24

Edward was lying in bed when he heard Carlisle and Bella get home. He had scooted to the edge of the mattress when the door to their bedroom opened, and Carlisle walked in. God, he was handsome, Edward thought.

"Thanks," Carlisle laughed, and that's when he realized he'd said that out loud.

"You're welcome," he mumbled. "Did you find her?"

"I did," he admitted, kicking his shoes off before walking to him, placing his hands on his shoulder. "She and I went on a date."

"A date?"

Carlisle nodded.

"Should I be jealous?"

He laughed. "No. I just . . . I wanted to get to know her better."

"You did?" he asked, smiling.

"She's important to you, which makes her important to me."

Edward grinned. "She is?"

Once more, he nodded. "She's going to be your wife."

The way he said the word wife had Edward smirking. "Are you jealous?"

"Yes," he replied immediately. "I want to be the one marrying you."

"You want to marry me?"

"I want everything with you, babe. And I do mean everything."

"You do?"

"Does that really surprise you?"

"Kind of?"

"Why?" he laughed. "Have I not been transparent enough, Edward?"

"No, you have," he muttered.

"Then why do you doubt me so much?"

"Because nobody has ever loved me like you have."

"Good. I want to be the only person loving you like I do."

"Me too." Edward slipped his hands onto his hips. "Why don't you show me how you love me?"

Carlisle smirked before tangling his hair into his fingers and pulling him down onto his knees. "Why don't you show me?"

—S&S—

Edward and Carlisle stumbled into the kitchen the next morning, finding Bella and Esme seated at the table. Esme was straddling her, their lips moving against one another. While Edward thought girls were gross, he couldn't deny they were beautiful together. He cleared his throat, drawing their attention to him. They smiled before Esme slipped off her lap, straightening her skirt.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"Don't be," Bella quipped, leaning forward. "We need to go down to City Hall and apply for our marriage license today. There is a three-day waiting period, so if we want to get married on Friday, like we're planning to, we need to get it today."

"Okay."

"Okay? That's all you have to say?"

"What am I supposed to say?" he laughed. "Not like I want to do this, Swan, but short of skipping town, I don't see what other options we have."

"Kind of thinking skipping town sounds kind of nice," Bella grumbled, sliding her phone across the table. "Alice, Rosalie, and Angela have been texting me non-stop all morning. Apparently, they need to talk to me as soon as fucking possible."

Edward rolled his eyes before picking it up, finding almost two dozen texts from the three of them that urged her to call them. "Fucking figures."

"What about?" Carlisle asked.

"Our marriage," she groused. "Apparently the only reason Masen would marry a girl like me is because he knocked me up."

"Ew," Carlisle grumbled, causing Edward, Bella, and Esme to laugh.

"That's what I'm saying!" she exclaimed, before sighing. "It's insulting."

"Just because they don't know you. The real you," Esme murmured.

"That's the problem, love. If they knew the real me, they wouldn't like me, either." Bella stood. "We better go. Can't be late two days in a row. People might start talking about me. Wouldn't want that happen? Let's go, Masen."

Edward simply nodded before following Bella out to her truck, climbing into the passenger seat. When they got to school, as had been the usual, their classmates stopped and stared, which just irritated them both. Leaving town was sounding better and better, he thought.

Emmett, Jasper, and Ben were waiting for them at Bella's locker. All three glared at Bella, before turning their attention to Edward, where their expressions softened.

"Edward, we need talk," Jasper said, glancing at Bella before looking back at him. "Now."

"No, we don't. I'm really not in the mood for another lecture on how we are ruining our lives."

"Dude, it's . . ." Emmett peeked at Bella again before saying, "It's important."

"No, it's really not," Edward quipped, folding his arms in front of him. "She's going to be my wife, and there is nothing, nothing you can say that is going to change my mind."

"Edward —"

But instead of letting them continue, he wrapped his arm around Bella's waist and led her down the hallway to her first class. They stopped outside of Mrs. Goff's Spanish class, leaning against the wall. Bella brought her finger up to her mouth, chewing on her nail. He could see the hurt in her eyes, the suffering she felt. Sighing, he turned toward her.

"You know they're just being assholes, right?"

She nodded.

"You're amazing, Swan."

"Thanks, but you don't have to kiss my ass, Masen. I've known for a long time that nobody here gave two-shits about me."

"I do."

"Yeah, well, that's just because you want to marry me," she quipped, looking around the hallway. People were staring at them, whispering and pointing. "Don't they have anything better to do than gossip like a bunch of little bitches."

"Clearly not," he quipped, pushing away from the wall. "I'll meet you at your locker at lunch, okay?"

Bella nodded, before leaning up and kissing his cheek. "Thanks."

"For what?"

"For being you."

"Oh, well, you're welcome, I guess. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Come graduation, I will be."

Bella dipped into her classroom, so Edward headed down to Carlisle's class. He settled into his desk, ignoring the way his classmates turned and stared at him. As the bell rang, he pulled his history book from his backpack, expecting Carlisle to hurry into the room any minute. So, imagine his surprise, when Coach Clappe was the one who entered. He glanced around the room, his eyes landing on Edward last before he told them to open chapter seven.

Where the Hell was Carlisle? he thought, and why did he feel like everything was about to blow up in their faces.

—S&S—

By the time lunch rolled around, Edward was getting annoyed. He'd texted Carlisle a dozen times, each text showing read, but he hadn't gotten a response. He'd texted Esme, too, asking if she'd heard from him, but she replied that she hadn't talked to him since he left just a few minutes after he and Bella had. Edward checked the parking lot, finding Carlisle's truck parked in the facility parking lot, meaning he was there, so where was he?

As he waited next to Bella's locker, he noticed the way people were staring, whispering and pointing at him. The bell rang, and he waited for her, but Bella never showed. He had just dug his phone out of his pocket to call her when Emmett, Jasper, and Ben came rushing up to him.

"Not now, guys."

"No, now, Edward." Emmett ripped his phone from his hand, but he immediately snatched it back. "We need to talk."

"I'm waiting for Bella. We have an appointment to get to."

"Yeah, about her." Jasper paused and looked around before saying. "We're only telling you this because we don't want you to get hurt, okay?"

Edward groaned. "Look, I get it, okay? You don't think she's good enough for me. Whatever. I love her."

"But does she love you?" Ben asked, frowning. "She's . . . She's been cheating on you."

"What?" he asked with a nervous laugh. "No, she hasn't."

"She has." Ben sighed. "Angela and I saw her coming out of the clearing behind the school last night with Coach Cullen. He . . . Edward, he had his arm wrapped around her and we saw them get into his car and leave together."

"So? That doesn't mean anything."

Ben shared a look with Emmett and Jasper. "We followed them to Port Angeles, watched them eat at Panther Pizza. Dude, they were sitting really close to one another. We couldn't hear their conversation, but we saw them holding hands and . . . when they left, he hugged her. Like intimately."

"No, no, she . . . she wouldn't do that to me."

"She did, though," Emmett muttered, looking around. "Ben and Angela aren't the only ones who saw them, okay? Newton did, too. He's telling everyone."

"Fuck," Edward groused, clenching his hands into fists. "I gotta go."

"Edward!" they called as he took off down the hallway. He stopped outside of the office, where he found Bella seated with Sam Uley and Jared Cameron standing in front of her. He'd just reached for the doorknob, when she looked back at him, quickly shaking her head.

"Edward," Coach Clappe said, causing him to turn around. "You can't be here right now."

"Coach."

"Not right now, Edward. The last thing she needs is you barging in. Just . . . just head down to lunch."

Edward sighed before he turned and walked away, but instead of going to the cafeteria, he walked outside and found Esme's number and called.

"Edward, I'm at work. I can't really talk right now."

"Yeah, well, the shit has hit the fan."

"What are you talking about? Is Bella okay?"

"No, no she's not." He grabbed the back of his neck. "We need to talk. In private."

Esme sighed. "Okay, I'll meet you at the house."

"I don't have a way there."

"Okay, I can pick you up."

"Meet me at the corner of Western and Plains. Ten minutes."

"You're scaring me, Edward."

"I'm sorry. I just . . ." He looked around. "It's not good. It's really not good."

"Okay, I'm leaving now."

Edward ended the call, and as he started walking, he sent Bella and Carlisle the same text: I love you.

Esme was waiting for him when he got there. He climbed into the front seat of her car, but didn't say anything as she drove them to the house. They walked into the living room, and he flopped onto the sofa, burying his face in his hands.

"Edward, what is going on?"

He looked up at her. "Guess some people saw Bella and Carlisle together last night, and . . . and now they think they're having an affair."

Esme's mouth dropped as she sat across from him. "Oh."

"Yeah," he said, slowly. "I saw her in the office with Sam Uley and Jared Cameron. I don't know where he's at. I've texted him, but he hasn't replied."

"Me too." Esme braced her hands on her knees. "What the fuck are we going to do?"

"I . . . I don't know. I . . . This is bad, Esme. This is really, really bad."

"Well, no shit, Edward," she bit back, causing him to flinch. "Sorry. I . . . it's not your fault."

"Isn't it? If she hadn't walked in on me and him, none of this would have happened."

"Maybe, maybe not." Esme stood and started pacing. "Well, marriage is no longer an option."

"Why not?"

She looked at him. "Because it's not going to save his job, Edward. Once news of their 'relationship' hits the news, he's going to be just another pedophile educator taking advantage of his student. He'll be lucky if all he does is lose his job."

"Even though she's eighteen?"

"Yes." Esme sat next to him. "You know I support you and Carlisle being together, don't you?"

Edward nodded.

"He took a huge risk by starting a relationship with you. A huge risk. And you're worth it, Edward, you are, but you had to have known that sooner or later it was going to come to this."

"I just thought we'd be long gone before that day happened," he admitted.

"Me, too," she replied. "But it looks like that's not going to be the case."

"We have to tell them the truth, don't we?"

"I don't know." She slipped her phone from the pocket of her scrubs. "Maybe we should call Peter?"

"Why?" he grimaced.

"Because he's our lawyer."

"What can he do? He can't . . . he can't get them out of this, can he?"

"I don't know. I mean, you and I know that there is nothing inappropriate going on between them, but people aren't going to believe that. They're going to assume that they're having sex."

"Eww," he grumbled.

"Yeah, eww." Esme tried to call Peter, but it went straight to voicemail. "Godman it, what do we do?"

"Maybe I should go tell them the truth."

"Edward —"

But before she could finish speaking, his phone started ringing. Scrambling to his feet, he yanked it out of his pocket, hoping it was Carlisle, but it was Bella. He answered, and said, "Are you okay?"

But it wasn't Bella who replied.

"She's fine," Sam Uley said. "Well, not fine, but . . . Look, she told me to tell you not to do anything rash."

"Sam," he whispered.

"I know, okay? I know. I'm working on this, but right now, she . . . they need you to be patient and not to do anything stupid. Her words, not mine."

"Are you arresting him?"

"Not yet."

"Yet?"

"I can't really get into more detail, Edward. Just do as she says, okay?"

"Sam, I . . ."

"She told me to make you promise."

"Fine, I promise not to do anything stupid."

"Good. Just let me do my job."

"Okay."

"And don't text them anymore. It's not safe."

"Alright."

"Good. I'll be in touch."

Edward dropped back onto the couch after tossing his phone onto the coffee table. "I don't know what to do, Esme. I . . . I feel like I'm going to lose the only two people who give a shit about me. I . . ."

"Well, they aren't the only ones who care about you, Edward." Esme sat next to him. "Let's just hope for a miracle."

"Yeah," he whispered, closing his eyes. "We need a huge fucking miracle right now."

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