‘Like firing me? That wasn’t right and you went ahead and did it anyway.’
‘It’s not the same thing.’
‘You’re prejudging Evie, like some of your guests prejudged me.’
‘What?’
‘Yes, that’s right. Plenty of times I was sneered at by guests at your parties who thought I was the lowly hired help. And you like those people? You call them your friends? I’d rather be in a room of ten Evie’s than a single one of those pompous business associates you have.’
When he said nothing, Nicole could see no way forward. It was time to leave.
She stormed out of the room, grabbed her coat, wincing when she accidentally knocked the wrist in the cast against the coat stand in her haste.
‘Nicole, please don’t walk out,’ Kent came after her, his footsteps close behind. ‘This solves nothing.’
She spun around. ‘I don’t know why I came here. For some reason I thought things might have changed, you might have learned to look at situations from more than one angle. But I was wrong.’ She flung open the door and left it so wide it blew spatters of rain into the hallway as she left.
And to think, she’d once had feelings for that man.
Kent
He watched Nicole leave, pulling her coat tighter around herself with her good arm, battling against the wind and the rain, her chestnut curls bobbing in the wind as she marched away from him again.
He shut the door, and by the time he returned to the living room, Maggie had already discreetly cleared away the food and tea, wiped up the spill from Nicole’s cup. Deflated, he flopped onto the couch. When Nicole had shown up at the door almost an hour ago, his heart had leapt. Jack had already told him about Evie, but he hadn’t expected Nicole to be quite so involved in setting her on the straight and narrow. To take someone in off the streets was a big thing, but he shouldn’t be surprised; it was in her nature to care more than she should. And her past made her vulnerable to sympathising with someone like Evie. But whether that was right, he had no idea. She couldn’t replace the child she’d once lost, but he couldn’t tell her so, because he wasn’t supposed to know. Nicole Capra had never had any idea how much he knew about her and how little she really knew about him.
Nicole had come into this house and this family, wanting nothing in return, and slowly it had become harder and harder to tell her the truth. He’d kept his secret closely guarded for twenty years, and though he’d started out trying to make sense of his own loss through getting to know the woman who was unwittingly at the centre of it, he’d ended up getting too close. Nicole had gone from a generously paid housekeeper to a friend, a member of the family, and then she’d become the first woman he’d fallen in love with since his wife.
Evie
‘Thanks for helping, Evie.’ Nicole moved the bags from yet another coat collection with her foot, into the third bedroom at her apartment. ‘Are you off anywhere nice tonight?’
‘I’m out with Lizzy, from upstairs, introducing her to Thorello’s.’ She grinned. It was a cheap and cheerful place she doubted Lizzy had ever tried. Lizzy’s culinary experiences seemed to be on opposite ends of a see-saw: on one end were the fancy restaurants she frequented with her boyfriend, and on the other, it was takeaway cartons and pizzas in huge cardboard boxes where she found her sustenance. Tonight Evie intended to redress the balance, and besides, when she was out with her friend, Evie wasn’t scared of her past catching up with her. Having company gave her confidence, rightly or not.
Something was up with Nicole tonight though, Evie was sure of it. For a start she could see the other woman had been crying. But when she’d asked about it, Nicole denied anything was wrong. And when Evie had gone to put the bags of coats in the spare bedroom, a room that had been Evie’s once upon a time, Nicole had insisted she do it. She’d pushed them gently with her foot into the doorway and pulled the door shut, but not before Evie had seen the windowsill with a photo of Nicole and a little boy. A photo she hadn’t seen before. The boy looked about fourteen and too old for a cuddle from his mum, but there they were, cheeks pressed together, laughing, Nicole’s eyes dancing in a way they hadn’t been tonight. Evie wondered whether he’d been from the shelter, perhaps one of the cases Nicole hadn’t managed to jump in and save.
Evie hugged Nicole and left the apartment, took the elevator and bid farewell to Reggie in his usual position beside the door, ready to leap forwards and help someone out of a cab, ready to open the door for someone who had their hands full or bid a family goodnight. He was a man of few words, but somehow he was someone you knew you could trust and rely on implicitly. She headed away from the apartment towards Madison Avenue, past designer clothes outlets, coffee shops, a macaron café, and cut down a side street before walking two further blocks that led towards Thorello’s. She loved the crisp, night air against her skin and finally she was beginning to relax again. Her uncle seemed to have crawled back in to whatever hole he’d come out of, at least for now.
Lizzy, sitting at the table, removed her purple hat and matching mittens as Evie arrived at the café. ‘You’ve got impeccable timing! I just got here myself. I ran, I didn’t want to be late for you.’
Evie unwound her scarf and hung it on the back of her chair with her coat. ‘You didn’t have to rush, I’d have waited.’
‘Nah.’ Lizzy waved a hand dismissively in front of her. ‘My meeting was boring as hell anyway. It should’ve been over hours ago.’
The waiter came over and embraced Evie, took their order of two beers.
‘Come here often then?’ Lizzy giggled after he sauntered off.
‘Just a bit. It’s a favourite of mine and Nicole’s.’ Evie opened her menu. ‘I can recommend the nachos.’
‘Now, they sound good, but not much better than takeout. I thought you were educating me on eating healthily.’
‘I am! The nachos come with red onion, peppers, cheese, and a side salad is served with everything.’
Lizzy perused the salad section on the menu, which had everything from a basic green salad to a Cobb salad or Caesar.
‘If you’re looking for more of a meal, there’s the roast chicken, which comes with corn on the cob and Thorello’s speciality coleslaw,’ Evie suggested.
Lizzy shut her menu. ‘I’ll go for that.’
