Read Online Hold On to Me by Victoria Purman - Free Book Online

had been a long day. Stella’s every limb ached and there were spasms in muscles she hadn’t known she had. She was fit and healthy—she regularly walked along the cliff tops west of Horseshoe Bay—but that day’s work had been back-breaking.
    â€˜You’re very tense,’ Summer said, pushing her fingers into Stella’s left shoulder.
    â€˜Yes,’ Stella mumbled into the sheet covering the massage table.
    â€˜I wish you’d taken up my offer to come and help you clean up, you crazy independent woman. I can handle a mop and bucket like a champion.’
    â€˜I know, I know,’ Stella turned her head to the side so she could chat. She’d had lots of offers but she was so afraid of falling to pieces in front of her friends that she’d refused their help. She was scraping up the ruins of her beloved business—and her life—and she wanted to do that in private.
    â€˜Believe me, Summer, this is the best thing you can do for me right now. Oh,’ she murmured, ‘that’s good.’
    â€˜Happy to oblige. Did you get much work done today?’ Summer positioned her palms on Stella’s shoulders and pressed down. Stella exhaled a big breath and felt half her tension flow out of her mouth.
    â€˜Tons. I filled the skip. There’s still water on the floor but it’s concrete, after all, and given how warm it’s been, that should dry out by itself over the next couple of days. I organised a quote for the building work.’
    â€˜Wow. You don’t just sit around, do you? Is it someone local?’
    â€˜No. Yes. Kind of. It’s Anna Morelli’s brother.’
    â€˜Ooh, you just tensed up, hon. You need to relax. Whatever you’re thinking about, let it go.’
    Let it go? There was no chance of that. After Luca had walked out of her shop with a grin that could melt an ice-cream at twenty feet, Stella had plonked herself on the wet floor and thought over their encounter. So he was handsome—any woman with a pulse could tell you that—but there was more. He was ambitious, already had a builder’s licence and his own company. She knew what it was like to start up your own business. Sure, she wasn’t building things, but the principles were the same. When it was your name on the letterhead, you worked like mad to make it a success. It was your baby and you wanted to make sure it survived and thrived. Luca was only two years in, and Stella figured he was probably working all the hours under the sun, trying to establish himself and his reputation. And yet he’d dropped everything that day to drive down to the beach and help her out. She had to make sure to thank Anna. She understood how persuasive that woman could be. She’d managed to convince Stella to stock stiletto heels in a beachside boutique, after all, despite her gut instinct that women on holidays wanted comfortable summer flats. Of course Anna had been right. Since the day Stella had put the first pair on display in the window, they’d been among her best sellers.
    And it seemed like Anna was going to be right about her brother, too.
    Stella blew out a breath and rolled her eyes. As she reflected on her behaviour that afternoon, she came to the conclusion she’d probably not been as grateful to Morelli Constructions as she should have been.
    â€˜So is he going to do the work for you? Anna’s brother?’
    Stella thought about the young man with the skin and the smile and the charm. ‘Luca. His name is Luca. Luca Morelli.’
    Summer stopped. ‘You just said his name three times. What’s going on? You’re tensing up again. Did it go badly? Is it going to be more expensive than you thought?’
    â€˜No, no. Nothing like that. It’s …’
    â€˜Relax a little. You’ve been through a major shock. No wonder your back and shoulders feel like fishing rope.’ Summer ran her knuckles down Stella’s