The summer of 1944 was one of my favorites. We rented two cottages in the Hamptons, both of them sitting at the water's edge of our own private beach. Carlisle and Esme got the main house to themselves, and Emmett and I shared the picturesque little guest house…with Edward. Alright, that part wasn't perfect, but Bella hadn't come along yet. In any event, memories of our honeymoon were brought back to me everyday; I got to relive them, after all. We watched the sunset almost every night, sailing all day, staring at the stars, lying side by side on the wet ground. Of course it's impossible to count the stars in the night sky, but one night, we tried. We did that a lot that summer, acted like children. Because there was nothing but us, in that perfect spot, it was paradise all over again. Eventually, Edward said he was tired of hearing our "slightly disturbing" thoughts, as he called them, about one another, so we happily agreed to spend nights in the water, outside, on the beach. Edward really can be a brat sometimes, but I thank him for that. Being outside, I had fewer inhibitions. Some nights we would stay in the ocean, talking about our favorite things until we knew everything there was to know about each other. Some nights we went for a bike ride. One time, we even watched the moon's reflection in the sea water to see if it moved…again with the infantile behavior…which I relished every moment of. I don't feel real freedom often. So when it comes, I hold on to it. The summer seemed to last forever, despite how small a part of "forever" it was. On one of our last days in the Hamptons, we had just come back to the beach, and were getting ready to return to our home in Maine, which we recently moved to. It all began with a tiny bucket of water, catching the rain that came in through a leak in the less than perfect house that I loved so much…
"Oops." Emmett poured the water over my recently dried hair, definitely on purpose. Oddly, I didn't feel angry, as I might've had it been anybody else, under any other circumstances.
"Sorry" I whispered as I squirted the extendable sprayer of the kitchen sink into his face at full strength. He stood, thinking of his next move, for a few seconds before flashing me a devilish smile, and dunking my head under the running water. When he finally released me, I opened the cabinets under the sink and pulled out a large plastic bucket, and filled it to the brim, all the while plotting what to do with the water…when I poured the entire thing down his dry pants, he calmly walked out the back door onto the porch, returning with a hose.
"Payback time, Rose" were the last words I heard before the hose was down my shirt, soaking me and the area of the floor I stood on.
"Run." I gasped, chasing him out the screen door, so old it didn't quite close. We ran through the yard overlooking the sea, looking like a picture in a calendar, probably, so simple. He was faster than me. He had always been, but he let me catch him, chuckling as I pushed him into the muddy area at the edge of the yard. When he pulled me down with him, I didn't even care. It didn't matter that I was covered in dirt, in my new dress no less. We laughed like children for so long. Edward came outside to find us, but when he glimpsed us lying in the mud screeching with laughter as if we were insane, he just shook his head and walked back into the house, which made the situation all the more amusing for me. I've always found it easy to enjoy myself with him. It was very unusual for me to be doing anything else but yelling, angry, when me hair was matted and darkened by dirt. Fun.
"Do we have to leave?" he asked, reminding me of our honeymoon.
"You said the exact same thing in the Bahamas…yes, and no…summer's ending…"
"I know" he sighed wistfully, before getting up, and helping me to my feet.
"We have to get cleaned up somehow, let's take a jump" he nodded towards the ocean. I had actually never considered it, but the yard overlooked the water, a perfect cliff.
"Okay" my clothes were already ruined beyond repair, so why not? The water felt like nothingness, as always. No coolness. But it was a relief, to be clean. Carlisle and Esme were standing in the yard, looking down at us, when we finally surfaced, smiling broadly. They didn't speak, just looked. Edward came up behind them, nodding. What were they thinking?
"That you've finally let yourself go"