Handle with Care
Bella didn't ask for this. But somehow it was just what she wanted. With a deadbeat mother, a younger brother to care for and the makings of a career a love life wasn't something she'd anticipated. Now she can't get enough of him. ExB, rated M, lemons, canon couples.
Characters aren't mine.
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I
Friendship was something I relinquished this time last year.
"I told you," I yell, "You need to get your ass into bed."
Defiant, the three year old before me glares back at me clinging to his toys. I'd put him in bed 30 minutes ago. Yet he'd simply taken himself out to continue trains on the carpet. It was almost midnight.
"You're up past your time," he sneers back.
"Jye. I'm working. I need to meet with my bride tomorrow so I have to make sure I have done my homework. Now get your little ass into bed before I kick it. You'll be grumpy going to daycare and I literally don't have any coffee left in the house to deal with it," I demand pulling his covers back as if to prove my point.
His face says 'I'm ready for the challenge, bitch.'
"I won't. I don't get why that lady wants you to make her wedding. It'll be yucky," he smirks.
"Jye. If you don't get into this bed right now I'll make sure you never have a wedding. I'll scare away every girl you ever meet," I growl.
He looks at me dumbfounded. My threat empty. I resort to violence. Lunging toward him I pick him up around his waist. He squeals, legs kicking to the beat of his tantrum.
"No!" he yells out.
"It's time for bed," I demand.
"You're not the boss of me," he screams as I throw him onto his mattress, slightly rougher than I'd planned.
I can't say he didn't deserve it. He also deserved me roughly pulling the covers over him with the force of my hands tucking him in.
"Yes I am," I sigh exhausted.
Work had been an asshole lately. I'd been sending Jye to bed early each night to give me the opportunity to work without him pestering me. Turns out it didn't work. Tonight I'd let him play later to see if that would keep him quiet. It did until he needed me to check his sick teddy bears every four seconds.
"Mummy wouldn't make me go to bed," he declares.
"Well mummy isn't here," I snap.
Instantly I wish I could take back the venom in my words.
I wish I could just take back the words.
6 Months ago
"I can't do it anymore, Bella. I'm not able to care for him."
Her voice is hushed while Jye plays in the cafe playground but her words are speaking volumes.
"You can't just abandon him!" I say angrily.
"I can't afford to care for him. I need to go. My friend is waiting to take me to Vegas," she sighs impatient.
"I'm sorry you have somewhere else to be but you're currently giving up your child because you can't be bothered," I growl.
"Look. I just… I need to get out of town for a bit. Think of it as babysitting. I'll come back," she grabs for her handbag.
She doesn't make an effort to grab for Jye's backpack.
"Are you going to explain it to him or are you letting me be the one to break his heart?" I ask tearily.
"Just say I'll be back soon," she sighs.
"You did this to me you know. You left me behind with Dad. You walked out and didn't give a shit. You don't deserve either of us. He's beautiful and if you don't want him, I'll prove to him that he is wanted by me," I scowl up at her.
"I want him. I just can't," she sighs.
"You can't chase some asshole if you have a toddler clinging to you," I roll my eyes.
"I can't put what is wrong right with a child to protect," she snaps.
"Just go," I say defeated.
And she did. For the first few weeks he took the excuse. Then he broke me. He cried. I cried with him. That was when I promised him.
"I'll never ever leave you," I whispered to his sleeping form.
With a kiss to his head, I had cuddled him closer. It was almost a seal to a promise I'd protect with my life.
His little feet in my back woke me. But it was the Borris the cat that really got me out of the bed. He meowed unapologetically from the edge of the bed to be fed. He came with the kid. My mother. What a charm.
They always talk about the father leaving. They ask how he could have left behind his wife and kids. Well mine didn't. My mum. She did the leaving. My father had raised me alone while my mother got up to whatever she pleased. Men, islands, drugs. She lived like a unfamous Lohan. She missed birthdays, Christmases. She let my father raise me on the wage of a local sheriff while living it high with billionaires. She had me at 17 and chased the adolescence she lost by having me. With an occasional call she was a ghost in my life. Until four years ago.
She rocked up on my doorstep pregnant by some loser. He'd recommended she abort 'it' but I convinced her otherwise. That there was enough love in both of us to raise a baby. I was young and naive when I thought a sibling might bring my mother and I closer together. That it would mend our broken relationship. It didn't. We fought and screamed. She'd leave Jye with me for weeks at a time. He'd ask where she went and usually a quick excuse would do the trick. However this time it felt as if he return wasn't realistic.
My father was incredible. He did it all alone and perfectly. He'd nursed the cuts and bruises. Then the heartbreaks and fears when I outgrew playground pain for adulthood.
"Okay," I snap at the cat.
Padding down the hall, barefoot I follow the cat to his dish. Jye had insisted he needed a pet to get over our sorry excuse of a mother being a sorry excuse.
Once fed the cat noisily slurped at its food. I begin to piece the start of my day together. Despite my crap of a parent I had pulled together a life I was proud of. My father passed away two years ago now. He'd left behind some savings which I put toward a place of my own and the beginning of my own business. A wedding planning business. Considering my parents marriage had failed I'd decided to make other people's work.
My best friend Alice had begged me to take on her brother and his fiancé as a client. I'd agreed offering mates rates. However this wedding would be the biggest of my career. Rosalie wasn't a bridezilla, but her guest list was a monster. Alice was a Cullen. Her family were crazy rich and crazy prominent. I'd had little to do with her family because of how intimidating they seemed. I'd met her mother and father, but her siblings only once. Emmett I'd met in the car home from a boozy night out. Alice had begged him to come get us.
As for Edward… well I didn't even have a face for his name. From what I'd heard it was right on top of a big head. He was the best man however and meeting him was only a matter of hours away. From overlooking texts to Alice and recounts from google he was Seattle's most eligible bachelor. The google said nothing about his romance life. I just assumed that but. This is how I imagine it but... A doctor that stitched up the wounded by day but created wounded hearts by night. He was the best in his field despite his age. No pictures though. Articles simply credited him when they needed a quote about hearts.
I'd spent the past week pulling together a portfolio for Rosalie and Emmett. Colours, venue ideas, fabric samples. All based on the 20 minute phone call I'd had with her. I'd be meeting with the family today for the first time before working my ass off to pull together their wedding in four months. Yep. Four. Rosalie's father was some high up politician and time wasn't on his side as far as schedule goes. They were paying me well despite my mate rate so I wasn't complaining. It put food in front of my brother.
"Bewa," I hear from behind me.
"Yeah," I say turning to face him.
"I'm sick," he groans eyes closed, hand on his stomach.
The gasp I let out isn't even out as quick as the vomit he projectiles all over my floorboards.
Fuck my life hard.
Hope you enjoyed chapter one.
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