AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I could have your car towed to my mechanic,” Noah offers with a casual shrug.
My skin feels hot and cold at the same time. I don’t know what it is about them, about each of them specifically, but I find it harder and harder to resist. They mean well. I know that much. “I can’t afford to fix my car at the moment.”
“I’m not asking you to pay for anything. Consider it a welcome bonus,” he replies with a charming smile.
Levi clears his throat. “Stella, let us help you. Stay here for a while. Bring your kids. They’ll be better off here, closer to you. You won’t have to spend any money on gas and car maintenance, either, since you’ll be living and working here. Like Isaac suggested, it’s a temporary arrangement until you can get back on your feet again.”
“You and your children need balance and peace,” Beau adds, his French accent thinned and melting into a sweet American vibe. “We can provide that here, with little expense. It’s pennies to us, and you don’t have to worry about putting food on their table or a roof over their heads. And if Bella is fine with caring for them while you’re working, why deny yourself the opportunity?”
They each have a point. It’s time for me to stop lying to myself. I do need help. I need every bit of help I can get. “I intend to pay you back for everything,” I declare firmly and with my chin up high. My daddy may have walked out on us—much like Elijah walked out on our kids—but at least I held on to the pride he inspired in me ever since I was a child. “I won’t take any pity or charity from anybody.”
“Fine,” Isaac replies. “You can pay us back whenever you can.”
“Alright,” I finally say, turning away from the window. “I’ll accept your offer. And I cannot thank you enough for taking a chance on me like this.”
Noah’s lips curl into a playful grin. “Good. I’ll get your car fixed, then.”
“And I’ll drive you back to Scarborough so you can pack your bags and bring your kids up here,” Isaac adds, leaving no room for me to wiggle or object.
I almost pinch myself.
3
Stella
There’s quite a lot of traffic between Port Elizabeth and Scarborough around noon. I thought we wouldn’t need more than twenty minutes, but we’ve been in Isaac’s Lexus for almost an hour now, and we’re still not in the city yet. Not that I mind sinking into a fine leather seat with a hot guy behind the wheel sitting right next to me. I could admire his profile for the rest of my life and never get tired of it. This man is nature’s perfect design—and nature was kind enough to make two of them at once.
“How are you feeling?” Isaac asks.
“Better than an hour ago,” I reply, half-smiling. My phone keeps chirping. Messages from my mother telling me to hurry. She’s being deliberately obnoxious solely for the purpose of aggravating me, but I refuse to let her get to me anymore. “And I have you and your partners to thank.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he says. “I may not know what it’s like to be in your shoes, Stella, but I do understand hardship, albeit in a different sense. We’re all subject to struggle of one kind or the other, and if I can do something to make it easier on you, I’m basically doing something to make it easier on myself and my partners. We don’t have the time nor the energy to keep interviewing other people for a maid’s position. We had a great working relationship with your friend, Theo, and she recommended you for the job. I’m fine with helping you out if it keeps you around.”
“That’s the sweetest thing anybody has ever said to me,” I say with a little laugh.
“It’s the truth. I don’t know what kind of employers you’ve had to deal with before, but Noah, Beau, Levi, and me… We’re different.”
“Oh, I can tell.” How did I get so comfortable and laid back all of a sudden? My mouth is moving without my permission, and I’m not sure I can control the words that insist on coming out of it. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like that about you. You’re all so… cool.”
Isaac laughs. “I’ll tell you a secret. We weren’t always so cool.”
“I can’t believe that.”
There isn’t a single cloud up above. Just an endless mass of pure blue, and his eyes mirror its beauty to perfection. I have a hard time imagining Isaac or Noah as anything less than the kind of heartthrobs who left a string of swooning girls behind them wherever they went. I’m sure Levi has had his share of admirers—and still does, being the successful and annoyingly handsome author he is. And Beau used to play soccer in the big leagues. I know for a fact there were always gorgeous supermodels hanging from his arms at any moment of the day.
“I had my nose in the books for as long as I can remember. Mostly math and physics,” Isaac says. “You might see the four of us the way we are today, but we were scrawny little turds back in high school. Noah and I didn’t really benefit from that much anticipated growth spurt, if you catch my drift.”
I can’t help but laugh. “You went from scrawny to lanky overnight, huh?”
“Basically, yeah. We got tall, so some of the bigger kids couldn’t really pick on us anymore. But we were still awkward as hell. I mean, I don’t know about Beau since he grew up in France. He was always into sports, though. Nothing else mattered. Not girls, not hanging out with the guys, nothing like that. It was just him and the wide-open field, a soccer ball at his feet and glory.”
“So, you, Noah, and Levi grew up together?”
He nods slightly. “Yeah. Like I said, I was the ultimate nerd. Noah was in the AV club, so that didn’t get him much action, either. It wasn’t until he started working as a bartender that he discovered his… let’s call it charm. And Levi was always writing. Terrible stuff, mind you. Cliches galore. When he got into college, however, he realized he needed a bit more life experience in order to fully convey the human condition. Once he started going outside our tight circle, met other people and listened to their stories, his writing changed. But trust me, Stella, we all had to start somewhere before we got to where we are today.”
“I’m sensing a lesson here,” I mumble.
“It’s not coming from a higher place of sorts. We were lucky, more or less. Levi, not so much. He was in the foster system. His only fortune was that the Pattons kept him for all four years of high school, which gave him enough stability to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. Noah and I were definitely the most fortunate. Trust fund babies and whatnot. We’ve always had a safety net.”
