Much love and many thanks to the Harvestward Team - Ipsita, Nic, VampyreGirl86 and SarcasticBimbo (absent this week - thinking of you, girl). All errors are mine.

Reviews - it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be, actually. Some of you still retain a little of Bella's perspective (although I realise she has tested us all - including me who has to keep her in character).

Chapter 10

Angela stands at the kitchen counter, dunking a tea bag. "I would have picked you up, you know. I wasn't doing anything."

"It was late. I thought you'd be staying with Ben."

"No, he was working, some outside shoot, inner-city grunge. Apparently, he made some new contacts."

"That's what you aim for in this game."

She eyes me warily while I wait for the questions to start.

"Why are you back early?"

I consider sharing the whole story, and then imagine the look of disgust when she hears the sordid details.

"Edward got sick and his family wanted him to come home for tests. I didn't want to stay there on my own."

"Oh—how sick?"

"Headache, fever, bloodshot eyes, and fatigue. He was falling asleep all the time."

"You didn't let him fly back on his own like that, did you?"

I acknowledge the frown and the question by scowling, then she takes a sip of her tea. "He may have caught a virus from mosquito bites that can lead to neurological complications and birth defects. His brother and sister-in-law are trying to conceive, so Rose is beside herself with worry. We all have to have blood tests."

"I'm sorry. I've read about these mosquito-borne diseases like Dengue Fever. Should I be canceling the cruise?" She and Ben are getting married in a month, honeymooning on a Carnival cruise to Aruba, Curacao, and Grand Turk (the reason she didn't come to Mexico with me).

"Only if you want to get pregnant straight away. Just use lots of repellent. The problem was Edward's hotel room wasn't sealed properly and it had no mosquito net."

"Is that why he was sharing your bed?"

I glare at her, feeling the weight of her disapproval. "I couldn't let him stay there like that."

"So he moved to your room?"

I nod, trying to busy myself with the coffee machine.

"Bella?" She waits until I meet her stare. "You've been looking forward to this trip for ages. The hot cowboy from Montana follows you all the way to Mexico and is sleeping in your bed. Are you going to tell me what happened?"

"How much detail do you want?"

"I don't know, but the long face and the puffy eyes don't go with the suntan."

"We had a good time, and then he got sick. That's all." She waits, but I can't come up with words to explain my poor behavior.

"Are there any photos of this vacation?"

"A few."

"Then plug the camera into the television. I want to see what I missed." When I bring the camera out, she has already taken charge of the remote. With an arched eyebrow, she confronts me. "I know what you're like. I'm not letting you skip through the juicy ones."

"Maybe I deleted them already."

"Yeah, right. You never delete anything."

I chuckle because she does know me, too well sometimes. It's because we've known each other since we were six. Even though we've had years when we've hardly spoken, we always reconnect like we were never apart.

"I could have uploaded them, you know. Oh, that reminds me, I have photos of whale sharks on my phone. Never mind. I'll get to them when you're finished."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, press play." After the first half dozen shots, she picks up the pad and pen she keeps near the couch. "What are you writing?" I ask.

"Just making sure I know where everyone fits in."

"There are only three of them, Ang: two brothers, and a wife. I know you'd really like Rose."

"And who are these people?" She points at the screen with the remote.

"Bree and Riley—just a couple on the tour that day."

Angela always asks a lot of questions. She's interested in everything, her intelligence fed by a voracious curiosity—a trait that serves her well in her job, exposing financial fraud. A girl who always loved numbers and patterns, she punctuates sentences with words like "anomaly" and "suspect intermediaries".

We all have our own jargon. She listens intently when I explain how changing depth of field alters the subject and drama of an image, and why keeping my photos in RAW format gives me flexibility in post-production.

I smile when I see the image of Edward wearing his rash guard. Angela places the pad down on the couch.

"And where are we now?"

"An hour and a half northeast of Cancun—whale shark feeding ground."

Speeding through vacation snaps of people she's never met, she suddenly gasps. "Heavens! Is this a photo of Bella Swan?"

"Ugh." I try to snatch the remote, but she leans away.

"I want this one framed on my wall."

"Shut up."

When we reach the photos of Edward on the beach, the rate of forward movement slows significantly. With her head tilted at an angle, she studies him for a while before she finally speaks. "Jesus, he is handsome. Does he know it?"

I don't answer right away, stuck on the latest Edward on the big TV. "Hard to tell, really. He's cheeky, very sure of himself, and he caught me staring longer than I should a few times, but he has this way of giving you his full attention. It's quite disarming."

Sighing, she says, "So you don't think he's an asshole anymore."

Falling into despair, I shake my head. "No, not at all. He was wonderful company."

"His eyes give him away, Bella—the way he looks at you." Staring at the television, I remember that day so vividly and how gorgeous he was through the lens. "Did you happen to get the answers to the questions I asked?"

"Eight partners, including me, and three of them were steady girlfriends."

"Wait—is that a lot or a little?" she asks with an infectious giggle I can't help returning.

"He's twenty-nine. I don't think it's a lot."

"He came on pretty strong in that bar in Montana. Can you trust he's telling the truth?"

I have to consider her question carefully, because he did come on strong, with a sexual confidence that quickly put a stop to my practice run at flirting. However, he was open about the fact that he couldn't resist, and I can understand it now.

"I don't believe he's lied about anything."

"Okay," she says, accepting my answer. "So why is he still single?"

I snort because it's like I'm describing myself. "He's an architect, Ang. He travels a lot for work and I get the impression he's quite involved in the building process."

"Well, if he's an architect, he's probably earning a percentage of the project cost—a small portion for the design and a bigger share if he follows the job through to completion."

"How do you know that?" She never ceases to amaze me with the detail she plucks from her brain.

"A client hired me to find out why his building costs were blowing out. I discovered the architect worked a series of expensive problems into the project that no one could have foreseen. He thought he was smart, but he wasn't smart enough for me." She ends with a self-satisfied grin. "I love to catch those pricks."

I have to laugh. "Edward gets angry when the client wants to change his design for the sake of a short-term gain, literally wanting to choke people who make costly mistakes."

"I remember you wanting to strangle the people who sent you to capture the moment the ice starts to melt."

All I can do is shake my head at that memory. "What was the point when the climate is in constant change?"

"But you persevered, Bella, almost suffering hypothermia to get that image of the first drop of water."

"I could have submitted a photo I already had and no one would have known."

"No, your integrity would never have allowed that." I try to smile, but I don't deserve a compliment, not today. Angela has always supported me like a generous sister, and she doesn't see that my flaws run deep. After the way I acted with Edward, I wouldn't be surprised if he never contacts me again. "Bella, do you want to take a break from this?"

"No, I'm fine." I don't have the integrity to admit what I did, nor the wisdom to understand why.

"You have tears in your eyes."

Lying back, I look at the ceiling. "I can't stop thinking about him. He says he wants a relationship and I told him I'm not ready, but he brings out a side of me I didn't know existed. I had sex with him again, Ang."

I wait for the backlash. "Well, what were you expecting, sleeping together like that?"

"He never came onto me. It was me who started it—I don't expect you to approve."

"You're a grown woman, so it's not up to me to approve. I only advised you to be careful. Neither of us has much experience with men, and I'm not sure what I'd do if I was newly single and met the right guy."

Shaking my head slowly, I reply. "The right guy—I hardly know him."

She looks at me seriously. "Bella, from the moment you came back from Montana, you never stopped talking about this man. Granted, some of it wasn't very complimentary, but he had an effect on you. It was a shock seeing all that emotion pour out."

"You don't think I was emotional when I was breaking up with Jake?"

"No, you were just treading water. Staying with Jake was sucking the life out of you."

Pressing my fingers into my eyes, I let out a huge breath. "I don't know what it is about this guy."

"Well, I've never had a handsome man chase me to another country, but he's certainly determined, so maybe that's the difference. He hasn't given you the opportunity to say no."

"I did say no."

"Except it turned into a rather large yes." She raises her eyebrows and looks at me smugly. Angela has been on my case for months, lecturing me every time I turned down the offer of a date. "You finally conquered your insecurities and gave someone a chance to show you their real self. I'm proud of you, girl."

If only I could live up to her opinion of me.

"I've never felt this kind of attraction before and, believe me, I didn't handle it very well."

"Oh, Bella," she says, smoothing my hair. "You've been through so much, haven't you." The strength of her compassion makes me tear up again. "What did you tell him about Jake?"

"Hardly anything. I don't enjoy talking about him."

"Does he know you were a ranger?"

"Yes."

"And why you left Forks?"

"I only told him about the competition and the scholarship."

"You didn't mention the bear?" When I shake my head, she growls softly. "We talked about this. What you did defines who you are. You must tell the story to see his reaction. It's a deal breaker."

"I know, Ang, but I could feel myself going to pieces, all right? Sometimes it's still raw like it happened yesterday. Those bastards brought it home to my family, my parents…"

She folds her arms around me and whispers, "It's okay." Angela knows when I need her physical comfort and how much I love her for it.

Eventually, I wipe my tears and we get back to the photos. She's excited to see the Tulum Ruins overlooking the sea, and I smile when we reach the bar on the beach with the swings, remembering the cool sand under my feet and the comfort I felt leaning on Edward's shoulder.

Speeding through the day we spent at Coba and the cenotes, she stops at the image of Edward and I at Gitano.

"Another photo of Bella Swan! You look happy here."

I do look happy and content, and now I've had time to think about what happened later that night, the sexual energy in the crowd at the beach club was enough to ignite the fire between us, even without Maggie's arrival. He admitted he was ready to explode and so was I.

Having deleted every trace of that girl from my camera, the photos end with a shadowy Edward, a blurry specter moving along the bar. They're interesting, but they don't capture the predatory way I observed him searching for me.

"I wish I'd come with you," she states, looking dreamy. "When are you seeing him again?"

"He asked the same thing before he boarded his flight and I told him not to rush me, so it wasn't exactly pleasant when he left. He wanted me to go with him to Montana and have the blood tests done there. His father is a doctor."

"Why didn't you?"

For a second, I consider explaining how stressed I was, how low I felt, but they're pathetic excuses, shameful reasons for running away.

"In hindsight, I should have. I've since found out there's a four-week delay in getting results back. This virus has no vaccine and no cure." I kick myself, thinking how close I came to accepting when Rose asked me. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. "When it comes to Edward, I just keep making mistakes."

"Then don't make another one."

"Huh?"

"Well, you said he wants to see you again, and you've got a good reason to go to him. Otherwise, you'll spend the rest of the vacation moping around here, wishing you took the detour to Montana. If there's no cure for this thing and you get sick, what am I supposed to do with you? I'll have to call Renee to come down."

Just thinking about Mom fussing makes me shudder. She might even try to drag me back to Forks. When I glare at Angela, she grins back. She knows I'll do anything to avoid that.

"You have the perfect opportunity to see what it's like in his world—something Jake should have done. I know he wanted to protect you. I even believe he loved you, but your life didn't change when you moved to Seattle. You were still hiking and camping and taking your amazing photos.

"Jake left a tight-knit community to follow you here when he had no idea what it was like living in a city. That's why he kept going home, and that's why he was always angry. Let's face it, you saying you wanted a divorce must have been a relief for him."

My shoulders slump and I sigh, wishing I had the luxury of her objectivity.

"Go get your tests done and make peace with the man. It's not a mistake to find out more about him. I have a feeling this guy is going to surprise you. You're either going to fit right in and want to stay with him, or come back relieved you didn't make another mistake."

With a glimmer of hope, I hug her to death, then retreat to my room. It takes a few minutes of staring at my phone to work out what I want to say. I need Angela's formidable confidence, but I can't make this call with her standing beside me.

After a few deep breaths, I call him, but it goes to voicemail, and I hang up without leaving a message. I need to hear how angry he is with me. When he doesn't call back, I hope it's because he's sleeping, and start looking at flights.

"It's over three-hundred bucks one way, Ang!"

"Write it off against the job. You have to re-shoot some location or something." Why didn't I think of that? "And don't forget I still owe you for the tickets."

This wedding they're having is anything but traditional. Instead of a girl's night out, we're flying to LA to see The Lumineers at The Greek. I think I'm looking forward to it even more than she is.

While I have time, I transfer the photos from the camera and phone to the laptop. Finally, I get a chance to see the whale sharks on my big monitor, and I'm astounded. There are so many exceptional photos that I now have a collection I can sell.

"Ang?" I call out. "You gotta see this."

The photo of Edward's face, captivated as the shark lies vertically in front of him, is a gift. Zoomed in or out, I've been very lucky to get such an image.

"Oh, God," she says with her hand covering her mouth. "Is that a whale shark?" The phone ringing interrupts us, and my heart leaps when I see it's Edward.

"Hi."

"You called?" he responds abruptly.

"I'm looking at a photo of you and a whale shark. It may be the best photo I've ever taken."

"Congratulations," he responds with the bitter tone I was expecting.

"How are you feeling today?"

"The headache is retreating."

Seconds go by with nothing more from him, so I take a breath and try to make peace. "I…I called to apologize, Edward."

"Okay."

"I couldn't sleep last night, regretting what I said when you left. I'm sorry."

"We might spend time bickering over times and dates, Bella. Nothin's perfect."

"Well, I really do want to see you again, and I'm still on vacation. Is it okay if I come to Montana and have my tests done with you?"

"Yeah, it is." I'm sure I hear the hint of a smile in his voice. "But you'll have to have to be quick. We're having the tests done in the morning."

"On a Sunday?"

"The guy is doin' Dad a favor. We have to fit in with him."

"All right, am I flying to Billings?"

"Yeah, it's Logan Airport."

"Can you give me your address?"

"I'll pick you up."

"No you won't. I'll catch a cab."

"Yes I will."

"Okay." I give in and scroll through the list, finding limited options left. "There's a Delta flight that arrives at 10:00 pm. It's four and a half hours, though. Does that sound right?"

"It should be two hours direct."

I sigh. "I should have come with you last night."

"Why the change of heart? Not that I'm complainin'."

"I had a talk with my girlfriend and realized a few things. I do want to get to know you better."

I hear him snort softly. "I'm lookin' forward to meetin' this woman."

The thought of Edward meeting Angela puts the biggest smile on my face. "I'll call you straight back. I don't want to make a mistake with the booking."

"I'll be here, waitin'."

Thanks for reading xo