Chapter 6 (Carlisle POV)
Fifty years had passed since the unfortunate New Years kiss. I was in agony. In all that time, one would think that there was a chance to talk to the person and make amends, but Bella made it impossible. She railed at me after it happened and stormed off to her office. I tried to follow her but Jasper and Alice wouldn't let me. Five years after that, we all decided to movie to Montreal, so we closed up The Ranch like we did The Big House. We had made a pact that we would reside in any one given location for five years, move on, live there for five years, and repeat.
Montreal had a lot of offer someone just moving there. I was impressed that they finally passed a law that required the Government to offer free health care. In those five years, everyone had tried to get Bella to open up about that night. She wouldn't do it. She would work, hunt, and on the rare occasion, go shopping with the girls. I had talked to Alice and asked her if she could coerce Bella to talk about "it," every time they would come back from a shopping trip, I would look at Alice and she would quickly shake her head.
It was shortly after that, that she decided to venture out on her own again. I would get the weekly update on her from either Rose or Nessie. I had gotten a call from Tanya shortly after Bella's departure demanding to know why she had received an unexpected visitor. I had to explain the situation to her. The only thing I loved about Tanya would have to be her knack of being a supportive listener.
"Now be honest here Carlisle, are you falling in love with her?"
"Yes I am Tanya. I first met her fourteen years ago in the ER at Forks because she was rescued from death by Edward. Every single one of us had railed at him for saving her life the way he had, jumping between her truck and an out of control van at the school parking lot. Ever since then, she had gotten under all of our skins. I had always felt nothing but fatherly affection towards her. You know what? I was the first person to call her family. It honestly was shortly after Esme and Edward's deaths that my "fatherly" feelings went out the door and replaced with something more. It's been five years since that New Years kiss and I am in agony."
"Well, that more than answered my question. Before you ask, she isn't here. Bella showed up two weeks ago and forbade me from calling you and seeing if it was going to be a routine occurrence. I kept silent because of her title, but you know I don't take kindly to being ordered around."
"Yes I know that. I can't help it Tanya, if she were to come home now and let me explain, maybe come to some sort of compromise, I could live the rest of eternity happy that at least she is around a talking to me like used to if she doesn't feel for me the way I do for her. Thank you for listening to me, I need to get going."
"Ok, I will keep you up date as much as I can if she shows up again."
"Thank you."
For the next forty five or so years I was on autopilot. We had moved eight more times since living in Montreal. We tried Chicago, The Everglades, Cuba, Columbia, Montana, The Denali Compound, Minneapolis, and Portland. Charlie had died in the time we were in The Everglades. It only took us two hours to get back to Forks for the funeral. All of us sat with Bella during the service, Alice and Renesmee at her sides. It was bliss being able to see her again after a decade. Alice had in not so many words or actions told us to go back home after the funeral. She stayed with Bella for a few weeks. You know the saying "absence makes the heart grow fonder?" Well, my heart was near bursting at the funeral. All these decades later with minimal to no contact, we made the decision to head back to The Big House, exciting Alice to no end.
I know life there wasn't going to be the same without Esme, Edward or Bella for that matter under that roof. I was glad though that we wouldn't have to pack things from any of our residences. It only took us roughly one hour and ten minutes to drive to Forks from Portland. We took off at dusk so it would be dark when we arrived. I was in the front vehicle by myself driving along our long, winding lane when I broke through the clearing to see every light in the house on. Panic that there are intruders in there caused me to slam on the brakes, fly out of the car and flight as fast as I could to the front door. Before I had a chance to open the door the take care of the intruder, it was opened for me. I had gotten to the top step and looked up to see the beautiful face imaginable looking back at me, shocked.
"Bella?"
