Take a Chance (23 page)

Back in the bedroom Jem hovered at the foot of the bed deciding whether she should just get up because Aidan would soon be awake or whether she could risk lying in a little longer. The sound of someone thumping down the stairs decided for her. She grudgingly headed for the shower.

A few minutes later she was startled when she heard the shower door open behind her and large hands wrapped around her waist.

“I woke up and you were missing,” Eben murmured into her ear.

Jem turned to face him.

“Jeremy and Daisy were fighting so I had to get up to sort them out. I didn’t want them to wake you up.”

“They didn’t. Aidan took care of that.”

Jem grimaced.

“I thought I had enough time to shower before he wanted breakfast. Sorry you were woken up.”

Eben slicked soap over his hands and ran them over Jem’s breasts.

“I’m not sorry,” he said.

“Is the door locked?” asked Jem, feeling a little breathless with the attention she was receiving.

“Oh yeah,” said Eben.

Jem bit her lip in indecision. She did not want them to be interrupted by children wanting things.

“Can we make it a quick one?” she asked.

“Sweetheart I already started without you. You just need to keep up,” Eben murmured and drew her closer for a kiss.

The hardness pressed against her belly confirmed his words.

“I’ll do my best,” Jem murmured back between kisses.

A while later they were seated at the breakfast bar, Jem sipping her hot chocolate, Eben with a mug of coffee in one hand and filling in a Sudoku puzzle with the other.

Jem sat watching his capable fingers use the pen to fill in the squares.

No uncertainty there
, Jem thought.
When he wants to do something he goes for it.
She took a sip of her drink and smiled.
That attitude also applies to him with me.

Then she thought of his reputation as the rolling Stone and not staying beyond the conquest.

That subdued her smile.

I won’t care when he moves on
, she told herself.
It won’t work out anyway
.
I may be going to Hong Kong and what would he do there? It’s not known for its surfing.

But
is that the only way he spends his time?

He’d ducked out a few times during the week and apart from playing spider solitaire she had no idea what he did while she wasn’t around.  In fact, despite knowing him for eight years she didn’t really know him at all.

A few questions could help solve that.

“How did you meet Jason?” Jem asked, expecting to hear that they knew each other from school or uni.

“He used to go out with one of my sisters before he met Jess.”

Eben didn’t look up from his puzzle as he answered.

Jem frowned. Jason was about her age and Eben said he had three older sisters.

“Which sister?”

“Uh, Ivy,” Eben answered as he completed a square.

“Is she the one just older than you?” Jem asked.

“No she’s the middle one. Liana is the oldest and Georgina is before me,” Eben said, then smiled. “They thought George was going to be a boy.”

“So how old are you?” Jem asked.

Eben didn’t look as though he wanted to answer.

Why didn’t he want to tell her
?

Jem was about to tell him to forget it when Eben spoke.

“I’m old enough to vote and drink in a pub,” Eben answered as he filled in the final number and finished the puzzle.

His vague answer made her determined to find out even if it meant searching his wallet for his driver’s licence.

“How old are you?” Jem repeated.

He put down the pen and looked at her.

“Don’t worry, I’m legal,” Eben told her. “I’ve even been shaving for several weeks now.”

“Why aren’t you going to tell me how old you are?” Jem asked.

“It’s just a number and doesn’t mean anything,” Eben replied and focussed on aligning his pen with the edge of the puzzle page.

“If it doesn’t mean anything then tell me,” Jem insisted.

Eben mumbled something.

“Pardon? I didn’t quite hear that,” said Jem.

“I’m twenty-six,” Eben mumbled a little louder.

“I’m older than you,” Jem said dumbly.

“I know,” Eben said.

“Really older than you,” Jem expounded. “You were still in primary school while I was at high school. When you were finishing intermediate school I was starting University. I’m a cradle snatcher.”

She thought about their age difference a little longer.

“
Oh no! I’m a cougar at thirty-two,” Jem wailed and brought her hands up to cover her face.

Eben grabbed her hands.

“Look at me,” he commanded.

Jem reluctantly opened her eyes. He looked somewhat crossed between amused and annoyed.

“Our age difference is not an issue to me and it shouldn’t matter to you either. Sure, when you were at high school it would have been a big deal but we are both adults so it doesn’t matter now. Since you like numbers then you know that statistically women live longer than men so it works out in the end.”

He brought her hands to his mouth and kissed her fingertips.

“Besides having a younger man is a good thing. We have more stamina,” Eben informed her.

“You get to be the boss because you’re the oldest too,” Daisy piped up as she climbed onto the spare bar stool beside them. She looked at Eben. “What’s stamna?”

Jem withdrew her fingers from Eben’s hands, curious as to how he would answer.

“Stamina is energy. Younger people have more energy,” Eben said.

“Does Daddy have more stamna than you?” Daisy asked interestedly.

Eben caught Jem’s amused smile as she waited expectantly for his answer.

“You’d have to get Mummy and Aunty Jem to compare notes to decide the answer to that one,” he said deadpan.

“Oh. Okay. Can we visit Mummy now?” Daisy asked.

Jem glanced at the clock. By the time they got to the hospital visiting hours would have begun. Eben caught her nod.

“Sure. What’s say after that we visit the zoo?” he asked.

There was a loud squeal of agreement from Daisy.

“Hurry up and get ready to go out,” she yelled at Jeremy and Aidan. “We’re going to visit Mummy then we’re going to the zoo!”

By unspoken agreement Eben helped the children get ready while Jem threw leftovers from the party together for a picnic lunch at the zoo.

There was a minor hiccough when they discovered that they couldn’t fit three booster seats in the back of Jem’s hatchback. Eben’s Bluebird had more room so they decided to transfer everything across. He quickly gathered takeaway wrappers and coffee cups from the car floor and stuffed them into a plastic bag found
under one of the seats. Eben looked sheepishly at Jem’s amazed expression when she saw the supermarket sized bag full of rubbish in his hand.

“Cleaning the car never found its way to the top of my “to do” list,” he said, feeling mildly defensive.

Jem sauntered over to him and whispered cheekily into his ear “I did.”

Eben grinned.

“That’s because you’re a special case,” he murmured back and kissed her cheek as she turned back to the car seats.

Following her, he found he needed to carry the rubbish bag in front of him while the children were in sight.

When he returned to the garage Jem asked him for air freshener.

“What do you want that for?” he asked.

“Your car stinks like puke,” Jeremy told him.

Eben raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

“The back seat smells like milky coffee which has been around long after its use by date,” Jem explained politely.

“I’ll be right back,” Eben promised.

In the laundry he rummaged around the cleaning products until he found a spray promising to neutralise odours. Grabbing it, he took it back to the garage and sprayed a few puffs in the back half of the car before putting the pump spray bottle down on the closest surface. The bottle had leaked a little of the contents onto his hands and he sniffed them and was taken aback when the scent permeated his nostrils.

“Whoa, it’s got a strong smell. My sinuses are clear now too,”
he said to Jem. “I’d better go and wash it off my hands.”

When he returned Jeremy was seated in the car and Jem had her arms crossed and stood scowling at Daisy. Aidan
stood beside Jem and looked cross with Daisy too.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“I only wanted to make Aidan’s hair smell like flowers,” said Daisy.

Eben belatedly noticed that Aidan’s hair looked wet. He took a step closer and the pungent odour of the air freshener almost overpowered him. Eben turned his head to take a breath.

“I’ll have a go at getting it out of Aidan’s hair while you get Daisy in the car,” he suggested.

Jem tight lipped, nodded her agreement.

Despite holding Aidan under one arm and shampooing his head over the handbasin, the smell lingered. It wasn’t as bad as before, Eben decided, but he didn’t want to be in a confined space with Aidan either.

Because of that they drove to the hospital with all the car windows down despite the chilly day. By the time they arrived they had trouble undoing their seatbelts as their fingers were almost numb with the cold. At least the children were keen to get inside instead of wanting to hide
from each other behind cars along the way.

Inside
the hospital Jem and Eben ushered the children through the double doors to ICU. Herding them to the bay where Jess rested, Jem was relieved to find her sister awake and without the usual accoutrement of nurses or doctors. She held tight to Aidan’s hand and encouraged Daisy and Jeremy to move forward so their mother could see them.

Daisy happily
skipped to Jess’s bedside and gave her a picture she had drawn that morning.

“This is for you Mummy,” she said. “I miss you. When are you coming home?”

“Soon, I hope,” said Jess, her voice cracking. “I miss you all too.”

Jess bit her lip to stop the tears from falling
in relief to see that all her children were okay. She had no memory of the accident and despite being told she was on her own in the car she knew she rarely went anywhere without at least one child accompanying her. She hadn’t truly believed they were all safe until she saw them for herself.

As a distraction
to give her time to get her feelings under control she asked “What have you drawn for me?”

“The circus tent on the back lawn,” Daisy said. “Lots of people went inside it last night but we’re not allowed
to play in there until Aunty Jem and Uncle Eben have taken away everything inside.”

Jem looked at Eben in alarm
, not wanting to have her sister stress about something that was largely over and done with. He looked back at her and shrugged.

“See how carefully I coloured it in?” Daisy
continued, oblivious to her aunt’s hand suddenly patting her shoulder in a futile effort to keep her quiet.

“What a wonderful imagination Daisy has,” Jem interrupted
the moment Daisy paused to take a breath. “How about we set up the picture on the bedside unit?”

She quickly took the picture from her sister’s hands and rested it behind the cards earlier made by the children.
Then she moved the cards around a bit so most of the drawing was obscured.

Behind her Eben
took the seat closest to Jess and pulled Aidan onto his lap, then pushed him forward so the scent of the air freshener on Aidan’s head wasn’t right under his nose.

“Mummy, does Daddy have more stamna than Uncle Eben?” Daisy asked
, unperturbed that her drawing was now largely out of sight.

“What’s stamna sweetie?” Jess asked.

Eben coughed into his hand.

“She means stamina,” said Jem.

“I really wouldn’t know,” answered Jess, amused.

“Uncle Eben said you and Aunty Jem could compare notes,” Daisy added helpfully.

Jess looked at Eben and he could feel his ears getting warm. He looked around, trying to find a change of subject.

“I think I’ll just go see if I can find a coffee in this place,” he said
and passed Aidan to Jem’s unready arms.

By the time he returned the conversation had fortunately moved onto another topic.

“Where’s Jeremy?” he asked as he took Aidan from Jem and settled back in the chair.

Jem turned around to discover that Jeremy was missing. Turning back she was relieved to see Aidan still sitting on Eben’s lap and Daisy holding her mother’s hand.

“He might’ve gone looking for a glass of water. Will you be okay if I leave Daisy and Aidan with you while I find him?” she asked Eben.

“Sure,” said Jess on his behalf, as though it never occurred to her that the children would continue to be anything other than well behaved
. 

Either that or the drugs a
re really good here
, Jem decided.

“You
two, stay put,” she told Daisy and Aidan. “I’ll be right back.”

Jem found Jeremy
sitting on a bench around the corner from the entry to ICU. He was busy wiping his eyes. She sat down beside him.

“What’s wrong?”

“Mummy’s got tubes coming out of her and she has lots of bruises on her face,” Jeremy sobbed.

“Oh honey,” Jem soothed and swept him up in a hug. She waited a minute or two until the worst of the tears had fallen then let him go and gave him a tissue from her purse.

“I know she doesn’t look as good as she usually does but there is no way I would have brought you to see her if I thought it would upset you so. Your Mum has missed you all so much and wanted to see you.”

Jeremy blew his nose in the tissue so Jem replaced it with a fresh one.

“Do you think we can go back just to say hello? We won’t stay long because we’re going to the zoo. Would you like that?”

“Yes,” said Jeremy.

“Okay. We’ll only stay long enough to give her a big smile and a kiss,” she promised.

They opened the doors to ICU and Jeremy’s face went white when they saw
two nurses and a doctor rushing into Jess’s bay with the resuscitation cart between them.