “This is epic. I love salty sweet.”

Denise had the bag of Peanut M&Ms. “Right? I don’t know why, but I craved these all through pregnancy and I think maybe I’m broken now. This is still all I want to eat. Enough about chocolate and its awesome powers. How are things?”

While another small piece of chocolate melted on her tongue, Jenny thought about how to answer this. She’d been thinking about it all afternoon. Denise was her best friend and the only one who knew everything, but it was hard to start with this.

“I met Roman Bennett. I think I like him. And maybe he might have feelings for me. Or something.”

Denise grabbed her wrist. “Is this a joke? You don’t look like it’s a joke.”

“Not a joke.”

“We hung out four days ago! Did this somehow happen in the last four days? All the details. Now. No more chocolate until you’re done. Because Chad’s going to call me in like half an hour and I have to hear all of this before I’m going home.”

Jenny started with Roman coming to the front door and her slamming it in his face and continued until she got to the part about him coming to church. At that point she got choked up and had to stop for water. Denise grabbed her hand. “Are you crying?” Jenny said.

“It’s the hormones!” Denise said. “And also—I can’t believe he came to church so you wouldn’t have to sit alone. That is just…I don’t have words for what it is. Amazing.”

“But I don’t know what I’m doing. Or what he wants. I mean, we’re talking about Roman Bennett. I cannot even process the thought that he might be interested. So I must be reading all this wrong. I mean, he’s probably just taking the charity thing really far?”

Denise narrowed her eyes. “Don’t shortchange yourself, Jenny. Ever. You are a catch. And I’m pretty sure charity doesn’t have people calling at eleven at night, talking for over an hour. How were the kids with him?”

“Obviously, Matt was in heaven. But if you could have seen him with Lucy—” Jenny had to pause to steady her breathing and hold back tears. Again. “He was so incredibly sweet. She took to him and he was so natural with both of them.”

“Okay, you have to stop making me cry. These stupid hormones have me just on the edge of tears all day. This is too much.” Denise fanned her face. “Jenny, this all sounds like the start of something good.”

“Except for the timing.” Jenny sighed. “No one else knows what was really going on with Hank. He gave up on us a long time ago. We were essentially over. But people see me as a grieving widow. You wouldn’t believe some of the looks today at church.”

“Maybe you need a new church.”

“No—I mean, people weren’t mean. They were just people. Wouldn’t you have questions or think it’s strange if you didn’t know me?”

Denise popped another two M&Ms in her mouth. “You’re right. It’s human nature to be curious and this is certainly something…different.”

“You mean weird.”

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