54. Sight Seeing and Sliding Up to Second
After I finished with my shower I picked up my cell phone and dialed the number for home. My father answered the phone. It was so good to hear his voice; just the sound gave me a sense of peace. We talked about my trip so far and we talked about my nightmare. Thankfully Nessie and Jake had called right away to tell them about it and check to see if Alice saw anything fishy with the Volturi's future disappearing, and thankfully they had a full docket for the next year that she could see quite clearly. I took a deep breath, relaxation finally reaching the depth of my muscles throughout my body. After that I was passed about between my family members all asking how things were going and what I thought of Forks. Rosalie was particularly defensive when she heard about how Leah had treated me.
"That dog always had a problem with us and she's never gotten over it!" She hissed.
"Well, calling her a dog doesn't exactly help ease the tension I'm sure." I replied sarcastically and I could hear the laugh of my entire family in the background as I joined it. It felt good to really laugh for a change. I'm not sure I've really had a good hardy laugh since I left home.
Leah was right about one thing, I did love my family and I do feel most comfortable with them. I would miss them terribly if my life leads me away from them, but at the same time, all babies have the leave the nest sometime and make their own way out in the big bad world. It was always the ultimate goal that I would someday grow up and lead a normal life for as long as humanly possible…and at sixteen it was already starting to happen. Granted I never expected at sixteen to know I had already met the love of my life who I would someday marry, but I wasn't upset over that by any means.
"Okay, well guys, I need to get going. They're waiting on me downstairs for breakfast and then I'm not sure what Seth has planned for us today, but he says it's a surprise, so I better get going."
"Okay, love you dear!" my mother yelled over the other goodbyes I heard from the other end of the line. I smiled as I pushed end on my phone and made my way downstairs to join the rest of the crew at the breakfast table.
Sue happily plopped another stack of pancakes on Seth and Jake's plates and I walked through the door. She had really pulled out all the stops with a full breakfast buffet. "Good morning dear!" she said with a huge smile as I walked in and took my seat next to Seth. She set a plate in front of me loaded up to pack standards and shuffled back to the kitchen to get me a cold glass of juice.
We all sat and ate and really enjoyed the company around the breakfast table. Charlie was hilarious. Bella had never mentioned what a ham he was…then again maybe being with Sue and the pack had brought it out in him over the years. I didn't really have any comparison to know.
After breakfast Seth told me to go run and get my new super warm fur lined leather aviator jacket, gloves, and a spare change of clothes just in case of emergency. The jacket had been one of the more thoughtful gifts that Seth had given me, but having now seen exactly how cold it gets here in the winter, I was far more appreciative. I came back down to find he was carrying a big basket of food. "What are we doing today?"
"Big surprise, big surprise. Grab anything you'll need for the day though, we won't be back until really late."
I ran and grabbed my cell phone charger, an umbrella, a bag to throw my spare clothes and other items in, and a few other random things that might come in handy and met Seth out at his car. We left the van with Jake and Nessie and took Seth's blue metallic Camry.
"I love the color of this car!" I said as I slid into the passenger seat. He smiled over at me. "Me too."
He said reaching over giving me a kiss and then reached over to grab my seatbelt and click it into place. I frowned. "Hey, I could have done that you know!"
"I know, I just liked having the excuse to reach across you." He said with a wink and then he put the car in reverse and headed out of town.
We drove down the road and turned on a lane that appeared to be abandoned and grown over. We twisted and wound our way to a clearing where a large white house sat in the middle of a horribly overgrown field surrounded by four large trees. It took a second and then the memory clicked and I gasped. This was the house where Nessie was born and that my family had lived in. We got out and walked around and he took out a key and opened the front door. I knew they still came back and stayed here when they happened to be in town for a day or two. It had been several years since the last time they had stayed here though, but as soon as we opened the door the smell of my family hit me in the face as though they had just been there that day. The familiar scent reminded me how much I was missing my family already. I walked around in awe at the house that almost appeared to be frozen in time. White sheets covered the furniture that was so very much my family's taste. Everywhere we ever lived we always had this very same type of furniture in varying shades of whites, creams, and tans. We wandered the house and property for a good hour before moving on.
Next he took me to a large open field and told me all about the two major conflicts that had taken place on this soil, first with the army of newborns and the later with the Volturi. I gave an involuntary shiver as I thought of the ghostly army of vampires actually standing in the place where we stood now. I wasn't in any mood to stay there any longer than completely necessary.
We made our way along US 101 stopping at various points of interest along the way looping back round the Olympic mountains and suddenly we were parked at a boarding station for a ferry. I was ecstatic to get to go on a ferry. He timed it so we would be crossing just at lunchtime and we ate our picnic lunch on the top deck looking out on the view in the distance. We had the good fortune to be crossing on a very clear day and could see the mountains in the distance so high that their snow caps looked more like floating clouds than mountain pinnacles and I could see the Space Needle on the approaching shore.
Once across the sound he took me all around Seattle. We went to the aquarium and walked along the streets stopping in at a coffee shop and indulging in real Seattle coffee as we listened to a musician croon a lamenting tune from his stool on the stage.
Just as it was starting to get dark he walked with me hand in hand to the Space Needle and went to the counter where he came back with a wide smile on his face.
"After you," he said as he directed me to get on the elevator to the top. When we got there we were met at the top with a lady directing people to go one way to the observation deck and another to the restaurant. I started to go toward the deck when Seth grabbed my waist and led me toward the restaurant section. The hostess led us to a small table next to the window of the revolving restaurant overlooking the bay. The restaurant's decor looked like something snatched right out of a rat pack movie. The brown leather booths and geometric design of the carpets screamed 1950's chic. I halfway expected Marilyn Monroe to come sashaying in to sit at the next table. I looked around in awe and then turned to look at Seth who was sitting across from me watching me with a wide smile and a devious twinkle in his eyes.
"Wow Seth, this is so amazing!" I said taking his hand. He brought it up to his lips and kissed it.
We sat and talked as we watched the scenery slowly change outside the window as the restaurant slowly revolved over the next hour. By the time the meal was over we had made the full 360-degree rotation. We paid for the meal and slowly made our way up the stairs to the observation deck.
The lights of Seattle danced in the distance as I looked out over the expanse in front of me while Seth held me around my shoulders from behind as he reached around and gently kissed my cheek and whispered in my ear. "So my Angel, did you have a good day?"
I turned around in his arms and wrapped my arms around him tipping my head back to look straight up into his face with a wide smile, "Absolutely!"
He stretched down and kissed me sending a chill down my body that had nothing to do with the biting wind that was whistling past us. I reached my hands up running them through his hair as his arms moved down to rest on my back pulling me closer as we kissed passionately in the dim glow of the city lights. The cold started creep up my legs and make me shiver so he turned me around so that my back was against the wall and he was blocking the cold and replacing it with his radiant heat as he leaned closer moving his kisses to my cheek and jaw and ending at my ears where he gently sucked my earlobe between his lips before whispering "We should probably be heading back to Forks."
I moaned lightly to which he looked up at me smiling deviously and then I tried to cover by whining, "If we have to," as I pushed my lower lip into a little pout. His eyes flipped instantly from amusement to hunger as he suddenly reached over and sucking my lower lip between his own for a second before leaning in with a passionate and seductive kiss that left me gasping as he pulled away.
He smiled again with the hint of smug deviousness; "Nobody can say I ever let my sweetheart stay unhappy for long!" and I leaned my head back and laughed. He reached forward and kissed my neck sending me in to hysterical giggles and then he stepped back and took my hand leading me back toward the elevators that would take us back to the ground floor and ultimately lead us back to his mother's house in Forks.
We went back to our car and boarded the ferry to cross back over to the other side of the sound. Seth went to open the door to get out of the car after we parked on the automobile deck, but I reached over and hit the automatic lock button when he went to open the door and reached over turning his head back toward me pulling him into a completely unexpected kiss. I was caught off guard by how much intensity I threw behind the kiss and was exceptionally pleased when it was met with a deep moan from Seth's throat, which in turn encouraged me even more.
We were suddenly a blur of moving hands as we kissed and caressed with urgency sliding through the space separating the two front seats, never breaking our kiss to find ourselves embraced in the back seat. By the time we reached the far side of the sound the windows of the car were completely fogged up and we were both a wrinkled disheveled mess. We laughed as we searched the car trying to find Seth's missing shirt that had somehow disappeared at some point during the 60-minute crossing. I looked over and gasped shocked to see that I had left a number of little red and purple love bites across his chest and shoulders. He looked down and blushed.
"Well, I definitely won't be able to go shirtless again for a little while!" I laughed and then my eyes bugged as I found myself wondering about the condition of my own neck and shoulders.
"How's my neck? Any visible evidence?" I asked stretching up to give him a better view of my neck area before buttoning my shirt back up the rest of the way. We had discovered once again that the ticklish nature of my neck appeared to disappear when I was sufficiently turned on.
He ran his hand down my neck as he leaned in close to inspect the damage, giving me a bit of a reflexive twinge in my core. "Whew…thankfully I don't see anything! Do you know how bad Jake would beat me if I brought you back covered in hickeys…not to mention if you still had them when I took you home?" He sighed as he gave my exposed neck a gentle kiss resulting in a giggle. We locked eyes and laughed.
"Oh, Jake wouldn't say anything." I finally continued. "He and Nessie understand how it is. You're right about getting home though. I bet Edward would chase you to the next county!"
We laughed together and made our way back into the front seats. We rolled down the windows and blasted the car vents on defog mode hoping to clear the glass in time to drive off the ramp and make our way back to Forks on the highway. Every once in a while we'd look over at each other and start laughing again.
We had crossed yet another barrier in our physical relationship, but it was a natural progression and it seemed like the next logical step. After all, we couldn't stay at square one for a year and a half and then jump straight to a home run, it was better to ease our way into the game, slowly getting used to the different aspects of the game as we slowly made our way into more and more of the actual goals. Technically we were still in the vicinity of second base…not quite there yet, but sliding right up next to it, which I didn't feel bad about. I knew half the girls in my school would have played a few full games by now without even being in love with their team mate. I was in love with Seth and knew that someday he was going to be my husband, but I still wanted to be good and to make not only my family, but also myself proud as well. I have to admit, it's hard to remember that in the back seat of a Camry. If we were going to stay good we were definitely going to have to limit the amount of time spent in the back seat of cars, but on this one night I didn't feel bad about the things I had done.
We drove the rest of the way home holding hands and listening to the radio. After a while my exhaustion got the better of me and I felt my eyelids flutter closed, but there was still a small smile on my face. I felt Seth look over at me and then I felt his warm fingers brush along my jaw line before I fell off into unconsciousness, happy in the knowledge that I was safe with my soul mate.
When we pulled in front of the house I felt Seth get out and walk to my door and pull me out of my seat. I woke up and tried to protest, but he shushed me and asked me to let him do this. I wrapped my arms around his neck and curled my face into his neck and let him carry me through the front door and up to our bedroom in his mother's house where he laid me gently on the bed and leaned over me to give me a long sweet kiss. When he pulled away he took off my shoes and whispered, "That was good practice for the future. Go to sleep my Angel. I'll be back in a few." Before he disappeared out into the dark hallway. I rolled over not even bothering changing into pajamas and drifted back into delicious sleep.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Twilight Series or it's original characters.
