Evie grinned back at him and extended her hand. ‘I’m Evie.’ He’d disguised it well, but not well enough, because she detected the note of pleasant surprise and knew then that Jack had already told Nate about her. She hoped that was a good thing.
With nightfall not too far away, they left Nate to finish up with another customer, and Jack led Evie further down the land, to a section filled with bushes.
‘What’s this?’ she asked.
‘It’s a maze.’
‘Really?’ She moved to step inside, but he held her back.
‘It’s not quite ready yet, but it’s been an ongoing project of mine.’
Her fingers stretched out to feel the trees, and she kept her hand against them before stepping back and onto the bank of grass behind. Standing on tiptoes, she tried to see inside.
‘I’d love to walk through it,’ she enthused.
‘You can, another time.’ Jack smiled at her.
‘Did you do all this by yourself?’
He nodded. ‘It’s been a labour of love and I’ve enjoyed every minute.’
Evie didn’t know what to say, first the house and his kindness with Todd and now this. He was surprising her more and more, but she guessed that had been the point of the visit after she’d judged him and given him a piece of her mind at the coffee shop.
After Jack had talked some more about the process of resurrecting the maze, he said, ‘Come on, it’s getting dark, but if we go back to the house, I’ll show you the photographs of the original maze I was trying to recreate.’
She followed him up to the house, and as the sky darkened, Nate joined them.
‘Have you been busy today?’ Jack asked his friend once they were ensconced in the warmth of the house. Nate had left one of the local boys down at the shed to help any customers before they closed up at 5 pm.
‘It’s less than a week to Christmas,’ Nate winked at Evie. ‘What do you think?’
‘Silly question,’ Evie chided, although her tone was mocking.
Jack led Evie to the hallway where he showed her the photographs of the original maze. She was warmed by its story, by the task Jack had taken on in the name of friendship.
Their next port of call was the fireplace where Jack lit the firelighters, arranged the logs and kindling and then reached for the bellows to get the first flames going. Evie only just stopped herself giggling. It was like watching a peacock opening its feathers to attract a mate—he was going to great lengths today to prove to her that he was a gentleman, capable, completely different to the image she’d built up in her mind.
Nate, having taken a shower and changed out of his muddy work clothes, came through to join them. ‘Evie, can I interest you in a hot chocolate?’
‘I would,’ Jack recommended. ‘Julia only drinks this Belgian stuff, top of the range, ridiculous in its price and calorie content.’
‘Then how can I refuse?’ Evie watched as the flames grew higher, taking with them the log that would burn long into the evening. She took delight in Jack’s childlike face at having got it right.
As Nate went over to the kitchen, Evie excused herself to use the bathroom. When she’d gone over to Jack’s condo earlier, she’d never have guessed this was how the day would pan out. Here she was, actually enjoying the man’s company, meeting his friends and seeing a different way of life to the one she’d already placed him in. By the time she rejoined the men, a woman in a chocolate-coloured woolly hat was hugging Jack. Nate shut the door behind her and when Jack let her go, kissed her cheek.
‘Evie, this is Julia,’ said Jack.
Julia’s blonde hair escaped when she tugged off her hat and Evie grinned. ‘I do believe we’ve met.’
‘You two know each other?’ Jack looked from one woman to the other.
‘Julia’s a client,’ Evie explained.
Nate took out another mug to make Julia a hot chocolate too. ‘So you’re the one who’s had my fiancée so excited about “the dreamiest dress you could possibly imagine”?’ He feigned a female accent, did a small pirouette on the spot, completely out of character for his alpha male appearance.
‘Guilty,’ Evie admitted. To know Jack was a friend of someone as down to earth and genuine as Julia convinced Evie all the more that he was very different to the man she’d assumed he was.
Julia waxed lyrical about Evie’s prowess with making wedding gowns and accessories, careful not to let the men know specific details, and when she took over the hot chocolate making in the kitchen, she asked Evie to help her as the men went through to the living room and collapsed into the couches in front of the fire.
