Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
JACK
Chloe peeked into my office and met my gaze. “How much are we ignoring Hannah? Like, do we still care about her wellbeing?”
I sat bolt upright. “Is she okay? Is she hurt?”
Chloe stepped into my office, holding her hands out to calm me. “No, not physically, but financially?—”
“What happened?” Was it something with the restaurant? Her mom’s cancer bills?
“ Huge electrical problem, it sounds like. Raj just called. It’s going to shut down the restaurant for a week and cost her thousands.”
She’d called Raj for help and not me? That hurt.
I nodded. “Pay for it.”
Chloe chewed her lip. “I tried. Right after Raj called me, I called Hannah.
She said, and I quote, ‘No, thanks. I don’t need any more of Jack’s money.’”
Ouch!
What was wrong with taking my money?
“Alright. I’ll handle it. Thanks.”
Chloe left my office, and I picked up my cell. I stared at the last text she’d sent to me. It killed me to ignore her, but I couldn’t be just friends with Hannah Phillips. And I didn’t want her to go into debt over pride. Her mom was cancer-free now. She should have been able to move on from all that trauma and just enjoy her life, not be saddled with more bills.
She picked up on the first ring. “Hey, stranger.” Her voice did not hold the sunshine I was accustomed to. It was more like cloudy with a chance of rain.
“Hey, I heard about the electrical issue. Bummer. That can get expensive.” I was trying to find a natural segue into offering money.
“Yeah, it can.” Her voice was flat, annoyed.
She was mad at me. Why? Because I’d been ignoring her? She had a boyfriend!
“Well, it’s a good thing I have enough of that to go around. Why don’t you send me your electrician’s name and I’ll make sure he’s paid?”
“No, thanks,” Hannah said. The exact words she’d told Chloe.
Irritation spiked through me. “Why not?”
“I don’t want your money, Jack.”
I frowned, because her voice sounded sad. “Well, what do you want?” I asked, because now I was curious.
She was silent for a while. “I don’t think what I wanted from you was ever on the menu. Goodbye, Jack.”
Then she hung up on me.
“I don’t think what I wanted from you was ever on the menu.” What in the world did that even mean? She had a boyfriend!
I stared at my phone in disbelief.
She didn’t want my money? That had literally never happened to me before. I was in shock, unsure of what to do.
“Chloe!” I shouted, knowing she was never far from my door.
She popped in with a bag of pretzels in her hand.
“She said no.”
Chloe grinned. “And that’s never happened to you before.”
“Can we go around her? How many electricians are there in Willow Harbor? Just find the guy’s name and?—”
“Jack, unless you want to burn that bridge to the ground, you let her do it her way,” she warned.
“But she’ll go into debt, probably take her a year or two to pay that off.”
Chloe nodded. “Yep. Like a normal person.”
I didn’t understand. It was just money. Why not take it and not have to worry?
Chloe stuck out her bottom lip. “Aww, your little brain is short-circuiting with this.”
“Shut up,” I teased and threw a Post-it pad at her.
She blocked it and laughed, stepping farther into my office. “Seriously though. What did she say that’s bothering you so much?”
I sighed. “She said she didn’t want my money and that what she wanted from me was never on the menu.”
Chloe winced. “Oh.”
“What do you mean, oh ? What did that mean?”
“It means she wanted a relationship with you, not your money.”
I shook my head. “No, she has a boyfriend.”
“Yes, now . I mean, you ghosted her for like three months, so she’s got to move on. She’s young but needs to be thinking about her future.”
Great. So I’d had a shot with her? Just another thing I’d screwed up. Didn’t matter anyway. If she really knew who I was and what I’d done, she’d run and never look back.