Sunshine

"How long has it been?" Paul asks me.

"2 weeks. But she has all summer, and honestly I wouldn't be surprised if she sends divorce papers instead of coming back. I should've listened to Jake, she was never meant for here." I tell him. He looks at me with pity and I hate it.

Bella moved here her last year of high school because her mom wanted to follow her new husband's baseball team around. She tries to pretend she doesn't hate it here but she does. Her mom moved her around a lot but she was always drawn to sunny big cities. This is a dreary small town.

Bella was pretty much counting down the days till college in Florida when she met me according to Jake, who besides me and maybe her mom knows her better than anyone. She stayed here for me. My whole life is here, I was born here, I can't imagine giving that up. I want to raise my kids here.

Bella doesn't want kids. We never thought to discuss it before we got married a month after she graduated high school. It was almost a love at first sight thing. I met her through a friend of a friend at a party.

She went to college closer to here so she could come back on the weekends and she got a job as a first grade teacher shortly after she graduated. We were happy I thought. I want kids but I don't push it because we're young still, I'm hoping she changes her mind. Then right after her summer vacation started she tells me she's going to spend an undetermined amount of time with her mom, she needs some sun and she needs to figure out what she wants to do with the rest of her life.

I didn't like the sound of it but the pleading look in her eyes to please understand made me agree without argument. She calls me every night and she sounds so happy, happier than she has in months. I can't help but be hurt at the fact that's she happier without me.

"I told you she was never meant for here. Bella needs sun but she loves you Sam. You're all she talks about when she calls me. She just really hates it here. And she's trying to decide if she can get over that and live here for the rest of her life, especially now." Jake tells me.

"What do you mean especially now?" I ask him and he tries to mumble a bunch of nothing before he finally spits out that she's pregnant.

"She doesn't want to tell you until she decides. She wouldn't try to keep you out of its life or anything but she's considering raising it in Florida with her mom." He tells me and now he's looking at me in pity. I don't even like Jake that much.

"All of this over the sun? That seems dramatic for Bella." Paul tells Jake.

"Maybe but it's the only thing she's really dramatic about." Jakes tells him.

And she gave it up for me.

Bella is the most loving, giving person I have ever known. She's always thinking of her friends and family and she supports me 100% in everything I do. Last year I used all of mine and her saving to open a custom auto paint shop and she never doubted me for a second.

The only reason she didn't want kids is because she thinks she's not good enough.

"Maybe you should go to Florida and see her." Paul suggests.

"She asked for space." I tell him.

"She misses you Sam." Jake tells me.

Well that's good to know.

So I decide to show up and surprise her.

A week later I get to her mom's house and suddenly feel awkward, I don't think her mom likes me much. Her mom left her dad to get out of the small town thing and she thinks I'm holding Bella back. Maybe I am.

"Sam, Bella didn't mention you were coming." Renee lets me in surprised.

"Yeah well that's because she didn't know." She smiles and tells me she's on the beach with Ross, her baby brother, he's 3 I think.

"She misses you Sam. She just really hates that place. It's quite possibly genetic. She talks about you all the time, but she's happy here. Go see her now, but be… careful with her." She tells me warningly.

"I know she's pregnant Renee. Jake kind of has a big mouth." I tell her and she laughs.

"She was pretty sure he would tell you." She tells me.

We have a beach at home. I don't understand why she has to come all the way down here to sit at the beach.

The house is practically on the beach so I walk down the stairs and look for her. I see Ross first probably because he's running around in circles and screaming.

Bella is running after him and she looks so beautiful. She's laughing like crazy and her eyes are big and bright. She looks happier than I've seen her in a really long time.

I have to wonder if it's the distance from me or is it really the sun. Can the sun really matter that much? I grew up without much of it but she told me once her mom chased the sun. If it was rainy and stormy when they woke up in the morning they would get in the car and drive until they found sun.

"Sam!" Ross screams and runs to me. Bella looks up with her bright eyes wide and then she smiles the most beautiful smile ever and she runs to me too.

I pick Ross up in one arm and hug her with my other arm.

"I missed you baby." I tell her kissing her. Ross jumps out of my arms and we follow him down the beach.

"I missed you too Sam but I'm not ready to come home." She tells me and I think well at least she still considers it home. "I hate that place Sam, so much. I don't want to raise my baby there, our baby there." OK, there goes that hope.

"Bella I don't want you and our baby to live so far from me." I tell her and she looks at me and I can tell she's trying not to cry.

"I don't want that either. That's why I stayed. I love you so much, I thought it was enough. But now I'm just not sure." She tells me rubbing her eyes still trying to not cry.

"You're happy here." I tell her.

"I'm happy here." She agrees. "My mom bought me a house. And before you say it's because she hates you, it has nothing to do with you. She bought it before there was a you. When I was supposed to come here for college."

Before I ruined her life she means.

A/N I wrote this thinking about the sun one day but I doubt I will continue it.