Take a Chance by Simone Jaine

You’ll have plenty of time to do this.”
    “I do not have time to phone around,” Jem told him through gritted teeth.
    “Then perhaps you can think of somewhere else we can hold the presentation. My apartment isn’t suitable… Does your apartment building come with conference facilities?”
    “ No it doesn’t. Anyway I’m not at my place. I am looking after my nephews and niece in their house…”
    “Is that in your sister’s house on the Shore we visited that time between meetings?” Mark asked.
    “Yes.”
    Jem became distracted seeing the children outside bouncing together on the trampoline. She rapped on the kitchen window to get their attention. When they looked her way she covered the receiver.
    “One at a time!” she yelled.
    “…will work out perfectly,” said Mark with enthusiasm.
    Outside, the children were getting a few bounces in before getting off. Jeremy landed near Daisy’s feet which made her bounce high and she smacked her head against his on the way down.
    They both screamed then started crying. Jem raced to the kitchen door and opened it.
    Please don’t let there be blood. I don’t think I have a Wiggles plaster big enough for their heads.
    “Inside now!” Jem commanded.
    As they trooped inside making various degrees of noise she heard a voice calling her name. She belatedly realised she still had the phone up to her ear but had no idea of what Mark had been saying.
    “Mark I have to go. Can we discuss this later?”
    “No need. I’ll just tell Cherie that she can track down all the guests and tell them that the location of the presentation has been changed to your sister’s house. That’ll give her something to do,” he chuckled.
    What?
    The next thing she knew he’d hung up. She stared at the phone in disbelief. She couldn’t believe the audacity of the man. Sure she’d been distracted but she knew she hadn’t agreed to host a p resentation in her sister and brother-in-law’s home.
    Silently fuming, Jem realised he hadn’t even asked after her sister even though she’d told him Jess was in hospital; for all he knew she had something contagious like Ebola and they were all under quarantine.
    Hmm. It was tempting to phone him back and suggest a variation of that theme. Jem started scrolling through her contacts list to find his name.
    It probably was Aidan who flooded the conference bathroom, her conscience niggled.
    Damn .
    She turned the phone off. If Aidan was the mastermind behind the venue’s supposed catastrophe she was indirectly responsible. She grudgingly felt obliged to help out.
    Jem slipped the phone back in her purse and came back to the reality of the two children crying in front of her, each blaming the other for their injury. They were making too much noise to be overly hurt.
    No blood, thank goodness.
    Maybe a lollipop would fix things. She opened a high cupboard and reached for the lollipop bag on the top shelf, removed three and gave one to each child.
    “How come he gets one?” Jeremy asked, pointing at Aidan.
    “His ears are sore from the noise you two made,” Jem told him. “When you finish your lollipop how about you read me a story?”
    Relieved that the children accepted her reason so readily she took a lollipop herself.
    She was entitled. After all, as far as Mark was concerned she’d proved she was a sucker.
     
     
    Jem was preparing hamburgers for dinner when Eben arrived home that evening. She didn’t know how he had spent his day but whatever he had been doing had left him in a good mood. As she arranged the assorted fillings on the buns she told him how Jess was improving then about Mark’s phone call.
    He was pleased to hear the news of Jess’s progress in that she no longer needed the medication keeping her in the coma. He was less than pleased to hear that Mark had decreed Jase and Jess’s home to be the venue for his presentation.
    “With everything you have going on here why didn’t you tell him no?” he demanded.