AN: Muchos love to MyHeroin for her hand holding during this chapter. Feel better lovelie!

Chapter Five

Reading Between the Lines

"Are you sure you don't mind? We can tell them to stop if it bothers you."

Edward and I were cleaning the store. The subject of his nickname had come up, and I didn't want him to feel upset about it. I thought it was cute, but I wanted to make sure he was okay with it.

"I don't mind." From the ladder he stood on to clean the higher storage shelves he cast a furtive glance at his hat, which sat in its place on the front counter. "It helps in some ways."

"Helps? What do you mean helps? Has someone called you The Hatter before?"

"Um." He pressed his lips together into a thin line. I was too far away to read the mirror of his eyes. The tone of his voice wasn't always the best way to read him, but I suspected that he was hiding something. "No. No. No ones called me that before. It's just a good way to balance everything."

I had never had more trouble understanding him. He had a habit for speaking in riddles, but the answers were always somewhere between the lines. In this last round, no lines were even drawn. It was just confusing. Maybe he was really starting to lose it. "Edward, you're not making any sense."

His fingers began tapping an abrupt rhythm against the shelving. "Not making any sense. I can't make sense. Speak clearly, boy. Don't mumble. Stop day dreaming. Too much. Too much. Too much."

"Edward." He'd started the jittery movements again, and I was worried he was going to fall off the ladder. "Edward, come down here please. I didn't mean anything about it. I'm sorry."

He finally put both feet down on the floor. I rushed over to him, grabbed his shoulders and made him look at me. Pain rippled off him in waves and a hole ripped open in my chest at the realization that I had caused it.

"Edward, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make it worse. I'm just confused and I want to know more about you. I'm so sorry I pushed you."

Edward blinked and stood frozen. An immobile Edward was just strange. I went so far as to cup his cheeks, just to reassure myself that he was still alive.

"Why?" he finally asked, voice thick and rough.

"Why what?"

"Why do you want to know me?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Against my own volition, I started tracing the curve of his cheek, his chin, his forehead, and his beautiful, deep set eyes. I was both surprised and a little relieved when he nuzzled into my palm "Edward, you are the sweetest guy I have ever met. You might not remember everything about yourself, but I don't think that you're bad. You are so great with kids and you've been helping out around here, even though I told you you didn't have to."

"I'm." He croaked, cleared his voice and tried again. "I'm crazy, Bella."

"You're not crazy. A little broken perhaps, but its nothing that can't be handled."

He shook his head vigorously, shaggy hair falling into his eyes. "You don't get it. I'm crazy, Bella. I see things, only they're real. Sometimes I can't think straight. I need to be home. Home is peaceful, and I need My Flower. She's alone and it's all my fault."

I believed that he saw things and he thought that they were real. I'd figured out that out weeks ago. They didn't seem to affect him to much. He managed to focus fairly well and was mostly functional. The only reason that I wasn't trying harder to find his daughter was because I was positive that she had been taken away from him. I didn't know how he would handle that, or her for that matter.

"Edward, you are not crazy. So, you get a little tangled up sometimes. Who doesn't? The truth is that I like having you around here. I've been alone for a long time and you're kinda perfect."

"I don't scare you?"

"Just the once." I grinned. "I don't think that you'd ever hurt me."

"I wouldn't." He began talking so fast that the words nearly tumbled out of his mouth. "I swear I would never never never, ever ever hurt you. I swear. Everyone used to be afraid of me."

"Then they were wrong. Was anyone ever kind to you?"

His eyes took on a soft dreamy look, clearly a hundred miles away. "Tanya was never scared of me. She liked me."

I shoved down an irrational shred of jealousy that suddenly popped into my head. I didn't even know where it had come from. It wasn't like I had any claim to him. "Who was she?"

"She was my friend. She liked my woods, and she liked solving my riddles. I loved her."

"Was Tanya Your Flowers mother?"

He nodded slowly, still very far away. "She wasn't planned. She just happened. Best gift that I ever got."

A deep aching pain had sunk into his voice. I was beginning to suspect that something terrible had happened to Tanya. This poor man. I wasn't certain if anything good had happened to him in his whole life. No wonder he was so broken.

"I'm so sorry, Edward."

"We were happy." He shrugged.

I stroked his cheek as he came back to reality. He was surprisingly focused. His wide eyes were studying my face like he'd never seen me before.

"Edward, is everything okay?"

"You're really pretty."

"Yeah, I think you've said that before." I was suddenly hyper aware of how close we'd come. Just bare inches away. As soon as I was aware of this, then I couldn't not notice how close we were. He was fidgeting and everytime he brushed my skin by accident, I nearly jumped. On top of that, I found that I liked it. A lot. "Are you okay?"

He nodded and I realized how tall he was. I had to look straight up at him in order to meet his gaze. A glow of something pleasurable settled over my body. What was wrong with me? What was I doing? Why was he so close, and why wasn't I backing up? Last chance, Bella.

The next second I was kissing him. I couldn't tell who started it. I don't think it really mattered. As soon as his lips brushed mine, I was a gonner. I couldn't get enough. I grabbed his lapel to pull him down.

Edward stilled, shocked, before spinning around to pin me to the shelves behind us. He was everywhere, fingers twisted and pulling on my hair, arm around my waist, lips nipping and sucking my own. I used his neck to anchor myself. I couldn't believe I was doing this. I couldn't believe that I was kissing him back.

I could feel every long line of him, every muscle. My body was singing. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't even really think. It was just Edward, the smell of him all woody and spicy, the taste of him, the strength in his arms.

It was messy and chaotic, but damn if it wasn't the best kiss of my of my life.

Finally air took precedence over everything else. Edward swooped in for one more kiss. Then another, and finally a third, and I tried to follow his lips when he left. He gave a breathless laugh. "Bella, I…"

I snapped a finger over his lips before he could say anything else. "Edward, whatever this is, let's take it slowly, please?"

He bit his bottom lip before nodding.

It would take a long time for my overactive mind to settle down.

AN: Welp! so that happened.