Emmett's POV
What was that son of a bitch doing?
I had half a mind to saw Jazz's dick off and roast it for dinner. There he was, blatantly eye-fucking my new baby sis. At the very least, I wanted to rip that motherfucking smirk off of his face.
I glanced over at Rose, and saw a smile on her face. She caught my eye and I gave her the what the fuck? look. She shrugged and shook her head.
O-k then. Guess the E-man's on his own.
Just as I was taking a step toward B, the devil dog's attention turned to me, and (once again) he started growling at me.
On the plus side, B stopped looking at Jasper and turned to her collared demon.
"Riley." It was all she said, and she said it quietly too, but for whatever reason, he sat back on his haunches and shut up.
She turned to me with an apologetic look on her face. I waved her off. We'd been through this song and dance before, and it was rather obvious that Riley and I were not gonna end up best buddies.
I turned toward Ed and the ladies (while keeping an eye on Jazz through my periphery) and grinned.
"See? What I tell ya?"
But him being that total douche that he is, grinned smugly, and replied, "Oh? So you're proud of almost losing your balls to a pissed off dog?"
Bella was the first to laugh.
"We," she snorted out between giggles, "are gonna get along just fine." She gestured between Edward and herself.
Was it just me, or did I see a scowl on the Jazz man's face? Hmm…
Edward gave her his signature crooked grin. (And no, just because I know that, does not mean that I roll that way).
Edward stood up, and strode toward Bella, still grinning. But when he was standing about two feet away from her, he stopped, sat down, and held his hand out toward the demon dog. Riley looked at him skeptically, but approached him none the less. He sniffed Eddie's outstretched hand, and when Edward went to pet him, he let him! He just sat down and let him pet him! What the fuck!
"I'm Edward," he addressed B, but he kept petting the mutt. "The black-haired pixie is my girlfriend, Alice, the blond girl in the recliner is Rosalie, and her twin, Jasper, is standing about two feet to your left."
B crossed her arms, and looked down at Eddie with a mix of surprise and amusement. "You are the first boy to have ever approached Riley like that. Normally, I have to run interference when some idiot gets it into his head to go all Darwin on him." She glared pointedly at me.
"Jesus." I looked skyward. "Are you ever gonna not bring that up?"
She looked thoughtful for a moment. Then she shook her head and shrugged. "Nah."
"Gee, thanks a ton, sis."
"Anytime, bro."
Despite the fact that I had started it, I was still a tad surprised when I heard her call me bro. not that I didn't want her to. I wanted her to feel welcome, and think of me as family. But after everything that had gone on for her, and how she'd behaved towards people in general (that I've seen) I had assumed it would be awhile before we got to the sibling banter.
Another thing I noticed was that she referred to Edward as a "boy." Now, normally, anyone of us put in that situation, would have done or said some stupid thing to show that we were, in fact, men. And not boys.
But Edward didn't do that. He barely even seemed to notice that'd she'd used the word. I guess it had something to do with her tone of voice when she said it. It hadn't been condescending at all. Simply a matter-of-fact.
Surprise, surprise, Alice decided to join in the conversation.
"Hi Bella! I'm Alice!" she chirped, bouncing up to B, who smiled and nodded at Alice, but didn't offer a hand to shake, or anything like that.
When everybody had first heard about Bella, I had given them a little heads-up about the whole sans-contact thing. Alice had pouted for about five minutes, before Edward had hauled her up to their room.
Insert eyebrow waggle here.
Bella raised her eyebrow ever so slightly at me. Not enough to tip anybody else off, but after spending six weeks getting to know her, I knew what she was referring to.
I warned ya sis. That pixie's happy and hyper. And it gets pretty fucking scary when you think about it.
Rose walked over to her next and offered a smile. They exchanged a few words that I couldn't hear, but the altercation ended with them fist bumping each other. Alice's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her skull. And seeing as that Jazz was trying to hold back his laugh, I'd say he agreed with me.
Speaking of that dickhead, he walked (sauntered) up to Bella and grinned at her. She smirked back. Again, I couldn't hear what they sad to one another, but, once again, it ended with him taking her hand and lightly brushing his lips over her knuckles.
Alice…well…if looks could really kill, we'd all be grease spots.
I'd tried to explain to Ali that B was pretty laid back (for the most part). And that she probably wasn't gonna respond too well to her and all her hyperactivity.
But did she listen? Nope.
I turned my attention back to Bella and Jasper. I couldn't really understand her expression. She didn't smack Jazz when he kissed her hand, and Riley didn't even bark. Not that I wanted that to happen, of course.
Ok. Maybe I wanted it to happen a little.
But still, I couldn't get a read on her. But then again, I'd never been very good at that type of thing. And besides, B was a bit of a special case. She knew when she needed a poker face. And she also knew how to make her poker face not look like a poker face.
Yeah, doesn't make a lick of sense to me either.
But Bella seemed comfortable. She must be, if Riley was trying to snack on the Jazz man's face.
RPOV
Oh…this is just too good.
Jasper having a crush on the new girl, and her being Emmett's new sister on top of that.
This could be interesting.
When Bella first arrived, she seemed nice enough. I could tell she'd be a good sister for Emmett. She'd have his back, but she wasn't about to put up with any of his bull shit either.
And then the introductions. I have to admit, it was rather smart of Edward to placate her guard dog first. I'm also not surprised that he was the first to think of it. Despite the fact that yes, Edward is a guy, he's also totally whipped. And thanks to that, Alice has managed to give him some brains.
I could tell Alice really wanted to hug Bella. I could also tell that she wanted to kill me when I got a fist bump out of her. It's not my fault we hit it off.
I had walked up to her, offering a smile. She smiled back.
"So," I whispered, so the others wouldn't hear, "just what are we gonna do about these guys?"
Her smile morphed into a mischievous grin. "My brother taught me a few tricks. Shouldn't be too hard."
It had ended with us both snickering quietly and pounding fists.
Emmett looked bemused, Edward was still paying attention to Riley, who was still keeping an eye on Bella, as was Jasper, but with completely different motivations, and Alice looked ready to tackle us both.
It was funny.
Then, without missing a beat, Jazz strolled on over to Miss Bella, cocky grin in place, murmured something to her, and kissed her hand.
I thought I had noticed something when she had first arrived.
I had no doubt that Jasper would be good for her. From what Emmett had been able to tell us, she had gone through a lot of shit this past year. And not just her brother either. But that was merely a hinting he'd gotten from Charlie. Nothing specific, nothing concrete.
I couldn't help but wonder though. She'd just lost her brother, and she obviously lost her parents, seeing as that he was her guardian and all. Her brother's partner had gone all MIA on our asses. Riley was very protective of her, so I couldn't help but get the impression that there's more than she was letting on.
I hoped that she'd give Jazz a chance though. He's a good guy that knew when to be a gentleman. He obviously liked her, and I'd no doubt that he'd take care of her. He took care of me when we were little.
Emmett had better not be an ass about it. I didn't care if Bella was his sister; Jasper was his best friend, practically his brother.
Maybe the nimrods will finally decide to grow a pair instead of going all Darwin on each other.
I smirked, Bella had gotten it flawlessly.
Endless apologies for the wait. Chapter 10 to REDO is up as well. Also, I have a new poll up on my profile, concerning a new fanfic that I'm considering. Check it out and vote!
Until next time, my darlings.