AN: I don't own Twilight
Hey guys! I'm sorry for the long delay, but I'm finally out of school so that shouldn't happen again. I figured out the length of this story will end at a grand total of 50 chapters including the epilogue. Anyway, enjoy the corny fluff!
Chapter 36
Bella insisted we take her car, and I conceded with good grace because I still got to drive. We first stopped by the grocery store to grab various food items like apples, hot dogs, and supplies for smores.
As we reached first beach, more clouds cleared and the sun was even brighter and the air warmer. We got out of the car happily, meeting in the back to gather our things into one large bag and strolling hand-in-hand to claim a spot around a bonfire set up.
The beach was relatively empty; only a few stragglers in various places wandering around. Once we set our load down, Bella immediately whipped out a tube of sun block, handing it to me with a smile.
I looked over it curiously, not quite sure I ever remembered Bella be so UV ray conscious; I quirked an eyebrow at her in question.
She rolled her eyes before replying. "So being a mom has made me more safety conscious," she grumbled while taking off her sweatshirt and tossed it on the pile with our bag. "Just be quiet and rub me down, I know you know how to do that."
"Now that's certainly something I can work with," I responded with a smirk while I squirted a bit of the cream substance on my fingers. I raked my fingers of Bella's shoulder slowly, moving down her arm while keeping her eyes locked on mine. She allowed a small smile as I squeezed more onto my hand and began working it into her other arm.
"What?" she asked as I rubbed the sun-block into her upper arm.
"I don't know. I'm glad that this is so….normal. Our circumstances are extremely strange, so it's good to be an average couple for a change."
"So what if we're not exactly normal? I wouldn't change anything, it's working well for us," she commented, using her usual optimism to help my darkened point of view. "Besides, you're kind of weird to begin with, I'm not sure you can live up to normal."
I feigned hurt at her comment, but couldn't help but smile at the undeniable easiness our relationship was now accompanied by; it was just like old times.
"Jerk," she muttered as I stuck my tongue out at her. She pushed against my chest half-heartedly and I wrapped my arms around her as she tried. We both dissolved into a fit of laughter, making it easy for me to pull her down to the sand, catching all the impact on my part.
Once we caught our breath Bella leaned forward in my grasp, grabbing the tube of sun-screen from where I dropped it during our joking. She handed it back to me, ignoring the chuckle I let out due to the seriousness in her expression.
"Back," she ordered, indicating to the small piece of pale skin exposed by her tank top. I rolled my eyes, but otherwise obliged without comment. Once she was satisfied, she grabbed the cream from my hand, depositing a bit in her own so she could run the covering on her milky white legs.
Bella was sitting in between my legs and had to lean forward to ease the protective coating onto her legs, making me hyper aware of her presence whenever her motion caused her arm to brush against me.
Once she was done, she turned around with a cocky smile about her lips. "Need some?" she asked innocently while dangling the tube of sun-block in between her fingers. Her mischievous side was clearly bubbling up to the surface.
"Do you really believe that's necessary?" I inquired with a sigh.
"You're the doctor; shouldn't you be more safety conscious than me?" Sarcasm seeped into her voice and I agreed to her request with a dramatic eye roll. I applied some of the contents onto my exposed limbs until Bella stopped giving me a look that made me think she was going to chastise me if I didn't do it correctly. She seemed pleased that I complied at the end though.
We spent the next few hours talking, mostly catching up on the time we missed out on. I was pleasantly surprised to find that, though I was jealous that I wasn't included in that snippet of Bella and Ashley's life, I wasn't bitter or resentful about it.
The light was dimming to twilight when we set fire to the wood in the middle of the circle in preparation to roast the hot dogs and marshmallows. Our conversation calmed with the setting sun; instead of concentrating on the comfort of being alone together.
"Edward?" Bella grabbed my attention suddenly, breaking the silence of the night. She kept her eyes on the marshmallow at the end of her skewer which she was turning in the flames.
"Yes?" I encouraged, keeping my eyes on my own scorching dessert.
"Do you think the whole Alice not being around thing is my fault?" Her voice was meek reflecting the sensitive topic neither of us really wanted to confront.
"I think," I began, unsure, and my voice sounded grave, even to me. "I think that Alice has something going on that none of us are really aware of. Her behavior may be from stress due to the wedding or she's just reassessing some things. Bella," my tone made her look up to me immediately, "you've done nothing wrong and you've got to stop blaming yourself because you made one rash decision. It's not sane and you're putting way too much on yourself in the process."
Bella took in a deep gust of air, clearly not expecting me to change the tide towards her.
"You're right," she agreed quietly while taking her food out of the flames and resting the stick next to her on the log after blowing out the sparks remaining on the now charred fluff. I followed her example and tried to keep my eyes away from Bella, trying not to add pressure to her, but anxiously awaiting what she would do next.
Bella scooted herself a little closer to me and I raised my arm over her shoulder so she could duck into my side.
"Edward," she called from where she had her head resting on my chest.
"Huh?"
"Did I ever tell you how much I missed you?" she asked while looking up at me from under her eyelashes.
"Not that I can recall," I replied with a half smile, rubbing her forearm through the material of her sweatshirt.
"I really did. I missed just having you around to just talk to and have fun with. No one quite understands and accepts me like you do."
"I'm glad to know the feeling was mutual," I replied resting my head on top of hers.
"I think we can make smores now," I announced, thoroughly breaking the mood without thinking about it. We leapt apart at my notification, each of us lunging for the graham crackers at the same time and chocolate located on the other side of the log.
"No fair," she cried as I grabbed her waist and used my long arms as an advantage to reach the chocolate bar before her.
Once I had the rectangle of chocolate, I sat up right, dangling it just out of her reach. Bella lunged at me, knocking me back, but I grabbed her 'round her waist, making her fall to the ground with me.
I glanced at Bella and immediately began laughing, her soft giggle coming in shortly after. She extended her arm when the commotion stopped to quickly snatch the chocolate, and then slowly got up to straddle my chest. Bella opened the package and broke off a square which she slid into her mouth with a smirk. She rose off of me swiftly before I could do anything in retaliation, and leapt overt the log, giving me an impatient look while she waited for my reaction.
I propped myself up on my elbows, giving me the correct elevation to look at Bella fully. "Tease," I declared play fully. "First you knock me down, then you get on top of me just to steal my chocolate before running away."
"Aw, I'm sorry," she told me, jutting her bottom lip out, even though her eyes were mocking.
I let out one chuckle as I got up, grabbing the graham as I passed over the log. Once I was settled on the same ground as Bella and holding the box up in truce, she walked to meet me and even rewarded me with a kiss for my good humor. I tossed the box of graham crackers to the side as we kissed, freeing my hands to run along her back and bring her closer to me. She pulled her lips away just by inches before whispering, "Does that make up for it?" with a smirk.
"Definitely," I replied, my voice rough. I couldn't resist leaning forward and capturing her upper lip in between mine, leading our kiss into a more intimate level. While she was preoccupied, I reached one of my hands around to between Bella and me, inconspicuously grabbing the hand she was holding the chocolate in. I slyly removed it from her grasp, putting extra force in the kiss at that time in hopes to delay her noticing. When we broke away smiles were implanted on both of our faces until I brought the bar of candy out from behind my back and Bella stuck her tongue out in the spirit of poor loosing.
"Now who doesn't play fair," she muttered as she walked around me to grab the box of graham crackers left on the sand.
We finally made our smores, but all of the joking and snarky comments ended in an epic marshmallow battle; the local birds might have gotten a stomach ache from the "weapons". By the end of the night, Bella was slumped against my shoulder, obviously tired despite the mass consumption of sugar.
"Come on, Bella, let's go home," I whispered to her, jostling her lightly to rouse her from her sleep. I extinguished the fire as Bella gathered the leftover food and we walked back to the car.
I was surprised that Bella hadn't spoken or even changed CDs or track numbers on the drive home, but when I glanced over at her, she was fast asleep with her head propped up against the window. I reached over to brush her hair out of the loose ponytail it landed in.
When we reached the house at a quarter 'til eleven, Bella was still dead asleep, so I would have to navigate this one with smarts; I quickly unlocked and opened the door to the house, then strolled back to the passenger seat of the car, opening it and kneeling down to wake Bella up.
"Sweetheart," I whispered, trying to lull her awake, "we're home." I brushed the hair out of her face as her eyes fluttered open. "Come on, I'll carry you," I told her, ducking my head to slide my arms around her and scoop her up. She complied, locking her arms around my neck and resting her head against my chest. As I carried her up to her room, she didn't move once, even when I set her down on the bed.
I jogged downstairs, locking up the house and the car and making a quick call to Rosalie and Emmett to check up on Ashley, who was apparently very well behaved for the two of them and wore Emmett out, leading to him hitting the sack at 9 'o clock.
When I made my way back up to Bella's room, she had herself tucked between the covers. She called my name softly once I crossed the threshold. I went over to her immediately and sat on the bed next to Bella.
"Stay," was all she whispered. I nodded my head in response and she smiled at my answer. I got up and changed into my pajama bottoms and kept my shirt on from that day.
I strolled over to the light switch, turning it out before going over to the bed and crawling in between the cool sheets. Bella maneuvered herself closer to me, wrapping her arms around my waist and was leaning her head on my chest. I ran my fingers through her tangled hair as she drifted off to sleep.