Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns all.

Rated M for several reasons.

Chapter 9 Pigskins & Ponies

BPOV

Sunday is another lazy day, this time for all of us.

Esme went ahead with the catered brunch she'd had planned when she was expecting to be relaxed and happy following the marriage of her youngest son.

We all just made pigs of ourselves.

I felt a little sad for Edward when we all went back to our lives that night, he should have been on a plane to Africa, starting his new life with a lavish honeymoon, not camped out in his old bedroom at his Ma and Pa's. I almost invited him to spend a couple of days in New York with us but stopped myself just in time, that would so not look good in the press . . . .

...

Of course when I get back work consumes me, taking over everything the way it always does.

Felix has indeed wielded a hefty shovel in my absence and the deeds of Senior Management in the Shipping Division are going to require a visit from the Boss. An immediate visit of the unannounced, frowny faced, variety.

Lauren dutifully rearranges our schedules since it won't hurt to drop in and surprise a few other Leadership Teams once the word spreads . . . . .

...

"Morning." I greet the Receptionist as I breeze into their foyer in Newport News.

"Good morning." She says brightly, giving Felix's imposing frame an appreciative once over.

"Bella Swan." I say. "Here to see Royce King."

"Do you have an appointment?"

"I don't need one." I inform her with a wide smile.

"O-kay, I'll just see if Mr King is free." She murmurs, tapping the screen in front of her to call up his number.

"Mr King? Cheryl here. There's a Bella Swan in Reception for you."

Pause.

"Yes Mr King, I will tell her that. Yes Sir."

She removes her headset, appraising me this time.

"He says he'll be right down Ms Swan."

"I just bet he will." I chuckle. "Thank you Cheryl."

"Royce." I greet him as he huffs and puffs his portly frame into view. "How lovely to see you again. Boardroom free?"

"Of course Bella, to what do we owe this unexpected pleasure?"

I heft Felix's lengthy report out of my laptop bag and wave it at him, with some difficulty admittedly, since it's pretty much a whole ream of paper.

"Just a couple of little things we need to go over. Is everybody in?"

"They can be."

"Make it so Royce, make it so."

...

I'm exhausted by the time Felix and I make it back to the hotel later that night.

I don't like being a hardass, the effort drains me, but it goes with the job.

Royce for definite is going to get his saggy dishonest ass fired, the jury is out on the other fuckers, others in my organisation will take it from here.

"Dinner?" Felix asks as we check in.

"Not tonight, sorry, it's been a rough couple of weeks."

Felix laughs and then tries to hide it and I smile when I look away. He has a sense of humour, he and I'll rub along fine eventually.

We take our keys and ride up together in the elevator.

"Thank you." I tell him as I get off at my floor. "You did good work there."

"It was my pleasure Bella." He says, his cheeks going a bit pink.

Bless.

"I'll see you for breakfast, seven thirty?"

He nods as the doors slide closed.

My shoulders slump, god I'm tired . . . .

...

Done with my unpacking, such as it is, I spend a few minutes contemplating my cell.

We'll be in Louisville in a few days and I don't know if I should call Edward or not.

There are many reasons to be unsure.

History. Me. Him. Recent events.

Fuck it, he's a friend.

'Visiting near your backwater for a day or two, fancy a beer?' I text, and then I shove my cell aside and make for the shower.

When I get back he's replied.

'Rude! Always. When?'

'Friday.'

'Want to come to Churchill Downs on Saturday?' He responds immediately.

'Sure, you can show me what all the fuss is about.'

'Lol. Pigskins and Ponies.'

'That sounds incredibly wrong.'

'You'll get the hang of it, you're a smart woman.'

...

Felix and I spend a couple of days in Cincinnati, which is still a bit of a mess but steadily improving, before ending the week at the Air Freight Division in Louisville. No problems there, they're one of our slickest operations, but pats on the back achieve more than spankings in the long run. I drop him at the airport on the way back to the hotel, he's going back to New York to spend the weekend with his husband and daughter, and will meet me in Florida on Monday night.

I've a couple of hours to kill before I meet Edward and frankly a long soak, and possibly nap, in the tub, is on the cards.

...

A text diverts my attention from the financial report I'm reading.

'Downstairs. Casually dressed. Hotel staff giving me stink eye. Please hurry.'

'Two minutes.' I respond, swinging my feet off the bed and grabbing my purse.

...

I take the stairs two at a time and arrive in the lobby to find him deep in conversation with a very flustered looking receptionist.

Stink eye my ass, fuck eye more like.

He might not be dressed for such an expensive hotel but even in flannel, jeans and work boots he looks like he belongs here.

Since I'm wearing converse and not heels I manage to sneak up on him, almost, he spins at the last minute, grabbing me and pulling me into his side.

"Angelita, this is the woman I was telling you about. My friend Bella. I'm going to take her out and get her incredibly drunk."

"I hope you enjoy your evening Ms Swan." She says politely, possibly wishing anything but.

"I will, thank you." I assure her.

Edward wheels me away and we start for the door.

"There will be no 'incredibly drunk'." I growl at him.

"I've booked a room in this exorbitantly priced marble palace." He drawls. "So I had better not be returning to it in a state of complete sobriety."

...

"No!" I howl. "No, no, no!"

"Yes." He says, nodding sagely. "Every time you bent over for three years."

"Edward, no. He was my favourite Professor!"

"He was a total perv." He chuckles. "He knew more about your ass than he did his elected subject."

"Why must you strip away my illusions?" I whine, grabbing my glass and realising its empty.

"More beer?" He asks, draining the last of his.

"I think I should probably eat something first."

"Excellent suggestion, I know just the place."

...

"This is awesome." I moan around my burger.

"Bella." He says shaking his head. "Do you eat like this at your fancy business dinners?"

"Pfft. No. I pick at my rabbit food just like all the other women do."

"No wonder you're always hungry."

"You have no idea." I tell him, taking a swig of my soda. "I've been known to stash a bag of chips in my purse and keep going to the restroom. I'm surprised no one's started a rumour I'm a cokehead."

"That's . . . . a little bit gross."

"The cocaine or the chips?"

"Duh. The eating in the restroom."

"Needs must Edward, needs must. At least I don't have to stuff my arm up a horse's vag to earn a living."

He tries to scowl at me but fails miserably.

I always could make him laugh.

...

On the stroke of midnight we leave the bar we're in and wend our way back to the hotel, both of us yawning and ready for our beds.

We exit the elevator on my floor and he walks me to my door, pulling me in for a hug.

"What time do I need to be up in the morning?" I ask him as I hug him back.

"There's no rush, racing doesn't start till after lunch, I'll meet you downstairs at noon if that's okay, I've got some stuff to do while I'm in town. We can grab something to eat at the track."

"Okay, do I need to get dressed up?"

"Nope, you'll be fine as you are."

"Okay."

"Okay."

"Night Edward."

"Night Bella."

"Edward?"

"Yes?"

"You'll have to let me go so I can open my door."

"Ah, yes, I can see that."

We continue to stand there for a bit longer. He's an excellent giver of hugs and I'm a willing recipient.

"You should let me go now." I sigh eventually.

"Sheesh, Bella, I've had a very traumatic time these past weeks and you're rationing the hugs already?"

"I really need to get to bed Edward, I'm dead on my feet."

He presses a kiss to the top of my head as he releases me.

"Night Bella."

"Night Edward."

...

The following day he hurries into Reception a couple of minutes late, apologising profusely and clearly distracted as he hustles me outside.

"This is different." I observe as he unlocks a dark blue truck. "What happened to the stupid shiny Volvo? You were totally in love with that thing."

"It's been years." He points out as he starts the engine. "And it died."

"What?"

"Expired. Ceased to be."

"What happened to it?"

"It got in an argument with a very strong willed Kentucky tree. The tree won."

"Oh."

"Wet road and very tired newly qualified veterinarian." He laughs. "God bless the air bags though."

"You always did drive like a lunatic."

"And yet here you are." He says dryly as he starts the engine.

I laugh and surreptitiously grab a hold of the door handle as he peels out of the lot deliberately.

We're silent as we drive out of the city and I take the time to look around. It's beautiful here, lush green trees set in wide open spaces, quite a bit different to the sinister trees on The Olympic Peninsula where I did part of my growing up.

Eventually I glance over at him. Edward's always been prone to a bit of brooding and I can't help but wonder what's got him going today, his brow furrowed slightly as he concentrates on the road.

"Did you get everything done you needed to?" I ask eventually.

"Yeah, just needed to sign some stuff to do with the house."

"Ah." Now I know why he's more subdued this morning. "Sorry."

"It had to be done." He shrugs.

And that's the end of that. Edward and I have been friends for years and I probably knew him as well as anybody did back in the day but I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of 'personal' conversations we've had. He nearly opened up last week but I'm hesitant to push him today so we lapse back into silence. It's not like I ever want to tell anybody anything either.

Being Edward, and basically the owner of a cheerful disposition, he seems to have shaken himself out of it by the time we get to the track.

Turns out the pigskins referred to the football on the big screens and the ponies were the horses, who knew?

I've always loved horses, though for the record they don't seem to like me very much, but there was something truly beautiful about these glossy athletic thoroughbreds and I could sort of see where Edward got his obsession from.

We sat in the stands drinking soda and eating junk while he painstakingly explained the sport to me, occasionally breaking off to catch up on the football. The sun was shining and the atmosphere was positively charged and all in all I think this will be one of those Kodak moments that I'll always remember, a bit like the time Charlie took seven year old me to Disneyland and Minnie Mouse gave me a hug.

"Dinner?" Edward asks as we stroll back to the truck at the end of the day.

"If you don't need to get home." I demur, sure that he can't just drop everything because I've blown into town.

"We're good." He says with a grin. "But I will have to do a Cinderella on you, I'm on duty from midnight."

"Fair enough."

...

We decided on pizza, you can't really go wrong with pizza.

My cell chimes while we're eating and I check to find an email from Rose, there are no words, just a link to a gossip site.

With a sinking heart I click on it.

It's not as bad as it could have been and I suppose Churchill Downs is the sort of place where you're likely to get recognised by a professional.

"What?" Edward asks as I chew my lip, so I show him my cell.

The picture is of the two us in the stands, jean clad knees together as I'd tried to mash his hotdog in his face when he'd made a rude comment about my poor betting choice in the previous race.

He smiles, it is a good picture, a happy one, and then frowns slightly.

"I'm sorry Edward."

He waves me off.

"Tanya might see it."

"She knows we're friends Bella and she knows you get photographed a lot."

"It's just so soon after . . . ."

"Bella, we've been photographed together before over the years and I'm not losing a friend just because she's famous, I don't care what anyone else thinks about this. We had a good time today and that photo captures it perfectly. I will regret it if Tanya sees it and it upsets her, but it can't be helped and we haven't done anything wrong."

"I guess. Why the frown though?"

He looks at me speculatively for a moment.

"I've always wondered how you stand it? All the attention and speculation, it's not really very 'you'."

"It was a mistake." I admit, remembering . . . .

When I first took over as CEO at Cask there was, understandably, a lot of media interest in such a young woman getting such a huge opportunity. The Board thought, and I can understand why, that it would be a good idea to court it to a degree, that's how Aro first came into my life. He overhauled my 'strictly business' wardrobe, rounded off my rough edges and got me seen in all the right places with all the right people. I even enjoyed it for a while, I might have been a CEO, but I was still young. Unfortunately, and I've no idea why, something about me captured people's imaginations and though I tried to be less visible when I realised what the fame truly meant, it was too late. Living in New York didn't help either.

"So I just learned to live with it." I finish with a shrug. "It doesn't matter what they say about me but it pisses me off when they drag other people into it."

"What?" I ask when I realise he's looking at me funny.

"Nothing. Sorry. Dessert?"