18

Bella's eyes widened, and she squeaked before turning and hurrying into the laundry room, closing the door with a thud. Her heart was racing and she knew her face was red. All she could think about was Jasper's father catching them post-coitus. It wasn't like the man didn't know they'd had sex before, but this was the first time, he'd walked in on them, even if they weren't still . . . together?

"Oh, my God," she groaned, covering her mouth with her hand.

"Cricket." Jasper knocked on the door. "Cricket, let me in."

Bella inched the door open and peeked at him through the small space. "Is it safe?"

He laughed and nodded. "Ben and Alice took Dad into the living room. You can come out now, little coward."

"I am not a coward. I just don't think he needed to see me without my panties on, Jay."

He raised an eyebrow as he looked down her body.

"No, Jay! Bad Jay!"

"Oh, I think I proved I'm a very, very, very good Jay, sweetheart."

Bella's laughed before she leaned forward and slipped on her panties. "You're a goober, but you're my goober."

"That I am, babe."

"Okay, think we can sneak past them and up to my room so we can get dressed?"

"Probably not, but let's try."

Bella laughed before she wrapped her fingers in with his and the two cracked open the door to the laundry room. Not seeing anyone, they slipped out and hurried through the kitchen, and were halfway upstairs when they heard laughter behind them. Bella simply raised one finger over her head before she and Jasper kept going and hurried into her bedroom, the door closing behind them.

They shared a look before he started digging into his suitcase for clothes, and she opened her closet door.

"Oh shit."

Bella turned and looked at him, find him holding the box of condoms he had picked up just a couple days ago. "Oh."

"Cricket, I'm sorry. I didn't even think. I was . . ."

She put her hand up. "It's fine. I'm on birth control still."

"Oh." He nodded and dropped the condoms into his suitcase. "I just assumed you weren't on it anymore, hence the condoms."

"It helps with my periods. You know how painful they are at times." She paused. "But considering you were with her, it was probably a good thing that we used them."

Jasper frowned. "I'm clean. I was tested when I came home. If that helps."

"It does." She turned and pulled out a pair of jeans and his UW sweatshirt. When she faced the bed again, she found him sitting on the side of the bed, his hands bracing on his knees. "Jay."

"I hate that you worry about her, about me and her, about what she did to me." He tilted his head backward and looked at her. "I'm sorry for not being stronger, for letting her get to me like that."

"I can't say I understand why she was the woman you . . . rebounded with. She never hid how much she hated me. Almost feels like you did it to hurt me." When he didn't speak, she understood. "Oh."

"You broke my heart, Cricket. I want to marry you. I've always wanted to marry you, to take care of you, to love you, and you wouldn't let me. You pushed me away, told me you didn't want me anymore. I'm not putting the blame on you, because I should have handled it better, I can admit that, but when I left, when you put me out like that, I wanted you to hurt as much as I did, I guess."

"Well, I do." Bella sat next to him. "You know, I never answered you earlier."

"You mean when I begged you to move to Baker Lake with me?"

She nodded.

"Are you going to?"

"If you're sure you want me, too."

"I am."

She tilted her head to the side. "Then I will." And when he started to smile, she added, "But not until your divorce is final."

Jasper groaned, his head falling forward. "What if she doesn't show again?"

"Then we figure out how to get them to grant it without her consent, but we can't move forward, Jay, until you're really free of her. And I can't move on before I get Mom settled, and clear out the house. And I'll have to find a job, put my two weeks' notice in. I have responsibilities here that I can't ignore just because I want to be with you."

"Then I'll stay here with you."

She shook her head. "Jay."

"I won't lose even another second with you. Either you come to Baker Lake with me, or I stay here with you."

"Fine. And you call me stubborn."

"You are stubborn, but it's one of the many, many things I love about you, Cricket."

"Thanks, I think." She stood up and put her jeans on. She added the sweatshirt over his T-shirt, and looked back at him, noticing the way he was watching her. "Oy, lover, your dad is downstairs. Put your pants on."

"What if I don't want to?"

"Jay," she laughed, shaking her head. "Put your pants on, so we can do deal with him and Heidi."

"I like her," he said, pulling his pajama pants off and putting his jeans on. He dug a T-shirt out of his suitcase and slipped it over his head, and down his torso. "She cares about you."

Bella nodded. "You know, she called me an idiot when I told her about you, about why I pushed you away. She called me an idiot and told me I should run to you, not walk, but run to you, and beg you to come back."

"She wasn't wrong."

Bella tried to smile, but knew it didn't come off as sincere. "No, she wasn't."

"Hey, we're not going to dwell on what should have been anymore, okay? We're in this together now."

"Together."

Bella wrapped her fingers around Jasper's before they walked over and opened the door to her bedroom, planning on going downstairs and facing his father together, but Peter seemed to have other ideas, because they found him leaning against the wall across from her bedroom, his arms folded in front of him. He shifted his eyes from his son to her and back and forth a few times before he stepped away from the wall and held his hand out toward Bella.

"Let's go for a walk."

"Dad," Jasper groused.

"I'm just asking her to go for a walk, so she and I can speak without you and your brother, or Alice, interfering." Peter looked at her. "Please, Bella, I just want to talk."

She bit the inside of her lip before she nodded, and slipping her hand out of Jasper's, she laid it on Peter's. "Okay."

"Cricket!"

"It's fine, Jay. We'll be back."

Jasper rolled his eyes, but motioned for them go downstairs. "Fine, but if she comes back crying, Dad, I'm going to be pissed."

Peter smirked. "I'm sure you will, son."

Bella gave Jasper a look before she and Peter walked downstairs, past the living room where Ben, Alice, and Heidi were seated. Ben hurried to his feet when he saw her and his father reach for the front door, his eyes flickering from them to the base of the stairs for Jasper, and he sighed.

"Dad."

"Just keep your brother from losing his shit again. We won't be long."

Peter placed his hand on the top of Bella's back before he reached around her, opened the front door, and ushered her onto the front porch. The door closed behind them with a loud, echoing thud. They walked down the front steps, along the front walk, and took a left as they started walking toward the ferry on Bainbridge Island.

For several minutes, neither of them spoke. They walked in silence, the cool misty air wrapping around them, the sky a dull gray, and the sidewalk sprinkled in wet drops. Peter stopped when they reached the ferry, gesturing toward a bench just outside of the dock. She sat, crossing her legs, and folding her hand onto her lap as she turned her attention toward him.

"You've gotten old."

He smiled. "Overnight. Snuck up on me, Bella. One minute, I felt like the same twenty-year-old man helping my wife welcome my sons into this world, and the next, I'm an old man, who needs an extra minute or two to get out bed in the morning. I do not recommend getting old, dear. It's not all it's cracked out to be."

Bella laughed. "Dad always said being an adult was overrated."

"Your father was a smart man, Bella." He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees. "I've missed you, you know."

"I missed you, too."

He smiled. "Bella, I want to apologize for the way I spoke to you on the phone a couple days ago. I . . . Watching my son fall apart, watching him lose the love of his life just broke me. It was like losing my Charlotte all over again."

"I wish I had had the chance to meet her."

Peter looked at her. "Me too. She would have loved you, Bella. She would have been here every single day of the last three years with you, too."

Bella's eyes filled with tears. "I thought I was doing the right thing, Peter. Letting him go, letting him live the life I wasn't going to get to live anymore. I never thought he would . . . he would fall apart like that. Not because of me."

"I don't think any of us were prepared for how far down the rabbit hole he fell. Of course, that woman didn't help him." Peter sighed. "When he came home, when we realized that she'd been hurting him, Bella, I didn't know how to help him. Ben, Edward, Garrett, even Carlisle and Emmett stepped up and gave him the support he needed in a way that I just couldn't figure out, I guess. I suppose I let my anger get the best of me, and my relationship with the boys has been strained. I have only myself to blame, so please don't think I'm putting any of this on you, dear."

"But it is my fault, isn't it?" She shrugged her shoulders. "I thought I was strong enough to take care of her, because she'd always been there to take care of me, Peter. Always," she cried, leaning away when he tried to put his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry. I'm barely hanging on right now."

"Ben said she had a moment of clarity."

Bella nodded, her tears sprinkling down her cheeks. "For a few hours, I had my mom back. She, um, didn't remember the accident, or Dad's death, or anything over the last few years. I had to be the one to tell her that he died, something I never wanted to deal with again. And then she told me to put her in a nursing home, told me it was time I started living my life for me again, and made me promise not to let him go again."

"Your mom was always a smart lady," he chuckled before sighing. "Look, I'm going to ask the same thing of you. I have been trying to rebuild my relationship with him over the last few months, and when he and Ben told me about the reunion at Baker Laker, that they were going to reach out to you and try to get you to come, I worried, Bella."

"You worried I wasn't going to go."

"No, I worried you would, because I knew that if Jasper got to love you again, even for just a moment, and you pushed him away, it would break him all over again. He's worked really hard, Bella, to get his life together, and I can't lose my son again. I can't, so I'm begging you not to break his heart again. Please, Bella."

She stood up, wrapping her arms around her torso before she walked a few steps away from him, and then turned and looked at him. "I love him, Peter. I never stopped. He's . . . he's my Jay."

"You know you're the only one he allows to call him Jay anymore. His mother called him Jay, but after she died, he didn't like it. Until you."

"He told me."

Peter stood and placed his hands up in front of him as he walked over and placed them on either side of her face. "You don't have to be alone anymore, dear. Jasper may be in love with you, but the rest of us love you, and we want to help."

She nodded, her tears sprinkling down her cheeks again. "I could use some help, because I don't know how I'm going to leave her, Peter."

"You don't have to do it alone anymore, dear. We're all here for you."

She sniffed back her tears. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now, we'd better get back to your house before my son thinks I've done something horrible to you. Like make you cry," he laughed, gesturing to the tears still lingering on her cheeks.

"I promise to tell him you were nothing but nice to me."

"Thank God. Though, between you and me, Bella, Ben's the one I need to worry about."

She laughed, but nodded. "He does tell me often that he loves me more than Jay does."

"Nobody loves you more than Jasper does, Bella. Nobody."

"That's what I keep saying!"

By the time Bella and Peter got back to the house, Jasper and Ben were seated on the front porch. She shared a look with Peter, who made no effort to hide his amusement over his sons' behavior.

"She's been crying!" Jasper quipped, and hurried down the front steps, wrapping his arms around her. "Dad! You said you weren't going to make her cry."

"Not like I meant to, Jasper. Not my fault if loves me more."

Jasper snorted. "She doesn't love anyone more than she loves me."

"Or so you think," Peter snickered, patting him on the shoulder. "I'll just leave you to interrogate her on our private conversation. Come on, Ben, let's leave your brother alone. He probably wants to kiss her again."

Ben laughed and followed his father into Bella's house, but not before looking back at her and Jasper, grinning before the door closed, and just as Peter has suspected, Jasper's lips found hers, and he kissed her with gusto.

Thank you for all the AMAZING reviews. See, Peter isn't a bad guy. He's just a little worried about his boys.