Chapter 18

Ron arrived in time for tea; Jess opted for a cold collation with a soft tasting sauterne to compliment the meal. When we were all seated I set out my thoughts on the self serve market, the demolition of the old warehouse, and included my discussion with Mr Martin about the sale of his grocery store.

Ron's first thoughts were that we might be overextending ourselves, I pointed out that Martin's Grocery was a thriving business and the staff were hard workers, Roy Seath was mainly in charge and would make a good manager.

"The Australian government is full bore on bringing migrants into the country, at the moment our population for the whole continent is less than that of greater London, nine million people. A large number of these migrants will come from southern Mediterranean countries; this area we live in is going to become the 'fruit bowl' of Australia, look around you, we have vineyards, we grow citrus fruits, peaches and apricots. These New Australians will come to this area because it will be more like their home countries, if we expand now we will be ready for them, if we drag our feet someone else will beat us to the line."

We talked about the future and what direction we should take, Jenny, bless her soul asked if we could build house and sell them, Jess built on that and suggested building an estate on some of the vacant land that we owned. I got a thought wave from Ron{This Jess has come a long way in the last few months, I've always took her for a bit of a dill, she's got a good head on her shoulders and she's definitely not hard on the eyes either, I'm impressed} Hmmm, I'll have to keep my eye on you Ron.

We all agreed that Ron approach Mr Martin and make him an offer, if it was successful we would then talk with Roy Seath about the manager's position. The demolition of the old warehouse would take place anyway but would leave the site available if we decided to build a self serve market.

When tea was over we all helped with the dishes and then Jess suggested a game of solo whist. I could feel thought waves from Jess similar to Ron's, she was definitely attracted to him and she hung on his every word.

Jen and I licked the pants off the pair of them, they seemed rather distracted. After they game Jen suggested we take a stroll around the block before bed, Jess and Ron declined so Jen and I put on our walking shoes and took off.

"Did you see them two Jimmy? They were making goo goo eyes at each other all night; do you think that Uncle Ron is Mums mystery lover?"

"Could be Jen could be, I thought I might have to get a bucket of water to cool them off."

Jen laughed "I could just imagine you pouring it over them."

We took a long slow walk around the block and returned home about an hour after we had departed, we were met by two very flushed faces. Ron left soon after.

Jenny went off to bed and Jess and I sat and talked for a while, "Jimmy, Ron and I seem to have a bit of a connection, I don't know where it is going to go but I want to give it every chance to succeed ... I wouldn't like him to find out about our fling Jimmy; I don't think he would understand, Christ I don't even understand myself."