Water under the Bridge by Lily Malone

Author:Lily Malone [Malone, Lily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises (Australia) Pty Ltd.

CHAPTER

21

‘Ella’s here to see you again, Jake,’ Jenny said, with a certain cheeky female emphasis on again, and Jake told her to send Ella on through and sat back in his office chair, closing out of the quarterly sales report he’d been reading on his laptop.

She was later today. It was almost twelve. He’d thought Henry Graham must have given up.

Jake pushed up from the chair, got a sudden thought as he did so and raced out into the garden centre.

‘Can I borrow these? Ta,’ he said to Lisa, plucking her secateurs from her hand and racing off towards the native section, madly casting his eye up and down the lane.

Lisa followed him, arms folded, a look on her face that said she knew exactly what he was doing.

‘This one, Romeo,’ she said.

Jake spun around to see where she was pointing.

‘That’ll do,’ he said.

‘That’ll do? That’ll do?’ Lisa scolded, ripping the secateurs from him and snipping off a long stem. ‘This is perfect.’

She handed it to him and he admired the single spun-silver-white spidery flower at the top of a long, strong woody stem. Automatically, he sniffed it.

‘It’s a grevillea, Jake, you dummy. You won’t smell much.’

‘Oh.’

‘Don’t give up your day job, hey?’

‘Hey, remember when you need a referee?’ Jake said.

Her brow creased. ‘I don’t need a referee.’

‘Yeah. You might. You know, when you want another job.’ He tipped his chin at her.

‘Aww, you won’t sack me,’ Lisa laughed at him. ‘You want a flower for your swimmer lady, you know who to ask. If you get mean with me, I’m not gonna tell you what it’s even called.’

Jake made a lunge for the pot at her back, looking for the plant’s label. Lisa backed in front of the silver-white shrub, blocking it with her body, and shook her finger at him. ‘Oh no, you don’t.’

Ella appeared through the door from plumbing, stepping into the garden centre. Over Lisa’s square shoulders, Jake saw Ella’s hair bobbing with her steps, heard the gritty grate of her heels on the loose scree bitumen and he fell a little bit more in love with his famous swimmer real estate saleslady all over again.

Lisa whispered, ‘It’s called Moonlight. If she asks.’

‘You can keep your job, Leese,’ Jake said.

‘Why, thank you, Romeo.’

Lisa stepped back to let him pass, arms crossed, cocky grin on her face, and Jake thought, not for the first time, there was a reason he’d do pretty much anything for his staff. They were a good crew.

* * *

Jake was striding between a double-row jungle of potted plants towards his office when Ella saw him, and her step hitched. Each darn day he took her breath away that little bit more.

They locked gazes a long way out, and Ella’s heart bounced: one deep soft bounce that felt like she’d landed in a valley in a featherbed and wasn’t coming back up.

‘Good morning, Ella. You’re late today. I thought Henry might have given up. Unless this is a social call?’

He held one of his hands behind his back.

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