The Cafe by the Bridge

by Lily Malone

  Abe’s character spent most of his time plodding after Sam’s LEGO Hulk, who could change to mini-Hulk or some other character, and then all of a sudden LEGO Hulk would transform into Ironman and fly.

  ‘Press triangle and you’ll change character,’ Sam would shout. ‘Press square! Hold the circle.’

  Sam’s characters miraculously built bridges to a new section of the game world, or tugged levers that activated power surges; or found and then drove cars or discovered a parachute in a hidden crate that let them glide across a lake. How did kids know all this stuff? He needed an instruction manual and he was pretty damn sure computer games didn’t come with instruction manuals anymore.

  Eventually, Abe tired of watching his character charge about the screen like a Shetland pony with bricks for hooves, chasing Sam through mission after mission. It was dark outside now and Ella and Jake still weren’t back.

  ‘Are you getting hungry, mate?’

  ‘Yeah, I am a bit,’ Sam said.

  ‘I’m gonna go down to the chicken shop and get us something to eat, okay? I won’t be long. Will you be right here on your own?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Sam said, without looking up.

  He grabbed his car keys off the kitchen countertop and walked through the house, wondering, not for the first time, why Ella kept this place. Given how much time she and Jake spent together, he’d thought Ella would have moved into the farmhouse by now.

  There was a queue in the chicken shop but not a long one, and Abe didn’t have to wait too long for a whole cooked chicken and a family serve of chips. He hoped whatever was up with Jake, it didn’t ruin his appetite. A Greek takeaway salad to go with it—Ella would probably like it if Sam ate something crunchy and green—and by the time he pulled up outside Ella’s house, Jake’s Landcruiser was out the front.

  ‘You’re a lifesaver, Abe,’ Ella greeted him, taking the plastic bags filled with chicken and chips from him and spreading the contents on the kitchen counter. She reached into her cupboards for plates, did it all with minimal fuss.

  He studied her, studied Jake while he was at it, trying to match this mood to the sense of dread and panic of a few hours ago at the café.

  Ella had a glow about her and that was saying something. ‘Glow’ was Ella’s default setting. Tonight, she was glowing to a whole new level of shooting star. Even Jake’s face had a light in it that Abe hadn’t ever seen.

  Were they high on something? Could he get some of what they had? God knew, he could use it.

  ‘Everything okay?’ Abe asked the pair of them,

  ‘Everything is awesome,’ Jake said, smiling at Ella.

  Abe had to look away. Those two made his chest ache for everything he didn’t have.

  ‘Two hours ago you two were acting like the world was about to end. Now you’re all lovey-dovey.’ He shook his head. ‘I can’t keep up.’

  ‘Sit down. Have something to eat. We’ll tell you about it,’ Ella said, calling across to her son, ‘Dinner, Sammy.’

  Abe sat. It was so good to fork something into his mouth that someone else had made, even roast chicken from the Chalk Hill chicken shop.

  ‘We’ve got big news, Sam,’ Ella said.

  Sam looked at her without blinking. ‘You’re getting married. Ollie said you would.’

  A flash of teeth showed in Ella’s smile. ‘Actually yes.’ She looked at Jake. ‘He did just propose …’ Jake grinned. Ella kept going. ‘… but that’s not the biggest news.’

  Abe stopped chewing. ‘You guys are getting married and that’s not the biggest news? Hold the front page.’

  She was pregnant. Had to be. Watch the pool committee start knitting pink booties and blue bonnets.

  ‘We’re not in any hurry to get married. I only just got used to being Ella Davenport again after being Ella Brecker for ten years. I don’t want to change my name again anytime soon.’

  ‘You can keep your name. No skin off my nose,’ Jake said.

  Ella beamed at Jake in that shining star way before returning her attention to Sam. ‘It’s Jake’s news more than mine, but I want you to remember that I promised I’d talk to you about everything from now after what happened with your dad and we’d tell you everything. Okay? Remember?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Sam scowled, paying more attention.

  ‘It’s not bad news, Sam. You can relax,’ Ella said.

  ‘Go on, Jake,’ Abe said. ‘While we’re still young, hey?’ Curiosity would kill him.

  ‘Kinda hard to know where to start,’ Jake muttered. ‘I’m still getting my head around it.’

  ‘Jesus, mate. At the beginning. Get on with it,’ Abe said, motioning with his fork.

  And Jake said, ‘Well ... I have a daughter. I’m a dad.’

  Abe put his fork down with a clunk. ‘You’re a what?’

  ‘I’m a dad.’

  ‘Jesus. When did you find this out?’

  ‘About ten minutes before I found Ella at your café. Sorry for the drama. I was a bit spun out.’

  ‘Spun out? I’d say spun out is putting it a bit bloody mildly.’

  Jake shrugged, all: what else was I supposed to do?

  Abe’s head kept spinning.

  ‘She’s about your age, Sam. A little bit older than you. Her name’s Charlotte,’ Jake said.

  Ella’s gaze flicked between Jake and Sam.

  Sam kept right on spiking chips and eating, but his eyes stayed on Jake’s face.

  ‘What do you mean you have a daughter? What daughter?’ Abe asked, because no one else was saying anything and somebody had to ask.

  ‘You remember Cassidy? The girl I trekked through Nepal with?’ Jake said.

  ‘Yeah.’ Not that Jake had said too much about her all those years ago, but the whole family knew Jake had been gutted when they split.

  ‘I found out today that she had a baby, and it’s mine. I knew she was pregnant, back when … back then. But.’ He glanced at Sam and hesitated, not sure how much to say. ‘She told me something went wrong. She didn’t have the baby. And then we split up. I lost track of her. I can explain it more later.’ Again his eyes flicked to Sam.

  ‘You’re sure this kid’s yours?’ Abe asked.

  Jake’s hands opened out. ‘Pretty sure, mate. I don’t see why she’d lie.’

  ‘I’d see lots of reasons why she’d lie. Does she want to be paid maintenance all of a sudden? Back-dated eleven years? She want to go on holiday somewhere with a new bloke and he doesn’t like that she has a kid? Kid’s in the way?’

  ‘Abe,’ Ella said quietly and when he met her gaze, her eyes rolled ever so slightly to Sam, listening to everything they said.

  He acknowledged a silent sorry to Ella, but it didn’t stop his brain buzzing with questions.

  ‘Well, you’ve got to wonder why she’d come out with this now. What does she want?’

  ‘I can ask her in person tomorrow night. I’m seeing her then. She’s in Perth for a few days and that’s why she rang. She wants Charlotte and I to meet.’

  Abe sat back hard enough to make the kitchen chair groan. He couldn’t help it. ‘I’m an Uncle.’ Keeley’s freckled face splashed into his mind and an unspoken thought filled his head. I’m an Uncle. A real one.

  ‘I’m a father,’ Jake said.

  ‘I wish she’d been a boy,’ Sam mumbled.

  The three adults looked at each other, then at Sam, and they laughed.

  ‘What?’ Sam said defensively, renewing his chewing, and it was a signal to all of them to start the meal over again. ‘I do wish she was a boy. Girls are dumb.’

  ‘You won’t always think that, mate,’ Jake said, and this time Abe got a sudden flash of Taylor Woods in the café today. Soft cheekbones, eyes deep with all the colours in a bunch of fresh-picked mint.

  What did she want to talk to him about? What did she want from him, period?

  ‘Stick to your guns, mate,’ Abe said to Sam, as he picked up his fork.

  It was dumb to lump every woman in the Amanda pile
. Just because he’d come across one of the bad ones, it didn’t mean they were all liars and cheats. But you had to admit, Cassidy coming out of the woodwork now when Jake and Ella were all set to tie the knot, well, it was dodgy. Why now?

  There’d be a reason. There was always a reason.

  ‘What does that make her to me then?’ Sam asked. ‘My step something? There’s a kid at school with a step-sister.’

  ‘It just makes her Charlotte. Start with that, hey?’ Jake said, and Sam seemed satisfied.

  For the rest of the meal they talked about other things. The trip to Perth. Where they’d stay. What they might do with Charlotte if Cassidy let them take her out for the day.

  ‘And I can come to Perth with you?’ Sam asked.

  ‘Sure, Sammy. We’ll see Erik when we’re up there. I’ll talk to your teacher. She might have some homework you have to do while you’re away,’ Ella said.

  ‘Can we go to Adventure World? Sci-tech? The movies?’ Sam’s eyes went wide at the possibilities. ‘Do you think she’ll like football?’

  ‘I don’t know what she likes, mate. We’ll have to find out.’

  Sam’s excitement dulled, like a candle burned low. ‘She’ll want to do girl stuff. Like ice-skating. The girls at school are all talking about seeing Frozen On Ice.’

  ‘You would love to see proper ice-skating,’ Ella said, ‘and you know it.’

  He shrugged a boy shrug and kept eating chips. Kid hadn’t touched the Greek salad.

  ‘Cassidy is in the city for a week,’ Jake said. Then his brow creased into a frown. ‘She’s got lousy timing. I’ve got so much to do on the farm.’

  ‘Shearing coming up soon, yeah?’ Abe said.

  ‘Yup. Ewes and lambs gotta be drafted. Need to shift the wethers from the back paddock.’ His eyes slipped to Abe. ‘I don’t suppose …’

  ‘Sorry, man. I’ve got customers I have to be nice to.’ Drenching sheep actually didn’t sound too bad. He didn’t have to smile at sheep. Sheep didn’t tell you they thought the garlic bread was a bit light on the garlic.

  The three of them thought it through, before Abe said, ‘Why don’t you ask Brix? He’s not busy in the winery this time of year. Bet he’d leap at the chance to see how much about the farm he’s forgotten. He was always better at farm stuff than me. When was Brix over here last? Gotta be a couple of years?’

  ‘I’ll think about it. It might work,’ Jake said.

  ‘Awesome,’ Ella grinned. ‘And I get to meet yet another elusive Honeychurch brother.’

  ‘Don’t get your hopes up. We’ll be gone before he gets here, and he might be gone before we’re back.’

  ‘Dang,’ Ella said. ‘Brix is harder to sight than a rare nocturnal hermit hopping mouse.’

  ‘I better eat this if you guys won’t touch it,’ Abe said, scooping Greek salad from the takeaway container to his plate. ‘I bought this for you, Sam.’

  ‘Yuck, no thanks. It’s got tomato,’ Sam said, spiking the last chip before Jake could steal it. ‘Can I please leave the table, Mum?’

  ‘You can, mate.’

  Abe finished with the salad and put the container down, one eye on Sam as he put his plate on the bench and walked away.

  ‘This proposal, then, was it out of the blue, or have you been sitting on it for a while?’ Abe said.

  Jake shrugged. ‘Not a state secret. I’ve wanted to make an honest woman of her for a while. I was just giving her time to work it out in her own head. Erik’s her best friend. They’re not even divorced yet.’

  ‘I freaked out a bit with the Charlotte news,’ Ella admitted.

  ‘You don’t strike me as the “freak out” type.’

  ‘It rattled me, you know? I know your brother. I thought it meant Cassidy wanted him back, and he’s so responsible—it’s one of the things I love about him. I thought he’d think it was the right thing to do! To try to make a family. If Cassidy said she wanted to, you know?’

  Jake shook his head.

  ‘So how did he pop the question then? On bended knee? Harps? White doves?’

  ‘Steady on now,’ Jake said. ‘The ground was damp. These are my good work pants.’

  Ella punched his arm. ‘I didn’t get a ring yet either. I didn’t even get the pull-tab off a coke can.’

  Abe almost told them they could have his. He had an engagement ring going spare.

  CHAPTER

  5

  The problem with overstaying one’s intended length of country visit (because one was too chicken to come out and simply ask Abe for his help) is that a girl ran out of wardrobe choices very quickly when she’d only packed her suitcase for a one-night stay.

  That meant Taylor had to wear the wool skirt and the creamcoloured jumper again, under her green coat, and it meant she simply must discuss Amanda with Abe today, or she’d be the crazy lady in her pyjamas with her dog at the Mount Barker Laundromat, trying to wash and dry a change of clothes.

  At least she’d prefaced it yesterday. Abe knew she wanted something so she’d got that far. She didn’t have to start from scratch.

  The spring sun had disappeared, leaving fog to hover above the caravans and cabins as Taylor navigated out of the caravan park. Heads turned towards her Redline like they always did, and if the Mount Barker streets hadn’t been quite awake, they were now.

  Her car had that effect.

  The rumble of the road and the roar of the V8 engine settled her nerves and the drive from Mount Barker to Chalk Hill flew. So nice to drive at speed and not have cars all around, not have to stop-start for traffic lights. No idiot city drivers who never let you in and didn’t know how to merge.

  Taylor reached Chalk Hill just after ten. On the previous days she’d parked a distance from the café and walked with Bruno on his leash, but today she drove along Chalk Hill Bridge Road and parked in the café’s parking area. The only other car was Abe’s blue Passat.

  She checked the vehicle’s door as she got out of her car. He’d repaired the dent.

  The café was open—the signs were out—but Taylor took Bruno to the creek for a run and a sniff along the river bank while she composed herself, yet again, to do what she had to do.

  She had to get this conversation right for Will.

  ‘Good morning.’

  Taylor recognised his voice: a little bit country, a little bit rock ’n’ roll. What she didn’t recognise was the shiver it put through her shoulders. What was that about?

  She swung to meet him. ‘Good morning to you, too.’

  His arms were bare beneath a black t-shirt. Icing sugar or flour dusted the back of one of his hands. He hadn’t shaved this morning. Faint bristles lined his jaw.

  He wasn’t muscled like an athlete, but he was lean and long, sharp with a dose of dark edge, and he smelled amazing. Deep. Mysterious. Plus vanilla custard. Yum.

  ‘Have you eaten?’ he asked.

  Taylor pinched her fingernails into her palm to snap herself out of it. She was being an idiot. A very hormonal idiot. That’s what a night without much sleep could do to a girl.

  ‘I had a crappy coffee at the caravan park.’

  ‘Then I’ll make you a good one. No one should start the day with crap coffee.’

  ‘I couldn’t agree more. Thank you. That would be lovely.’

  How terribly polite, Taylor.

  He made no move to leave her side, and the sun chose that moment to spike through the morning fog, lighting up the bridge, the creek and the willow trees where Bruno chased the morning scents and smells.

  ‘Will Bruno fetch a stick if I throw it?’ he asked.

  The dog heard ‘stick’. Bruno trotted to them, ears pricked, dragging his version of a stick in his jaws.

  ‘You said the magic word.’

  Abe laughed. ‘That’s not a stick. That’s half a tree trunk.’

  Bruno dropped the branch at their feet and stood back from it.

  Abe picked up one end and when he didn’t throw it, Bruno lunged for the other, l
atched on and the two began a tug-of-war punctuated by Bruno’s growls.

  Taylor forgot about Will and what she had to say to Abe and how she’d frame it. She lost herself in the fun of the man and her dog. That, and the muscles being stretched rather magnificently where the bow of his navy and white striped apron tied at the back. Imagine if he had nothing under that apron but skin? Icing-sugar dusted skin?

  Had she ever seen a man in an apron play tug-of-war with a dog?

  No. But she could now recommend it as essential viewing to women the world over.

  ‘You’ve done it now,’ she muttered. ‘You can’t let him win. He has to know who’s boss.’

  ‘Does he now?’ Abe said, glancing at her sideways, fringe flicking over his eye as he let Bruno tug him forward.

  He’d changed in that one small way at the very least. The man Taylor had seen months and months ago during her stakeouts outside Amanda’s house in Perth—the man who’d bought the gerberas—had styled his hair to the point where Taylor didn’t ever think it would move, not even in a hurricane.

  This was a side of Abe that Taylor hadn’t seen in the past two days she’d spent drinking coffee at his café: this playful, easy side of a complicated man. She didn’t want it to end and the split second she opened her mouth to talk about Will and Amanda, it would end. So for a little longer, she kept her mouth shut and watched the man play with her dog.

  Abe pulled hard on his piece of the branch, making Bruno give way, and then he said ‘drop it’ in a voice no good dog could ignore.

  Bruno was a very good dog. He dropped it, and stood watching the stick like it might run away.

  ‘So come up to the café when you’re ready, Taylor, and I’ll make you a soy latte,’ he said. ‘It’s not so warm today. You could come inside.’ He addressed his next words to Bruno. ‘You can’t though, buddy. You’ll lose me my licence.’

  Bruno wagged his tail.

  Taylor’s heartbeat wagged just as fast as she followed Abe towards the café, because this was it: time to ask if he’d been scammed, like her brother—by the same woman. Time to ask for Abe’s help.