Brad must have lost interest anyway because he moved down a few seats to wait for his drink.
Jack lifted an eyebrow at me, his hand turning to play with my fingers. “I have never been, and will never be, a priest, no matter what Sean thinks about my self-control.”
“Self-control?” I frowned. “I guess priests do have a lot of self-control, but I was thinking more about the confession booth. I bet people have told you all sorts of things.”
“You got something to tell me, Hailey?” Jack asked, his eyes searching mine.
The way he was playing with my fingers was causing too many tingles to flow through my arm. I pulled away with another forced smile. “Can I have the purple drink, only with absolutely no alcohol?”
He grinned at me. “Learned your lesson last time?”
“The hard way,” I agreed with a grimace.
“Coming right up,” Jack said, and I was tempted to stare at his hands while he made it. The band started up another song, and I turned to watch them instead. The female singer was hardto look at. She had a short cap of brown hair and looked extra skinny, reminding me of my biological mother.
Whom I’d let take up way too much of my mental space that day.
Jack put my drink in front of me, giving me a worried smile before moving down to give Brad his drink. A few more patrons pulled his attention, and it wasn’t until the band had finished their first set that he stood in front of me again. His steady eyes saw too much.
“You had a bad day?” he asked.
I dropped my eyes to the bar.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it, but you know I’m here to listen if you do, right?”
Jack was always way too nice. “I know. It’s not that.”
“Good.” He tried a different route to cheer me up. “Hungry? I can bring you something.”
I hesitated. After the argument I’d had with Neil, my stomach hadn’t settled enough for dinner, but I didn’t feel hungry. I sighed, opening my mouth. “You wouldn’t have anything with chocolate, would you?” I didn’t remember seeing desserts on the menu.
Jack frowned. “No, I—” He smiled. “Actually, I might have something.” He turned around, telling Wendy he’d be right back before heading past the restrooms to the door marked Employees Only.
I sipped my drink, curiosity removing part of my funk. When he returned behind the bar with an enormous piece of chocolate cake with chocolate icing, I couldn’t help but grin.
“Where’d you get that?” I asked as he set it down in front of me.
He laughed. “It was my mother’s birthday this week. She forced me to take half of the cake home.”
“Then it’s yours. You should be eating it.” I tried not to stare at the cake, my mouth already watering.
Jack held up two forks. “I brought my own fork, didn’t I?”
I took one of the forks, going straight for the chocolate chips on top of the icing. “Fine, but you’re eating half.”
“The torture.” He dug his fork into the cake side. “Honestly, I shouldn’t eat anymore anyway. This is already the last of it. I’m going to need to double my time in the gym.”
I admired the way his black logoed shirt clung to his arms over his tattoos. “You go to the gym? I thought this was all natural.” I waved my chocolate-stained fork around his torso.
Jack snorted. “No way. I used to be scrawny with acne and oily hair and, of course, this big nose.” He pointed at it.
I enjoyed a moment of admiration. “I like your nose.”
“So you’ve said.” A pink tint spread over his cheeks. “I don’t want to admit how often I got bullied about my nose. All my looks, really. It wasn’t until I started working out that the girls noticed me, even after I learned to play the guitar.”
“Really? But there are plenty of women who find musicians sexy. Me included.”
“I was doing better with women by the time I was with the band,” Jack admitted, scooping up more cake.
