Meant To Be (49 page)

She dragged underwear, jeans, t-shirt and pink rugby top from her tallboy and gave the button jar a quick hug before getting dressed.

As she walked across to the cottage, rugged up in a thick coat, she revelled in the fresh, cool air in her face and cursed the overcast weather. No wonder she'd slept in; the sky was well and truly blanketed.

There were half a dozen vehicles parked out on the gravel in front. What would everyone think of her being so unsociable?

Oh well, too late now, she thought, as she stepped up onto the verandah and then into the hall. She glanced around as she made her way through to the kitchen. There was no sign of their late-running function the night before. She felt even more guilty at having not played a part in the clean-up.

She stood in the kitchen at the threshold to the patio wondering how to make her entrance.

‘Here she is,' Jake said, getting up and coming over.

‘Hi,' Simone and the men sitting around the large timber outdoor table called. Emily blushed as a round of applause started by Toby at the far end of the table gathered momentum.

‘Thanks for that, Toby. Trust you,' she said with a wave of her hand, as the noise died down. ‘Hi everyone. Sorry I slept in.' As she looked at the empty plates with their scraps of bacon rind, her mouth began to water. She realised she was ravenous. All she'd eaten in the last twelve hours was some finger food and two small pieces of Barbara's delicious cake. ‘I hope you left some food for me, you blokes.'

‘Only because Jake's cooking isn't a patch on yours,' Aaron said.

‘That's enough out of you,' Jake said, throwing a tea towel at him. ‘Here, there's plenty of room,' Jake said, guiding her towards the nearest of the two tables. Everyone shuffled along to make extra space. Jake went over to the barbeque and opened the hood.

‘That looks so good,' she said, accepting a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, mushrooms and grilled tomatoes with toast perched on the edge. ‘I'm so sorry I'm so late,' she whispered, leaning into his shoulder.

‘No need to be sorry. It was a huge night. You needed your sleep. I would've woken you up if I thought you should be here. The guys don't mind; they're friends.'

Emily felt self-conscious eating alone in front of the dozen people, but they quickly returned to their conversations.

She had just pushed her empty plate aside when suddenly everyone started saying they had to get on the road. Next thing she knew, they were shaking Jake's hand and pulling him into a series of manly hugs. Emily got up and apologised for not getting much of a chance to talk to them. They brushed off her apology with promises to come back and visit again soon. Emily, Jake, and Simone walked them out and waved them off.

When they went back inside, Jake said he'd tidy up from breakfast while Emily and Simone organised and packed up the paintings Simone was taking with her to deliver.

Prior to the opening they had deliberated over what to do if people travelling from Adelaide and Melbourne wanted to buy art. Simone had suggested she take them back with her and deliver them along the way. They'd agreed that it would be better to have a few blank spaces on the walls than hold the paintings until the end of the exhibition and then risk damage by freighting them.

Before long the two young women were kneeling on the floor surrounded by bubble wrap, scissors, and the tape dispenser. Emily felt sad that Simone would be leaving them soon as well. A lot had changed for her in recent times, but she still hated goodbyes.

After farewelling Simone, Jake, Emily and Grace spent the afternoon relaxing inside.

Now and then Jake wrapped his arms around Emily and nuzzled her neck. No words were necessary; they were both grieving the loss of the sudden influx of visitors and company, and the end of a project that had consumed them for almost six months. They had to mourn the end of one phase of life before they could celebrate the new one they were embarking on.

Weeks ago Jake had told Emily it would feel like this for a few days. At the time she had thought he was being melodramatic. She'd experienced grief over Gran's death, the original cottage, her marriage, and then having to abruptly leave the other house. But she figured that was all pretty normal; genuine loss needed to be grieved over before the healing could start. But grief when a project had been successfully completed? That just sounded weird.

Now, however, she understood what he had meant. A few times during the afternoon she stole glances at Jake and offered silent
thanks for having found such a beautiful soul who was so switched on when it came to human nature and emotion. In a weird way, he reminded her of Gran. They would have got on so well together.

Sometimes Emily wondered if Gran had somehow been responsible for sending him, but she quickly dismissed it as way too big a life question to get bogged down in. It would never be answered. It was easier to believe that it was all the work of the universe. That it was just meant to be.

*

Two evenings later they were sitting at the table enjoying a glass of sparkling apple juice after dinner when Jake's mobile began a series of tones that indicated the arrival of emails.

‘I'm popular all of a sudden,' Jake said, as he leant over to retrieve the device. His frowned concentration changed to amusement as he scrolled through the messages, reading them quickly. After a few moments he handed the phone to Emily with raised eyebrows and a slight smirk.

The first message was from his friend Andre, and contained a few photos in the main body of the email. They were pretty small on the phone's screen but, from what she could see, looked to be very good.

Jake watched on, sipping at his wine.

At the end of the line of images was a note: ‘Some great shots. Hope you don't mind me passing a couple on to Justin.' Emily looked away as she racked her memory for which one of Jake's Melbourne friends Justin was. Was he the public relations guy, the journalist, or the guy who owned the café? None the wiser, she held the phone out.

‘The photos look good, but it's a bit hard to tell at this size,' she said.

‘Keep going.' He had a smug, knowing expression on his face.

Emily did as he said. Her eyes bugged as the masthead of the online version of
The Age
newspaper came up, followed by a photo of her and Jake at the front door of the gallery and then a shot of one of Simone's canvases. To the right was the bold headline: ‘How did Melbourne let this artist go unnoticed?'

The article gave a glowing report of the gallery's opening and praised Simone's work, reporting that the exhibition had sold out in an hour. Emily grinned wide-eyed at Jake, unsure what to say. Wow. They were being talked about in a major Melbourne newspaper!

She was still holding the phone when it began to vibrate and then ring. She got such a shock she almost dropped it. She noticed Simone's name on the screen as she handed it over.

‘Hey Sim,' Jake said. ‘How's things? You're on speaker – Em's here.'

‘Hi Em.'

‘Hi Simone.'

‘God, you guys, you're never going to believe this!' Simone's excited voice boomed out of the speaker.

‘What?' Jake and Emily said.

‘I can hardly believe it myself!'

‘What!?' Jake and Emily cried.

‘Elwood Gallery of Fine Art have just called. They want me to do an exhibition!'

‘That's fantastic news,' Jake said. ‘When?'

‘November. Eek!'

‘Oh, Simone, that's brilliant. Well done.'

‘Yes, it's wonderful,' Emily said.

‘God, I'm so excited! Emily, this is all because of you; I'll never ever be able to thank you enough…' she rambled.

‘You don't need to thank me,' Emily said. ‘You're the one with the talent.'

‘But no one would know if it wasn't for you.'

‘I'm just glad I could help. We'll call it quits as long as you invite us to your opening,' Emily said. She felt so warm inside. She reckoned she knew how Simone felt; not unlike she did after Simone had sold her jam at the Melbourne market all those months ago. When she'd given her the hope she'd needed to carry on.

‘So, November, hey?' Jake said. ‘Please don't tell me you're leaving me.'

‘Er, about that…' she said, suddenly sounding serious.

Jake gave a half-hearted groan.

‘I'm only kidding. I'll figure it out. I can probably get enough done on the weekends and just take a day here and there.'

‘I was kidding too. The business coped fine this time around, and it will again. If you want to paint, you paint. Honestly. We're so excited for you. How did they find out about you, anyway?' Jake asked.

‘Justin got an article into
The Age
online today. It all happened rather fast. He rang earlier and asked if I was happy for him to give my number to the people at Elwood. Of course I had to think about that – not! I'll send you the link.'

‘No need, he already sent it through.'

‘It's a great write-up all round,' Simone said. ‘And Andre's photos look awesome.'

‘He's sent us a heap more – I'll forward them on,' Jake said.

‘Thanks. Look, I'd better get going. I'm meeting Billy in half an hour. We're heading out to celebrate.'

‘That's great. Have fun and say hi from us,' Jake said.

‘Bye Simone. And, again, well done,' Emily said.

‘See ya,' Simone chirped.

‘Wow,' Jake said, after he'd turned off the phone. ‘I certainly didn't see that coming. You know, Elwood is one of the top galleries in Melbourne. I reckon I'm about to have a famous sister and
you're about to have a famous sister-in-law,' he said, leaning over and kissing her. ‘And all because of you.'

‘Well, I'm just so happy I could do something for her after her generosity in selling my jam. You guys will never really know how much that meant to me – you gave me hope when I was at my lowest.' Emily suddenly found herself tearing up.

‘Hey, don't think about any of that now,' Jake said, delicately wiping away the one stray tear before pulling her to him. ‘It's only good things for us from here on.'

‘Thanks Jake. You always know the right thing to say,' she said, smiling at him.

‘I know,' he said brightly. ‘Now, come on, let me take you to bed and show you some of my other talents.'

Emily slapped at him playfully, but accepted his hand and allowed herself to be led from the kitchen.

Around four months later…

‘Well, this is it, guys,' Emily said as she, Jake, Barbara and David pulled up outside Des and Enid Oliphant's home in Hope Springs. ‘Time to see how the fur kids coped at Grandma and Grandpa's.'

‘More to the point, how Grandma coped with having fur kids running around,' Jake said.

‘It really was very good of Enid to take them for a week, considering how she feels about pets,' Barbara said. ‘I just hope Sasha hasn't disgraced herself.'

‘Mum's been amazing since our blow-up – trying so hard, bless her,' Emily said.

‘Come on, we can't keep sitting here,' said Jake, and they tumbled out of the ute.

The front door opened before Emily could raise her hand to knock. A waft of savoury cooking smells greeted them. ‘Yum,' they muttered in unison.

‘Hello there, welcome back!' Des cried. ‘Come in, come in.'

As the others went in, Emily held back so she could catch her father alone. ‘How was it?'

‘Good,' he said. ‘Actually, great.'

‘Really?'

‘Well, just the one little teething problem, but that was quickly sorted.'

‘What? What happened?'

‘You'll see. Come on through.'

Emily arrived in the kitchen to see Enid coming down the hall from the bedrooms. Sasha and Grace were beside her with just their heads and tails visible. They might have looked like miniature horses in white dust rugs if their legs and feet weren't also covered. She brought her hands to her face to stifle a giggle. Barbara was also holding her mouth. The laughter was clearly visible in her friend's eyes.

‘Oh, my God, they're wearing onesies,' David said, bringing his hands up and letting out a gulp.

‘I hope you don't mind,' Enid said, clearly misreading their expressions.

‘Come here, Gracie. Poor little thing, did Granny make you wear funny clothes?' Emily said.

‘I think they look very cute,' Jake said, obviously the best poker player of the group.

‘Thank you Jake.'

Emily just shook her head. ‘Where on earth did you get onesies for dogs?'

‘I made them. I can sew, you know, Emily.'

‘Right. But,
why
?'

‘They insisted on lying on the couch and the bed and I didn't want fur and dirty marks left everywhere.'

‘They're dogs, Mum. They don't insist. You tell them to lie on their beds on the floor, and they do it. Or you put them outside.'

‘Oh, Emily, if they can't get a little spoiled at Granny and Grandpa's, then where can they? Now, if you'll stop picking on me for a moment and greet me properly…' Enid held her arms out wide.

‘Sorry. Thanks so much for having them. It was very good of you,' she said, hugging her mother.

‘Yes, thank you so much, Enid,' Barbara said, accepting Enid's embrace.

‘You're very welcome. How was the trip? Would you like an early dinner – I have a pot of braised lamb shanks on. I just have to mash the potatoes and steam the beans. Or do you have to rush off?'

The group looked around at each other and all shrugged.

‘It's okay, I won't mind.'

‘Dinner would be wonderful, Mum, though I'd like to be home before it gets dark. But, first, I really need to use the loo.'

‘Again?!' Jake, David and Barbara cried in mock consternation, complete with exaggerated eye rolling. It had become the catchcry of their trip to Melbourne and back for Simone's exhibition.