It’s late in the afternoon as I pull up to the airport and find a parking spot along the curb. Sterling told me Stella’s plane will be landing around four-thirty, so I arrived a few minutes early, just in case. The last thing I wanted was for her to be standing out here waiting by herself. Knowing Stella, she wouldn’t subject herself to that. She’d find a ride before waiting for anyone.
Leaving the engine running, I climb out of my car and stand along the side of it on the sidewalk as I wait for her. Part of me wishes I would have brought one of those obnoxious signs, just to embarrass her. I would love to see the redness of her cheeks as I held it up and called out her name.
There’s something about Stella that makes me love to get a reaction out of her. I don’t have much of a filter as it is, but it seems like when she’s around, I really have no issue with saying whatever the fuck I want to. And she takes it all in stride, throwing it all back in my face in any way she can.
The doors slide open and I see her coming through. She looks like she had a plane ride from hell with the scowl on her face as her suitcase wheel gets stuck in the track of the glass door. A smile touches my lips and I push away from the car, striding over to her.
Stella curses under her breath, abandoning her second suitcase as she fights with the first one. I pause in front of her for a second, watching with amusement as she shoves the thing around, attempting to free it from the track. She’s having no such luck, so I decide to step in.
“Let me get that for you.”
Her head whips up to look at me, her eyes wide. Realization washes over her expression and I see a pink tint creeping across her cheeks. It isn’t the rose color I wanted to see, but seeing her face come to life is enough to make my heart pound. She steps out of the way, throwing her hands up in defeat.
“These damn doors might be the stupidest thing. They know people have suitcases with wheels. Why wouldn’t they have something more practical?”
I tilt my head at her as I put my hands on either side of the suitcase and jerk it from side to side. It comes free and I lift it away from the doorway, where a few people are waiting to get through. It feels like she has crammed her entire life in it with how heavy it is.
“Did you have a bad flight?”
Stella’s eyes slice to mine before she rolls them, her nostrils flaring as she exhales deeply. “The worst. I just had the biggest dose of birth control ever,” she mumbles, shaking her head as she lifts her fingers to her temples. “Five and a half hours on a plane that must have been advertised to just parents. There were seriously so many babies and toddlers on there. Those creatures shouldn’t be allowed on planes.”
“Was it really that bad?”
She narrows her eyes at me. “There was a couple with an infant next to me. That thing managed to puke everywhere, shit all up its back, and cry on and off within five and a half hours. Yes, it was bad.”
A chuckle rumbles in my chest as I take both of her suitcases and lead the way to my car. I haven’t really seen this side of Stella. I’ve heard her and Sterling get into it, but seeing her frustration firsthand is extremely amusing. I shouldn’t be smiling at her the way I am right now, but I can’t help it.
“What’s so funny, Simon?” she questions me, her tone biting. She follows me to the trunk, standing there as she crosses her arms defensively over her chest as I put her things inside.
Grabbing the door, I pull it down to close the trunk before turning to look at her. “Nothing. You’re just something else.”
“What does that even mean?”
I simply shrug. “Nothing bad. Just chill out and get in the car.”
“Fuck that,” she argues, now shifting into something more abrasive. There are a lot more layers to Stella Barrett than I realized. And I’m more than willing to peel them all back one at a time. “You’re laughing at me and I’m not getting into your car until you tell me why.”
“Jesus Christ,” I mutter, shaking my head at her. She’s absolutely impossible right now. “It was nothing bad. I’ve never seen you this flustered before so it was amusing.”
“Oh, so now I’m amusing?”
I stare at her silently, a little taken back by the way she’s reacting. “Dude, chill out.”
“I am not your dude.”
“Clearly,” I mumble, walking around the car before stopping by the passenger’s side. I pull the door open and look back at her. “I told you why I was laughing. Are you done with your little temper tantrum so we can go now?”
Stella doesn’t move at first and her feet are cemented in place as she attempts to stand her ground. That flight must have really been fucking terrible to have her in a mood like this. I like her fiery attitude, but damn… the heat that is radiating from her feels like it might melt my skin.
She huffs and uncrosses her arms before walking over to the car. I watch her, raising an eyebrow as she drops down into the seat and pulls the door shut behind her. As I walk around the front of the car, I can only hope that something shifts Stella’s mood because this is going to be a long-ass summer if she’s going to be like this.
Then again… I could always make it fun. Maybe distract her from what’s really bothering her.
That is, if she decides to let me.
Stella falls asleep on the car ride back to the house. It’s about a thirty-minute drive, so as soon as she’s knocked out, I let her go. There’s no sense in waking her up and honestly, I’m a little afraid to. It seems like it would be a wise decision not to. It would be like waking up a bear right now.
And Stella is a bear, and I don’t want to be on the receiving end of her frustration right now.
As I pull the car into the driveway, I put it in park and kill the engine before turning to look at her. She looks so peaceful, her face completely relaxed as she snores lightly. I can’t help but be captivated as my eyes explore her features. Her straight nose is turned up slightly at the end. Her cheekbones are high and pronounced.
Everything about her is goddamn perfect—she looks like a sculpture I want inside my house to admire every single day.
Quietly opening my door, I slip out of the car and make my way back to the trunk to get her stuff. I might as well let her sleep a little while longer and take her things inside rather than disturb her right now. I close the trunk, careful to not make any noise after pulling her suitcases out. The car rocks slightly as I push the door down and when I walk past, I glance inside at Stella.
She’s still passed out, so I let her be and take her things into the house. Lincoln is sitting on the couch, watching baseball, and Olivia and Sterling are in the kitchen. They both walk out to greet me, confusion passing through their expressions when they see me with Stella’s suitcases but no Stella.
“Where’s my sister?” Sterling questions me, his eyebrows drawn together.
I motion out to the car. “She’s passed out in there and I would advise to approach her with caution. She was in a foul-ass mood when I picked her up at the airport.”
“Did she say what was wrong?” Olivia asks me as Sterling sighs.
“She was complaining about the flight. With the way she fell asleep immediately in the car, I think it’s safe to say she was cranky and needed to take a nap.”
Lincoln laughs from the couch and Sterling shakes his head.
“My bad, dude,” he says, his voice full of regret. “Stella can be a little… difficult sometimes. Especially when there’s something that’s bothering her. She has a little trouble reeling it in.”
“Some things will never change, huh?” Olivia muses out loud, smiling at Sterling before winking at him. She isn’t wrong. Sterling and Stella are definitely siblings and share more qualities than they’d like to admit. At least Stella isn’t a constant grump like Sterling.
She’s very close to him, though, with the way she just acted.
“I’ll go wake her up,” Olivia offers as she brushes past Sterling and me. “If there’s anyone she’s not going to be pissed off at, it will be me.”
I look at Sterling who simply shrugs as Olivia disappears out the front door. “Do you want me to take her bags up to your room?”
Sterling nods. “Yeah. Olivia and I are going to go stay at our new place tonight since we have everything moved in there now. I would hate to see Stella try to get those up the stairs by herself.”
A chuckle slips from my lips. “You should have seen her at the airport when the wheel of one of them got stuck in the track of the door.”
“Oh Jesus,” Sterling groans, shaking his head. “I can only imagine how that did not go well.”
“Not at all,” I laugh.
“Your sister sounds like quite the spitfire when she’s pissed off,” Lincoln says to Sterling from where he’s sitting on the couch.
“Yeah, I would advise to stay the fuck away from her,” Sterling snaps at him. “If I find out that you’ve come anywhere near my sister, I’ll chop your dick off.”
Lincoln throws his hands up in the air in defense. “Got it. She’s off-limits.”
“Why do I feel like I’m going to regret letting her live here with the two of you?” Sterling says out loud but he directs his attention back to me. There’s something in his expression I can’t put my finger on, but I don’t question it. Especially since he only seemed concerned with Lincoln being interested in her.
I shrug. “Stella is a big girl. She can make her own decisions.”
“Yeah, she can, can’t she…” Sterling’s voice trails off as he cocks an eyebrow at me. “I know she was in your bed the last time she stayed here.”
My eyes widen and I stare at him in partial shock. How the fuck could he possibly know that she was in there? And now he has the wrong idea, because she wasn’t in there for that reason. I let her sleep in there so she didn’t have to sleep on the couch anymore.
As my lips part, I can feel her behind me.
“So what if I was in his bed? Are you going to try and control me like the rest of our family?”
Sterling stares at her over my shoulder, his eyes narrowed slightly. “Nope. You can fuck your life up all by yourself.”
There’s tension that hangs heavily in the air and an awkward shift. I don’t know what is going on between the two of them, but this isn’t the reunion I was expecting. With the silence that falls around all of us, I don’t think this was what anyone was expecting.
“Thanks, big bro,” Stella muses from behind me. “That’s very kind of you. And for the record, I was in Simon’s bed sleeping. He slept on the couch. So you can go fuck yourself with your assumptions.”
Stella disappears upstairs and I’m left standing there with her suitcases still. My eyes meet Sterling’s and he stares back at me blankly.
“What was that about?” I question him, suddenly feeling protective of his fiery sister.
“Nothing that concerns you,” he says simply, and I see Olivia scolding him with her expression as she walks past the two of us. “Stella has just had some issues, and we were hoping with her being back home that maybe she can work through them. I’m sorry for assuming you were fucking around with her, I didn’t realize she was just sleeping in your bed.”
I stare at him, still taken aback by the whole exchange between the two of them. “Yeah, well, maybe you shouldn’t just assume shit.”
I leave him behind as I turn around and walk up the stairs with Stella’s suitcases. They’re heavy as fuck and weigh me down, and I feel the strain in my thighs as I climb the staircase.
Somehow, I have a feeling she might have some heavier baggage she’s carrying around.
