Thanks so much to the lovely, inside and out, Hadley Hemingway for being our wonderful Beta for this fun, sweet little fic. I know our Southernism's probably drive her crazy, but she is amazingly kind and patient. ;)
EmPOV
Another long day of school and football practice is finally over. I can't wait to get home and see what Bella's cookin'. They never give us enough food at lunch, and even with the extra stuff I take, it's still not enough. I'm always starvin' by the time I get home.
Rose still ain't talkin' to me much, but she does watch my practice sometimes. I guess maybe that's a good sign. I'm workin' on an idea of how to get her to like me again. I'm gonna get her to be my girl.
Edward picks me up at school. "Em, you stink, man," he says, as I enter the car.
"You try practicin' outside in the heat with all those football pads on. At least I have an excuse to stink. What's yours?"
"Whatever, dude. Bella loves the way I smell." He flicks his shirt like he's all that.
"I love Bella, but I reckon she ain't the smartest girl. I mean, she is with you."
We continue to joke back and forth the rest of the way home. When we walk in, Bella has a sandwich, chips, and an apple waiting for me. Have I mentioned how much I love this woman? My brother lucked out getting her.
We both did.
I immediately sit down and start inhaling my food. Edward sits next to me. "Slow down. Nobody's gonna take it from ya." I make a point to chew my next bite real slow. This earns me an eye roll and a light punch to the shoulder. "Alright, alright, smartass. Listen, after you finish eating, run take a shower and then me and Bella needa talk to ya."
"Mmkay," I say, around a mouthful of food.
Edward laughs. "Dude, you can just nod. I didn't needa see that."
As I shower, I wonder what they wanna talk to me about. Are they getting' married? Is Bella pregnant?"
After I dry off, I head into the living room. Edward grabs the remote and turns the TV off. I plop down in the chair across from 'em. "What's up?"
"Well, Bella gotta letter yesterday. It was addressed to us, so she showed it to me last night. We decided we'd open it with you today."
"A letter? From who?"
"It's from Mom and Pop. I guess they're outta jail, and found out we're with Bella, so they sent a letter to us, through her. It's up to you if we open it or not."
I sit back and run my hands through my hair and start to bounce my legs. I don't know how I feel 'bout hearing from them. They've always been in and outta my life, while Edward's been my constant. I know nothing ain't ever gonna change that.
They let me go for a bit, until Bella finally puts her hands on my knees. "Em, honey, we don't have to open it. But I think you should see what it says. You know that no matter what, it won't change anythin'. We're your family now."
"I know. I know. You're right. Let's just do this and see what they have to say." Edward tries to hand it to me, but I shake my head. "You do it, and just read it out loud."
"Alright." He rips open the envelope, pulls out the letter, and begins to read.
Dear Edward and Emmett,
We hope you boys are doing well. We've missed you so much. I guess you can see that we're out of jail. We was surprised to find out you ain't in Georgia anymore. We asked some of your friends and found out that y'all had moved and are living with Bella daddy and me have been listening to her music. She's really good and a real beauty, too. We know she's from here and who her daddy is, so we're sure she's a good girl, which is what y'all deserve.
I know you won't believe it, but your pop and I have changed. No more drugs for either of us. I know we've said that before, but we really do mean it this time. We're getting too old to keep messing up and too old to spend our twilight days in the penitentiary. Hopefully y'all will give us a chance to prove it to you.
We'd love to see you. We promise we don't want anything. We just miss you, and we'd love to meet Bella. We can come there if you want us to. Just let us know. We hope we hear from you soon.
Love,
Mom and Pop
After he finishes, everybody's silent for a few seconds. Finally, Edward speaks up, "Welp, what'cha think, Em?"
"I'm not real sure."
Bella hops up. "I think I'm just gonna order us somethin' to eat. We can all think better with full stomachs, and I'm not much in the mood to cook. Is pizza gonna be alright with y'all?"
They both look at me, which is stupid. I'm always good with pizza. "Sounds good to me. I'm gettin' hungry again."
She laughs. "Of course you are. I'll go call it in."
"So what do you think?" I ask Edward.
He leans back. "Honestly, I don't know. I'm happy where we are right now and fine with or without 'em. I don't trust that they've really changed, but I'm gonna let you decide. You're still young enough to have a relationship with 'em if you want."
"I don't wanna live with 'em or anything. You and Bella are my family."
"Well, hell, of course you'll still live with us. That's not even on the table. I just meant that you still have time to get to know 'em and maybe think of 'em in a better way. No way I'd ever let'cha go back to livin' with 'em though. You're stuck with us."
"Good."
"Now just think 'bout what'cha wanna do and we'll go from there, okay?"
"Alright."
Bella yells in from the kitchen, "Boys! Pizza's on its way. I ordered some wings and breadsticks too."
"Have I mentioned I love that woman?" Edward asks.
"Once or twice. You can always sing about it again." He grabs me up in a headlock and wrestles me into the kitchen, where I help Bella get plates and fix up our drinks.
~~~~~Smoke~~~~~
After givin' it some thought, I told Edward and Bella we could meet our parents but I wanted 'em to come here. Edward agreed, and he also said we'd meet 'em at a restaurant or somethin' 'cause he didn't want them at our house.
I'll worry 'bout all that later, though. Right now it's time for my plan.
Operation "Get Rose to be my girl."
Edward always gives me an allowance if I earn it. Unfortunately, savin' it up ain't something I'm good at, so I'm broke. I need money for my plan so I'm workin' extra hard to get some. I put my nose to the ground and even put off buyin' the newest Halo game. I help Alice around her house and even do some yard work for her. I wash cars. I do whatever the adults will let me for some cash.
Our school is havin' a Carnation Drive. It's a big deal, I reckon. They've been talkin' 'bout it forever. Carnations are a dollar each and they raise money for somethin'. You can buy one and have it delivered to whoever you want durin' Homeroom. The sale lasts a week, starting today.
Now that I got some money, I ask Edward to take me to school early. I buy five carnations, one in each color they have available. I send 'em all to Rose and sign the cards with my name. I also Googled some sweet things to write on the cards, too.
If you were a vegetable, you'd be a cute-cumber.
You must be a banana because I find you a-peeling.
Mario is Red. Sonic is blue. Press start to join and be my player 2.
If you were a new sandwich at McDonalds… they'd call you the McGorgeous!
You are so sweet, you could put Hershey's out of business.
How can she resist these?
Huh!
She did somehow.
She never came to talk to me or say anything yesterday. That's alright. Monday is only Step One. On Tuesday, I go in early again and buy another five carnations. This time I go with a few of her favorite quotes from The Princess Bride. She told me, while she was visiting Georgia, that it's her favorite movie.
After school I see her goin' into her house carryin' her flowers. She stops and looks toward our house, but still doesn't say anything.
Wednesday I up it a little and send her ten flowers with my name on 'em. No quotes this time, though. I'm hopin' she'll miss 'em. Thursday I send ten flowers with quotes from her favorite book series, Harry Potter. I overhear some of her friends talkin' about how lucky she is, but that she won't say who the flowers are from.
I don't know if that's a good thing or not.
When she gets outta her car after school, she turns toward our house again, and it looks like she's gonna start walkin' this way, but she don't.
Finally, it's Friday. The last day of my plan. I stayed up a little late last night workin' on the last part I'll hopefully need later today. I buy the twenty carnations, four of each color, and today, I write personal notes on 'em.
I'm sorry.
Forgive me.
I'm an idiot.
Please meet me.
I'll be at the pool at five today.
I promise you won't get near the water.
Pretty please.
Now all I can do is wait. Once I get home, I eat my snack and grab the stuff I got together. I let Bella know I'm gonna be out by the pool. Then I head out and get ready.
A little before five, I see Rose headed my way. I'm nervous, but I'm pretty sure she's gonna like what I have planned.
"Hey. Thanks for meetin' me."
"You're welcome. Thanks for all the flowers. I really liked them."
"Good. I'm really sorry for pushin' ya in the pool. I didn't mean to, I swear it. I'm sorry for laughin' too, but I was hopin' you'd forgive me for all of it."
"I forgive you, Emmett." She moves closer to me. Her cheeks are all red, and she's so pretty. "What you did this week is the sweetest thing ever. I really liked it."
"You did? I was hopin' ya would."
"Yeah, I really did. Thanks." We just stand there for a minute, before Rose starts backing up. "Well, I guess I better get back home."
"Wait!" I think I scare her, since she jumps. "Sorry. Uh, I have somethin' else I wanted to show ya. Hold on a sec, okay?"
She nods hesitantly, so I run over to where I have the stuff hidden and grab the poster and the bear. "I know this is probably stupid, but here." I hand them to her.
She looks at the poster I spent forever on, writing "Will You Be My Girlfriend?" and drawin' all kinda things I thought a girl might like. I even added glitter. Nobody ever told me that stuff gets everywhere, and you can't get rid of it. I also got her a bear, because she said she loves stuffed bears and collects 'em. I got her one that I hope will remind her of me.
She finally looks at me. "Is this real?"
"Well, yeah. It took me forever to make my handwritin' neat and to figure out what stuff to draw."
"You really want me to be your girlfriend?"
This time I'm the shy one and can barely look at her, just in case she says no. "I really do."
She grins really big and then runs over and kisses my cheek. "Okay, I'll be your girlfriend. I better go now."
She turns and runs back toward her house. When she gets halfway, I hear her squeal.
Oh yeah, I got it!
Oh Emmett … always full of plans. How could anyone resist him? He finally got his girl. What did y'all think of his wooing skills?
Okay peeps, we have some news. We have three more chapters of this story left. It was never meant to be long or drawn out, and definitely never drama filled.
However, we do love these characters. We've grown very attached to them and know they have more story to tell. So … we think it needs a time jump and for that we'll need a sequel. We hope to write it this summer and it'll be pre-written before we start posting. We have definite plans for these southern sweethearts. ;)
See you all soon! Mwah!