love that you love these two ❤ see you next week!

•fifteen•

"When are you coming home?"

Edward paced, grey slabs warm underneath his feet, his cell pressed to his ear, bare-chested in the sunshine. "I dunno. Whenever Bella wants to get rid of me."

He glanced toward her, stretched out on a lounger like a cat, with her dress riding up so high he could see her panties and the ink that decorated her thigh. A magazine was open on her lap; Gardener's World, and that amused him to no end. It was the kind of magazine Gram would read. An old people's type of magazine. She didn't strike him as very green-thumbed either, but maybe he was wrong. She said she had plans for the front yard at any rate. Shifting in her chair, Bella looked up at him, hand shielding her eyes, the epitome of relaxed; Kasey spending the morning at kindergarten.

"You should be here practicing. Next meet is next week," Emmett continued determinedly at the other end of the line.

"I know."

"If you don't put the work in, it's gonna be even harder."

Emmett's agenda to Edward was clear, and had been throughout the week; he had so far avoided the calls and the texts, and was wishing he'd ignored this one too.

"Soon, okay?" he conceded.

"When's soon?"

"Tomorrow? The day after? I don't know."

"Look, I don't want to ruin your fun, bro. It's been almost a week... I just don't want you to lose out on that high from winning. You gotta keep the momentum going, y'know?"

"Yeah, okay." Edward sighed, resigned. "I get it. I'll see you soon, promise."

He hung up, throwing his cell down carelessly, crawling up Bella's lounger until his head was resting on her stomach, his hands bunching up the fabric around the small of her waist.

"I gotta go home," he murmured as she ran fingers through his hair and he brushed a kiss low on her stomach.

"I figured as much. This week has been nice though."

He raised his head, already smirking. "Just nice?"

"Really, really nice," Bella breathed, squirming as he grabbed at the magazine and threw it to the side onto the grass. His hands found the sweetest spot, Bella letting out a shriek of laughter as he tickled her mercilessly. She shoved Edward off onto the grass before running to the house. He chased after her, hot on her heels, trying to forget the sinking feeling in his stomach that the contented bubble they'd been living in was about to be burst.

…

Edward's last morning with Bella and Kasey started early, dropping Kasey to kindergarten, saying his goodbyes to the kid in the truck. Kasey didn't want him to go; she'd made it pretty clear that morning. She'd woken him up on the couch again, far too early, and then cried when she realized he'd be gone by the time she finished at lunchtime. The tears made him feel bad; how she clung to him made him feel even worse. He'd looked at Bella helpless; bewildered.

"She loves you," Bella mouthed over Kasey's head.

Love.

Edward had to shake his head at how surreal it felt as he watched them both disappear into the school building, hand in hand. Sure, he'd done Alice a solid a few times when Amber and Austin needed picking up from school and she'd been working, but this was different. This was something he felt like he'd be doing in five or ten years; not now, at this point in his life. He'd been so hungry and career-focused for so long, even through his recovery, that the thought of this seemed so far-fetched—so absurd he'd have laughed it off. His future—his relationships—it was something he'd barely paid a thought to; not seriously.

Settling down was never on the cards… Nor love.

And all it took was for one lost kid, and her hot-as-hell mom for him to be playing... happy fucking families.

The thought had been sitting with him all morning, making him uncomfortable.

Love.

Edward didn't even register Bella pulling open the passenger door again and climbing in beside him until her hand was on his arm briefly.

"Are you okay?" she asked as pulled the seat belt across herself, sweeping her hair off her face.

He cleared his throat.

"Yeah. Sure."

Bella seemed just as pensive as he was as they drove, and fidgety when they finally sat outside a small cafe on a wide sidewalk. There was a square a little further along with a fountain, toddlers playing in it, as their parents sat on benches in the shade of cherry trees.

"I'm not sure when we'll see you next." Bella removed her sunglasses and put them on top of her head. "Kasey being in kinder, now."

"We can figure it out," Edward reassured her.

Her smile told him differently. Her smile was skeptical, and now so was his.

"You don't think so?"

"I don't know," Bella told him.

"I get that," he replied slowly. "But… my Gram always said 'where there's a will, there's a way.' Does she go to kindergarten on the weekend?"

"No, but—"

"But what?"

Bella looked down at her menu, her next word choice incredulous.

"So... I'm supposed to drag her around the country on weekends so we can... hook up?"

"Is that all this is?" Edward challenged.

Bella said nothing.

"Is that all this is?" he repeated again, slowly, firmer, a bit louder.

His heart skipped as she shook her head, but whatever words she had, she held them back, guardedly.

"I don't—"

"What would you have done with Jared going away, anyway?" he asked frustratedly

"That's different. He'd retired. And we were married—in love, and—"

Edward leaned back in his chair, staring at Bella as she stopped abruptly, the waitress choosing that particular moment to come and take their orders. He wasn't one to declare his feelings outright. He didn't want her to know yet quite how much he liked her when she was being like this.

Edward left for the bathroom immediately after the waitress had disappeared with their order, his head buzzing with an angry feeling he couldn't quite shake off. He wasn't about to be a dick about it, though. He wasn't about to call Bella out on it either, even though it felt like a repeat of the last time they'd said goodbye. Her being dismissive of there ever being a 'them.'

By the time he got back, there was someone else sitting in his seat; a blonde woman with hair in loose waves, wearing far too much makeup. It aged her—made her look hard-faced; bright pink lipstick caught on slightly chapped lips and dark eyeliner in the creases of the fine lines around her eyes.

He shoved his hands in his pockets as he trudged back over. He couldn't hear or see Bella's expressions, but when the woman spotted him, a twisted smile crept over her face.

"Well, well… looks like the rumors are true."

She slipped out of his seat, gesturing for him to take it once more.

"Please, do sit."

"What rumors?" Bella asked irritably, leaning back from the table and folding her arms over her chest, tense and tight-fisted.

"Can I help you?" Edward asked, voice rough as he sat himself back down.

"Why, I'm not sure," the woman drawled, eyes roving over him, a disposable cup of coffee and a cell clutched in one hand. "Are you married?"

Edward stared at the woman. He cleared his throat, frowning. "No."

"No girlfriend?"

"No."

"Color me surprised!" she exclaimed, with a faux expression of shock. Her hand landed on her chest. "But I already knew that, of course. Another MX star." Her hand was now on his shoulder, trailing down his arm, manicured, long nails digging into his bicep, squeezing. She looked pointedly at Bella, her mouth pursing. "You certainly have a type. Very handsome, too. Young though. That makes a change. Although I think the gossip forums were a little harsh saying you were old enough to be his mother."

"Excuse you?" Edward scowled, removing her hand. "Who the fuck are you?"

Bella remained tight-lipped.

The woman smiled, glancing at her buzzing cell before addressing Bella again. Twisting the screen around, she waved it in her face; the angle preventing Edward from seeing the screen.

"You haven't seen? It's all over the Web. You should see some of the things they're sayin'. Not unwarranted, though, really. Considering you wormed your way into my husband's bed, and then his heart. You've got form. Once a whore, always a whore, ain't that what they say?"

"Hey—" Edward started, but Bella beat him to it, her voice loud and cool. Far more controlled than it ought to have been, considering.

"Are you still trying to make out that he hadn't left you already? Still? After all these years? God, you're pathetic," Bella told her, disdainfully. "Always trying to blame everyone other than yourself. That's just typical of you, Tanya. It's why he left you in the first place."

Tanya carried on, as if Bella hadn't uttered a word. "I hear you're living in your Pa's trailer these days. Roaming around the country in a minivan like one of those nomads with that poor baby girl. You know I'm still owed—"

"I know."

"Well, then. Just a reminder that I'm waiting, as are my lawyers." She turned as if to walk away and looked back over her shoulder at them again, waving her cell in her hand.

"Also… you should probably check out those gossip pages; they're a riot. Till next time. Ciao."

Tanya turned on her heels and circumvented her way around the roped off tables and out onto the street, her spiked heels clicking along the floor.

"What the fuck?"

Blotches of red frustration appeared on Bella's face, and for a while she didn't look at him—or couldn't, Edward wasn't sure which.

"Hey…" Edward prompted, ducking his head and trying to catch her eye.

Her head jerked up, palms sliding down her temples. Bella exhaled slowly, gnawing at her lip. Her eyes squeezed closed tightly.

"Who the fuck was that?"

A sucked in breath of air. "She's Jared's ex-wife… Of all the fucking days to run into her."

Edward sat back in his chair. He didn't know Jared had been married previously. He didn't know a lot, it seemed.

The waitress came over, setting down plates of food that Edward suddenly had no hunger for. He mumbled a thanks anyway, told her that was everything, glad when she disappeared again.

"You want to talk about it?"

Bella took a gulp of coffee, watching people on the sidewalk, her knee jigging.

"I don't…" For a split-second Edward thought she wasn't going to share, but as her eyes shifted to him and flicked over his face, her shoulders sagged. "Okay... Okay. I know that was… she's—God, she's such a fucking bitch."

"I gathered."

Bella paused, trying to compose herself as she rubbed at her face and sniffed.

"Brace yourself, because… this isn't pretty. Okay?"

"It can't be that bad."

She shot him down with a look, gathering her hair in her hands and releasing it again, in time with a breath of air.

"Jared and Tanya… they were only married for a year when they split, but they'd been together quite a while before that. Five or six years. I knew him while they were together... before and after they got married. He liked to bring his bikes to my dad's garage, and he visited the bar I worked in at the time a little too much. So we did know each other before they split. But when they did… Admittedly, it was fast after that. With us. Late nights drowning his sorrows and… There was something there, anyway. Maybe there was something there before, but I'd never have acted on it. It was harmless flirting… part of the job. You know? Anyway, I got pregnant with Kasey a few months later. And Tanya was—she was upset—which is putting it mildly. She made me out to be this—this homewrecker."

The word jolted Edward, familiarity in it. The bitter woman at the food truck a couple of months back had called her the same.

"It was… I don't know." Bella frowned. "She always accused him of cheating with me; told everyone she could, that was what had happened. How I ruined their marriage. Stole her husband. That I was a gold digger. It wasn't true… she ruined their relationship long before I came along. They'd been fighting for ages about all kinds of things; especially money—her spending it, gambling it away. Lying to him. He always thought she'd cheated, too. She treated him like dirt. It's why she has no relationship with his family, and I do. Anyway, there are a lot of people who think I did something wrong though… and they'd believe it, because of other stuff that happened when I was younger."

Edward was curious now. "Like what?"

Bella picked at her food, a tiny pinch of a pancake popped into her mouth.

"I was very young. Just out of high school young, in my defense. I slept with someone I had no idea was married. He plied me with a lot of alcohol that night, and I regretted it. But anyway, I had a reputation after that and wasn't allowed to forget it. Big news in a small town. The scandal. My dad didn't show his face in the bar for weeks; he was so ashamed of me."

"Is that what that old lady was running her mouth about, at the food truck?"

"Jan? Yeah. It was her friend's daughter that was the wife. Never been quite forgiven. Someone even told me Jared dying was my karma."

"Jesus. That's fucked up."

"Right? God…" Bella paused, and Edward's hand moved across the table to touch her own. "She's owed some money. After Jared died, she contested his will as he was still paying her a small amount of alimony. Judge ruled in her favor recently, but I have my own suspicions about that. I just... want her out of my life now."

She drew a circle on the table before looking back up at him. "So, there you have it. There's more, but I don't really want to get into it right now. It's draining just thinking about it." She looked sadly at her stack of pancakes. "Old enough to be your mother?" she mused. "Ouch."

"There's no way on this Earth that you're old enough to be my mother." Edward scoffed. "There's a handful of years between us. All that stuff is a load of bullshit. Don't go looking for it."

There was a slow, dawning comprehension on Bella's face. "You've seen what people have been saying about… about us?"

"Emmett showed me."

Bella blinked.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it's a load of garbage, spread around by my ex. She's done it before."

"But you still could have told me?" She sounded hurt. "I feel blindsided."

"You'd be more hurt if you went looking. I don't care what anyone thinks or anyone says about us, okay? I don't care if you're older than me. I don't care that you got a kid. It's a bunch of trolls uttering shit in a tiny corner of the fuckin' Internet."

He squeezed her hand. "I'm sorry if you think it's somethin' I should have let you know about, but I didn't see what good it would do. And I'm sorry you've had to deal with some really fucking shitty people in your life. You've been dealt a rough hand. I get it… I'm not here to make it worse."

Bella smiled, but it was strained. "I'm far thicker-skinned than you can imagine, Edward."

He snorted. "Tell me about it. How long is it going to take for you to date me for real?"