Chapter 7: Isabella
"Warning would've been nice."
"I told you I wanted you to meet my family."
"Twenty minutes ago!" Bella hissed.
Jasper took her hand as they walked up to the large house, and leaned over to press a kiss to her head. "Calm down," he whispered into her hair.
She sighed, a deep cleansing breath. She focused on the feel of his hand in hers. Calm. It washed over her like an ocean wave. She could do this. "What if they don't like me?"
Jasper barked a laugh. "A house full of vampires and your biggest worry is they won't like you?"
She punched his arm as he held the door open, wincing and shaking out her hand.
"Someday you'll learn not to do that, darlin'."
"Shut up. What's that smell? Does your house actually smell like garlic?"
Jasper grinned. "Solo il meglio per te, amore mio."
"Of course you speak Italian."
"And French. And Spanish. And a little Gaelic. I'm working on Czech. You get bored when you've lived as long as I have," he shrugged as they neared the kitchen. "I may've mentioned I hadn't fed you yet today. They may've gone overboard. Alice and my mother tend to get over excited."
Bella rolled her eyes. "Awesome."
When they entered the kitchen, a striking woman, maybe around ten years younger than Bella's own mother, greeted them. She took Bella's hands and grinned. "Welcome, Bella. We're making italiano for you."
"Wow, um," Bella stammered looking around the modern kitchen spread out with all kinds of food, "thanks. That's... wow!"
"Bella, this is Esme, my mother. And you know Carlisle. This is Rosalie," he nodded as she walked by, barely sparing Bella a glance as she put the salad on the table. "And... Emmett! Stop wavin' with the knife man, you're scary enough already."
"Bella!"
They turned to see Alice hop down from a tree branch onto the back porch and come inside, followed by a sullen looking Edward.
"Um, hey Alice," she said with a small wave.
"Oh wow, you do smell good," Alice gasped, briefly stopping in her tracks.
"Thanks?"
"Alright, that's enough of that," Jasper cut in, giving Alice a look.
"No, it's okay! Bella and I are going to be great friends," Alice explained with a bright smile.
"Right. I'm gonna take Bella on a tour of the house," he sighed, taking her hand. "We'll come back down when dinner's ready."
"So even vampire families are embarrassing, huh?" Bella laughed on their way up the stairs.
Jasper rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, that was mildly painful. You're lucky you don't have siblings."
"Did you have any?" she asked. "Back before you changed, I mean."
"I had a younger brother," he said softly before changing the subject and pointing out a large frame on the wall. "What do you think?"
Bella rolled with the abrupt shift in the conversation. "Nice. Wait... are those graduation caps?"
"Yep. A little family joke."
"That must really suck to go through high school so many times."
"You have no idea. But, the younger we start out, the longer we can stay without people gettin' too suspicious."
"Makes sense."
"Well, here we are," he said, opening the door to the room at the top of the stairs. "Obviously, the most interesting room in the house."
"Yours?" she laughed.
"Naturally."
Bella looked around. There were floor to ceiling windows and the view was breathtaking. "This is the one place I don't have to hide."
"It's beautiful." She continued to look around and smirked, "No coffins, huh?"
He grinned. "Sorry to disappoint."
He sat down on a faded blue couch that looked like it was from the sixties and began to strum a guitar. She noticed he had two more on stands on the floor and three mounted on stand on the wall. Three electric and one more acoustic. "I didn't know you played."
He nodded. "Like I said, when you've lived as long as I have..."
She looked around some more. It was like a personalized museum. There was something from every decade and some stuff she knew had to be from the 1800s.
Slow, melancholic sounds reached her ears as Jasper's random notes consolidated into a melody. It was sad, but in a beautiful way, and it made her heart yearn for something she couldn't name. She sat across from him, tucking her legs beneath her as she listened. His eyes were closed, and he didn't look up when she joined him, but she knew he knew she was there all the same. When he finished, she almost felt as though she was waking up from a trance. "That was... really beautiful. What song was that?"
"Canción de Isabella."
"Isabella's song?"
He smirked. "You know Spanish?"
"Don't test me or anything, we had a few lessons in elementary and middle school in Phoenix. But where'd that song come from?"
"I wrote it for you."
"You... Me? You wrote it for me?"
"Of course," he smiled, reaching out to touch her blushing cheek. "My Isabella."
She didn't give it much thought. She closed the space between them and kissed him. Then suddenly, he was out the window and perched on a tree branch. "Um..."
"I'm sorry, just," he called out, and she could see his eyes were shut tight. "Just give me a minute."
"Ok. Are you ok?"
A dark laugh escaped his lips. "You just caught me off guard. Your blush... the kiss... I just... I need a minute."
Bella nodded even though he wasn't looking at her. "Sure." She sat back against the sofa, watching him reign in his instincts. The ones telling him to kill her. She hugged her knees to her chest. Sometimes he was so normal, so human, she forgot there was a whole other side to him. One that truly was dangerous and wanted her blood. If she wasn't so stupid, she'd leave right now and never look back. Instead, she kept her chocolate brown eyes focused on him. He lithely jumped from the tree back into the room. "I'm sorry," she blurted before he could say anything, getting up to go to him. "I wasn't thinking, I-"
"Stay there," he said quickly, before she could come closer, "and shut up. Let me focus."
Before she could ask, he crossed the room, cupping her face in his hands and kissing her soundly. "Just caught me off guard before, is all," he said, his face still inches from hers.
"This isn't hard for you?"
He leaned his forehead down against hers. "Excruciating. But you, darlin', are exquisite."
She grinned. "You're crazy."
"About you? Absolutely," he kissed her one last time then took her hand and winked. "C'mon. Dinner's ready."
