Page 45 of Love Everlasting

Annie pinched his arm. “Among other things,” she said with a wink.

Sam grinned. “Thanks, ladies, I appreciate your support.”

Expelling an exaggerated sigh, Patty rose while Annie followed suit. “If you weren’t so hung up on Jazz, Dr. Love, I’d give you way more than support.”

Sam forced a smile that felt plastic while Shannon’s words circled in his brain.

“If you really love Jasmine, Sam, then love her honest and true and selfless, because that’s the greatest love of all. And commit to her alone, body and soul.”

His eyes had practically bulged. “But I’ll die!” he’d argued, jaw distended over what Shannon wanted him to do.

“Feel this,” she’d said, pressing his fingers to her wrist, “do I feel dead to you?”

“Gotta go, Sam.” Annie broke into his thoughts. She leaned to give him a side hug. “But we’ll be looking for new rumors soon, you hear?”

“Yeah,” Sam said with a weary sigh after the two girls had left. He picked up his book and sighed. But they won’t be the kind you’re wanting to hear.

“Hey, I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Jack eased into Patty’s vacated chair with a grin. “Your light was on and your briefcase still there, so I knew you had to be around, but I sure didn’t expect it to be here.” He scanned the sterile “cough-a-teria” as Sam called it, nodding at a few colleagues who waved. “You hate this place, man, and on a Friday night too? Shouldn’t you be out clubbing or breaking hearts somewhere?” Squinting, he reached across the table for Sam’s book, eyes going wide. “Wow, dude, you sick or lose a bet with Shan or something?” He turned the book over to study the back. “This is a spiritual book.”

Sam snatched it back, his smile wry. “I lost a lot of things when I started hanging out with your sister, bro, some of which were part and parcel for my Friday nights.”

Jack slanted back in the chair with a grin that was way too broad. “Yeah, the kid has that effect on people, but I gotta give it to her—I never thought you’d be one of them.”

Sam’s mouth zagged off-center. “Me neither.”

So …” Jack leaned in, elbows on the table. “I have a favor to ask.”

“Sure you do.” Sam tilted back in his chair with a knowing smile. “No other reason you’d be tracking me down on a Friday night with a wife like Lacey waiting at home.”

Jack’s grin was downright cocky. “Yeah, I know, but it’s actually because of Lace that I need the favor.”

“Shoot.” Crossing his arms, Sam studied one of the few men he respected in life when it came to faith and family.

Jack absently scrubbed the back of his head. “Lace is pretty stressed right now because she’s got this cock-eyed notion she won’t be able to have kids.”

A frown creased above Sam’s nose. “Why would she think that? You just got married.”

“I know.” A tinge of color bled up Jack’s neck as he averted his gaze. “But we’ve been trying since the honeymoon, and the longer it takes, the more” —he cleared his throat— “well, ‘focused’ she becomes, if you get my drift, almost like she’s got a one-track mind.”

Sam grunted, lips swerving into a wry smile. “Doesn’t sound like a problem to me, dude, especially since your sister has clipped my wings.”

“Trust me, man, that’s not the problem,” Jack said with a lovesick grin that almost made Sam jealous.

What would it be like to love a woman that much?

Jack’s smile dimmed somewhat, and Sam homed in, noting the deep concern in his friend’s tone. “I’m worried about her, Sam, because I don’t want to see her hurt, you know? But the more we try and fail, the more stressed she becomes, which just eats me up alive. So I was thinking that maybe we need to get away for a while, a second honeymoon of sorts where we can relax and—”

“Make babies?” Sam supplied, wondering why on earth something like that could set off a stupid twinge of envy in his gut.

Jack’s sigh ruffled the crumpled napkin on Sam’s tray. “Yeah, God willing, hopefully priming the pump for even more babies. At least, that’s our prayer.”

God willing. A smile automatically tilted Sam’s lips over an expression Shannon used all the time. “So, how can I help, Jack? Since you’re doing all the heavy lifting?”

Relief skimmed across his friend’s face along with a grateful grin. “Can you fill in for me at Camp Hope this week? I know it’s short notice, but Caryl Kane in X-ray booked a suite at a couples’ resort in the Bahamas for her and her boyfriend, and the jerk dumped her. So she loses a hefty deposit if she doesn’t use it. She asked me if I knew anybody who could take it off her hands, and since Augustine okayed switching my vacation in late August to this Wednesday through Monday of next week, I jumped on it. So all I need is for you to cover Camp Hope.”

“Consider it done, my friend,” Sam said with a smile, “and may I say I find it highly suspect that the married couple won out on this one.”

Jack rose to his feet, a cheesy grin in play. “Yep, the wealth of the wicked is reserved for the righteous, my friend, so you listen real good when my sister speaks, you hear?”