Chapter 7: Evasion
"These scholarships are due in a week," he said, dropping a stack of shiny pamphlets in front of her, unceremoniously. "Get cracking."
Angela leaned towards her and flipped through the first few. "Oh, I tried for that one. I wrote about my mom. Have you considered asking one of the local businesses to sponsor you? I bet the police station would do it—"
"Or the hospital," Edward said. This was code for "just let me pay for it." Bella was suspicious of every scholarship he showed her – did it say Cullen anywhere? Was that watermark their crest? Although it was very kind of him to give her the tickets to visit Renée, she sort of wished she hadn't accepted. It had opened a floodgate of attempted financial assistance.
"Isn't Mathilda Yorkie the hospital's merit scholar?" she said, glaring at him. "Oh, you know what I've been wondering about Vesper, by the way? Why is the vampire so overbearing?"
"Maybe because he's vastly more mature and knows better."
"I wonder why the girl finds it so sexy…" she muttered, without thinking.
"She does?" Edward, Alice, Jasper, and Rosalie said, slightly off from one another.
Heat crawled up her chest to the tips of her ears. "Well, she can't exactly help it. The vampires were transformed to attract humans at all costs, right?" As Edward's expression was overtaken with guilt, Bella regretted her harsh words. She squeezed his knee under the table. "Lucky he never abuses that power. He's such a good person."
"Not a person," Edward muttered, but she had successfully made him feel better, anyway. It helped to remember that he would make her find him repulsive if he had that power. It would be so much easier to want her if she didn't want him back, if it was truly only friendship on her part. It would be easiest if they just wanted one another and took one another, of course, but if she had Jacob, why did she have to want Edward, too?
Bella's hand started gripping and stroking his leg, up and down, in a motion very reminiscent of— "He is a person."
Edward tried to force his mind away from the idea of public hand jobs by studying her face. How incredible that she truly thought of him as good as human.
"Oh, Bella," Alice said as lunch ended. "Esme, Rose, and I are going to an auction this weekend and we'd really love for you to come."
Edward rolled his eyes at Alice's attempt at nonchalance. "It's a Sotheby's auction, Bella, and in New York. You'd have a wonderful time, of course, but it would take some explaining."
"Explaining" was code for "lying," mostly to Jacob. He didn't know how he wasn't suspicious that Bella was keeping something from him. Perhaps it was because two more boys had begun their werewolf change in the past few weeks. The pack was on his mind at least as much as Bella was. There were now six wolves. Why were they changing now? Jacob thought it was because of his family's arrival, but Edward thought was very worried it was because of something more. Victoria came to mind. What could she be planning that would make the werewolf gene so nervous?
"I don't know—"
"Oh, please?" Alice pouted.
"Just tell Charlie it's a sleepover—it is, it's just at The Palace instead of our house," Rosalie said. Edward could tell the fact Rosalie wanted her to go was swaying Bella to do so. She had been to the house six times now – Edward felt like a little girl writing the dates a boy nudged her as he walked past in the back of her trapper keeper – and it already felt like she belonged there, but it was obvious she was still nervous that no one really liked her, especially Rosalie and Emmett. Silly Bella.
"Will we back by Sunday night – Sunday at five?" The werewolves and their various companions were having a dinner to welcome the newcomers and Jacob hadn't even considered Bella might not be there.
"Yes!" Alice said, bouncing. "Yay!" Bella offered to pay for her ticket, the hotel room, but no one listened. It was charming that she tried so earnestly.
As their Friday departure came nearer, Edward became more paranoid that Bella would cut herself on something in the hotel room and Alice, Esme, and Rosalie would either run from the temptation and Bella would bleed to death or they would stay and kill her. He had been planning on taking the time Bella was out of town and protected to search for Victoria again. His last try had been a disaster, probably leading him towards Florida more because he wanted to see Bella than because any of the leads were very convincing. Now he thought he would follow them to New York. He had little idea where Victoria was, anyway.
"Do not," Alice said. "We're not going to hurt her, but you are going to freak her out by running into the hotel room like a maniac. And make us owe the king's ransom for breaking the door. You're welcome to come, but don't be so underhanded."
In the end, Edward decided to stay close to home. Emmett was feeling neglected, anyway. If the women were having a girl's night out and shopping for abstract impressionism, the men could go to Mexico and hunt jaguars.
After a few hours of hunting, they had to make camp and spent most of the night just talking about the women. "New bet!" Jasper said.
"Yes!" Emmett said, ran up a tree trunk and somersaulted back down. Edward and Carlisle was holding one another up, laughing. They couldn't get drunk, but a few jaguars worth of blood in their system and the hot, Mexican air put them in a rather inebriated state for some time afterwards.
"I bet… that Edward and Bella are dating in one month." He held a straight face for a few seconds, then started sniggering like a hyena.
"That's ridiculous," Edward said.
"He's right." Carlisle nodded, his eyes too wide. "Where's your logic? What changes, what galvanizes them to do it? I say it happens the morning after the first time she gets drunk Dartmouth. One thousand dollars."
"What?"
"Okay, Princeton. Wherever you want Edward." Carlisle rubbed the top of the head.
"You need a date!" Jasper said and Emmett chanted, "Date! Date! Date!" and then everyone fell apart laughing at the double entendre, except for Edward who was quite possibly sulking.
"Fine, Halloween – no, I mean the morning after. November first, 2006."
"You are on. Emmett?"
"When it comes out that he saved her from James and Victoria. I refuse to make a date."
"Then I don't have to name a date either," Carlisle said. They argued about that for another thirty seconds before Edward couldn't take it anymore and ran off. He didn't hold it against them – they probably had no idea how the idea of one day being with Bella tortured him. He checked in on the women. It was eight a.m. in New York and Esme was meeting an old friend at Tavern on the Green. Rosalie was at Sotheby's arranging to have a Rothko delivered to the house and a small Calder sculpture to be sent to the Denali. Alice and Bella were at the hotel spa. The manicurists were terrified of Alice's skin and she was delighted.
For a few minutes, it was very nice watching Bella get pampered and listening to their conversation, but if there was ever a time Edward wished he couldn't read Alice's mind it was when she asked Bella about Jacob Black's penis.
"Can I ask you a question?" Alice started innocuously enough. Edward stayed listening because he wanted to learn everything about Bella possible.
"Sure," Bella said, no more aware of the horrifying conversation to come.
"It's kind of a weird question." But Edward still wasn't worried. Bella just laughed and nodded for her to continue. "It's about Jacob." At this, he felt his stomach drop out, but that wasn't uncommon. "Have you had sex with him?"
Bella blushed. Alice produced a vibrant image of it, hot blood under translucent skin, spiky lashes hiding her eyes. "We—we've done some things. Third base, I guess." Edward generally wanted to rip Jacob's penis off, but now he wanted to rip off his hands, rip out his tongue, everything that had touched Bella the way only Edward should touch her.
"So, you've seen his penis." One of the manicurists cleared her throat and Alice glared.
"Yes."
"Have you seen him have an orgasm? Have you felt it?"
"Well, I—yes. Why is this interesting?"
"You told me the other day Jacob's about one hundred and nine degrees, right? The human body raises about five degrees during intercourse and then with friction… I wondered if it was incredibly hot. I was actually nervous you got a burn after—"
Edward pulled his mind away for a few seconds to calm down. If the dog hurt Bella, then there was an entirely different issue at hand. Perhaps he could be excused for ripping – or, more humanely, cutting – off the werewolf's penis if he was harming innocent girls.
"—is very hot," Bella was saying. "But he—this is so embarrassing. Um, he doesn't have much stamina, so it's not so bad. Like, um, trying to grab a bread roll too soon after they come out of the oven. When he—lasts longer, I don't know—and inside me, um. I'm a little—I'm nervous. Kim asked Emily – they both imprinted with other guys in the pack – about it and Emily started talking about playing with ice and the pleasure in contrasts… it was kind of gross, but maybe that will be fun…"
Edward? Alice thought suddenly. Don't torture yourself, Edward. He wished desperately that he could respond to her, now that she knew he was listening, tell her to ask about Jacob's size, so he could compare it to his own. She would probably consider that more torture, anyway.
Right. He dropped out of her mind and ran back to the camp where Emmett was discussing getting married again and where to have the wedding. "Tavern on the Green," Edward said, voice surprisingly toneless as he sat down. "The crystal room. It's just Rose's style. Esme's there now. If you call her she can probably reserve it for twenty-ten."
They all stared at him for a few seconds, then Emmett said quietly, "Thanks, Edward," and left to make the call. His cursing having no service in third world countries only marginally helped lift the mood and then Jasper kicked in. Things with Bella weren't so bad. He got to see her, he got to touch her sometimes. That was wonderful.
"Why don't we go home?" He would be able to smell her in Forks. And there was that Victoria problem. He knew one thing about Victoria for sure: she was going to come to Forks to attack Bella, so the one sure counterattack was to stay in Forks and keep guard. It was an invigorating fourteen-hour run back. The sun was warm on his back until Salinas and then it was raining all the way up the coast. Maybe there would be a thunderstorm soon.
He spent the evening flipping through minds at the Neil Simon Theatre to watch Bella's reaction to Hairspray. Although no one paid enough attention to her, he could tell she was enthralled, absolutely immersed in the story and the music. She had been the same way at the auction the night before – sometimes appalled at how high Esme was willing and able to bid on the art, but mostly fascinated by the pieces themselves. He wanted to show her the world so badly. She would appreciate it just the way he wanted her to, just the way he had.
Once she was sleeping and no one thought it interesting to pay attention to her, Edward went around Forks looking for unfamiliar smells. No new vampires, but the werewolves had been within several yards of the house. There was nothing precisely wrong with that. The house was in the middle of the forest, after all, and where were they supposed to exercise their hysterical energy except the forest? But Edward and his family were not a threat, especially compared to the wolves' themselves, and there was no reason to patrol around their home.
The pack clearly thought there was reason. They could sense something coming. Edward was sure it was Victoria, but they were convinced – Jacob especially – that those damn Cullens were building up to something bad. He considered that they should explain things to the wolves, work together, but never speaking to Jacob Black was very preferable.
Bella undoubtedly had a wonderful time in New York. She had done so many new things, ideas that Renée had picked up and thrown away before they could come to anything. She was honored to be included in the activities although she still didn't understand why she was. Yet still, she had missed Edward, had looked for him again and again, as if she expected him to always be at her side. It would be difficult not to tell everyone what she'd done over the weekend, but it wouldn't be so bad because she could tell Edward.
She was badly attached to him. It would be right to stop seeing him. The thought was unbearable. Was infatuation always this consuming? For the sake of her relationship with Jacob, she hoped not. But then she wouldn't always be with Jacob—on the sleepy plane ride back to Washington, she had a little fantasy that Jacob's would find his soul mate, imprint on her, and Bella would be able to console herself in Edward's arms, stay with him as long as the fates' allowed. It was the first time she had ever seen Jacob's expected rejection as a good thing. Reality hit her soon after.
Much more likely, Jacob wouldn't imprint for a long time. Maybe they would be in their forties – Jacob would still look like a brawny young man and he and his true love would have many beautiful years ahead of them. She wouldn't know Edward anymore and if she somehow found him again, he wouldn't recognize her or any of the affection he'd once felt for her. You won't even remember him and this infatuation then, she tried to tell herself. Best case scenario, she would return to the real world, forget about the creatures of the night, and find a new love in the autumn of her life, like Diane Lane in Under the Tuscan Sun. Great. That would be great.
"Are you all right?" Alice asked her, putting a cold hand on her arm.
"Yes," she said, and tried to pantomime that she was engrossed in the SkyMall catalog open on her lap. "All the great gadgets make me a little weepy."
Alice took the hint and went back to her book.
Esme was a scary driver, going almost eighty all the way back to Forks, but Bella was grateful for the extra time to shower, change, and make some spaghetti for Charlie before Jacob, still excited to finally have his license, arrived to pick her up. She was also grateful Alice had insisted she borrow one of the dresses she'd bought in New York. They went to a boutique where they were greeted with delicate cups of coffee and Alice made her try on a hundred dresses, one of which Bella had to admit looked quite good on her. It was made of layers of dark blue silk, with a belted waist that made her appear to have an hourglass figure, or at least the closest she would ever come to one. Alice said she wanted it for herself, then mentioned on the cab ride to another store that Bella should wear it to the dinner. Emily had called to tell Bella that it was going to be semi-formal and the only thing she could have worn was a long, khaki skirt.
When Jacob showed up in slacks and a tie and his jaw dropped as she walked down the stairs, she knew it was right to take the dress.
"You are so hot," Jacob whispered in her ear as she took his proffered arm. "Why haven't I seen you in that dress before?"
"It's pretty fancy for hanging out in your garage, Jake." Not a lie. She called into the kitchen, "Bye, Dad! I'll be home by eleven."
There was a full-mouth garble of approval and Jacob helped her with her jacket, held open the front door and then the car door for her. Nothing like a pretty dress to get the gentlemanly treatment. Jacob was extra affectionate in the car, resting his hand on her knee and rubbing her bare skin.
"Oh, hey, I drove past your house on Saturday and your car was in the driveway," Jacob said, his tone not suspicious, simply curious. Thank god she didn't drive her car to the Cullens' and leave it there. If he had somehow seen that, she had no idea what she'd have done. "But I checked and you weren't in the house—"
"No, I was at the sleepover." Not a lie. "Um, Angela picked me up."
"Oh, yeah?"
"Yep!" she said too fast, a little high-pitched, but he didn't notice.
"Why?"
"Why? Her parents pay for her gas." Not a lie. "And with gas prices going up and since we were going to be together the whole weekend, she just figured—"
"Yeah," Jacob laughed, satisfied. "That truck is a guzzler. The rabbit's not much better, actually. Well, I'm glad I picked you up too, then, because, you know, I'm a licensed driver." He kissed her hand, then grinned. "You never need to buy gas again, I'll just drive you around."
"Oh, yeah? I think sugar daddies generally have a chauffer on staff." Although Alice had been something of a sugar daddy this weekend and would probably slap someone unconscious before he drove her car, a Saab she had argued fervently they should take to the airport and back.
The dinner was at Emily's house, of course. Emily greeted them at the door with hugs and kisses. It was loud and joyful inside and the air smelled like rib roast and cornbread. They had lined three tables together and covered it in a white sheet and table settings for seventeen. Jacob went right to Quil and Emery. He had been spending a lot of time with them since they'd changed, relieved that he could finally be honest with his best friends again. Bella was still shocked at how much they'd changed and how similar they looked now. She wouldn't be able to pick her own boyfriend out a police lineup of the pack.
She looked around the room while they talked and saw Leah Clearwater sitting in an arm chair in the corner of the room, holding a tumbler of caramel-colored liquid and glaring at the wall. She watched Sam notice her, take a few steps towards her, then turn around and rush to Emily at the stove. Poor Leah. It had to be horrible actually seeing them, seeing how they fit together like puzzle pieces.
A few more people arrived and then Emily called everyone to sit at the table. Bella was put across from a seven-year-old and next to Leah and the end of the table – the outcast girls, she thought after being ignored for a few minutes straight in the middle of dinner – but the food was great and the she could see Jacob was happy, eating and sitting around everyone he loved.
When everyone's plates were empty, Sam stood up and clinked a spoon against his beer bottle. "So, you're probably wondering why we had this dinner—"
"To be with us, jackass!" Embry said and the rest of the pack laughed.
"Much as I love your company, Em, um… I asked Emily to marry me." There was an audible gasp. "And she said yes."
The left side of Emily's face burst into a grin. A few tears fell as she stood and was pulled into Sam's arms, then Sue Clearwater's and another woman Bella had put together was her mother. The table broke into applause and laughing, then the noise was overtaken with a loud crash. Bella's arm smarted from being whacked by Leah, kicking over her chair and running out the front door.
"Let her be," Sue said quietly, and everyone tried to bring the mood back with more congratulations and hugs. Bella helped clear the plates while Emily served coffee and cookies, when the conversation was broken again, this time by what sounded like an angry growl and then—a howl. The room froze, then Sam and Billy moved to action, Sam running out the door and Billy blocking anyone else from leaving.
"Everybody, just calm down and stay inside," Billy said, his voice loud and calm. "If there's something out there, you're just going to get hurt going after it. Sam knows what he's doing."
Jacob hadn't moved a muscle, was just staring out the window. "Oh my god," he said, his voice low. "Leah just phased."
He looked so shaken by the idea that Bella wanted to argue that it could have been anyone on the reservation, a real wolf even, but the words stuck in her throat. It was Leah. It was as if the night air whispered it.
After a few minutes, Jacob and Jared sneaked out to help Sam. The remaining pack formed a tight circle in the living room to talk about it. Emily was trembling with the quick change to the evening and Kim took her into the bathroom to calm down. This left Bella alone which a bunch of people she didn't know very well and she couldn't talk to about what was really happening.
After almost two hours, Sam, Jacob, and Jared came back inside, looking haggard. While Sam announced that everything was fine, Bella went to Jacob and he gave her a few kisses on the cheek. "Come on," he said. "I'll take you home and tell you what happened."
Leah's mind was torn to pieces as they chased her through the forest. When they finally caught up with her, Sam pounced to keep her still and when they phased back, she was naked and crying in his arms. Being so vulnerable and comforted by the man who had made her upset enough to phase in the first place made her phase again and there was another chase. This time Jared pounced on her instead and calmed her down enough to get her back to her house and in bed. "I think the exhaustion finally caught up with her. Sam's going to send Harry over to take care of her. God, I never expected this. I thought it would be Seth. I thought—"
"You didn't think it would be a girl."
"Yeah," Jacob admitted, quietly. He pulled up in front of her house.
Bella kissed him and ran her hand through his cropped short hair. "I guess—tell me if I can do anything. I'll see you soon."
Despite not being able to help, it had been an exhausting evening and Bella expected to pass out the second she sat on her bed. But she was agitated. She tried reading, but she couldn't concentrate. She tried doing what basic yoga she remembered from Renée's stint with it on her floor, but that made her feel even more awake. What she really wanted was to talk to someone, but it was midnight now and she couldn't tell anyone what happened, anyway.
Maybe a drive would make her feel better. Driving lulled babies to sleep, didn't it? She got in her car and headed to the road north out of town. She didn't recognize that she was going to Edward until she was just a few yards from the road to the house. She stopped the car when she was at the turn. She should turn back. What was she doing here? She was here to talk to him, she realized. He would be awake at midnight and he knew about the werewolves. He was the answer to her wish.
She turned on to the road.
Edward thought he was hallucinating when he smelled Bella from his room's open windows Sunday night. A few seconds later, his ears caught up with his nose and the sound of her car coming towards the house got steadily louder. As he walked down the stairs, he saw Alice standing at the front door, putting all her weight on one foot, then the other. She looked realized when she noticed he was also coming to see Bella and ran up the stairs.
"Alice!" he called, then sighed and turned on the porch lights, opened the door to wait for Bella outside.
He waved and smiled as he truck rumbled out of the trees. She looked exhausted as she parked the car and got out. What happened? Why was she here? She looked beautiful. Underneath her open jacket, she wore dark blue silk which was a little dusty and rumpled around the legs now, but still made her mouth look pink, her skin luminous, enhanced the gentle curve of her breast. He started towards her as she walked towards him and they met within a foot of one another. What now? He couldn't hug her. This dress had built-in arrows pointing to her subclavian arteries and he'd have to bite into one just to distract himself from kissing her.
"Hi," he said.
"Hi," she agreed. "I—um. I think I left the Monday-postmark scholarships in Esme's car and I—"
"Oh, yeah. You did. They were done, so I just… put them in the mail. I'm sorry, I should have called you."
"No! I wasn't home anyway." Right, the werewolf dinner. He was very tempted to go into Jacob's mind and see what could be wrong with Bella, but he couldn't leave this moment with her. "Could we—"
"Would you like to come inside and sit down?" She nodded and he let her lead the way inside, then could only follow her when she started up the stairs. It's not that he didn't want her in his room… it was that he so desperately wanted her there.
She took off her shoes and jacket and laid them by the door, then sat down in the middle of the couch and curled her legs underneath herself. Edward put himself on her right. This was easily the closest they had ever sat in so intimate a setting and he had to clench his hands in his lap to keep from touching her.
"What happened?"
First she told him about Leah Clearwater, brokenhearted and forced to phase into a werewolf, but then the story evolved into what he really wanted to hear, that Bella felt separate, from the pack, but also from the tribe at large, unimportant, and useless.
More than anything, he wanted to comfort her, but the problem was, that was all true. Even to Jacob himself, Bella was in one corner, of his heart, his life, the pack was in the other. He wholeheartedly thought she was the best girlfriend imaginable, but it wasn't her place to help with pack business. Even Sam didn't think Emily should do much more than provide a late-night ear to his problems within the pack, food for everyone, and shelter. They felt the women couldn't understand and maybe they were right. After spending time in their collective mind, he knew it would be difficult to be a part of that camaraderie without your own mental link.
He was unappreciative waste of space, but she loved him. So he said, finally, "Jacob loves you. He loves you so much. In his heart, you are the most important, the most useful. Let the boys have their secret club and know that where it really counts, you are it. You ground him. You're his core."
"You're right, I know that." She smiled for just a moment. "I guess I—I'd like to be a part of something."
"You're a part of the Cullens," he said without thinking. It was true, but in so many ways he wished it wasn't. It would hurt everyone when she inevitably pulled away. "You're not one of our kind, but you are very important to us all."
Bella stared at him for a few seconds, then broke out in tears. "Why?" she said helplessly.
Because I love you. Because you're my soul mate. Because I want you to be with us for eternity, to complete what has always been missing for me here.
"In a way—" He broke off when a sob ripped from Bella's little body. There was nothing to do but hold her and he slipped his arms around her back and her legs, pulling her almost on top of him. Oh, she smelled awful. He bent his nose to her throat and took a deep breath, finding her scent underneath all the dogs.
Stroking her back, he started again. "In a way, we're the opposite of the wolves. They are what they are, they are a family because of blood. We are what we are, we're a family, because of choice. They mate for life because of some irrepressible bodily connection, we mate for life simply because we decide to. You are part of this family because we want you to be."
He laughed and wiped her face with his sleeve. "If you'll take us. We'd be very lucky to have you." She looked stricken for a moment and he realized that might have sounded like a proposition. "I don't mean to propose any blood loss or change in body composition."
She relaxed and leaned her head on his shoulder. "I am too lucky to have you and your family. Thank you."
There was a knock at his door and Alice poked her head in. "Leave some for the rest of us, Edward." Bella didn't even stiffen, just laughed with him. "There's going to be a thunder storm Tuesday night. Bella, you need to come."
"Come where?" She sat up straight and blew her nose on a handkerchief his human mother trained him to keep on his person. Edward was grateful to Alice for putting Bella's mind on something else.
"Just out in the woods…" Alice said. "Some pagan rites, dances, ritualistic slaughter."
"We play baseball." Bella smiled stiffly and nodded, valiantly trying to look excited, but it was clearly not her sport. "It's a little different from human baseball. Faster. You'll have a good time."
She yawned. "I think I'll fall down."
"Oh no, you won't be playing, though… yes, you'll most likely fall down." Yawning again, she slapped him lightly. "Come on, I'll drive you home." He kept her in his arms as he stood and ran her down the stairs and outside before she could protest. Dropping her shoes on to the ground, he stood her in them and she worked them on to her feet while he helped her with her jacket. She was asleep by the time they got to her house, but she insisted she could make it to her bed by herself. He listened carefully until she was changed and under the covers.
Somewhere in the trees in front of her house, Jasper was hiding. "You're reading a book?" he said in way of greeting.
Jasper didn't even look at him. "Well, she wasn't here, was she?"
"You could have followed—"
"Of course I followed her," Jasper said and Edward relaxed. "But once she was with you, I didn't really need to be there, did I? Thought I would come back here and watch for Victoria. I would probably smell her before I saw her even if I was staring at Bella's room."
"I'll take over."
"Edward—"
"No, it was a stupid idea to let you have the first night she got back from New York. I wasn't getting anything done at home, anyway. Alice says there's going to be a thunderstorm on Tuesday. Go practice batting with her."
"You know who really needs practice? You. And Bella." Edward took the original printing of the Napoleon journals out of Jasper's hand and gave it a hard throw north.
Jasper took the time to kick him in the shin, then ran after the precious tome before it could hit the ground. Satisfied, Edward climbed his tree and watched Bella sleep for the rest of the night.
Through most of Monday and Tuesday, Edward was sure Jacob would call Bella away from the game, but he was extraordinarily distant with her. The whole pack was distracted with their new member, though to be fair, she wasn't making it easy to pay attention to anything else. Leah Clearwater was being a bitch, that was all there was to it. Edward got a twisted pleasure from anything that made Jacob's life more difficult, but it was difficult to pick his emotions out from the rest. Only Leah's were distinct. She felt a good deal of satisfaction, happy to be with Sam, happy to have a connection to him that Emily would never have, with an undercurrent of pain that it would never be the connection she wanted.
Edward couldn't help but sympathize with her motivation though he would never act on them the same way.
Bella worked at the Olympic Outfitters until seven. Like clockwork, it stopped raining at seven-oh-five and only the thunder and lightening remained. Edward was waiting outside the store for Bella to lead her to the baseball field.
Mike left the store first and grinned when he saw the Volvo. Edward sighed and rolled down his window, forcing a smile for the press. "Hey, man," Mike said and put his fist inside the car. Edward went through the motions of the modern handshake. "What are you doing here?"
"I help Bella with Calculus. We don't usually meet on Tuesdays, but there's a quiz tomorrow."
"Lucky guy," Mike said and raised his eyebrows in a salute to Bella's beauty. Edward made himself chuckle. He would not rip Mike's eyelids off. "The boyfriend doesn't mind?"
Edward shrugged. "Jake's a good guy."
"Yeah… he just seems pretty possessive."
"Wouldn't you be?"
Laughter exploded from Mike's chest. "Yeah, I guess I already am. And you have more claim on her than I do."
"What do you mean?"
"Come on, man. You're her best friend. Like I said, lucky guy." Edward's gaze was drawn to the store's doors as Bella left and locked up. Mike turned. "Have a good night, Bella!" he called. "Good seeing you, Edward."
Bella soon took his place at the window. "What did you tell him?"
"We're studying, of course. And did you know I'm your best friend?"
She smiled a little. "Well, yeah. So I'm going to follow you?"
"Yeah." They drove out of town and up to the main road to the field. After a few minutes, it started to rain again and he went agonizingly slow to make sure the truck could safely stay behind the car. He drove up the road a few yards and parked in a small clearing. Bella pulled up next to him.
"This looks more like a mountain pass than a baseball diamond."
He laughed. "This is not the field. Now we run."
She shook her head. "I should have known. The raindrops are going to jab coming down." She went behind him and put her arms around his neck, anyway.
"We won't be in one place long enough to get rained on," he assured her and then they were off. It had to be a bumpier ride on the way up than on the way to the meadow, but she seemed comfortable. She squealed about a minute from the field, when the ground evened out. She was still out of breath when they arrived.
"I thought you'd stopped," she explained her shout, "And I opened my eyes. It was better when it was jumpy. At least I could tell we were moving."
Keeping an arm around her until they got to the clearing seemed to get her back steady on her feet. It was only drizzling by the time they started to play and ground was dry by the forth inning. Edward was at least as excited to display his physical prowess to Bella as he was to play. She looked surprised by everything – how big the field was, how far apart the bases, how fast the ball. Esme was running commentary. Edward focused on not looking at Bella and smiling for fear Esme would bring out the proverbial naked baby pictures.
Edward was up the bat when Alice gasped. Instinctually, he ran to Bella. Was it Victoria? It only took a few seconds for a grin to appear on Alice's face.
"It's Tanya!" Edward relaxed. "She'll be here in a minute."
"Do you remember I told you about the other family like ours?" he said to Bella. Still a little wet, she smelled incredible in the damp air.
"The one in Alaska? One of them seduced Boris Pasternak."
"You paid attention," he said. "Yes, that was Irina. This is Tanya. She's something of the leader of the coven."
Tanya was extraordinarily clean when she came into the clearing. He had always been amazed at how put together she always was. Bella gasped. "She's stunning." He looked at Tanya again. She was beautiful, he supposed. Tall, lithely muscular, wavy blond hair down to her waist and an always-smiling round mouth. It had been no effort to seduce any man who attracted her. "She's staring at you." No she wasn't.
But he realized that she was. She went to Carlisle first, of course, then to Emmett, Rosalie, Alice, Jasper, but in between each greeting, her gaze returned to Edward. She had always been an wild flirt when his family was in Alaska, but she had only shown real interest once, the last time. He had told her unequivocally that though he loved her – after one hundred years of friendship, how could he not? – it was nothing like what he found in Carlisle's mind for Esme, or even Emmett's mind for Rosalie. She deserved better than that. Was she trying again? Her thoughts were as innocent as they'd ever been: more sexual than any mind he'd come across, but universal, not at all specific to himself.
"Edward," she sang, pulling him into a hug with her hands in his hair. "It's so wonderful to see you all. Who's this?" Before he could speak, she continued, softly, "Tvoj milacik." The Slovak words meant, "your beloved."
"Nie," he said quickly. "This is our friend, Bella."
With a small, pitying smile, she turned to the larger group. "Who's team shall I join?"
Rosalie ran to Tanya and took her arm. They skipped off like angels in the moonlight. Turning to Bella's deeper, warmer beauty was a balm to his every sense. She cleared her throat. "Did you—date her?"
He tried not to laugh. He had never known one of his own kind to date. "No, Bella. There's never been romantic feeling between us."
"Oh, yes." She wouldn't look at him. "It seems perfectly platonic between you. Practically aloof. You're up to bat." She gestured toward the diamond and walked away from him to Esme.
Confused, Edward continued with the game. Every time he looked at Bella, she looked somewhere else.
Bella was disgusted. Every time a ball flew between Edward and Tanya, it felt like foreplay. Why waste time with the game? Why not excuse him from the game and let them chase each other around his bed—his couch. Whatever. "What's wrong, dear?" Esme said near the end of the game.
"Nothing, I—Edward and Tanya are quite close, aren't they?"
Esme laughed. "Not really. She's always been interested, but Edward rejected her in a very gentlemanly way. SAFE! Alice is safe! Too slow, Emmett."
Bella felt relief prickle through her entire body and to protest it, she said, "Oh, I don't care. He can love—he can do—he rejected her? Why?"
Gripping her shoulder in a cold, comforting hand, Esme said, "He's never been involved with anyone, Bella. He's been waiting for the right person."
Of course he was. Edward deserved someone very special. It would take him a long time to find that girl. Bella couldn't imagine her beauty, her goodness, her vitality, to be worthy of his heart. Esme looked like she wanted to ask after her wellbeing again, but she stuck to worried looks.
At the end of the game, Edward's team won and there was much teasing and laughter. Bella wanted to hug him or at least slap him on the back or something, but she couldn't make her arms move from their protective place across her chest. Tanya seemed to be quite congratulatory enough for everyone. "Did you enjoy the game?" she asked Bella and she forced herself to hold her smile.
"Of course! A major league game—is so boring—now." Any humor was lost in her stilted speaking. Wow, Tanya actually made her too nervous to talk.
Edward chuckled. "Like you enjoyed the MLB so much before." She shrugged and looked away from him. "Do you want to go home?" he asked. It was probably a good idea. Maybe she could sleep away this ruthless jealousy; she nodded at her feet. "Do you—mind if I take you down the road again?"
Forcing herself to look at his beautiful face, Bella saw he was very worried she'd refuse him. She realized she'd been ignoring him since Tanya arrived. This was quite the way to treat him hours after she confirmed he was her best friend. "Of course I don't mind."
She thanked everyone for letting her sit on the game and told Tanya it was good to meet her. Tanya cocked her head to the side and smiled. "I'm sure I'll see a lot of you while I'm here."
Edward led her back into the woods with a hand on the small of her back. She could feel the tickle of cold through the down of her jacket. Climbing on him before he ran with her had never seemed sexual before, to scared of the sharp little branches, but now it felt like every part of her body that touched his was on fire. It was worse when they got to the rocky part. The motion was a lot like thrusting against him. She took a deep breath, but only inhaled his scent, concentrated on the back of his neck. He dropped her carefully when they got back to the cars and quickly walked away from her.
"I'm sorry—"
"No!" she said. "I'm sorry. I didn't like seeing you with Tanya. I behaved badly."
"It wasn't bad behavior," he assured her, walking near to her again. "It was just—silly. Tanya's like—an aunt."
"Edward, if everyone's aunt looked like that, incest wouldn't be illegal." She ran her fingers over her scalp and shook her hair around her face. "I have no right to be jealous, anyway—"
"No, you don't. But—you were jealous?" He tucked her hair behind her left ear and rubbed the tips between his fingers. "I think I like that. It's nice not to be the only one."
"You're jealous?"
"Silly Bella," he said so softly she wasn't sure he'd truly spoken. "I'm jealous of everyone who looks at you when I can't. I'm jealous of your clothes. I'm not your best friend. At least tell me that."
"No." She didn't know where she'd found the breath. "You're—"
"Don't say it." Say what? Bella had no idea what she would have called him. The breeze was taking the word into the trees and she was too frightened of it to go after. He gave a stiff chuckle and in a normal voice, "I can't bare it."
Anything else. She said the first thing that came to mind as fast as possible. "Mr. South is making Lauren and Jessica do act one, scene four from Twelfth Night—" He took the bate.
"In which Olivia falls in love with Viola?" He smirked and the tension relaxed.
"Exactly. He's making them do it in the auditorium at lunch. It should be hilarious, so look forward to that."
"Tyler was thinking of them making out in Elizabethan clothing all through World History – makes sense now. I think he's going to make everyone go."
They left one another on a light, easy note. As she checked in with Charlie, did her homework, and got ready for bed, she wouldn't let herself think of his words, but as she fell asleep that night, as her oversized sleep shirt twisted around her in the sheets, she thought he's jealous of this? But then she thought of what Edward had worn that day, a tight powder blue tee that clung to every arc of his body, she realized she was jealous of his clothing, too.
End Notes
1) Jaguars are a near threatened species and adorable besides. I don't condone killing them and I don't think the Cullens do either. All I can say is this is a special treat. Or they are not near threatened in a world with vampires.
2) Bella's dress is here: /estore/browse/productdetail.jsp?id11768349
