"Edward, keep your eyes on what you're doing unless you want to chop off your fingers!"
Ma tapped my wrist and I quickly looked away from Isabella, Riley, and Alice who were on the couch talking. Glancing back down to the task at hand, I saw that I was at the very end of the carrot and a cut away from getting my finger caught. I looked up at Ma and she gave me a strange smile. I cocked an eyebrow at her before she went back to peeling the potatoes.
I felt my face heating up from being caught staring at Isabella like Riley does. It's cute when he does it, but me? Not so much. I cleared my throat and grabbed another carrot.
"Carlisle said that after dinner tonight, he'd like the three of us to talk to Isabella and get a clear picture of what's going on with her. Do you understand?" I glanced at Ma before looking back down. I'd really rather not talk about Isabella and James, but I wanted to know so much more about her. Ma and Pa had the right to know as well now that she was staying in their home. I sighed and set down the knife.
"Can you make sure Pa doesn't step over the line? We all know that he can go overboard with the questions," I said.
"I know, honey. I'll talk to him after we eat. All I want is for Isabella to be safe and comfortable. We all do."
"Edward, you should let Isabella shave your face," Alice sang as she came skipping over. I almost cut my finger as I flung my head around to look down at her. She rubbed her protruding belly and looked up at me with eager gray eyes.
"Alice, I've never done that before! I'll cut him!" Isabella called to her. I looked at her over Alice's head at her red face. She looked scared while Riley sat in her lap and played with her braid.
"Alice, I think I can shave my own face…" But I definitely wouldn't complain to have Isabella that close to me. I swallowed thickly and chuckled nervously. Alice's eyes flashed mischievously.
"She has to practice for when she gets a husband." I heard Isabella make a sound in the back of her throat.
"Alice!" She choked. She looked ready to drop Riley from her lap and hobble over here to drag Alice away. I rubbed the back of my neck with a sigh.
"I'm helping Ma…"
~.~
"I'm scared," Isabella whispered as she held the blade in her nimble fingers in front of me. We were in the bathroom across from my bedroom. Alice, Riley, and Bree took over helping Ma with dinner. I rubbed more shaving cream onto my face.
"It'll be fine. I can do it if you really don't want to. I apologize on Alice's behalf. She can be…"
"Very demanding and controlling?" She offered for me. I let out a laugh and nodded my head. That was so very true, and everyone always ended up doing what she said. She was going to be an amazing mother.
"You should be relaxing anyway. Here, I can manage." I held my hand out for the blade, but dropped it back to my knee when she didn't hand it over. I raised my eyebrows at her.
"I want to do it."
"You do?"
"Well, I should learn. I have my chance now and I should take it, right?" She moved the blade into her other hand and shuffled the chair she was sitting on closer so that she could better reach me. I resisted the urge to take a deep breath of her scent. Flowers and strawberries.
"So I just go down?" She questioned. I hummed my answer as she started on my left cheek. "You just don't want to press down too hard or you'll nick me," I said gently as she made another pass. She had her eyebrows furrowed in concentration and didn't give any sign of hearing what I had said.
"Well, you're not bleeding yet," she said proudly. She held up the hand mirror in her lap for me to see the two passes that she had made.
Clear and smooth.
"Are you still scared?"
"I just really don't want to make you bleed or cut you too bad," she went down to my chin.
"As long as you don't move the blade to the side, I should be just fine." She was back to concentrating.
It took a few minutes for Isabella to break the silence.
"I apologize for only saying it now, but thank you for bringing me here and having your Pa fix up my leg. I couldn't be more grateful for that," she said gently as she applied more shaving cream to the left side of my face. She met my eyes for a moment and I marveled at their deep brown color; like chocolate…
"I'm just happy that you're not in pain any more or having to deal with James," I said. "What do you think you're going to do once your leg is healed?" My hands twitched in my lap as she gently gripped my chin and tilted my head to the left to get to my right cheek.
"With all the talking Alice has done, I haven't really gotten around to thinking about that." We chuckled at that. "I mean, what if James involves the authorities? I doubt he will, but what if it does happen? I'm only sixteen and he's twenty-six. He could tell them anything and I'd hate myself if you and your family got in trouble because of me," she leaned back and looked into my eyes. They were now glassy with tears.
"Just because he's older does not mean they will believe him over you," I argued.
"If only you met him. I swear that man can make you believe anything! I bet he could make you believe in Santa Claus." I tilted my head. Did I hear her right?
"Santa Claus? Oh, come on Isabella." She laughed and set the blade down.
"I'm serious! He should have become an actor! I think that's the only thing he's good at," she grumbled.
"Santa Claus is a little extreme, don't you think?" She made her face go blank and stared straight into my eyes.
"Not at all…" She cracked a smile.
"Perhaps magic? Not Mr. Claus."
"When did you find out he wasn't real?" We both forgot about shaving my face, but I wasn't complaining.
"Oh, that was a terrible day. It was even on Christmas!" Isabella put her hands over her mouth.
"Was it Emmett?"
"Of course, it was! Only he could upset me that much. I got something that he had wanted, so he decided that it would make him feel better if he just came out with it and told me Santa Claus wasn't even real and that it was Ma and Pa that got up in the middle of the night to put the presents under the tree. I also don't think I'd ever cried so long before, either. He had many more chores to do for two weeks and I was a miserable seven-year-old boy." She was trying not to laugh in my face, but failing was an understatement. My lips parted as she put her hand on my knee without any thought to it and cut off her laughing.
"Edward, I am so sorry. That was so unfair of him to do," she said. I was just working on not looking down at where her hand was. She removed it as if it was no big deal, but I saw the little bit of color that had crept up onto her face. I shrugged away the brief awkwardness.
"The worst part is that I haven't gotten him back for that yet. Emmett is not an easy being to get back at, and he never gives up. He will keep going until you give up first."
"I bet you and I could get him back," she murmured. Her tone was scheming.
"Oh yeah? What do you have in mind?"
"Nothing at the moment, but with this broken leg, I have a lot of time to sit around and think about things."
"So, you're Isabella?"
I looked over at Rosalie standing in the doorway and frowned.
Her ice blue eyes stared down at Isabella like she was a bug from under her shoe.
Alice - 18
