No prompt - extra EPOV and very unbeta'd
Bella said that I don't see Garrett as an accessory to her. She's right; I don't. That thought never crossed my mind, but the entire time before Bella and I got together he was an extension of her. Someone I felt a secondhand connection to—because she loves him so much, I care about him too.
The reality is I don't know him, not truly anyway, and he doesn't know me. That part doesn't bother me. A little time will take care of that, and my relationship with Garrett will change as well: Bella won't need to describe things like how he did at soccer or making a marble racetrack from the second floor of the house to the first, because I'll be around to see it. Firsthand.
What bothers me is that he thinks I'm the guy who wants to take his mom away from him. Bella finally told me what happened the other night, and I get his concerns. I'd probably feel the same way, so again with the time thing. But what else bothers me is that Sam is back. Not that I think he should have stayed away—he never should have left his kid in the first place. I'm happy for Garrett, I really am, because it's a shitty thing to be without your dad. So, Garrett has to deal with me and getting to know his dad all over again. Bella seems to think things are different now, and I trust her judgment. It's just always going to be in the back of my mind that he'll do it again, and if he does pull that shit I swear I will fucking hurt him.
I could never do that to my own kid. I'll never be Garrett's father per se, but I'll be there.
It's around 4p.m. on Saturday when I pull up to Bella's. If things go smoothly enough, I stay for dinner and a movie. If not, we try again another day.
"Hey," she says, and her cheeks are pinker than normal.
"Hey. Get some sun today?" I ask, pointing to them. I'd touch her cheeks, but Garrett walks up behind her.
"Mmhm. Pulling weeds and all kinds of fun stuff."
I tilt my head, looking past Bella. "Hi, Garrett."
"Hi." Garrett surveys me for a minute and then walks into another room. Bella shrugs.
"Come in," she says, brushing my hand with hers. She's relaxed; I thought for sure she'd be nervous like me, but I take it as a good sign.
For the first hour, I keep a certain distance from Bella. Not too close but not too far away. I don't hold her hand, I don't lean in to kiss her even though it's as natural as breathing, and I don't try to impress Garrett. He'd see right through me.
I try to be as non-threatening as possible, but still attentive. I have no idea if I'm doing it right because he studies every little detail, and I see why Bella calls him Professor.
Garrett excuses himself to go to the bathroom.
Bella sneaks a kiss. "I think it's going well, don't you?"
"Is it?"
"Yeah, I really do. You're doing great," she says, and Garrett returns a minute later.
Dinner was still a little awkward. Some forced conversation wrapped around scraping forks and silence. He did perk up when I talked about Jack and Sparrow, though.
We're going to watch a movie. Onward.
Bella pulls a few DVDs out of the cabinet beneath the television and fans them out so Garrett and I can choose one. I wait for him to say something.
"Um, I don't know. What do you want to watch, Edward?"
Okay, this is good.
Or it's a test.
No, no, it's good. Garrett's not the kind of kid who'd purposely trip someone up. "All right." I take a second looking at our options. "Prisoner of Azkaban."
"Not Goblet of Fire?" Bella asks, shaking the DVD. I glance over at Garrett who's scrunching up his nose at Bella.
"Ah, no?" Garrett's shaking his head and looks at me. "Don't you think that Cedric guy is just too good at everything." He nods, we share a fist bump, and it's as if something suddenly clicks because he now has his full body turned toward me, sitting on his knees. I finally begin to relax, and I think I might even hear a choir singing somewhere far off in the distance.
"Have you seen all the movies?" he asks.
Bella peers over her shoulder, smiling, while she loads the DVD player. Involuntarily, I let my guard down with her, dropping my eyes to her ass just for a second. Quickly, I look back to Garrett. I don't think he noticed. I hope he didn't notice.
"Only what's been on TV. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and they're pretty good. Have you?"
He nods emphatically. "Yeah, and I read all the books. I have them if you want to borrow them."
"You do? Sure, thanks, Garrett."
"You're welcome, Edward."
Okay. Here's the thing: I don't really want to read Harry Potter. It's not something that holds a place on my to-read list. But as Garrett skips up the steps to get his books from his room with such enthusiasm, and because I've just seen a flicker of what's to come, I will read them, happily.
Bella sits next to me, placing a hand on my leg, and I tug a piece of her hair. "Well. How 'bout that?" she says.
"How 'bout it."
June turned into July, and July turned into August as quick as a blink. Leah and I decided to sell the house soon after we separated. I've had a couple offers so far, but they're coming in too low and I won't break even—we bought too high. I don't care about making a profit; it'd be nice but the quicker the sell the better. I've spoken to Leah less than a handful of times—she's pretty happy living in the no-pets-allowed condo she wanted with her now roommate, Brady.
I don't feel guilty anymore.
Throughout summer Garrett and I have had in depth discussions about the first three Harry Potter books, yet the kid refuses to give up any spoilers. "I've seen the movies, though," I said. "You haven't seen the last two, and it's not the same as the books," he countered, and then, "Just hurry up and read, Edward!" "You're relentless," I told him, and relatively smugly, he smiled. I'm half way through the fifth book.
So now it's September. The 10th to be exact, which means in three days it will be Bella's birthday. Both Garrett and I have been warned we're not allowed to make any kind of fuss. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen.
Garrett asked if I could take him to the mall so he could buy his mom a present. He easily could have asked Mrs. Cope or even his grandparents, even though they live an hour away, but he didn't. He asked me. I do realize if Sam happened to be in town, he would have asked him, but Sam's not and hasn't been in a few weeks. I'm leaving that one lie for now.
We're on a covert mission while Bella, grudgingly, is helping Rose prep for the big wedding taking place later today. Garrett is supposed to be staying with Mrs. Cope this morning, and he is but she's in on the mission too, so we've snuck out for a couple hours.
"Any ideas?" I ask. We've wandered around for a bit, picked up pretzels and something to drink, but nothing has seemed to catch Garrett's attention.
"She likes jewelry," he says, looking up at me. He takes a long sip from his smoothie then slurps up whatever's left at the bottom of the Styrofoam cup.
"There's a jewelry store over there. Wanna check it out?"
He hesitates. "Mom never goes in there. She says it's too fancy."
"Do you want to go to another one?" I ask, but he's staring at this store with big eyes. "You know what? It's her birthday, so let's spoil her a little. Okay?"
Garrett looks up at me, biting his bottom lip. "It's probably expensive."
I shrug. "I don't know, little man. Might be worth finding out for ourselves."
He skims his hand along the glass display case, intently peering down at every single item while a haughty salesman eyes the trails of smudges Garrett's left behind. He holds up a finger and opens his mouth to say something to Garrett but I interrupt, "I'm sure you have some glass cleaner back there."
He flashes one of those smiles that's the equivalent to flipping someone off then turns away. I walk over to Garrett.
I realize the right thing to do would have been to ask Garrett to be careful, maybe not touch the glass, but I'm not sure if it's my place. And perhaps I shouldn't have sounded like a dick, but honestly, my concern lies with Garrett. He's already intimidated enough by being in this store without being embarrassed.
"See anything you think she'd like?"
He shakes his head. "I don't know. Oh! What about those? They're pretty," he says, pointing to a pair of tiny diamond earrings.
"They are. Do you want to look at them?" He nods, reaching into his pocket and pulls out a small handful of neatly folded bills.
"How much do you think they are?" Garrett asks.
"How much did you want to spend?"
"I have twenty-five dollars," he says.
I turn around to find the salesman wiping, squirting, and buffing one of the glass cases and ask to see the earrings. He huffs, sets down his rag and Windex then walks over.
"These?" he asks, retrieving them from the case.
Garrett picks up the earrings, holds them up to the light. "What do you think?"
"I like them. Can I see?" Once they're in my hands, I search for the price but nothing's shown. I say to the salesman, "These are twenty dollars?"
His eyebrows instantly knit together. "Oh, no, no, no. They're—"
"On sale? Hey, Garrett, how about that; told you it was worth checking out. You could get your mom something else too, if you wanted." Garrett smiles proudly handing money to the salesman, who is utterly confused. I ask Garrett to throw away his empty cup in the receptacle just outside the entrance and pull out my wallet. "If you wouldn't mind, could you please bring back five in change and put the rest on my credit card?" There. I'm making amends for earlier.
"Are you sure you want these? They're two-hundred forty-nine dollars," he says, staring down at my hand on the counter.
"That's fine." I'm not sure I like what he might be insinuating.
"All right. I'm just making sure you know the actual cost." He clears his throat, eyes dropping back to my hand.
"Well, thank you. I honestly didn't think they were on sale for fifteen. One more thing: I'd really appreciate it if you don't let him see you hand me back my card," I say.
"Of course," he says. He locks up the case, looks down at my hand.
I move it.
"I'm back," Garrett says, and I ask if he wants to go pick out a card after we've finished here. "Yeah, and maybe I can find something else, too."
"Like what?"
"I don't know. Flowers? What did you get her?"
I had a huge problem figuring out what to get Bella. Because we're in this moving forward yet still in limbo place the choices are limited. Do I play it safe and buy something generically accepted to maintain the limbo until we're clear? And by clear I mean Garrett. Or do I go all out and make it something just between me and Bella?
"Flowers would be great. Can you keep a secret?" He nods. "Are you sure you can keep a secret?" He nods again, smiling. "Circus tickets."
He scrunches his face. "Oh."
"Here you are, sir." The salesman hands Garrett a bag and his change, then a clipboard to me. "If you wouldn't mind writing down your email address we'd love to have you on our mailing list," he says, and I see the corner of my credit card sticking out of his fist.
"Thoughtful, thanks."
"We send out a lot of pertinent information."
"That so?" I say, chuckling while I scribble down my email then hand him back the clipboard. He hands me a brochure with my card underneath. "Touché, my friend."
"I hate weddings."
"That bad?" I ask, sandwiching my phone between my ear and shoulder, filling up the dogs' water bowls.
"No, just so much fanfare, you know?"
"Yeah, but this was a high-profile one so there had to be."
"No, I know but generally speaking. Even mine was…sorry."
"For what?" I laugh. "It's no secret we've both been through them." I sit on the couch and Sparrow hops up next to me.
"Yes, but…I don't want to know about yours," she says, and I hear her smiling.
"Deal. I probably wouldn't want a recap of yours either."
"I miss you."
"I miss you too. Your birthday's in three days."
"It is."
"You're taking that day off."
"I am?"
"Yep. We're playing hooky. I already talked to Carmen."
"Did you now?"
"Mmhm."
"We're not going to have any leave left for our trip."
"We will. If not, we'll figure it out," I say and lean my head back against the cushion…the things I want to do to her, things I need to do with her. Creativity only gets you so far. "Three months, Bella. Just three more months."
a/n: meep! two left!
Thanks for reading.