Chapter 2

Jacob’s knees actually wobbled. Had anyone’s voice had that effect on him?Wait, he had asked something, hadn’t he? Fuck.

He was acting as starry-eyed as Peter. Jacob shook his head and cleared his throat, forcing himself to tear away his gaze. Only then did his brain begin working again. “Hi,” he choked out. Smooth. He cleared his throat again. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”

The man’s lips twitched as if trying to keep from smiling. “I asked if you were Jacob Baumgardner.”

“Oh.” Silence fell between them until Jacob realized he still hadn’t answered. God, he was like a high school boy with his first crush. “Sorry. It’s been a long day. Yes, I’m Jacob,” he managed to say in what he hoped was something comparable to the English language as he offered the man his hand.

The stranger’s large hand enveloped his and shook, sending jolts of electricity dancing down Jacob’s spine. Holy shit.

“I’m Luka Smith.” He let go of Jacob’s hand.

Jacob raised an eyebrow. Was he supposed to know him?

“Thurston Hyatt sent me.” Luka cocked his head. “Said he told you I was coming?”

A vague recollection of Thurston calling yesterday niggled at Jacob’s memory. Thurston sat on the Board of Directors and called a lot. A lot.So often that Jacob often failed to fully listen to Thurston when he spoke. To be fair, the man was a bit of a windbag and most of what he said was…well, stupid. But Thurston meant well and he had been a friend of Jacob’s grandparents. He was also the president of the largest bank in Nixon City, so Jacob had put up with him.

“Right…he did mention sending someone over to…to….” He looked around for an answer and finally gave up. He turned to Luka and ran his hands over his head, trying to settle his nerves. “Look, I’m sorry.”

“Long day, right?” Luka gifted him with a smile, and Jacob’s dick jumped to attention. “It’s okay. I’m kind of a jack-of-all-trades and after I did some handyman work at the bank, he mentioned you might be needing help here.” Luka scanned the living room that had clearly seen better days. “Looks like he was right, huh?”

Jacob couldn’t help but agree. This building still needed a lot of work, but funds were incredibly tight. “It’s been a slow process to get this place up and running. You’re right, though, we need a lot of work done. We need to pass an inspection in just under sixty days and, to be honest, money is scarce.”

“Mr. Hyatt mentioned that. Let me take a look around and see what needs to be done. Do you have a list of things that needto be repaired to pass this inspection?”

For the first time since receiving the crushing news earlier in the day, Jacob felt something like hope blooming in his chest. Something about this man buoyed his spirit. “Yes, in my office upstairs—second floor. Follow me.” Jacob gestured toward the stairs.

A clang rang out from the kitchen, then a string of curse words.

“Peter,” he warned, his voice stern.

“Sorry,” Peter called, followed by an exaggerated sigh.

“Everything okay in there?”

“Yes, just dropped the big bowl of salad.”

“Yeah, he thought we wanted a tossed salad!” Jimmy said from the kitchen.

Jacob smiled, glad to hear the kid joking. Jimmy had been a mess when he’d arrived at The Promise of Hope Shelter a few weeks ago. It was good to see he’d progressed.

“Just clean it up and get things ready for dinner,” Jacob said and swiveled his head toward Luka.

“Lead the way,” Luka said with a smile that sent a shiver down Jacob’s spine.

When they reached the second floor, he led Luka to his office and gestured for him to take a seat in one of the two blue-and-green plaid upholstered chairs, while he sat behind his desk and riffled through a stack of papers, files, and folders in a tray. “I know it’s here somewhere,” he muttered. It was a pink piece of paper, wasn’t it? Maybe yellow…no, definitely pink.He laughed when he finally found what he was looking for—and it was blue.

Luka’s brow creased as he watched, but he didn’t ask questions.

Jacob handed the list to Luka. “As you can see, there are quite a few things that have to be fixed.”

“Mmm-hmm.” Luka perused the list.

“I know some of these are going to be pretty costly, but I thought if we could find a way to get things done over time—and I could make payments—it could be manageable.”

Luka looked up from the document and held Jacob’s gaze for a moment, sending a thrill through him. He could get lost in those eyes. “So, what exactly is this place?” Luka asked, breaking the moment.