Chapter Twenty Six

Bella

When I returned, later on Sunday evening the house was in darkness which was unusual, either mom or Grandpa were usually here and I wondered if maybe they were already in bed or maybe they'd gone out together. I tiptoed through and tapped gently on mom's bedroom door but there was no reply so I put my head around the door. Her bed hadn't been slept in so she must be out. Grandpa's was the same so I turned the lights on in the kitchen and made myself a hot drink noticing that the roast mom had been going to cook for dinner was still in the fridge uncooked. So, she'd been out almost all day, now that was unusual.

A small jolt of fear ran through me, had Grandpa been taken ill? Were they at the hospital? I checked my cell phone, but there were no messages so I decided that was highly unlikely. I didn't see the note mom had written right away because the breeze from the door had blown it off the table onto the floor in the corner. I picked it up and unfolded the paper recognizing my mom's neat script,

"Bella,

Sorry to run out on you like this but something came up with Grandpa. Don't worry we're both fine but we might be away a few days. I know you are more than capable of looking after yourself. Don't forget to pick up your coat from the cleaners and please tidy your room, it looks like a pig sty! Love Mom XX"

Typical mom but she was right, my room was a mess. I'd been busy trying to sew a patchwork quilt for my future home. Eventually, we would get a place of our own, Jasper and I, with a bed and I wanted it to be perfect. Bits of thread, scraps of material and templates were scattered around and I promised myself that tomorrow, after work I would have a grand tidy up. I would be finished by three at the library where I was employed to repair books and keep the inventory up to date. It wasn't a bad job, I preferred working alone and I knew it was only temporary until Jasper and I were able to make a life together.

After washing up my mug, I showered quickly and climbed into bed wishing as always that I was not alone and wondering what Jasper was doing right now. I knew sending him a text could be dangerous but I couldn't help myself, I made it as innocuous as I could but still hesitated before hitting send. Then I curled on my side hugging Major, looking a little moth-eaten and worn these days, close to my chest and drifted off to sleep.

Alice

Philadelphia hadn't been the success I had hoped, I hadn't managed to persuade him into my bed although he never grumbled at being dragged around the malls. Well, a girl has to shop, it's just nature! When I had broached the subject of sex I saw he really wasn't interested and wondered if I was just too late to win him back. I'd done everything Carlisle had suggested, but I was losing patience. I had been planning to propose to him during our stay, but somehow the time just didn't seem right, his heart and various other regions really weren't in it! I was actually afraid that he might refuse me and I couldn't have borne that. Worst still was the vision I had the night before we came home.

The vision was so powerful, so vivid that I stumbled and almost fell in the shower cubicle and Jazz who had just knocked and walked in at my call shouted through to see what was wrong. I managed to pull myself together enough to make some excuse then sat on the edge of the bath, towels wrapped around my still dripping body and hair, and closed my eyes. So, I was right, the girl was connected to the family, connected through Jazz, although I still couldn't tell how which infuriated me. It had to be something to do with the row he and Peter had and which had not yet been fully resolved, they hardly ever spoke and Jazz hadn't visited Boulder since. Of course, if I had been thinking straight I would have used the excuse to draw him into the bathroom and my naked embrace, but I had missed that particular move.

The girl was coming to the house, to the family for help of some kind, she would be asking Jazz to help her. Well, I wasn't having some stupid little human interfering in our lives. All I had to do was deter her. She would surely try to contact him in some other way first, she wouldn't just turn up out of the blue surely? Well, forewarned was forearmed and I was loaded for bear. I had no idea of the time scale except I got the impression it was cold and wet, so probably not summer here in Cincinnati which was worrying, fall had already arrived. All I needed was to make sure that if the girl were trying to contact Jasper I would know first.

He didn't use his cell phone often so it was easy to "borrow" it for a while when he went hunting with Emmett. If he found it missing he'd just think that maybe he'd mislaid it. I went through his text messages but there were only a couple to Peter, innocuous enough, and one I didn't recognize, it was a strange number so I jotted to down. The text was nothing to alarm me merely two words,

"Horseshoes."

I guess it could be coded but there was no sign of any other messages from that number, his in-box and sent boxes both almost empty, but I remembered he usually deleted anything after reading it as if the phone might fill up with adverts and silly messages. The silly messages being those I sent him mostly. For years I had tried to get him to send me love texts, just simple things like "missing you" if I were away but as he pointed out,

"You already know that Alice."

The notion that I might like to hear it occasionally was quite alien to him.

My next task was a little more tricky although I didn't think he would realize I changed the old sim card for a new one and put in all our numbers and any others he had in his contacts. If he text or rang Peter then I guess I'd have to come up with an excuse, but I was careful to change his number on everyone else's cell phone over the next week to the new one, that way I wouldn't be discovered too quickly. Whoever this little tramp was I was going to make very sure she didn't get her claws into Jasper, let Peter sort out his own messes!

Emmett's computer skills were necessary for my next project and he would need some finesse, he loved Jazz as a brother so I had to be good, very good if I were to get him on my side. I had to be careful because everything Emmett did he told Rose about so she had to be coaxed too. I decided on my story and got the two of them alone one evening while Jazz, Carlisle, and Edward were in town helping Esme set up for a Halloween party for the local children. She loved all that stuff and normally I would have been right there with her but this year I had cried off and although that concerned everyone they left me alone when I told them I had party fatigue. I wasn't even sure it was a lie, I was sick of parties, they were no fun since Esme insisted on helping throw them for the local humans.

"Its a good way to integrate, become a part of the community, especially with Carlisle being the local doctor."

Well, she might enjoy playing the good doctor's wife but I was not playing the poor little foster kid, not any longer, there was nothing in it for me.

There had been tension when we got back three days after the others, it appeared Edward had disappeared in Memphis and wasn't answering his cell phone which infuriated and worried Carlisle and Esme. He and Emmett had been forced to scour the city looking for Edward but even splitting up to cover more ground they had no success.

"He's probably gone off with some girl, you know how he likes to live dangerously."

Esme scowled at me, but it was true, he did.

"It wouldn't have been so bad, but we weren't the only ones of our kind in Memphis."

Now I was more interested,

"Really? Who did you see?"

"Everyone, it was as if everyone we knew was there, like a convention. First of all, we bumped into Alistair who had decided to come and listen to Carlisle's paper, see him get his award, then Garrett who was just passing through on his way to see his girlfriend Molly in Sardis."

"Molly? That's a new one, how long has he known her?"

"A couple of years or so he says, they're just good friends but the photograph he showed me tells a different story. I think he's really sweet on her."

Esme stopped as Carlisle went through the lounge muttering crossly to himself, most out of character.

"When I get a hold of Edward I'm going to give him a serious talking to, worrying us like this. He goes off without a word to anyone..."

I rolled my eyes at his retreating back and Esme continued,

"That would have been enough but not everyone we met was a friend, Demetri was there tracking a rogue called Bartholomew, apparently someone Carlisle knew, though he didn't like or approve of the guy. That could have been awkward enough, they might have thought we had gone purposely to meet him but then we bumped into Caius Volturi would you believe? Now what he was doing there I have no idea and of course, he wasn't saying but it was sure to be something unsavory, that man makes my skin crawl."

Esme shuddered and I grinned, unable to help myself,

"Sounds like you had an interesting trip, I wish ours had been equally as interesting and I have no ideas why you are worrying about Edward, he'll come back, he always does."