‘Will you tell me something?’ Jake asked and Ella’s brain awakened. He was staring at her with quiet intensity, and there was something very different about his tone, like he’d just sharpened it on one of the machines he had in his store.
Ella licked her lips, trying to find some of the moisture that Jake had kissed away. ‘I’ll try.’
‘I was out of the country when you swam—I’ve been thinking about it and I’m pretty sure that’s why I didn’t connect your name or your face any earlier—but you were blonde in the television ads with Erik. And blonde when you were swimming. That’s what I saw on Google. So is that your natural colour?’ He dipped his head with the question. ‘Or blonde?’
Ella touched the tips of her hair. It was so much healthier these days than when she’d spent all those hours in chlorinated pools. ‘Close to it. It’s got a rinse in it, but I’m brunette. It turned this awful green colour when I was swimming. Something else for the girls at school to tease me about. I dyed it blonde back then.’
‘I like it brown,’ Jake said, sitting back as if her answer had solved the problem of world peace.
Ella put the papers on the desk in front of her—lots of clear space, Jake kept a tidy desk. She pushed them across towards him till she hit a corner of his closed laptop and at that point Jake picked the papers out of her hand.
He read the new number and Ella held her breath.
‘He’s keen, isn’t he?’ Jake said, giving her the papers straight back.
‘He must be. He’s just upped his first offer by fifty grand. That’s got to say something.’
‘It does. It says he’s playing games. Fishing around. I know Henry.’
‘Jake … this is a good offer. I really think you should consider this. The last sale on the Chalk Hill Bridge Road was a bigger block and a much newer house and it went for $460,000 and that was before the GFC took everything out of WA prices. This is $479,000 cash, right here, and I’m not sure you’ll get much more. I appraised Irma’s house for you before between $450,000 and $480,000.’
Ella had to fight not to shake the papers, and fight not to raise her voice.
‘I’m not selling for that,’ Jake said quietly, opening his laptop.
Now she had to fight not to sigh out her exasperation. ‘A counteroffer then? Something Henry can aim for.’
He shook his head. ‘Sorry. No can do. Tell him my asking price again.’
Bloody hell. ‘You’re the boss. If that’s how you’re instructing me, that’s what I’ll do.’ Even if she’d rather crunch the papers in her hand, ball them up and play office basketball with the papers and the rubbish bin.
‘I’m sorry. I know this is important to you.’
‘It’s not about me, Jake. This is your property. It’s fine. I’ll try harder.’ She would too. She would sell this bloody house or die trying. Ella pushed up out of her seat. ‘Okay, I’d better call Henry. I’ll let you know what he says.’
‘Ella?’
She paused. ‘Yes?’
‘Would you and Sam like to come out to my place on Sunday? It’s supposed to be hot and it might be the last hot spell of summer. We can swim in the dam and have a barbecue.’
The word chilled her spine. ‘I won’t swim in the dam.’
‘It’s clean. There’s a jetty. It might not be a swimming pool but it’s fine for swimming. It’s better than a pool actually. No chlorine. No salt.’
‘I’m not worried about getting muddy feet. I don’t swim anymore, Jake.’
Swimming was another lifetime, and it led to nothing but tears. Swimming for her had been about doing the work till making a stroke felt like lifting a block of cement. Swimming had been about sacrificing everything and never having fun.
‘I won’t swim,’ Ella said again.
‘Well, you can paddle your feet off the jetty or something, or you can critique me as I murder my freestyle, and maybe you’ll change your mind when you see how beautiful the water is. Sam would like it.’
‘Hate to break it to you. Sam doesn’t swim much either.’
His brow creased. ‘How can the offspring of two swimming professionals not swim?’
Ella almost laughed at the irony. Sam was the offspring of two swimming professionals, just not the two Jake thought. She’d kept Sam out of the water as much as possible, because even at five and six he’d been the spitting image of the baby pictures the media always showed of his famous father and she’d been terrified if she put him in the water he’d be a natural. A swimming fish who looked so much like Marshall Wentworth someone would make the connection and the whole world would know her secret.
Erik said she wasn’t being rational. Sam’s swimming was one of the only things she and Erik argued about. He said all kids should learn to swim, and deep inside Ella knew he was right. It didn’t mean she had to like the idea.
‘I swam every day of my life for all those years. Sometimes twice a day. Sometimes three and four hours a day. I don’t miss swimming. I really don’t.’ Skin-folds. Diets. Measurements. Weights. Not eating chocolate or ice-cream, ever. How could she make Jake understand? ‘Taking Sam for a swim was pretty much the last thing I ever wanted to do. It was actually great going places without having wet hair.’
‘But he can swim? He’s had lessons.’
‘He can stay afloat. Yes. Erik’s taught him a bit. There’s plenty of time for him to learn better technique.’
‘Good,’ he said decisively. ‘My cleaning lady, Nita, she’ll be there Sunday and she usually brings her grandson, Ollie. He’s Sam’s age. I think they’d get on well together.’
If there was one thing that would get her past the chill of the word ‘swim’, Jake had said it. Boy, did Sam need a friend.
CHAPTER
18
‘I’m sorry, Henry. That’s where Jake is
