s t e l l a n
I N T E R S T A T E 8 0
Stellan was fighting to stay awake. In the rearview mirror, the sun was just below the horizon, and the eastern sky held the faintest glow. He had been up nearly twenty-four hours now.
Everly looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "Stellan?" she murmured. "Do you want to stop and get some sleep? I'd offer to drive, but I don't have a license, not to mention I can't drive a stick. I think you'd like to keep the engine intact."
He shook his head. "Not far enough yet." There was no telling the lengths Vinnie would go to track him down, especially if they thought he took their cash cow with him. They had resources, and knowing Vinnie, he wasn't afraid to use them.
She chewed her lip and looked at him; he could tell she wanted to protest. "Well, do you just want to stop at this rest area up here for a bit? Just get a power nap?" She indicated a blue sign on the side of the interstate.
Maybe she was right; he did feel his eyelids beginning to droop. Better to rest now than to drive them off the road to their deaths. "Just for a bit," he said, exiting and pulling into the rest stop.
He parked the car in the farthest corner, away from the main building and restrooms. He didn't need people passing by and being nosy. Not when the gang had eyes everywhere. Luckily, the windows were so tinted, that there was a slim chance that they could be seen anyway.
Leaning his seat back, he lounged and closed his eyes, but his mind was running in circles.
He was on the run, and needed to stay low-profile. He had basically kidnapped a girl from other kidnappers, and he had a feeling that she was probably worth more than she thought. He had to drop said girl off somewhere to fend for herself, and it really made his stomach uneasy. Round and round did his mind go, but before he knew it, he had finally nodded off.
○ ○ ○
Some time later, Stellan awoke to a gentle touch on his shoulder. He opened his eyes and focused on the face before him, his gaze traveling over hers.
Everly smiled and said, "I thought you might want to wake up and drive some more. You've been asleep for like three hours." She buckled her seatbelt as he sat up and rubbed his eyes. "I got out to go to the bathroom and I looked at the map. It looks like we're like 175 miles from Cleveland. I know you're probably eager to get rid of me so you can really get on your way. I'm sure there's a women's shelter there, and I can stay there until I can get a job." She pulled his jacket tighter around her and he instinctively turned up the heat as he put the car in drive and merged back onto the interstate.
He thought about what she said. "You've never been on the street before, have you?" he questioned. Surely she hadn't—daughter of a rich man and all. She probably lived a lavish life before. "Are you sure you're prepared for that? It's not easy."
She laughed bitterly. "No, I haven't." She looked down at what she was wearing and back at him. "Do I look like I'm ready for that? I literally have nothing except the clothes on my back and half of that is yours. I know it won't be easy, but I don't exactly have a choice, do I?"
He couldn't stop from smirking. "Well, wearing other people's clothes is half of it." The humor in his voice carried over to her, and when she smiled, just the smallest upturn of her lips, something in him relaxed.
Stellan's stomach growled, and he was sure it was loud enough for Everly to hear. She whipped her head toward him, and it felt like his ears were on fire.
"We could stop for food. Do you mind?" he asked shyly.
She giggled and nodded. "I thought you would never ask. I'm starving!"
His energy renewed, they drove another few minutes and exited.
"Anything in particular you're feeling? I know you're probably used to gourmet chef-cooked meals, but I thought we should lay low for a little bit longer," he said. There was no telling how many of Vinnie's contacts were on the lookout for them.
She shook her head. "I'm tired of all that fancy shit. I want a greasy cheeseburger and fries," she said, rubbing her flat stomach.
That was music to his ears. He pulled into the first place that caught his eye.
"Best cheeseburgers in town," he read, the neon sign in the window glowing in the late morning light.
She grinned and rubbed her palms together. "Yesss," she hissed, unbuckled her seatbelt and bounced a bit in her seat. "They better not be lying," she joked.
His stomach growled again just thinking about it. "I could eat anything at this point," he said. When she gave him a look, he smiled. "Well, almost anything."
He held the door of the diner open for her, and he was immediately greeted with a mouth-watering aroma.
Inside, the place wasn't too busy—they must have hit it at just the right time between breakfast and lunch. A short, blonde waitress popped her head into view at their entrance.
"Have a seat anywhere you like," she twittered with a smile.
"What about there?" When he nodded agreement she sat down in the booth with her back to the door. "Maybe you should sit next to me with your back to the door too," she suggested shyly.
"Good idea." Stellan slid in next to her, his leg brushing up against her thigh. When the waitress came up to take their drink order, Stellan asked for a Sprite.
"And you, honey?" the lady asked Everly.
"Um, Diet Coke." She stopped and shook her head. "You know what, no! Dr. Pepper!" she exclaimed.
Stellan looked at her in amusement."Livin' on the edge, huh?"
Everly grinned at him, her cheeks flushed. "Yeah, I haven't had a real soda in years."
"You don't need diet anyway," he commented, his eyes perusing the menu the waitress had set in front of them.
She glanced at him, and he saw her smile out of the corner of his eye.
When the waitress came back with the drinks, Everly took a long sip and sighed. "Yes... so good."
The waitress laughed and asked them for their order. Stellan motioned toward Everly and she ordered the double cheeseburger and cheese fries. She shrugged. "What can I say? I like cheese."
Stellan chuckled. "I think I'll have the same, actually," he told the waitress. He met Everly's eyes. "The woman has good taste."
Everly held his gaze for a moment and bit her lip before looking away and taking a sip of her drink.
A few minutes passed as they waited for their food, and the sound of Everly clearing her throat got Stellan's attention. He looked down at her as she said, "So I've been thinking... when you drop me off, could you leave me with just a few bucks so I have something?" she asked, and he could tell that she absolutely hated to ask.
Stellan thought of the wad of cash in his wallet. He had more than enough, his entire savings in big bills. "Yeah, yeah of course," he murmured lowly. "Look, I can give you however much you need. I... I don't want you to have to go to a shelter. They're riddled with sketchy, sometimes dangerous people. You just never know. Why don't you let me set you up in a motel?" he offered, his gut clenched.
Everly shook her head and pushed her hair behind her ear. "Thank you so much for offering to do that, Stellan, but I cannot let you. If you can just leave me with $100, I'll be fine." Her voice shook, and she gave him a thin smile. "Don't worry about me; I've dealt with some pretty sketchy, dangerous people in the past few years."
Stellan frowned, the tremor in her voice did no go unnoticed. Why was she exposed to dangerous people? Wasn't her father so overprotective of her?
He opened his mouth to reply, but then their food arrived, and he was distracted by the pangs in his stomach.
Her fries looked amazing. The cheese was ooey-gooey, and the French fries crispy-looking.
She saw him eyeing her fries and looked at his plate. "Oh, they forgot your cheese," she said with an excessively sad tone. "You want one of mine?" she asked, picking one up and holding it up to him playfully.
He leaned over and took the fry between his teeth, the cheese coating his tongue. It was the best bite he'd ever taken.
Stellan smiled playfully. He had to return the favor, after all.
Choosing one of her fries smothered in cheese, he brought it to her lips.
Everly met his eyes as she parted her lips to take a bite, and he felt his heart skip a beat—or two. When her straight, white teeth sank into the fry, her lips grazed his fingertips. She blushed, and he reluctantly pulled his hand away as her tongue darted out to lick a drop of cheese from her bottom lip.
Damn.
Stellan downed his Sprite, ignoring the cold burn at the back of his throat.
She bit her lip as she turned back to her food, and they ate in comfortable silence, glancing at one another every once in awhile.
About fifteen minutes later, they finished up and Stellan paid the check with a $50 bill and told the waitress to keep the change, to which she hugged them both and thanked them profusely. They made their way back to the car, and Everly shrugged his jacket off, as the late morning was warmer than usual. She laid it over her lap and when she reached forward to turn on the radio, the thin strap on her pajama top slid off her shoulders.
Stellan looked over his shoulder to back out of the parking spot, and his eye immediately caught on her bare shoulder. He let his eyes linger there for a moment, admiring the way her collarbone curved.
Honk, honk!
They jumped, and Stellan realized he'd been idling in the middle of the parking lot, staring.
His eyes met hers, and they burst into giggles before pulling out of the parking lot.
Everly pulled the strap back up over her shoulder and turned the radio to a Top 40 pop station and sang along to almost every song, much to Stellan's delight. He got the Corvette up to eighty miles an hour, the engine purring, but didn't go any faster for fear of getting pulled over. But they were making good time, and pretty soon, they were just about fifty miles outside of Cleveland.
The closer they got to Cleveland, the slower he drove, as if trying to delay the inevitable. It wasn't long before signs for the downtown Cleveland exit popped up. With a heavy heart, he pulled off the interstate.
Everly had gone quiet some time ago, and now the pop songs were almost mocking in their upbeat tempos.
She raised her head from where it had rested on the window for the past twenty minutes and looked around. She sighed and said, "You can just drop me off at the police station, I guess? We don't have a phone to look up an address or anything, but I'm sure they can point me in the right direction." She pushed her hair behind her ears and stole a glance at him.
He pursed his lips and nodded. This was what she wanted, wasn't it? It was the right thing to do.
Why did it feel so wrong?
He pulled into the parking lot of the police station, once again in the far back corner. Shifting the Corvette into park, he sat back, unable to do anything but stare ahead, afraid that anything else he'd do would betray what he really wanted.
Everly took a deep breath and opened her door, but before she got out, she looked at him. "Thanks for getting me out of there, Stellan. I really do appreciate it... and I really hope that one day you find whatever it is you're looking for. You deserve to be happy." She stepped out of the car and put his jacket on the passenger seat. "Be careful." She offered him one more smile and then turned away, shutting the door gently. He watched her as she walked away from him, toward the steps of the imposing building before her.
He let her walk away for exactly three seconds before he knew what he was doing. Shoving open his door, he leapt out as if his seat as if it were made of hot coals. Rounding the car, he took long, rapid steps after her.
"Wait."
Everly stopped in her tracks but didn't turn around right away. Instead, she turned her head slightly to the left, and he could barely see the profile of her face. "What?" she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
He halted right behind her. "Is this what you really want? Truly?" he asked. She didn't deserve to be on the streets. The instability, the danger... she shone too brightly to be dulled by that kind of life.
She turned around slowly to face him, her brown eyes locked on his. She looked at him like she was afraid to answer, but finally, just when he was starting to think he'd made a mistake, she spoke. "No. This isn't what I want," she murmured.
Their shared gaze was charged with an energy he couldn't describe. Something heavy, meaningful. He swallowed.
"Stay," he whispered. "Please."
She bit her lip and her eyebrow dipped. "You—you want me to stay with you? Why?" Her voice was soft, but there was a note of distrust behind it. He couldn't blame her; she'd clearly been through something that made her wary of others and their intentions.
Stellan was beside himself. How could he tell her that within just twenty-four hours, a delicate part of him had attached to her, and he didn't want to let her go? Her company calmed something inside of him—she had transformed from a liability to a treasured companion. He took a deep breath.
"I still don't know where to go from here, but... I don't want to do it alone. And I promise it will be better than street life."
She parted her lips but it was a moment before she spoke. "And you want me to be the one to do this with you? You don't want to... start over? With nothing from your past? I—I just want to make sure, because Stellan, there is nothing more that I would want in this world than to stay with you," she said, taking a tentative step toward him.
He felt as if his heart was being squeezed in a giant fist. Her confession ignited a fire in his limbs, and they begged to embrace her. He thought back to her first smile, when she told him her name, her voice that gave him goosebumps, and the look on her face as he fed her cheesy fries.
"I will never be able to completely forget the past and start over," he whispered, his gaze traveling her soft face. "And I'm starting to not want to."
Her cheeks flushed a brilliant pink, and he couldn't help himself from taking her hand. She looked down at their hands and then back at his face, running her thumb along his knuckles. "Me either..." she breathed, and he was suddenly aware of her proximity.
Before he could think too much about it, he pulled her into his chest and wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug.
She felt amazing, her body relaxing against his. Stellan couldn't remember the last time he held anyone in his arms, and for a second it made him sad, but that feeling was quickly replaced by joy when Everly wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him back.
He heard Everly sigh—a contented noise that made him certain that what he was doing was right. "Thank you, Stellan," she murmured.
He replied by pressing his lips to the top of her head, her hair tickling his nose. He felt at ease with her by his side, knowing that she was safe from a harsh streetlife to corrupt her innocence. And perhaps, for more selfish reasons as well.