Runaway Bride’s Guide to Love (Guide to Love #1)

30. Stella

30

stella

“Do we have the pizza?” Maeve asks as she grabs plates from her cupboard.

“Check!” Ainsley yells.

“Do we have the wine?”

I hold up two bottles of Prosecco. “Check and check.”

“Do we have Quinn?”

“Here!” I laugh as we take the iPad that Quinn’s face is currently on into the living room of Maeve’s house. “I wish I was there, but this will have to do.”

Even though I asked Simon specifically to not let anyone know about me and Emmett until after I had the chance to tell everyone, that lasted for approximately twenty minutes before the sibling group chat blew up.

Simon: I know something you don’t know!!!!

Maeve: Why are you five?

Simon: I’m not five. But I know a secret about Stella that you and the other sisters don’t, and I need to brag about it.

Quinn: It’s laughable that you think you know something about Stella and we don’t. I mean, I probably wouldn’t. But you think Ainsley doesn’t? Or Maeve? Come on, Simon. You’re better than this.

Simon: No! It’s true! Stella! Tell them.

Ainsley: Stella?

Stella: I hate you.

Maeve: Stella Leigh Banks! You tell us right now.

Simon: Oooohhhh… you got Mama Maeve mad at you…

Stella: No. You did. Because you promised you’d let me tell them.

Ainsley: Tell us what?

Quinn: Please tell us, because I don’t like Simon having things he can hang over our heads.

Stella: Can I tell you all tonight? I’d like to not do it over a text thread. Especially one that Simon’s on, who, by the way, would fail in the wizarding world if tasked to be the secret keeper.

Simon: Rude.

Maeve: Yes, you can tell us tonight. Come to my place at eight. Jayce is at his dad’s, so we can talk as long as we want and I don’t have to worry about drop off tomorrow morning. Quinn, we’ll FaceTime you?

Quinn: You better or I riot.

Simon: Can someone FaceTime me so I can see everyone’s reactions?

Stella: No. You lost that privilege when you started this text chain.

Simon: Fine. Enjoy, sisters! Just remember that I knew before you, and also that everything that has happened is all because of me.

Maeve: Why are you the way you are?

Simon: Part of my charm.

So here we are, pizza and wine in hand, sitting around Maeve’s expensive coffee table, with all sets of eyes on me.

“Are you going to make us ask?” Quinn says. “Or are you just going to tell us? I need to know how to proceed.”

I feel the blush on my face start to creep in. “I’ve met someone and we’re….together.”

Silence takes over the room. Which I expected, so I continue on. “And, it’s not just a random person off the street. Well, I guess he was when he met.”

Another pause. “It’s Emmett.”

More silence. “Emmett Collins.”

Are they seriously not going to say anything? “Emmett as in Simon’s friend and business partner.”

This time I finally get a reaction.

“Get the fuck out of here!”

Leave it to Quinn to break the silence.

“Holy…” For a second I think Ainsley’s going to say a swear word. That’s what her face is saying. “Wow.”

Shucks. One day we’ll get her to crack.

“Wow is right,” Maeve says. “I didn’t know you knew Emmett?”

“I didn’t. Well, not until the day of the wedding.”

“The wedding!” If Quinn keeps yelling like this she’s going to break the iPad. “I thought you just went and got drunk?”

“I did,” I say. “But turns out, I was getting drunk with Emmett. ”

“How did you not know?” Ainsley asks. “Emmett isn’t exactly a super common name.”

“Because there were no names that night. I was Tiger. He was Cap. And that’s how we knew each other.”

I fill them in on the rest of the details of that night they didn’t know about, and how when I showed up in Florida he was there. How I tried to defend the house with a shoe. How we started spending time together. How that time started becoming more and more and before we knew it, we were inseparable.

“It was only supposed to be a vacation fling,” I say. “Two weeks. He didn’t do relationships, and God knows I wasn’t in a place for anything serious. And it was a great plan…”

“Until it wasn’t.”

I tap my nose to Maeve’s words.

“Oh! Stella!” Ainsley says, leaping over to hug me. “When you got back and you were on the curb crying, it was because of Emmett?”

I squeeze her back. “Yeah. We had just said goodbye. I didn’t expect it to make me as emotional as it did.”

“Well, of course it did. You loved him. And I’m not even mad that you’ve been lying to me about where you’ve been sleeping!”

She’s right. I did love him. I just didn’t know it.

“Back up,” Quinn says. “You two had a vacation sex pact, which, good for you. And for your sake, I hope the orgasms were plentiful and frequent.”

“They were,” I say, smiling down at the FaceTime.

“Great to hear. But, I need to know how we went from ‘only in Florida’ to ‘now you’re together.’ Because I feel like I missed about ten steps along the way.”

I go back and pick up from that first day we worked together. The hot and the cold. The few days he ghosted.

“And then he showed up at Duncan’s the day I was moving out, “ I say. “He said that he thought about us, and him, and his life, and he wanted to try this if I was willing to give it a shot. Then he almost killed Duncan for trying to touch me. The rest is history.”

“So fucking hot,” Quinn says.

Maeve turns the iPad. “Which part?”

“All of it,” Quinn says. “The available men I meet would never come to conclusions like that. Or put their heart out there. Or get all protective and alpha. Maybe I need to move back to Rolling Hills. Does he have a brother, Stel? Maybe a cousin in the twenty-nine to forty-two range?”

I laugh. “No. Just a sister.”

“Of course,” Quinn grumbles.

Ainsley doesn’t say anything, but gives me a side hug. Quinn is rambling on about her lack of man options out in Arizona. Which gives me a second to lock in with Maeve.

“Do you have anything to say?”

I know she does, and I want to hear it. More than my other two sisters. She’s Mama Maeve for a reason. She gives the best advice. She has the levelest of heads. She’s our logical thinker. And I don’t think I’d stop seeing Emmett if she didn’t support me, but I’d definitely listen to her point if she did.

“Do you remember what we talked about in Florida?”

I think back to the phone call I know she’s referring to. “You told me it was a rebound.”

“I did. And now that I know Emmett was your Florida Man, I have to ask again, is this a rebound?”

I take a second to think about my answer. On the surface, it looks like that. I was with a guy for three-and-a-half years who I was supposed to marry. The day that was supposed to happen, I met Emmett. A week after that we were sleeping together. If that isn’t a rebound, I don’t know what is.

Yet, he’s not. And I’m not sure what I know in this life, but I know he’s not that.

“It’s not,” I say confidently. “Emmett…he’s steady. Stable. Thoughtful. So many things I thought I had with Duncan that I’m now seeing I had none of. He makes me feel…whole? Does that make sense? I know I’ve never rebounded before, so I have nothing to compare this to. But there’s something about this, Maeve—it feels like he’s the one I was supposed to meet. That I was supposed to go through the shit I did to get here.”

Maeve’s stoic demeanor gradually turns into a smile. “Then you should go for it.”

“Really?” Quinn says. “I figured you’d be the Debbie Downer and saying it’s too quick and it’s just a phase.”

“You’d think that,” she says. “I’ve been divorced for five years. When Josh and I split, the last thing on my mind was dating. Hell, it still is. The thought of trying to meet someone and do that all over again sounds absolutely horrible. Especially as I’m a package deal with Jayce.”

“I mean, it is horrible,” Quinn says. “Not all of us can stumble into a bar and into the arms of a hunky construction man.”

“What I was saying,” Maeve continues while giving Quinn the eye. “Just because I didn’t want to date right away doesn’t mean that’s the right way. Hell, who am I to say what I know is right? Who are any of us? When it’s right it’s right. And if he treats her well, she’s happy, and he’s not getting flogged by a dominatrix, then who are we to object?”

We laugh at Maeve’s joke. “Thank you. That means a lot.”

“I know you want us to approve, but at the end of the day, Stella, this is your life,” Maeve continues. “It’s not something you need to have because the rest of us do. Or because you see everyone else having it. If this is right for you, then fucking do it. Be happy. Be in love. And we’ll have your back. Like always.”

Tears fall down my cheeks as I stand to walk over and hug my sister, Ainsley right behind me, making it a group hug.

“Stop!” Quinn groans from the iPad. “I’m already jealous I’m not there.”

“Then come home,” Ainsley says as we all wipe our tears of joy away. “Why are you even in Arizona still anyway?”

“Because I have a job,” she says. “And friends. And a cat. ”

“You know the cat can move,” I say. “And there are teaching jobs in Tennessee.”

She doesn’t answer, instead changing the subject like she’s so good at doing. “I did just think of another pro in the Emmett column.”

“What’s that?” I ask.

“He’s already Simon approved. At least I assume. Wait! How did he find out first?”

I instantly blush thinking back to this morning. “He might have walked in on us in the break room today.”

“Stella Leigh!” Ainsley scolds in the nicest way possible.

“We weren’t having sex…yet. Or then.”

“Did you have office sex?”

I smile at Quinn. “A lady never tells.”

“Bullshit. A lady tells. And brags. Because if she’s getting railed on a desk, her sisters need to know.”

We all laugh as I fill them in on enough details to assuage their curiosity. They aren’t surprised whatsoever that Simon is taking credit for this. But also agree that no one is going to go along with his narrative.

Quinn tells us she has to sign off as she has to grade papers before going to bed, so we start cleaning up. We’re just about wrapped up when there’s a knock at Maeve’s door.

“Who could that be?” I ask.

Maeve tosses down a dish towel before walking to her front door. “I have no idea.”

Ainsley and I follow her to see that when she opens the door, there’s a teenage boy holding two huge paper bags. “Delivery for Stella and her sisters.”

What in the world?

I step in front of Maeve and take the bags as Maeve finds her purse to hand him a tip. Something is cold in here, which makes me even more confused.

“What’s in the bags?” Ainsley asks.

“I’m not sure.” I put them down on the coffee table and open the first. I start grinning from ear to ear as I see two tubs of ice cream, one birthday cake flavor and one mint chocolate chip, and a note on top.

Hope you have a good night with your sisters. Call me and I’ll come get you when you’re done. That way you make it home safe. And when I mean home, I mean with me.

Love, Cap

“Stop! Did Emmett send us ice cream?” Ainsley squeals.

“He did,” I say as I hold the note to my chest.

“Oh girl, you’ve got it bad,” Maeve says.

“In my defense, the man sends me ice cream. Wouldn’t you?”

Maeve laughs and gives me a reassuring hug. “If a man sent me ice cream, not only would I actually start dating, I’d marry him on the spot.”