“I…I haven’t had someone ask me that in a long time.” His voice was hollow, and in that moment, I knew that Jack had gone through some tragedy. There was something decidedly sad about him.
“Jack, what do you need?” I asked again.
“You’re Christian, right?”
It was an odd question, a direct one, and I wondered if putting the Bible verse in the email to him had been too much. Still, I wasn’t ashamed of my beliefs.
“I am.”
“Pray for my soul, Hannah. And be happy.That’swhat I need.”
Then he hung up, and tears ran in slow rivulets down my cheeks.
“Pray for my soul.”
Oh, God, what has he been through? I thought.What would make him say that?
Right then and there, I dropped to my knees in my office. I didn’t want to be one of those Christians who said they would pray for someone and didn’t. Or one that did a two-second prayer without much thought.
No.
For Jack, I would pray as long as it took, with a broken heart, until God heard my plea. Because if a sweet and generous person like Jack wanted me to pray for his soul, it meant he had done something really bad.
Chapter Six
JACK
“Did the contract get signed on the Hive Wire account?” I asked Chloe over our lunch with Roberto in our office kitchen.
He often cooked for the whole office, and today he’d brought in stuffed manicotti, salad, and fresh breadsticks. It reminded me of Vinnie’s, which then reminded me of Hannah. Someone I was trying to forget.
“Yep. I’ve printed a copy and filed it away,” she said.
I nodded as I took another bite of my pasta and watched as Roberto tucked a stray lock of Chloe’s hair behind her ear. She blew him a kiss and my heart pinched. I wanted that. But I also didn’t. That’s why I’d made the no-falling-in-love rule.
With it, I would never have anything to be devastated over if it fell apart. It was safer that way. But Hannah was the first woman I’d met who threatened that rule. Since the moment I laid eyes on her in that restaurant, blonde hair splayed around her shoulders, wide blue eyes, there was something innocent about her that spurred a need of mine to protect her at all costs. From heartbreak, poverty, sickness, the world. Everything.
I couldn’t stop thinking about her. It had been two weeks since she called and asked me what I needed, what she could do for me. No one had ever asked me that, except maybe mymother. It had struck a chord, and I’d gotten vulnerable with her. Now I regretted that.
She probably thought I had done something so awful that I feared for my soul. Which, if I was being honest with myself, was the truth. A deep truth that hurt too much to think about and I didn’t normally share with others.
“Manicotti! Why didn’t you get me? Is it still warm?” My business partner and best friend, Jason, stepped out of his office with his headset on.
“You were in a meeting, bro,” I told him.
He looked at me with a scolding gaze. “On days Roberto cooks, you pull me out of meetings.”
Roberto smiled at that. He really was a good cook. Why he was stuck here in marketing was beyond me. Maybe because it paid better.
I looked at Chloe’s fiancé. “Do you want to be a professional chef?” I asked. Maybe I should buy him a restaurant too. Which, of course, made me think of Hannah again.
Roberto shook his head. “For friends and family, I love it. For random people, not so much.”
“Careful! He might buy you a restaurant,” Jason teased.
My best friend knew I’d bought some girl in Willow Harbor a restaurant, but he was long used to my random gift giving, so he didn’t question it one bit.
“I have always had a deep desire to own a Tesla, though,” Roberto offered, and the entire kitchen burst into laughter, including me.
