Chapter 10:
Rosalie tapped her pencil on the dining room table. She doodled mindlessly on the blank piece of paper in front of her while listening to Edward plunk out a new song. Esme had asked him to write a song for her, and he was determined to make it perfect. Emmett slid into the chair next to her.
"What are you up to?" he asked as he lovingly tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Just doodling," Rosalie replied. She put her pencil down and slid her hand into his. He squeezed it gently before bringing it to his lips and kissing it softly.
"Christmas is coming up," Emmett pointed out rather bluntly.
"So it is." Rosalie didn't even know why they celebrated Christmas, it was a human tradition, but Esme greatly enjoyed decorating the house, and she and Carlisle clung to any human tradition they could.
"Do you do anything special around here to celebrate?" Rosalie shrugged and went back to her doodling.
"Carlisle and Esme like to celebrate, but I don't understand why. I try to do it for them." Edward snorted, but she ignored him. "Let's go upstairs," she said as she took Emmett's hand and pulled him to his feet. There were absolutely no objections on his part as he allowed himself to be pulled upstairs to the privacy of his bedroom.
Upstairs, Rosalie pressed her lips against Emmett's in a firm, yet loving kiss. His arms circled her waist, pulling her close. He slid one hand just under the hem of her blouse, causing her to immediately pull away.
"What?" he asked innocently. Rosalie fixed her hair.
"I'm sorry, Em, I'm just not ready for that. Please try to understand," she pleaded as she stroked his cheek lovingly with the back of her hand to show that she wasn't overly upset with him. She wished that he would just get the message and stop trying to push their relationship, but he wasn't.
"I understand, I'm sorry, I should have known better." He kissed her forehead softly. He could see something in her eyes and knew that she was keeping something from him, something important. "Are you alright?"
"Never better," Rosalie replied a little too quickly for his liking, but he didn't comment on it. He wasn't going to cause a scene at the moment. "I love you." Rosalie was desperate to shift the conversation to something….anything else.
"I love you too." That was the end of that conversation, hopefully for a very long time to come.
Edward was fed up with this little game that Rosalie was playing with Emmett. She needed to tell him about Royce now, before he told her his big news on Christmas; it was only fair. He knew that that wasn't going to happen though, she was determined to bury her past and completely forget about it, but Edward knew that that would completely blow up in her face sooner rather than later.
Carlisle pulled his car into the garage. He got out of the car and made a stop at the mailbox. He flipped through the collection of envelopes as he walked up to the front door. He was surprised to see a letter from Denali. Inside, he dropped the rest of the envelopes in their designated spot on the side table next to the front door and opened the letter.
"Hello, darling," Esme said with a smile as she literally glided down the steps and into Carlisle's arms. He kissed the top of her head lovingly. "How was your day?"
"Busy," he replied. "There was a building fire today, and our hospital had to take care of the injured." He reluctantly let go of her and momentarily turned his attention back to the letter from Carmen.
"Who's that from?"
"It appears to be from our friends in Denali," Carlisle replied. Esme couldn't help but smile. They hadn't heard from their friends in a while. They hadn't gone to see them over the summer as planned, and the last time they were in Alaska was when Rosalie joined their family.
Carlisle carefully opened the envelope and produced a single piece of paper carefully folded up inside of it. He read it quickly before returning it to its envelope.
"It appears as if they want to come for a visit for New Year's," he told Esme.
"Why not Christmas?" she asked.
"Carmen said that they want to give us a Christmas together with Emmett," he explained. "What do you think?"
"I think we're going to have some guests for New Years," Esme replied.
"Oh! Who?" Rosalie asked as she came into the foyer from the kitchen. Surprisingly, Emmett was not by her side.
"Kate, Irina, Carmen, Tanya and Eleazar," Carlisle replied. A wicked smile spread across Rosalie's face, and they knew that she was plotting something.
"Wonderful, Edward will be thrilled," she said before turning on her heels and sauntering down the hall in search of Edward to torture him. Esme and Carlisle exchanged slightly worried looks. They knew that Edward and Rosalie wouldn't get into a physical altercation, but they knew that some sort of issue was bound to happen before the day was over.