Chapter 19
The weekend passed with no drama. Katie did her shift at The Silver Teapot, slowly joining the land of the living again. It made for a nice change.
Church happened as it usually did, with people sharing testimonies about God’s faithfulness, followed by lunch together.
Monday, work was fine, and Ellie’s heart was starting to believe that God could do good things again.
Something reiterated when finally—finally!
—one of the many graphic design jobs she’d applied for in the past months resulted in a positive response.
“They want to do an interview with me,” she told her family that night at dinner.
“Who does?” Dad asked.
“Oh!” In all her excitement, she had forgotten. “It’s this company in Canberra. They are looking to hire new staff, and I’ve made the second round.”
“What does that mean?”
“I have to do an online interview. Apparently it’s a way for them to sort out whether I have the creativity they’re looking for.
” It was a different process to what she was used to.
She’d be recorded on video after being given a prompt and having one minute to prepare before talking.
Weird, but whatever. She was so thankful to finally have an opportunity to potentially work in her field.
“I’ve never seen you this excited,” Mum said. “It makes a nice change.”
“Because I’m normally so boring?”
“No, because you’re normally so calm.”
“Calmness isn’t bad, though, Mum,” Katie said. “I wish I was more like Ellie and knew how to be more self-controlled.”
Really? Wow. Ellie grasped her sister’s hand. “You know we all love you.”
“That’s right,” Mum chimed in. “You’re fine just the way you are.”
“No, I’m not,” Katie objected. “I know I’ve been selfish, and I really wish I didn’t get so emotional about things. I am praying to be more self-controlled.”
Huh. So this was what maturity looked like. Ellie squeezed her hand. “Proud of you.”
“Thanks. And I’m proud of you. It must’ve been hard to keep applying for jobs and getting all those rejections.”
“It’s not been easy, and nothing is guaranteed yet, but it’s nice to have something encouraging for a change.”
“I’ll be praying for you.”
“Thanks.” Her heart warmed. It felt like her sister was transforming before her very eyes.
“So, Katie, does Ellie’s good news give you any more thought about what you want to do with your life?” Dad asked. “You’ve got that degree; what do you think you might want to go into?”
“I don’t know. I’ve enjoyed watching the historical stuff, so maybe I could do a bit more study and do archaeology.”
Dad’s brow pleated. “Do you really want to do more study?”
“No. But I would like to do something useful with my life. I watch all these true crime shows, so it would be good to feel like I could contribute to helping people find the answers to some of the more painful parts of their lives.”
“You mean like Chris Brandon?” Ellie suggested, slyly.
Her sister sighed. “You know, I’ve been thinking about him ever since you mentioned him in Sydney. I think it would be interesting to get into that kind of work.”
“You want to become a police officer, do you?” Ellie teased.
Dad perked up. “Really?”
Mum shook her head. “No. Absolutely not. I forbid it. The hours are insane for a relationship.”
“You two made it work, though,” Ellie said.
Dad grimaced. “Not without some compromises, and I can see your mother’s point. It’s not easy when you have a young family.”
“Maybe I’ll not marry,” Katie mused.
“What?” Mum’s eyes rivalled saucers. “Of course you’re going to marry and have a family.”
“There’s no ‘of course’ about it,” Katie objected.
Ellie bit back a smile. “Yeah, lately I’ve been thinking the same. Husbands are overrated. I think I’ll be the maiden aunt to Liv and EJ’s children.”
“Hey, I thought that could be me,” Katie said, winking at Ellie as Mum stared aghast.
Dad laughed. “Okay, girls, that’s enough teasing your mother now.”
Ellie smiled. “But seriously, I don’t think I need a relationship to be used by God. And if that means I get this job in Canberra, then great. If not, that’s okay too. I’m trusting that God can use me wherever He wants.”
Katie nodded. “I’m trying to do that too.”
“That’s my girls,” Dad approved. “Well, we’ll be praying, and we’ll see what happens.”
“Bring it on,” Katie said, catching Ellie’s eye.
She nodded. “Bring it.”
“Ellie, would you mind answering the phone today?” Nicola asked. “I’ve got a meeting in Picton, and I’ll be out all morning.”
“Sure thing.”
Answering phones was just part of her role here, so that was nothing new.
She refocused on her drawing, a diagram of a Japanese bathhouse for yet another rich person’s garden.
Her mind flicked back to a dream of visiting Japan to see the Studio Ghibli museum with someone who claimed equal interest in all things Ghibli.
She wondered how he was. Where he was. It was weird, but apart from catching a glimpse of him at his father’s campaign launch on the TV news, there had been nothing.
It was almost the same as when Jason had dropped off the face of the planet. Ethan Ferris felt similarly invisible.
At least her heart didn’t feel quite so tangled up in him. Which was just as well, considering he was engaged to another girl. Lord, bless him. Bless them.
She drew in a deep breath and refocused.
Over the next hour, she fielded various phone calls, then, just before lunch, the phone rang again.
“Hello, this is Wellings Landscaping and Associates. Ellie speaking. How may I help?”
Silence thrummed down the phone line for a long moment. Then, “Ellie?”
She startled, dropping the phone, then realised she’d accidentally ended the call.
Oh my goodness. Had she just hallucinated, or had that really been Ethan Ferris on the phone?
It couldn’t have been. She must be going mad. For a moment, she wondered if his sister had set him up for this, to somehow try to get back at Ellie for daring to set her sights on somebody so superior.
Please. She rolled her eyes at herself. As if. Francine Dashwood had likely never thought of her again beyond that day.
The phone rang again. She eyed it like she might a snake.
“Ellie?” Jackson called from across the room. “Are you gonna get that?”
She licked her bottom lip. She should be brave but suddenly didn’t want to be. What if it was him? “Um, would you mind? I need to go to the restroom. Women’s pains.”
As expected, Jackson’s nose wrinkled, as if he didn’t want a reminder of what half the population of the world experienced. He made a “hand it over” gesture, and she did just that.
Then realised she couldn’t sit here and listen, as she’d just lied about being unable to answer. The women’s pain was real. Just in her heart, not somewhere else.
“Wellings Landscaping. This is Jackson.”
She hurried from the room, then lingered just out of sight. She had to know if it was Ethan.
“Sorry, could you repeat that?”
She peeked to see Jackson was frowning.
“Ellie? I’m afraid she’s just stepped out. Can I take a message?”
No, no. She didn’t want to feel obliged to call Ethan back. What would she say to him? How could she pretend she was okay? Obviously, despite all her big talk, she wasn’t.
“Okay, I’ll pass that on.”
She peeked inside again and met Jackson’s surprised gaze. Then waved a hand across her throat in an “end it” gesture.
He shrugged and obeyed, ending the call. “You okay? Did you hear any of that? Some dude named Ethan wants to talk to you, and—”
“I’d really prefer not to talk to him.”
His eyebrows slashed together. “Why? Has he hurt you?”
“I love your protectiveness, but no. Not really. But he’s related to that Francine lady who was a bit twisted, and I asked Nicola if I could be kept away from them.”
“Fair enough. She sounded like she was a little crazy.”
“Yeah.”
He held out a sticky note with a phone number scrawled on it. “You want this then?”
What could Ethan have to say to her? Nothing good, she bet. Besides, he was engaged to be married, so it wasn’t healthy for her to allow herself to get caught up in feelings for someone she couldn’t have.
“No thanks.”
“Okay then.” He screwed it up, then lobbed it towards the bin, giving a fist pump when it went in. “Score!”
“Gosh, anyone would think you played basketball on the weekend.”
He grinned. “Every weekend.”
But later that night, she wondered whether she had made the right decision. What if things had somehow changed and Ethan wanted to connect with her? Could she run back to the office and have a look through the rubbish and see if she could find the sticky note?
Then she remembered it was bin night and all the rubbish would’ve been collected anyway.
So that was that. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be retrieved now.
Just like whatever she had thought she had shared with Ethan couldn’t be retrieved.
God might be able to do exceedingly abundantly above all she could ask or imagine, but He also knew when time needed to be called.
The next day she was working at The Silver Teapot when the door opened. She blinked. “Chris!”
Chris Brandon smiled. “I wondered if you’d remember me.”
“Of course! Katie and I were talking about you just the other day.”
His eyes lit, even as his face remained grave. “How is she?”
“She’s doing okay. Trying to figure out what to do with her life. Still.”
He smiled. “It’s hard when you’re young. You feel like you have so many choices.”
“Exactly. But that’s actually why we were talking about you. She mentioned that she was interested in knowing a little bit more about cold cases and how you went about solving them. Which is why having you stop by is a lovely timely surprise.”
“I was on my way to Goulburn to the Police Academy, and I remembered that you’d mentioned at the Hydro Grand about your family having a tea shop around here.
I don’t think you ever said the name, so when I called in at the pie shop down the road and mentioned you, they sent me here. I’m glad to see you.”