Her second thought—and it rushed right after the first—was a fervent wish that she’d gone with air-conditioning instead because not only was she now wind-blown, her face was rather flushed.
As she slowed before her driveway, Ella couldn’t be sure whether the flush was due to the heat in the car or the sight of Jake lifting Sam’s BMX bike out of the back of his Landcruiser.
The muscles in his back and arms flexed under a Honeychurch Timber and Hardware polo shirt. Tendons rippled the length of his arms as he extended Sam’s bike out and over the fence, bending at the waist to compensate for the bike’s weight in a way that made the material of his work pants hug his backside as he handed the bike to Sam.
Ella edged into the carport, lifting her index finger to acknowledge Jake as she passed. A check of the rear-view mirror showed him talking with Sam, and Ella stole the moment to waft air across her throat and face, hoping the carport shade might cool her cheeks before she’d have to get out.
Strains of conversation reached her as she opened the door.
Jake’s rich voice. ‘… he’s in the back seat.’
Sam’s reply. ‘Can I take him out?’
Ella blinked as she came out of the carport shade into bright afternoon sun. ‘Hi, Jake. Thanks for bringing Sam’s bike.’
Jake turned to her and Ella got caught in one of those moments that belonged in a movie. Time did a strange little slip shift, like she was about to get two seconds of the same life to live all over again, only they’d be better.
‘Ella,’ he greeted, eyes crinkling at the corners. ‘No problem.’
‘Hi, Mum. Jake brought Perk—I mean Jake brought Percy. He’s in the car. Can I get the cage out? Please?’
‘Oh, I don’t know, Sammy. Jake might not have time …’
‘Do you have time?’ Sam pleaded.
‘Sure. If your mum doesn’t mind.’
Ella blushed, she couldn’t help it. ‘I don’t mind.’
Sam let out a whoop and clanged out of the side gate, running to Jake’s car. Ella and Jake watched him open the rear door and pull the cage out carefully from the back seat. It wasn’t heavy but it was an unwieldy shape for a young boy, and by the time he’d got the cage back to where Ella and Jake stood, he was flagging.
‘How about I give you a hand with that, hey?’
Ella had the pleasure of watching new, different muscles in Jake’s shoulders bunch and roll as he took the cage’s weight.
‘Could you get the gate for me?’ Jake asked.
‘Sorry.’ Ella jumped to open the gate to let Jake and Sam through. ‘Why don’t we take him inside so you can let him fly, if Jake doesn’t mind?’
‘Sure,’ he said beside her. ‘Percy’s been stuck in his cage all day. He’ll appreciate some wing time.’
‘You don’t take him to work with you every day, do you?’ Ella asked.
Jake looked straight at her. ‘Nah. I admit to an ulterior motive when I brought Percy into the office today.’
That ulterior motive was her. New awareness brushed over her limbs.
‘He’s like my good luck charm when it comes to you,’ Jake said.
‘Run in and check the doors and windows then, Sammy,’ Ella said, and she added quietly for Jake’s ears only, ‘Can’t have your good luck charm flying away.’
Sam ran into the house. Ella followed with Jake and the cockatiel.
She reached the front door first and held it wide. Jake eased the cage inside, making sure he didn’t bump her or scrape the house. Sam had been home from school long enough to rid the place of that closed-for-the-day feel. He’d also made raisin toast—the house smelled of toasted fruit.
Inside, Sam scampered from room to room. He burst back into the kitchen as she and Jake got there with the cage.
‘All clear, Jake,’ Sam said.
He put the cage on a low sideboard in front of the windows that overlooked the back garden, opened it and stood back so Sam could reach in to bring Percy out. Clasping the bird around his wings, Sam straightened and put Percy on his shoulder. The white bird fluffed his feathers and seemed in no great hurry to leave, and Sam stood there, craning his neck to look at Percy, his smile a mile wide.
‘Stay there, Sammy. Let me take a photo.’
He smiled, and Ella clicked the camera on her phone.
Jake gravitated towards Ella’s collection of vinyl records in her bookshelf, pushing through the titles.
‘Would you like a beer or a wine, Jake? Or there’s tea or coffee.’ She hesitated. ‘That’s if you’d like to stay for a while. We can sit outside.’
Percy flew a loop from Sam’s shoulder to the top of the kitchen cupboards across the open plan kitchen/living, cutting a hard right at the bookshelf before arrowing across to the lounge. He landed on the edge of the flat screen, barely touched down as if he didn’t like the metallic feel on his claws, and was off again.
‘I wouldn’t have picked you for a David Bowie fan,’ Jake said.
‘Bowie rocks.’ Wait till you see all the disco.
Jake flicked through more of her titles. Her record collection needed five shelves. Disco took up the bottom three. Pointer Sisters. Boney M. Bee Gees. Diana Ross. John Paul Young. Marcia Hines. Chaka Khan. Donna Summer.
‘Why all the disco?’ Jake asked.
Sam rolled his eyes. ‘Mum and her lame music.’
‘Disco isn’t lame. Disco is the best.’
They were the beats she’d swum to in the pool for all those years. Disco gave her perfect rhythms for a freestyle stroke and kick. Singing disco tunes in her head would keep her swimming when every muscle ached. Three more laps. A race to finish those laps before she got to the end of the song.
Ella moved to the fridge and took out the bottle of white wine she’d opened the previous night, tipping it to Jake. ‘What will you have?’
‘Beer if you’ve got it.’
‘I’ve got a German beer. It’s what Erik drinks.
