Discovering Stella (29 page)

Stella’s
eyes flicked from
my
outstretched hand to
my
face, then back to
my
outstretched hand
again
before
taking
the box from me. “Thank you. What is it?”

“Open
it
and find
out.
It’s
just something I saw and thought
you’d
like.”

“Really?” she exclaimed
excitedly,
sitting down beside me before undoing the ribbon.

Before she could get comfortable, I lifted
her
onto
my
lap and hugged
my
arms around
her
waist, resting
my
head against
her
shoulder while she unwrapped the present.
Her
...
like this in
my
arms
...
perfect.

Stella undid the ribbon and lifted the lid to the box.
“Oh
...
wow!” she whispered before picking up the bracelet. I watched
her
expression change when she noticed the charms,
her
delighted realisation
making
me feel
overly
fucking happy and
proud.

“Lawson!
There’s
a knight, a princess and a toad. Oh
my
god!
How
...
how
beautiful and thoughtful.” Placing
her
hand across
her
heart, she turned to face me then launched herself, forcing us to
fall
back
onto
the bed.
Stella’s
lips came crashing
onto
mine,
taking
me by surprise.
“I
love
it!
It’s
perfect,” she mumbled in between kisses. “Thank
you.”

I flipped
her
onto
her
back, pausing to watch
her
hair fan around
her
gorgeous face before
taking
the box from
her
hand.
“No,
you’re
perfect.
Now
let’s
see what
it
looks like
on
that pretty little wrist of
yours.”

Opening the box, I took the bracelet
out
and clipped
it
onto
her
arm.
She
suspended
her
wrist and rotated it, admiring
her
new present.
“You
really are amazing,
you
know?” she admitted
quietly, not
making
eye contact with me.

I
lowered my
face to hers, kissing
her
softly,
savouring the taste that was Stella
as
she draped
her
hands
over my
shoulders and combed
her
fingers through
my
ponytail. I fucking
loved
it
when she did that — played with
my
hair.
It
somehow
made me want to crack a fat and
fall
asleep simultaneously.

“Come
on,”
I said, groaning miserably when our lips separated.
“We’d
better get going before I kiss
more
than
your
mouth.”

*
 
*
 
*

We
arrived at the
pub
to be greeted with turquoise-coloured balloons and streamers. Meg had
mentioned
her
plans to decorate the
joint, but holy
fuck!
Talk
about
overdoin’
it.

“Oh my
god!” Stella exclaimed under
her
breath
as
we walked along the decorated veranda of the Pittstown
Hotel.
“These
bet
ter
not
be
for
me.”

I draped
my
arm across
her
shoulders. “Guess again, Princess!”

Stella glanced
dubiously
through
one
of the windows.
“There’s
a
lot
of people in
there.”

“Of course there are. The
whole
town has
probably
turned
up.”

“Really?” she said
nervously.
“Shit!”

I coaxed
her
closer
to
me.
“Hey,
don’t
worry,
none
of
them
bite.”

“I
should hope
not.”

Dropping my
arm from around
her
shoulder,
I laughed and pushed the door of the
pub
open.
As
we
entered
the room a mighty cheer sounded, shocking Stella enough to make
her
jump.
The greeting,
however,
was
not
surprising to me and made me smile. This was
one
of the best things about living in a small town — everyone banded together
for
all
types
of occasions.

“Whoa!
Now that’s one hot
dress. Stella,
you
look fantastic!” Meg exclaimed after waving us
over
to
sit
at the table
Todd
had set
for
dinner.

Stella dipped
her
head and brushed
her
hands down the fabric, assessing
her
outfit. “Thank
you,”
she said
sheepishly. “I
got
it
from that Chic
shop
in Shepparton. Lawson helped me choose
it.”

“I
bet he did!” Meg scoffed, giving me a devilish smile. I grinned back at her; the dress was hot!

Todd
exited the kitchen and stopped to give Stella a hug. “Stel Bel,
you
look beautiful,
as
always.”

“You
don’t
scrub up so bad
yourself,”
she smiled, pretending to brush dust
or
something off his shoulders.

Realising I
hadn’t
dressed
up,
I glanced down at
my
faded jeans, black boots and t-shirt.
Fuck! Perhaps I should’ve made more of an effort. I look like a slob.

“You
look
fine,”
Meg whispered,
somehow
knowing what I was
thinking
and giving me a quick hug.
“I
don’t
think Stella cares about that
type
of
stuff.”

I pulled away and cursed
my
choice of clothing.
“I
could’ve at least worn a shirt
or
something.”

“Yeah,
you could’ve,”
Leigh said,
as
he sidled up to me and draped
an
arm
over my shoulder.
“Then again,
you
probably
don’t
own
one,
eh?”
He
chuckled before handing me a
beer.
“We
good?”

“As
good
as
you
and I
can
ever
be.”
I took the beer from him and
removed
his arm.

“I’m
happy with
that.” He
chinked his bottle to mine.
“Hey,
sweetheart, looking
good.” He
nodded toward Stella.
She
turned toward the fuckwit and rolled
her
eyes before smiling sarcastically at him.
She
gave me a wink then
moved
away to chat to
some
of
the people who’d come to celebrate
her
birthday with
her.

“Lucky fuckin’
prick,”
he mumbled under his breath.

I was just about to say something along the lines of
‘Don’t
I fuckin’ know
it,’
when he directed his next mouthful of bullshit at
my sister.
“Meg-asaurus,
how’re
those claws?”

“About
ready to cause
you some
serious damage if
you
don’t
stop being a dickhead.”

“Always
so
feisty.
That’s
why I
loved you
in high
school.”

“You
did not,
you
little
shit,”
she chided,
her
tone
mildly
play
ful. Meg walked away and
joined
Stella in a conversation.

My
sister and Leigh had always
gone
head to head. When we were
younger,
Leigh
spent
a
lot
of time at our house so, in hindsight, he was like another little brother to Meg. His mum had given birth to him when she was a teenager and, shortly after, skipped town leaving his grandparents to raise him. He’d never known his real
father,
and
despite
telling me time and time
again
that he
‘couldn’t
give a fat
rat’s
arse about the
cunt,’
I could tell
it
was just a smokescreen. Cunt
or
not, Leigh was understandably curious.

“You
banging each other yet?” he asked, nudging me with his elbow while pointing his beer at Stella.

I
moved
around to face him, deliberately blocking his
view.
“You
really
don’t
fucking learn, do you?”

“What?
It
was just a
question.”

“One
that is
none
of your business,
but
if
you
must
know,
then yes, we are seeing each
other.”

The fucker gave me a shit-eating grin.
“That’s
not
what I
asked.”

Almost ready to lose
my
shit
despite not
really wanting
to,
I gave him a stern warning. “Leigh, quit while
you’re
ahead.” I hoped he would bloody listen and
shut
the fuck
up,
because ruining
Stella’s
birthday by
taking
Leigh
out
again
wasn’t
high
on my
list of things to
do.

“I’m
joking, Drake.
Seriously, you
need to lighten
up.
You’re
a
cranky
motherfucker
now.”

“Yeah? I
wonder
why,”
I retorted.

If
putting up
with
Leigh’s idiocy
wasn’t
bad
enough,
the
vocal
poison
that
interrupted
our
conversation
was
even
worse.
“Boys,
how
are
we
this
evening?”
Vicky
said,
slithering
up
beside
us
like
a
snake.

“That’s my
cue to
leave,”
Leigh mumbled, bailing
on
me like the coward he was.

I let
out
a frustrated breath.
“Vicky,
why are
you
even here?”

“I’ve
come
for
the party, and to see
you,”
she said
quietly,
her
tone now
sad.

“Then
you
wasted your
time.”
Without
looking back, I made
my
way toward Stella, Meg and
Todd.
 
I was hungry and
not
in the mood
for Vicky’s
bullshit. “Ready to eat?
I’m
starving,” I groaned, pulling
Stella’s
chair
out
like the gentleman I was.

We
all
sat down and waited
for
Shaz to come take our
order,
which
thankfully
didn’t
take
long.
“Ladies and Manbags, what
can
I get you?” she hollered, placing
her
chewed pen between
her
teeth with a conceited smile.

Stella laughed and choked
on
her
beer while Meg,
Todd
and I shook our heads.
Shaz’s
antics
weren’t
anything we
hadn’t
heard before.

“Happy birthday,
deary, and I must
say,
don’t
you
look ready to have
some
hot
sex tonight?” she added, emitting
some
form of fucking
animal
growl while waggling
her
eyebrows. Shaz then nudged
my
shoulder and winked. “What is
it you
young
‘uns
say?
...
You
should tap that?”