A/N: I originally wrote this for the Summer Lovin' Anonymous One Shot Contest hosted by Cosmoandmarvar. The contest had a ten-thousand word limit though so I had to cut down an entire part (the flashback). That part is here now. Hope you enjoy and I will be continuing this in some way, shape or form, eventually.

Infinite love and thanks to my darling iponeddyou. For being who she is and doing what she does.

Disclaimer: Though what's left afterwards does, these characters' names/appearances/all that other Twilight-y stuff do not belong to me. Nor do any noodle floats cause my dog thought they were giant spaghetti. :(

*** Bella's POV

"Pack a tote, Mrs. Beanie, we're going to the beach."

"Emmett! I stole that beanie like once! And only because it was cold!" I yelled into the phone at my friend, as I had so many other times.

"Whatevs. Be there in t-minus four minutes. Better hurry up with that packing."

He hung up on me before I could get any more information whatsoever.

The second my hands closed around a beachy-like bag from my closet, my phone beeped again. Pulling it from my pocket, I saw that it was a text this time and not an actual call.

Beach beach beach! We're going to the beach!

Rolling my eyes, I texted my other friend Alice back.

So I heard.

Careful, I hear such a great measure like that of enthusiasm is hazardous to health.

What beach are we even going to?

Does it matter? Oh, and wear that sexy suit I know you have. If you don't, I'll put you in one of mine. Which you know will be too small.

As I was typing out a snippy reply to her regarding the fact that I was more than capable of dressing myself, another message from her interrupted.

I'll have the guys hold you down and put it on you if you don't cooperate on your own. You know I can make it happen.

And I did know. Alice had just about everyone she knew wrapped around her finger, including the people I called my friends. Cheap, whoring sellouts.

I chose not to respond to her and canceled the previous message I'd been composing. The little brat knew what I'd end up doing anyway.

After rushing to put some beach-appropriate clothes on over my suit (the "sexy" one Alice had coerced me into wearing), I hurried into my kitchen to throw some bottles of water and chips into my tote. Following that were some towels and sunscreen from my bathroom closet, and my latest read from the coffee table in front of the very couch I was abandoning for the day.

I'd just slipped on my shoes when tires squealed outside the house, a horn honking simultaneously.

Emmett had arrived.

I waved to him, sitting in the front seat of the huge SUV he'd obviously borrowed from his parents for this occasion alone. He was the only one whose parents hadn't relocated to somewhere cooler and more rural, and he took every advantage of it that he could.

I piled in to the front passenger seat, casting a weary glance behind me at the amount of stuff he'd packed into the large vehicle.

"Came prepared, huh?"

"Duh! You don't go the beach without supplies. You know this, Bullshit." Emmett was one of my best friends, had been since I'd first moved to this area of the great state governed by the Terminator. Which was the reason why he got away with calling me 'bullshit,' aka my initials. Bella Swan. BS.

The dude was a character, I had to give him that.

"Yeah yeah, I get that," I waved a hand at him in dismissal of his chiding. "What I don't get is why you needed so... much."

There were floats of what looked to be every kind: flat loungers, chair loungers, inner-tubes, seahorse and dolphin ones. All of them, including the beach balls in various sizes, blown up. I saw beach chairs stacked on the backseat, several coolers filled with who-the-hell-knew-what, a boomerang, gear for things like badminton, volleyball, football, even a couple pails and shovels.

"What's the point of goin' out if you're not gonna go all out?" Emmett glanced quickly away from the road to shower me with his trademark grin.

Knowing the answer he wanted to a question he posed often, I grinned too. "There isn't one."

"Ay plus for Miss Swan!" He removed a hand from the steering wheel to hold it up for a high-five.

One of the excellent things about living on the coast of California? You were generally only ten to twenty minutes away from the beach.

Traffic was pretty light, and before I knew it, Emmett and I were hopping out onto steaming pavement, the sound of waves greeting us and sea gulls sea-gulling in the background.

He spread his arms wide, another grin as similarly wide on his face "There's no place like the beach."

"I thought that bikini had pink flowers on it?"

I turned away from the sight of the ocean, fixing on another of my best friends, leaning against her Porsche with her arms crossed. The car almost came up to her chest, mostly because she was the equivalent of a pinky toe compared to the rest of the toes, and partly because she didn't have on shoes.

"No, they're brown." I pointed to the only flower on my blue bikini showing from underneath my loose shorts, thankful the two drawing attention to my ladies were covered from color-scrutiny. "See?"

"Have your hellos been documented down for award-winning purposes, Al?" Emmett wondered, entire body almost vibrating with beach excitement. He had a thing for beaches. The scantily clad girls, the scantily clad girls playing sports, the scantily clad girls rubbing on sunscreen, the scantily clad girls running, the scantily clad girls getting wet. Yeah, he never hesitated to give his high opinion on the beach should anyone even come close to asking. Hence why I knew the Emmett Cullen Flawless Five: his top five reason for beach-love, by heart.

Alice rolled her eyes, pushing off her car. "And sometimes you wonder why Edward is my favorite cousin and not you."

Before they could start arguing like siblings, I attempted to divert the conversation. "Did you come alone?"

"Certainly not!" She said it in a way that made coming to the beach without someone sound like a serious faux pas. "Angela and Edward carpooled with me."

My blood got excited at the knowledge that he was here, heating up and beginning to sprint through my veins.

"I don't seeee them." Emmett's words were pronounced more snidely than a comment about favorite cousins deserved. But underneath the snappiness, anyone could clearly see he was pouting.

Alice waved a hand, pairing it with a shrug. "He wandered off somewhere."

Eyes traveling speculatively up and down the beach, Emmett began to wander off as well. "Later, gators," he called over his shoulder.

When he had walked a sufficient distance away, I raised my brows at Alice until she rolled her head and focused on me.

"Can I help you?"

"Alice, what are we doing here?"

"It's a beach. Jeez, Bella, I knew you could be slow sometimes, but come on, moron!"

Shifting my eyes away from the sea over her shoulder that kept catching my attention, I glared at her. Not for the teasing that outsiders might have viewed as cruel, but for her avoidance. "See now, your lack of faith in my brain skills is just plain insulting."

Alice lifted a lone, carefully groomed eyebrow, challenging and daring.

"You think I don't know that this is the very beach your Baywatch Beauty patrols?"

She spluttered, her mouth opening and closing like a guppy. Good. Nice to know I can still have one up on you, you bikini-forcing wench. I grinned at her, only a touch of mischievous evil in it.

"How much recon did you do until you finally found out it was this one?" I knew if I kept the concentration on her and her Baywatch Beauty, she wouldn't ask how I knew what I knew.

She pushed out her lower lip at my question, apparently not appreciating it. And as such, it seemed she didn't feel the need to reply.

Imitating her from a minute ago, I rolled my own eyes. "Come on, Alice. You can tell me all about it. I swear I'll listen."

She was renowned for enjoying the simple act of telling tales, spinning and weaving every little detail into a (long-ass) story. I, on the other hand, was notorious for my lack of focus skills. I wanted a bare-bones story; just the raw facts, no narrative, 'And then I was thinking this and my heart was doing that' garbage.

I'd actually been tested for ADHD on numerous occasions during my childhood. All results were negative. Which, of course, amused the hell out of me. My parents, not so much.

Reining in my impatience, I watched as Alice looked me over. "You would, wouldn't you?" she wondered aloud but sounding like she'd meant it just to herself. She sighed, a smile forming on her cute pink lips. (Hey, you don't have to be a carpet-muncher to appreciate feminine beauty.) "But I'll be nice and spare you this time."

I brightened at her words, my own smile peeking its way out. My eyebrows lifting once again asked the "Yeah?" question my voice didn't.

Instead of answering, Alice simply began her recountal. "You know how he's been coming in with his sister because he's the best man at her wedding and evidently she trusts his taste?"

The bounds broke on my impatience, and I nodded, well, impatiently. Alice owned and ran a fashion-everything store. Relatively small, but well-known to those in the know who possessed fashion sense. She did good business, especially for being a borderline-boutique kind of shop.

"Which is really hot, by the way. Particularly since I get not even one little blip on my gaydar from him. Anyway," she hurried on, as though embarrassed. As if. "The other day I overheard," of course meaning her ears had been keenly searching for any crumb of information about the dude, "him telling his sister he was late for work. And then she scoffed and said the Zuma Beach could wait five more minutes for just another lifeguard to show up."

"She's one of those Brize-dillas, isn't she?"

"Bride-zilla, Bella."

"Whatever. She is one. I can tell."

Alice didn't respond to that, forging ahead with her story. "By now my adorable little ears," and here she caressed them fondly, "had sufficiently perked up when they heard about his occupation. Chelsea goes on to say that it's her wedding, to which Jasper, that's his name. Chelsea's plainly called him that several times before."

"I believe you," I said, holding up my hands. "No need to defend how you came about his name. I know you pissed off Mark the Background Checker, so there's no other way you could have come about his name other than completely innocent ways."

She flushed at either my words, or the memory of BG Mark, but soldiered on anyhow. "So Jasper tells her that he's not just another lifeguard; he's the boss—"

"Swoooon."

Giggling, Alice agreed, "I know, right?"

I made mini sideways-circles with my hand as we headed toward the sand. "Go on, go on."

"Right right. Then Jasper, gosh, don't you just love that name?"

"It's fantastic. Finish the story."

"Then Jasper spends like five minutes trying to convince Chelsea of the lazy kind of chaos, that's a direct quote, that tends to break out when he's not there when he should be. It eventually worked and he ducked out early. Forty-five minutes later, when I finally finished with Chelsea, I left Tia in charge of the store for a bit."

"While you went out to go stalk the hot lifeguard boss."

Alice grinned widely, proudly. "You know me so well."

"That I do. Continue though."

"Right. So I grab a hat and a pair of huge sunglasses, those darling Marc Jacobs purple ones I got at that fair in San Jose. You remember?" At my quick, jerky nod, she dropped that branch of conversation. "Anyway, I show up at the beach, not sure at which section he'll be. Zuma's a fairly big beach, ya know? I mean, it's not too huge, as in Malibu-sized, but it's not rinky dinky. Takes me about two seconds to find him outside the lifeguard shack, in his lifeguard gear—"

"That hot red floaty rescue thing matching smoking red shorts included?"

"Fuck yes!"

It was my turn to grin widely, and I bobbed my head slowly in approval. "Very nice."

"It was, it was. But back on track. He's standing there, looking 'drop me in a coffin and bury me in a hole because I am d-e-a-d, dead' gorgeous, addressing about three other lifeguards of I'd-totally-tap-that quality. I almost peed my pants. And contemplated running into the ocean screaming bloody murder just so one or all of them would have to touch me."

"Whore."

"Oh yeah."

I laughed loudly, always happy to be in her company. Shedding my shoes, shorts and shirt, I deposited them next to the pile of stuff occupying a spot Alice had indicated were both ours. When I looked back up, I noticed Em, standing off to the side of what appeared to be an all-girl volleyball game. He was clearly ogling, not even attempting to hide it, the horndog.

As I continued to watch, the ball was whacked out of bounds and right near him. I knew his mother had taught him manners, so couldn't for the life of me comprehend why he just stood there. Smirking and unmoving. At least, I couldn't understand until a blonde bombshell, dressed in a gold bikini that must have been glued on, called out to him to throw the ball back.

Because he was classy (and perverted) like that, Emmett refused. The pretty blonde huffed, hands motioning to other players as she headed for Emmett, face scowling while appraising. She bent over to pick up the ball, either inadvertently or very purposefully giving him a nice assful. Eyeful. Er, eyeful of her ass.

Once the bombshell reached the area obviously designated for her volleyball game, she tossed the ball up in the air. And promptly smacked it toward my best guy friend's crotch. It didn't hit any sort of target, of course. Em's reflexes were too good for that. But there was a definite flirtatious tone to the entire interaction, and I shuddered at thoughts that should never have been allowed to enter my mind.

"Uh," I turned away, shaking my head to rid it of the images. "So yeah, what you were saying."

"Muh-huh?" Alice seemed to be in the same boat as me.

I struggled for a moment to remember what we'd been discussing before the unwelcome interruption. "Right, so then you devised a plan to come back to the beach, out of hiding but obviously not planning to run into The Lifeguard because you came with your friends." She was nodding by the time I'd finished.

"Exactly."

"It's brilliant."

She waggled her eyebrows once. "Thank you."

"What's the rest of it?"

"What?" I had to give her credit for the realness of the confused face she sported.

"The rest of the plan. Are you gonna drown? Accidentally lose your top in a wave—"

"I'm not that much of a ho, thank you very much," she sniffed.

"Touché." I wiggled my toes in the sun-heated sand as we walked toward nowhere, loving the feel. "Well, you gonna break a leg? An arm? A bone in your ear? Gonna lose a shoe? A phone? The bracelet that was a present from your dear aunt Nettie?"

"Ooh, that's a good one."

I couldn't help but chuckle. "I know."

"Drop it though."

My eyes narrowed at the sudden seriousness and warning in her voice. "You are planning something! I knew it."

"Oh look. Edward just got here."

"What? Where?" I cursed myself instantly for the excited and happy tone of my voice, for the way I'd dropped everything, spun swiftly around and started searching for him.

I finally spotted him, walking toward me and Alice from Shakey Snake's Snack Shack. He wore a simple white t-shirt, of the oh so very delicious v-neck variety, and equally simple black swim shorts.

It should have been illegal that he could look so freaking awesome in an outfit so simple.

My heart stalled, sputtered a couple times, then kicked into overdrive. My girly parts awakened and began to throw a party.

I'm so gone it's not even funny.

Okay, maybe it's a little funny. But only a little.

Biting my lip in want-want-want, I took in all the details of him.

His feet were bare, slightly paler than the rest of him, and defined in their boniness. He didn't have on his watch, just the black leather wrist cuff I'd given him for his birthday a couple weeks ago (to replace the one he'd lost during a Six Flags outing). His eyes were hidden behind a pair of black Ray Bans. But rather than lamenting the loss, I chose instead to appreciate how well the glasses went with his ruddy hair, moving in some sections thanks to the ocean breeze.

"Hey, where'd Ang go?"

I turned away, blushing, at Alice's question, hoping she hadn't seen me staring. The fact that she should have known where Angela had gone didn't exactly occur to me. "I think she probably got bored of us and went down to the water." Calculating what I'd noticed about the casual speed of Edward's stride, I estimated I had about five seconds before he was near enough to smell.

Yeah, I dug the smell of him. So what. He smelled good. It wasn't weird to appreciate a dude's smell. It wasn't.

Light, so light, fingers trailed across the expanse of my back left open by my bikini. And though I'd known it was a him, not a second later I got the confirmation via his smell appearing on my left.

Fuck, that shit smells amazing.

I inhaled as covertly as I could manage, my keen olfactory-ness detecting a hint of... Is that coconut?

"I'mma go see if Ang is down at the water or if she got eaten by a shark or taken away to an evil merman's lair," Alice declared, already heading in that direction. "Meet you two down there."

A quick glance toward her granted me a nice view of Her Lifeguard standing near the pretty blue ocean and talking what looked to be sternly to a pair of pubescent boys. His sighting explained Alice's sudden lack of interest or attention, and her abrupt departure.

Somebody's got ulterior motives for checking up on our dear Angela, don't you, Miss Devious?

Sun-kissed arms wrapped around me from behind, effectively distracting me as what I knew to be two days worth of stubble scratched its tingly way across my also-bare shoulder.

"Would you believe," Edward whispered in my ear, "that Banana Boat makes a coconut scented sunblock?"

There would always be something ridiculously attractive about a guy knowing what I was thinking when I hadn't said anything.

All I could do was laugh at his words, enjoying the sensation of my back rubbing against his.

I'll be damned if this isn't one of my favorite positions for... fun.

I closed my eyes, very naughty pictures playing against the lids. "I love coconut."

"Do you?" he murmured, telling me he'd already known.

I will now squee in silence like the contented and melted woman I am.

The silent squee-ing stopped when I realized we were out in the open. I tried to squirm out of his arms, but he held tight. "What if Alice turns around and sees us?"

"What if I don't care?"

"Edward, come on. We both agreed at the beginning of this to not make everything weird between all of us by telling Alice and Em."

He sighed, drawing back from me, arms falling away. "I agreed because it mattered so much to you, and not that much to me. But your happiness did. So I said sure, fine, let's keep our newfound relationship between just us and not my family and your friends."

I couldn't see him, and therefore only had his voice pitch to tell me where this conversation was heading.

"It's getting old now, Bella. This... thing, this us, is still so new. Some people say two months isn't that new, but I think it is. Especially when I waited so long to have you in the first place. Despite its newness though, I'm not doubtful."

His fingers danced a nimble path across my hipbones, toying idly with the strings tied into pretty bows holding my bikini bottom together.

"I think I know, Bella. I think I'm sure."

In spite of the hot sun beating down all around us, I shivered when he softly kissed the area below the back of my neck.

"I don't want to hide anymore, Bella."

There was something special about the way he said my name. Something that made it unique and his, even though it was just my almost-given-name and not a nickname he'd come up with. Sometimes I felt as though I could listen to him say my name over and over and over, my name on a constant loop, and still not get tired of it.

Unfortunately, a damn wolf whistle shattered our moment into enough pieces to reside with the warm sand under our feet.

"Lookin' good, Bullshit!" Emmett whooped, standing several yards away in the parking lot next to his Jeep. I could only assume he was carting stuff from the well-stocked vehicle, down to our everything-but-sectioned-off-with-crime-scene-tape site near the waves. "When'd you shed the outer layer?"

I'd have easily heard him had he talked, but leave it to Emmett to want a whole conversation broadcasted to anyone within listening range.

My bored yet amused eyebrows aimed for the sky, a smirk flying in his direction. "Earlier?"

Emmett turned around, smacked a hand on his ass, which he'd deliberately pushed out, and went back to whatever he was doing.

"I know he's my brother, one of your best friends, and that you're not the type he generally goes for, but I still don't like when he looks at you like that."

"Like what?" I shifted partially to look at Edward. Aka, stare at his profile.

That jaw gets me every time.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Edward skimmed his gaze over my entire form. "Like he wouldn't mind licking you."

I laughed. There wasn't anything else to do. The idea was ludicrous. I mean, sure, I'd stood up and took notice the first time I'd seen Emmett. The guy may have been huge, yet he was far from ugly. And sure, I might have agreed to make out (or more) with him upon that first sighting had he only asked, but over a week and fast-friendship, that initial attraction became nothing more than that. An initial, un-long-lasting attraction.

Not even some ridiculous fraction compared to what I felt for Edward.

It was his turn to hoist the flag that was his eyebrows. "You think I'm wrong?"

"I think you're in a mood and Emmett is at hand. All the straight guys on this beach, maybe even a couple gay, are going to see me and look like they want to lick me." I held up a finger before he could open that skilled mouth of his. "Those are akin to Alice's words, not mine."

Finally, he chuckled. "I was wondering such."

A muffled screech cut through our moment. We both looked sharply to where the sound had emanated, seeing Emmett's tree-trunk legs dangling out the back of his Jeep, flip flops on the ground underneath them, and the rest of his body surrounded by colorful, inflatable vinyl things.

While Edward stared openmouthed, I began to snicker uncontrollably. Not really full-out, gut-busting laughing, but not polite chuckling either. Therefore: snickering.

Flipping my shades down from the top of my head, I pivoted to face Edward more fully. "Have fun with that," I gestured my head back in the direction of Emmett and his Jeep. "I'm going down to the water. Catch ya later." I smirked and, after kissing the air toward him, sauntered away.

The path of his eyes warmed across my skin, watching me walk away. I added an extra little sway to my hips just for him and lifted a hand to wave without turning around.

It was a lot easier to walk away from Edward now than the first time I'd seen him. Because now I knew he was mine. I knew that no matter what he did when I walked away from him, he'd still be mine. I knew that when I walked away from him, he wouldn't be doing anything meant solely for me with anyone else, because he was mine.

But the thing I knew that first time that I still knew now: the fact that regardless of everything or anything, I'd soon be walking to him rather than away.

Sinking into one of our chairs Alice, I assumed, had set up and digging my hands and feet into the sand all around me, I let the memories wash over, coating my eyes and mind and transporting me back.

*|* Approximately one year ago, give or take a couple months *|*

I hated fancy restaurants. Give me a Denny's or a Taco Bell or a Hardees and I was a happy camper. But take me to someplace called Ciprioni's? Might as well take me on a tour of Alcatraz. Or, ya know, some still-in-business prison.

So what I was doing here in Ciprioni's?

My best (and one of only a sparse few) friend Emmett had a cousin a year younger than him who he was close enough to for her to practically be called a sister. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem. Especially since I actually happened to like the girl and got along with her. But there was a problem with that.

And that problem was that this cousin-sister, by the name of Alice, was a pushy motherfucker. And I was still a bit shy and self-conscious around everyone in this 'new' place.

Which of course led to her insisting that I come for a group lunch to someplace, yeah, that's right, titled Ciprioni's, and me not having enough ovaries to say no.

Added to the fact that I simply despised restaurants with the lighting so-so, the prices all above $12.99 for any one entrée, and the waiters so immaculately dressed that I felt awful for wearing converse sneakers with a Mickey Mouse shaped bloodstain on the right one, was the other fact that I had no idea whatsoever who Alice and I were meeting in this state prison. Besides Emmett, naturally.

I should have just sucked it up and begged Garrett to come with me. He'd have at least made me feel slightly more comfortable than I am now. But then, of course, I'd have risked being the needy and annoying girlfriend who can't go anywhere without her boyfriend. Which is not a stereotype I wish to subscribe to. Moaning like they do in cheesy porno-books during sex, yes. Desperate girlfriend incapable of going two hours without boyfriend, no.

"Yo, whore, chill the fuck out."

I snapped to face Alice, astonished that she'd talk to me like that. My first impression of her had been a sweet girl, not a rude sailor.

Blinking slowly, I studied her "inconspicuously," a grin breaking its careful way out on my face.

"I like you."

"I'm awesome. Why the hell wouldn't you like me?"

I laughed, easing into myself and the knowledge that I could be that very self around Alice. "So, uh, who all are we meeting here?" My gaze traveled around the low-lit restaurant, searching for anyone I knew as I eye-raped all the food being carted around by servers.

Alice produced an emery board from some pocket in her sewer of a giant purse and began to file her left pinky nail. "Emmett, Emmett's brother, Emmett's latest Barbie doll, Emmett's latest Barbie doll's bee-eff-eff," she made her voice high-pitched, girly, and fake, "a chick I work with who's dating Emmett's brother, and, if he can get his slow-poke ass here in time, my boyfriend Alec."

Damn. I knew I should have begged Garrett to come with me, stereotype worry or not. Now I was going to be left alone in a sea of couples with only two people I actually knew. And I'd only known those two people for roughly a month. Well, one of them a month. The other I'd only known a week and a half.

I am so screwed.

After having a pep talk with my ovaries and how they should learn to be tougher, I gathered up ample air in my lungs (read: courage in my Cowardly Lion self) to ask Alice the question that was bugging my mind.

"Well, why am I here?"

She turned to me, staring blankly. "Bella, I think such a question would be more appropriate for a psychiatrist, ya know? I'll help you plan all the details of a session of sex that'll have your hoohah tingling for days, but I'm not a life coach or motivational speaker or anything."

Great, I can't even voice a question properly. Now she thinks I'm wondering what my purpose in this world is.

"While that is an interesting nugget of knowledge I highly doubt I'll ever utilize, I meant, why am I here in this restaurant about to have lunch with your and Emmett's circle of friends?"

Again with the vacant staring. "That's the question you've been mulling over and working up the guts to ask for the past five minutes? Jeez, I thought you were at least going to ask if that shape poking out the side of my purse was what you thought it was."

My eyes almost, almost traveled to the side of her bag to see if she meant what I thought she did. But, blessedly, I managed to rein them in before they could.

"You are here," she started determinedly, returning her emery board to the Bag of Doom, as I was now calling it, "about to have lunch with my and Emmett's circle of friends because you are part of that circle now."

Mouth hanging open, all I could think was, Oh.

"Nitwit," she muttered under her breath, quietly enough that I barely heard it, and fondly enough that I didn't take offense.

In fact, I was twisted enough that the dig made me crack a smile, simultaneously splintering off a huge chunk of the shield and wall of shyness I'd erected around myself since I'd moved here. I'd felt it was necessary at first, because small towns, no matter the minimal mileage to a real big city, didn't exactly prepare you for said big city. And it was easier to construct the shield and wall than to be vulnerable and open and me.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Alice's words brought me back to where I was, and the 'What the fuck, freak?' face she was giving me at the moment.

"Nothing, I just..." Shit, how do I phrase this?

"You're a strange type of cookie, Bella." She grinned so suddenly, and so widely and brightly, that I literally took a step back. "Good thing I have eclectic taste."

I nodded, because it was all I could think to do. "Wait wait, what did you say your boyfriend's name was?"

"Alec. Whyyy?" she drew out the word, sounding at once bored, intrigued, and hesitant.

Unable to resist, I began giggling, more than likely making a fool of myself in front of everyone in the restaurant. "Alice. And," more giggling, "Alec." I had no idea if she could even make out what I was saying in-between laughs. "You... and he... and just... one little letter... and... oh shit!" I braced my hands on my thighs as I leaned down and allowed the spontaneous laughter to take me over. "Al. You... could both be... Al."

By the time I was finished, wiping tears from my eyes and breathing out a single "wooo" in relief and an amusement-high, Alice was tapping her foot.

I glanced up to find I was surrounded by a semi-circle of staring people. Some appeared to find my laughter contagious, their faces alight with mirth I imagined matched my own, others looked bornoyed (the love child of bored and annoyed), and one looked fascinated. Before I even had a proper chance to inspect the fascinated one, Alice snatched my attention like it was fifty Happy Meals and she was a starving hobo.

"Are you quite finished, Bella?"

Biting my lip as more giggles threatened to spill out, I did a wonderful impression of a bobblehead in instant-replay-slowness. Emmett came up beside me and slung a friendly, yet heavy with muscles, arm over my shoulder.

"What was so funny there, Swan?"

"Don't ask her that," Alice snipped out immediately. "She'll just start up again and then I'll never get any damn food."

"Al, if you're upset that your guy didn't show up, no need to take it out on the new girl," a make-up covered blonde on Emmett's other side attempted to placate, in a voice that failed at soothing and just ended up being hypocritically admonishing.

I'd known Alice less than two weeks, and I could already tell all she'd needed then was an equally snippy response to maybe help her break into a smile, rather than the what the blonde had gone with.

"Thanks, Lucy." Alice words would have been perfectly fine normally, but the tone and the Antarctic smile she paired them with turned them into an outright insult.

"No problem, bee-bee."

Or, maybe not so outright to everyone.

And what the hell? Bee-bee? How did you get bee-bee from Alice?

"Now that everyone's here," Emmett began, "where's our table?"

At some signal I didn't see, a woman in a black skirt and shirt popped up, politely requesting we follow her to our table.

'Our table' ended up being a large, circular booth in the corner. Which, I supposed, was kind of necessary seeing as how we were a seven-people-strong party.

Feeling a bit like a carnivore caged in a greenhouse, I stuck close to Alice, following her as she made a move to slide into the booth.

"No no no!"

As though a criminal being caught by the police, I froze. My shoulders eased a little when I noticed Alice had stilled too. I mirrored her line of sight, finding myself looking at a pretty, triple dark woman. Dark eyes, dark hair, and darkly tanned skin. Sluggishly, I remembered she'd been one in the semi-circle with humor filling her face.

All that humor was gone now, leaving her with a panicked and frustrated air.

"Vanessa, you go in first." With a hand tipped in nails delicately striped black and white, she gestured to the clueless blonde's favorite accessory: a dyed redhead with too many earring-filled piercings. "Then Lucy, then Alice's friend, then Alice."

After mumbling under breath, The Accessory clipped forward in skyscraper heels.

"No!" the woman amended without warning. "Alice should go first. Then on either side..."

I lobbed a look to Alice that clearly asked, Is she serious?

To my great amusement, Alice nodded with the kind of expression that accompanied a dramatic eyeroll and weight-of-the-world sigh. Had such a thing been possible, and polite, in a crowd of friends.

I'd never actually met someone with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. And while, before now, I'd have been curious and excited to encounter one, the reality turned out to be mildly annoying. With sadly familiar ease I tuned out the woman, who I assumed to be the one Alice worked with since it seemed fairly obvious the blonde was Emmett's chick and the redhead the blonde's friend.

"Carmen's slightly OCD," Alice whispered without much volume, leaning close to me so as not to be overheard. The triple dark woman, Carmen, had changed her mind again about the order of people, and was currently ushering the blonde, I couldn't place her name, and Emmett out of the booth. "You learn to..." Alice paused, filtering out good manners and giving me the truth instead. "You learn to ignore her, for the most part, when she gets like this. Eventually."

I acknowledged the information with a look, forcibly leading my attention back to what was going on. The camera lenses permanently set into sockets on my face, having been previously blurry and vague, sharpened into focus when I saw someone I hadn't before. He must have been standing behind Alice and me, out of my view. But he'd moved at some point, standing now in a near perfect straight line across from me.

Immediately I felt it in my blood: the flash flood of attraction. Awash with purpose finally, my eyes tracked up and down and all over him, turning up the heat on blood already simmering. Everything my gaze took in, rangy body, black dress pants, blue button-down pushed up to elbows and tastefully showing off a fluid neck and a few chest hairs, had stars of desire bursting in my galaxy.

I studied him more carefully, already-overactive want noting the ideal length of hair, the non-fake auburn tint of said hair, long fingers connected to relaxed hands, eyes like blades of grass in spring. Even the fucking geometry of his face, the planes of his cheekbones, just barely crooked nose, sharp jaw practically sculpted into a ninety-degree angle, was appealing to me.

As I watched, mind working so fast I saw everything without the speed of normalcy, his neck muscles worked, Adam's apple waving hello. His shoulders started to move too, alerting me to the fact that I needed to look away so as not to be caught with more than just a hand in the cookie jar.

I came back to the world as I turned away from him, life spinning around and restarting to my mind in an almost comical way. I heard the chatter of other hungry people, the footsteps of servers walking here and there, laughter, the clink of dishes and plates and cutlery, the sound of ice cubes hitting glasses. And probably most importantly, felt the sensation of Alice pulling on my hand.

Staggered, unsure what the hell was wrong with me, I had a boyfriend for crying out loud, I gave in to Alice. After all the trouble, I ended up sitting almost in the middle with her. The redhead, Vanessa I remembered at last, slid in on my other side. At the opposite end of the table, the object of my ogling, who by process of elimination had to be Emmett's brother, sank down onto the burgundy vinyl, grabbing Carmen's hand as he did so. Following her were Emmett and the blonde.

I felt dirty all of a sudden. Like a cheap, sullied and used trampy whore. He'd come with his girlfriend, I had a boyfriend. What in fuckers fuckity fucking world was I thinking?

Rationally I knew, had always known, that no matter who I was in a relationship with, I was never going to not notice the hotness of some other guy. I was only human, after all. To me though, a relationship was about not going up to whatever hot dude and asking for his number or making out with him or whatever. It was about going back to the person you were in a relationship with and sticking with them, no matter who you'd noticed was cute that day.

But, and I despised myself for it, wanted to hang myself in a public courtyard for it, but I had this... this integral and instant and shameful, so shameful feeling that if I were with the guy separated from me by just Alice, a guy I didn't know at all beyond how he was related to my friends, my checking out other attractive guys would diminish to the point of practically non-existent.

Fuck I'm a shameful piece of sickness.

Needing, needing it so bad I wanted to taste and feel it all over my shameful skin, to be contradicted in what I was experiencing, I allowed my eyes to drift closer and closer to the realm of him.

Shocking the shit out of me with how unanticipated it was, his eyes flicked over to me, so fast he could only have been doing the same thing I had a few moments ago. But I'd left that behind in my search for contradiction, resulting in our gazes locking.

I didn't find what I sought. No, rather I found what I had. Found everything roiling inside me reflected and paralleled in the jewels of his eyes. I was slow, too slow to give my brain the one triumph of not identifying that look in his soul's windows.

My one salvation was the shattering of our moment by the hand of his girlfriend trailing down his bare forearm, breaking us apart. And yet the salvation was a torment, a reminder of how awful and sick and shameful I was.

I'd never been more ashamed of myself in my life. Ashamed of everything I felt, everything I allowed to be felt, everything I let leak out through my eyes. All while his girlfriend was right there, and my boyfriend sat at home waiting for me.

But I wouldn't let it ruin this lunch, wouldn't permit my shame to taint a good time spent with friends. I fought on a façade, shoving everything else under and down, hidden.

"Oh, right, almost forgot." Alice wiggled in her seat, knocking her hips into me. "Everyone, this is Bella." She tugged lightly, friendlily on a section of my hair. "Bella, this is Vanessa, Lucy," she aimed a ring-adorned finger as she fired off the names of each person in swift, counter-clockwise succession, "Emmett, dur, Carmen, Edward, and meee." Grinning, she popped an olive from the salad a server had brought and set on the lacquered tabletop at some point.

I nodded and smiled awkwardly, furiously avoiding any more eye contact with the one person whose eyes I desperately craved. The rest of the lunch went on like that. Smiles and nods and awkward and fake masks of fineness, ignoring anything of Edward, Edward, as much as was possible.

Even so, by the time the check was being wrestled over, I wanted him nonetheless. If anything and in fact, I liked him for him now, not just for the way I reacted to seeing him. Somehow, I'd managed to succeed in having no eye contact with him. Looking over the confident set of his shoulders whenever propriety demanded he address me, or staring at the undone buttons of his shirt when that bitch propriety required the same of me.

It was a draining meal, to be sure. That was the best part, though. The meal. The food. Oh holy hell, the food. I could condone the whole $12.99-for-one-entrée thing when the food tasted that great.

Exhausted from being so stuffed, working so hard, and sheerly feeling so much, I scooched tiredly toward the booth's exit. I had to wait on Vanessa, who I'd begun to wonder might have had one too many glasses of wine. Shaking my head, I chastised myself for judging without warrant.

When she'd moved, Edward was there. Suddenly, surprisingly, dizzyingly. Without apparent cause or motive; breaking my carefully and cautiously laid out rules.

Grass connected with chocolate, and then his hand appeared. Long fingers, powerful hands, and an offering. Disregarding all else, my body jumped in the river and went with the flow, taking his hand.

As soon as our skin touched, his strength and warmth pulling me from the booth, I knew. I knew I'd never be able to avoid him completely. Not because he was Emmett's brother and Alice's cousin-practically-brother. But because. Just because.

I hated that that was the only answer I had, but it was what it was.

And it was simply because.

*|* July, current year *|*

"Bella! Bella!"

I blinked furiously, coming back to the present. And the gorgeous man shaking my shoulders. "What what? Jeez, what?" I looked hurriedly from side-to-side, wondering what was wrong.

"Where were you?"

My brow furrowed of its own volition at Edward, confused by his question. "I've been right here... in this chair, even, for the last..." I groped around blindly for my phone, unable to tell time without it but also unable to locate it seeing as how Edward's face was kind of distracting me.

"You were so far away," he whispered, hands cupping my face, thumbs on the apples of my cheeks.

Without thinking, I leaned my forehead against his, eyes closing in contentment. My hands rested solidly on his wrists. "I'm right here now."

I could feel it when he relaxed, when he realized I hadn't been where he'd thought I'd been. That I'd merely been lost in something good (mostly), like the memory of the first time I saw him. Opening my mouth, I prepared to tell him such.

"What's going on?" Alice panted as she came up beside me, making Edward and I drop our hold.

I answered quickly. Probably too quickly. "Nothing."

"I heard Edward calling your name kinda, well, to be honest, frantically. I got worried." She bit at half of her bottom lip, a nervous habit any of us rarely saw from Alice.

"It's nothing. He was just being..." I shrugged, out of explanations. "Edward."

Alice's eyes traveled between the two of us for a second before she rolled her eyes and sighed heavily. "You two are weird." With that, she spun around and traipsed back the way she'd come.

"You cold have told her the truth," Edward suggested quietly when Alice had gone far enough away.

"I don't really know what the truth is, so no, you could have told her."

His breath fanned over my face as he exhaled deeply, eyes moving from the ground back to my own and hands replacing their position. "You have to understand, you have to know what that was like, Bella. I know you know exactly what lurked behind my actions, you just don't know what drives them."

"I—"

Cutting me off, he shook his head, hair flailing this way and that. "This isn't the place for this."

He was right. This was supposed to be a day of fun, fun, and more fun with our friends. "You're right." I pushed gently on his chest, indicating I wanted to get up.

When he rocked back on his heels and then up into a standing position, offering down a hand for me, I didn't hesitate on grasping it. Just as I hadn't when he'd done the same thing all those many months ago.

"I've got a plan." Poking a single finger over his heart, I continued. "You, do whatever you want, and I'll dash away with Alice into the water."

Without giving him a chance to react, I turned around and sprinted away, squealing at the sound of his laugh as he gave chase. It felt so good to be carefree, silly. To act like an idiot and not give a shit about it.

Behind me, I heard Emmett's voice calling out what Edward was doing, and then a grunt. I flicked my eyes over my shoulder quickly, seeing Emmett and Edward wrestling playfully in the sand.

That's gonna result in a bitch of uncomfortableness later.

As I ran past Alice, I grabbed her arm, laughingly propositioning her. "Come on, Al! Into the water with me!" Well, I guessed it wasn't much of a proposition when I didn't exactly give her a choice. But I knew she wouldn't refuse anyhow. Not really.

Luckily for us, she had the presence of mind to grab some floats from the stash-pile Emmett had made, dragging them into the mostly mild waves with us.

"What are we doing?" she chuckled, my mood apparently contagious.

Snatching two Styrofoam noodles from her, I grinned widely and let a wave crash into the lower half of my body. "We're being stupid. We're being I-don't-give-a-damn-what-people-think. We're being jovial and just being."

She watched me for a moment before a broad smile broke out on her face too. "Okay then. Sounds good."

And it was. It was nice to slip around a corner from troubles and worries and all that other crap that came with life.

We stood in the shallows for a moment, eyes focused on the shore. "Are you scanning for hotties like I am?"

"Yup."

"I love you, Alice."

"Two o'clock, two o'clock," she screeched suddenly, tunnel vision focused on the sandy beach. I followed her line of sight, landing on Her Lifeguard.

"Mmm, you could certainly do worse, chiquita."

She said something in reply, but I didn't hear it. My observant little eyes had located Edward, standing near the spot we'd staked out. His gaze wasn't on me, but the posture of his—lean and lengthy and oh so delicious—body told me he knew I was watching.

As I continued to ogle, he crossed his arms slowly at his waist, perfectly long fingers taking hold of the bottom of his white shirt. At a deliberate, torturous snail's pace, he inched the shirt up. The slow pace should have been dweeby or stupid or obnoxious. But all I could do was find it sexy.

Even when he seemed to get slightly tangled with the shirt covering his face and his arms up and bent, I couldn't find it in me to laugh. Moan though, yes.

When he'd finally extricated himself and thrown the shirt onto our pile of stuff, leaving him in just his black swim trunks, he winked at me.

How is it legal that he can look so good in black? How has the world not punished him for such pretty?

"Dude," Emmett called, standing in a spot that formed a triangle with Edward and I, "why'd you take off your shirt in slo-mo?"

Now that, paired with the blush I knew would be heating up Edward's cheeks, I could laugh at.

The lack of Edward answering only amused me more.

Emmett shook his head, repositioning one of the beach chairs so that it faced the volleyball game the girl he'd encountered earlier was still playing. "Ya weirdazoid." He grabbed a drink from one of the coolers he'd brought, settling into his chair and the view it now provided.

Still chuckling, I returned my concentration to Alice, only to find her pouting as Her Lifeguard made his way back toward the lifeguard shack.

"I'm sorry Your Lifeguard is leaving, but at least you get a nice view as he walks away."

"Jasper the Lifeguard," she all but moaned like a porno. Alright, screw the 'all but'. She did moan it like a frickin' porno.

"Jeez, Alice! Do you have to so blatantly fuck him when I'm standing right here?"

She completely ignored me for the ten seconds until the guy had disappeared inside his bat cave. "Yes, I do. You don't let a piece like that strut away without blatantly fucking him in front of whoever."

I stared at her, not even blinking. "You fascinate me. Which disgusts me. You pig."

She puckered up and kissed in my direction, mouth fixed in a lovey-dovey smile. Trying but failing a glare, I splashed her.

A short time later (like five minutes, in actuality), Alice and I were floating lazily and merrily in deeper water, being jostled pleasantly by almost every wave.

"Are sharks attracted to menstrual blood?"

"Eww, Alice! What the fuck? You know I hate discussing shit like that!" I was not one of those girls that sat around with her girlfriends and talked about their birth control and bloating and... tampons. Ew. It was all classified firmly in my Ew category. Right up alongside there with maggots and foot funguses.

"Auntie Flow is a part of liiife, Bella," she sang, enjoying my discomfort all too much.

"Yeah, well if sharks are partial to your 'part of life,'" I made air quotes, "I hope one comes up and bites that part of your life clean off."

Alice gasped. Loudly. "That is an unnecessarily cruel curse, Bella! To wish some shark would come take my hoohah away. Have you no shame?" Huffing, she paddled with her hands and feet until her back was to me.

"Oh wow. You're no longer facing me. How can I say anything now?" I rolled my eyes, even though I knew she couldn't see it.

"Talk to the back, cause the face don't wanna hear it."

"Your maturity is astounding."

"All I had was one teensy weensy question as regards my menstrual cycle, and you go all sheep shit on me."

"Oh now you're just being mean. You know how much I hate that word!" I covered my ears in pathetic defense.

"What word? Menstrual?"

By now Alice had splashed her way back to face-to-face. All the better to see how her torture was received. "Bitch."

"That's wench, thank you very much," she replied snootily. The vinyl of the pink float she was straddling squeaked and squawked as she shifted to get more comfortable.

Smoothly, and gratefully, Edward interrupted. "Hello, ladies."

"Nice," I snorted, "horse you have there."

The float he'd apparently chosen was some sort of seahorse. For a second I couldn't understand why, out of the abundance Emmett had brought, Edward had gone for a seahorse. But then I glanced back to the shore, and saw Emmett had made some sort of... fort? with the best of the floats.

"What is he..."

"He thinks that if he makes a castle with his inflatable toys, the hot volleyball girl will be intrigued enough to come over and, he hopes and hopes not, actually hold a conversation this time." Edward rolled his eyes after finishing his explanation to confused me, the 'idiot' implied at the end of his words.

"So you got stuck with the horse?"

He smiled goofily. "I call him Jerry."

"You do realize," Alice pointed out, "that you're riding a male seahorse."

"I bet Mr. Darcy rode a male horse back in the day."

Alice and I glared at him.

"Low blow," she muttered.

"Really," I sniffed. "Mentioning Mr. Darcy is as low as it goes."

Edward held up his palms. "Hey, is it my fault you two get all gooey at the mere mention of him?"

"Subject chaaange," Alice groaned. "All this is so not helping my situation!"

"What situation?"

"You don't wanna know," I told Edward, shaking my head at Alice. The world didn't need to know that her monthly visit made her horny. Hell, I had never needed to know that.

"I'm getting the munchies," she declared out of nowhere.

Wait a minute, I recognize that abruptness.

I whipped away from Edward to look toward the shore, spotting the cause of the abruptness right away. The dude was hard to miss, I had to admit that.

"Yeah, munchies alright." I giggled at her expression as she waited for a wave to help carry her in.

"Oh go fuck a jellyfish, Bella."

I was still laughing as she stomped her way out of the water.

"Hi there," Edward murmured, unexpectedly closer.

What had been so funny? I suddenly couldn't remember.

"I think my seahorse likes your noodles."

I snorted again. "Are you really using beachy pick up lines concerning floats?"

"Are you digging it?"

"What if I am?"

"Then I'd have to suggest maybe my seahorse be allowed to join with your noodles."

"You're such a cheeseball." And yet it was impossible to kill my smile.

"But I'm your favorite flavor of cheese."

I couldn't do anything but laugh, even as he crept nearer. Eyeing him out of my peripheral vision, I saw in stance that he'd put his feet on solid ground. There was something in that, in the knowledge that he was tall enough to touch bottom when I'd likely be under water if I tried, that turned me on.

Unconsciously, I licked my lips, trying to figure out what he was up to. I knew the moment he'd slipped entirely away from his seahorse float, covered up to his chest in water as he absently, contemplatively, familiarized himself with the back strings of my bikini top.

"Uh-uh, I don't think so. We'll sink if you get on these noodles with me."

He grinned, flicking an inspecting glance down to the two pieces of spaghetti-like Styrofoam holding me up. "Nonsense. We'll just sink a little lower, is all."

Before I could say anything else, he'd hoisted himself up behind me. I gripped the noodles with my thighs and, leaning slightly forward, with my hands, still worried we'd sink all the way. I could swim fine and all, but dropping to the bottom in water too deep for me to stand in was not on my list of fun-ness.

"See? Not so bad." We'd sunk some, but only up to my stomach. The cool water actually felt good on my skin. "Hold Jerry, will you?"

"You brought him, you hold him." Since he was now behind me, I could no longer see Edward. "I can't believe I'm referring to a poly-plastic-something-or-other inflated seahorse as a 'him.'" Releasing the noodles from my hands, I sat up straight.

And right into Edward's chest.

He brought the seahorse around and shoved it into my left hand. "Hold Jerry." His words, hitting all the sensitive skin left exposed by my pinned-up ponytail, made me tingle. Not thinking anymore, I wrapped a hand around the creature's neck. "Good girl."

I glared over my shoulder at him, dazed into silence by the expression I found on him. And the look I found in his eyes.

"Did you know," he began as his right hand danced across my side and to my stomach, "that I can count on one finger the amount of times I've seen you in this bathing suit?"

Swallowing what was suddenly cookie-dough-thick saliva, I shook my head no.

"Well it's true." His hand slipped lower. "Can count," even lower, "the times," into fabric and surprising heat, "on one finger." And he slid that single finger through another part of me that belonged to him, a part separate yet connected to the heart he owned, a part that had always been waiting for him.

No matter when, no matter where, no matter how, I always found something staggering about the fact that he was inside me. In more ways than just my mind and my heart. But in a physical, unquestionably tangible sense.

"Has anyone ever told you that you have magic fingers?" I gasped, fighting the urge to simply sink into the water. And him.

He hummed into the side of my neck, wet lips joining wetter fingers in his assault (a pleasurable one, mind you) on every part of me. "As a matter of fact, yes. Many times."

My heart, so high, so free, so light and floaty, got it's ankle caught on an anvil and promptly sank quicker than Molly Brown would have had she not had a boat underneath her.

I'd known, of course, from even the very first time I'd laid lusty eyes on him, that Edward was not a virgin. No one that good-looking and with that kind of air of tingly-inducing confidence about them could have stayed a virgin past high school's junior year, let alone college's sophomore one.

And still, despite knowing that, it hurt more than it had any right to when I heard his response. I wanted to be angry, I wanted to hate him for ruining what had been such a great moment by bringing the past smack dab into the middle of it.

But I couldn't.

Instead, all I could feel was sadness.

Fucking girl emotions.

Just as I was beginning to fight the brimming tears, his lips, which had never left my skin, parted. Breath from within him drifted slowly onto my sun-warmed-but-ocean-chilled skin, making me shiver quite annoyingly.

"And yet it's only ever been said to me by one person." His fingers shifted at the same time that his tongue joined the party he was throwing on my neck, all of it doing things that should be illegal because they felt oh. So. Damn. Good. "My Italian girl," he whispered into receptive flesh.

Annnd my heart was back to being that snooty, cowardly creator of the Titanic with the icky slippers and mustache that got on a boat asap.

Jeez, I'm far gone enough I can't even think in coherence.

I was forced to wonder though, in those ten seconds it took for him to continue, had he realized what his words had done to me? Or had it all gone by so fast that no one outside my mind had seen and felt it all in slow motion? Thinking back on it, I couldn't even remember how I'd managed to think and feel and worry and drown so much in so little time.

Without warning in the least, his thumb joined the Chex Mix Party Mix he was serving my body, willingly dragging me from whatever thoughts I'd just been thoughting. Or, well, thinking.

Unable to form lucid thoughts let alone any words, I instead grasped Edward's unoccupied hand, sitting tenderly on my thigh under the water. Our fingers twined, mine probably gripping and squeezing too tight.

Out of the blue, I realized he was finger-fucking me in the ocean. Off a beach not chocked full of people but occupied enough that anyone looking could probably discern exactly what we were up to. And yet, shockingly, I didn't care.

I was enjoying his spontaneity, the things he was doing to me, the way he made me feel. I let the rest go, let it fall under me and be toted out to sea by the undertow.

Mustn't moan loudly. Might not care about people seeing, but I definitely care enough to not let them hear. Can't let them hear. Have to be quiet.

Moving our joined hands up to my stomach, Edward used them to pull me back against him. My ass rubbed against the palpable evidence of his enjoyment, causing his breath to pant out and across my neck. All things that upped my excitement level.

I only had a moment's hesitation about the visibility of the rocking of our current movements, before I let that, too, sail away.

"How quiet can you stay?" Edward wondered, the teasing tone of his words undermined by his ragged breathing.

Everything, the shifting into him he produced, the motion of the ocean, the things his fingers were doing to me, the way his lips contacted briefly with my skin as he inhaled and exhaled, it was all adding to the sea inside me, creating a wave that was peaking high and about to crash down.

I worried about drawing blood when I bit roughly down on my lip as the wave crested, hit, and continued to roll into shore. My entire body felt as if it were going to dissolve back into him as the sensations sang throughout my body.

"Is it water pollution if I make you come in the ocean?" he whispered, amusement lacing his words.

I was far too sated to bother with mustering up a scowl, settling instead for something along the lines of, "Umfamun."

I could feel the smile as he leaned forward and pressed his lips to the area right below my jaw. "I love knowing I've reduced you to that."

Unlike me, he had enough gumption to move us toward the beach, pulling me off the noodles when it was shallow enough to walk. I had to order my fingers to release Jerry when he tried to pull them away from the now partially-deflated seahorse's neck.

Edward grabbed my hand, helping to drag my lethargic self out of the ocean. "Bella and I," he said when we'd reached the spot where only Emmett and a snoring, still-ghostly-pale Angela remained, "are going to go back to her place and fuck each other senseless. Later."

I gasped. Literally. It wasn't any kind of internal shock or gasp, it was very very verbal. And the way I attempted to ram him and tackle him to the ground was very very physical. And very very failed.

Fucking strong-ass dude.

I may have let stuff float out to sea, but that certainly did not mean I was ready to blurt the whole of it out.

To my gasping shock once again, Emmett didn't even take his eyes off the blonde babe he'd been flirting with earlier that he was now earnestly and solely watching play volleyball and who, it appeared, was teasing him because she knew he was staring. "'Kay, later."

"Where's Alice?" Edward asked, because, yeah, I was still just a wee bit speechless.

"Mmhmm, that's nice."

Clearly, Em wasn't paying attention to us anymore.

It seemed to be becoming a trend, apparently, because I gasped again when my eyes locked on what looked to be my best friend's figure eating some guy's face off.

Hold your horses...

That "some guy" had a long back, a surprisingly light tan, red shorts, and wavy blonde hair.

Oh my forking potatoes.

I think I feel my voice returning to me.

"Git sooooome!" I yelled in Alice and Her Lifeguard's direction, whistling shrilly between two fingers in my mouth.

She didn't remove her face from the hottie's, instead only pulling one hand from his hair enough to give me the finger.

My friends are saintly angels.

Ha, maybe not. But they're definitely fucking awesome.

"My my," I felt rather than heard Edward whisper in my ear, "I didn't know you were such a voyeur. I do believe this requires more... exploration." I could feel the grin getting comfy and cozy on his mouth as that very same mouth descended on my earlobe. Why that was so hot or felt so good, I'd never know.

Smirking, I spun slightly away from him, snatching up his hand to haul him with me. "Let's go, Ferdinand Magellan."

"That's Magic Magellan to you."

A/N: Thanks for reading! And once again, sometime, eventually, this will be continued. Most likely from the flashback onward. :)