Chapter Five
The grocery store in Forks is small, but adequate. I've been given the task of grocery shopping for Bella and the AWOL wolves. At this point I'd do anything to get away from all the moping in that house. Edward, Jacob, Bella, and Alice, no one is happy except for my handsome man.
Esme has a two page list of things she thinks she needs. The tiny Thriftymart shopping cart is overflowing by the time I go to check out. I wish I could read the cashier's mind. She keeps looking at me and looking away. Does she think it's odd that I'm buying all this food? Is she suspicious about me and my family? Does she want to take me to her bed or have me join in with her and her boyfriend? It's a valid question, according to Edward, most women think about me in a sexual way.
I shrug off the questions in my head and impatiently tap my long pink fingernails on the counter. The cashier looks up at me, then quickly looks away. I know I've frightened her.
Seth is standing in the driveway waiting for me. He's so damn cute, I have to turn my face into my shoulder to hide my smile. There's just something about him that makes me happy, I don't know whether to bed him or read him a bedtime story. Not that I have any real desire to have sex with him.
I press my foot on the accelerator, harder and harder until I'm bearing down on him at a dangerous rate of speed. I throw the emergency brake, the car fishtails and I skid along the gravel driveway. My bumper stops mere inches from his knees. He doesn't so much as blink.
His smile grows when our eyes meet and I realize it's because I'm also smiling. I quickly bend over to pick up the stuff that fell out of my purse when I slammed down on the brakes. I make good use of that time to rearrange my face. By time I pop my trunk and start gathering bags I'm giving him my patented cold, hard stare. It doesn't seem to phase him, his smile doesn't falter once.
Yeah, I like this kid.
XXX
I hover around Bella. I don't know what is wrong with me but I'm afraid. I fear for her and I fear for her child. I like her, but not this much, especially when she's playing martyr, that's usually Edward's role.
I force myself out the backdoor. The moon is nearly full and the night air has a little bit of a bite to it, not that it really affects me. I can smell and taste the changing season. Winter will be here before we know it.
I'm on my boulder and I sense there is a renegade wolf in the trees behind me. Suddenly Leah is there peeking at me from around the trees. The moon glints off of her bare shoulders and I know she is naked.
"Esme left clothes for you on the porch."
"I don't want them." She practically spits the words out at me. I thought I was full of hate, but this girl has me beat.
I shrug. I don't give a rat's ass if she wears clothes or runs through the woods naked as the day she was born. Yet, I feel this urge to be nice to her, to the wolves that are on our side. "Esme is cooking, if you want to join us for dinner."
"I don't need your pity, bloodsucker."
"Who said I pity you?" I glare at her. She isn't worthy of my pity. "Esme has taught me to be a good hostess and I am making an attempt at that. A weak one, I admit, but it's more than I would do for anyone else that showed up at our house."
She doesn't seem to know what to say. Her toes dig in the dirt and she looks like a child. She is a child. She's a child that has been damned with something she didn't ask for and instead of accepting it gracefully, she hates it with every thing she has.
Maybe we're a lot more alike than I realized.
"I'm sorry about the turn of events." I flick my hand in the general direction of our house. "We're only here because we haven't lived here in ages and we needed someplace to go. We never expected all of this."
"All of what?" Her voice has lost that bite and I would almost say she sounded curious.
"Edward falling in love with a human, you all changing in wolves because of us, and of course, the pregnancy."
"Don't forget about the war with the newborn bloodsuckers."
"Yeah, that too." I chuckle at the thought of it. How could I forget?
She moves next to the boulder, all I can see is the top of her head and her shoulders. We sit in comfortable silence, watching the moon move until it's directly overhead. Finally, I stand and dust the sand from my pants. Leah also stands but doesn't bother to dust the sand from her naked body. I suppose shapeshifting into a wolf would take care of that for her.
I leap from the boulder and land quietly in front of her. Her body is strong, yet soft and supple looking. I may be as strong as she is but my body is nothing like her's. Her dark eyes meet mine and I don't have to be a mind reader to know that she is hurting. I have a feeling she is thinking the same thing about me.
"I'm sorry about what Sam did to you." I tentatively touch her shoulder in show of support.
"You know about that?" She looks horrified.
Why did I have to say something? I should have just walked away.
"Fucking small town bullshit." she mumbles before she turns and disappears in the trees.
Nearly a century walking on this earth and I still haven't learned not to put my foot in my mouth.
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