‘And you didn’t argue with her?’ Nate asked wryly.
‘I should’ve looked, shouldn’t I?’ He looked up at the ceiling, shook his head and then he sat forwards, put his empty cup on to the table and rested his arms along his thighs. ‘I’ve got a niggling feeling she won’t be able to handle the situation and whatever is going on will come crashing down on her head.’
‘There’s nothing you can do about it, Jack.’
Nate was right, but it didn’t make it any easier to hear. As the fire crackled and the flames climbed higher, Jack pulled the fireguard across in case it started to spit onto the rug.
‘You’ve built a beast there,’ Nate assured him.
‘I like to aim high.’
‘Not laughing at my bellows now, are you?’
‘I did think they were a little wimpy.’ Jack laughed. ‘But you proved me wrong.’
‘So …’ Nate waited for Jack to sit down again. ‘What’s this Evie like?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean … what’s she like? Old/young, blonde/brunette, polite/rude. Any of the above, because so far all you’ve done is told me she worries you, but I know you, Jack. Nobody gets under your skin unless there’s a reason and that reason can’t be all because of Nicole.’
Jack thought for a moment. ‘Actually, she seems nice.’
‘Nice?’ Nate pulled a face. ‘Natasha Lyons wasnice,’ he referred back to the shy girl who sat at the back of class each day in high school, not uttering a word, handing Oreos around each break time to anyone, just to make friends.
‘Shewasnice. Jeez … wonder what happened to her.’
‘Don’t know and don’t change the subject.’
Jack exhaled. ‘I don’t know, Evie’s just … well, she’s blonde.’ He ignored the approving eyebrow raise. ‘At first, I thought the same way as my father did, that she was a street kid, probably a junkie.’
‘And you don’t now?’
Jack still had his doubts about what Evie was exactly, but slowly he was seeing the world differently and he was realising how dangerous it could be to make assumptions about someone you knew nothing about. ‘I believe she genuinely cares about Nicole. At first I thought she was faking it and it was all part of an elaborate act, but now I’m not so sure.’
‘Well then, there’s your answer,’ Nate concluded. ‘Nicole and Evie have a genuine friendship so I think it’s time to let them be. Whoever that man was, perhaps Evie will tell Nicole everything in her own time.’
Jack ran a hand across his chin, scratching at the stubble. He’d been too eager to leave the city behind this morning to shave. ‘Maybe you’re right.’
‘Another cup?’ Nate picked up the empties and Jack nodded as their conversation turned to school days and people they remembered, those they’d disliked, those they genuinely wished well in life.
‘I gave a homeless man sitting on the street corner a meal too,’ Jack admitted after talk moved on to the shelter he’d helped out at.
‘You did a good thing.’
‘I felt really pleased with myself afterwards.’
‘You say it like it’s a bad thing.’
‘That’s because I don’t even think about buying drinks and dinners out, flying here there and everywhere on business, and for me, a burger and a coffee was nothing. I saw the look in his eyes, Nate. To him it was a whole lot more.’
Nate nodded, understanding.
‘I wasn’t so kind to someone else I found living on the streets,’ Jack admitted. He hadn’t touched his second coffee. ‘When I went to check on my house, there was a boy on the porch huddled beneath blankets. I told him to leave. He couldn’t have been more than late teens, and I was a real ass. I swore at him, told him to get lost. And then it was almost like I’d risen out of my body and was looking down at myself from up above. And all I saw was my father, three years ago, throwing Evie off his property and showing Nicole the door.’
‘Julia mentioned you’d had a homeless kid at the house, but you did the right thing telling him to move on. You should be staying there instead of pestering us, so what’s stopping you fixing it up?’
Jack grinned. ‘It’s time, mostly, but also a bit of inclination. I have visions about how the place will look when it’s renovated, but I know I need people with time, energy and enthusiasm to make it that way.’
