Chapter 24

Esme printed neatly onto a piece of paper, carefully writing each individual letter of the note she was writing to Edward. In the past two weeks since he had been gone, Esme had never left the house without pinning notes on each of the doors that lead into their home.

She replaced them only if they were ripped or, on one occasion, where she'd suspected that the wind had played its part in tearing the thing sheet of paper from where it lied beneath a tack.

Since then, Esme had begun to use two tacks per door to assure her messages would not come free.

Her eyes glanced over what she had written to make sure it was neat enough to read and strait to the point.

Edward,

We just left the house to hunt. Please, as you should know, come inside and make yourself comfortable. We won't be gone long. Please stay at least until we return. We love you.

Carlisle & Esme

There was a lingering hope that Edward's prolonged absence would be short lived and that he would return home once he realized what he wanted. Esme didn't know as much as Carlisle about what was out there, or what risks Edward was potentially taking by wandering alone. She just hoped he made smart decisions that would keep him safe in his travels.

Esme took the note and pinned it on the front door of the house as she exited to hunt. The one on the back door remained intact and so she was able to leave the house with a sense of contentment, knowing that if Edward did return, he would at least feel welcome.

Her eyes scanned the trees of the late Saturday morning. She knew Carlisle would be arriving home from work soon, and wanted to be back at the house to greet him. The question he asked about him returning to an empty house still haunted her, and she wanted to leave him without even a second's worth of doubt that she would be waiting for him, as she intended to do for the rest of her days.

The hunt, however, couldn't wait and she scampered into the nearby forest to track down something to drink. Her senses never steered her in the wrong direction and she followed them to a small clearing where she had more than her fair share of choices for a meal.

In her prolonged stays at the house for fear that Edward would return and change his mind upon not finding either of them there, Esme had neglected to give in her thirst until the last possible moments. She knew Carlisle would advise against it, and so she kept the minor detail to herself.

The rush of the deer's blood, each time, was overwhelming and rich. It occasionally made her mind drift to the effects the sensation of human blood had, had on her that one time. Because of this, she knew it wasn't smart to go so long without hunting and decided that she would change her mind set on the days to come.

In the far distance, several of the deer that had been feeding in the field had stopped to drift, looking back at where Esme now rose from the position she had been in while feeding.

For a moment, she felt a strong sense of guilt for taking their family member from them. Although it was a matter of survival, Esme still had genuine remorse for taking its life. It was something she'd become accustomed to and thoroughly enjoyed, though the personal nature of killing the animal still bothered her, at times.

She let the thoughts roll of her back, knowing it was most likely Edward's recent departure that was tugging on her heart strings. She hadn't been able to fully pull herself out of the funk she was in, and neither had Carlisle. Between the two of them, their two weeks of moping was enough to last someone a year. She knew they had to start adjusting to their new circumstances.

Esme made her way back home, realizing Carlisle was yet to arrive from work. She entered through the back, realizing the note was still in its place and that the house was empty.

Her eyes drifted around the living room, and then she decided to wander down to glance into the room that was set up for Edward. Everything was as he had left it. A single shirt was neatly placed on the end of his bed that was simply there for decoration.

Reading material was scattered on top of a small desk, though Esme suspected it was in an order he preferred. The books he had been using for his classes were stacked neatly by the chair that accompanied the desk and writing utensils were propped in several different places on top.

Despite how long he'd been gone, his scent feebly lingered inside the room and it made Esme miss him more. She decided not to let it get the best of her and quickly made her way out of the room and down to her favorite room in the house besides her own; the kitchen.

Decorative fruit she had picked sat as the centerpiece to the table, as she'd always liked the way it looked since Dorothy had given them the basket years before.

Her mind began to drift to more pleasant things, and she remembered her neighbor speaking of how her and her husband liked to take walks and pick apples in the local orchards. She also remembered people talking of traditions where pumpkins were carved in the spirit of Halloween.

We need to get out and do something fun, she thought, and positive.

Carlisle returned home soon after and Esme greeted him at the door. His sulky posture was immediately uplifted by her lively welcoming as she leaned against the door frame and smiled.

"Hey," he said, giving her the first true smile since Edward had gone.

"Hey," she said back, "How was work?"

"It was alright," he told her, still smiling.

"I thought we could turn the mood around in here," she told him, stepping back inside so he could get settled from his shift.

Carlisle kissed her several times in a row, already feeling better from her contagious demeanor, "Okay." He grinned and tucked her hair back, not separating himself from her.

Esme took in his happy, handsome expression and smiled. She always felt far more content when he was happy and felt a sense of joy that she was able to get him there, "Dorothy said that she and Jim like to go down apple picking at the orchards. I thought maybe we could go down and take a walk, maybe bake a pie and bring it over to them later tonight or tomorrow."

Carlisle smiled; glad to see that Esme was so upbeat. "We could do that."

"And have you ever carved a pumpkin?" she asked, "You know, made a face on the front; two eyes, a nose, and a mouth?"

He snickered and couldn't help but kiss her again. "You can walk me through it. It sounds like fun."

"Really?" she asked, "It's not too…"

"It sounds like a perfect rest of the day to me," he told her before she could finish.

Esme grinned and kissed him again. She let her arms linger around him as she continued with her reasoning. "I've just been so down about Edward, and I know you have too. I was in his room earlier, and you know about my obsessive notes on the doors."

Carlisle listened, never breaking eye contact and keeping his smile for her to see.

"I think we need to get out of the house for a bit and do something out of the ordinary. Dorothy said she really enjoyed wandering around and made it sound like she didn't have to pull too many teeth to get Jim to go."

Carlisle chuckled, "Well, let's go then. It's cloudy and supposed to only get worse as the night goes on. I don't believe the sun will be making any appearances any time soon."

"How are you doing with everything?" she asked him.

He shrugged, "It's unfortunate and as hard as it is to not know where he is, or if he's safe or making the right decisions, I think you're right. We can't stay down the way we have been. We have to move forward."

"I'm still going to leave my notes for him," she said, "Just in case."

"Of course," Carlisle told her with a grin, "And by the way, they aren't obsessive like you said. It's important. He may return one day and it might be the one thing that convinces him to stay."

Esme nodded and Carlisle turned her face up to give her another kiss. "I love you," he told her.

"I'll always love you."

He grinned, "Let me changed and we can go."

…

The afternoon went as pleasantly as Esme had imagined. She and Carlisle wandered through the trees, gathering different types of apples for Esme to bake with, and some just to keep as a type of decoration.

To keep a human-like profile, they wandered hand in hand a slow pace as they went. While both of them knew they could easily whip into the highest part of the trees, they reached up only to where they could reach from the ground, aside from a few times Carlisle decided to climb up just a foot or so.

"Don't climb too high," she told him, "You wouldn't want to fall and break your leg. Believe me, I know from experience."

Carlisle hopped down from where he'd been just a few feet in the air. His smile made Esme giggle as she was obviously referring to the first time they met.

"The day you broke your leg was one the best memories of my life," he told her with a light laugh.

"Me too," she told him, "Probably for different reasons." She wrapped her arms around him and looked around the empty orchard. "I think I fantasized about you a lot over the course of that next week." She began to laugh.

Carlisle snickered and captured her mouth with his own, feeling her pin him up against the tree. He couldn't help but release a soft moan into her mouth as he intensified their embrace. His hand grabbed the lowest branch, pulling it down immediately with a loud cracking sound that rang through the apple orchard.

Esme quickly parted her lips from his and began to laugh but Carlisle pulled her back to him, unable to break the feeling she'd left him with. She chuckled again at first, then began to kiss him with the same wholehearted passion as was showing her.

Carlisle tried convincing himself to stop. There wasn't a part of him that wanted to and knew he was the one who had upped the intensity of the situation. Before his hands began to wander, he pulled himself back, though found little room between Esme and the tree.

He let out a light laugh and sighed loudly, "I have to stop now or I won't be able to."

Esme grinned and looked at the large tree branch on the ground that he'd accidentally cracked in half. "I don't think we'd be asked back if we started knocking down trees all over the place."

Carlisle shook his head, "No, I don't think we would." He let out a snicker and looked back at Esme again, "So you know, it is much more difficult to resist you than human blood." He brought his lips back to hers, softly at first and then felt his will power slipping away.

Esme pulled herself back from him with an ear to ear grin and held his face in her hands, "I guess I'll have to be the virtuous, self-controlled one this time."

"You're going to have to be," he said, he told her.

"Your eyes are black," she told him.

"That's funny, I just hunted." Carlisle let out a light snicker again and she brushed her hand through his hair.

Esme backed away and took him by the hand, "Let's get some apples so I can get to baking. Oh and there's that little pumpkin patch right down the road, too, don't forget."

Carlisle let her lead him throughout the rest of their afternoon stroll, helping Esme get what she needed from the trees before heading down the road to pick out a pumpkin they could carve that night at the house.

Right away, Esme narrowed it down to two that she liked and pointed to both, "Which one do you like more?"

Carlisle looked at them both, "You pick."

She shook her head, "I narrowed it down. You pick," then added, "For me."

He grinned, "Alright." His eyes moved back and forth before he picked one up from the ground.

"That's the one I was going to pick," Esme told him. She smiled as Carlisle paid the man sitting in a small shack a few feet away. He then took Esme by the hand again and guided her back down the road.

When they arrived home, Esme put their bags of apples onto the countertops and almost immediately got all the spices and other things needed to make an apple pie. Carlisle set the pumpkin on the table and removed a large knife from one of the drawers.

"What do you want to do first?" he asked her.

"I'll get the pie started and then we'll work on the pumpkin."

Carlisle grinned, knowing she was more than happy to do a little cooking.

"We can bring it down to Jim and Dorothy in the morning," Esme added.

"Okay," Carlisle told her, "They might get startled if we come barging in at this time of the night."

She laughed and continued to throw things together for the apple pie before finally making her way to the pumpkin.

"Okay, I've never carved pumpkins before, but I love the ones people have done in the past that I saw."

Esme walked over to where Carlisle stood with the knife. He lifted it above his head, making her giggle before jamming it into the top of the pumpkin. The knife stuck out of the top as he only let the blade go in about an inch.

Esme looked up at him, "I don't know if that's the right technique."

"Show me," he told her, decreasing the minimal distance that sat in between them.

She grinned, sensing the double meaning of his words. Their closeness quickly brought her thoughts back to their moment of passion they had to put on hold earlier in the day.

Esme perched herself onto her toes and kissed him once. She then took his hand and led him down the hallway to their bedroom.

…

Carlisle laid on his back with Esme laying partially on top of him beneath the sheets. Her bare legs were entwined with his and her head rested on his chest. The only light in their room came from a few sparing candles that flickered on a small table by the bed. Outside they could both hear the rain that had been threatening to hit all day.

"I hope he's not outside right now," Esme said, referring to Edward, "I wouldn't want him to be forced to stay out in the rain."

"He might be under a starry sky," Carlisle told her, "He could be in Texas, or Mississippi or Canada right now."

She sighed, "Were the notes still on the door when we came in?"

Carlisle nodded, and Esme heard his hair brush against the pillow. "They were still there."

They laid together in silence and Carlisle traced random patterns across Esme's hip with his fingers. When she didn't continue their short discussion about Edward, he kissed her forehead.

"Everything will be alright," he whispered to her.

"I know," she said back with assurance in her voice. She lifted her head to look at him.

Carlisle made eye contact with her and continued to run his hand across her body.

Esme readjusted so she could kiss him gently. "We never carved that pumpkin."

He grinned, eager to get the subject back to something less heavy. "You want to?"

She nodded.

"Okay," he told her.

Esme got up and began to get dressed. Carlisle reached down to stop her from picking up her clothes, "Don't," he said.

She shook her head, "I don't mind being under the covers with you, but I don't like the way I look."

Carlisle pulled her back to him, "You're beautiful. I want you to start to see that about yourself."

"I don't know what you see," she told him.

"You," he told her, "You're what I see. I love the way you look, and I love you."

Esme could see the honesty in his eyes and dropped her clothing back onto the floor. "Well, at least hand me the little blanket from the edge of the bed, or no deal."

Carlisle sensed the lightheartedness in her voice and did as she asked. He handed her the blanket and moved his mouth back against hers.

"Mind if we share?" he asked her.

"Not at all," she told him.

The two of them made their way into the kitchen and Esme picked up the pumpkin where the knife still protruded from the top where Carlisle had left it.

He left her momentarily to throw down some papers onto the countertop, lighting a few candles along the way. He turned off the remaining lights in the house then called her over to where he stood.

Esme grinned at him and he quickly slide back in the blanket with her, allowing her to stand in front of him to have access to carving the pumpkin.

"I think you just cut off the top, then pull out the seeds and everything inside, and then you make the face," she told him.

Carlisle smiled and tucked her hair behind her ears, placing all of hair to one side so he could kiss her neck.

Esme sighed and began to do as she'd just explained. Carlisle stopped what he was doing so she could concentrate, knowing she really wanted to make the jack-o-lantern. He rested his chin on her shoulder and placed his hands on the counter so she was in between him and where the pumpkin sat.

"Are you going to help me get the middle out?" she asked, looking back at him.

"Of course," he said, making her smile.

Esme cut the top off the pumpkin before she guided his hands to help her with her project.

Within a few minutes, all of the pumpkin's guts were on the newspaper and Esme created a traditional face for it.

Carlisle loved how happy Esme looked, almost like a child would be from something so simple. He never knew a happiness quite like the kind he felt when Esme was happy. If she was okay, it meant he was okay.

"We need a candle right?" he asked when she finished the design.

Esme nodded, "Yeah." Her eyes drifted back to meet his and Carlisle reached as far as he could, barely able to grab one that he'd lit before they started.

She took it from him and placed it inside the jack-o-lantern they'd created.

Carlisle placed his lips against the side of her face then guided them back across the room. "What do you think?" He wrapped his arms around her and pulled the blanket completely closed to keep Esme in her comfort zone.

"I love it," she told him with a laugh.

"You did a good job."

"We did." Esme turned to completely face him and wrapped her arms around him. "Sorry," she laughed, realizing she'd gotten some pumpkin residue on the back of his neck.

Carlisle laughed and shrugged, then kissed her again. "Can I keep you forever?"

Esme grinned, finding their moment to be completely romantic. "Yes," she told him, "You can keep me forever."