Hi everyone,
so it's been a while again, I know, but shouldn't be too long (touch-wood) before the next one after this.
Hope you're all still really enjoying the story-keep those reviews coming in!
Chapter 25- Just a Day
Brady
Just waking up, I rolled over to find the other side of my bed empty. The confusion lasted only as long as it took for my senses to properly awaken as I breathed in the incredible smell of fried eggs and bacon.
God I loved that girl.
The last week had been incredible.
Not having to worry about going in to work at all, that feeling of complete freedom where Nola and I could be together as much as we wanted to be, which, of course was pretty much every second.
We'd spent quite a bit of time over at her place or out doing something with Jordan and Isla, they left tomorrow, so of course Nola wanted to spend time with her brother while she was here, which was fine by me.
But we hadn't spent a night apart since her graduation, with the exception of the few hours every couple days that I had to do night patrol, but now that I was on vacation I planned to talk to Sam about having a change around so that I could go back to some day slots.
My stomach, as usual felt all too empty and that smell was driving me crazy. I threw on a pair of shorts and walked out into the kitchen to find Nola sitting at the table next to Seth, who was eagerly devouring some of the mountain of food she'd cooked.
"Oh good-morning, sleeping-beauty." Nola said, looking up at me from her breakfast with that million-dollar grin.
I smiled back, resenting Seth's presence deeply as I took her in.
The sun, which had held up for a surprisingly long time for La Push, shone through the apartment, shining off her golden skin and illuminating her hair, which she'd scooped up in a messy knot on top of her head, little wisps of it flying out around her face. She was wearing only her cotton pajama shorts and white tank top and looked, as always, absolutely delectable.
"Good morning," I said as I sat down next to her, leaning in to kiss her cheek and down her jaw, breathing in her intoxicating scent for just long enough before her hand on my chest pushed me away. She smirked, blushing and turning to grab plate off the counter behind her, which she passed to me.
"Knock yourself out." She said, gesturing to the pile of scrambled eggs and bacon in the middle of the table.
"So anyways, man," Seth began, after we'd both consumed massive portions of food, "bunch of the guys are going out to the cliffs today, you in?"
"Yeah, sure," I replied quickly. It'd been a while since we'd gone, and it was a good time.
Nola gave me a look of confusion.
"Cliff-diving." I clarified.
"Oh, sounds like fun, even if that water is ice-cold. I'll go by my house to get my suit, and come with."
"No way." I shook my head at her. "It's dangerous."
"Uh, Brady don't be such a guy." She rolled her eyes. "A bunch of my friends from school have done it. And all the other wolf girls go."
"That isn't true." I said, grasping at straws, "Emily's never been, and Rachel won't go."
"Yeah, because she's as big as a house right now. Besides, I'm coming with you, you don't get to control me." She added, clearing up her plate and giving me a confident smirk.
"Dude, I'm pretty sure you lost on that one." Seth said, taking a break from finishing up what was left of the eggs.
"Fine." I said, defeated, "But you only jump from lower down." I said firmly, following her back into my bedroom.
She turned around to look at me, "okay," she nodded, continuing to smirk at me.
"What?"
"Nothing," she laughed, putting her arms around my neck, "you're just very cute when you're trying to be all over-protective."
She lent in to kiss me, before clapping a hand on my cheek, "come on, we'll get dressed and head over to mine," she said spinning around away from me and quickly replacing her boxer shorts for the denim ones she'd been wearing the day before.
I watched as she removed her shirt, pulling one of my own T-shirts over her head.
"Hey, that's mine," I teased, grabbing her by the back of the baggy t-shirt and pulling her in close, "give it back." I said, lifting it over her head again and wrapping my arms around her, her bare chest pressed against mine.
"Very funny," she giggled as I began to trail my hands down her bare back, "but I was actually planning on, you know, doing stuff t-today." She breathed, faltering as I brought my hands down to her butt and thighs.
"Yeah, me too," I replied, hoisting her up and carrying her over to my bed, "I just have some…other…ideas about the…stuff we should do." I said, dropping her down onto the bed and leaning in to assault her neck and chest with kisses.
"Ah-Okay," she sighed, giggling lightly at my touch, her chest rebounding under me, "ha-half an hour."
Nola
Okay, so I know I gave Brady a hard time for trying to warn me against this, but now, I had to admit, it was a little scary. Not that I would be admitting that to him of course, but inside my head it was okay.
A few of us were on the lower outcropping of the cliffs which overlooked first beach, and despite it being a warm day, the gray water below did not look exactly inviting. Not to mention the fact that there was a very considerable drop you had to go through before you plunged on into it.
"It's great once you do it that first time," Jaime reassured me.
"Yeah, like a lot of things.." Kim added, suggestively. Jaime and I laughed, just as the sight of Jared soaring out and down towards the water came from much higher up.
He, Embry, Seth and Sam were up top, and most of them had already made the frighteningly high leap off of the cliffs. It was hard, sometimes, to remember the super-human side of things, particularly when all you see are shirtless guys throwing themselves off a Cliffside. But, of course they were all okay, and would tear through the water at impossible paces, emerging with stupid grins, to sprint back up and go again.
With Jared in the water, Kim decided to follow, letting out a high pitched squeal before she quickly ran towards the rock side and threw herself off, soaring through the air to meet him below.
"Come on Jay," Collin taunted, racing forward and grabbing Jaime by the waist, making like he was about to throw her off.
She screamed, kicking his legs and laughing until he finally let her down, and jumped himself.
"Here goes," she said to me with her dimpled-grin, as she followed her imprint, her petite body soaring down into the water below.
Brady stood beside me, holding my hand.
"Are you scared?" he asked me simply.
"No." I lied, smiling at him. He didn't believe me for a second.
"Let's go um…tandem" He said.
"What do you mea-" I started, but just then he showed me what he meant, wrapping his arms around me and lifting me to support my weight, he surprised me, running forward and propelling us off of the cliff.
I screamed at the fright of the action, feeling myself soaring towards the water in what felt like slow motion, as Brady's kept me firmly enveloped, then, faster than I'd imagined, I felt us plunge into the icy water.
As we broke the surface, Brady loosened his hold, looking at me with a huge grin on his face, which I splashed water in, scolding him.
We couldn't stop laughing as we treaded water, my body adjusting quickly to its freezing temperature. Everyone was right, cliff diving was a total rush.
After a couple hours, when I'd dived (by myself) several times, and we were all pretty tired out, everyone headed over to Jared and Kim's place.
It was a warm, sunny afternoon, and we sat in the backyard and ate a huge lunch that Jaime, Kim and I prepared with the help of Emily, who arrived shortly after with the kids.
It was just as well it was warm; really, us girls were practically frozen after spending the morning either in the freezing water, or covered in it, in tiny bathing suits.
"Oh my goodness, Paris!" Emily gushed as we wolf-girls sat together on the porch, "I am so jealous. That'll be amazing."
"Yeah, I'm pretty excited." I said. Understatement of the century.
"So when do you leave?" Kim asked.
"Um, we fly out from Seattle July 9th, and we're back on the 27th. We're going to try and get a bit of sight-seeing done around some other areas of France for a few days, maybe rent a car and just sort of go exploring. Plus we're stopping over in London for a night on the way home, which I'm really excited about."
"Oh my god, I can't believe Brady- coming up with all of that." Kim said in aw.
I smiled; it was no secret that I was more than a little biased when it came to Brady. To me, he was basically perfect. But even I was pleasantly surprised that he could surprise me with such an amazing trip planned. I guess it was just another one of those things that he would continue to baffle me with: the idea that I could actually love him more every day.
"Hey, babe it's 3.30." Brady said a little while later, as I felt him come up behind me, placing his warm hands on my shoulders.
"Oh, thanks." I registered. Brady knew I had to head home. It was Jordan and Isla's last night with us before they got up early tomorrow to drive to Seattle to catch their flight to Los Angeles.
I had spent a lot of time with them during their visit, but I couldn't help but feel guilty about the fact that I also spent a large amount of it away from them, with Brady. Jordan was too laid back to care much, I knew, but I definitely wanted to go home to have the afternoon and dinner with them on their last night.
After I'd said my goodbyes to the pack lot, Brady and I took the short walk to my place.
"Well I'll let you have the night with your family, I'll go back and hang with the guys." He said with his warm smile.
"Are you sure?" I asked, "you know you're totally welcome in there-"
"I know," he nodded, smiling, "but you should hang with them on your own for a bit. I'll come and find you later?" he asked with a smirk.
"You better." I said stepping closer to him.
"He wrapped his huge arms around me, warming my body which was still a little cold as I wore my damp bikini underneath my denim cut-offs and Brady's big gray T-shirt.
"I love you." Brady murmured, lifting me off of the ground and kissing me.
"Love you too." I whispered when we broke apart, before, with a long, lingering look, I turned to go inside.
Brady
"Wake up."
"Brady, babe, wake up."
Groggily, I became aware of Nola's touch, and tuned in to the sounds of her urging me awake.
I registered it was still dark when I finally let my eyelids open, so it had to be the early hours of the morning.
Suddenly, my brain caught up with me, and the alarms sounded inside my head.
"Nola, what's up? Are you okay?" I choked out, sitting up suddenly and trying to fully wake myself up.
Nola had, as was becoming usual for us, spent the night at my place. I'd gone to pick her up around eleven-thirty, after she'd had a nice night with her family, and let's just say we didn't exactly get to…sleep…until a lot later than that. Which, coupled with the night patrols I ran for most of the week, had me pretty beat. Well, too beat to be alert at this hour, anyway. The hour which, thanks to the glaring light of the alarm clock I could now see, I knew to be 4.12am.
"I'm fine," she said in a low voice, "It's Sam." I didn't get it.
"On the phone." She added bluntly, clearly not happy about the hour herself, as she waved my silver cell at me.
"Oh." I grunted taking the phone from her.
"Brady." Sam said immediately after I greeted him. All business. "I need you to get over here. My place, now. And wake Seth and tell him, too. I take it Ozzy has work?"
Bewildered, it took me a minute to register.
"Ah, yeah, he does." I replied.
"Okay." He said. "So you two come over, now, alright?" he said seriously, not giving me time to reply before I heard the connection click off in my ear.
"What was that about?" Nola questioned me, she looked worried. Clearly my confused expression and the hour of the phone call had let on that something was up. I just wish I knew what.
"Um, I don't know, Seth and I have to go over to Sam's. I'm guessing the whole pack does." I said, trying my best to downplay it as I threw on some sweats at wolf-speed.
"I guess I'll see you later. Go back to sleep, I'm sure it's nothing to worry about." I told her, leaning over the bed to kiss her quickly before I left the room.
Once I'd quickly replied Sam's routine to Seth, the two of us ran down to the woods' entrance that backed on to the hardware store's parking lot, phasing and tearing off for the Uley's place.
Just why the hell we were going there at 4am on a Sunday morning, we could not have expected.
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