I woke up the next morning and looked at the clock. 11 AM. Great, I hadn't slept that long in forever. It must be the La Push air or something.
I groaned and rolled myself out of bed and over to my suitcase. I pulled out a pair of capri pants, and a plain black t-shirt. I threw on some flip flops and went out into the living room. It looked like Uncle Billy had leftover pizza for breakfast, because he left the box out on the table.
"Morning, Uncle Billy." I said as I groggily hugged him.
"Morning Sweet Pea. Sleep well?"
"Too well. I haven't slept past 5:30 in years." I had always gotten up early to run. It was a habit.
"Anything in particular you want from the store?" I asked as I made my way into the kitchen to see what little supplies we already had. I looked around for something to clean with and only found a ratty old mop and broom. Definitely needed some cleaning stuff too.
"No, just whatever you find is alright with me. I left some money on the table to cover the bill. I think I'll head over to the Clearwater's for a little bit while you're out. Sue's been having a hard time since Harry died." Billy said as he started to wheel himself out the front door. The Clearwater's lived just down the road. It was probably one of the only places on the rez that he could get to by himself.
I just nodded and followed him out the door and headed to my car. I watched him wheel himself down the street as I pulled out behind him, giving him a final wave before I turned down the road and made my way to Forks. The store in La Push wouldn't have everything I needed to get, so I just decided to go to the Thriftway instead.
Once I got to the store I pulled into a spot next to a familiar red pickup truck. It looked like the old truck Uncle Billy used to have, but I guess it was probably just a coincidence.
I got myself a cart and made my way into the store, I headed to the produce section first, to get the things I would need to make dinner tonight. I had decided to make Uncle Billy's favorite stuffed peppers and some steaks. I picked up four ripe green peppers and some tomatoes, and then headed to the butcher's aisle. I didn't buy pre-packaged meat when I had a choice. Cuts that you picked out yourself were always better. I got us three prime t-bone steaks, and some hamburger meat for later in the week, along with some chicken and pork chops.
I was sure Uncle Billy didn't have any spices in the house, so that was my next stop. I picked up some chili pepper and other basic spices, along with some marinade for the steaks.
Once I had all of the specific things I needed to get, I ended up just walking around the store picking up the basic things that everyone used. Milk, eggs, cereal, paper towels. I got some cleaning stuff too, but kept them in the baby seat. I didn't want anything to contaminate the food. I was paranoid like that.
I was in the frozen food section, getting something out of the freezer when I heard someone calling my name.
"Rainey? Is that you?" I turned around to see a short girl with brown hair and even browner eyes staring at me expectantly.
"Umm yeah, who are you?" I didn't mean for it to sound rude, but it did anyway. I smiled at her sheepishly but she didn't seem to mind.
"Bella. Bella Swan. Chief Swan's daughter. My dad's good friends with Billy." Oh yeah. Now I remembered her.
"Yeah, you would come over and play when all of our dads would go fishing. I remember now. How've you been?" It was nice to see her again. She was always really nice to me.
"I'm good. So how long are you in town for?"
"Just the summer. I'm taking care of Billy while Jake's gone." When I mentioned Jake she winced, but I figured it was something else.
"Hello." I turned my head towards the voice and was shocked to see the most beautiful man I had ever seen walk up to Bella and I.
"Rainey this is my fiancée Edward Cullen. Edward this is Jake's cousin Rainey." Bella introduced us. I felt like an ass for having the hots for her fiancée.
Edward laughed under his breath and extended his hand for me to shake.
"Pleasure to meet you Rainey." Gah, his hands were cold. He must have just gotten something out of the freezer. He could have warned me at least.
"You too. You might want to put some gloves on or something. You're freezing." I laughed. I don't know why I was feeling so awkward around him, but I was kind of not liking it at all.
"Well we better go. My sister is waiting for Bella. Wedding plans to make and all." He said. It was like he could read my mind or something, and gave me the perfect out.
"It was nice seeing you again Bella. You should head out to Billy's sometime and see me. It would be cool to catch up." I told her.
"Sure that'd be great! I haven't been to La Push in a long time. It'd be nice to see everyone again." She smiled at me and it looked like Edward wanted to say something, but didn't want to cause a scene. Did he have something against her coming to the rez?
With one last wave she headed off to the checkout lanes, and I continues shopping for everything I needed.
I got back to the house about an hour later, and started carrying bags into the house and putting everything away. Thank God it wasn't raining at that particular moment or else I would have gotten soaked. I decided that the most important thing would be to start cleaning the place up a little bit. I went into the bedroom and put my hair into two braided pig tails, and then put a smiley face bandana around my head to keep my bangs from falling into my face. I looked pretty cute.
After finding a radio and turning on some music, I started with the basic cleaning method. Anything that was not used recently got thrown out. I made sure to keep any papers that looked like they could be important, and tossed everything else. I must have gone through about three garbage bags before the place looked at least livable again.
I got out the heavy artillery next. I scrubbed down the countertops and sink in the kitchen and did the same in the bathroom. Then I moved onto the floors, mopping the linoleum and vacuuming the carpet. The house was losing its "boy stink" and was actually turning out quite nice.
I didn't even notice Uncle Billy come back in until he wheeled himself right in front of me.
"Place looks great Lorraine. I haven't seen it this clean since Sarah was alive." He said, looking a little sad at the mention of his wife.
"Just takes a little elbow grease." I said. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was almost 5.
"Hungry? I got stuff to make dinner." I said as I put the rag in my hand down in the bucket of soap I had.
"Starving. What are we having?"
"Steaks and stuffed peppers." I said as I washed my hands and got the ingredients out of the fridge.
"Sounds great, call me when it's ready." He said as he went to go watch whatever game he could find. Typical Uncle Billy.
I switched the radio station to something more mellow, and started cooking.
I put the steaks and peppers into the oven and it wasn't long until the whole house smelled delicious. I was pulling them out of the oven when the front door flew open and four giant men came barreling in.
"What smells so good Billy? You get yourself a fine hot lady who can cook for you?"
"I'm starving."
"Where's the food. And who cooked it? Cause God knows you can't make toast Billy."
I didn't recognize any of the voices and turned around when I heard footsteps coming into the kitchen. I almost threw up. There, standing in Billy's kitchen were none other than Quil and Embry. two out of the three people that I wanted to avoid the most in La Push.
But once I took a second glance at them everything changed. More importantly they had changed. They were huge! Both of them had to be at least 6'7, and about 300 pounds. They looked like they were all muscle. Quil was looking at me like he was trying to figure out who I was and what I was doing here, while Embry...
Well I don't know what was wrong with Embry. He was just sort of staring at me with this odd expression on his face. He looked like someone had just ran over his dog, and then popped a genie out of a bottle and wished it back alive again. His mouth was hanging open and it looked like he was about to start drooling. Quil must have noticed this because he reached up and pushed Embry's jaw shut, making Embry snap out of whatever trance he was in.
"I..uh...Hi...ummm..." He sputtered.
"Yeah, what do you want?" I spat back. I remembered exactly how they used to treat me, and just because he had grown up into a very sexy man, and I wanted to do things with him that would make fish blush, did not mean I had to be nice to him.
"To spend the rest of my life with you." He whispered.
What the??
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(A/N):
Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter. Happy
Mother's Day!
