Chapter 6

"It's $7.99," He told the customer, who nodded and said okay. He handed the skirt back to me. "Thanks." His dimple popped out for a minute as his lips curled into a crooked smile again, and I could feel my cheeks heat up in a blush. I nodded, smiled back and walked away.

Am I in trouble already? My thoughts wandered. This is going to be a long day.

At the end of the day, we locked up the store and stood outside the front entrance. I brought up my phone to call an Uber once again, only to receive three text messages and five calls from my mother. My heart shook in my chest, negative, worrying thoughts already approaching my head. Was she okay? Did something happen? What was wrong?

I clicked a voicemail and heard her shaky voice, "Bella…baby, I…I got into an accident picking up your sister and fiancé from the airport. We're at the hospital now….we're checking on the baby now. I'm…I'm alright, but having some issues breath…." The call cut off, and I heard ringing in my ears. Tears sprung in my eyes, and I could feel my face burning. My whole body sat still and shook at the same time.

"Bella? Honey, what is wrong?" Carmen's voice called, and I hardly felt her hand rubbing my shoulder. "Bella, talk to me, what's wrong?"

"I think she's in shock. Bella, can you hear me?" a new, velvet voice sounded, and Edward's warm face appeared with a hand hovering over my other shoulder. I nodded, but still couldn't find my voice. "Here, let's sit her down." My feet felt like concrete as we transferred to the bench near the entrance. Edward kneeled in front of me, taking my hand.

I snatched it away immediately. "Please don't touch me," I mumbled.

He raised his hands up in surrender. "Okay, I won't unless you ask. We're going to play a game, okay? Can we do that?" I nodded shakily, already knowing where this was headed. "Okay, it's a question-and-answer game, so I'll ask a question and you give an answer." I nodded again and sniffled. "What do you see?"

I looked up with blurry, weary eyes into his deep, green ones. However, with everyone crowding us, I glanced up and said another thing I saw. "Um…your red hair." My cheeks burned even more in embarrassment.

Edward smiled a bit, and I heard our coworkers chuckling too. He ran a hand through his messy hair once again, which made my heart flutter. I tried to calm it down. "Okay, good. What do you hear?"

I listened closely and distantly heard the crickets chirping out in the distance in the summer air. "Crickets. Somewhere." I said.

Edward turned his head slightly to hear them and nodded back to me. "Nice. You have good hearing."

"Thanks," I smiled nervously.

"Now what do you smell?"

My nose wrinkled as I caught a whiff of the smelly garbage on my right side. "Ugh, the garbage piling up."

Carmen and the others looked to the garbage too. "Eww, gross, remind me to call the cleaning crew in the morning." She remarked, a slight smile on her lips. Everyone chuckled along and got back to me.

"Now, what do you taste?" Edward asked.

I bit my lip and licked it. "Um…my lips, I guess." I mumbled. I could feel my breathing slowing down back to normal each time I looked into his warm eyes.

Edward nodded. "Good, now last one. What do you touch?"

I gulped as I reached for one of his hands. It was freezing. "Your hand, it's so cold." I said.

"Yeah, I get cold easily. I'm anemic," he explained rubbing my hand with his other one I wasn't holding. I suddenly noticed how crowded the space was and checked my phone again. "I should go, I have to go find my mom. I didn't even know my sister was coming." But then a moment in the back of my mind had me remember her baby shower was this weekend. But if there was no baby to celebrate….

I shook my head again, a sad attempt to clear it that only made my headache come back. "I need a ride home."

"I can take you, if you want. Or rather, which hospital are they at?" Edward slowly lifted me up off the bench, still holding my hand. I let go and called my mom again. No answer. The rest of the group started to go their separate ways, telling me goodbye and good luck on the way to their cars. I called my sister Leah.

After two long rings, she finally picked up. "Bella," her voice croaked, and tears blurred my vision yet again.

"Leah, what happened, where are you?" I cried. "What's happening?"

"Mom, Sam and I got into an accident. You know where the Quick-Chek is on Jefferson Street?"

I nodded even though she couldn't see me. "Yeah."

"Well, this idiot passed the red light and ran right into us on the corner. Sam got us out, he was amazing. But the car is totaled. Mom's okay now, but she had trouble breathing when she first got here. They're still running tests on the baby, but I'm okay."

I nodded again and sniffled into the phone. "Okay, that's good. Where's Mom? I need to talk to her."

"She said to go home, the hospital will call you with any new updates. Don't worry, alright? Wait, are you still at work?"

"I just got off. I—I need a ride." I paused and glanced at Edward, who got up to sit next to me on the bench. "My coworker friend can drop me off."

"Yeah, just go straight home, honey. Coming to the hospital will just upset you even more. Call me when you get home." Leah answered back.

I sighed a deep sigh, looking up at the stars twinkling against the dark, midnight sky. "Yeah, okay. I'll just call you at home then. Tell Sam thank you, too."

We hung up and I stood up to face Edward, who also stood up, his stance ready to take her wherever she needed to go. "Well, my sister, her fiancé and my mom are okay, I think. They're still running tests on the baby—my sister's pregnant—and she told me not to go to the hospital 'cause it might freak me out…" I sucked in a shaky breath, images of my family in the cold, too-white hospital rooms. I hoped they were alright. I needed the baby to be okay, too. I didn't even want to think about how destroyed the car must have been. I shook my head in an attempt to keep my thoughts in check and turned back to Edward.

He nodded, a look in his eyes that looked like he knew I was trying to keep it together. He gestured to his car, and we walked into the driveway to it. He opened my passenger door, where I slumped clumsily inside. His car smelled clean, like it was freshly washed and pampered every week. The darkness of the interior leather design enhanced the glow of the red radio buttons on the dashboard. Edward slid in the driver's seat, put on his seatbelt, and started the ignition.

Soft pop music started on the radio, which made us both jump a bit. He reached over to turn down the volume, cracking a nervous smile in my direction. I smiled a bit back, though I wasn't sure if it looked like one. I gave him my address as he typed it in his GPS app downloaded on his phone, and he reversed out of the Superstore's parking lot.