Hold On to Me (20 page)

‘Here, take this,' Joe said. ‘You'll need it.'

Stella gratefully sipped the cool, delicious liquid. ‘Thanks. It's all a little …'

‘Loud?'

Stella laughed. ‘Overwhelming was the word I was looking for. They're very close, aren't they?'

‘They are. Look, don't worry. I know what it's like to walk into this family, especially when you don't have one of your own.'

Why did Joe think she was walking into the family? Last time she looked, she'd simply walked into Joe and Anna's house, with an expectation of some lovely wine and delicious Italian cooking and exactly nothing else. Stella averted her eyes, careful not to notice Luca still glaring at her from across the room. He hadn't come to her to say hello and she'd decided to let him stew.

Joe nudged her in the arm. ‘But it didn't take long for them to love me. Once they got over the fact I'd knocked up their daughter while she was still married to someone else.'

Stella almost snorted her champagne.

‘But once Francesca arrived, they forgave me everything.' He threw her a wink.

‘I've been meaning to say, Joe. Thanks for the story in the
Gazette
. It's been really great to get the word out that I'm back in business.'

He shrugged. ‘No worries. You're big news in this part of the world. We had more hits on that particular story on our website than any other. People love your shop, Stella.'

She clinked glasses with Joe. ‘And I'm very glad they do.'

‘Come and eat, everybody.' Sonia moved past Joe and Stella with a huge platter of crayfish.

Joe leant in close. ‘The other thing about this family? The food is terrific.'

There were too many people and the house was too small for a sit-down dinner, so the food was laid out on the dining table and everyone took a plate and chose from the groaning display. Stella selected some seafood, cold meats and salad and turned away from the table, scanning the room for somewhere to sit. Everyone had settled into groups: Ry, Julia and baby Mary had all somehow found a space in between all the scrunched-up wrapping paper from what must have been hundreds of presents. Joe and Anna sat cross-legged on the floor with Francesca by the Christmas tree. Sonia and Paolo were teasing each other about their Christmas gifts and, while Luca stood by his grandmother, his eyes were glued to Stella.

Every move she'd made, she could feel his stare. When she heard his voice across the room, commenting on something his nonna had said, laughing with Dan about cricket versus soccer, complimenting his mother on the spread, she got goose bumps. She could feel the ripples in the air between them as distinctly as the sea breeze from the beach.

But he'd kept his distance. That was his choice. Just as it had been his choice to walk out on her the week before when they'd been about to have sex.

Stella looked out to the big windows overlooking the deck. Lizzie and Dan had set up on the lawn under a tree, but she didn't want to interrupt their tête à tête. There was, she noticed, a tattered old cane chair on the deck itself. Perfect—she could be in the middle of things but not forcing herself on any of the family groupings.

‘You not eating, Luca?' Joe got up from the floor and stood next to the man who still wasn't his brother-in-law.

‘Yeah, in a minute. Just finishing this beer.' While he would normally dig right in to his mother's cooking, Luca was still waiting for his appetite to kick in. He still had a stomach full of angry about Stella, and maybe that was why there was no room for hunger just yet. ‘Hey, Joe. Can I ask you something?'

Joe shrugged. ‘As long as it's not about when I'm going to ask Anna to marry me. She's said no about five times already. I know your nonna thinks it every time she looks at me with that death stare.'

Both men glanced at Nonna, who was indeed giving Joe the death stare.

‘That's your business, not mine,' Luca said quietly.

Ry joined them, a plate of food in one hand and a busy fork in the other. ‘Hey.'

‘Hey, Ry,' Luca said.

‘What's your question?' Joe asked.

‘It's about Stella.'

Ry looked up from his plate, exchanged glances with Joe. ‘Yeah?'

‘Stella told me she grew up here in Middle Point.' Luca looked out through the big windows overlooking the deck and the view. He could see the back of Stella's head through the closed window. That gleaming black hair was cut neatly across her neck. ‘Which one of those humongous beachside mansions did she live in as a kid?'

Joe shrugged. ‘Ry? Any idea?'

Ry's brow creased in confusion and he stopped, fork in midair. ‘Stella? Beachside mansion? I think you've got her confused with someone else.'

‘I'm sure that's what she said, that she grew up here in Middle Point.'

‘Mate.' Ry chuckled. ‘Stella lived with her auntie in the caravan park next to the general store.'

Luca gripped his beer glass so hard he thought it would shatter in his fingers. ‘Oh, shit.'

Now he'd really lost his appetite.

Luca eased open the glass sliding door leading to the deck, stepped out, balancing two glasses of white wine in one hand, and then closed it behind him. The damn thing squeaked so loudly he might as well have announced it to his whole family. Not that anything needed announcing. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were all watching his every move. He nodded at Lizzie and Dan and they stopped gaping and turned to pack up their plates with comical speed.

Stella turned his way and then looked back out to the view too. Yeah, he deserved that. He'd been an angry young man all day. Hell, for most of the past week. He'd tried to be as cool, calm and collected as Stella always was, but fuck it, he was an Italian man and Italian men—and women, for that matter—were at the mercy of their emotions at all times. He couldn't help it.

‘White wine?' Luca held a glass in front of Stella and she took it.

‘Thank you.'

‘Don't mind us!' said Lizzie, too cheerfully, as she and Dan took the steps up the deck and then walked into the house. Dan checked Stella wasn't looking and gave him an encouraging wink, but Lizzie pulled him unceremoniously into the house and slid the glass door shut.

Luca sipped his wine in silence. ‘Enjoying the party?' he finally asked.

‘The food's fantastic and so is the view.'

‘Yeah.' Luca didn't need to look at the view. He'd spent most of his nights staring at the distant ocean and the coastline when he'd stayed there during the Style by Stella renovation. That old cane chair she was sitting in had been inherited from Lizzie, who'd grown up in the house and lived there until she'd moved into Dan's green beach shack on the esplanade. But right now, he didn't want to look at the damn view. Stella's eyes were on the horizon but his were on her. From his position, standing slightly behind her, he noticed the back of her neck, where the short hair exposed her nape, so pale and soft. He itched to caress her right there, where he'd pressed his lips, where her hair met that skin.

How should he launch into his apology? He had no fucking clue. He'd basically accused her of being a trust-fund baby who got by on her daddy and mummy's money and only took other rich people seriously. So he chose the Italian standby and went directly to the catering. ‘Have you had enough to eat?'

Stella held a hand to her stomach. ‘More than enough.'

‘There's still dessert to come. Wait until you taste my mother's cakes.'

‘I don't think I could eat another bite.'

He tried to find some more words but nothing came. An audacious magpie landed on the railing of the deck and watched them, tilted its head and then flapped its wings for take-off.

‘Listen. Stella.'

She turned in her chair and looked up at him, held a hand over her eyes to block out the bright summer sun.

‘Yes?'

‘There's something I need to say. I have to apologise for what I said to you the other night. After the party. About where you grew up and your family money and every other stupid fucking thing I said to you.' He took a deep breath. ‘About playing with me. About everything. I'm sorry, Stella. I put two and two together and came up with a working-class chip on my shoulder the size of Granite Island. I know I was wrong. Yeah, I got jealous and then I asked myself what the hell someone like you would be doing with someone like me. I took one look at you and got the wrong impression, I guess.'

Stella looked into her lap and smoothed the skirt of her frock with one hand as if she was brushing off grains of sand. ‘And what impression was that?'

‘Well, I mean … look at you. You've just about got the best business brain I've ever seen. You are the most determined woman I know and Anna is my sister so that's saying something. You look like you should be on the cover of a magazine, always so put together and perfect. You laugh like an angel and I bet nothing ever smudges that red lipstick of yours.'

‘You had your chance to smudge my lipstick,' she said. ‘But you blew it.'

‘I was jealous, okay? Knowing that you'd been with Duncan and the fact that he's been hanging around … Well, I got a little crazy.'

‘More than a little.'

‘But I got crazy for a reason, Stella. I want you. So much that I don't give a shit that all my family are behind that glass looking at every move we make.'

Luca looked over his shoulder and Stella followed his glance. Six faces suddenly disappeared from behind the sliding glass doors.

‘I want to finish what we started.' He leant down, lowered his voice. ‘I really want to fuck you.'

He reached for her hand and, to his surprise, Stella took it. He pulled her to standing and into his arms.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her. When he pressed his lips to hers, fierce and quick, he felt her quiver.

‘Merry Christmas, Stella.'

* * *

Anna, Julia and Lizzie were huddled together, hiding in a clutch away from the glass doors.

‘Did Luca just kiss her?' Anna whispered.

Julia and Lizzie exchanged glances. They weren't sure about the etiquette of spying on a friend's younger brother. Lizzie had some experience, having seen Anna and
her
brother Joe fall in love, but this felt different.

‘I think that was just a regular, run-of-the-mill Christmas kiss,' Lizzie said.

‘Yes, a season's-greetings kind of peck,' Julia agreed.

‘That is such crap,' Anna said with a laugh. ‘My little brother is hot for Stella. Surely you two have seen it while he's been working down here. And today! Haven't you been watching the way he's acted since she walked in the door?'

Lizzie couldn't hold in her smile. ‘Well, I had noticed, but I didn't want to say anything. He is your brother and everything.'

Julia bumped shoulders with Anna. ‘Oh, I totally noticed but we're here with your family, and nothing's officially official, is it?'

Anna moved her head an inch and took another peek through the glass. ‘I never thought Luca was an official kind of guy, if you know what I mean. He may be my little brother but even I know he's gorgeous. He's spent his whole life being chased by women. You wouldn't believe how often and where he gets propositioned. But,' she lowered her voice, ‘it looks to me like he's the one doing the chasing here, am I right?'

‘You wouldn't mind if …?' Julia raised her eyebrows in a question.

‘If they what? Got together?'

Julia and Lizzie looked at each other.

‘Well, yes,' said Lizzie.

‘Why would I? She's a fabulous woman. Why do you think I invited her today?'

Julia and Lizzie grinned.

‘And Lizzie, don't forget whose brother I'm sleeping with.'

Lizzie looked at Julia. ‘That would be
mine
. No further details, thank you very much.'

‘There would be something nice about keeping it in the family, don't you think?' Anna smiled.

‘As long as we're on the subject of keeping it in the family, we have a confession to make.' Julia nudged Lizzie.

‘You want me to spill the beans?' Lizzie asked incredulously.

‘She is
your
sister-in-law,' Julia whispered. ‘Well, unofficially. So you should tell.'

Lizzie took a deep breath. ‘Okay. You know the night you met Joe, at Julia and Ry's wedding at the Middle Point pub?'

Anna grinned and raised a wicked eyebrow. ‘How can I forget? I turned up with a heart shattered into a million pieces by my lousy ex-husband and met the love of my life.'

Julia and Lizzie sighed, looked at each other.

‘I did that,' Lizzie whispered. ‘I threw you two together. I could see that you and Joe were both sad and lonely and that you really, really needed some no-strings-attached fun. So, I told him he simply had to ask you to dance. Bullied him a little, actually.'

‘Really? It was you?' When Julia and Lizzie saw tears in Anna's eyes, they teared up too.

‘Yes. I may be the little sister but I am just as bossy as you are with Luca and Grace.'

Anna reached an arm around Lizzie's waist—she was too short to reach her shoulder—and held on tight. ‘Have I ever told you that you are the best sister-in-law a woman could have if she ever said yes?'

Just as they returned their focus to the conversation outside, Luca slowly put Stella down and then held her face in his hands. This time, he planted on her the kind of kiss that could never be mistaken for friendly Christmas wishes. The three women gasped in unison.

‘Oh my,' said Lizzie.

‘I'm blushing,' said Julia.

‘I was right,' said Anna with relish. ‘I know my little brother. And that man is gone for all money. So, tell me more about Stella. I know she owns the most incredible boutique on the south coast, but why is she still single? What's her story, Julia?'