Hold On to Me (30 page)

He moved a hand between them and stroked the curve of one for emphasis.
‘Si, bella. Il seno.'

‘What's that?'

‘Breast.'

‘Sounds better than tits,' she murmured. ‘Say something else.'

‘Baciare.'
He lifted his head and kissed her.

‘That's kiss, right?'

He nodded.
‘Gli occhi
. Eyes.
Le labbra
. Lips.
La bocca
. Mouth.' Luca ran a finger over her lips and Stella parted them, sucked in his finger, rolled her tongue around it. She pushed her thighs against him, felt his cock harden against her. God, young men were insane.

‘What do you call that?'

‘I think that language is pretty universal, don't you,
mi amore
?'

‘I love it when you talk dirty.' Stella laughed and then they made love again, slowly, languorously, before falling asleep in each other's arms, the words
‘Ti amo'
on Luca's lips and in Stella's ears.

‘So when were you going to tell me?'

Luca had put down his nail gun and crossed the framework of the deck he was building, using the posts as stepping stones, to answer the call. He looked back at the house, in Adelaide's inner eastern suburbs. It was a family pile, that was for sure. He'd been contracted to replace the decking on one side of an immaculately maintained swimming pool.

‘Tell you what, Anna?' He pressed the phone to his ear to hear better over the parrots chattering and squawking in the tall gum trees next door.

‘You know exactly what I'm talking about. You and Stella is what I'm talking about.'

‘Anna, I—'

‘I'm so excited for you. We love her! Not that I'm supposed to know. Joe didn't tell me anything.'

‘Oh, yes he clearly fucking did.' Luca kept his voice low and looked around to check no one could hear him. ‘I'm going to kill him.'

‘Of course you're not and, okay, sure, he told me a little something. Not everything, though.'

Luca lifted his cap, swiped the sweat from his brow with a tanned forearm, and squinted into the hot summer sun. ‘Jesus, Anna. I warned Joe that if this got out, he would pay.'

‘C'mon, Luca. If you think Joe could ever keep a secret from me … one, you don't know anything about being not-married and two, you don't know anything about me. You think I can't keep a secret? I'm a doctor, remember? I hear things every day in my practice that would burn your ears. But I respect people's privacy. And anyway, you're not people: you're my brother. And since when am I not allowed to say that I'm happy for you, huh? Stella's a fantastic woman and I'm glad you're with her. Is that so wrong?'

His sister really could talk for Australia.

‘I'm trying to keep this simple. Low key, you know? At least for a while. She's already had the whole family inflicted on her at Christmas, except for Grace. Tell me, Anna. How the hell did she manage to escape to Bali anyway and why didn't we think of that sooner?'

‘Mum and Dad will never get over it. When it's official, you'll have to bring Stella to Wednesday night dinner at their place.'

Luca shook his head. ‘Uh huh. Not doing that.'

‘Why not?'

‘For this exact reason. I'm not going to put her through that gruelling audition just yet. She was at Christmas because you invited her. If I take her to dinner, that'll be me doing the inviting and that'll unleash a whole load of pain on me from the olds.' He glanced at his watch. ‘I've got to get back to work. I'm sure you've got people to save.'

‘Yeah yeah. Can we at least invite you two over for dinner when we're down at Middle Point next weekend?'

Luca rubbed the back of his neck. He wasn't sure even that would be a good idea. Things with Stella were in a good place, but not solid. He wasn't sure she was up for family stuff just yet. Given what she'd been through, the last thing he wanted to do was scare her off.

‘I'll let you know, Anna. She's working flat out this time of year and usually just wants to crash.'

‘I get it. And you don't want to keep her all to yourself, by any chance?' He didn't need to see his sister's face to know that she was teasing.

‘Look, I'll ring you this weekend when we're down there, okay?'

‘Yeah, okay.'

‘Give the baby a big kiss from me.'

‘I will,' Anna said.

‘And one more thing,' Luca said before he ended the call.

‘What?'

‘Remind Joe, will you, of what I said to him about what would happen to his neck if the story gets out?'

Stella found Molly right where her mother said she'd be: rummaging through the racks in the charity shop a couple of blocks off the main street of Port Elliot. It was time to put her plan into action. And what better time to employ a local kid than in the middle of the summer holidays?

Stella observed Molly with a wry grin. Her outfit today was a flat cap, baggy men's trousers, which she'd turned up at the ankle, braces and a tank top. Stella got an immediate flashback to Dexy's Midnight Runners. Molly was seriously into retro. She sidled up next to the girl and nudged her with her shoulder.

‘Hey, Molly.'

Molly turned with wide eyes. ‘Oh hey, Stella.' She glanced around the shop. ‘What are you doing here?'

‘Your mum told me you'd be here and I wanted to talk to you so I thought I'd take a quick lunch break and find you.' Stella lifted a hanger off the nearest rack and studied the shirt. When she spied a grease stain on the right breast pocket, she returned it. ‘I know this place well. It's been around forever. In fact, I used to come here when I was your age.'

‘You did?' Molly asked with a smile.

‘It was a long time ago, but,' Stella leant in to whisper conspiratorially, ‘it still smells exactly the same. I always wondered how much of this stuff belonged to dead people.'

Molly spluttered and covered her mouth with her hand. ‘Me too.'

‘So, have you discovered anything today?'

‘What do you think of this?' Molly held up a Hawaiian shirt. It had an orange base colour, with the requisite palm trees and hula-skirted dark-haired dancers. When Stella checked the label, she could see it had actually been made in Hawaii. ‘You should buy this shirt.'

‘I know, right? But I thought I might alter it. It's a men's medium, so I might shorten the sleeves and take it in a little so it's not so baggy.'

Stella was completely taken aback by Molly's attention to detail. ‘You sew?'

‘Yeah,' Molly replied rather proudly. ‘A lot of the vintage stuff needs changing to fit me so I do it myself.'

‘Well. Good for you.'

‘Thanks. I love your dress. Is that vintage too?'

‘Yes. I bought it here actually.' Stella was wearing a floral print with an A-line skirt, short sleeves and a peter pan collar. Its pale pink background, adorned with tiny white flowers, suited her skin and her dark bob.

‘You always look amazing,' Molly said, her cheeks flushing.

‘So do you, Molly. Your individuality and style really stand out in this town full of bikini girls.' Stella grinned and rolled her eyes. ‘I'm actually here on a mission. I've been super busy at Style by Stella since we reopened and I think I might need some help.'

Molly almost froze on the spot.

‘I was wondering if you're interested in a part-time job over the holidays? I have a feeling you could be the perfect person.'

Molly's mouth fell open. If Stella wasn't mistaken, the girl was actually shaking.

‘Oh my god. Yes. I'd absolutely love to work in your shop. But … but I don't have any experience.'

‘I have a hunch you're a fast learner,' Stella smiled.

Molly looked so stricken with fear that Stella fought off the urge to hug her.

‘I'm only fifteen. Sixteen actually. I forgot. It was my birthday last week. Oh god, I can't even remember how old I am.'

‘Well, happy birthday. And that makes you just old enough. Can you come by tomorrow and we'll do all the official things? Can you work maybe four days a week, between say ten and two?'

‘Of course I can.'

‘Good. That's exactly what your mum told me too.' Stella held out a hand. Molly shook it firmly.

‘It's a deal. Congratulations.'

Molly dropped the shirt on the ground, the hanger clattering on the cement floor, and threw her arms around Stella. ‘Thank you so much. This is incredible. You are incredible!'

Stella walked back to her shop, enjoying the feeling that she'd given a young person a bit of a start. She was busier than she'd ever been, the publicity from the fire and the rebuild clearly having caught people's attention. With Luca back in Adelaide, she'd thrown all her sexual frustration and loneliness back into her business and was equally thrilled by its success and exhausted by it. It was becoming clear she needed someone to work with her in the shop. Although she'd been tempted over the years to hire extra staff over summer, she'd always been too concerned about the bottom line to add extra costs to her turnover, but now it had become a necessity.

And Molly seemed like the perfect person. With a little bit of training and some confidence, Stella could easily believe she could even handle things on her own. She had been thinking about her for weeks, ever since she'd met her at The Market that Sunday morning before Christmas. She'd had a good feeling about her from that moment and her heart warmed in her chest at the realisation she was reaching out, giving a little something back. Paying it forward, wasn't that the expression? She didn't know anything about Molly's home life but she figured there wasn't a lot of money behind her. Her mother worked at the local library and had seemed lovely when they'd spoken on the phone—really pleased that Molly might find an outlet for her particular passion.

Sometimes, Stella wondered where she would be now if she'd been born to different parents, if she'd arrived into the world in the middle of one of those cosmic twists of fate, if she'd emerged into a family that wasn't teenaged and dysfunctional and chaotic.

Normal, just as she'd longed to be. Breakfast and a lunchbox. That's what normal would have looked like to her when she was a child. It shouldn't have been that much to ask, really. Two parents who had managed to get their shit together enough to stop taking drugs. A sandwich, a simple Vegemite sandwich and maybe one of those rare bananas. That would have made Stella the happiest little girl in the world.

When Stella reached her shop, she unlocked the front door, but paused. There was a For Sale sign out the front of Ian and Lee's cafe. It must have gone up that morning, because she hadn't noticed it the day before. Seeing it made her miss her friends. The day after the fire, she'd stood in almost this exact spot with them, talking about their future. And what had Lee said to her that day?

‘I'm sure the wind will blow in new people for you to get to know. You never know who might buy this place and what they'll do with it.'

She chuckled to herself. The fire had brought someone very special into her life.

Stella went inside her shop, pulled from the window the
Back in Five Minutes
sign and took another look around. A lightness settled in her and she had the strangest feeling that things were finally falling into place. After so many years when her world had shaken under her feet, she felt on stable ground now. That final piece of the puzzle in her life—happiness—was so close she could feel the tease of it, could see it up ahead in her future.

What part would Luca play in that? She was going to find out the next night. On Sunday, she had a massage booked with Summer after the shop closed, and then she was driving up to Adelaide to see Luca. He'd promised to show her his house.

She couldn't fight the smile.

It sounded like the perfect day.

Summer lit a scented candle and selected some soothing music as Stella stripped off and lay facedown on the massage table.

‘Do your stuff, girl. I really need this.' Stella took in the deepest breath she could and let it out slowly and languorously.

‘You just relax and let me take care of everything.' Summer squirted warmed massage oil onto the palm of one hand and, as she rubbed both together, the lavender scent invaded Stella's senses.

‘Very happy to be in your hands. Ooh.' Stella groaned at Summer's massaging goodness. ‘So, how have things been with you? I don't think we've had the chance to talk since New Year.'

‘Oh … good.'

‘You been busy?'

‘Uh huh.' Summer placed her flat palms on either side of Stella's spine and pushed gently. Then she smoothed them up over her shoulders and began to knead the muscles. ‘I can't believe this. I haven't seen you for an appointment in weeks and you don't have any tightness at all in these shoulders. You've been having sex, haven't you?'

Stella snuffled into the towel she was lying on.

‘I take it that's a yes. I'm really glad things are working out with you and Luca. You deserve it, hon. And …' Summer hesitated ‘… there's something I've been meaning to tell you too.'

Stella lifted her head, turned it to her friend. ‘That sounds serious. Is everything all right?'

Summer's eyes darted to the ceiling. ‘It's about Duncan.'

‘Oh no. I thought he'd get the hint when he saw me with Luca at the New Year's Eve party.'

Summer stopped her magic hands. ‘I kind of explained to him that it was never going to happen between you two.'

‘Good. I'm glad you did. As if he needed to be told again, but anyway.'

Summer hesitated. ‘And he truly understands that now because … because it's happening with me.'

Stella sat up with a jerk. The white towel covering her body slipped into her lap and she tugged it back up. ‘You're kidding.'