by Lily Malone
‘Can’t I write to him? Couldn’t I Skype him?’ Sam asked.
Ella nodded. ‘You can write to him. You could maybe draw a picture? We could send some photos of you as a baby and growing up. But, Sam, first I will write to him, okay? To explain who you are so he knows. And there is something they do these days called DNA—’
‘Like in mosquitos in Jurassic Park,’ Sam interrupted.
‘Kind of like that. We might do that for you too. Your dad might like to have that.’
Jake didn’t think Sam understood DNA, beyond the mosquitos and the dinosaurs, but in the scheme of things that didn’t really matter.
‘When, Mum? When can I see him?’
‘You can write your letter as soon as you want, Sammy,’ Ella said, ‘and I’ll write mine. It might take us a bit of time to dig out your old photographs. I don’t have a lot of them printed, they’re all on my computer so I need to find them and print them, and some of them are packed in boxes still up in Erik’s shed in Perth.’
Sam’s face darkened as Ella dropped obstacles in his path like stones.
‘But I’ll do it, Sam, okay? That’s a pinkie promise. And I know I might not have told you the whole truth, but I promise from now I always will about your dad, okay? Erik will too, and Jake’s here as a grown-up to hear us say it. Okay?’
‘And we love you, Sammy,’ Erik said gruffly.
Jake’s heart went out to the man. How hard must it be to be Sam’s dad, but not his dad? The love Erik Brecker had for Ella and her son was all over his face, all through the man’s bear-like body, curved protectively into the table as if he could shield them both.
Ella raised Sam’s hand in hers, and finally it looked like Sam wouldn’t let go. Above Ella and Sam’s arms, Erik met Jake’s gaze and Jake felt something pass between them, solemn and strong.
If this were a relay, he’d just been handed the baton. Or whatever they called it in swimming.
CHAPTER
34
When Ella got to work on Monday morning, she’d hoped to get in to see Harvey first thing, but her boss’s door was shut and when Gina said he was in there with Helen Nillson, Ella’s curiosity piqued.
‘What is Helen here for?’ Ella asked Gina.
‘I don’t know. He wasn’t expecting her,’ Gina said, fingers flying across the keyboard as she did her normal ten things at once.
Ella glanced towards the frosted glass of Harvey’s wall. Shadow figures moved behind it, Harvey at his seat and Helen in the guest chair. Muted voices told her nothing at all.
‘I hope I haven’t done something wrong,’ Ella murmured.
‘Now don’t get paranoid. She might be singing your praises, for all you know.’
Doubtful. Praises didn’t often get sung behind closed doors.
‘So what have you got on today? Any exciting deals in the offer?’ Gina asked. ‘Got some work for me?’
‘I wish,’ Ella said, then she lowered her voice. ‘I’ve asked Harvey about your job. You said you might cut your hours and I thought, with some training … I might be able to give it a go?’
Gina stopped typing and put her hand on her pregnant tummy. ‘Harvey hasn’t said anything to me. Has he talked about it with you?’
‘Not formally, but I flagged it with him in an email yesterday and now I need to follow up. I’m obviously not cut out for sales and I’ve got bills to pay and I’m going backwards financially,’ Ella said.
‘What do you mean, you’re not cut out for sales? You really haven’t been at it that long when you think about it.’
‘I’m sure. I need the certainty for Sam. Ever since I took this job he’s been acting up. He says he hates me being in sales.’ Ella leaned across the top of the counter. ‘He ran away from the disco and broke his arm on Saturday night.’
Gina clucked sympathetically, and Ella told her more about where they’d found Sam under the Chalk Hill bridge. She didn’t finish the story, though, because Harvey’s office door opened and Helen Nillson stepped out.
‘Thanks, Harve. I’ll be in touch when I hear what he says. It’s very exciting,’ Helen said.
Hear what who says? Ella wondered. What’s exciting?
Helen’s face creased in smiles when she spotted Ella in the front office, and Ella’s fears that Helen might have had cause to complain about her performance faded.
‘Mick said you haven’t called him, Ella?’ Helen said, lingering near the bell Ella had only ever rung once. ‘Do you remember I told you that he needed six weeks to clean up his place, but that he wanted to talk with you about putting it on the market? He’s got himself ready a bit earlier than he expected I think. You should give him a call.’
A told-you-so expression crossed Gina’s face, but she didn’t say anything.
‘He’d like to hear from you. I’m pretty sure he said they’d put in new carpet and redone the front lawn,’ Helen said. Then for Gina’s benefit, she added, ‘Mick and his family are going to move to Rockingham when I find a place up there to move into, now Ella sold my old house.’
‘We’ll get in touch with Mick,’ Ella promised. She should have called him earlier, even if Helen said he needed six weeks. Her mind had obviously been on other things. Jake. The pool project. Sam.
‘We?’ Helen queried.
‘Me. We.’ Ella waved her hand more broadly, because even then she knew she’d have to pass the listing on to Bob, or Harvey. She wouldn’t be able to take on Gina’s administration job and still sell land and houses. That couldn’t work. ‘The whole of Begg & Robertson will be behind him, I mean.’
‘Lovely. Well, do that. He’s looking forward to hearing from you. He would have called you but we all know how busy you are with the pool. Not long now, hey? The big opening is only a few weeks away!’
Helen beamed at Ella and Gina, and pushed her way through the office door. Ella saw her chatting with a lady outside the bakery.
‘I’m going in,’ Ella said to Gina, indicating Harvey’s office. ‘Wish me luck.’
‘Good luck,’ Gina said, and the clack of her keyboard kept beat with Ella’s heels as she walked away.
Ella knocked on Harvey’s door. ‘Got a second?’
‘For you, of course,’ Harvey said. ‘Good timing, actually, there’s something I want to talk with you about.’
Ella sat. She didn’t shut the office door because Bob was out, and Gina already knew what she wanted to talk to Harvey about.
‘You go first,’ Ella said.
‘Well. You saw Helen leave just now. She said you haven’t called Mick yet, about listing his house?’
Immediately, Ella was on the back foot. ‘It slipped my mind. I’m so sorry.’
‘Have you got any other listings on the go? Done any more appraisals lately?’
There was the man she’d spoken with on the dance floor Friday night, before everything at the disco went pear-shaped and Sam ran away. She hadn’t called him back. What was his name again? She’d never got the chance to write it down.
Jake knew him. I’ll ask him.
‘The thing is, Harvey, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking over the weekend, and in my email I sent to you yesterday, I mentioned about me doing some training in Gina’s job? I thought there wasn’t much point me starting any new listings now, not if I’ll be handing them over to you or Bob. I can’t do sales and admin. That wouldn’t work.’
‘About that,’ Harvey said, rocking back in his chair, making it squeak. ‘I got your email. I’ve had a bit of a chinwag with Bob about that this morning and I’m afraid he didn’t think it was such a great idea.’
It was Ella’s turn to sit straight in her chair. Bob objected? Bob objected! ‘Why would Bob have a problem with me doing the admin?’
Harvey cleared his throat. ‘Well, he’s concerned your attention to detail might not be what’s required for the role.’
‘My attention to detail?’ Ella sputtered. She’d kill Bob. She’d poison his fancy green ficus.
‘Wel
l, there’s a lot of correspondence required. A lot of keeping on top of things. Settlement dates. Website updates. Marketing. Photography bookings.’ Harvey rattled off the list.
‘I’m sure I can learn,’ Ella said.
‘Mmhmmm.’ Harvey let out a sound every bit as eloquent as Erik at his best and steepled his pudgy fingers. ‘I still think we should advertise Gina’s role. See who’s out there. I’d prefer to keep you in sales. I’m not sure you’ve given yourself long enough to call it quits now. You should follow up with Mick Nillson. That could be a new listing for you.’
That quit word again. It seemed to haunt her lately. Even Erik had used the word yesterday when she’d told him about her plan to put her real estate sales career on hold.
Ella didn’t like the thought of quitting. Quitting wasn’t putting something on hold. Quitting sounded so final.
‘What did Bob say exactly?’ Ella asked.
Harvey wafted his fingers vaguely. ‘The real estate industry isn’t for everyone, whether it’s administration, property management or sales. You have to be attentive to little details. Customer-service oriented. Results-driven. A people person.’
‘Bob thinks I’m not a people person?’ Ella was gobsmacked.
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Harvey said, every bit as vague as before. ‘But don’t worry about that for now. Look, it might work out. I’ll give it a bit more of a think, about you doing reception and admin. Okay? But in the meantime, I’d like you to call Mick Nillson. We need that listing, and he wants to list it with you. So his mum tells me.’
Harvey’s mobile phone vibrated on his desk and he glanced to read the name on the screen. ‘I have to take this. Sorry.’
He’d already picked up the phone and she waved at him to say, not at all.
By the time she reached her chair and her space, and dropped her handbag to the floor, Ella’s hackles were well and truly up.
How dare Bob Begg?
I’ll show him I’m a people person, Ella thought, picking up her phone to call Mick Nillson.
The front door of the office whooshed open, and Ella put down her phone because she was on roster this morning and she could hear Gina talking with a young couple about a property they’d seen in the Begg & Robertson window.
Ella got out of her chair and smoothed her skirt.
I’ll show you, Bob.
* * *
‘That’s pretty heavy stuff, mate,’ Abe said, as they ate lamb chops and Abe’s potato salad on Monday night and debriefed the weekend. Abe had been in Margaret River, visiting Brix. ‘Imagine if some bloke rocked up here when we were kids and told us Dad wasn’t our real dad. I mean … it’d be hard to get your head around.’
‘It’s Erik, Ella’s ex, who I feel for,’ Jake said. ‘I mean, I feel for all of them, but Erik brought Sam up as his own. If Marshall wants to get to know Sam, and if Ella’s with me now … Erik’s the odd man out.’
‘Is Ella with you, though?’ Abe asked.
‘This thing with Marshall has thrown her for six, and her head is all over the place. But I think we can be good. When she cools down, thinks it all through. I need to talk her out of leaving Chalk Hill first, though.’
Abe chewed a mouthful of salad and washed it down with beer. ‘Same goes for you, mate. If you hook up with her, you’ll get attached to the kid. I mean, you already are in a way. How are you gonna feel the day you tell him to do something and he looks at you and says, “You can’t make me, you’re not my dad”?’
Jake gestured with his fork before sticking it under a pyramid of baby peas. ‘I’ve thought about it. Guess you just cross that bridge, you know?’
‘What about if you and your swimmer lady do hook up in a major way, and say you want a kid of your own, and she doesn’t?’
‘Thought about that too.’ Of course he’d thought about it. He wouldn’t be human if he didn’t think about it. He’d spent the last ten years of his life thinking about a child of his own and playing, what if? What if Cassidy kept the baby? He’d be ten now. Or she would.
‘And then there’s the whole thing about visiting if the kid wants to see his old man. Where’d ya say he lives?’
‘Sydney. Bondi Beach. Somewhere on millionaire’s row,’ Jake said.
‘Plane trips there and back.’ Abe took up the theme. ‘Hell, what if he wants to live with his dad permanently?’
‘Getting ahead of yourself, aren’t you?’ Jake said, swallowing a mouthful of peas with a snorted laugh.
‘Gotta think about these things.’ Abe took another swig of his beer.
That’s when Jake’s phone rang on the kitchen counter, and when he got up to check the call Ella’s name bounced from the blue screen.
‘Hi,’ Jake answered.
‘Hey. It’s me.’
‘How you doing?’
‘Good. I’m good. Thanks.’ She sounded breathy, like she’d come in from a long run.
‘How’s Sam’s arm?’ Jake asked.
‘Not too bad, thanks for asking. He didn’t need another painkiller in the night last night. We had a quiet day yesterday, just hung around home with Erik. I wrote an email to Harvey, asking about the admin job.’
‘How did he take that?’
‘He wasn’t that keen, not really. He said he needs to think about it more.’ Her voice changed. ‘Apparently, Bob doesn’t think I’ve got what it takes to succeed in real estate, sales or administration.’
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Abe scrape his plate clean at the sink and quietly leave the room. Jake appreciated the privacy.
‘Well, Bob and Harvey will want the office to run smoothly. I can understand that. I’m the first to tell anyone how important good admin staff are, and not everyone is cut out for sales, but I still don’t think you’ve given it long enough to decide that yet.’
‘I guess. It’s strange for Bob to say that, though,’ she said. ‘So anyway, you know the guy who tapped you on the shoulder when we were dancing. He asked me about appraising his house? I’ve forgotten his name.’
‘Tynan Kennedy. They live not far from you, actually.’
‘I don’t suppose you have a number for him? I want to call him,’ Ella said.
That warm bloody balloon did a galumph thing in his chest because this was big news. This was huge. ‘I thought you weren’t going to sell real estate anymore,’ Jake said. ‘You were thinking about a move back to Perth.’
In the time it took for her to come back to him, Jake was sure he could have started the hose and filled the new town pool.
Finally she said, ‘I think I might have changed my mind.’
Galumph. Slosh. ‘Why?’
‘I don’t like the thought of Bob Begg saying I’m not a people person, or I don’t have attention to detail. I really feel like proving him wrong. I sold a block of land today, actually,’ she said. ‘I got lucky—this young couple came in off the street. But it felt soooo good. Bugger Bob Begg! What does he know?’
Jake almost laughed out loud. This was the Ella he’d come to know and love. This was his overly-enthusiastic, uber-determined, ultra-competitive real estate agent swimmer lady out in force. If Bob’s ruddy cheeks had been on hand right now, Jake could have kissed them.
‘If you can wait till tomorrow, I know we’ve got Tynan’s contact details at the shop. I can text ’em to you. Or you can probably google him in the White Pages.’
‘Tomorrow’s fine. Great. Thanks.’
‘It’s no problem. Now, Ella?’
‘Yep?’
‘If you and Sam aren’t busy Wednesday night, some of the local fire crew are coming out to my place. We’re going to light up our burn pile, and just in case you were still thinking about moving back to the city, you should experience a good country bonfire just once.’
‘What’s a burn pile again?’
‘Just a heap of sticks, and some of the businesses in town take advantage of what us local firies like to call our confidential document burning service.’
&
nbsp; ‘Sam will think that’s awesome. We’d love to come. What shall we bring?’
‘Just bring the two of you,’ Jake said.
That’s all I need.
CHAPTER
35
‘I can’t see any other kids here, Mum,’ Sam said, disappointment obvious, as they climbed out of Ella’s car at Jake’s place on Wednesday night.
‘Maybe everyone is up at the fire already. Let’s see, hey?’ Ella set off across the gravelled parking area and up the steps to Jake’s house. It was like Grand Central Station at Jake’s today. A car yard of mud-splattered dual-cabs and four-wheel-drives parked at every angle, some almost off in the ditch alongside the drive. Ella counted herself lucky the Mazda was so small in such company. She’d managed to sneak into a spot close to the gate.
‘Where is everybody?’ Sam said when he got to the top step.
‘I’ll see if I can phone Jake,’ Ella said, tugging her phone from the pocket of her jeans. ‘I told him we’d be here at five and it’s just before that. You could go in and say hello to Percy.’
Sam’s face brightened. ‘Cool.’
Ella was thumbing through her contacts for Jake’s number when Jess shot around the side of the house, panting, white paws covered in grass and dirt.
‘Hello, girl. Where did you come from?’ Ella patted the dog on the head as the kelpie wriggled around her feet.
‘Yo!’ Jake jogged around the verandah, all dressed up in his fire-fighting gear, navy shirt and pants with fluorescent white bands around the ankles. ‘Get out of it, Jess,’ he ordered the dog.
Jess sat on her tail, and Jake’s gaze searched Ella’s face. ‘Is Sam inside?’
‘Visiting Percy.’
Jake rested his hand on her hip, lowered his head and greeted her with a quick kiss. At least, Ella got the impression he’d tried to make it quick, but it didn’t stay quick long.