Discovering Stella (4 page)

“Stella, look.
I’m
sor—”

“Drive,”
she demanded harshly, turning toward
her
door and giving me the cold
shoulder.

Fair enough.
I’d fucked up and obviously pushed
her
past a breaking
point
I never knew she had.

Todd
was going to
kill
me.

*
 
*
 
*

After finding a
spare
t-shirt
in the
back
of my
truck and
endur
ing the
most
uncomfortable,
awkward, thirty
minute
drive
of my
life, I arrived in
Pittstown
and
pulled
the truck
to
a
stop.
Stella
appeared to
be in
some
kind
of
trance
once
again, staring
out
of
the
window
and unaware that
we’d
stopped.
I
took
the
opportu
nity
to
study
her
profile,
taking in
her
saddened
and
seemingly
lost expression.
It
was
now
very clear
to me
that
something
had
happened
to
this
woman.
Something
bad.
Something
that had the
ability
to
put
the fear
of
god
into
her
and zap all
of
her
light
at
the flick
of
a
switch.
That
much
was
obvious. And
it
was in that
moment
that I
found
myself
desperate
to
find
out
what
that
something
was.

“We’re
here,”
I said
softly.

She
blinked a
couple
of times and then turned to face me,
her
brow
furrowed with confusion,
as
if she’d had no idea I was even there. “What?”

“We’re
here,”
I informed
her
again.

Stella straightened and looked back
out
the
window,
this time
taking
in the scenery before
her. “Oh,
thanks,” she said
quietly,
giving me what I thought was
an
apologetic smile before
open
ing the truck door and climbing
out.
Why the fuck is she feeling sorry? I’m the world’s biggest arsehole here.

I followed suit,
making
my
way to
her
car
and popping the boot to retrieve
her
bags. There were only two, which surprised me;
for
a girl, she sure
as
hell travelled light
.

The
front
door
of
the
house opened,
and
Todd
made
his
way
down
the
porch
steps,
greeting
Stella
with
a
massive
bear
hug.
“Holy
fuck,
Stel
Bel,
look
at
you.
What
happened
to your
blonde
hair?”

She
appeared to grip him
tightly,
choosing
not
to answer at first, which made me panic just
slightly.
If
Todd
found
out
what had happened, there was no
doubt
in
my
mind we’d be having words, words with our fists.

“Stel Bel,
what’s
wrong?” he asked, clearly worried.
He
looked toward me, eyes wide with uncertainty.
“And
why are
you
wearing
Lawson’s
shirt?”

Before I could answer, Stella spoke.
“I’m
fine,”
she mumbled
into
his
shoulder.
“I’m
just tired and hot, and upset about
my
car. And the reason
I’m
wearing
Lawson’s
top
is because mine got
wet.”

Well, fuck me laughing.
The fact that Stella had chosen
not
to elaborate
on
her
somewhat truthful answer and place me in the shit with
her
stepbrother surprised the
absolute
hell
out
of me. At the very least, I’d expected
her
to tell him I was the worst
tow
truck driver in the
world.

Nodding
an
unspoken greeting at
Todd,
I walked past with
Stella’s
bags. “I’ll just
put
them
inside.”

“Thanks,
Lawson. I
owe
you,
mate.”

“No
sweat.”

“I
can
take
them,”
Stella called
out
after me.

“It’s
all
good.
It’s
the least I
can
do,”
I replied, ignoring the objection in
her
voice.

Moments
later,
I exited the house to find
Todd
staring deeply
into
Stella’s
eyes, his hands cupping
her
face.
He
looked at
her
with grave concern.
Shit!

“Stel, you
can
tell me —”

“I’m
fine,”
she replied
sadly,
flicking
her
gaze
toward me then quickly flicking
it
back to
Todd.
“Really,
I’m
fine.
I’m
just so happy to see you, and even
more
so because nothing has changed between us.
Honestly,
I
wasn’t
sure
how
you’d
react after
not
seeing me
for
so
long.”

“What? I’ll always consider
you my
little
sister.”
He
winked and pulled
her
in
for
an
embrace.
“You’re
the only
one
I’ve
got.”

“I’ve
missed you,
Todd,”
Stella said, choking
out
a
sob.

Not
wanting
to interrupt
their
reunion, I
walked
past
the
two
of
them and
opened my
truck
door,
climbing
onto
the
side step.

“Wait!
What are
you
going to do with
my
car?” Stella called
out
with desperation
as
she
broke
free from
Todd
and jogged to
my
door.

“I’m
taking
it
to the workshop to have a look at it.
You
may have blown a head gasket,” I explained.

“What does that mean?”

“It
means that if
you
have, I’ll need to
order
a
replacement.”
She
looked down at
her
feet then up again. “Is that expensive?

And
how long
will
it
take?”

“A
week
...
maybe two.
Don’t
worry;
as
soon
as
the part is in I’ll get to
work
on
it.
How
long
are
you
hanging around?”
My
query hid
an
ulterior motive. I wanted to know
how long
I had to find
out
as
much about
her
as
I possibly could.

“I
don’t
know,”
she replied with a shrug.
“I
haven’t
thought about it. I guess
that’s
up to
Todd
and Meg. Anyway, um
...
thanks
for
the ride, and
thanks
—”

“You
don’t
need to
thank
me,
Stella,”
I said
quietly,
cutting
her
off.
“And
again,
I’m
so sorry
for
the way I
acted.”

She
nodded, just
slightly,
before turning around and entering the house with
Todd
and closing the door behind them. I let
out
a frustrated breath
as
I
lowered
myself
into
the
driver’s
seat, staring after
her
and realising I had to know
more.
I
couldn’t
exactly say
why.
Yes,
she was the sexiest chick I’d ever seen,
but
it
was
more
than
that. Maybe
it
was the
broken
damsel thing, and because Mum had always tried to teach me to be chivalrous. Or maybe
it
was because
her
flip
out
left me feeling unsettled and like a
complete
bucket of shit. Whatever
it
was, I had to
know.
And I had the perfect way to extend the time I would need in
order
to do it.

*
 
*
 
*

I’d
spent
the afternoon performing a
compression
test
on
Stella’s
car, discovering that
it
did, in fact, have a blown head gasket.
For
the few hours that followed, I’d stripped down the
motor
and
removed
it, finding
one
bloody huge crack. I
couldn’t
have been
happier.

Pulling
into
the driveway of
my
house several hours
later,
I was still smiling because I would have to send the cracked cylinder head off to Shepparton to have
it
checked and tested, which would inevitably
buy
me
an
extra week
or so.
I also hoped that,
upon
further investigation of
her
shit heap of a car, I would find further defects that needed seeing to and would inevitably require
more
time to do
so.
The result was perfect.

Opening the
front
door to
my
house, the smell of garlic and onions hit me almost instantly, putting
an
even bigger smile
on
my
face and a hungry ache in
my
gut. “Smells
great,”
I called
out
to
my
sister.

“Tell
me something I
don’t
know,”
she yelled back.
Little smartarse.

Stopping
in the doorway to the kitchen and spying
her
stir
ring a pot, I threw a tape ball at
her
back.
“I
can’t,”
I said with a smile.
“Have
I got time
for
a quick shower?”

She
looked
over
her
shoulder at the ball of masking tape that I often formed
out
of left
over
scraps and …
boredom,
then glared at me.
“I
hate those
stupid
things.”

I waggled
my
eyebrows.
“I
know.”

“You
have less
than
ten minutes. Make
it
quick!”

“I
knew there was a reason why I
love
you,”
I mocked
as
I headed
for
the bathroom.

She
turned back around and scoffed,
“Yeah,
there are
many.”