A/N I saw Bruno Mars in concert on Saturday so suck my dick.
She stands here in the middle of the master bedroom with her arms crossed and a sour pout on her face whilst standing before the huge double window with an amazing view of the ocean.
Leah's less than happy about house hunting in a stage city on our two-year anniversary.
We have been looking for two weeks now, and nothing we've seen has fit her strict criteria and wish lists. Our real estate agent has easily grown annoyed, but because Leah is Leah, she can't give two fucks.
The first house we checked out was decent to the point of being able to live in, but the unfinished basement, ugly exterior, and lengthy distance from the school the kids would be attending next year were all deal breakers. House number two was actually kinda nice and had enough space for us and maybe even visitors, but with another unfinished basement and non-gated backyard—for safety of our three munchkins—Leah was turned off.
The houses in between the one we stand in now had all the same issues that perturbed Leah. The one house we did agree on was out of our price range and too far from the school, so we just can't catch a break. And it's an even more adventurous exploration finding a place like ours with nice high ceilings since she and I are freakishly tall.
I'm more patient than Leah, and even though I'd much rather be at my own house in La Push, celebrating my anniversary, I don't show my irritation.
"You like this place?" I ask, spreading my arms out to how much space I'd have.
"It's pretty big, and it's got a finished basement, and a pretty view of the mountains. It's alright," she mumbles and finally faces me. "What do you think?"
I stretch around some more. "I like it."
She nods slowly and stares at the ground. I hate when she gets moody.
"But you'd rather be in La Push," I add, and she nods.
"Leah, we don't have to m—" I begin.
"We do, actually," she corrects me and rolls her eyes. "It'd be a nice change and who knows? Maybe I can find some work out here."
Leah? Work? That's almost kinda funny. I don't think being called in every few months or so to get glamorous and have some guy take your picture qualifies as work.
She travels onto the attached bathroom and has little reaction to the spacious environment. It's a hell of a lot bigger than our bathroom; we can actually stand in here at the same time without climbing over each other.
"Whoa," I say at the double-sink counter space. She runs her fingers over the granite and glances at herself in the mirror. On the inside, she's excited about the possibility of having her own sink, but she'll never show it with the mood she's in.
Maybe I should cheer her up. That's what my marital description as a husband entitles, but even after a few weeks, I'm still pretty pissed about her and Bella. I can't even describe when a perfect moment would be to ask her about it. I don't know if it's wrong that we still have sex even though I constantly think about how Bella has been the same places I have. She's touched and licked every place I have. She probably even made the same sounds come out of her, too. Fuck, and she's probably screamed out Bella's name, too.
I sneer when her back is turned.
The sex, however, is still pretty good. We've got a lot of catching up to do, but knowing that some bloodsucker's ice cold fingers have actually grazed and caressed my Leah makes me more than pissed. I don't care if it is Bella. Leah's still mine.
One question that also remains is why did Nessie have that in her memory? She couldn't have been there to witness it. I think she'd have shown me what Nahuel did to her instead. Hmmm… I wonder if Edward knows or not, since he knows just about everything.
"Why're you staring at me like that?" Leah questions, staring right back through the mirror. I don't even realize I am until I blink.
"'Cause you're so beautiful."
She doesn't seem convinced; the frown on her face tells me so. This anniversary does kinda suck.
I don't really wanna show her how angry I still am just yet so, I sneak behind her and bury my face in her neck. Her hair smells nice.
She keeps frowning.
"Smile," I tell her.
Her lips stay pouted even as she glances at Sarah's ring on her finger. "Two years already, huh?"
I nod. "And a hundred and forty-eight more to go."
Her face cracks in a grin. "That's not enough time."
My lips involuntarily peck her neck. "Please smile. You're so beautiful when you smile."
She blushes as my arms wrap around her waist. She holds onto them and swirls herself around to face me.
The innocence on her face makes it harder for me to be angry, though. I lean down and kiss her face.
I wonder if any other couple with two years of marriage in is this affectionate. It's not necessarily a bad thing that we can't keep our hands to ourselves.
"Let's go check out the other rooms," she suggests and grabs me by my hand to lead the way.
Down the hall is another bathroom, and across the hall are two rooms, maybe intended for children. The fourth room of the house is on the other side of the house, closer to a master bedroom.
"I guess these could be the twins' room," she says as she pokes her head in. I follow after, and I'm pretty amazed at the spaces. It'd be nice for them to have their own rooms at such a young age.
After examining the kitchen, family room, and living room, Leah and I check that house off of our list and place a star next to it, indicating it as a possibility. This is the third and last house we've seen today, so we quit the house hunt for tonight. The first thing we do once we get back to our hotel is video chat Doll, Tee, and Jacob while they're at Sue's.
We have a decent connection for a few good short moments until we all have to say quick goodbyes because the sudden thunderstorm knocks out our signal, which further upsets Leah.
Instead of at least pretending to be happy, she lays there on the bed with a bored expression of great annoyance.
I'd like to do something to cheer her up, but there's not much I can do right now that makes me seem more romantic than horny. And I'm very horny.
If I knew beforehand that we were gonna be out of La Push on today of all days, I'd have planned something. I guess I can still surprise her when we get back to La Push on Monday.
But there's not much I can do in a strange town at almost ten o'clock on a rainy night. The most that I can do right now is slide into bed and suffer with her. I'd actually rather be fucking, but it looks like I'm sleeping instead.
Well, this isn't so bad. Smelling her body wash and mix of her natural scent are driving me crazy and I needed her naked, but since that's not going to happen, I'll just turn off the bedside lamp and jerk it.
Teigan stares back at me blankly in her high chair, the frosting taking over her huge cheeks, her tiny fingers and light brown curls. Cake crumbs surface her plate in a disorganized fashion, but she has no shame in throwing her arms about the mess.
I grab her arms to stop it and laugh a little when she smothers my cheek with frosting.
"Alright, someone's excited," Leah giggles behind me as she and Rachel enter from Sue's backyard. A slight whiff of the ongoing barbeque enters my nose, and I shiver in satisfaction.
"Lil' bit," I reply and release Tee's arms. At first, she just sits there, but then begins wiggling and laughing at the sight of birthday cake on my face.
"She's just happy it's her birthday? Right, Tee-Tee? I know, right!?" Leah uses that baby voice of hers as she lifts a dancing one-year-old Teigan up and out of her high chair.
"Where's Jacob?" I ask as I begin to wipe the high chair of crumbs with a paper towel.
"Seth has him. They're out back," Rachel answers while Leah passes Teigan into her arms.
I nod and begin to throw trash away from Sue's dining table. She's not gonna like the mess. Leah watches Rachel take Tee outside to be with the rest of the pack before helping dispose of the mess.
"Can you believe it's already been a year?" she asks with a chuckle. I smile, too.
"No," I answer.
It's been a whole year since Leah was grunting and struggling on Carlisle's table, squeezing and breaking every bone in my hand while Tee and Jacob squeezed their little way into this world, and I'm still in awe. Sue's idea of a birthday/going away party for us was a really nice thought.
"We got seventeen more to go," Leah reminds me as she tosses some stuff into the trash bin.
"Doesn't seem like such a long time," I reason and follow her into the kitchen where she's dragged the trash bin. The kitchen is worse than out there, so I begin putting away uncooked food and utensils.
"Mind you that you don't get to skip out on the first six years of their lives," she jokes, poking my stomach teasingly. "It's longer than you think," I roll my eyes and lean closer to her.
"Only nine years to go with Doll. You've made it this far," I point out. Before she can respond, Sue strolls in with some more trash. She dumps it in the bin and smiles at the sight of us.
"Look at my little adults," she jokes. "Jacob, I can take the cleaning from here. You can relax and go out back."
Translation: I wanna talk to Leah.
I smirk. "You sure? I'd be happy to help."
She shakes her head and gets a rag from the pantry. "Go ahead; enjoy yourself."
I put my hands up over my chest in defeat. "Alright," I say and bend to kiss Leah's forehead. "You girls have fun."
Leah's face gets red and heated as I pull away to round the corner to the back porch.
"Oooh," Sue coos, catching my attention. I stop in my tracks and back up a bit to listen in.
"Aren't you guys adorable?" her mother teases.
"Mom," Leah mumbles shyly. The sound of dishes clanking around in the sink can be heard.
"It's cute," Sue remarks. "You guys still good in bed?"
"Mom!"
"That bad, huh?"
"No, Mom, we're fine in that department. Trust me."
I hear some more dishes.
"Just making sure," Sue justifies as Leah scoffs. "So what'd you guys get the twins for their big day?"
"Just some clothes and some more toys, like they need anymore." Leah chuckles and the faucet runs for a second before switching off.
"That's nice," Sue responds. "You explain the whole moving thing to Doll yet?"
"She's not happy about leaving her little dance team, but we'll find a nice alternative in Silverdale."
"And how do you feel about leaving?"
I imagine Leah shrug. "This change is gonna be exciting, I think. Maybe Silverdale will offer me something La Push didn't."
"Like?"
"Like maybe doing something other than being a housewife."
"Who'll take care of the twins during the day? I know how much you're against day care."
It's true. I discussed the idea when we were up in Silverdale, but she nearly had a fit. I'll never understand why she's against it.
"I'd wait till they begin pre-school to go looking for work," Leah replies.
"Smart. You still getting those modeling checks in the mail?"
There's a moment of silence. "I stopped getting those months ago."
"Why?"
"I quit."
"Why?"
"I didn't really enjoy it, and Jacob didn't, either."
Hmph.
"Oh. Well, I guess this is a good step you guys are taking. When're you leaving again?"
The faucet runs for a couple minutes again. "June eighteenth."
"Why so early?"
"We wanna get settled in before school starts. Ya know, give Doll some time to adjust and whatnot."
"Uh-huh," Sue says. "What's the house look like?"
Leah chuckles. "It's pretty big and it's got five rooms, a basement, and a backyard for the twins to play around in. It's near the beach, so it's not much different than La Push. I mean, it's a nice place but…" She trails off and I hear the cabinets squeak open along with someone opening the dishwasher.
I wait for her to finish her sentence, but she comes off distracted and doesn't. Sue just agrees and I'm lost. It's a nice place but what?!
"Yeah, I can see how that could be," Sue answers and sighs. "But the most important part is happiness right? Ugh, I'm gonna miss you."
There's another silence. I guess they're hugging.
"I'm gonna miss you, too, Mommy. It's gonna feel really fucking weird not being able to walk to your house everyday."
Sue sniffles. "It feels like you're leaving us again."
"I'm n-not." Leah's gotten choked up. "We're only two hours away, and we'll be down here every Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and Fourth of July. I promise."
I listen harder and sigh below my breath. I should've known it was gonna be hard to say goodbye.
Hearing the screen door open behind me, I smoothly fake a swerve of my heels and rush outside, passing a few tipsy pack members as I do. Once outside, everyone greets and congratulates me. It's a bittersweet feeling; I kinda enjoy it.
With a healthier-looking, brunette, four months pregnant Nessie by his side, Seth carefully hands me Jacob, and I observe the smiles on both their faces. I grin a bit before sitting in a lawn chair with Jacob in my lap where he takes my relaxing state as an opportunity to begin actively playing with my face and its corky features.
While he's doing so, I take a quick glance around. Seth and Nessie seem to be happy; Quil and Jared are gambling again; Paul's bragging about something; and Teigan excitedly uses a Sam-less Emily's face as a drum. Upon scanning everyone, I stop on the swan in the pond of ducks, who I'm surprised has attended.
Bella's having what looks like an in-depth conversation with my dad by the shade under the tree Leah and Seth used to play under as kids.
How 'bout that?
I stare for a second until Billy quits talking mid-sentence and glances my way. He waves; Bella follows his gaze and grins.
Giving a half-smile, I wave back weakly until they resume their conversation. I look away and back at Jacob, who resembles more of Leah than me.
I sigh. "You think I should ask Aunty Bella why she slept with Mommy?"
He blinks as the drool dripping slowly from his pouted lips lands on his shirt. "Mommy," he repeats.
"Or should I just keep it to myself?"
He giggles and lifts his hands into his brown hair to pat his head. The drool continues. "Mommy!"
I take that as a yes. It's best to save the drama until old age.
"Alright, let's get you a napkin, buddy," I say and set him on the grass so we can walk at his pace towards the screen door. I open it for him and before he can fly in, I lift him up into my arms so his sneakers don't make noise against the wood floors.
He slightly giggles, but I stop him when I hear Leah and Sue still talking.
"...taking this step with him. You're absolutely positive about this?" Sue is asking.
"Yes, Mom," Leah insists. "I was absolutely positive March eleventh of two thousand twelve and have been ever since."
There's a silence. They're talking about me.
I keep Jacob's mouth occupied with my finger to avoid blowing our cover.
"So, there's nothing else? What happens in La Push stays in La Push?"
"Essentially."
"And you've told him everything? No secrets?"
"Yes, Mom," Leah says, annoyed. Lies!
There's another quick pause. "You even told him about Paul?"
Paul? I look behind me through the screen door, and then listen harder.
Leah groans. "He doesn't have to know about Paul."
Oh, I don't?
"Why not?"
"It's irrelevant."
"How so?"
What the fuck has she done now?
"It was before Jacob. C'mon, Mom, it was a long-ass time ago, so why even mention it?"
"Because they're basically brothers and it just seems like something Jacob should've known a long time ago."
Known what?!
"For what reason?"
"Wouldn't you like to know who he was with before you?"
With? With? With. What?
"There was no one before me! It'd be none of my business, anyway."
I feel a lot of tension between them two for just being around the corner.
"Leah, don't lie. If Jacob had slept with Nessie before you guys were together—"
"Mom, I wouldn't care."
Seriously? Paul fucked Leah? Leah fucked Paul? Leah actually fucking allowed him into the kingdom? He was in my woman? Did that creep cheat on my sister?
I swallow and swerve back around to the back porch.
That little fucking trick.