I know, I know. I'm late. I suck. *insert other insults*
Everyone knows I prewrite all of my stories and that I like to have one in the bag to upload the day my current WIP becomes complete.. well as much as I hate admitting it, I do not have an extra story waiting in the wings. I'm scrambling to write one *nods* 8 chapters in and it's got all the things to make everyone happy. Longer chapters, cute kids, animals, family *cough* Uncleward *cough* but yeah..
sorry it's late
Now *clears throat* is everyone ready for a tearfree chapter?
Enjoy
Chapter Thirteen
EPOV
The Nail Salon
"Marley, I think your daddy was right," Bella says, pointing to her plate with the end of her fork. "Those have to be the best pancakes I've ever had the pleasure of eating."
Marley's smile is a mile wide and lights up the whole room. "Thank you."
I watch her drown the last piece of pancake on her plate with more syrup than necessary. She's always been a little sugar bug and now I know why. The bottom of Bella's plate is covered in leftover syrup.
Sugar dependency must be hereditary.
Marley and I watch her reach for a pancake from the middle of the table and roll it up.
She drags it around the plate soaking up the leftover syrup and shoves it in her mouth before realizing she's got an audience.
"What?"
"You got butter and syrup on your shirt," Marley cackles, reaching for a pancake and doing the same thing.
Bella wipes her shirt off and grabs her empty plate and mine. But I stop her.
"I got this," I argue.
"Daddy always does the dishes after Nana cooks. Those are the rules of being a Prince Charming," Marley explains. "And it's good manners."
Bella nods and hands me the plates.
"You can sit with me while I finish," Marley says hopefully. "Mo- mommy."
She's tried the word out a few times in the past hour, but it still hangs her up. Bella and I stopped reacting after the second or third time, but there's still that change in the air when Marley says it. Tension grows thicker and Bella gives in to whatever's been asked of her.
As do I.
Somehow I get conned into taking them to the mall to get their nails painted.
Apparently, one of Marley's little friends at school goes with her mom and for some reason that particular event is at the top of a very lengthy list of things she wants to do with Bella.
Marley stuffs the last bite of pancake in her mouth and jumps off her stool.
"Imma cho het beddy," she exclaims, running out of the room and up the stairs.
"I think she said she's going to go get ready," Bella laughs.
"You're already picking up on her language. You'll fit right in around here," I chuckle.
She wipes down the table and leaves to get ready without another word.
~MM~
Nail salons smell like ass.
I seriously got a contact buzz from the fumes within seconds of entering. Marley pulled her shirt over her nose and asked Bella if it was normal, to which Bella replied that it was.
Luckily, each table is set up with a small portable fan and the tech assigned to Marley turns it on to deflect the odor from my baby girl's face.
They sit side by side as their techs pull out various tools. Marley asks a hundred and one questions and Bella is there to explain and help her through it all. I'm sitting across the room watching them and listening.
"What's that?" Marley asks, pulling her hands in her lap.
"It's just a scrub brush to make sure your nails are really clean. That way the paint will stay on longer," Bella explains as her tech uses the tool on her. "See, it doesn't hurt, it kind of tickles actually."
Marley gets through the buffing and scraping and laughs when her tech rubs a gritty substance into her hands, wrists and arms.
"Now you go with your mommy back to the sink and rinse real good, 'kay?" the woman asks.
Marley stiffens for a second, but nods and slides off the chair. She follows Bella back to the sink and waits patiently for her turn.
"How come there's sand in this soap?"
"It's to get all the dead skin off and make you smooth," Bella whispers, rubbing a towel up and down her arms. "Feel my arms now."
Marley reaches out and smiles.
"Exactly. Let's go pick our color now."
Marley picks an outrageous, neon green color for herself, and scowls at Bella's modest navy blue.
"S'boring, Mommy. We should get matching nails. Wouldn't that be cute? Sooo cute."
Bella relents and sits back down with a bottle of bright green polish.
"You're going to have to stop doing that, you know," I chuckle from my seat.
She looks over her shoulder and frowns. "What?"
"Letting her have her way every time she calls you that."
"You're right. I'm letting her get away with a lot, aren't I?"
"She's testing you. To see how far you're going to let her bend you, that's all. Try using the word 'no' a few times, but don't get disheartened when she turns into a brat."
"You and your mommy be matching," the tech tells Marley as she lacquers up her nails. " Both very beautiful."
"Thank you," Marley blushes.
They talk back and forth as ten little nails are covered with fluorescent green polish.
Somehow or another, the topic of Bella is brought up and Marley talks the woman's ear off about how her mommy found her after her daddy took her from a garden of babies.
The woman looks confused, but smiles and nods for Muffin's benefit.
"And now we get to spend a lot of time together before she goes back to Washington." She turns to Bella with a frown. "When do you have to go back to Washington?"
"Not any time soon, precious."
Marley finds the one drawback from getting her nails painted at a fancy salon.
Sitting under a UV light for ten minutes to ensure that she has completely dry nails, proves to be a difficult task for a five year old. I wind up sitting next to Bella with her in my lap to make her stay still.
I treat them to a late lunch in the food court and ice cream afterwards. Mint chocolate chip in a waffle cone with crushed Oreos folded in, is the usual for Marley.
We sit outside by an in ground fountain and I watch them interact with each other.
Marley's ice cream melts faster than she can eat it, so she and Bella switch back and forth as they talk.
"Did you know that Daddy named me after his favorite place to go camping?" Marley asks, licking her ice cream quickly.
"No."
"He did. 'Marley' means seaside meadow. Right, Daddy?"
"Right, Muffin; a pleasant seaside meadow."
Bella smiles. "My mommy named me 'Isabella' and that means pledged to God in Hebrew," she laughs. "Though 'Bella,' what everyone calls me, means beautiful in Italian."
"I like 'Bella' more," Marley says, passing her messy cone over and taking the clean one. "The nail lady was right, you know. My mommy is beautiful."
Surprisingly, no tears are shed but that warm feeling in the middle of my chest spreads.
We window shop on the way out of the mall and Marley falls asleep in the car on the way home.
"My parents want to get together in the next few days. They'd like to get to know you better and there wasn't a whole lot of time yesterday, what with the mishaps and the party. If you don't mind, that is."
"Of course not," she replies with a smile. "I do need to figure out if I'm going to my hotel today or not."
"You could stay at the house if you want. Marley would probably like that, but I don't want you to feel pressured into anything." I shift gears and drum my fingers on the steering wheel. "You probably have people back home that would like to hear from you. Your friend… Kate, was it? She's probably worried about you."
"There isn't anyone in Washington worth worrying about, Edward," she says softly. "And Kate doesn't know that I'm here meeting Marley. I didn't tell her when I found you guys."
"Why?"
"Because she knew that my daughter lived and helped my dad cover up everything."
I tap the brakes too roughly and we both lurch forward against our seatbelts.
"It's just a hunch," Bella coughs, pulling at her belt. "But I've always felt weird around her after the accident. Like something had changed between the two of us. She didn't even react when I told her about finding the papers."
"I'm sorry."
"It is what it is."
Marley snores loudly from the backseat and we laugh.
"Well it's your choice. She's probably going to sneak into my room anyway, so you can have hers for your stay."
"I'll think about it. I, uh… wanted to talk to you about something."
"Shoot."
"Well, Marley keeps talking about flying on a plane and stuff. I don't know how long my visit will be, but I'd like to talk to you about taking her to Disney World before I leave. We could go for a weekend or something. I'll pay for everything, of course."
"We have year passes. I'm sure we can work something out."
"Really?"
I shrug. "She's bound to have a teacher planning day coming up soon, and if not, it won't hurt anyone for her to take a long weekend. She'll love the idea of flying down though."
"Who's flying?" Marley calls from the back seat.
"Muffin, I don't think you ever nap for more than ten minutes at a time," I laugh.
"Who's flying?" she asks again.
"No one," I shrug.
She pouts and kicks my seat. "Mommy, who's flying?"
And for the first time since she started using the 'mommy card,' Bella doesn't give in.
Good for her.
All my thanks to darkNnerdy for proofing and assuring me that this chapter would be tearfree. The handholding during my current work in progress is incredibly helpful and nice considering we are two people that believe in personal bubbles
bigger thanks to SunflowerFran3759 for the extra polishing and helping me make this story my best yet
And thanks to you, my readers and all around lovely friends. Without you I wouldn't have the courage to upload anything in the first place.
Follow me on twitter for sneak peaks and updates at PandorasFF :D