With Open Eyes
Chapter One
Weary with road fatigue, Edward Cullen pulled over just outside of town. With his headlights illuminating the Covington, Georgia welcome sign, he stepped out of his truck and flipped up his collar against the winter chill.
Fear and excitement raced through his veins as he leaned against the hood of his red rebuilt 1949 Dodge Power Wagon.
Auntie Esme would be glad to see him for Christmas—that made him smile.
Chief Swan—not so much—that thought made his stomach drop.
"You messed up big time, boy," Charlie Swan had said as he removed the handcuffs from Edward's wrists. "We got you and your cousin dead to rights on possession with the intent to distribute and drunk driving. You're going to leave this town and my daughter, or I'll see to it that the charges fall directly on you instead of your shit cousin. Do I make myself clear?"
"I love her, sir," Edward had whispered past the lump in his throat as he rubbed his wrists.
Chief Swan had laughed. "Oh, Bella'll cry and pine for a bit, but she'll get over you and move onto better."
Bella Swan, the sweetest girl he'd ever known—well, that just made his heart race.
After eight years, he was coming home to make things right with those he loved and rebuild his life. His face hardened with determination. He spat to the side and glanced one more time at the sign before climbing into his truck and rolling into town.
…
As he sauntered up the drive of the sprawling Tudor home, the front door flew open spilling light across the lawn.
"Edward!"
Edward found himself engulfed in Aunt Esme's warm embrace before he reached the porch steps.
"Hey, Auntie."
She squeezed tighter, and he glanced over her shoulder to see Uncle Carlisle step onto the porch.
"Welcome back, son."
Edward kissed Esme's temple and wrapped his arm around her shoulders as he led her up the steps and grasped Carlisle's outstretched hand.
"Thank you, sir. It's great to be back."
He was ushered into a warm room glowing with a glittering tree and a crackling fire.
"Sit," Esme said as she took his coat and propelled him toward the loveseat along the wall.
Carlisle sat on the couch across from Edward and held his arm out for Esme to sit next to him.
Edward took a deep breath and waited as they grinned at him.
Finally, he relaxed back and crossed his ankle over his knee. "So we're okay?" he asked as he looked from one to the other.
Esme patted Carlisle's thigh, and Carlisle gave her shoulder a squeeze.
"Son, if it were up to me, you never would have left. It was an injustice to treat you in that manner. You promise never to put us in that position again, and we are good as gold."
Edward nodded and swallowed against the lump in his throat. "Thank you, sir. Getting into that car with my cousin is my greatest regret."
"We know, son," Carlisle said and slapped his leg. "The past is the past. Let's celebrate ."
Esme hopped up, returned with a tray of wine glasses and passed them out. Carlisle lifted his flute to Edward. "To homecomings and new beginnings."
"To homecomings," Esme agreed.
"To new beginnings, thank you," Edward said to his aunt and uncle as he took a sip of the delicate white wine, not his cup of tea but very Esme.
Esme wrapped her arms around Edward's slender waist. "I have dinner in the oven let's go to the kitchen, and I'll get it on the table."
Edward felt Carlisle's arm rest across his shoulders as the trio walked to the large kitchen. Breathing in his aunt's home cooking, He smiled at how good it felt to be home.
…
Mischief, an orange tabby, meandered under an azalea bush after a grasshopper while Bella worked at wrapping Christmas lights around the front porch posts of the frame house her Grandma Swan had left her. Mischief, sensing a tete-a-tete, sat on the rock between the bushes and wrapped his tail around his feet.
Bella picked up a new strand of lights and worked a knot before she began the conversation. "Angela said Edward Cullen came into the diner for pie and coffee." She cut her eyes to see if her cat was casting judgment. When Mischief narrowed his eyes for her to continue, Bella sat on the step and rubbed under the cat's chin. "I just want him to be happy. I knew when he left I didn't make him happy. How could I? It would have meant tying him to this one horse town." She threw the strand back in the box and leaned against the porch railing.
"You'll call me?"
"Yeah, baby, eleven thirty and one ring."
She'd smiled shyly, "Okay,"—kiss—"I'll talk…"—kiss—"…to you soon." –kiss.
He'd never called.
At school the next day she found out his aunt had withdrawn him from school and he had left town. Her dad had been supportive telling her it was for the best. She'd see—but she never did.
Edward was gone.
"Edward was too bright a star to be extinguished here," Bella sighed.
Mischief rubbed along her arm in commiseration and Bella grinned at her friend. She pulled a faded azalea off a bush and tossed it onto the grass smiling as Mischief attacked it. With a determined huff, Bella returned to her work.
She worked until the sun was dropping below the limbs of her live oak. She stood and surveyed the front of the house and nodded with satisfaction before patting her thigh.
"Bo. Jangles. Y'all come on." Two chocolate labs bounded from their spot under a peach tree. They followed her up the steps of the wide porch and into the eat-in kitchen where she poured herself an ice tea and grabbed three cookies.
She and her entourage retired to the back porch, and she wrapped herself in a throw on the swing before dropping two cookies in front of her dogs.
She took a bite of her cookie and looked out over the peaceful garden. The sunlight slanted through the live oak and pecan trees toward the back of the property creating a checkered pattern across the yellowed lawn and sleeping raised beds.
Bella rocked lazily rubbing her foot along the prostrate form of Bo and finished her cookie lost in memories of strong arms and soft kisses—loving words and misplaced wishes.