“I can’t wait to see them,” the woman agreed.
Next up, they selected the kind of wood they wanted the trunk be built from, inside and out, and the general size of it.
Jake wrote up the order with their specifications and promised to send progress pictures as he worked in case they wanted to make any modifications along the way. They put a sizable down payment on the trunk for the necessary supplies and he promised to have some ideas for them to look at by the end of the week.
Jake walked them to front door, intending to lock it after they left. Before they reached it, a familiar man walked in.
“Ian,” Jake said, sounding surprised, because he was. “Good to see you,” he added, though he was annoyed at the additional delay. Beryl was waiting on him.
The couple said their goodbyes to Jake and left. Jake went ahead and locked the door, so no one else would come in afterhours. As the owner of a small business, he couldn’t afford to turn away clients. It was possible Ian had decided to order that veil thing he’d talked about. Jake would just unlock the door once he’d served Ian.
“Sorry to stop in two seconds before you close your shop for the day,” Ian said. “I wanted to come and tell you Iaminterested in pulling the trigger on that iron veil project.”
If he were a betting man, Jake would have put money on not seeing Ian again. It just went to show his gut was not always right. He glanced at his watch, thinking about how much time he could spare.
Seeming to get the hint, Ian said, “I promise not to take up too much of your time. I thought maybe I could explain sort of what I was looking for in better detail than I did when I was last in. Maybe you have some examples of similar things in your workshop?”
Jake nodded. “Sure. My girlfriend is waiting in the workshop for me because I’m taking her out to dinner, but I could show you something really quick.”
“Girlfriend?” Ian said, in a tone that sounded like the man was shocked to his core.
That begged the question: Why? Jake kept his expression bland. “Yep.”
Ian must have heard something in Jake’s voice because he held up both hands in a pacifying gesture. “I’m sorry. Clearly you have plans and I’m interrupting them. Maybe I can come tomorrow after I get off work?”
Jake felt terrible. The guy was just trying to gethisgirlfriend something special and Jake was busy being all suspicious. He needed to stop it.
“No, no. Let me show you what I have along with a couple ideas for what I can make. It’ll take five minutes, no problem. I was curious and I did do a little research on iron veils after you came in.”
“Really? Awesome. If you’re sure, that would be great,” Ian said, moving to Jake’s side.
Jake opened the door and led Ian into his workshop.
Across the room, Beryl startled like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar. She sucked in a breath that sounded like a startled yelp and jumped away from the wall. Jake was surprised to see the mounted wooden frame that he’d taken little notice of before was now open, revealing a cavity he didn’t know existed.
Obviously, he’d never be a detective.
“What did you find?” Jake approached Beryl, who was looking distinctly guilty. He gave her a reassuring smile. “How did you find that? I didn’t even know it was there.”
He barely noticed as Ian silently trailed him.
“I’m so sorry,” Beryl said, her cheeks flushing. “I was snooping around and I found this little compartment hiddenbehind the wooden frame quite by accident.” She placed a leather-bound pouch and a notebook on the counter in front of the secret door and backed away like they might bite her.
“That’s okay. I did leave you in here. I likely would’ve snooped around as well.”
“So, this isn’t your stuff?” she asked.
Jake peered inside, shaking his head the whole time. “Nope. It’s not mine.”
“That you know of,” Beryl said. “Maybe you just forgot about it after you lost your memory and everything.”
Jake was about to agree when he turned and saw Beryl standing next to Ian. The similarity between them was striking. “Wow. Are you two related?”
Beryl gave Ian a curious glance and frowned. “No.” She gave Ian a more thorough stare. “You do look a lot like my brother, Jett,” she admitted.
Ian said, “Yeah? You look just like my—” He stopped abruptly, his gaze darting to Jake, then back to Beryl. “Doesn’t matter. We might look alike, but I don’t think we’re related. I don’t have any family in town, as far as I know.”
The other man’s awkwardness was almost palpable.
