Chapter 28
And so Edward reviewed the past century of his life in the hours before light dawned again in Forks. Everything that led up to him talking to Bella for the first time at the ThriftyWay didn't seem nearly as important as the scant weeks since that moment. He wanted to talk to Jasper about it, since he talked to Jasper about everything, but Jasper still seemed to be spending all of his time either hunting with Alice or ... with Alice.
So as Carlisle got ready for work, Edward watched him and Esme. They didn't seem to mind not spending every second of the day together, but Edward did remember how they'd been when she first had been turned. At the moment, she was wearing a robe and helping Carlisle put on a dress shirt. Even though they were barely touching, Edward of course knew what they were thinking, and they were not concerned that Edward was there. Fingertips against fingertips carried as much meaning as any touch could. Edward wondered how he ever stayed with them in the first place, when he had to deal with - with this kind of love, out of his reach. But perhaps it was merely worse now, because it might be in his reach.
"Let me drive you to work, Carlisle," Edward burst out.
Esme and Carlisle turned from the work of knotting the tie around his neck. "All right, Edward," he said slowly. "Give me a minute with Esme and I'll meet you in the Mercedes?"
Edward nodded and ran to Carlisle's study to get the keys.
Not that it really mattered if he was in the room or not. He could still see them kissing each other good-bye, as if they'd be separated for a year instead of ten hours or so. Edward fiddled with the car stereo - Carlisle hadn't bothered updating beyond a ten-disc changer yet - to try to distract himself. The minutes stretched on as he switched through every CD in the car.
It hadn't been more than four minutes, of course, before Carlisle opened the passenger door. "What's on your mind, Edward?"
He didn't beat around the bush. "How do you handle being apart from Esme for half the day?" That wasn't his initial question, but their most recent affections made it paramount.
Carlisle smiled gently. "I try to focus wholly on my work. But there is always a part of my mind thinking of her, counting the seconds till I see her again. Maybe you should go back to the cities during the day?"
"I really don't want to be that far from Bella," he muttered, and then asked the important question. "Is it normal that the century before I came to - to Forks seems so bland and awful now? I mean, you lived for so long before meeting Esme, and then you avoided her for years again."
"Well, avoiding her was something of a mistake," he admitted. "I wish I had found her again before she was driven to suicide, but to answer your question, yes, I do divide my life into the time before Esme and the time after."
"But why?" wailed Edward. "Why can't we focus on anything else?"
Carlisle took a moment to gather his thoughts. It must be an evolutionary advantage? There are few things that can kill a vampire besides another vampire, and if the mate bond wasn't so strong, no vampires would be able to join forces at all. This is the strongest force I've seen, two vampires mated, aside from the Volturi. But even they need Chelsea to knit together.
All he said aloud was, "This is fine," as they had arrived at the hospital.
Edward sighed, parked the car and gave Carlisle his keys back. "I probably won't see you tonight," he said gloomily. "Bella's hanging out with Jacob Black and I'm going to go insane if I can't make sure he doesn't hurt her."
"Edward! You said you weren't going to stalk her anymore," he said sternly.
"I'll have to be a mile away from them," he agreed, "or else the mutt will smell me."
That evening Edward was in the best mood of his life. He'd carefully stayed a mile away from them while they were at the beach, and when they left he hid a mile away in the woods, sure as he could be that the evergreens hid him from the sunshine. He'd thought he was going to die when Bella and Black kissed; he could have sworn he felt his venom melting through his very skin, but a moment later his mood lifted when he heard Black's thoughts:
OK this is really way too much like kissing one of my sisters. I'm going to stop this now.
He heard Bella's agreement echo in Black's head and whooped in pure joy. He ran, no, he skipped! all the way back to the Cullen place. He was so stupidly happy he could hear Gene Kelly singing in his head.
I'm singing in the rain
Just singing in the rain
What a glorious feelin'
I'm happy again
When he got inside, Rose and Alice were painting each other's toenails while Emmett and Jasper played X-Box.
"You were right babe," laughed Jasper. Apparently five minutes ago Alice had said, "Edward's going to come over in the best mood of his existence."
Edward couldn't help it. "Come on Rose!" He pulled her up from the sofa and started dancing with her, the dances they had both learned as youths. "Let the stormy clouds chase! Everyone from the place! Come on with the rain!"
Jasper was feeding off his good mood and pushing it back out to everyone in the room, and Emmett paused the game and cut in, and now everyone was singing along:
"I've a smile on my face, I walk down the lane! With a happy refrain! Just singin', singin' in the rain!"
They all collapsed in a heap laughing.
Emmett punched Edward in the shoulder. "Bra, it's sunny today, you know that, right?"
"I am highly cognizant of metereological factors, yes, Emmett," he snapped back, but he was unable to stay sarcastic. "I had to hide in the forest. She doesn't want him! And he doesn't want her either! I'm happy again!" he sang out once more.
"That's wonderful," cheered Alice. She hadn't liked Bella being near the mongrel any more than Edward did, and only partly because he blocked her sight. "I hope she can make a decision about you soon."
"I don't really care," he explained, still giddy. "I'll take whatever she feels comfortable with."
