‘Why did you give Bob Begg the listing on Nanna’s house?’
Her hand shook and made sugar overshoot the cup. ‘He didn’t call you already, did he? I told him I’d talk to you first.’
She’d spent the whole afternoon writing out exactly what she’d say so she’d get it right when she spoke to Jake, because so often the words in her head hit a brick wall in her mouth and never quite came out straight. Now Bob had beaten her to it.
‘Reckon Bob couldn’t wait to call me,’ Jake said.
Ella squeezed the teabag and stirred, squeezed and stirred again. Finally she added milk and shut the fridge. Carrying the teacup to the table, she wrapped her hands around it for strength. Bob’s actions weren’t very professional, in her opinion. But she’d be professional about this, just watch.
‘Something you said to me yesterday kind of hit home.’
Jake’s brow creased. ‘And what was that? I told you a lot of things yesterday.’
He’d told her he was falling for her yesterday. He’d also asked her to follow his lead when it came to Abel and the house, and she’d had no idea what she’d been walking into.
‘You basically said that you only gave me the listing on your nanna’s place because you knew I couldn’t sell it. That’s why you gave it to the new girl.’ Her fingers made quote marks around the words new girl.
Jake didn’t deny it, so Ella took a breath and kept going. ‘I know I’m new at real estate, Jake, but I’ve given your nan’s house my very best try. It’s important that I have positive people around me, people that believe in me.’
‘I believe in you,’ Jake said, rubbing his eyes.
‘No, you don’t. Not really. I could have sold your nan’s house three times last week, if you wanted to sell. I would have sold the house despite everything you did to stop me, including that stunt with the whipper-snipper, and the sander—’
‘Hey, I told you that was an honest mistake. I mixed up the Home Open time.’
‘Whatever. I’m done with it, Jake. Maybe Bob will have better luck with you. Maybe Bob will do a better job.’
‘That’s giving up.’
‘That’s facing facts.’
‘I never wanted to sell Nanna’s house.’ Jake pushed himself up and off her chair. ‘I was only going through with it because I needed to find out why Abe was pushing so hard for the sale—why he needed the money. Abe and I thrashed it all out yesterday. He’s selling up his businesses and moving back to Chalk Hill. We’re going to renovate Nanna’s house and Abe plans to open it as a restaurant. So you see? Bob won’t have more luck. I told him I’m withdrawing it from sale. I told Bob I don’t want to waste his time.’
‘You don’t want to waste Bob’s time?’ Ella put her tea down. She didn’t need it to bolster her courage anymore. She had courage coming out her ears in the form of steam. ‘You wasted my time for months … and you can’t waste Bob’s time for three more days till the listing expires? Do you have any idea how chauvinistic that sounds?’
‘You’re making a mountain out of a molehill.’
‘A molehill?’ Now she was seething. ‘Wasting my time when you never intended to sell no matter how much of a result I got for you is not a molehill, thank you very much. But at least you got what you wanted, Jake. You know what Abe’s problem is. Bully for you. Whoopy-damn-do.’
‘Ella—’ He reached out for her.
‘Oh, bugger off.’
‘Maybe when you’ve calmed down, we can talk like adults.’
‘And maybe when you act like an adult, I’ll calm down. Till then, bugger off. Leave me alone.’
A muscle in his jaw worked as Jake struggled with what he might say. Perhaps his lack of sleep and the alcohol fogged his brain, because no words came out.
‘I’ll let you cool down,’ he said, turning his beautiful big solid shoulders on her and leaving the room. ‘I’ll call you.’
The front door opened, and it felt like a very long time before Ella heard it close, long enough for the first tears to trickle down her cheeks, long enough for her to have to wipe her eyes when they wouldn’t stop.
She mumbled to herself through tears, ‘That’s the last time I fall for a man with a cockatiel.’
CHAPTER
28
It wasn’t so hard to stay away that first week after his fight with Ella.
He had a lot to do. Abe stayed and the two of them talked plans and mapped out ideas for the restaurant. They talked to surveyors, council’s planning department, commercial building designers and to Abe’s bank.
They talked with business brokers about selling out Abe’s restaurants, and working out how much cash he could stump up.
Not a lot, Jake thought privately, given how hard Abe had worked to build up those tapas bars.
He rang Ella on the Sunday night of the first week, got no answer and left a message.
She never returned the call.
Still grumpy at him, obviously. He could handle that. He deserved that.
The second week wasn’t too hard either. There were sheep to sort and draft. He could raise some cash to lend Abe if he sold the two-year-old wethers, even though the timing wasn’t as good as it could have been. He had some savings, and he’d been saving the stack of Wesfarmers shares he’d kept hold of for years, for just this kind of rainy day.
He rang Ella on the Sunday of the second week, got no answer. Left a message.
She never returned his call. Not over it yet, obviously. Fine. He could be every bit as stubborn. Watch him.
By the third week, Abe had his bad mood pegged.
They’d been moving furniture most of the day, all Abe’s stuff from his Perth flat that he couldn’t—or didn’t want to—sell in a garage sale or online, and he and Jake had to lug it from the hired removalist truck into one of
