Happy Saturday!
First of all, thank you for all the reviews and alerts. I'm truly humbled by the response to the story so far.

Usual disclaimer applies - I still don't own any of it. I just like to play with the characters ;-)

Team Momo wouldn't exist without Midnight Cougar and Alice's White Rabbit with their red pens, or without AGoodWitch, Driving Edward, Mel, Maplestyle, and Eternally Addicted who pre-read and tell me if I'm off my rocker or not.

Reminder on chapters: unless indicated, odd-numbered chapters are in EPOV, even-numbered ones are in BPOV.
Today we hear from Edward. THIRD part of their axe-throwing date.

On with the show!

Chapter 9 - EPOV

She'd already chosen me. She'd already asked me to spend the night together.

Then why did I still want to appear invincible to her? Why did it bother me so much that I seemed to be crap at axe throwing? It wasn't a necessary skill in my line of work, and I found it only moderately entertaining. I was spending time and having fun with Bella, but the activity was secondary. She made all of it worthwhile. We could have been playing Scrabble, and I would have enjoyed it anyway.

Once again, she was right. We were just having fun.

As I stewed over my failed attempts at axe throwing, Bella nibbled on the appetizers we'd ordered. She loved nachos, it seemed, but she was pushing aside all the slices of jalapenos.

"You don't like spicy foods?" I asked. My curiosity about her was endless. I had tons of questions I wanted to ask.

She gulped down, took a sip of her beer, then answered. "I do, in fact. But these pickled jalapenos are fiery, and for some reason, there's a clump of them on my side of the plate. I keep running into them."

"Let's turn the plate. I don't mind them."

She smiled at me. "Thank you."

"I noticed that out of all the appetizers, you didn't order the buffalo wings."

Bella snickered. "Over my dead body. Your brother eats those by the pound. I can't even stand the smell at this point."

"Emmett is a compulsive eater. If it's anything he likes, he'll eat until he pukes. Mom has given up trying to rein him in," I replied, shaking my head at my brother's antics.

"Trust me; I know. I've seen him do that before, and he didn't even have the excuse that he was drunk at the time."

I thought of their years-long, easy friendship, and for once, instead of being envious of Emmett, I felt grateful. Without his continuous interactions with her, I might've never heard so much about her. Work didn't throw me in her way day in and day out, but Emmett, he made up for it with all the social outings they did together with Rosalie and the rest of their crew. He'd passed along a lot of information over the years, information I'd eaten up with a big spoon and stored for a rainy day.

With my elbow propped on the table, I leaned my head on my hand and took a long look at Bella. Too absorbed trying to eat her nachos without leaving a trail of melted cheese behind her, she didn't catch me ogling her. Until she realized I'd not replied to her.

"Oh. What's with the look?" she asked.

"What look?"

She stopped eating and wiped her hands on a napkin that she crushed into a crumpled ball. With a dreamy sigh, she answered. "It's a look you get sometimes when you stare at me. It's intense. I don't know how to interpret it, but I like it."

"I didn't know I had a specific look."

She pushed her stool closer to me, then murmured in my ear. "You have a lot of different looks, Edward."

Unable to resist her, I stole a kiss when she leaned into me.

She blinked, as if she didn't expect it. "Damn, you're good."

I flashed her a roguish smile. I liked having this effect on her. I liked it a lot. "Tell me more about those different looks. I'm curious."

She rolled her eyes, but her smile told me she wasn't really annoyed. "You have 'office' looks. Those I know pretty well by now. There's the 'I'm late' look, the 'why do I have to deal with morons' frown, the 'I don't have time for this' scowl, then there's the 'thunder and lightning' face—Alice warns us of that one, and we try to steer clear if we can."

"I'm not that bad," I protested, pursing my lips.

"You're driven, and in the office, you're all business. It's not bad. It's just who you are."

Her easy acceptance of me and of the less savory sides of my character humbled me. She truly knew me and still chose me. Without thinking, I planted another kiss on her lips—this time deepening it and tasting her. Bella and nachos—spicy and tantalizing.

"Enough with the office looks. We're not in the office now," I whispered.

I lingered, my lips a breath away from hers, my forehead touching hers. I was so close I saw specks of gold and green in her chocolate eyes. As with everything else about Bella, even the color of her eyes wasn't one simple shade; everything with her came in layers of complexity, in kaleidoscopes of color.

"Right."

"So … that look?"

She blushed and bit her lip. I scarcely reined in my growl. Between the axe throwing and now this, she was pushing all my buttons.

"It's … I don't know what to call that look, but I've seen it a few times when we're together. It's tenderness, and fire, and it's like … you're only seeing me."

"Oh, darling, that's because I do."

Still blushing, Bella dabbed at her eye. "Sometimes this, us … it feels so big it's overwhelming. But when you look at me like that, as if nothing else exists beyond us, I have to believe in us. I have to believe in you. You've never lied to me."

"I never would, my love."

She kissed me this time, and I reveled in it. Her hands grabbed at my arms, then threaded through my hair, half in frenzy, half with some sort of desperation I couldn't place.

"No, you wouldn't. Take me home, Edward."

She needn't ask twice.

How are we liking their date so far? It will continue next Saturday, but meanwhile ...
My FB Group, LaMomo's Lair, turned TWO years old yesterday, and to celebrate I'm giving ALL members of the Lair, old and new, an EXCLUSIVE peek at Chapter 1 from my upcoming story Dreams Unwind (psst: it's a RockerWard, you don't want to miss this!). The story won't be posting to ffnet or any other site for a while yet, so this is a rare treat. I may or may not post cast pictures for all the characters coming up in Chapter 1, as well.
So if you'd like a peek ... come on and join us! Type "LaMomo's Lair" in the search bar on FB and you'll find it.

Thank you and until next week!