JPOV
Bella was perched in my lap after Charlie went to sleep and after a while, announced she was turning in herself. She dropped a peck on my lips which I couldn't help turning it into a sweet kiss that I could see left her dazed for a second. She hopped off of me and retreated into the house, leaving me with Thomas and Emmett. We continued to discuss any random thing that came to mind until Thomas sighed and stood up.
"Well, I'm gonna head on up to bed. Thanks again for the gifts guys. See you in the morning."
"Night Thomas." We both said simultaneously. He disappeared into the house and then there was silence. Emmett took a sip of his beer and looked out over the fields.
"Jasper." He said, still looking into the darkness.
"Yeah Emmett?" Now he turned to face me and his expression was uncharacteristically serious.
"Look, I know you're a good guy but I feel like I have to say this." I already knew exactly what he was gonna say.
"Emmett, don't worry. I don't need the big brother 'hurt my sister and I'll kill you' speech." I assured him with a small smile.
"I know, just let me get this out." I nodded for him to continue. "Bella is the most important person in my life. She and Charlie are the only family I've ever really had, along with Renee obviously. I couldn't even begin to imagine what I'd do if anything happened to either of them. I feel the need to constantly be near Bella, making sure she's safe and taken care of. That's the main reason I hated seeing her with James and Edward, they were okay guys, but I never felt like they could protect her. I know this seems like a bit much, but I want you to understand exactly how much Bella means to me."
"Emmett, I get it. I understand how protective you are of Bella and I'm not expecting you to just stop. But just know that I'm here too, and I promise to keep her safe. I don't want to see her hurt anymore than you do. Trust me." He nodded thoughtfully.
"Okay. I trust you. But just know, if you ever cause her any pain, I won't go easy on you because you're my friend." He said menacingly, he was scary, I'd admit that. I nodded and he smiled his usual child-like smile. "Sorry, that was a little much." He chuckled.
"No problem." I said with my own small laugh.
"Alright then. I'm gonna get to bed. See you in the morning." he rose, grabbing his empty beer bottle and walking back inside. I sighed, taking a sip of my own beer, looking out over the yard like Emmett had been. I understood where he was coming from. He'd never had a real family before the Swans and it was clear how incredibly important they were to him. His protectiveness of Bella was expected and I felt the same. I didn't want to see Bella hurt, ever. With one last swig of my drink, I stood and walked into the kitchen to throw the bottle away. I turned and saw Bella with her back to me, standing in front of the open refrigerator. She turned at the sound of my footsteps and smiled when she saw it was me.
"I thought you were going to sleep." I said with a fake accusatory tone, gesturing to the tank top and boy shorts she'd changed into, not that I was complaining about her attire. She smiled and held up a glass of water.
"I got thirsty." She hopped up on the counter and I walked over to stand in front of her. "So, how was Emmett's big brother speech?" I looked at her surprised and she laughed at my expression. "Come on, it's Emmett, the Protector himself. He had to have said something along the lines of 'keep her safe or I'll kill you slowly and painfully'." She imitated Emmett's deep voice, puffing out her chest in an entertaining way. I just watched her for a minute with an amused expression.
"Not exactly." I chuckled. "But it was a big brother speech. Not too cliché though, don't worry." I said with a smirk.
"Good." She said, leaning over to place a quick peck on my lips. "Well, good night." She said, moving to hop off the counter.
"Whoa whoa whoa, not so fast." I said, grabbing her hips to keep her in place. My lips met mine in a sweet kiss, the taste of her making me see stars. I felt her smile against my lips as her arms slid around my neck, pulling me closer to her. We broke apart to breathe and I leaned my forehead against hers. I placed one more light kiss on her nose and backed up.
"We should get to bed." I said, helping her down. She nodded, finishing off her water and putting her glass in the sink. She grabbed my hand, pulling me back to her for one last sensual kiss before retreating upstairs. I smiled after her, heading down the hall to my room, Emmett's snores growing increasingly louder. I slid my shoes off and pulled my shirt and jeans off, collapsing onto my bed, asleep within minutes.
BPOV
I woke up to the sound of the guys down in the kitchen and quickly hopped out of bed, climbing into my shower. One of the perks of being the only girl in the house: my own en suite bathroom. I took a fast shower; blow dried my hair and pulled on some jeans and an emerald green tank top. I pulled my boots on and flitted down the stairs. I took my seat between dad and Emmett, blowing a kiss discreetly at Jasper across the table. His response was a big smile that brought out his single dimple, making him look even cuter if that was possible. I shoveled my food down quickly and Jasper got the hint that I wanted him to do the same so we could move to the barn where dad wouldn't be watching us. I was the first one done and went out to get some hay and refill the water buckets for the horses that were in their stalls. I stood outside Dallas's stall, stroking her big, soft nose when a pair of arms slid around my waist and a pair of lips were on my neck. I smiled and leaned into Jasper. Dallas let out an annoyed sounding whinny due to Jasper stealing my attention away from her. I couldn't help but laugh and placed a kiss on her muzzle.
"Don't worry Dallas. You know you're still my number one." I said with a smile. I could feel Jasper's chuckles against my back and turned my head so I could capture his lips with mine. "Morning." I said with a smile.
"Mornin'." He returned the smile, adding a kiss as well.
"Hey love birds. Quit acting like horny teenagers and help us water the fields." Derek called into the barn with a laugh. Jasper chuckled, letting go of me except for my hand and we followed Derek and Justin out to the fields.
Once we were done, we helped out with mucking the stalls and feeding all the horses in the fields. A trailer showed up at around 10 with a few horses that dad had picked up on his last trip. Many people sent new or rehabilitating horses to dad for training. I was put in charge of a beautiful buckskin gelding who was still very green. (Buckskin in a sandy color with a dark dorsal stripe going along the spine. Green means the horse still needs a LOT of training.). Thomas got the most difficult horse that had been sent to dad due to problems more on the behavioral side. Cooper got the third which was a grey Arabian mare who'd broken her leg. (Arabian is one of the many breeds of horses.). We decided to give the horses a day to or two to get used to their new surroundings before riding them, in which case I'd have Emmett and now Jasper watching over protectively as I rode the unfamiliar horse. As first impressions go, the buckskin I had, Benny seemed pretty calm, but then again he could be totally different when I was on his back. He went out in a field with Major, Grizzly and a few other geldings including Thomas's new project, Sam. Cooper's mare Josie went out with Dakota, Dallas and the other mares.
We went in for a lunch of grilled cheese and soup which went by quickly with a few questions from dad regarding arrangements for the Hampton Classic. We headed back out and I went to grab Dakota for an afternoon workout while Jasper hopped on one of the horses he was helping dad with. While tacking up the horses, he would randomly pull me aside or pin me against the wall, only to kiss me lightly and return to his job. Of course, done repeatedly this was quite a tease. I sighed in frustration from my spot at Dakota's back leg and heard him chuckle from the other side of Cobalt. I stood to look over her back and glared at him, only to see him smirk and bend down to tend to Cobalt's leg. I finished tacking in silence and waited until he was done and we left the barn together, mounting our horses outside and heading into the training ring where –of course- Emmett was waiting.