The rainfall on the roof of Charlie's house was already heavier than normal when Bella woke. Her alarm clock was silent, Mrs. Newton had called the evening before to let Bella know they wouldn't be opening the shop again until the storm passed. Bella hadn't slept well, Edward gone on a hunting trip with Alice and Jasper. She woke to someone shaking her shoulder and thought for a moment it would be Edward's angelic face above her, but he would've woken her with soft kisses.
"Bella, wake up," Charlie said.
Bella tried to burrow deeper into the mattress. The lamp flicked on, she groaned and covered her eyes. "What?"
"Sorry, baby," he said, "come downstairs."
Bella blinked her eyes open as he retreated from the room, saw 5:48 on the clock and pulled the covers over her head. But Charlie had left the door open, and another voice drifted up the stairs like music. Not Edward's, but Alice or Esme's melodic tone. The confusion woke her enough to rise from the bed and stumble into the hallway.
Charlie, Edward, and Esme were congregated just inside the front door.
"Been a while since we had one like this in the summer," Charlie told them, Esme and Edward nodded. Bella had heard that line at least a dozen times at work the previous day.
"Carlisle's planning to stay overnight at the hospital," Esme said, "just in case, with all the tourists and hikers in town for the summer season. Oh, good morning, Bella."
The three of them looked up at her as she walked down the stairs, squinted against the light from the kitchen and living room. A woman on the TV gestured back and forth across a screen illustrating the swirl of red and orange currently slamming into the Olympic Peninsula.
"Hi," Bella said. She wanted to walk into Edward's arms, but Charlie was in the way. "What's up?"
Edward's lips lifted in amusement, but Charlie spoke. "Esme thought it'd be good for you to go stay with them until the weather clears up. In case I get stuck at the station or the power goes out. They have a generator."
"Um, okay," Bella said, her mind still hazy with sleep. She looked between Edward and Charlie.
As far as her father knew, an argument between Edward and Bella had caused the drama that resulted in her laid up in a hospital bed in Phoenix. Since then, Charlie had been less than enthusiastic about Edward's presence in her life, though Edward's constant, annoyingly vigilant care during her convalescence had softened him slightly. His driving Bella too and from work everyday was less popular, though Edward often delivered some leftover portion of whatever Esme had supposedly made too much of the previous evening. Esme, much like Alice, had Charlie entirely under her spell.
"Wonderful!" Esme said.
"I'll go get some stuff," Bella mumbled and turned up the stairs.
They continued speaking downstairs, but Bella didn't bother trying to pick out the words. The house had chilled overnight as the temperature dropped outside. She pulled on a pair of sweatpants over her pajama shorts, a sweater over her tank top, and a pair of thick socks. She threw a change of clothes into her backpack. Alice was in the process of building her wardrobe at their house, none of which was practical or comfortable. Bella's input was not required, she'd been informed, on several occasions. She grabbed her toothbrush on the way out, and joined the group at the base of the stairs.
"Oh, Edward, I forgot the food in the car," Esme said, mournfully.
"I'll grab it," Edward said. Bella rolled her eyes, knowing Esme and the rest of them never forgot anything, ever. But what a wonderful son Edward looked, jogging out into the cold rain to retrieve something for his lovely adoptive mother. The food was some 'leftovers' she'd brought for Charlie and the staff at the police station. Just in case they had to stay overnight, protecting the defenseless town of Forks from a monster storm.
"Esme, you really shouldn't have," Charlie said, accepting the lunchbox.
She waved him off, smiling beautifully. "Emmett always eats enough for three, I haven't learned to cook without him around yet."
Everyone chuckled, Charlie suggested they go before the rain really started up. He told Bella goodbye, and Esme told him to be careful at work. Edward got soaked on the way to the car, so Esme and Bella could share the umbrella. Then he slid into the backseat of his own car with Bella's backpack in his lap, so Bella could sit in the front with Esme and the seat warmers. Charlie was still watching them through the front door.
"Your publicity campaign might go better if either of you actually looked like you woke up at 5 in the morning," Bella told him.
"Haha," Edward said sulkily, but reached forward to tickle her ear.
Esme's thin fingers rubbed the hem of her light gray dress. "Maybe it wasn't the right time for Chanel."
Throughout the drive, the sky darkened, the rising sun obstructed by rolling, charcoal clouds. Esme drove only slightly slower than Edward, sending fans of water as tall as the car out from the road when she sped over puddles. Even so, Bella drifted back to sleep as the rain pounded the car, and woke again when they pulled into the fluorescent brightness of the Cullens' garage. Edward was out of his seat and opening her door before Bella could move. He leaned into the car, clearly planning on picking her up to carry her inside. Bella glared at him and he raised his hands in surrender.
"You can go back to sleep in our bed if you'd like Bella," Esme offered, already approaching the door into the house.
Edward didn't have a bed, obviously, but the others all did. It was a generous offer, but sleeping in a bed that had only ever been used for sex, by Edward's parents no less, was less than ideal. Bella felt her face heat, the treacherous blood vessels revealing her embarrassment at the idea.
"Um," Bella said, "I think I'm awake now actually."
Esme adapted flawlessly, "can I make you some breakfast?"
Bella nodded. Esme's fairytale beauty ignited when she beamed, rushing into the house. Edward and Bella followed, Edward still carrying her bag.
Rain slapped against the enormous windows, the trees outside began to sway as the storm approached. In Charlie's little house, the thunder would've rattled the pictures on the walls. But the Cullens' windows were thick glass that dimmed the howling wind to a faint whistle. Edward and Bella sat at the island while Esme moved through the kitchen with the perfect grace of a dancer on stage. The first few times Esme had cooked for her, Bella had offered to help. Esme had kindly, but firmly, denied the help every single time. Bella didn't offer this time, just watched her move around with a soft smile on her lips.
Alice and Jasper came into the kitchen to join them. Jasper greeted Bella warmly, but kept his usual distance. Alice wrapped her small arms around Bella from behind, rocking her side to side so she swiveled on the bar stool.
"Can I do your hair, Bella?" Alice asked, clasping her hands together in front of her chest.
"Alright," Bella agreed, "no hairspray, though."
Alice did an excited little hop and seemed to evaporate, running out of the room too fast for Bella's eyes to track. She reappeared a moment later with a bag of hair-styling stuff, and a magazine. She opened to a page showing the back of a model's head, her hair styled in a bun that somehow looked like a blooming flower. Bella gaped, "that's impressive."
Alice took out a brush and turned Bella to face the island, stepping behind her. "If it looks good on you, I'll do it again for Rosalie and Emmett's next wedding."
The vampires all chuckled, and Bella smiled. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach any time the Cullens included her in their future.
Esme put banana bread in the oven and started making orange juice. During one of her cleanses, Renee had bought a citrus juicer, but Esme just used her hand. She squeezed the bright liquid into a pitcher with one hand, not a single drop escaped her clothes or the countertop. Her pale hand set the glass in front of Bella and returned to the stove to start on her omelet, which she cooked perfectly every single time. Esme tilted her caramel-covered head side to side with the soft jazz music playing from the radio on the counter. The movement brought a thousand childhood memories forward in Bella's mind, all combined into the blurred figure of Sarah Black, dancing in the Blacks' little kitchen as Bella sat with Jacob, Rachel, and Rebecca around the table eating sandwiches and fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. The memories stung, but for the first time, Bella saw the similarities between Sarah and Esme. Both open-hearted and caring, both so happy to look after Bella. Both of their time as mothers cut painfully short. Esme' by a fever any modern hospital could have cured, Sarah by a drunk driver on the road to Port Angeles.
"Bella?" Jasper said.
Bella blinked, the kitchen refocusing in her vision. She found him staring at her, concern written over his face. Esme turned away from the sizzling pan on the stove. Bella swallowed and said, "it's making me hungry."
Esme smiled like sunshine, but Jasper obviously didn't believe her. The omelet finished cooking, Esme slid it onto a plate, then took the bread out of the oven, releasing a cloud of deliciously fragrant steam. She didn't use an oven mit, and she scooped the slice onto her plate with her fingers. She cut an apple into perfect slices, then put the whole thing in front of Bella where she sat with Alice's hands working over her head. The meal was delicious, as expected. When Bella told her so, Esme's overjoyed expression looked strange without a warm blush, and she crooned, "you're too sweet."
Bella ate, with Edward, Esme, and Jasper all staring at her. All of the Cullen family shared the habit, and Bella had learned not to be uncomfortable with it. Mostly because Edward had once explained it with, "Well if someone sat in front of you and ate a plateful of dirt, wouldn't you watch?"
Alice's fingers froze in Bella's hair, a second later, Edward grinned.
"What?" Bella said around a mouthful of omelet.
"In a few hours, Charlie's neighborhood will lose electrictiy," Edward said, "fallen limb on a power line."
"Why're you smiling about that?" Bella asked.
Esme shook her head at Edward and answered, "because Charlie will find out and think, 'oh, how thoughtful of Edward to rescue Bella from the storm and a night without electricity.'"
"It was thoughtful of me," Edward said, looking smug.
Alice huffed, "it was my idea."
Bella rolled her eyes. Jasper stepped closer to Alice and said, "I sure hope the storm causes that power outage, not some mischief."
"Jazz! What do you take me for?" Alice exclaimed.
He poked her in the side and looked at the back of Bella's hair. "Looks nice, darlin."
A strand of hair was left artfully free, to frame Bella's face. Edward brushed it behind her ear and said, "it looks beautiful."
Bella's cheeks went pink, and Esme shooed Alice and Jasper from the room, leaving Edward and Bella alone. She finished her food, and watched him wash the dishes in about 3 seconds flat, then load them into the otherwise empty dishwasher anyway.
Bella and Jasper sat on opposite ends of the couch for a while, watching Alice and Edward play one of their invisible chess matches across the coffee table. If Emmett had been there, he'd surely have suggested baseball. But no one had felt up for that since James. With all of their talents, the Cullens were perhaps the most skilled at finding ways to entertain themselves. Esme sat next to Bella and pulled all the pins out Bella's hair. Alice's wonderful creation collapsed down her back. Esme wrapped an arm around her and Bella relaxed into her, the marble body somehow managing to feel both soft and warm. Alice moved a pawn. The pair of them resumed their staring at the board. Alice snickered, Edward groaned and tipped over his own kingpin.
"Yes," Jasper said, pumping a fist in front of himself, "that's my wife."
Edward's kingpin sailed towards Jasper, who caught it an inch from his face.
"Boys," Esme scolded, grinning.
"Yea," Alice said, "don't be a sore loser, Edward."
Edward stood from his place on the floor. He put his hands on his hips and stared at Esme, all mock offense and childish anger. "Am I supposed to suffer this? Me, your favorite son? In front of my girlfriend?"
Esme, Alice, Bella, and Jasper all burst into laughter. A smile cracked Edward's mask a second later.
Bella took a deep breath to stop her giggles and said, "will you play piano for us?"
"Of course, love," he said, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek. His cool lips left a familiar spark on her skin.
Edward ruffled Alice's hair on the way to his piano, which she must have anticipated and decided to allow. She reset the chess board and started playing herself, rotating the board back and forth to move from both sides. Jasper stood from the couch and resettled behind her on the floor, his arm wrapping around her waist to pull her into his lap while she continued her game. Edward began to play, the notes filled the room and Bella felt them sink into her bones. They wrapped around Bella like a blanket, the original pieces that only existed when Edward put his hands to his piano.
The room was quite dim, the Cullens having no need for light to play chess or cook or play instruments. The stormy light from outside was scarcely enough for Bella's weak eyes to see the details of Alice's face. Bella's stomach was full from breakfast. Esme began to stroke her hair right as Edward started her lullaby on the piano. She drifted to sleep easily, her head sinking into the curve of Esme's neck.
The disorientation of deep sleep overwhelmed Bella's senses for a few seconds after she woke. The room was darker than before, the distant noise of the storm slightly louder. Someone had rearranged Bella flat along the length of the couch, a pillow under her head and a soft white blanket over her. Edward sat just beside her, the top of her head brushed against his thigh. He dropped a hand to stroke her hair.
"Hello," Edward said.
Bella shifted onto her back and looked up at him. "Hi."
"Did you have a nice nap?" He smiled like an angel in an oil painting.
Bella nodded, then reached up to grab his hand from her hair. She kissed the tips of his fingers, the cool skin buzzed against her lips. When she looked up again, she caught his gaze as they stared at the curve of her mouth. Bella sat up beneath her blanket, enough to squirm halfway onto his lap with her face pressed into his shirt, above his heart. He wrapped his arms around her, dipped his head to brush his nose along her hairline.
"Where'd the others go?" Bella asked, her voice weak from sleep.
"Esme and Alice are on the phone with Rosalie upstairs," Edward said, "Jasper went for a run."
Bella sat up slightly to look over the back of the couch at the wall of windows. The rain came down in great white sheets, so heavy Bella could barely make out the trees on the other side of the driveway. She looked back at Edward and raised her eyebrows dubiously.
He shrugged. "It can be exhilarating. Sometimes if you jump high enough at the right moment the wind knocks you sideways and it feels like flying."
Baseball was not the only extreme sport the Cullens enjoyed, Bella had learned. She'd joined the family in watching Edward, Emmett, and Jasper throw each other into trees in what they called wrestling. Most of their athlete pursuits however, Bella could not watch. When Alice foresaw earthquakes deep in the Pacific, they paddled thousands of miles out into the ocean to surf the tsunami. They played capture the flag across the glaciated peaks of the Cascade Mountains. They snowboarded on avalanches and jumped into tornadoes for the thrill of being pulled around the vortex. They raced to the bottom of Challenger Deep and the top of Mount Everest.
"Alice didn't go with him?" Bella asked.
Edward's head tilted upwards, listening to something from the others upstairs. "Apparently Vera Wang is much more exciting than Jasper."
"Will Rosalie and Emmett get married here in Forks?"
"Probably," Edward said, less than enthusiastic at the prospect, "they'll invite the whole town."
Bella wrinkled her nose. "So much fuss."
"The last one was at the top of Hvannadals Peak in Iceland. Alice thought it would be pretty to have the ceremony there under the Northern Lights."
"Was it?" The Cullens rarely took photographs. Their perfect memories were clearer than any picture and the evidence of their immortality only risked exposure.
"Yes." Edward grinned. "But this one will be better. I'll have a date."
Bella smiled back at him. His excitement was infectious, even if standing with the rest of his family at perfect, beautiful Rosalie's wedding made her stomach flip nervously.
A flash of lightning lit up the room, the crack of thunder following a few seconds later. Edward leaned over and turned on the TV, a rerun of Friends appeared on the screen, and both of them watched. Bella giggled at the antics of the characters as they went about their ordinary human lives, dramatized for comedic effect, of course. Guilt roiled in Edward's chest as he mourned the version of Bella that could have had such a simple, safe human life if he'd only had the strength to leave her alone.
By noon, the room was so dark from the storm that Edward turned on the lamp, warm light flooded the room and made Bella squint. Esme danced down the stairs and told Bella giddily, "I'll make you some lunch."
Bella sat up, Edward's arm around her shoulder and their thighs pressed together. Though it would make little difference, she whispered to Edward, "it feels weird, sitting here while she cooks for me."
He leaned over to say against her ear, "you cannot imagine how happy it makes her. She loves you almost as much as I do. None of the rest of us are sufficiently young and fragile."
Bella glared at him. The words were on her tongue, I'm not fragile, I can take care of myself. But he smiled and threw up a hand in concession. "You're her new favorite, Carlisle's too. I've been replaced."
"That's not true," Bella said, though she felt giddy at the idea of them grouping her in with the rest of the Cullen 'children.'
Esme came in from the kitchen when Bella's lunch on a tray. She placed it on the coffee table and sat down beside them on the couch before Bella could offer to come into the kitchen instead. She slid out of Edward's arms and knelt on the floor. The sandwich was the best Bella had ever eaten, of course. Fresh tomato, avocado, and spinach with paper-thin ham and cheese on focaccia still warm and crispy from the oven. Homemade potato chips and sliced oranges, even the glass of water tasted especially fresh, like Esme had collected it fresh from the clouds. Bella took the tray back into the kitchen to wash the dishes before Esme or Edward could think to, and felt smug about it.
When she returned, Alice and Jasper had arrived. The only signs of his storm-chasing were his change of clothes and the lingering dampness in his blond curls. Alice and Esme looking through a magazine, Jasper and Edward had changed the TV channel to a news channel in a language Bella couldn't understand. Bella noticed the stack of books on the side table next to Edward. He'd probably read all of them while she slept. The one on top had a receipt poking out from one end, she picked it up and read the gold lettering on crimson spine, The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde.
"Hmm." Bella shook her head and to the first page, to the scent of fresh-cut flowers in an artist's studio. She looked at Edward and asked, "is it good?"
"I think so," he said.
"Have you read it before?"
"Yes."
"About a dozen times," Jasper huffed.
Edward looked at his brother, annoyed. Alice flipped the page of her magazine and said, "it's a melodramatic preoccupation with the idea of trading a human soul for eternal youth and beauty. Can anyone think why Edward might be interested in such a thing?"
Edward huffed, crossed his arms, closed his eyes, and dropped his head against the back of the couch. He looked every inch the moody teenage boy, valiantly endured his little sister's good-natured ribbing. Bella smiled and returned the book to its place. She sat down next to him, and threaded the fingers of one hand into his hair.
"Oooh," Alice cooed over something in the magazine.
"That's lovely," Esme said.
Bella strained her neck and caught a glimpse of the page, a floor length pink dress covered in sparkles. Alice tilted her head. "I think I'd like it better without the beading, and I'm usually too short for designer pieces."
Esme suggested, "you could alter it."
"It's Versace!" Alice gasped. Bella surmised pulling the beads off Versace was some sort of fashion sin. Alice closed the magazine and stood up. "I think I'll go to Seattle to get some fabric. Who wants to come?"
Esme and Jasper nodded in agreement, Alice looked at Bella and Edward eagerly. As if it was the only holdup in driving three hours through a monsoon, Edward said, "Charlie might call."
Alice's eyes went vacant for a few seconds. "A tourist just ran off Upper Hoh Road. His car is stuck in the ditch and his girlfriend broke her wrist, Charlie will be busy for a few hours."
Bella gaped, but everyone else seemed to accept easily. Just in case, Esme said, "I'll set the home phone to redirect to my cell."
"Um, what about the storm?" Bella blurted, waving a hand towards the windows.
The vampires all looked out the window questioningly, as if trying to understand what Bella meant. Alice searched the future again, and said, "it's barely raining in Seattle."
"We can stay here if you want, love," Edward said.
Alice squeezed her hands together and said, "come on, Bella. I won't make you try anything on, I promise."
"Why not, I guess," Bella agreed. Alice erupted with excitement, rushing to give Bella a kiss on the cheek, then disappearing up the stairs.
They took Esme's SUV, with Edward driving and Jasper in the passenger seat. He was as calm as usual, but didn't seem to breathe throughout the trip. When they stopped at intersections, he cracked his window. Alice sat between Esme and Bella in the back. Alice had brought her magazine, and showed Bella the gown she planned on replicating, with significant improvements. The drive from Forks to Seattle took around four hours. In this weather, it would take closer to five. With Edward driving, they were between the skyscrapers in less than two. His intermittent grumbling about humans that don't know how to drive in the rain told Bella he would've made it even faster in better conditions, faster still in his Vanquish.
Of course, Alice had been right about the weather in the city. The storm rolling in from the ocean hadn't made it much past the towering mountains of the peninsula, leaving only a chilly rain on the other side. Still, Edward pulled up to the curb in front of their first destination, Jasper got out and held open the back door for the ladies. Bella pulled up the hood of her rain jacket and followed the three of them into the shop while Edward went to park the car. She noticed all the little details they faked to look human. Jasper hunched against the rain, jogging forward to open the shop door for them. Esme pulled her coat closer around herself and Alice rubbed her hands together. All of it brought a happy flush to Bella's cheeks, to observe these things and feel like she was in on the joke.
The store was a maze of tall shelves, piled with rolls of fabric in every pattern and color imaginable. The old woman at the counter offered a polite "good afternoon," but said nothing more, her instincts telling her to avoid the vampires' attention. Esme and Alice took the lead, Jasper and Bella followed, him not breathing.
In the first aisle, Alice looked around and said, "I don't think they'll have what I want."
"Let's look anyway, it'll give Edward time to park," Esme suggested, Alice shrugged.
"Can't you just, you know, see ?" Bella whispered, too low for any nearby humans, "why bother?"
Jasper answered, "because she likes to shop."
He was staring forward at Alice with his usual devotion, like all the light and color in the world came from her. The explanation was enough for them, so Bella accepted it. Spontaneous, unnecessary shopping trips were a decent enough way to pass the time, so why not? When you had an eternity in front of you?
Edward found them, slightly damp and colder than usual, in the silk aisle. Esme and Alice were engaged in a very enthusiastic conversation about the tiny differences in weave and color between two pale pink options. Reaching no resolution, they turned to Bella, Jasper and Edward.
"Which one, Bella?" Alice held one option in front of herself, then the other.
Bella blinked. "They're both pink, Alice."
"Ugh, useless," Alice declared, rolling her eyes. "Jazz?"
Jasper ran his eyes up and down Alice's body as she held both options in front of herself. Bella looked away. Edward groaned.
"Get out of my head if you don't like it," Jasper chuckled.
Alice huffed, "savages, all of you. I'm getting both."
"Shocking," Edward whispered.
Esme took the silks to the cashier to have them cut while Jasper, Bella, Alice, Edward fiddled with the notions at the front of the shop. A perfect impression of four teenagers waiting for their adult guardian to pay. They left the packages behind the desk, apparently they had other stops to make and would pick everything up with the car before heading home.
They walked to the next shop, Esme and Bella sharing an umbrella while the other three braved the drizzle in only their jackets. Alice's tiny frame huddled against Jasper's looming one, the picture of a human girl clinging to her boyfriend.
The second store had no pink silks, but when Esme ran her hand over a dark red velvet, Alice gasped, "Esme! Yes! I have an idea."
"Poor Carlisle," Edward said, shaking his head and grinning. Jasper smiled proudly at Alice as she unrolled a length of the fabric. She shifted it back and forth so it caught the light at different angles and seemed to change color, scarlet to blush to burgundy. Esme smiled, Alice squealed.
Alice informed them of their destination, apparently guided there by her precognitive sight, and when they walked inside, Bella found herself being dragged down one of the aisles.
"Alice," Bella whined.
"Hush you," Alice said. She stood on her tiptoes and grabbed a shiny blue fabric from the top shelf. Bella held her arms out to each side and let Alice drape the navy blue satin over the front of her body. There was no mirror, and Alice had cleared already decided. So the demonstration was mostly for Edward, who stared at her intently. Alice looked at him for a second, showing him something in her mind that made him smile. She rolled up the fabric in one graceful motion and said, "great!"
Bella rolled her eyes at them. "Knock yourself out."
In the last shop, Alice walked straight to a bolt of fabric, picked it off the shelf, and handed it to Esme to take to the cashier. Bella had to assume she'd known all along where to find it. There was a coffee shop next door. Bella went inside and bought herself a hot tea in exchange for the key to the bathroom. Esme, Alice, and her waited under the shop's awning while Jasper and Edward went to get the car. They piled inside, Bella clutching her warm drink in both hands. Edward idled on various curbs while Jasper ran inside the shops to collect their purchases. Alice slowly disappeared beneath a pile of paper bags.
The rain picked up again as they drove back around the perimeter of the peninsula towards Forks. A line of cautious drivers forced Edward to slow down through Port Angeles. Bella looked out the window as they waited for a stoplight and just barely made out the distant shadow of the mountains, their jagged peaks scraping the heavy storm clouds.
When they arrived back at the Cullens' house, Bella immediately went upstairs to change back into her pajamas. By the time she came back downstairs, Alice had already converted the dining room into a sewing table. Her silk spilled across the antique wood like pink water. Esme held the edges still while Alice started cutting out pieces with a precise shing of her scissors, no measurements or markings required. They repeated the process with Esme's red velvet, then the blue satin Alice had chosen for Bella.
Alice gathered up her pieces, and the three of them went into the living room when Edward and Jasper had already started playing a video game. Esme disappeared upstairs and came back with a sketchbook and set of charcoal pencils. Alice set her heap of fabric and sewing kit on the coffee table, then sat with her back against Jasper's knees, threaded her needle and started sewing. Bella sat next to Edward and split her attention between the video game on the TV and Alice's creations. Within minutes, the fabric began to take shape. She held up the bodice and examined it, then the picture in the magazine.
"It needs structure," Esme said, not looking up from her work.
Alice nodded, put everything down, and danced up the stairs to retrieve something from her room.
Charlie called later, and Bella spoke to him while watching Alice assemble a lightweight corset out of mesh fabric and elastic. He informed her about the expected power outage at their house, and that he planned to stay overnight at the station. Bella said how good it was that she was at the Cullens' then, with heat and light and TV. Charlie reluctantly admitted it was very kind and thoughtful of them to invite her. He told her to thank Esme, specifically, but Edward smiled triumphantly anyway.
Alice finished her gown while Esme cooked dinner for Bella. It fit her perfectly, of course, the shiny fabric hugging her narrow frame. The color made even Alice's pale marble skin look warm and healthy, like the dress had been made from pink rose petals for a fairy princess. The only way to improve the ensemble would have been for Alice to grow a pair of iridescent wings.
"Very pretty," Bella said. Edward and Esme nodded as Alice spun in little circles, whirling the skirt around. Jasper stared at her for all of three seconds, then tossed his controller onto Bella's lap, stood, and stalked towards his wife. Alice had the grace to look slightly bashful as he grabbed her by the hips, but she giggled like sleigh bells when he threw her over his shoulder and disappeared upstairs.
Bella felt her face go hot. Edward just turned up the volume on the TV and started to explain the rules and controls of the video game to her. Bella gave it her best shot, but ultimately Esme suggested they switch to a movie. Fully expecting to fall asleep on the couch again, Bella went upstairs for her human minute before they started. Edward unveiled their extensive DVD collection, and told her to pick something.
"I'm feeling romantic," Esme called from the kitchen.
Bella bumped her hip against Edward. "Me too."
"Hmm, romance," Edward said. He trailed a quick finger along three rows, hundreds of plastic cases. Bella did not recognize most of the titles her eyes focused on, many of them were in other languages. "That's these ones."
At the end of one of the rows, there was a collection of cases that still had their plastic wrapping. She selected The Notebook and asked Edward, "did you see this? I heard it was good."
"No," Edward said, "but I overheard a lot of excitement about Ryan Gosling."
Bella examined the picture on the case's cover, two young people in vaguely vintage clothing, nearly kissing in the rain. She handed Edward the case and went to sit on the couch. Bella didn't fall asleep during the movie. Instead, she cried. Edward wiped her tears and attempted to comfort her, all why obviously struggling not to laugh in her face.
"I think I need something funny," Esme said, sounding just as shaken as Bella felt.
Alice and Jasper came back downstairs as the sitcom reruns returned to the TV. Bella felt strange looking at them, but she tried to pretend nonchalance. Edward and Esme seemed entirely unaffected by their obvious, hours-long escape from the group to have sex. The room was dark, lit only by the glow of the TV screen, but Alice resumed her sewing. The red scraps of fabric began to take shape between her nimble fingers, but Bella was asleep against Edward's shoulder before she could see the final result.
Bella woke to the sound of birdsong, diluted by the thick windows. She was in Esme and Carlisle's room. Between the crisp white sheets of a bed so large she couldn't touch either edge when she stretched out both arms. She sat up and blinked against the sunshine pouring into the room in bright yellow rays.
The bedroom door opened, admitting Edward. He sat next to her on the bed and kissed the side of her head. "Good morning."
"Morning," Bella said with a yawn.
"You slept well," Edward observed, gently combing his fingers through her sleep tangled hair.
Bella patted the mattress on either side of herself. "It's a nice bed." Even if I'm the first to use it for sleep .
"I'll get one for my room," he said.
His fingertips brushed her throat, Bella shivered. "That's unnecessary."
Edward shrugged. He stood from the bed and said, "Esme is making you breakfast."
Bella shuffled towards him on her knees. When she reached the edge of the bed, she put her hands on his shoulders and leaned in to kiss him. On the massive bed frame, their faces were level, so easy for her to slip her arms around his neck. He wrapped an arm around her hip, then lifted her off the bed, and swung her around in a circle. Bella chuckled against his lips and kept her arms tight around him even as he set her on the ground.
Breakfast was the same as the day before, and just as delicious. Bella ate on the rarely-used balcony, with Edward in the shade beside her, because she had to squint every time she looked at him when his skin caught the light. They watched Carlisle's black Mercedes come up the driveway. Esme came down the front steps of the house in the new dress Alice had completed the night before. Carlisle's car stopped, nowhere near the garage. He stood from the driver's seat and waited for Esme to reach him. The crimson velvet hugged Esme's curves down to her calves, with a slit nearly up to her hip. Carlisle took her hand and spun her in a circle, taking her in as the pair of them glittering in the morning sunshine. Carlisle pulled her close and dipped her for a kiss like the end of a movie.
"Would you like to go to the meadow?" Edward interrupted Bella's voyeurism. She agreed wordlessly, feeling her cheeks heat.
As they were leaving, Alice whined that Bella still needed to try on the dress she'd made. "It'll be perfect for when Edward takes you to see Sleeping Beauty. "
"Alice!" Edward hissed.
Her gaze shifted. She giggled and covered her mouth, "oops, sorry."
"That was supposed to be a surprise," Edward huffed, "go away, you little menace."
Bella grinned and rubbed his arm consolingly. "I'll have more time to get excited about it."
Edward carried her through the forest with his usual sickening speed. Bella hid her face against his neck and didn't open her eyes until he started pulling her limbs away from his body. They laid on a blanket and shared a pair of earbuds. The sun was warm and bright, quickly pulling the lingering moisture from the plants. Edward held their book in the air above them, so it blocked the sun and protected Bella from spots in her vision. She listened to the soft music in one ear and the whoosh of the summer breeze through the flowers. The book was 1984 by George Orwell, one of their summer reading assignments. Bella wasn't enjoying it yet, but Edward recounted the story of how he'd bought it on its first day in stores in 1949. The previous night he'd heard the distant mind of the bookseller as he stayed far past the shop's closing time to devour the book. Edward had actually waited for the shop to open, "like a human superfan", because he was so intrigued by the man's muddled thoughts about Big Brother and the Ministry of Love.
Bella just chuckled at the story. She didn't want to reignite the argument. But the excitement that surged in her chest made her breath hitch, she would convince him eventually. They would sit between the flowers and read every book ever written, both of them dazzling in the light, forever.
Thanks for reading! Especially for everyone that's bookmarks/followed/faved/etc. And especially, especially everyone that's said something! Drop a comment/review so I don't have to scream into the void haha
This is my vision for Alice's pink dress, it's a real Versace gown from the 2005 Spring/Summer collection, because my neurospicy brain looooves a random diversion from my actual writing: https/i.
Esme's hot mama red velvet gown: /products/fay-berry-velvet-corset-style-knot-maxi-dress-cl128016064
I am aiming for Friday uploads for the next little while, at least until I catch up to what I haven't written yet. This is the last of the 'prologue' chapters, next time we will begin with the actual meat of the story. Next chapter is already written, and I'll just say…Edward POV is ROUGH. See yall!