Chapter 20: Buttons

Disclaimer: S. Meyer owns Twilight.

Meanwhile, back at the reception, Renee was now hanging all over Paco. Charlie was watching her out of the corner of his eye. Was she tipsy? She was—but where did she get the alcohol? The tribal council had a strict ban on drinking while on the reservation. Still, there was no denying it; Renee had gotten a hold of a couple of stiff drinks from somewhere. Her speech was slurred, and she was even more uninhibited than usual—and that was saying a lot.

Paco, despite his ease with the ladies, was helplessly scanning the room for assistance. Charlie caught his look of embarrassment and offered to literally take her off his hands. He kept his voice low, not wanting to draw attention to themselves. "It's getting late, Renee, how about I take you home now?"

She slid off Paco's lap, and lurched unsteadily on her feet. Catching her by the elbow, Charlie circled one arm around her waist. She twisted her neck and looked up at him. "Oh, Charlie, do we have to?"

You better believe it. He couldn't get her out of there fast enough. That's all he needed was for his ex-wife to make a scene at their only daughter's wedding. He was thankful that this little display hadn't happened earlier.

He held her tightly against his side, hoping that she remained upright until he made it to the car. He said his goodbyes to Billy, Sue, and the Cullens, while Renee leaned over precariously, waving cheerfully to everyone.

"Wait, wait," she jabbered. "I didn't get to say goodbye to Guilermo."

In his panic, Charlie lied to her, saying, "He had to leave. His sister needed to get home." He pulled her closer, dragging her to the cruiser, stopping just for a second to get her purse.

He practically had to stuff her into the vehicle. The woman was like a Houdini, pushing open the door so she could escape back to the party. After the second attempt, Charlie quickly pushed her in, slammed the door and running to the driver's side set all the locks. He was out of shape, and obviously out of breath by the time he started up the engine.

Renee sank down into the seat, flopping her head back against the headrest. "You ol' party pooooper!" she huffed.

They got to Jacob and Bella's home, and Charlie helped Renee out of the cruiser. By now, she was as wobbly as a wet noodle. As she stood, her head jerked backward hitting the rim of the door. The impact catapulted her forward, and the heel of her shoe caught on the lip of the concrete sidewalk, breaking it off. Poor Charlie captured her in his arms before she could fall and do more damage. While holding her close to his chest, he stretched one arm to retrieve her purse from the seat, then picked her up bodily and carried her to the house.

He carefully laid her on the bed and removed her shoes. She propped herself up on one elbow, looking at him sorrowfully. "Do you think Bella will be happy married to Jacob? They seem happy."

"You don't need to worry about those two. They've been best friends for a long time. They're crazy about each other. I've never seen another couple so in love."

Her clear blue eyes gazed into his dark warm ones. "I used to think that we were in love like that once. What happened to us, Charlie?"

He sat down on the edge of the bed and sighed. I don't know. Come on now, it's late. Let me help you get that dress off of you or it's gonna get ruined.

Leaning over her, Charlie unzipped the back of the dress, and those old hidden feelings began to stir in his heart again. He slid it down past her legs, freeing her form and stepped over to the closet to hang it up. He stood there by the door staring at her. She was just as beautiful to him as she always was. How did he ever let her go?

His feet reluctantly changed direction to head toward the living room.

"You're going home, aren't you? You're just gonna leave me here all alone. Everybody leaves me. Yes, I know . . . technic . . . technica . . . never mind, you know what I mean. I left you. And now, my little girl's all grown up and she's left. Phil's gonna leave me too—that's right. He's been seeing a younger woman. He thinks I don't know. He thinks I'm a stupid sow.

"I am a stupid sow. I left the only man I ever had feelings for." She burst into tears. "I wish I had never gone away. I've made a horrible mess of all of our lives. I still love you Charlie, and there's nothing I can do about it now."

Walking back to the bed, Charlie took her in his arms. "I'm going to forget that you said that. You're drunk. You don't realize what you're saying."

"In vino, veritas," she replied through her tears. "Please don't leave me tonight. Just this once, for old time's sake."

"Renee . . ."

"Please, Charlie."

Defeated by those pale blue eyes, Charlie took off his jacket, tie, and trousers and lay down beside her. For old time's sake, he told himself.

She placed her head on his shoulder, as he ran his hands through her hair. She fell asleep quickly, but Charlie lay awake, those ancient wounds threatening to burst open once more.

"Bells," Jacob groaned in frustration. "I'm dyin' here. Why did you get a dress with so many tiny buttons? I can't undo them, my fingers are too big."

"Oh, gosh, let me do it." Bella reached around to the back of her gown, struggling with the little pearly fastenings. She started to laugh. "I can't believe this. It's just too ridiculous. I can't get them undone either. You know, my mother warned me about this very thing. Good grief, what am I going to do? I can't sleep in this dress; it'll be ruined."

"I wasn't planning on you sleeping in anything. This is our honeymoon; this was not supposed to happen. Would you be mad if I tore it off of you?"

Her eyebrows shot up to her hairline. "Jacob Black, don't you dare!"

"Well what do you want me to do? I want to make love to you sometime tonight."

Bella turned around to face him. "You wanna call the manager. Maybe he can unbutton me."

"Over my dead body!"

"Do you think there might be a woman in one of the cabins that could help us?"

Jacob sat on the bed with his head in his hands. "You want me to go knocking door to door, asking for a woman to come with me to our cabin? I can see the headlines now. 'Wedding stalker terrorizes Black Diamond Cabins. He is considered seriously disturbed; has a peculiar button fetish'."

Shooting up with a start, Jacob yelped, "Hey, wait a minute. They have a maid that lives in one of these cabins. I'll call the desk and say we have an emergency, and this is an emergency as far as I'm concerned."

Jacob delivered the message and a few minutes later, there was a knock at the door. The maid stepped into the room and her eyes were as big as saucers, as Bella explained their predicament. "You want me to do what?"

Putting his hands out in front of him, Jacob stammered, "No, no, no . . . It's not like that. The buttons on my wife's gown are too little. I can't remove them from the darn buttonholes. We just need you to get the buttons undone, so we can start our honeymoon, if you get my drift. Believe me, we don't want you here any longer than necessary."

The little maid was an older lady with graying hair. Her eyes finally retreated back into her sockets, and she shook her head. She nimbly undid all the buttons rapidly and Jacob slipped her a five dollar bill. "Thank you, you've just saved our marriage," he joked.

The lady nodded her head, and chirped, "I'm going to have to write home about this one.

Happy honeymoon, Mr. and Mrs. Black."

Making up for lost time, Jacob removed Bella's gown as quick as a flash, and folded it over the nearby chair. Then he ran around the room chasing her as she laughed, finally backing her into the wall. "Hey," he said as he noticed her lacy bra. "Finally, I get to see the good stuff."

"Not for long," she teased.

Scooping her up, he placed her in the middle of the mattress, and started in on the joy of their lives.

Later that evening, Bella lay across Jacob's torso, stroking his chest lightly with her fingertips. She murmured, "Do you think it will always be like this?"

"Always, Bells." He kissed her shoulder. "There's only one thing that can destroy our happiness."

She looked up at him, frowning. "What would that be?"

"Too many teeny buttons," he brayed.

"Ha, ha. I thought you said you were in training for this."

Flipping her on her side, he said, "Training? Girl, you are asking for it. I'll show you some training. Are you ready for round two?"

Bella grinned, and answered, "Ding, Ding . . ."

Renee woke up the next morning with a jackhammer in her head. Charlie was still asleep at her side. She got up wearily, put on some clothes, and started a pot of coffee.

Smelling the aroma, Charlie woke up and sauntered into the kitchen. Renee poured him a cup and muttered, "We didn't—"

"No, I was there only to keep you company."

Hanging her head, Renee blurted. "Charlie, I . . . I don't know what to say."

Charlie put a finger to his lips. "There's no need to say anything. You didn't want to be alone last night. End of story."

They were both quiet on the way to the airport.

As the passengers began boarding the plane, Renee clung to Charlie. "One more thing for old time's sake. Could you kiss me goodbye?"

Charlie pulled her close, and pressed his lips for the last time to Renee's waiting mouth. It was bittersweet, and Charlie felt his heart split into tiny slivers. He would never love another woman like he loved Renee.

He held back the tears as he said, "Goodbye, Renee."

"Charlie . . ." she choked.

He had all he could to restrain himself from following her as she turned and ran to the plane.