Dramatic, Mushy, Complicated Love Read online

  The fear that I was responsible for more than just the family’s name.

  I was responsible for lives.

  Why I decided that I could paint the exterior of my house on my own with just a quick YouTube tutorial I couldn’t say. However, I knew the exact moment when I realised the whole idea was a piece of poo, and that moment was now because l was currently standing on the roof of my house looking down at the ladder lying flat on the ground eight feet below.

  My father’s voice popped into my head, giving me a right good talking to about how I was always starting a house project without thinking. Of course, Dad was right, even three kilometres away at my childhood home with not a clue of what I was actually doing.

  “This could get complicated,” I muttered, standing awkwardly on the hot tin roof, the grooves in the corrugated sheet digging into my feet … my bare feet.

  I had been in the middle of painting the eaves when I noticed that my TV antenna had a cable come loose from the roof. So, of course, I pulled my rounded arse up and over the gutter, thinking that I could fix it, only to kick the ladder over when I not so gracefully and rather perilously hauled myself onto the tin.

  One hour later, I was still here, going mentally through my neighbours, wondering which one would be able to lift the ladder back into position. It didn’t help that all my neighbours were over the age of seventy, most homebound and none with the muscle strength of a mouse.

  “I wonder how far away that tree branch is from here?” I murmured, looking at the large eucalypt to the side of my house, remembering having watched First Blood with Sly the other night, the scene where he jumped into a large pine tree came to mind.

  “It has to be no more than ten feet, close enough for the leaves to gunk up my gutters on a windy day.” Staring at the branch and calculating how much it would hurt to sew my own arm up, I missed the clunk of the metal ladder against the gutter until a blonde head popped up, scaring the shit out of me.

  “Spring! Damn, where did you come from?” I squealed, holding my hand to my chest, feeling the wild thump of my heartbeat under my palm.

  My sister smiled crookedly at me, her eyes rolling. “Well, I came around to pick up my sister because we have plans to go out tonight, but imagine my surprise to not only find she isn’t ready, but she is stuck up on her roof. Although, I shouldn’t be surprised considering the source of which I speak.”

  Laughing, I had to agree. This was not my first rodeo when it came to finding myself in a pickle. My history in the disaster zone well known and documented by my family and friends–and just about anyone who knows me.

  “Yeah well, I got sick of waiting for Dad and Brecken to come and paint the house. Looking at peeling paint every time I pull in the drive is getting to my OCD.” Waving Spring to start down the ladder, I shimmied down to the gutter on my butt, turned on my belly and found the first rung with my feet.

  “OCD!” Spring huffed from below me, “since when do you have OCD? Last time I saw your lounge room, there was nothing organised about it, or your kitchen, bathroom, bedroom—”

  “Oh, shut up,” I giggled, seeing where she was going with this.

  “For your information, little sister, that is not mess; it is shabby chic and eclectic. I don’t like to limit myself to one décor.”

  “Oh, is that what you call a bedroom floor littered with clothes and a bathroom sink you can’t see for all the make-up and tampon wrappers?”

  Making my way down, I jumped off the last rung and joined Spring on the ground.

  “What’s with all the attitude, Spring, and oh my god, what is with your dress?” Finally getting a good look at my sister’s outfit that I didn’t see before because of the gutter obscuring her lower body.

  “What this old thing,” Spring gushed, doing an exaggerated pirouette showing off the floating handkerchief shirt that barely covered her thighs and the bodice, which was just as sexy. Tight and bandage style, it left little to the imagination as to how big her breasts were.

  “Aren’t we just going to the Western tonight? Seems to me, that outfit is a little saucy for a dinky watering hole.”

  A red blush stained my sister’s cheeks, but her smile was wide and almost giddy.

  “Ace is going to be there, and I want to look good, no biggie.” Her flippant reply was followed by a leg lift to show me her sky-high heels. Red and sexy, right up Spring’s alley.

  “Don’t tell me I finally get to meet the famous Ace, the sexy hunk of a man that has my normally intelligent, level-headed sister turned inside out just by texting her,” I teased, leading the way over the back lawn to the back door.

  “Are you just going to leave the ladder against the house? Aren’t you worried about someone—”

  “Someone climbing up on my roof and stealing my what? Useless TV aerial?” Looking over my shoulder, I gave Spring a smirk.

  “You worry too much about the small stuff and not enough about how much your feet are going to hurt in about one hour from now.”

  “And you don’t worry enough about anything, Meadow.” Entering the back door behind me, Spring kept going with her lecture.

  “You know Mum and Dad are the airheads of this family, Brecken not far behind them. The least you and I can do is balance their crazy with some adult behaviour, you know what I mean?”

  Stalking through the kitchen, past the mess of this morning’s dirty dishes on the sink, I didn’t say a word because I knew Spring was not even close to being finished.

  That was the thing with my sister. She was a full-blown grown-up adult, twenty-three years old and more responsible than our parents. The other issue Spring had was her name.

  She hated it. Cold stone despised it.

  The words unique and interesting didn’t appeal to Spring Fawn Tessler. Although she did have a point to some degree, our names were … different. Brecken Wolf and Meadow Lavender weren’t exactly the names of a typical nuclear family. Lennie and Trish didn’t exactly roll with nine to five jobs or the obligatory family station wagon.

  Our parents always encouraged us to be our own person, live our own lives, calling them by their first names, instead of Mum and Dad. As young children, my siblings and I didn’t think it was weird, but then primary school happened, and we discovered pretty quickly we were in a completely different category than the rest of the kids.

  Me, being the oldest, faced the criticism and teasing first. Not long after that, Spring arrived at school and then Breck, and suddenly the student population had targets everywhere. Merciless teasing about our names, our parents and the way we dressed. Nothing escaped the scrutiny of our fellow classmates. The worst had been school events and parent-teacher interviews when Trish and Lennie would be unleashed into our world.

  Spring was and still is, embarrassed by them, Brecken and me, not so much anymore.

  Our upbringing had been more than tolerable, mainly because we never experienced the angst of overbearing parenting like our friends had. We never received time-outs or punishments such as groundings or loss of pocket money. As we got older and went further in school, we discovered that we were more popular because we had no parental supervision, no restrictions on having parties, or limits and boundaries to adhere to either.

  All in all, we grew up just fine. Spring had a different view on it, however.

  “Trish and Lennie prefer free spirits to airheads, Spring. Just saying.” Leading the way down the hall, I entered my room, going straight to my walk-in and started going through the rails of clothes for something to wear.

  “So, if you are dressed up like a princess going to her formal, does that mean I have to as well?” Please say no, please say no.

  “Damn right you do. As you said, the Western is a dinky joint at best, so I need someone else to look out of place with me.” Walking past me, Spring went to the racks of dresses, the good ones, and sorted through them one by one. Knowing that any choice was no longer mine, I left my sister to do her thing while I took a quick shower. My bathr
oom was attached to my room by a sliding door. It was not an en-suite because it was the only bathroom in the house with another entry from the hallway for guests to use. The previous owners cut an entrance from the walk-in to the bathroom and called it an en-suite when they listed it for sale.

  Standing under the hot water, I allowed myself to reflect on the night ahead. Typically, Spring and I would go to a bar with live music and a dance floor, getting a group of our girlfriends and we’d make a long night of partying. We weren’t party animals by any stretch, once a week being our limit for drinking and staying out late, so going out on a weeknight and a pub at that was giving me the impression my sister really liked this guy, Ace.

  Not one for wasting water, I showered and dried myself quickly, donned some lace knickers, sans bra, wrapped the towel around my body, and went about my hair and makeup.

  “Spring, what am I wearing?” I shouted as I swiped a satin red lipstick over my full lips, happy with the colour and its impact on my silver-blonde hair.

  “Do I need a bra or not?” Tossing the lippy back down on the vanity, I turned and started to walk back through my wardrobe, seeing my sister standing in the middle with a dress hanging from her fingers and a cheeky grin splitting her face.

  “I guess not,” I answered for her, recognising the dress she had chosen. Smiling, I took the shimmery fabric from Spring. “It’s going to be one of those nights.”

  ***

  Entering the Western, I noticed tonight was not just the usual night at a regular pub. Live music was booming from the front of the pub where a makeshift stage had been erected to accommodate the band and instruments. I instantly recognised the upbeat music to be that of one of my favourite local bands.

  “And now I understand the dress,” I mumbled out loud, not that Spring was listening to me. She was already ahead of me, in seek and search mode for the man who’d invited us tonight. Tucking my ruby red clutch under my arm, I veered away from Spring and headed to the bar. One of my brother’s friends worked at the Western as a bartender, and with any luck, he was on tonight, so at least I would have someone to chat to while my sister got her groove on with her buff buck.

  Threading my way through the crowd of drinkers and patrons, I found a spot at the end of the long mahogany bar and breathed a sigh of relief when Paddy came out from the side door behind the bar with an armload of expensive-looking bottles.

  “Meadow!” Hastily relieving himself of his load, Paddy grinned at me.

  “Hey Paddy, I was hoping you were on tonight.”

  “What are you doing here? This isn’t your usual haunt.” Coming over, he grabbed a glass. “Lemon, lime and bitters?”

  “To start with, yes please. And a tab too, Paddy.”

  “You here with Spring?” he asked, setting the drink down in front of me, then added a slice of lime and a straw with a flourish of his hand.

  Taking my drink, I nodded a thank you and took a long sip. “Hmmm, perfectly made. Yes, she is here on the hunt for true love. Some guy named Ace.”

  “Ah yeah, I know Ace, he is a regular. Comes here with his crew of workmates, a good bunch of blokes.”

  “Do I don’t need to worry?”

  “Nah, Ace is trustworthy. He and his best mate Luca own a demo business in town. They come here for the pool and beer, never any trouble.”

  Nodding again, I got comfortable on the stool and spun around to watch the band. Now that I knew my sister wasn’t chasing after another bad boy, listening to the music was made easier. The band was one I knew, having seen them at summer concerts around the Lake and sometimes at the showgrounds. That was the thing with the town I grew up in, it was small even though technically it was classed as a city. Once upon a time, Hillside was a town where ninety percent of the population knew each other, neighbours knew everything about you, and there was only one primary and secondary school for the whole town. Then, the developers came in and struck gold with housing estates and B&Bs, and all of a sudden, the city folk came here for a change of scenery and a life of commuting.

  It was good all round.

  Casting my gaze around the main bar room, I caught sight of my sister by the bank of pool tables. Her baby pink dress stood out in the sea of black tees and denim jeans, as much as her curly blonde hair did.

  “I take it that big dude with the pool cue in his hand is Ace,” I shouted back over my shoulder to Paddy.

  “Yep. Big isn’t he?”

  “Just how Spring likes them,” I agreed, admiring the hunk who looked to be completely besotted with my sister.

  Good, it is about time she caught the attention of someone decent rather than the losers she seemed to attract.

  My sister was more to me than just a sibling; she was my best friend. We grew up in each other’s pockets, always together, thanks to not only our close births but also because our parents raised their children to believe there was no one more important than family.

  Which was why Spring and I owned and operated a business together.

  Sipping my drink, I swayed on the stool to the beat of the music being played and just watched my sister play pool when my vision was obscured by the hottest man I have laid eyes on ever.

  “Paddy, who is the spunk rat standing next to Spring’s hot honey pot?” I asked, leaning my elbows back on the bar, getting comfortable.

  “Huh? Oh, that is Luca. Ace’s business partner I was telling you about.” Paddy placed a bowl of olives beside me, knowing that I didn’t like peanuts or pretzels. Without taking my eyes off the gorgeous man, I reached for an olive and popped it into my mouth.

  “Mmmm is that right,” I murmured around the salty treat, sucking the red capsicum piece out, then chewed down on the rest.

  “Luca is a serious kind of a bloke, Meadow. I’m not sure he can deal with your kind.”

  Narrowing my eyes, I took in Luca. Never had a man caught my attention so quickly and so completely and without even talking to him. My last relationship ended over a year ago; Matt and I had been together for eight months and were talking about moving in together when he accepted a job interstate. Both of us dreaded the whole long-distance thing, so we split up amicably. The last I’d heard from him, he had met a nice lady, and now they were engaged. In retrospect, Matt and I weren’t really all that serious. We spent the typical weekends as a couple, but during the week, Matt was too busy making his way up the executive ladder. His view on my little second-hand business wasn’t kind, always making fun of the shop my sister and I lovingly grew from nothing to something special. It made us a comfortable living, and that was all Spring and I ever desired. Getting big wasn’t for us.

  “My kind?” I asked, staring at Luca’s strong arms that were bulging from his short sleeve shirt. A part of a tattoo peeked from the sleeve hitting just to his elbow, but somehow from here, it looked unfinished–the tribal pattern just kind of ended, making it seem like it was still being done.

  “Yeah, you know … free spirited and—”

  “If you say hippie, I’m telling Brecken you hit on the girl he is panting after,” I threatened, speaking about Breck’s latest girlfriend. I think he was serious about this one, he had to be since he had been seeing her for a few months now and only her.

  “You wouldn’t! I didn’t!” Paddy spluttered, his head appearing over the bar to glare at me.

  “Wouldn’t I?” Patting his cheek affectionately, I pushed off the stool and smoothed down the tiny skirt of my dress. When Spring picked the most immodest dress in my wardrobe, I had reservations about wearing it. The plunging V neckline and shimmery, rose gold fabric and the length left little to the imagination what was underneath, or at least that was how it felt to me. My only saving grace was seeing that most of the women in the pub were dressed up much like me, the live band giving the excuse to swap out the jeans and crop tops for something with a little more oomph.

  Taking my drink, I slowly made my way to where spunk rat was. Normally, I didn’t go for men with shaved heads, but this guy �
� was definitely changing my mind. My whole body had come alive, the year of sexual slumber now well and truly wide awake.

  I clocked the stunning blonde the minute she entered the bar, walking behind another girl who ended up being Ace’s date tonight. Both women were beautiful, but it was the stunner in the gold dress that pulled me. Add to that her long, toned, tanned legs and stiletto heels with straps wrapping halfway up her shapely calves. The dress she wore was something off a runway, which usually only a model could pull off, but she could, and was doing a fucking good job of it. Long, blonde hair like spun silver bounced down her back in thick, soft curls. Long enough for me to grab hold of while taking her from behind—a fist or an elbow hit me fair in the ribs, knocking me out of my erotic thoughts and knocking the air out of my lungs.

  “What the fuck?” Glaring up at Ace, about to knock his lights out for hitting me, when a soft feminine giggle stopped me.

  “Now that you are back from wherever your mind went,” Ace drawled, “I was introducing you to Spring’s sister, not that you heard a word.”

  Standing straight, I looked away from Ace and came face to face with the stunner. Up close, I could see the silver shimmer of her hair much better, and having sisters myself, I unfortunately knew a little about dying hair, and this was no bottle job. The colour was natural, just like the rest of her beauty. Green eyes that were so green they reminded me of freshly cut grass after a rain shower, perfectly pouty, pink lips and a smile that would bring any man made of flesh to his knees.

  Perfection.

  Beautiful.

  Mine.

  Those three words swirled around my brain as I just stood still and stared at her. I couldn’t help it, never in my whole life had any woman captivated me so totally, with so much impact from just a look.

  Clearing my throat, I held out my hand. “Hey, I’m Luca.”

  “Hey back, spunk rat, I’m Meadow.” Her small hand slipped into mine and my world spun. Electric currents shot up my arm, sending sparks to my dick.