Chapter Fourteen
Evie
‘You need to take out a restraining order.’ Lizzy handed Evie a glass of wine.
After Jack had seen off Uncle Brett, Evie had dumped her bag in her apartment, turned out the light and waited for Jack to disappear, and then gone up to see her friend, someone who knew the whole truth.
‘I wish it was that easy, Lizzy.’
‘Why isn’t it?’
Evie pulled a face. ‘You know why. If I do that, the truth will come out and where will that leave me?’ She allowed a little giggle to escape, but it was more from nerves than anything else. ‘You know, I’ve never actually seen him look so scared.’
‘Yeah? Well I hope there were brown stains in his underpants when your friend told him where to go. And speaking of this friend?’ She arched a well-plucked eyebrow.
‘He’s a friend of Nicole’s, not mine.’
Lizzy sipped her own wine and collapsed on the couch next to Evie. Her apartment on the second floor was modest, but it still could’ve fitted Evie’s own in four times over. Lizzy had two bedrooms, albeit one tiny one that was more like a cupboard, a kitchen that was suspiciously clean and a brand new bathroom that Evie envied each time she went in it. It must be a cinch to clean, with its modern chrome fittings and bright lighting, unlike her own with its old gold taps and tiles with so much build-up in the grout that it looked no different after she’d scrubbed it.
‘It sounds as though this Jack might be warming to you,’ Lizzy suggested. ‘Why else would he walk you home?’
‘He was going the same way. What?’
Lizzy couldn’t stop smiling. ‘Nothing, it’s just I know men, probably better than you do, at least Manhattan men anyway, and he’s interested for sure. So what made him come back on his white horse and rescue you?’
‘He came back to get my necklace that broke and he’s going to get fixed. The family owns a jewellery business, remember?’ She knocked back the red wine that relaxed her body from head to toe.
‘Which jewellery business?’
‘The Diamond Touch.’
Lizzy whistled through her teeth. ‘Nice. Pricey, but oh so elegant.’
Evie smiled at the line of questioning. It was far better than talking about Uncle Brett. ‘His father owns it so he runs it with him, I think. But I really don’t know, I haven’t asked him too many questions.’
Lizzy’s eyebrows knitted together. She held up her index finger on one hand and then put down her wine glass. ‘Hang on a minute …’ Evie watched her pull a magazine from her bag and quickly flick through the pages. She opened them out to reveal a feature on The Diamond Touch with Jack in the main photograph. ‘Is this him?’ When Evie nodded, Lizzy’s eyes lit up as she flipped another page to show Jack Churchill shaking hands with a man in front of Bloomingdales. The photograph sat at the side of a page discussing a new range of jewellery to be released by the store this Christmas.
‘I saw the article this morning, Evie. The man is gorgeous! And he’s rich! I can’t believe your knight in shining armour is Jack Churchill!’
‘Okay, I don’t think the man on the top floor heard you.’ Evie winced at the squeals her friend was emitting. ‘Anyway, I don’t care how good looking he is, or how rich—’
‘Ah, so you admit he’s gorgeous then.’
Evie kept quiet.
‘Well if you’re not interested, Evie, send him up to my apartment next time he stops by.’
‘Lizzy!’
‘Relax, I’m kidding … sort of.’ She giggled and tilted the bottle of red towards Evie, who nodded.
They discussed Jack some more and they laughed about rich men and their trophy wives who’d married the men for their money rather than anything else. They joked about women with husbands four times their age, claiming to be in love.
‘It’s like you going out with my grandad,’ Lizzy shuddered, picking up a family photo from the mantelpiece and thrusting it in Evie’s face.
‘Oh, don’t!’
‘Exactly. It’s all about the size of their wallet.’
