It's Murder
Chapter 7
EPOV
Mom had insisted Tanya stay for dinner and another night, but I wasn't bothered. I'd already promised to help Bella cook Charlie's dinner so she'd invited me to stay and eat with them.
"Sorry, Mom, but you invited her and if you had bothered asking me first if I wanted Tanya here, then I would not be being rude and ignoring her. I believe the person who invited her is the one obliged to amuse and entertain her. I'll wave her off at the bus station tomorrow if you insist but that's as much as I'm willing to do.
Oh, and if Charlie's agreeable, I'll be sleeping over here tonight, so see you tomorrow."
"Edward? Why would you sleep at the Swan house when we are five minutes away?" she questioned.
I waited and let her figure it out. It didn't take long.
"Oh Edward, does this mean you and Bella? Finally?"
"I hope so. It's certainly looking like maybe you and Dad were right all along," I conceded.
"I'm so happy. Please let everything work out like we want," Mom begged the Universe. "Listen, don't worry about seeing Tanya off, your brother can do that. Now you bring Bella here for dinner tomorrow night. There's things she needs to know before she becomes a Cullen."
"Mom, really? I am trying to ease Bella into this gradually. She's already thinking about whether she thinks we could make it as a married couple. I think she has enough to cope with for now. I don't want you scaring her away."
"You will need your grandmother's ring," she continued, ignoring me.
I fake slammed my phone against the wall.
"Mom, listen to me. Bella is really special to me. She's so important, you know that. I've never been in love before. I want this to work so you need to reign it in and back off. Go tell Jasper he has to come home and introduce you to Alice. She has a baby, you know. You could knit things for it, or something. Make it booties."
It worked, Esme was distracted and wanted to end our call so she could call my brother and order him home.
Bella was in the kitchen and I walked in and kissed her neck.
"Bella, just so it's clear to everyone, will you be my girlfriend please?"
"I will," she replied with a smile. "I like the sound of that. My boyfriend. It's been a long time since I had a boyfriend. I never considered Mike and the others anything more than sex providers."
"We can carve our initials in a heart on a tree," I suggested.
"I think that's probably illegal. It would be defacing a plant or something."
"Then we shall get matching tattoo's," I swore. "Right here."
I traced my finger on her heart and my bad finger wandered to one side and teased her nipple.
It pebbled instantly and Bella smirked and backed up towards our countertop.
"Bella," I hissed and she laughed. One of us had to remain in control or Charlie would see a lot more of both of us than he ever wanted to.
She opened the fridge then handed me two cans of Vitamin R and nodded towards the sitting room. I took the hint. She would rather I spend time with her Dad than help her cook.
"Beer, Charlie?" I offered, handing one over to him.
Charlie accepted and opened his immediately.
"Best catch ever, Edward. I had to go give your parents a housewarming present of an Esky full of fish fillets for their freezer. Mine is full to bursting."
"I'm sure they appreciated that. Dad's not a great fisherman," I admitted.
"That Mother of yours is an extremely attractive woman," Charlie commented. I was surprised as he had never mentioned noticing any other woman apart from his ex wife before.
"There are a lot of very nice women in the world," I replied. "I know Dad got lucky when he met Esme. She is the perfect wife and mother."
"Hmm," he replied, looking at the wedding photo of himself and Renee that hung on the wall.
"Renee wasn't. Not a good wife, not a good mother. I just hope she didn't scar our daughter too much by leaving. Bella's a very nice woman, Edward."
"I have noticed that. In fact, Bella and I are dating," I informed him.
Charlie sucked down half the beer before answering.
"I would say it's about time but I imagine you both had your reasons for waiting this long before taking the plunge. Be patient with her, won't you? She's never had a Mom to learn from, so being someone's girlfriend is always hard for her. She doesn't trust easily so if she trusts you, Edward, then you have my full approval."
"Thank you, Sir. I will never let her down or hurt her, I promise."
"She never imagined Jacob or Riley would hurt her either so you are her third strike. If you let her down, know it's not just you she is losing, it's her faith in mankind completely."
"No pressure then," I replied. "Charlie, I don't know if Jake or Riley really loved her but I will always put Bella first and try to give her everything she needs. I do love her, Charlie. I've been around long enough to know the difference between love and lust, though to be honest, I feel both of those feelings for her."
"You are not about to ask for my permission to sleep with her, are you?" he said worriedly.
"In a manner of speaking. I slept over last night and I'd like to continue to do so while we stay in Forks this week. Would that be okay? Obviously Bella has to agree as well but it is your house."
"If my daughter wants you to sleep in her bed, then I'm not going to say a word," Charlie answered. "She's twenty five and a sensible girl. I can't imagine she would let anyone sleep with her unless she loved them."
Naturally I was not going to disillusion him.
Anyway, it was different now. Bella and I were in love. This was an honourable relationship.
I did intend marrying her if it ever became possible to persuade her.
"Edward, I don't think Bella ever intends on having any children. If that will come between you two in the future, it might be kinder to walk away now," he said quietly.
"I understand. I would choose to have a child if it were up to just me, but if Bella never changes her mind, I can live with that because it's always going to be her that I want and love. I will marry her, Charlie. Just as soon as she agrees."
"All right then," he said with a grin and raised his beer to me. "To Bella and Edward. May your love last as long as your parents has, and longer."
I drank to that and watched in surprise as Bella's father took the wedding photo from the wall and tucked it into a drawer.
It was a momentous occasion. That photo had been hanging there since before Bella's birth.
Charlie raised his beer again, and I tapped mine against it.
"To new beginnings, with the right woman," he toasted and we drained our drinks.
Bella seemed happy with the way Charlie was taking our news when we went out to the dining area to have dinner.
"Will you get engaged soon?" he said as his daughter brought over dessert and I cleared the table of the dinner plates.
"One step at a time. We just started dating. Anyway, I can't wear a ring to work or Marcus will transfer one of us out," she replied.
"But you could wear one at home," I pointed out.
"I don't believe you have even proposed to me, Edward."
"I asked you if you would marry me," I replied.
"You asked me if you knocked me up if I would marry you, and I said yes, then you asked me if I would marry you even if you didn't," she said. "That's not a proposal. It's a question."
"I'm waiting for the perfect moment," I stated , grinning at her.
"Good man. No need to rush into anything," Charlie said.
"When will this perfect moment arrive?" Bella questioned, looking worried.
"As soon as I know for sure you are ready to answer me with the reply I crave to hear you say. I know it's not the time as yet. I know you are not ready, Bella. That's okay. One day you will be and I'll still be here."
"Thank you," she said, and I knew I had gotten it right. Women are hard to read but it was if I was reading her mind. She did not want to be rushed. We'd progressed to a point I was happy with for now and I would not push her.
Marriage is but a legal ceremony and I would know when she was ready as she continued to change towards me. I was already her boyfriend and lover and that was massive.
We left Charlie in front of the flat screen watching a game, once we had cleaned up in the kitchen, and went upstairs.
Bella stripped naked and went to her shower and I followed her lead.
We managed to resist touching, but she was as weak as I was.
She dried herself and got into bed.
"I just like feeling your skin against mine," she admitted, stroking my chest as I lay beside her. "We can share a bed without having sex."
"Sure we can," I laughed, not willing to actually bet money on it.
"We could spoon like we did in that sleeping bag and you could just play with my boobs," she suggested, but she had forgotten she had admitted I'd nearly convinced her to sleep with me that night. Well, my hand almost had.
I slid it down her abdomen and she sighed.
"I should not have told you that, should I?" she whispered. "When you touch me there, I just want you so much."
"You definitely should not have told me that," I agreed, stopping just short of her mound and rubbing her stomach. My other hand played with a nipple and she started breathing heavily.
I brought my hand back up and worked two nipples at once, and felt her squirm against me, wanting more.
"Some women can apparently have an orgasm with just nipple stimulation, maybe we should see if you are one of them," I told her.
"Then you must not suck on them, because that would be cheating," she replied.
"Did my breastfeeding make you come that night?" I questioned, surprised.
"Maybe a little," she said and I was instantly hard.
Of course I sucked her nipples in turn, hard, and she did join the list of lucky women but it still left her desperate for more so we both benefitted after all.
X~x~X
"So, what's happening today?" I asked when Bella woke up in my arms the next morning.
"Today you and I are not having sex," she replied.
"Okay," I said, not worried. So far we had failed every time we made that announcement.
"No hands," she growled as she felt one of mine descend to her apex.
Bella held her legs together tightly and slapped at me. I slid one single finger in the tiny gap left between her thighs and she relaxed and shut her eyes.
"This is a sex dream and doesn't count," she muttered as I pushed inside her and felt her dampen. "No penis involvement. If there's no penis it's not real sex."
"Whatever," I agreed and moved down to taste her. Oh, it seemed the legs didn't try and stay together now. In fact, they could not be further apart.
I enjoyed the practice and was looking forward to Bella returning the favour and letting me in her mouth again but just as she reached her peak, her father knocked loudly on her door.
Bella could not have cared if the entire police department of Forks was there as she rocked against my tongue.
It was up to me to answer, it seemed.
"We'll be right there, Charlie," I called, then went back to lapping her sweet nectar.
"Why did he come home?" Bella growled. "He loves fishing. He should have stayed away."
"We had better get up," I said reluctantly.
"I owe you one, Edward. Tonight," she promised, and I had to be happy with that.
I would have settled for waiting and anticipating tonight's fun and games, but she seemed determined to give me a hand job so I went with it and let her bring about my release, and she watched in delight as I exploded against the tiles.
"I like watching you come," she said cheekily, drying her body with a bath towel.
"God Bella, say things like that and I'll be a walking hard on. You need to change the subject after I come or I'll be unable to walk let alone think straight."
"Right. No more sex talk. We are sex obsessed though, you do realize that? When do you think we will calm down and become normal?"
"Never, I hope," I replied, turning off the hot water and standing there under the cold, getting my body back under control.
X~x~X
Charlie had apparently made breakfast and was sitting at the table waiting for us. I was the one who almost blushed as we raced downstairs and Charlie avoided eye contact. God, he had probably heard way too much last night.
"You made eggs?" Bella said, looking at the scrambled eggs in the dish on the table suspiciously.
"It's okay, they won't give you food poisoning. Sue made them."
Bella looked at him in shock and I went into the kitchen and introduced myself to the other person who had slept over here last night.
"Hi, I'm Bella's boyfriend, Edward Cullen."
I just liked saying it.
"Hello, I'm Sue Clearwater. Charlie and my husband were best friends until Harry died last year. Charlie and I have gotten close lately."
"That's great," I said. "There are too many lonely people in the world. I'm glad for anyone who finds someone to share their life with."
She liked my answer but then the smile faded from her mouth and she tapped her fingers on the bench nervously.
"Leah is my daughter."
"Oh," I said, putting the puzzle pieces together. "Leah is married to Jake, right?"
"Yes. Somehow Bella has remained friends with them both despite what they did to her."
"It's all in the past," I reasoned. "We all make mistakes and stupid decisions, but Bella's fine. She moved on a long time ago."
"I hope you treat her better than Jacob and Riley did," she replied, taking toast from the toaster and spreading butter on it.
Bella looked perfectly happy to see Sue there and she stood up and embraced her as we walked into the room.
I put the plate of toast onto the table and sat down to eat.
"So, how long have you two been dating?" Bella asked as she sat beside me.
"Just a few weeks," Sue replied.
"Like us," my girl added. "It's cool, Charlie, I like the thought of knowing you are not here all alone. Harry would love this. He loved you both so it's all good."
"I'm so happy to see you have a boyfriend again at last, Bella. I'm still embarrassed about my daughter and her affair with Jake."
"Sometimes things fall apart so better things can fall together. Edward is my better thing. Jacob and I were just kids and nothing was ever going to last between us. It's just so far in the past now I need everyone to get over it and forget it. Honestly, I never think about it any more. I've had boyfriends since and I think I always knew Jake would be a great friend, but never husband material for me. He knew that too."
"But you two looked so in love," Sue sighed. "he was your first boyfriend."
"It was only ever the fact he was my first boyfriend that even made me consider maybe he and I could have made it. Everybody thinks that. Everyone thinks their first romance is the real thing and it's only later, when you look back and clearly see how little you two actually had in common that you realise it would have failed, even if you'd stayed and given it a real chance.
You know what I mean.
I've dated a lot of men since Jake and Riley and I've never considered any of them keepers. Edward is different. He'd really dear to my heart and I can now see he was right to force me to open my eyes and look at him properly. I'm very glad to have found him."
"But what Jake and Leah did was still wrong," Sue protested.
"Are you saying it would have been better if I stayed and married Jake? Edward and I are soul mates. Jake and Leah are soul mates. So, you know what would have happened. Jake would still be sneaking around with her behind my back, and I'd be sitting here dazzled by the new Cullen in town, and we'd get divorced. They would have had to lie about Jake being the twins father, so Rachel and Rebecca would not know him much at all, and you would be embarrassed because Leah had two kids to an unknown man. See, to me, everything that happened did so for a purpose, and this is that purpose. The right people are together."
Charlie actually looked interested in the conversation. That was unusual, considering it was not about fishing or sports.
"I agree with Bella," he replied, surprising everyone that he was actually talking about feelings and relationships. It was a first. "I kept my blinkers on all these years and pretended Renee was my ideal woman and yet she is so opposite to the kind of partner I wanted. I did what I needed to do to ensure Bella got to be born, and I got to raise her but anyone with any sense would have drawn the line then, and moved on. Bella could have grown up with a stepmom had I really considered what would have been best for both of us and not remained deluded. I'm glad my daughter can see the truth.
I knew Edward was the man for her the first time she brought him home to meet me."
"Really?" I said in surprise. My parents knew, Charlie knew; how come it took us so long to work it out?
"Sometimes two people just fit like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. I've watched you two together over the years and it's always just been so natural. Bella is your moon, and you are hers. It's been quite frustrating knowing this and having you two remain oblivious. It made me examine my own life and I realized she is like me. Too like me. Keeping Renee's photo on the wall meant I never had to re-enter real life and move on.
Everyone understood. Poor Charlie, his soul mate left him, he will never get over it.
Renee was never my soul mate because if she had been, she would have stayed.
She did me a favour by going but I was too stupid to see that, until now. Jake and Leah did Bella a favour by making it impossible for her to stay. She has a career she loves and the man she was meant to be with at her side. There is no problem, Sue."
While I did agree with everything he said, I still felt unsure about Riley Biers.
Bella may know Jake was never meant for her, and I do believe her when she says she knew that before she even left home, but Riley?
Riley changed her.
He was a real boyfriend. She may or may not have loved him, I guess we will never know, but she had been a grown up when she thought they were a forever couple. It had been different to her schoolgirl crush on Jake.
I just wish Bella and Riley had both come to the conclusion he came to alone; that they had gone as far as they could and were done. We all have had relationships like that. There's always that day when you suddenly realize this is not progressing, it's going nowhere and there's nothing left to do or say , other than 'Goodbye'.
Those endings don't hurt and leave a legacy of pain behind because you know you both tried and did your best but you were not meant to be together.
It's just the way things are sometimes.
I'd outgrown girlfriends in the past, and they'd outgrown me. I had no scars from them.
I'd never looked back and thought 'if only'.
But Tanya had scarred me and it had taken until now for me to finally be able to say in complete honesty that it no longer mattered. She had been just the companion I had at the beginning of my journey and she had shaped me and thrown me off course, but I'd coped and gotten past it.
I knew I had Bella to thank for my final healing, and seeing Tanya again had been a good thing. I could look at her now and see what she was and what she had always been.
She was shallow and immoral and had no idea what love was.
You may think I can hardly cast the first stone because my behaviour had hardly been moral either, but I never hurt any of those girls. I told them upfront I was not looking for love or a relationship so they went with me fully informed. Maybe there was one now and then, like Jessica, who thought she could change me but that was never because of anything I had said or done. I had never pretended to like them or see them as anything more than a pick up.
I never kissed them with meaning, no matter what Bella thought. Sometimes I hadn't even kissed them at all. I never ever said any words to imply I had feelings of any kind apart from the obvious.
I know Bella is my One, my soul mate and I think she is coming around to the same conclusion about me but I still wish she had gotten honesty and a clean break from Riley.
He's always going to be lurking there, and she will never know how she feels about him now because their relationship is frozen in time for her.
He never even said goodbye.
To an outsider, it's easy to sit there and judge him and conclude he was not worthy of her anyway and she is lucky he left, but Bella needs closure, even if for me, that happened immediately when I broke up with someone.
Riley is the guy who went out for cigarettes and never came home, so to speak.
There was no ending.
"Edward, are you still with us?" Bella said and I snapped back into the here and now.
"Sorry, I seem to be a little tired today," I smirked.
"I asked you if you wanted to go on a hike in the forest today seeing it isn't raining."
"Sure. Lead the way," I replied.
We left Charlie and Sue to the dishes and I laughed as Sue complimented him on the new paint job in his kitchen, and he exclaimed in surprise because he hadn't even noticed. It seemed he truly had let Renee go at last.
Bella sat down on the floor in the entry and went through the pile of shoes in the bottom of the closet there until she found her hiking boots and put them on. She was wearing jeans and a couple of layers of tops and now she added a yellow jacket as well. It seemed her body was well protected from me as well as the elements and we were truly going hiking, not dashing off to have sex amongst the trees.
"Ready," she announced and we went to my car.
X~x~X
It wasn't boring, watching her trip every hundred yards and having to catch her, and she did reward me with a kiss each time. But she was truly determined to spend some time with me without hands and tongues and anything else erotic coming into play.
"See, we can be normal," she said as I took her hand and walked beside her.
"Normal is very overrated," I replied.
"Edward, one day soon we have to go home and return to work. We have to give off the same vibes as we did before. If anyone knows one of us will be gone."
"Firstly, pretty much everyone thinks we have been having sex for years, so nothing will change there. Secondly, will it truly be a tragedy if we have to leave Murder Squad? Do you see yourself doing that forever?"
"I would like five more years," she sighed. "I'm twenty five and got on the squad when I was twenty one. Usually that means I'd have an uncle who is boosting my career because he is one of the top bosses, but that is not the case. I got where I am on my own merits and it thrills me to know that. I know it's not the career to have if you want a normal home life and I don't know how I will feel if I have to quit and you get teamed with a new partner. It's not a trust issue, though let's put it out there in the open, any female partner you ever have is going to expect you to sleep with her because that always has been your habit."
"Things have changed," I assured her. "I know it will take time to convince the others that I no longer sleep around, but in time they will accept my new status as someone in a committed relationship, even if they don't know who I am with. You said women believe actions over words? Well my actions will be strictly professional from now on and I swear I will never touch another girl. I love you and I won't do anything to jeopardize us."
I had an idea. It was the best and obvious way to send out my new message, seeing we could not just announce we were together and change everyone's attitude that way.
It wasn't even Marcus keeping us quiet; it was the department's policy. Anyone involved with a workmate was separated so emotions did not cloud their judgement so it was true, if anyone knew, one of us would be transferred.
If we got outed, I would volunteer to be the one to go, because Bella loved the job a lot more than I did. So long as I didn't end up back in Domestic Violence. I couldn't handle another stint there.
We reached the top of the mountain and sat down together, looking at the view over the edge. I put my arm around her shoulders and she snuggled into my side. The sea shone in the distance and the town of Forks was behind us, so it looked like we were in the middle of someplace completely uninhabited.
Just us, and the flora and fauna.
Five more years was a reasonable request. Being five years older than she was would inevitably always mean I was ready to move to the next level before she was, but that was why compromising had been invented.
"So, if you get five more years in Murder, what then?" I asked her.
"I don't want a desk job. I'd rather leave the force all together and do something new. I don't know what, yet, but I don't want us to split up over work. It's important but it's no longer my only focus. I realize you are my chance to be in a relationship that has real meaning and real hope of forever, Edward. Work cannot come before us. I want to stay in the squad for five more years but if it becomes a wedge, then I will rethink and find another path to follow."
"I can hardly believe you are saying this," I admitted. "You love your job."
"Maybe I love you more," she replied. Her eyes shone with honesty and I was so glad we came here to Forks together. If she hadn't come with me, I'd be sitting at my parents place, avoiding Tanya, and trying to think up excuses to leave and go back to the city and we'd still be in limbo.
I'd loved seeing the reaction in Bella's eyes when she met Tanya; that was the only good thing to come out of Mom's interfering. It made Bella have to examine and admit there was something between us and yes, she did want to continue and not step aside.
I didn't want her to 'do the right thing' by the fuckbuddy code and set me free, and that's why I followed her to the bathroom.
Watching her drinking her tea while her eyes shot daggers at Tanya told me all I needed to know. I could barely keep eye contact with her because I could see actual pain in her gaze, even if she wasn't aware of it. She was hurting at the thought we could be all done and dusted, and I could be moving on, though going back to an ex is never moving on in my mind. It's flogging a dead horse.
She had no idea how easily I could read her eyes, they had no idea how to lie. No matter what words came out of her mouth, if her eyes didn't agree I knew she was talking bullshit. They may be brown and endlessly deep but they had also been green when she looked over Tanya.
I never wanted to hurt her but I admit, I got a buzz knowing she was jealous.
It may not be a pretty emotion but it served it's purpose.
"When do you see our marriage fitting in?" I asked her.
She sat up and looked at me straight on. Good, now I would know she meant what she was saying.
"I will never agree to marrying and keeping it secret so I guess it doesn't happen until my five years are done. Are you going to wait around that long?"
There was hope and fear and doubt in her eyes.
"Of course I am. I will wait however long it takes. Don't forget I'm renting a bedroom in your apartment so I Jasper can have my place. It will need furniture of course, but he can handle that.
We can be together whenever we are not working, and spend every night sharing your bed, but I will keep my belongings in my own bedroom, for show.
Nobody will even think it's strange; I've slept on your sofa far more than I've ever slept in my own bed. They'd find it stranger if I stopped sleeping over, don't you think?"
"That is true. I'm glad you did that. I think we bonded over midnight discussions about good wine and bad movies, don't you? Looking back, apart from the sex we were getting elsewhere, we really were becoming a real couple all along."
"If we could go back, I'd never have resorted to hooking up," I confessed. "You made me so damned horny and frustrated. We should have explored the fuckbuddy thing a long time ago."
"I wouldn't have been ready," she replied and I knew she meant she would not have been over Riley. Damn, the man was still here, like some Goddamn ghost in our lives.
Chances were he would never come back and clean up the mess he left behind.
"We need to talk about Riley. He's still here, between us."
"I don't want him to be. I wish I could say he's nothing to me now, but he is such a tiny something compared to you. I don't love him, not like I love you," she stated. "I think if he came back I would want to kill him."
She thought that meant she was over him, but I knew it didn't. If she truly no longer cared about him, she wouldn't think about him coming back, and if he did, she'd be unaffected by his presence.
Maybe he'd die undercover and she'd have no choice other than to truly let him go. It was a dangerous occupation after all. We lost men all the time, when their cover was blown or even just because they were living as drug dealers and bikie gang members. Sometimes they were killed because their cover was too real, too convincing.
I had no idea what Riley was doing, or where he was living but for him to be still gone on the same assignment after two years, it was something big and important he was working on. It was bigger than just tracing back to a drug importer by going through the long line of suppliers and dealers to get back to the source.
Prostitution was always going to happen and busting pimps was a thankless task but there could be something going on in an effort to tracing the source of workers in some of the larger sex trade organizations. Trafficking girls from poorer countries was the usual source of supply; they were lured by free passage out of their own countries and promised jobs as house cleaners and nannies and waitresses, never realizing those jobs really needed people who could speak the language of the country they were going to.
Next thing they'd be informed they owed a great debt for their airfare and keep, and had to 'work it off' in some brothel before they could leave and start their new life. Of course, most of them were given drugs and took them just to cope with the horror of their existence. This led to more debt and next thing they were tied for life, always trying to pay the debt back, but it never happened.
You never see older women still working so at some point, they become expendable and disappear. It's not that they go into some retirement home for ex-hookers.
I was always thankful to have no sisters when my mind went off on a tangent like this one. Some men did horrible things to women.
"Hey, what are you thinking about?" Bella asked, pulling me down to lay beside her on the grass.
"I was thinking about how lucky I am to have you and how I never want us to be apart," I replied, kissing her gently. I took her hand and kissed her ring finger.
"We could get engaged. Marcus won't think anything if you start wearing an engagement ring. Women get engaged all the time. I promise I would not assume getting engaged meant you definitely wanted to marry me; just that you would take some time to work out what you really want and would remain exclusive to me until that happened."
"Still not a proposal, Edward," she growled.
"Seriously, Bella, I will get down on my bended knee the moment I think you will say yes. It would wound me so badly to have you say no."
"We need a code," she decided. "When I'm ready, I need to tell you that in some way that only we understand."
"Serve me brocolli," I suggested. "Neither of us eat it so it can be your way of telling me you are ready to go to the next level; whatever it may be."
"So when I want you to propose, I serve you a nasty green vegetable that nobody should even consider is a foodstuff? That's a little too romantic," she laughed.
"And when you want me to actually marry you, you do it again," I suggested.
Maybe one day she would even serve it to me to say she had changed her mind and wanted to have my baby.
I had not given up hope that someday she would consider having a child. A few weeks ago she was so against marriage only a masochist would have ever mentioned it in her presence.
Now she was thawing and fitting our nuptials into her timeline for her lifeplan. I personally did not think she'd end up waiting the full five years. Maybe in a lesser timespan, she'd decided work was work and life was something entirely different and much more important.
"If I serve you brocolli, you have to let me know if you still want the same things."
"I will always want you. I want to get engaged, and to marry you; it's you holding back. I'd marry you today. I have that much faith in us already," I informed her.
"Then when I serve you brocolli, if nothing's changed and you still want to get engaged, you have to eat it," she replied. "If you leave it on your plate I will know you have given up on me."
"I can do that," I agreed. She was worth forcing down a serving of the hideous vegetable. I hoped to have to repeat that a few times over the years, when she wanted new things.
X~x~X
Mom had left a dozen messages on my cell, so I called her back when we got back into range.
"Please Edward, come home for dinner. Tanya's insisting she will not leave until you specifically tell her to go, and she's cooking dinner for us all tonight. I want this to be her farewell gesture, and it won't be if you aren't here. Remind me to never interfere in your life again."
"I most certainly will, " I promised. I was glad she was learning her lesson but annoyed that Tanya was still here.
"Bring Bella with you. This woman needs to be shown there is no room in your heart for her and when you and Bella are together, there's never any doubt that your heart is full already."
Okay, maybe I should have listened to her and believed she knew what she was talking about every time I had brought Bella home or my family had visited us, in the past.
"And bring Charlie. We need to get to know him better."
"Charlie has a girlfriend," I replied.
"Wonderful. Invite her as well. This will be a family occasion. Apart from Tanya."
I promised to be there at eight and shut the phone.
"Esme is having a problem shaking off her annoying guest so I said we would all go to dinner there tonight. Tanya's cooking so we may need to test the food for poisons," I joked.
Because I am a man, little unimportant things slip by me and it wasn't until we were
seated at my parent's table and Tanya was serving that I realized there had been one thing I should have told Bella and now Emmett was going to do just that.
Tanya spooned up a serving of broccoli and green beans and was about to add them onto my plate. I held up my hand and stopped her.
"There's only one woman in the world who will ever get me to eat my greens and you are not her," I informed Tanya, and she took the ladle back still loaded.
"I'd have thought you remembered Edward never eats green vegetables," Carlisle said with a chuckle. "You seem to have memorized everything else about him."
Charlie looked at Tanya and frowned. Sue put her hand over his and he turned his attention back to her.
"Tanya was Edward's girlfriend a very long time ago," Dad stated. "It's been over for years. Since before college."
Bella was seated opposite me at the table and I wound her feet in mine. She smiled and Tanya caught it and became annoyed.
"Edward and I were a very good match," Tanya stated, letting Mom take over the serving duties.
"I still remember everything that he enjoys, in and out of bed."
"I guess that was you reminding him when I walked into his room and found you naked in his bed and Edward putting some clothes on his naked body," Emmett said with a grin.
Dammit.
I immediately looked at Bella, but she gazed back with nothing but complete trust and some amusement in her eyes.
I guess that was the moment I knew she really did love me. She automatically assumed there was an innocent explanation.
However, Charlie needed to hear it spoken out loud.
"Nobody should get into someone else's bed uninvited ," I hissed. "Especially with all the blinds pulled down so the actual occupant of the room didn't know you were there, and went in to change his clothes as any person is entitled to do without having to check for unwelcome interlopers hiding in his bed."
"Oh, you didn't know she was there." Emmett finally got it. He shrugged. "That was a waste then. I've never personally turned away naked girls from my bed."
"More's the pity," Mom replied. "Jasper and Alice are coming to stay for a few days so everybody needs to be on their best behaviour and I'm afraid we need the guestroom for Alice, so it's fortunate you are going home tomorrow, Tanya. You must give your Mom and sisters our best wishes."
"I'll drive you to the bus station myself," I added. It would be worth it, to actually see her climb on board and go.
"I haven't been to the bus station in years," Bella stated. "I'd love to see it again."
Because bus stations are such interesting places and there's all those amazing old crappy wooden benches to look at.
I grinned at her and she grinned back. So this was how it was going down. She was keeping Tanya away from me and making sure the woman did not even slip in a Goodbye kiss. Not that I wanted one. The only kisses I would ever want would come from Bella's lips.
My mind wandered and starting thinking of magnificent things Bella's lips had done to me.
I must have made some sound because when I looked up, every eye was on me.
"Shit. Edward's getting laid here in Forks. See Mom, it's not just me that likes the local ladies.," Emmett announced.
"Edward is in a committed relationship, you should try it sometime," Mom retorted.
"What? You really do have a girlfriend? I assumed you said that to Tanya just to piss her off.
Who is she?"
"Really, Emmett?" Carlisle laughed. "I need you in my office tomorrow for an eye test and an MRI to find your Oblivious Tumour. Can you honestly sit here and not feel the electricity in the air?"
"I thought it was just you and Mom, as usual," he replied, looking at Bella and narrowing his eyes. "Bella, are you going to be my sister?"
Dad laughed and clapped him on his back.
"Looks like the tumour has gone. I'm surprised you never saw this coming, but then, Edward didn't."
"Okay, we have established the fact Edward and I couldn't see the forest for the trees, but we know now and I just need to do one thing," Bella stated, standing up and serving me a single piece of broccoli.
I picked it up with my fork and chewed it, and it tasted sweet, and full of promise.
"Mom, I need the ring," I informed her.
Esme put a hand over her mouth and suppressed a scream, but tears leaked down her cheeks.
"Thank you, Tanya. I knew if I brought you here , Edward would have to see Bella with clear eyes and know. I'm sorry for using you in this way but it had to be done before one of them ending up committing themselves to the wrong person. I could see Edward was changing and wanting more, and Bella was getting restless and unhappy with her life and if either of them made a mistake right now, it would have been too late."
She left the room and returned in minutes with the familiar velvet box and placed it in front of me.
I walked to Bella's side and dropped to one knee.
"Bella, you are the love of my life and the reason for my existence and I want you to be mine forever. Will you accept this ring?" I asked. I deliberately made no reference to her agreeing to marry me.
"Yes," she said simply, her eyes shining. We were not rushing this, we just needed to have declared our intentions to our families and friends so we could sit back and get to the point where a wedding was desirable and a dream come true.
Engagement is not written in stone like a marriage is, and there was still room to turn back if Bella could not rid herself of old doubts. Her accepting this ring today meant she was going to try to let her past go and see me as her future. It was a promise to try, not a vow in front of God.
Others may see it differently, but I knew what it meant to us.
If anyone could be her future, she wanted it to be me.
There would be no wedding until Riley was simply someone she once knew, and that may take a little time, but we had that.
No eager parent was rushing us down any aisle before we were really ready.
I needed us on even playing fields and she wanted that as well.
"Are you setting a date for the installation of your ball and chain?" Emmett asked.
Bella smiled.
"It will happen when Edward and I know the time is right and not before. Nobody else has any say in this, and we will inform you when it's going to happen, once we know ourselves. Be happy with that. This could be a long engagement. It may not be, but save your breath and don't ask for progress reports. One day there will be engraved invitations in your letterboxes and then you will have your answer."
She had said even more than I expected and I was sure in that moment that we would make it and would one day exchange wedding vows.
I slid my grandmother's ring onto her finger and we both stood up and embraced. Our lips sought out one another and I kissed her so long she almost blacked out. I felt her become unsteady on her feet and pulled back, holding her tightly.
Everyone at the table clapped, with the exception of Tanya, who left hurriedly to pack. It seemed she didn't want to spend another lonely night in my bed after all.
'
A/N..Bored? Try reading Safe In Alternate Arms by Et Tu Edward, in my favs.