Take a Chance

by Simone Jaine

  When he was present she had a hard time paying attention to anyone else. She had long since realised she wasn’t the only one judging by the number of one night stands he was purported to have had. Jem had never allowed herself to become one of the many because she had too much self-respect to be another nick in his bed leg. If what was said about him was true his bed had probably been turned into a futon by now.

  Her self defence mechanism was to focus on his short-comings and generally act in a way that ensured he kept at arm’s length.

  Jem made a show of reluctantly grabbing more potatoes from the bag sitting on the bench and added them to the ones in the sink. Eben was the biggest mooch around. Since he’d obviously seen her making dinner he’d hang around. She’d known Eben long enough to know that his presence presumed an invitation.

  “Did you surf here?” she asked.

  Eben’s dark grey eyes looked puzzled for a moment then he grinned. “I figured I’d be warmer wearing this home than freezing while I changed in the car. Anyway, a wetsuit is the best suit in this weather,” he joked.

  The thought of Eben wearing a regular suit and working a responsible job in an office somewhere was the joke. The man was so laid back about everything she sometimes thought his surname should be Stoned. He seemed to spend his life surfing and little things like a job or planning for the future didn’t seem to worry him. As long as he had a board, a wave and a beer he was happy.

  She had met him at Jess and Jason’s engagement party eight years earlier and nothing in their numerous encounters since had changed her mind. Despite his lack of direction and motivation from her perspective he was a good guy even if he frustrated the hell out of her. Wasting all that potential to bum around on beaches and sponge off Jase whenever the opportunity arose.

  Using long handled tongs, Jem transferred the potatoes to the preheated oven then started measuring the ingredients she had set out on the bench for the quiche. She wasn’t feeling at all hungry but knew she had to give the children and now Eben something to eat. As she worked Eben took a tea towel from a drawer and used it to wipe his face and blot his gleaming dark brown hair which seemed in perpetual need of a cut.

  Jem frowned.

  “There are towels in the bathroom,” she said.

  “I don’t want to wet the floor getting there.”

  Jem looked down and saw a trail of wet prints leading from the door to his bare feet. In this weather his feet must be numb. What on earth was he doing out wearing his wet suit?

  “Were you out surfing in the storm?” she asked incredulously.

  “Nah. A friend’s boat hit the jetty hard in the swell and we needed to be sure it wasn’t going to take on water.”

  Eben dropped the tea towel on the bench and watched her. Jem stopped mixing.

  “You could have been squashed between the jetty and the boat.”

  “We turned it around before I got in.”

  Eben came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders.

  “Worried about me?” he asked close to her ear.

  His touch warmed her in more ways than one but she would never let him know. He was only interested in women until the chase was over. The rolling Stone that gathered no wife or mortgage or kids...

  Besides, he didn’t meet her husband criteria.

  Keep telling yourself that.

  “Hardly.” Jem elbowed him sharply in the stomach to get him to back off then opened the oven door and felt the flush of heat as she placed her quiche beside the potatoes. She closed the door, set the timer then spun around to face Eben.

  Boy, did he fill out a wetsuit nicely.

  Her face flushed by her traitorous thoughts, Jem tucked a lock of hair that had fallen out of her pony tail behind her ear. “It’s warm here by the oven,” she said inanely.

  “I can keep you warmer,” Eben promised as he moved towards her again.

  Jem placed her hand against his chest to halt his advance.

  “I know what you do to keep that wetsuit warm in the water and you can keep it to yourself.”

  “You can’t blame a guy for trying.”

  “Trying it on, more like.”

  And you should stop before I forget the reasons why not.

  Eben knew when to stop. Making a play for Jem in front of his honorary nephews and niece while she made dinner wasn’t going to get him anywhere. It was just a lot of fun to rile her. Besides, if he made his intentions clear she might say yes.

  In your dreams.

  “Where’s Jess?” he asked, changing the subject.

  Eben watched Jem’s eyes fill with tears. How could she have forgotten for even a minute?

  “What’s going on?”

  Jem checked that the children were occupied and softly told him what had happened so the children wouldn’t hear. At the end of it she went into his open arms without protest.

  “Hell,” Eben said as he rubbed his cheek against the top of her head.

  As she cried he held her close and patted her back awkwardly.

  “Why didn’t you call me?” he asked.

  “It never occurred to me to try asking anyone after Mel couldn’t help out,” she answered brokenly between sobs.

  Eben’s hand smoothed to circle her back in gentling caresses as he bit back a sigh. He knew Jem, Jess and their brother had different fathers and spent a large part of their childhood only able to rely on each other due to having a frequently absent self-absorbed mother. Even though Jess’s father had loved them all and had custody during their late teens he saw how their early years affected them. Jem had entered adulthood determined to be totally self-reliant. It was as though she couldn’t allow herself to be vulnerable to anything.

  She leaned her head back to look him in the eye.

  “Anyway, what could you have done to help?” she asked.

  “I could have brought dinner home with me,” he told her and pushed her head back against his chest and continued to rub her back.

  He was gratified when she continued to allow him to soothe her.

  “It gave me something to do to take my mind off things,” she sniffled.

  As her sniffles subsided he made a decision.

  “I’m going to stay and help you with the kids for as long as you need me,” he said.

  “Okay.”

  She was too emotionally worn out to consider an argument as to why that wasn’t necessary.

  “Do you want me to phone Jase’s folks and let them know what’s happened?” Eben asked.

  “No, don’t do that. They’ve only been in Surfers Paradise for just over a week and you know how excited they’ve been about their first overseas holiday ever. Jase’s Mum won’t be able to help much considering his Dad’s health problems and they’ll just worry. I don’t want to spoil this trip for them…” her voice wavered “unless I have to.”

  Eben’s mouth tightened at the thought that she would only disturb them if Jess died. It didn’t bear thinking about. He could see Jem was on the verge of crying again so decided the best way to prevent that was to provoke her.

  “You going to share the guest room with me, Jemima?”

  “Don’t call me that,” she said automatically but without any heat and pulled from his embrace.

  “Is that a yes?”

  She knew he was just saying it to annoy her to take her mind off Jess. She appreciated the thought but not enough to respond in anything other than her usual acerbic way.

  “I’m already in the guest room. You can sleep somewhere else,” she told him pertly, regaining some of her usual vinegar.

  How he loved it when she got her back up.

  “Uh uh. I’m already there and I’m not moving.”

  Jem’s response was to stalk across the family room doing her best to avoid treading on toys as she did so. She walked into the guest bedroom and whipped open the wardrobe door to see a couple of shirts and trousers hanging there. A pair of scuffed black boots sat on the floor.

  They could be Jason�
�s, she told herself in denial.

  She stepped over to the tallboy and yanked open the top drawer to expose neatly folded boxers and socks. Narrowing her eyes she marched into the ensuite and gave up when she saw a razor and a green toothbrush sitting on the hand basin.

  Eben came in beside her and started peeling off his wetsuit. Despite it being the middle of winter he still had tan lines making his skin several shades darker than hers.

  “What do you think you are doing?”

  “I thought it would be a good idea to get warmed up before dinner. I’m going to have a shower. Wanna join me?” he asked with a sexy grin complete with flashing dimple.

  He’s just yanking your chain. He doesn’t mean it.

  “Sure,” she said boldly and smiled at his unguarded look of surprise. “As soon as you get a real job and be able to support me in the way I’d like to become accustomed to.”

  It was Eben’s turn to scowl.

  “There’s more to a man than what you think he has or doesn’t.”

  “I agree. In your case however, I don’t need to see the little you do have to know anything between us is a bad idea.”

  Jem turned and pulled the ensuite door closed behind her. Despite hearing “It’s just cold. Warm it up and see what happens” through the closed door she figured she had the last word.

  Dinner was a disaster in that they ate much later than the children were used to and the meal was something the children hadn’t had before. Long before it was served she was already sick of telling them that dinner was coming and no, they couldn’t have anything to eat beforehand. Even so, she had to remove Aidan from the pantry twice where he sat eating cereal from the box.

  When she called, they had all come fast enough to the table, even Eben, freshly showered and smelling of Bulgari which was her favourite scent. She was annoyed with Jess for giving it to him for his birthday and at herself for getting close enough to notice.

  As she set the plates in front of everyone she thought her self-crusting quiche served with potatoes in their jackets with sour cream and chives and mixed vegetables looked good. Eben complimented it after his first taste then got stuck in.

  He had to be nice. The freeloader.

  While they ate, Jeremy reluctantly sampled a few vegetables but Daisy and Aidan just looked at their plates.

  “Why don’t you eat up?” Jem encouraged the children.

  “It’s gose,” Aidan said.

  “It’s not gross,” Jem told him. “It’s good for you and will make you big and strong.”

  “It looks like something Drongo sicked up,” Daisy said.

  Jem ignored Eben choking on the mouthful he’d just taken. If he was laughing see if she’d give him the Heimlich manoeuvre.

  “No, it doesn’t,” Jem said firmly.

  “Yes, it does,” Daisy insisted. “It even smells like the fish one.”

  Okay, tuna quiche wasn’t kid food and she wouldn’t make it for them again, Jem mentally conceded even as she was trying to think of something to get them to at least try it. Help came unexpectedly.

  “I don’t care if it looks like something an elephant left behind. Aunty Jem went to a lot of trouble to make it and if you’re smart you’ll all appreciate it,” Eben said, annoyed. “You’re lucky to have someone who cares enough to go to the trouble of making a real dinner for you. Where are your manners?”

  The three children turned their heads from Eben to her, looking like spectators at a tennis tournament.

  “Thank you for the yummy dinner,” they said together.

  “You’re welcome,” Jem said and watched, amazed as the older two tentatively forked up small mouthfuls. Aidan used his fingers but she wasn’t going to complain.

  The children hadn’t eaten much of the quiche by the time the dinner was over but at least they had tried it. She cleared the table and did the dishes with Drongo underfoot wanting scraps while Eben organised the children’s baths and bedtime story.

  She phoned North Shore Hospital to learn that Jess had been taken back into surgery. When she wanted to know why the nurse at the other end had been reluctant to say more as it was hospital policy not to give information to the general public over the phone.

  “I’m not the general public, I’m her sister,” Jem cried. “They called me on her cell phone’s ICE number so I could identify her.”

  The soft hearted nurse paused then relayed to her that there had been more internal bleeding found. In addition to that there was swelling in her brain so when she came out of surgery they would keep her in a drug induced coma. Her situation was listed as critical.

  Eben appeared just as she got off the phone and could tell the news wasn’t good. He just hugged her. When she had overcome her shock she went to pull away but Eben held her gently against him until she had finished telling him what the nurse had said.

  “Let me try getting hold of Jase.”

  Just as he picked up the phone it rang in his hand. He answered it to hear a frantic Jason on the other end. Jason had persuaded a local to paddle an outrigger to somewhere he could get cell phone coverage so he could call Jess to tell her he’d arrived safely. Instead he’d first listened to a message from a police officer and several increasingly distressed messages from Jem.

  Eben calmly brought his friend up to date and explained that he and Jem were looking after the children so they were managing. He could tell his friend was torn; he wanted to drop everything to be with his wife but knew that it had taken months to get all his appointments lined up and he had a deadline. If he didn’t meet it Nouveautech wouldn’t be paid which would cause a serious cash flow problem not to mention cost the company future contracts. Eben wished he could swap places with Jase but knew he wouldn’t be able to do the job with the finesse that his friend had.

  He knew Jason well enough to know that he would be a mess without anything immediately in front of him to keep him occupied until he knew Jess would be okay. It would be kinder to keep him where he was, not just for him and the company but for the children. They would know something was incredibly wrong with their father home early and he couldn’t see any benefit to having them all distressed unnecessarily. With this in mind he pitched his thoughts accordingly.

  Jem listened to his end of the conversation and silently agreed with Eben. She knew from Jess that Jason had heavily mortgaged the house to help finance the company’s expansion and that missing the deadline would cost them further well-paid government contracts. With his return there would be no downplaying the seriousness of the situation to the children and that was without the stress of keeping the company afloat to prevent the house becoming a mortgagee sale.

  “Yeah, I’ll put her on,” Eben said.

  He handed the phone to Jem and mouthed “convince him”.

  “Hi Jase,” Jem said, her eyes immediately watering the moment she heard her brother-in-law’s voice shakily returning her greeting.

  A sharp pain in her forearm made her look down and she saw Eben pinching it. His eyes, more dark blue than grey shot her a warning look. She immediately straightened and glared at him. He released her arm and she rubbed it absently as she listened to Jason talking about her messages.

  “I’m sorry to have worried you more than you need to be. It’s just that I made them before I was able to find out anything about Jess’s condition.”

  I need to give him knowledge. Knowledge with a positive slant.

  “We phoned the hospital just before you rang. At the time she was in surgery and they’ve decided to keep her asleep when she comes out to help her rest while she heals.”

  Asleep sounds better than medically induced coma.

  “Yes, I’m sure she’ll be in recovery soon. I’m going to see her tonight and I’ll text you an update when I leave.”

  Recovery sounded a lot more positive than ICU.

  “No, don’t phone the hospital. Aside from the time needed to go through the exchange they aren’t allowed to give out anything more than basic infor
mation. We’ll be able to keep you better informed.”

  “Yes, I promise to do that.” Jem gave an unwilling laugh. “No, do not sit on that outrigger in the middle of the Pacific Ocean until you hear back from me. You’re there to work not to have nocturnal ocean jaunts. Just think, in the morning you’ll have a positive text message to read when you paddle back where you are.”

  “Okay, phone us tomorrow when you’re free. Take care, bye.”

  “Well done Jemima,” Eben murmured as he took the phone from her and put it in its cradle to recharge.

  He held her hand, instinctively knowing she would now reject a hug. She scowled at him but he knew she didn’t mean it because she didn’t pull away.

  “I think the water was choppy and he was getting sea sick,” she said.

  Eben thumbed away tears threatening to fall above her watery smile.

  She could kiss him for being so nice but she wouldn’t. Instead, Jem unlinked her fingers from his hand and reached for her notepad on the breakfast bar.

  She reluctantly turned back a page to the list she had almost completed before the oven buzzer went. Only one item remained. Phone Coco. It was close to 9pm. Coco would be awake and up by now seeing as she was on the other side of the world. She’d much rather get hold of her younger brother Freddie but she had already left a message with his boss knowing it would take days to track him down and then he might be unable to respond because he was busy saving the planet somewhere. Jem sighed.

  Knowing Jem wanted privacy to make the call but knowing what her mother was like on the few occasions he’d met her Eben decided to stick around. He faced the mess in the family room.

  “I’ll tidy up in here.”

  Jem nodded absently as she keyed in her mother’s phone number which she had jotted down while at her apartment this afternoon. Sometimes being organised wasn’t a good thing, she thought as the phone rang at the other end.

  Her mother answered and Jem explained the situation. Unlike her call with Jason she used the terms coma and ICU freely.