Previously:
"How about I whip us up something for dinner? Will your mom mind me using the kitchen?"
Brady confirmed that his mom wouldn't mind. She had the freezer stocked with frozen meals for the nights he had to eat dinner alone. Getting a home cooked meal from his imprint felt like winning the lottery to Brady.
Chapter 4: Cracks
The next morning, Edward was surprisingly understanding about Bella's impromptu trip to La Push. He did, of course, insist that she spend the day with him. It was only fair, and Bella was happy to do it.
As Edward drove them to the Cullen mansion, Bella got a message from Brady.
"Will I see you today?" Brady texted.
"No, sorry. I'm spending the day at the Cullens' house, but maybe tomorrow if you're free." Bella replied.
"Smh. What did I tell you about saying sorry?" Brady's response made her chuckle. "And yes! Come by tomorrow! I always want to see you."
"What's so funny?" Edward interjected. He was doing that freaky thing where he stared at her while driving and not looking at the road.
"Will you please watch the road? You know I hate it when you do that." Bella kept her eyes peeled on the car in front of them, just in case they stomped on their brakes.
Edward laughed under his breath. "Fine. I'm watching the road, but you know I don't have to."
Bella breathed an inaudible sigh of relief. Edward might revere humanity, but he certainly didn't understand her mortal fear of getting wrapped around a tree.
Bella went back to Brady's text telling her to stop saying sorry and replied, "Fine. I retract my statement then." Then an idea came to her. "If I don't get home too late, can I give you a call?"
"Yes! Call me whenever." Brady responded quickly.
"What time is too late? 10?" Bella tried to remember when she went to bed at that age. She really had no idea.
Brady sent a laughing face emoji. "You're joking right? Sometimes I do the midnight patrol. That's midnight to 6am."
Bella frowned at that. What kind of child labor camp was Sam running? How awful.
Another text came in. "What I mean is, it's never too late. Call whenever!" Brady sent.
Bella agreed but made a mental note to still call at a reasonable hour.
That was the last time Bella texted Brady all day. The Cullens kept her so busy and she was having such a wonderful time that she forgot to check on him. She spent the morning listening to Edward play piano. Then Esme made her lunch, and they had a nice chat about cooking and gardening. In the afternoon, Alice pulled Bella away to play Bella Barbie while Edward went hunting. He must have stayed close, because he wasn't gone longer than a couple hours. Edward convinced her with a suggestive kiss to her hand that she should stay the night, so she let Charlie know she wouldn't be home.
That night, Edward kissed Bella for hours without pulling back, and Bella was ecstatic. She woke up with a smile on her face that grew brighter upon seeing Edward on the duvet in bed with her.
"Morning," Bella whispered happily.
"Good morning, my Bella." Edward's eyes sparkled as he gazed at her, and she felt so adored. "I should let you get up."
Contrary to his words, Edward leaned in for a lingering kiss, pushing Bella deeper into the pillows. He pulled back with a satisfied grin, and Bella blushed.
"So beautiful," Edward whispered as he stroked her flushed cheek.
Bella reached over to the nightstand to check the time on her phone and remembered, "Oh no! I forgot to call Brady last night."
"We were a little busy, weren't we?" Edward chuckled. Bella's body responded to his sensual tone, but her mind was elsewhere.
"How did I get two calls without hearing them? Oh, that's weird. I don't remember putting my phone on silent." Bella's brow furrowed as she scanned her messages. "I guess I don't need to call him back if I'm going over there soon."
Edward moved his stroking hand down Bella's arm. "Don't you remember? Yesterday you promised Esme you'd help her pick out plants for her new garden."
"Yeah," Bella agreed skeptically, "but I didn't think we'd do that today."
Edward insisted that's what Esme meant. "You wouldn't cancel on her, would you?"
Bella hesitated. Seeing Brady was the fair thing to do, but she didn't want to disappoint Esme.
Edward saw her hesitation and offered a compromise. "If Brady's free, he can come by here and see you—as long as he stays outside. Their stench is horrendous."
Bella ignored the comment about the wolf smell and thanked Edward for the offer. She was a little annoyed that Edward wasn't respecting her decision to split her time evenly between him and Brady, but what could she expect? A short while ago, 100% of her time was dedicated to Edward, and now things have changed. It'd take a little while for everyone to adjust.
Bella tried calling Brady, but it went to voicemail. Then she got a text from him. "Can't talk now. Meeting."
She assumed he meant a pack meeting, so she texted him her plans for the day. "I'm SO sorry for not calling you last night. I got caught up. I promised Esme I'd help her today, but you can come by the Cullens' place if you have time. If not, we'll figure something else out. Again, I'm really sorry. (And I can say sorry for bailing on you. That's totally allowed.)"
Esme was thrilled that Bella wanted to go to the nursery with her, which thawed Bella's annoyance considerably. She wasn't sure anyone could ever be mad at Esme. It seemed physically impossible.
They had a productive morning, stopping at three different shops, even one in Port Angeles, and they got almost all of the plants on Esme's list.
When they got home, they took the plants straight out back and arranged them where Esme wanted them planted. Edward joined them after only a few minutes. "It's time for lunch, Bella. You should come inside."
"Oh yes, are you hungry?" Esme asked. "Let me make you something."
"Maybe a little later. I want to get this finished first." Bella was on a roll with the planting.
Esme started to agree but Edward swooped in and said, "Nonsense! We can finish this in a second at our speed. Let Esme cook for you. She loves cooking."
"Oh. Ok?" Flustered, Bella looked from Edward to Esme for confirmation.
Esme smiled beautifully. "How does Italian sound?"
Bella had pasta just the other day, but she wasn't so ungrateful that she'd demand something else. "Sounds great. Thank you, but you really don't have to."
"Really it's my pleasure, Bella."
Bella followed Esme into the kitchen to help, but she just ended up in the way. Instead she sat down at the kitchen table to wait. She instinctively grabbed her pocket for her phone and panicked when she couldn't find it. She hoped she didn't leave it at one of the stores.
"Esme, have you seen my phone?" Bella looked under to table to make sure it hadn't dropped.
"No, my dear, I haven't. You can't find it?" Esme appeared with a concerned face.
Bella shook her head. "No, and I'm worried I left it at the nursery."
Edward appeared at her side and helped her up. "Really, Bella, there's no need to be crawling on the floor," he joked. "Let me look for it. I'm sure it's around here somewhere."
Edward flitted away at vampire speed to hunt down Bella's phone. There were some perks to having a bionic fiancé.
Alice popped in after that and had a million things to bring up about the wedding. It felt like forever before Bella could get a word in edgewise, and she approached the situation carefully.
"Alice. I really appreciate all of the work you've put into this, but I thought Edward said you already knew about me wanting to postpone the wedding."
Alice's happy exterior melted into a pout. "Really? You're going to postpone your wedding for an adolescent dog? Come on, Bella! What about all of my hard work?"
Bella refrained from pointing out that she hadn't wanted a fancy wedding in the first place and tried to be the bigger person. "I can call the florist and everything and let them know the change of plans."
Alice didn't respond. It was like she wasn't even listening to Bella. "The invitations have already gone out!" Alice wailed. "People are going to think you're having relationship trouble. It's a disaster!"
Ok. That seemed a little dramatic. "We're still getting married," Bella reasoned. "Just not right now. We can make up an excuse that we're actually allowed to tell people if it makes you feel better."
Alice groaned and rubbed her temples. "I can't see the new wedding date. Stupid dog. I need to make sure the weather will cooperate for an outdoor ceremony. We can't have the groom, the wedding party, and half of the guests stuck inside because the sun is shining!"
Bella felt like she was talking to a brick wall. "Alice?"
"Mangy mongrels," Alice muttered. She had her eyes closed, her hands on her temples, and was rocking forwards and back.
"Alice!" Bella snapped.
Alice broke out of her bubble and looked at Bella in shock.
"Sorry," Bella apologized quietly. "I've been trying to talk to you, but you got stuck in your head."
Alice turned fully toward Bella and gave Bella her undivided attention. "No, I'm sorry. Go ahead. What were you saying?"
"I just don't want to make a big deal out of this. I'll call the places and tell them we've postponed. I can tell them you want to build a new wing on the house first or something. Rich people are always doing crazy stuff like that, right?"
Alice smiled good-naturedly at Bella's quip.
Bella took a deep breath and said, "Honestly, I don't have a new date for you because I don't know when Edward and I will get married. I need to figure things out with Brady first." All her pent-up thoughts swirled around in her head and needed an outlet. "How am I supposed to go on a honeymoon when I've never seen the imprints apart for more than a couple days? Where would we live? It just doesn't make sense to get married until things are more stable."
Alice pulled Bella into a delicate hug. "You've been thinking a lot about this, huh?"
Bella nodded against Alice's cheek.
"When did you get to be so responsible?" Alice asked playfully. She pulled back and smiled at Bella. "Don't worry about the arrangements. I'll call all of the vendors and postpone. You focus on managing your dog and hopefully he'll let you get back to your life soon."
Bella wouldn't have put it that way herself, but whatever. "Thanks, Alice." Talking about Brady reminded her of her missing phone. "Have you seen Edward? He was supposed to be looking for my phone."
Alice had a funny look on her face before it quickly cleared. "I don't think he's in the house. Do you want me to look for him?" She asked, tapping her head.
Bella shook her head. She didn't want to give Alice any more headaches than she already had. "No, that's ok. Maybe I actually did leave it at the nursery and he's in Port Angeles or something. I'm sure he'll let me know when he finds it."
Alice flitted off to organize her closets or whatever it was that she did for fun, and Bella joined Esme out in the garden to finish the planting.
After only half an hour, Edward called her back inside. "Come upstairs. I want to show you something."
"Are you finally going to let Bella get passed first base?" Emmett laughingly yelled from the other room. There was a smack and an "Ow!" that followed.
Bella and Edward tried to hold in their snickers. Emmett's big mouth always got him in trouble with Rosalie.
"What about Esme?" Bella asked breathlessly as Edward pulled her up the stairs. He paused on the second floor landing to place feather-light kisses along her jaw.
"She can manage the rest on her own. It's not as if she'll tire out like some humans I know," Edward said playfully. He finally made his way to Bella's lips and kissed her breathless.
"You're the one tiring me out," Bella sassed back as she came up for air.
Several pleasurable hours later, they were lounging on the bed as Edward delicately stroked Bella's skin.
"What's that frown for?" Edward asked.
Bella shook her head. She didn't want to ruin the moment by bring up Brady. Edward finally let her touch him intimately and everything went fine. No bruises or broken furniture. Bella finally felt like Edward was giving her what she needed or at least they were on their way to it. If only he could be more understanding about her spending time with Brady.
Edward sighed. "It's times like these when I really wish I could read your mind."
Bella thought it was times like these when she was most glad he couldn't. As a compromise, she told him part of what was on her mind. "I'm surprised Brady didn't come over, but I guess he was too busy."
Edward's hand stopped for a moment and then continued its path down her forearm. "That would make sense." Edward leaned down and fanned his breath over Bella as he spoke. "Though I can't say I mind having you all to myself."
Edward's seductive powers reeled her back in and they spent the rest of the afternoon kissing and listening to music. Finally, Bella pulled away from Edward's lips enough to check the time, but she couldn't.
"I totally forgot. Did you ever find my phone?"
Edward's eyebrows rose. "Of course. I gave it to you at lunch, remember?"
What? Bella racked her brain to recall Edward coming back during her conversation with Alice but she couldn't. "I don't remember that, sorry. I must have been too absorbed with Alice. Is it still in the kitchen?"
Edward gracefully stood from the bed. "Let me fetch it for you."
He was back in a few seconds and placed her phone in her hand. Bella saw the time and sighed. "I really should be going. I need to start dinner for Charlie." She also noticed that she didn't have any notifications from Brady, which was surprisingly disappointing. She'd have to give him a call when she got home.
She said goodbye to Edward with a lingering kiss and thanked him for a wonderful day.
When Bella arrived home, a raspy voice called out to her from the shade of the trees.
Bella jumped. "Oh my gosh! Brady, you startled me."
Brady was standing partially hidden in the tree line. Bella wanted to smile at him but something felt off. As she walked over, she saw him shaking and grew concerned. "Brady?"
"Don't!" Brady growled, stopping Bella from coming closer. He was trying hard to hold himself together. "Please, Bella, tell me what I did to upset you. Whatever it is, I'll stop. I promise. Just please don't shut me out!" Brady begged and his form got even shakier.
Bella was shocked. "What? I don't understand. I'm not upset." Then she remembered her phone. "Did you try to text me today? I misplaced my phone for a while, but when I got it back I didn't see any notifications."
Brady looked confused and shook his head. "I did try to text you, but that's not what I mean. This morning you said I could come by the Cullens."
"Yeah…" Bella wasn't sure where this was going. "You're welcome to come by anytime to see me. Since you didn't, I figured you were too busy today. Did Sam have you on patrols?"
The shaking stopped as Brady had some sort of realization. "You didn't know I was at the house."
"You were at the Cullens' house today?" Bella asked skeptically. Brady nodded slowly and Bella's stomach sank. "Who did you talk to?"
Brady hesitated.
"Who was it?" Bella repeated sternly.
"Edward."
It was a knife to the gut. She knew. Of course, she knew it would be Edward, but she wished it wasn't.
"I got off shift at noon and ran straight there." Brady explained. He looked down at her with those hopeful puppy dog eyes. "You really didn't know I was there? You didn't give him a message for me?"
Bella took Brady's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "No, I didn't know you were there, and I didn't give anyone a message for you. What exactly did he say to you?"
"It doesn't matter." Brady smiled radiantly and gave Bella's hand an answering squeeze. "It was probably just a misunderstanding." He was always careful not to say anything against Edward because he knew it would upset Bella.
"I bet it wasn't," Bella muttered darkly.
Edward had been so jealous when the imprint happened, but Bella thought they'd moved past that. Clearly he had just hidden his displeasure from her. The special moments they'd shared today turned sour with the suspicion that it was all to distract her from seeing Brady.
She couldn't handle thinking about this now, but she could at least do something nice for the kid that didn't deserve all her drama. "Do you want to come inside? I'll fix you something to eat."
AN: I'm back from the dead. Sort of. I can't promise a regular uploading schedule, but the writing bug has bitten me again. I've been re-inspired to continue this story, so we'll have to see where it takes me.
