oOo
"No, Daddy!" Bella giggled. "You're cheating again!"
Every Sunday, she and Charles played a game of Rummy, and every Sunday, he tried to cheat, the grin behind his moustache giving him away.
"Oh, Daddy!" Jackie called from her spot on the sofa, where she was busily typing into her phone. "This is just childish!"
Pookie placed his damp nose on Bella's knee. He was an elderly Golden Retriever, friendly and cuddly.
"I'm an upstanding member of society," Charles said. "Leave me this one innocent pleasure!"
Bella just shook her head, and placed her last card on the table. As always, she won.
Charles made a big show of grumbling and muttering.
They had dessert, which the family took turns making. It was Jackie's week, which meant some kind of trifle with crumbled cookies, greenish jelly, large amounts of cream, and Smarties on top. It looked, and tasted, like a five-year old had made it, but the Swans smiled and ate up. Bella tried to weave her way around most of the cream.
So far, she had managed not to think of Edward all the time. There had actually been periods of almost ten minutes when she had been concentrating on something else.
She was wondering when he would call. If he would call.
She thought of his hair, and how it was the colour of cinnamon. Of his green eyes, with slight wrinkles at the corners, with long, dark lashes. His lips…
"Bell-aaa!"
Jackie was waving her hand in front of her sister's face.
"Sorry, what?"
"You're awfully scatterbrained today," Renee remarked. "Everything okay?"
"Yes, of course. I didn't sleep too well last night. I think I'm going to go home."
She had slept three hours in all, lying awake and musing about Edward into the small hours.
"You're not coming down with a cold, are you?"
"No, Mum. I'm okay. Just tired. And next week will be busy." She got up to collect her things.
"Bella, do you still want this sweater for Christmas?" Jackie asked, following her into the hall. "Because I'm working at the shop tomorrow, and you know I get twenty per-cent off…"
At twenty-one, Jackie was still like a little puppy. After finishing school, she'd been to Paris as an au pair, but had returned after two months. She sang in a band, and was trying her hand at designing fashion, knitting and sewing like a maniac. Most of the time though, she hung out with her friends, and her new boyfriend Paul.
She also worked at a strange little fashion shop in Notting Hill.
Charles and Renee were not too happy about it.
"The blue one?"
"Yep."
"I liked it."
"Okay!" Jackie placed a smacking kiss on her cheek and bounced off.
Bella hugged her parents goodbye. Renee handed her a container with Jackie's unspeakable dessert. Charles held her for a moment longer than usual, as if he could tell that her mind and heart were in turmoil.
"You can call whenever, you know that, don't you, little pumpkin?"
"Yes, Daddy. Thanks. I will. I love you."
.
She was a bit downtrodden on her way home. A guy was in the tube with her, sitting a few seats away. He had taken off his shoes and was reading a book. Aloud. And it was upside down. Bella tried to decipher what it was, and once she had figured it was The Catcher in the Rye, shewas glad when she could step off the train.
It was after seven when she reached her flat. Despite doing nothing all day, she was tired.
There had been no calls, and no messages, all day.
Bella plopped down on the loveseat and switched on he telly.
Colin Firth was emerging from the lake in his wet shirt on BBC 2.
Bella relaxed.
oOo