Chapter 8 – Springtime Feelings

"What the fuck…?" A rumpled Emmett squinted as he opened the door to see his cousin leaning on the doorframe with a scowl on his face.

"Bella kicked me out," he snapped.

It was three days after Christmas, and to the couples that spent time with Bella and Edward, the new relationship seemed to be developing smoothly and to the plan. Since the day that that the new couple seemed to argue relentlessly, they had been nothing but friendly and caring to each other. When they weren't around, Alice spoke hardly of anything except what a great matchmaker she was.

So it was with great surprise to Emmett to hear that Bella kicked Edward out of their room.

"What? Why?"

"Well, she didn't exactly kick me out. She told me to sleep in the bathtub."

"But why?"

"I don't know," Edward scowled. "Are you going to move your ass or make me stand out here all night?"

"Oh. Yeah," Emmett scratched his head as he moved out of the door frame. "Oh wait." He put his hand on his cousin's shoulder to stop him for a moment before calling back into his room. "Rosie, babe, better get some clothes on. We have a guest."

"Oh wow, Em," Edward rolled his eyes. "That's something I really didn't need to hear."

The larger man raised an eyebrow. "Would you rather have heard that or seen Rosie bare-assed naked?"

"Good point."

"Hey, what's going?" Rose appeared, disheveled. "Edward, why are you doing here?"

"It was either here or the bathtub. Apparently I was complaining too much about the temperature being too high in the room."

Both Emmett's and Rosalie's expressions turned to confusion as they comprehended Edward's words. Neither could fathom Bella doing something like that. But on Rose's part, confusion soon turned into suspicion. Nevertheless, she moved aside to let Edward into their room and directed him to sleep on the couch.

"Edward! You only skied the one day I hurt myself. I can't let you waste around here with me."

"I'm not wasting around, Bella. I enjoy spending time with you. Besides, it wouldn't be fun trying to ski with the lovebirds anyway."

The three days that had passed since Christmas were spent similarly to that day. As the guests returned to the slopes, it was much easier to catch a sleigh ride without waiting in line, and instead of caroling with others, they would curl up in chairs, reading, while sipping hot cocoa. A couple of times, Edward forwent reading for playing the piano.

Where as the latter activity suited Bella just fine, she could not help but wonder if it was boring Edward to tears.

"But not only that, Edward," Bella continued. "It's best if you at least go skiing today, or at least go and do your own thing. Remember we are supposed to be fighting?"

"Oh. I guess you have a point."

"I know I do," she smiled smugly.

"If I didn't know better, I would think you were trying to get rid of me." Although said in a teasing manner, a part of Edward believed his words and worried that they were true.

A look of surprise crossed Bella's face at his words. "Of course not. I'm just trying to play up this charade."

And in truth, Bella knew she much rather would have Edward with her the duration of the day than be alone. It amazed her how quickly she grew to look forward to Edward's company. It was hardly a week ago that Bella believed she would be content in relaxing by herself in the lodge. She knew, of course, that if she had never met Edward, she still would be quite happy to have alone time. Now, she could not look forward to it.

"How about this," her companion began. "I'll go skiing in the morning to make our friends think we really are fighting. After lunch, I'll make an excuse that I'm tired or something and meet you somewhere."

Inside, Bella's whole being lit up, but she fought to keep a huge smile from overtaking her face. He still wants to spend the day with me!

"That sounds good. What did you have in mind?"

"We'll just play it by ear," he responded. "We'll see what we're in the mood for."

Bella nodded, smiling. "Okay. Why don't we just meet back up here in the room after lunch then? We'll decide from there."

And with their after-lunch plans, the friends separated to spend their mornings apart.

"So what is going on with you and Edward, Bella?" Alice eagerly asked as she and Rose dragged their victim into the bathroom during lunch.

"What are you talking about?" Bella asked, innocently.

Alice rolled her eyes and Rose sighed.

"Give it up, Bella," The latter snapped. "There has to be a good reason why Edward interrupted me and Emmett fucking last night."

"Wow, Rose. TMI," her more timid friend drawled, only making Rosalie huff in annoyance.

"And can't you say something nice like, 'make love?'" Alice sighed with a dreamy look in her eye.

Rose practically stomped her foot in frustration. "We aren't here to debate names for having sex. We're here to force Bella to give us some information." She glared at the person of interest, almost making Bella take a step back at the intensity of her friend's expression.

"What? We were getting along fine, but he's gotten annoying." Bella crossed her fingers behind her back as she spoke. She was horrible at lying, and she knew it.

Alice pried further. "What kind of annoying?"

"I don't know," Bella shrugged. "He's clingy. And he complains a lot."

"So?" Rose had her hands on her hips, and Bella raised her eyebrows in question. "Who cares if he is annoying? It's only for the rest of this trip and as long as he's good in bed, then deal with his shit."

Immediately, Bella's face turned bright red as she looked down at her clasped hands. Both her friends stopped and stared at her, disbelief written on their faces.

"You haven't slept with him?" Alice gasped. "I thought the way that you guys can't keep your hands off of each other you surely were…"

Bella shook her head. "Guys, you know me. I don't just jump into bed with somebody I just met."

"No," Rose agreed. "But I thought you'd surely relax a little this time."

Alice was still staring with disbelief. "But, I saw him Christmas morning in nothing but…"

"That doesn't mean anything, Alice," Rose interrupted.

"What's the big deal, guys?" Bella asked. "Yeah, we got along great at the beginning, but we're just not clicking. It's okay. We can get along well enough to finish out the vacation."

Alice looked as if she could cry. "Okay, Bella. I just wish it were different."

"I wish so, too, Alice. I really do," Bella sighed, meaning something completely different than Alice thought.

"Let's go swimming."

"Swimming?" Bella asked in disbelief.

"Yeah," Edward smirked at the disbelief in his friend's tone. "There's a heated indoor pool. I walked by it before I came up here and there was nobody there."

"Of course nobody was there! It's winter!"

"But it's indoors."

"But still."

"Still what?"

"Just… Still!"

Edward smirked, knowing that Bella did not have a good reason why they could not go swimming on December 28th. "Is there a real reason why you do not want to go swimming?"

Bella huffed a "no" before grabbing her bathing suit from a drawer and retreating to the bathroom to change. She found that her stomach was in knots, and the reason was not unclear to her. For some reason, swimming just felt intimate in a way, especially since they were the only two of the group that were going. Bella was more than just a little shy about her body, and although she did talk Rose and Alice out of packing an itsy bitsy bikini (now Bella knew why they were so determined), the two-piece halter bathing suit would be revealing more of her to Edward than she had previously.

Bella sighed as she undressed slowly. She knew that it was silly to feel so hesitant to be in a bathing suit in front of Edward. After all, if she could wear smaller bathing suits in front of strangers, why could she not wear this bathing suit in front of a friend?

Because you feel more towards him than friendship, she reluctantly told herself.

This was the first time she was admitting this fact to herself. Unbeknownst to her, Edward was finally making the same admission to himself as he fought back his excitement of seeing Bella in a bathing suit of unknown quantity of fabric.

It wasn't fifteen minutes later that the friends were ridding themselves of their cover-ups while attempting to not be too obvious at ogling the other person. However, Edward could not keep from dragging his eyes up Bella's body, admiring the white, smooth skin of her legs, the womanly curves of her hips, stomach, and not to mention her breasts, and the delicate expanse of her collar bones. Last but not least, he admired her flushed cheeks as she took him in as well.

It was only a few days ago that Bella first saw Edward half-naked, but she could not help by slyly check him out again, and wonder what it would feel like if she would to caress his abdomen. She could feel her cheeks fill with blood as a result of her thoughts.

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts, that she missed the mischievous smirk that grew on Edward's face and the sudden movement that found her draped over his shoulder.

"What are you doing?" she screeched, in shock.

"Making sure you don't chicken out," her companion smirked as he unceremoniously dropped Bella into the deep end of the pool.

By the time she made her way to the surface, Edward had dropped himself into the water and swam to where she surfaced, sputtering to get the water out of her mouth and nose. "What was that for?"

"What was what for?" Edward asked innocently.

"Dumping me into the water. How did you know I couldn't swim?"

"If you couldn't swim, why would you agree to go to the pool with me?"

"Maybe I just wanted to stand in the shallow end."

Edward smirked and stated sarcastically, "Because that sounds like fun."

During the conversation, Bella tried desperately to not let her amusement show, but she had reached her breaking point when she saw Edward's signature smirk. First, a smile grew on her face and not a moment later, Bella was laughing heartily as she treaded water in the pool.

At the sight of joy in her eyes, Edward lost the battle of resisting reaching out to touch Bella. As she laughed, he found himself reaching an arm out to pull Bella by the waist so that their chests were slightly touching. As they were both treading water with their legs, it was very easy for their legs to brush together, and sometimes even get slightly tangled together.

At the feel of Edward's body so close to hers, Bella stopped laughing only to find Edward's warm green eyes staring down at her. He wore an express that she had seen many times during the week, but it was only at that moment that she realized what meaning that expression held; he wanted to kiss her. And she knew it wasn't to kiss her for show; obviously, none of their friends were there to witness it.

Her breath caught in her chest as Edward leaned in so closely, she could feel his breath on her lips.

"Bella?" He asked, wordlessly asking for her permission. Her response was to lean closer and close her eyes, as she waited breath for his lips to make contact with hers. It seemed like minutes, although she knew that it was only seconds, before she felt his lips touch hers briefly.

Once.

Twice.

The third time he kissed her, Bella wrapped her arms around Edward's neck, preventing him from releasing her lips again. He readily reciprocated, with wrapping his free arm around Bella's waist tightly, pulling her even closer. As he did so, he tentatively took Bella's bottom lip between his own and touched it with his tongue. He felt Bella's mouth open to the invitation, but a sudden, booming voice interrupted them.

"Well, well, well. Look who we have here. Looks like somebody made up."

The couple broke apart only to find Rose and Emmett, both dressed in bathing suits, looking on with matching smirks. But with one look at Rose's smirk, Bella knew that her friend believed that something else was going on.

"Oh yeah," she grinned. "Somebody's suddenly getting a long again. Awfully weird seeing that earlier today, one somebody thought the other somebody was too clingy."

Edward looked down at a blushing Bella and raised an eyebrow. "Really? Clingy?"

Bella managed to tear her eyes away from Edward in order to face her friend again. "What can I say? We made up?"

Rose bent down to sit at the edge of the pool, lowering her legs into the water. "That's what happened last time. I don't know guys; something's up. One minute you're loving on each other, the next you're fighting, and the next you're ready to screw in the hallway. So tell me, lovebirds, what's going on?"

The suspects turned to each other, silently trying to decide on what to tell Rose and Emmett. Finally Bella sighed. "It was all an act, guys."

Rose raised an eyebrow, silently asking for her to explain.

"We knew that you guys set us up," Edward explained.

"Alice, especially," Bella added.

"Really?" Emmett decided to join the conversation, sitting next to his wife on the edge of the pool. "It was that obvious?"

Edward rolled his eyes. "Jesus, Emmett. You can be the smartest guy sometimes, but other times…" he trailed off, shaking his head. "Seriously? Sticking us in the same room? What gave the plan away?"

"Anyway," Bella interrupted the cousins' discussion. "We decided to play with you guys a bit. You know, go from one extreme to the other."

"Well, it worked," Rose crossed her arms. "You don't realize how upset Alice is that you two are 'fighting.'"

"Are you mad?" Bella asked, meeting Rose's eyes.

Her friend sighed. "No, I guess I can't blame you. It was kind of an obvious set-up."

"Speak for yourself, woman. I'm quite let down. I thought Eddie here was going to finally get laid," Emmett pouted, causing his cousin to scowl, and his friend beside him to blush.

"Wait a minute, guys," Rose held up a finger. "If it's all an act, what was it that we just walked in on?"

Neither Edward nor Bella spoke. Neither knew what to say, as it was all new to them.

A smile slowly grew on Rose's face. "It worked, didn't it?"

Bella's face grew even redder, as Edward subconsciously pulled her closer with the one arm that was around her hip.

"Oh, this is precious. Alice is going to flip when she finds out what you two pulled and how it worked against you." A victorious smile was painted on the blonde's face as she pictured Alice's expression at the disclosure.

"Wait, you're not going to tell her about our plot, are you?" Bella asked.

"Well, why shouldn't I?"

"Yeah, why shouldn't we?" Emmett felt left out of the conversation as he pondered the status of his cousin's sex life. His girlfriend gave him an amused look at his purposeless statement.

"Because," Bella bit her lower lip.

"Because she deserves to be played with a little," Edward finished. "It wasn't fair to either Bella or me when she set us up. We could've hated each other."

"But you don't," Emmett clarified.

"No." Both Edward and Bella stated at the same time.

"Okay then," Rose's smile turned a little evil. Too evil for Bella's liking. "If you don't want me to spill, you've got to do something for my own amusement."

"O-o-okay," Bella replied suspiciously.

"You have to make Alice believe you guys are sleeping together."

"Oh," Bella scrunched her forehead together, wondering what was so bad about that. After all, she had to just mention a few made-up details to Alice.

"I don't think you understand, Bella."

"I don't?"

"She needs to hear the evidence."

"Hear?" Bella was confused at what Rose was asking for her to do. However, Edward was catching on pretty quickly.

"You mean, we have to actually pretend…?" He asked.

"Oh yes," Rose nodded. "I want to hear vocals and the bed moving outside in the hall."

Bella wanted to sink into the water with embarrassment. In any other situation, she would find this hilarious. However, she couldn't imagine faking it with Edward by her side. "I don't know if I can do that."

"Well, it's either that, or Alice's wrath when she finds out you were playing her all along. Besides, I think I've earned this after Edward's interruption last night."

Bella sighed. "Well I guess I better brush up on that scene from When Harry Met Sally."

With that, Edward finally released his pent up laughter. As much as he felt bad for Bella's embarrassment, the little boy in him thought the plan pure evil genius on Rosalie's part.

"Good," Rose nodded. "Midnight, I expect you two to be going at it."

Bella could only groan as she hid her face into Edward's shoulder. This is going to be a long night.