Discovering Stella (6 page)

Not
really wanting
to, but
doing
it
anyway, I pressed the rim of the bottle to
my
lips and tipped
it
up to skol the
contents,
all
the while eyeing him
heatedly.
I
wasn’t
sure what
it
was about him,
but
he possessed a quality that made me want to
prove
him wrong
or
to challenge him in
one
way
or
another. The feeling was disconcerting,
as
it
wasn’t
one
I normally had. Plus, I
didn’t
even know the
guy.
Talk
about confusion.

I finished
my
pathetic stubborn
show,
placed the bottle down
on
the table, and gave him a sweet
but
sarcastic smile.
He
furrowed his
brow
in return and glanced at Meg just
as
Todd
walked in the
door.

“Smells great,
babe,”
Todd
announced, kissing Meg
on
the cheek before setting the
shopping
bags down
on
the
benchtop.
“So,
how
was the
shower,
Stel?”

Lawson, Meg and I exchanged deer-in-headlight looks before I let
out
a
loud
laugh.
“It
was
...
revealing,” I explained, winking in Meg and
Lawson’s
direction. They appeared to be relieved, both of them relaxing their stance and laughing along with me.

“Revealing? What?”
Todd
wrinkled his nose while taking in the three of us chuckling.

“Yes,
let’s
just say
you
may need a lock
on
the
door,”
I added, pursing my lips and raising my eyebrows.

Lawson put down his beer, the harsh thud on the benchtop hinting at his frustration. “We
don’t
.”

“Why would we need a loc—”
Todd
cut himself short when realisation dawned
on
him, and he gave Lawson a suspicious glare.
“Mate,
you
didn’t.”

“Yeah,
he
did,”
Meg and I said simultaneously.

Lawson
raised
his
arms
and
threaded his hands,
placing them on
his
head.
“It
was
a
fuckin’
accident.”

The raising of his arms hitched the seam of his t-shirt enough to display his
lower
abdomen and obliques. I nearly gasped.
Shit! Stella,
you’ve
barely had one beer. One. Pull yourself together. What’s wrong with you?

Picking up
my
beer and
taking
another skol — because obvi
ously,
I needed
it
— I averted
my
gaze
as
Meg started dishing up the lasagne. The beef and
tomato
aroma smelled divine, so I focussed
on
that.
Pasta, meat, sauce and cheese. Pasta, meat, sauce and cheese. Lawson, abs, skin and
V.
Fuck!

We
each filled our plate then sat around the table, which was when
Todd
started firing questions at me, questions I did
not
want to answer,
but
knew would surface eventually.

“So,
Stel,
apart from
you
having a shitload of holiday leave, what brings
you
to Pittstown?”

“You,”
I answered with a sweet satirical smile before popping a forkful of lasagne
into my
mouth.

“Apart
from
me,”
he said, giving me his
don’t-fucking-shit-me
look,
one
which had
not
changed in five years. If anything, he had perfected it.

I diverted
my
gaze
to Meg and offered
her
some
much deserved praise, hoping
it
would result in the avoidance of his question. “Mmm
...
this is so good,
Meg.”

It
didn’t
work;
all
of
them waited patiently
for
me to finish.

Sighing in frustration, I relented.
“It
really is just you,
Todd.
I’ve
worked
my
arse off
for
the past four years. I needed a break. I needed to get away
...
and, anyway, I missed
you,”
I answered,
my
response mostly truthful.

He
nodded.
“Okay,
fair enough.
I’m
the kind of guy that
can
leave
you
pining, I get
that.”
His obvious attempt to keep his face impassive was a
complete
failure.

I smiled
fondly.
He
hadn’t
changed. And physically,
Todd
really
hadn’t
changed much at
all
either.
His hair was still dark brown — bordering
on
black — and his eyes were the brightest
blue
I’d ever seen.
Todd
was the
epitome
of tall, dark and hand
some,
and even though we’d been related by marriage when we were
younger,
back then I’d still appreciated his spunkiness.

“Conceited
much?” Meg teased, elbowing him in the ribs.

Lawson rolled his eyes and took a swig of his beer before placing
it
back down
on
the table and smiling. “So what do
you
do
for
a living, Stella?”

“I’m
a
nurse,”
I confidently replied.

He
choked
on
his mouthful and laughed.
“No
shit. Really?”

“Yes,”
I answered with a smug smile, knowing very well why he was choking.

Meg looked from Lawson to me,
her
eyelids narrowing.
“Am
I missing something here?”

“No.” I
laughed.
“Well
yes, kind
of.
Earlier today when Lawson and I first met, he joked about me being a nurse. At the time, I
didn’t
tell him that he was
correct.”

She
nodded
dubiously
and smiled, which made me feel
awk
ward.
It
also made me want nothing
more
than
to change the subject from me to
absolutely
anything else. Hell, the growing of grass,
or
even politics, would
do.
“So, Meg, what is
it
that
you
do
for
a living?”

“I
manage a daycare centre in
Shepparton,”
she mumbled around
her
mouthful, smiling proudly at me.

Summoning up
as
much enthusiasm
as
I could
muster,
I tried
not
to
shudder,
instead firing a dishonest smile in
her
direction.
“That’s
nice.”
The thought of a daycare centre set the hairs
on
the back of
my
neck to standing
on
end.

All
those children.

All
those small children.

It
wasn’t
that I harboured a dislike
for
children, because I
didn’t.
I just found
it
difficult to be around them. I
couldn’t
relax. They just
...
they just made me edgy. Once
upon
a time, I’d had confidence where kids were concerned. Actually, I’d had confidence where everything was concerned.
Now?
Not
so much.

Todd
let
out
a small laugh and directed a what-the-hell-was-that look at me. “Jeez,
Stel,
that sounded
convincing.”

“Sorry,
I
...
I
didn’t
mean
it
like
that,”
I
explained,
wishing
they
weren’t
all
gawking
at me like
I was some child-hating freak. I
changed
the
subject
yet
again
before nervously
skolling
more beer.
“So,
Law
son,
you
said
this
was
your
and
Meg’s
house.
It’s
lovely.”
Stupid,
Stella.
Stupid.
Coming
here
was
a
stupid
idea.
They
think
you’re
crazy.

“Thanks,” he replied with a slight tilt of his head, his expres
sion
indicating he thought I was stupid.
See? STU-pid. Do they have sinkholes in Pittstown? Ones that swallow you up when you’re an idiot? Ugh!

Lawson
then
continued
before
I
could
excuse
myself
and run
for
the hills. “When
Mum
passed
away
a few years
back,
she
left
it
to
us,”
he
explained
before
serving himself
another
helping
of
lasagne.

I dipped
my
head and took another
bite
of
my
own meal.
“I’m
sorry
for
your
loss.”

“Thanks,
but
don’t
be
sorry.
It
wasn’t
your fault.
It
wasn’t
any
one’s
fault.
Mum’s
death was sudden. Pancreatic cancer.
One
minute she was vibrant and healthy and the next she
wasn’t.
It
was what
it was,”
he said
stoically.

Grabbing
my
beer and finishing
it
off,
I raised
my
eyes to meet
Meg’s
and then
Lawson’s.
“That
must’ve
been incredibly
hard.”

“It
was,”
Lawson responded
flatly,
as
Meg nodded.
He
then opted to change the subject, and I
couldn’t
blame him.
“You
want another?”

Gesturing to
my
near-empty bottle, he pushed his seat back and made his way to the fridge.
It
was clear he did
not
want to
talk
about his late mother any
more.
I respected that. I also appreciated his offering of another
beer.
It
seemed a good distraction from the heavy topics,
not
to
mention
the refreshing ale was slowly
calming
my
raging nerves.

“Yes,
please. So, did
you
find
out
what was wrong with
my
car, by any chance?”

“Yeah,
you’ve
blown the head gasket like I
thought,”
he explained, returning to the table and handing
Todd
and me another beer each. “I’ll send
it
off to
Shep
tomorrow.
Should
take a week
or
so before
it’s
repaired and
sent
back.”

“Crap! Is that expensive?”

He
diverted his
gaze
from mine.
“No,
not
really.”

“Why
don’t
I believe you?” I asked, narrowing
my
eyes at him.

“Stella,
it’s
fine. The part
doesn’t
cost much at all.
It’s
the labour involved that is what normally adds
up.
But, seeing
as
you
are practically family, and because business is
slow
at the
moment,
fixing your
car
won’t
be
an
issue.”

“Oh,
okay
...
thank
you. Are
you
sure though? I really
don’t
want to be a nuisance.”