‘Ten-year-old boys have the knack of making their mother grumpy too.’
He waited, but she didn’t elaborate. Had Sam ever told her about the rock-throwing incident? He didn’t want to ask if it got the kid in more trouble.
‘Why did you get in this game then?’ He indicated the house behind them. ‘Selling property?’
She took some time to compose an answer. Ella played her cards close to her chest.
‘I was in a bit of a flat spot, I guess you’d say, last year. The last few years maybe. It was time for a change.’
‘It’s as good as a holiday and all that,’ Jake said.
‘Our neighbour put his place on the market last year and the saleswoman came to our house to tell us there was a Home Open at the weekend and it might be tricky to find a park out front for that hour.’ She looked out at the zero number of cars lining Chalk Hill Bridge Road and smiled, a touch wistfully. ‘She was really nice. We got talking. Next thing I knew I’d called the real estate institute in Perth and asked them about the next intake for sales certification.’
‘And how did Harvey Begg get his hands on you?’
‘I rang him,’ she admitted. ‘I rang and asked. I made a hit-list of country towns because I thought it would be an easier start than the city. It’s pretty competitive up there. Harvey said he’d give me a go.’
‘Bet Bob loved that,’ Jake said.
Ella didn’t comment, but the corner of her lip twitched.
His wine was finished, and when Jake checked Ella’s glass, hers was too. ‘Would you like a top-up?’
She wavered, checked her watch, but she smiled and Jake was sure she was about to accept his offer and it surprised him how his heart did this bloom inside his chest … but then a vehicle engine rumbled from the street and Ella’s attention pinged like cut elastic.
Lazily, Jake looked up to see who it was, and he frowned at the Troop Carrier and plates because he couldn’t place it. The car’s orange indicator light began a rhythmic flick and the vehicle slowed. Jake reckoned the car might be older than him.
‘F,’ Ella said, sitting up like a circus seal. Jake almost expected her to clap.
‘F?’
‘Erik calls the car F Troop.’ Ella didn’t put her empty wineglass on the verandah boards, she pretty much slung it there, lucky not to break it. She was halfway down the cement path before Jake could blink.
‘Erik!’ she called, opening the gate and running to take the guy now getting out of the car into a hug that might damn near break the bloke’s bones. Jake wasn’t prepared for the iron fist that gripped his gut and gave his insides a twist.
* * *
‘It’s so good to see you,’ Ella said, pulling her ex-husband, ex-coach, but still very best friend tight to her chest. Erik Brecker had always been her happy place.
‘Sold any houses yet, Ella-my-Bella?’
‘I wish.’ She thrust her hand towards Irma’s house. ‘I can’t even get anyone to show up at a wine and cheese Home Open.’
‘This is not a customer here?’ He flicked an eyebrow towards Jake.
‘He’s the owner.’ Ella stepped out of Erik’s arm. ‘Come and meet him.’
‘Umm, no. He is giving me the hairy eye.’
‘Hairy eyeball, or evil eye, Erik,’ she corrected out of habit, because Erik always got lines like that mixed up. She twisted to get a look at Jake. He was in shade in the verandah, but he didn’t look evil to her. ‘He doesn’t look anything of the sort. That’s silly.’
‘You never did have much clues what the man is really thinking when he looks at you,’ Erik said.
‘He probably thinks you’ve come to buy his house and he’s checking you out to see if you can afford it,’ Ella laughed. ‘You should have driven the Jag.’
‘If I could manage to change gears …’
They laughed together, overflowing with the familiarity in it.
‘Coo-ee, Jake? Is that you I see over there?’ The holler turned Ella to the Nillsons’ place, and at the same time Jake shoved up from the verandah and ambled down the steps. He cut to his right towards the fence where Helen Nillson half hung over the pickets, balancing a basket of freshly picked vegetables on Irma’s rosemary bushes.
‘Bet she wants a glass of wine,’ Ella muttered, not nastily. There was plenty to go around. They weren’t exactly being inundated.
‘Neighbours want to know how much the property is selling for … gives them a dream about their own place, what it is worth,’ Erik said.
‘Her place isn’t worth what they’re asking here.’ She leaned towards Erik and whispered, ‘This place isn’t worth what he’s asking but don’t tell a soul.’
‘I do not tell,’ Erik said, motioning zipping across his lips.
She could hear murmurs from Jake and Helen, but she couldn’t discern any of the words. Funny thing was, she could feel eyes on her, she was certain, and from time to time as she chatted under the trees with Erik, her skin would prick and when she turned she’d catch Jake’s gaze, before one of them would glance away.
‘I think they’re talking about us,’ she said.
‘And, Ella, are we not used to that?’
Which was true, but it didn’t mean Ella had ever got used to it and not in Chalk Hill. This was her new life, remember?
‘Sam is home?’ Erik asked.
‘If he’s not, he’ll be grounded for a week. He knows you’re coming.’
‘Is he being good?’
‘Good if you don’t count the fist fight over handball—that’s the one I told you about—and we ignore the little talk I had with his teacher yesterday afternoon.’
Erik groaned. ‘What happens yesterday afternoon?’
‘She said he isn’t listening in class. He’s taking too long to finish whatever he’s been working on and when Miss Redmond tells the class to stop, Sam keeps going.’
‘Wanting to get your work finished is not a bad thing,’ Erik defended.
‘I know. I do know.’
