‘She must have a good memory,’ Jake said.
‘Or she’s a fan of swimming.’
‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘So you hit send?’
‘I did.’ Her hands lifted from where they’d been tucked under her thighs on the chair and she gestured as she spoke. ‘I wasn’t sure how else to do it but just to put it all out there. It’s hard when I haven’t had anything to do with Marshall in all this time.’
‘You’ve done the right thing,’ Jake said.
When she lifted her face, the strain showed in her eyes, in the way her mouth turned down at the corners.
The fire captain, Arnie Newman, yelled across at them. ‘Block your ears.’
Startled, Ella put her hands to her ears. Jake did too. Seconds later, the siren from the fire truck boiled across the paddock, and two cheeky faces peered out of the fire truck’s window.
Jake was looking at Ella, he couldn’t look away, and this time when she smiled he saw no strain, just joy as she gazed across at the two boys in the truck window, both laughing fit to bust.
CHAPTER
36
The day before the official opening of the Chalk Hill Community Swimming Pool, Ella was on call at Begg & Robertson. Gina had the day off, and they hadn’t yet appointed a new receptionist, although Harvey had conducted a few interviews. Harvey was out of the office, which left Ella walking on eggshells around Bob.
Bob who thought she lacked attention to detail.
In the last few weeks, Ella had listed both Mick Nillson’s four-bedroom house in Mount Barker and Tynan Kennedy’s older-style cottage on a big block in Clivia Crescent, and she’d had good inspections on both. Hadn’t had to offer wine and cheese once.
Ella responded to a couple of email enquiries sitting in her inbox, and returned calls to Mick and to Tynan’s wife to bring them up to date on the coming weekend’s Home Opens.
Through both calls she could hear Bob in the background on the phone in his office, but by the time she’d finished everything was quiet.
Over her left shoulder in the kitchen, she heard Bob clear his throat. Ella didn’t look up.
‘Tea or coffee?’ Bob asked.
She nearly fell off her chair. ‘Me?’
Bob’s mouth stretched into something Ella supposed was a smile. She was so unused to seeing it directed at her, she couldn’t be certain.
‘I’m not looking at anyone else.’
‘Well. Sure. Tea please. That would be nice. White and one.’
In eight months, she couldn’t remember Bob once asking her if she’d like tea or coffee, although to be fair to Bob, it wasn’t like she offered to make him one either. Not after her first few weeks in the office, anyway.
Bob handed her the cup and then stood in the open door leading into the kitchen, right next to Ella’s space.
Ella didn’t know what to do with him, or with herself. Bob never wanted to chat.
‘I bet you’re glad now Dad put the kybosh on you taking over Gina’s job,’ he said, nodding wisely. ‘You know. Now that you’ve got these listings, and you’ve got stuff going on.’
Well, that tore it. ‘What do you mean, Harvey kyboshed it? You were the one who told him you didn’t think I was up to Gina’s job.’
Bob’s eyebrows could have brushed dust from the ceiling. ‘Pardon?’
And Ella wasn’t going to pussyfoot around. ‘You told your dad you didn’t think I could do the admin job. You weren’t sure about my attention to detail.’ She stressed the last three words.
‘I never said that. I thought you’d be great at admin and, to be honest, it meant less competition for me.’
‘Less competition?’ Ella sputtered.
‘Absolutely. I told Dad I thought you’d do a great job in admin. I’m the first to admit I’ve had pretty much a free run in here, especially since Dad started winding back. Then who rocks up but this famous lady ex-swimmer who gets the iconic Honeychurch house listing and gets everybody talking about how she sold Helen Nillson’s house! I didn’t mind the idea of you being out of sales at all.’
Ella couldn’t think of a single word to say. Bob had been jealous of her? Ring-a-ding-ding Bob?
‘Then that means Harvey … lied?’
Bob let out a laugh that might have blown the top off his tea. ‘Say what you want about my old man, he’s not silly.’
‘I’m not following. What do you mean?’
‘I reckon Dad played both of us, Ella. He told me you changed your mind about trying the admin role. He said you wanted to give sales one last crack.’
And in the middle of that conversation, the office door opened and shut, and their illustrious leader waltzed through the foyer, rounded the corner and saw both Ella and Bob eyeing him like he’d kicked Irene Loveday’s scruffy white dog.
‘What?’ Harvey said. The smile on his face died.
‘You sneaky old bugger,’ Bob said.
‘Not nice, Harvey,’ Ella admonished.
‘What?’ Harvey said again, arms coming out to the side, palms up.
‘You told me Bob said I didn’t have enough attention to detail to do the admin job.’
Harvey’s face relaxed. ‘Ah. That. I wondered when the two of you would talk long enough to get to the bottom of that.’ He registered the two cups of tea, Bob with his arms folded across his chest in the tiny kitchen, Ella in her chair. ‘So, does the cup of tea and a chat make you friends now?’
Ella turned her chair to better face Bob. ‘I don’t know. Does it?’
He nodded, compressing his double chin. ‘I think it might.’
‘Excellent.’ Harvey rubbed his palms together. ‘That will keep those Vesper and Son vultures from our door.’
‘This was all about competition with another agent?’ Ella said.
‘If I’d been Lou Vesper and I was looking to set up an agency in this town, first thing I’d do is find out the lie of the land with the current salespeople there. It’s unlikely they’d ever try to head-hunt Bob, him being
