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.
Jacob beamed. He loved talking about The Promise of Hope Shelter. It was his passion. Unfortunately, itwas almost dinner and he didn’t have a lot of time to go into the whole story. “Short version, okay?”
Luka nodded.
“I inherited the building when my grandparents passed away about two years ago. This year I turned it into a shelter for gay homeless youth, ages thirteen through eighteen. I created a nonprofit organization and put a board together. We knew the building needed work, but we had no idea how much until we didn’t pass the first inspection. We have less than sixty days to get it up to code.” And we’re almost broke.
Luka’s smile stretched across his face. “That’s wonderful. How many live here now?”
“Just three teens, but once we’re up and running full time, we’ll have the capacity for thirty.”
“Impressive.” Luka dipped his head to review the paper again. “Listen, do you mind if I take this home and do some estimates? I can come back tomorrow when I get off work at three o’clock.”
“Sure, that sounds great. Where do you work?”
“About four days a week I work at Nixon City Hardware on Main Street.”
Jacob nodded. He knew the place well, having made many, many trips there over the last few months for parts and various tools. It was curious he had never seen Luka; he would’ve definitely remembered him if he had.
“I can see the wheels spinning,” Luka said with a chuckle. “I just started about two weeks ago. I’m new in town.”
“Where did you move from?”
“Up north.”
Okay. The man didn’t like to talk about himself. Noted.
They discussed a few more items on the list before Jacob ushered Luka out the door, trying not to notice the way his well-worn jeans hugged the curve of his muscular ass.
The sound of shattering glass cut through his haze of lust. He breathed deeply, telling himself it would all be okay. “Guys, is someone sweeping up the glass?”
* * * *
Several hours later, once Jacob had made sure the boys were in their rooms, he locked up the place and made his way to his room on the third floor. He was exhausted and emotions were pinging around in his body like one of those old-fashioned arcade games. He entered the attached bathroom and stripped, letting his clothes fall to the floor in a heap.
Jacob started the shower and let the water run for a minute to warm up. He looked in the mirror and chuckled. His reddish-blond hair only made his pale skin stand out more, and the smattering of light freckles across his nose made him look like Howdy Doody. He smiled and wondered if any of the teens would even know who Howdy Doody was if he asked them. Jacob was only twenty-six, and most of his friends had probably never heard of the character, either. The only reason he knew was because his grandfather’d had a Howdy Doody collection. Thank God Jacob had green eyes, instead of the blue like the puppet, or his grandfather probably would have nicknamed him “Howdy” or something along that line.