Chapter Twenty-One

The Gift

I couldn't really understand why the flight to Italy seemed so much faster when they both lasted a little over twenty hours, but it did. I had guessed it was the thought of flying into trouble that made the distance seem shorter and wanting so badly to get back home made it seem to take forever to get there. And it was wonderful to be home. I had missed all the familiar scents and odors that surrounded us. They were so very comforting.

We had all piled out of the two cars, grabbed the many bags that came back with us and carted them all off to our respective rooms. I would actually have clothes to hang in my closet, and as I walked into the enormous space I had rarely visited in the last three years I found that I would need to shove some of Edward's things back to his own side. My new sexy undergarments took up two drawers on their own in my almost empty dresser.

Edward walked over and pulled the other empty drawers out smiling. "We'll need to fill these up also." At the rate he was ripping through them, those drawers would never stay filled. He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me up voraciously kissing my neck and then letting me go. I could feel the lightening come alive inside of me. I watched as he walked away disappearing into the bedroom.

Twenty something hours was just way to long to go with out sharing myself with him. Even if he was keeping me on a tight leash by making me wait and teasing me horribly when he gave in. It was actually making life extremely exciting. Now that we were home I had my chance to see if he was going to make good on his promise to stop spoiling me.

"Would you mind terribly if we unpacked later?" I asked from inside the closet.

He came to the doorway and stood with a playfully sexy smile spread across his face. "No, not at all. Actually I …" His mood shifted suddenly. He was feeling something that I could only interpret as… hesitancy. "I have a gift for you."

"Edward, you shouldn't have!" I slid my arms around his waist and looked into his eyes. "You're just as bad as Alice and Rosalie, you know that don't you?"

"What? How so?" He really didn't see it.

"They buy clothes and shoes and you buy CD's and cars. It's exactly the same thing. And now you had an excuse to buy something for me."

He was looking down at me. "Well…I didn't just buy it. I bought it two years ago and just never got around to giving it to you."

"Oh. Okay then, if it's taken you two years to give it to me, can you wait just a little longer?" I began unbuttoning his shirt.

He placed his hand under my chin and lifted my face. "Bella, I'm afraid with giving you this gift, I'm going to need to make up for it…a lot." He kissed me, took my hand and led me out of the closet.

As we walked out the side door he turned towards the garage. He led me down past the most often used doors that housed the everyday cars until we were almost standing in front of one of the antique car doors.

"Edward, please tell me you didn't buy me a car." We had already had that discussion many times.

His face had no expression but I could feel how anxious he was. He pressed the code into the little keypad.

"I didn't buy you a car."

The door quietly slid up and back to reveal a very old faded red tank of a truck.

I gasped at the sight of it. The memories of it flooded into me. I knew this truck. Knew every rattle, every noise, and every little quirky thing about it. I felt as if my feet wouldn't move me towards it fast enough. I ran my hands over the rounded fenders until I reached the door handle. I peered in through the window, and then pushed the button that opened the door. It swung open easily and I climbed up inside. I folded my arms on the steering wheel and closing my eyes, laid my head down.

"Do you want me to wait outside?" Edward whispered. I only nodded.

There were many times I missed being able to have a human moment and this was one of those times. I wanted to cry. To cry until I couldn't cry anymore. Sobbing just wasn't the same without the tears but I did it anyway. After I settled down, I realized what Edward meant when he said he would probably have to make up for it and he was right; he was going to be making up for it …a lot! I sat up and breathed in deeply. I could smell scents from the past inside this cab.

My human scent was all over everything and Edward's was very strong also. There were two other extremely strong scents, the first was so wonderfully sweet, so much like warm thick orange blossom honey I just kept breathing it in as deeply as I could trying to saturate every cell in my body with it's intoxicating fragrance. I blocked out every other scent and focused on that one alone. There was no way that I was thirsty but my mouth began to fill with venom and the tickle in the back of my throat was almost unbearable. Who's scent had this been? It was so frustrating that I gave up and focused on the last scent, which was unmistakably werewolf. Jacob's scent. I breathed it in very lightly because werewolf was really an odor, not a scent. Not something pleasurable to inhale. I breathed it in a little deeper and though I was blocking all the other scents, I found that the wonderful honey scent was mingled with Jacob's odor. That delicious honey smell had to be Jacob's human scent. It made me sad to think that I would never have the chance to smell that on his skin, not only because he was no longer a human but because, if I ever saw him again, he would probably be trying to kill me and I would be doing the same to him. I didn't want to be alone in here anymore, but I didn't want to get out just yet either.

"Edward?"

He came around the corner and stood looking in at me. "Bella, I'm so sorry if I've caused you to relive something that you weren't ready for."

I sat looking down at the floor of my truck. "Is Charlie okay?"

"Yes, he's fine."

I looked around the interior, wishing it didn't have all those smells of the past. I wrinkled my nose. "It smells in here." Edward opened the door and held out his hand to me. I just scooted over to the center of the seat leaving room for him to climb in and sit next to me, which he did. He put his arm around me and pulled me close.

"I guess it does have the odor of sitting in storage for a long time but, it also smells of you and I didn't want to clean it up before you were able to see it just in case, well…." He stroked my hair with his hand. "If you don't want to keep it, I'll totally understand."

It never crossed my mind not to keep it. "I'll keep it. But it needs a paint job and I'm sure the engine is shot. Another project for you and Rosalie huh?" I reached out and touched the steering wheel. "Are you going to tell me how you managed to buy my truck from my dad?"

"Do you want the whole story or the condensed version?"

"The whole story, please." I turned and folded my knee up onto the seat so I could see his face. "First, before you start, you didn't hurt me, my angel. It was just kind of a shock. When stuff like this happens, the memories just…" I shrugged my shoulders and took his hand. "I don't want you to think for one second that I have any regrets of becoming…yours." I softly kissed the palm of his hand and pressed it to my cheek. "It's just the memories pour in and I let them have their way with me then I'm fine. Really."

He studied my face then smiled. "The whole story is that I asked Carlisle to hire someone to watch over Charlie for a while. It was pretty simple, he knew a doctor at the hospital who wanted to do some research on how stress effects health and needed the funding so Carlisle funds his research. The research includes professionals like doctors, firefighters and police officers. So this doctor approached Charlie and lucky for us, he agreed to participate in the study."

"And he's doing okay? He's happy?" Edward nodded. I looked down at his hand in mine. "Did he look for me for very long?" I hated to think that he would have wasted time searching for me. I had hoped he would go on with his life.

"He did look but not for an abnormal amount of time. He gave up once he found our house empty and did the research into who owned it finding only that it belongs to one of our companies and can't be traced to us in any way."

"Where did all of your stuff go?" I had always wondered about that since they had left the house on such short notice.

"Carlisle and Esme were able to lock everything in the basement and brought only what they could when they left." He leaned his head back smiling. "All of my CD's are in that basement." He let out a little laugh. "Charlie put a 'for sale' sign in your truck a year after you disappeared and Carlisle had someone purchase it for me and it's been in storage all this time."

"Is Charlie still alone?"

"No, he met a really nice woman, a nurse at the hospital. He saw her every time he came in to talk to the doctor. They dated for a year then they got married. So he really is very happy, Bella." He kissed my forehead.

"And Renée? Did you keep tabs on her also?"

"Yes, she's fine too. I think having Phil made it a little easier on her." He adjusted his arms around me and held me tightly. "I do have another gift for you."

"Edward, is this one going to make me sob uncontrollably too?"

"I'll be quite confused if it does." That wonderful smile of his flashed at me and I was melting. "I'm finished with the house plans. Actually, I drew two different plans, one for our home here and one for a home somewhere else. Your choice."

I was so thrilled! "Are they both designed around a piano with room to dance?"

"Absolutely."

I pulled his face to mine, "This is so not fair! What gift could I possibly ever give you that would show you how much I love you?" Even though I brushed his lips with my every word, I was very serious.

His arms clutched me even tighter into his rock hard chest. I could feel the deep rumbling inside his body and his desire for me poured over my skin.

His voice was so deep and full of passion. "You have already given me the greatest gift I could ever ask for, your body and soul…forever."