Hi all! I am back! Thank you for your understanding over these past two weeks. I am feeling much better now.
Thank you for your feedback on Ch. 6, I really appreciate it.
As always, let me know what you think! Your feedback improves my writing and story.
Again, thank you for your patience, I don't want to babble too much! Here is chapter 7!
Chapter 7
"Happy birthday dear Bell-ahhh, happy birthday to you!" My mom, dad, brother, and Aunt Irina cheered.
"Blow out your candles before I do, sissy!" Riley challenged, huffing a deep breath.
"Riley!" I whined. I made a quick wish and blew out all seven candles. The audience clapped around me. Daddy kissed my head and began cutting the cake.
The sun was receding into the horizon as we enjoyed the delicious cake Auntie Irina had made. She's not my real aunt, but my Momma's Auntie. I think Momma said something about Auntie Irina being great, and I whole-heartedly agreed with her. I loved spending the summers with her.
The group headed to the beach, where Daddy was going to build a fire. He said it was "tradition" but I don't really know what that means. The grown-ups sat around the fire, while Riley and I kicked water at each other at the edge of the ocean.
When Riley splashed too much water at me, I ran to my Daddy and he laid me down next to him. "Look up at the sky, Bella-Bean." He said as he pointed up. "See over there?" He asked moving my arm to point with his. "That is the Big Dipper."
"What's that mean?" I furrowed my brow.
"Sometimes the stars make pictures, called constellations."
"Con-sta-relations? I don't see any pictures!"
"Constellations." He repeated. "You have to imagine the pictures. It's like connecting the dots."
"Like my coloring book? You draw the lines?"
"You've got it, Bella-Bean!" He beamed.
"So what's a dipper?"
"Uhh…" He stumbled.
Auntie cut in, "Well, the Big Dipper looks similar to a big soup ladle!" Daddy smiled at her in appreciation.
"I see it, Daddy! The Big Soup Ladle!" He and Auntie laughed.
"And over there," he again moved my arm with his, "is the Little Dipper."
"A little ladle?" I asked.
"A little ladle." He responded.
I snuggled against him and he wrapped his arm around me. "I'm the Big Dipper," He began, "and you're my Little Dipper." He tapped my nose, and I giggled.
"Love you, Daddy."
"Love you more, Bella-Bean.
I woke much too early. Failing to fall back asleep, I began my Saturday routine. Shower, coffee, and tending to the garden. Once every plant was satisfied with water, I began to make a quick breakfast. While I was scrambling some eggs, I noticed the time. 9:34. I had three and a half hours until Edward would pick me up.
Until Edward would pick me up!
I felt a giddiness rise and paused.
Edward and I met only a little while ago...why did it feel like I've known him all my life? I feel this strange connection with him, and then there's that freaky electricity-like current when I am very near him. I had absolutely no idea if he felt the same way. In fact, I was confused by some of his actions. Even so, I was excited to see him again.
I killed some time working on the upcoming show featuring the local artists who usually only make art on the side. The show opened next Thursday, and I still had a lot of work to do. I took pictures of all of the selected pieces and began to arrange them on my kitchen table. I needed to decide what pieces would go where. I had a variety of mediums as well. This took careful planning and decision making. When I was finally satisfied with my work, I glanced at the clock. 11:00.
Springing from my seat, I changed into a simple pale yellow sundress and braided my hair into a loose braid, swinging the end over my shoulder.
Edward and I didn't discuss if we were eating before or not, so I decided to pack a light lunch. I made three turkey and provolone sandwiches, complete with lettuce, tomato, and onion on the side in a separate baggy, as not to make the bread soggy. I tossed a couple of mustard and mayo packets I had collected.
Looking around my fridge, I took out the watermelon. I sliced it in half, covering one half and placing it back in the fridge. I began to cut into the other half, making small slices.
The knife slipped while cutting the rind, and cut my finger on my left hand, which was holding the watermelon steady.
"Shit!" I hissed. Blood began flowing down my finger and onto my hand. I wrapped it in a damp dish towel and tried to locate a Bandaid. I finally found one in the bathroom. It seemed to alleviate the bleeding. I washed my hands and returned to the kitchen.
Shoving the cut watermelon into a big baggy, I added it to the lunch bag. I also added some pretzels, canned corn in a baggy, and a few bottled waters into the mix.
I also packed a tote containing a couple of sketch pads, pencils, and chalk pastels, and most importantly, sunscreen. Since Edward was driving, I was able to pack more than usual.
I tend to go to the lake once a month, to sketch or work on a portable art project. The park at the lake does not allow boats or other watercraft in the part of the lake near the most popular area of the park. Families enjoy the shallow water and the playground nearby. Beyond the shallow waters and the park property, the lake is utilized for recreational use. Lost in my own thoughts, I was startled when I head a couple of knocks on the door. I took a breath to calm the sudden nerves as I made my way to the door. Looking through the peephole, I saw the distorted yet beautiful sight of Edward raking his hand through his hair. I smiled and opened the door.
"Hi," I smiled, trying to downplay my bubbling excitement.
"Hi," He smiled my favorite smile.
Opening the door wider, I said "Come in,"
Edward, seemingly always fashionable, wore light khaki shorts, ending just above the knee. He was dressed in a light teal button up shirt, sleeves rolled to his elbows, and the first two buttons open. I held back a sigh, in response to his appearance. He stepped through the threshold and his eyes widened at me.
"Why do you have blood on your dress?" He asked, concern lacing his words. I quickly looked down to examine my dress, and three splatters of blood stained the pale yellow skirt.
"Oh!" I exclaimed, "I had an accident with a knife." I shrugged while holding up my left pointer finger.
He quickly took my hand, and I felt that unusual shock. He jumped slightly, and I wondered if he felt it too.
Holding my finger close to his face, he asked, "May I?"
In such proximity to his lips, I could only bob my head in quick succession. He carefully unwrapped the bandage from my finger. "It's not too deep," He said, meeting my eyes. "Doesn't need stitches. Did you wash it?"
"Yes," I breathed.
"Do you have any more bandages? I could run over to my parents…"
"No!" I said, "Uh, I mean yes, I have more bandages. We don't have to involve your parents over a small cut. I'm fine." He released my hand, but I wish he held it even longer.
He chuckled, "Okay,"
"I'll find one and change, one sec!" I scurried towards the bathroom.
"Make sure to cleanse it again. Do you mind if I use the kitchen sink?"
"Sure!" I poked my head out of the bathroom. I washed my hands and applied another Bandaid. As I walked out of the bathroom and into my room, he was drying his hands.
I threw open the closet door in search of another dress. I shoved through my clothes, landing on a pastel lavender sleeveless dress. It'll do. Putting on my sandals, nearly tripping over myself, I hurried to return to Edward.
"Hey," I said to him. I caught him looking at some family photos.
"Hey," He smiled, setting down a frame delicately. "Who is this?"
"Oh, that's my brother and me." I smiled gently.
"You were an adorable kid." My cheeks reddened. "When will I get to meet your big brother?" He grinned.
"Oh, uh, he passed." His grin transformed into a frown.
"Bella," He said, stepping towards me. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know." Concern filled his features.
"It's okay, Edward. It was a while ago. Uh, it would be seventeen years June twentieth."
He was now close to me, and I was looking up into his eyes. His brilliant green eyes.
"That must have been painful, to lose him at such a young age." He whispered.
"Unimaginable." I agreed. "I didn't understand what happened," I trailed off. "His name is Riley."
He placed his hand on my forearm. "You sound so fond of him."
"Yes," I nodded. "Although we were six years apart, we were very close." I smiled another gentle smile. "He was so protective of me, while also annoying the crap out of me at times."
"Siblings tend to do that," He returned a small smile. "I would know, I have two."
"Your family is really great, you know?" His hand was still on my forearm, and I felt a heat in the places my skin touched his.
"Eh, they're okay." He joked, flashing his crooked smile.
"Are you ready to head out?" I asked, the mood had lightened.
"Of course." He removed his hand, and the heat quickly disappeared.
"I have a couple of bags," I began, going to retrieve them.
"Here, let me help." He grabbed the lunches and tote, while I gathered the bag that held a couple of beach towels.
"Thanks," I said, following him to the door.
We walked out, and I locked the door behind us. He opened the trunk to a shiny, silver Volvo. Once they were successfully stowed, he met me on the sidewalk and reached out to take the last bag. He shut the trunk and walked over to the passenger side door. I was confused until he said, "Bella," motioning to get inside. He shut my door once I was seated. I watched him as he made his way to the driver's side, maybe ogling him a little too much.
Once inside, he flashed his signature smile and started the car, blasting the air conditioning.
"I love my Volvo, but the black leather can just get so hot." He stated.
"Your car is nice." I managed to say. I was careful not to touch anything because I could only imagine how expensive this car must have been.
"Thanks." He said as he drove away from my house. "So, you know how to get there?"
"Yes, I know the way to the park, nestled against the lake."
A brief silence entered the car, and we both began speaking at the same time.
"Uh, you go first," He chuckled.
"I was going to ask if you've eaten yet."
"Oh...I didn't. I forgot to. Is that okay?"
"No, that's perfect. I packed us some sandwiches. I hope you like turkey."
"Thanks, Bella. That sounds great! I would never have thought of packing lunch." He smiled.
"Take a left at the next intersection, and then in a mile or so turn right."
We arrived at the Clear Lake Park and found a shady spot under a huge Live Oak tree. I laid out two beach towels to create one large covered area. As we sat down, I heard his stomach grumble.
"Hungry?" I laughed. We both were sitting crossed legged, about a foot or so apart.
"Yeah, I could eat." He grinned. I reached for the bag containing our lunch.
"I made an extra sandwich for you, in case." I laid out the contents, and he picked up the bag of corn curiously.
"Is this like a special recipe or something?" He asked, confused.
"Oh definitely. Gourmet duck food." I said, raising my pinched fingers to my mouth and making a kissing sound. "Bon appetit!"
He opened the bag questioningly and gave it a whiff. "Smells like regular canned corned to me."
"It's for the ducks, Edward." I laughed.
"I thought ducks ate bread?"
"Bread is actually bad for the ducks, they have a hard time digesting it or something."
"Huh...you're so thoughtful." He chuckled.
I rolled my eyes, "Just eat your sandwich, Edward."
We both reached for the same sandwich at the same time, his hand overlapping mine. The heat from his hand raised goosebumps up my arm. We made eye contact, his green eyes seemed to deepen. I removed my hand and said, "You can have this one." I broke our eye contact because I suddenly felt awkward under his gaze. I handed him the bag filled with the veggies and condiments. He wordlessly accepted the bags.
We were eating in comfortable silence when he spoke up, "When's your birthday?"
"September 13th. Your's?"
"June 20th." My heart fluttered a bit.
"That's so soon! A week and a half."
"Yeah, I guess it is. So, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you? I realized I didn't know your age." He examined my face to see if he crossed a line.
"You never ask a women's age, Edward." I laughed. "I'm 25. I don't really care. You aren't supposed to care until you hit thirty, right?"
"I suppose so," He smirked. "I'm 25 as well."
"Only for a week and a half," I smirked back.
He rolled his eyes playfully and nudged me, shoving some pretzels in his mouth.
"I know only a little of you," He said. We were finished eating, he had moved to lay on his stomach, resting on his elbows, head in his hands.
"Well, what is there to know?" I chuckled nervously.
"Everything. Tell me as much as your comfortable doing. Can't you tell I'm captivated by you?"
I smiled nervously, my heart fluttered. How could he be captivated by me?
"Well, I'm originally from St. Petersburg, I spent the first fifteen years of my life there. My parents divorced when I was nine, and my dad moved to Georgia. My mother met some guy, Phil, through her work at the time and we all moved to Phoenix because of some family drama when she married him. My great aunt, Irina, my mother's aunt lived in Clear Lake, actually in the house I am in. Our family spent every summer here. My parents shared the small second bedroom and Riley and I would sleep in the living room either on the couch or the mattress pad we would bring. We would fight over the couch a lot." I smiled, remembering. "But when my mom swept me away from Florida, she forbid me to visit Aunt Irina or Clear Lake. I would call her a couple of times a month. Aunt Irina passed away a couple of years ago." I pulled my legs to my chest, fixing the skirt of my dress, resting my head on my knees.
"You really loved her," Edward said, touching my arm wrapped around my legs.
"Yeah. I loved spending summers with her. Some of my best memories involve her."
"Thanks for sharing." He said. I met his eyes.
"What about you? What's your life story?" I asked, smiling.
"I guess it's only fair." He said while sitting in a cross-legged position. "I'm from Chicago, living there my whole life until college. I went to Washington State University both for my undergrad and medical school. I was the second class of WSU's MD program. I graduated with my undergrad in three years, then another three for med school. Now I'm here."
"Impressive," I replied.
"Thanks." He smiled. "Did you go to school?"
"Yes, I went to Arizona State. Majored in art."
"Of course. You are really talented, Bella." My cheeks flushed, and he raised his hand but stopped halfway before dropping it.
"Thanks. I usually come to the lake to sketch and such."
"Well, don't let me keep you."
"I brought an extra pad, if you wanted to try it out." I grinned.
He returned my grin with one of his crooked smiles. "I'm quite terrible at drawing."
"Everybody says that at first. Just give it a try."
He shrugged. "Okay."
I handed him the sketchbook and let him choose his weapon of choice. He stuck to a standard graphite pencil.
"Hey, this doesn't have an eraser on it." He exclaimed.
"Most drawing pencils don't," I laughed and handed him a kneaded eraser. "Use this. When you're finished, stretch it out and the eraser will be clean."
"What?" he asked in amazement. I demonstrated and he stared, perplexed.
"Here you go, sketch away!"
"Well, what do I draw?"
"Anything you see!"
"I don't know where to even begin." He complained.
"Look for simple shapes in the object you're drawing. Like a tall skinny rectangle, if you were drawing a tree. Break the object into more manageable shapes."
He scratched on his pad. "Huh, okay." I pulled out my pad and began to sketch him. He was too beautiful not too. I could compare him to Michelangelo's David, only Edward had a proportionate right hand.
Edward was deep in concentration, brow furrowed, and his tongue sticking slightly out of his mouth. He would glance at me periodically, and I would make sure I didn't meet his eye contact.
I had begun to try to recreate Edward's beautiful eyes, when Edward announced he was finished.
"Let me see!" I exclaimed.
"Bella, it's embarrassingly awful."
"I'm the one who knows about art, I'll be the judge of that!"
"That's exactly what I'm afraid of," He groaned.
"Please, Edward?" I gave him a shy smile. He groaned again in response and flipped his notebook around, slowly.
On the page, a bust of a woman smiled at the viewer. Her hair is pulled back, and she hard darker eyes, suggested by his shading. The nose was slightly out of proportion, but overall, the drawing was fine. Examining his limited use of shading made me realize it was me.
"You drew me?"
"Well, I tried to…" He admitted. "I guess it's a good thing if you could figure it out."
"Edward, this isn't half bad!" I moved my portrait facedown on the towel and took it from his hands. "May I?" I asked.
"Sure."
I began to erase and draw new lines of the nose. "The nose was a little on the larger side, they can be hard to draw." I showed him how to start with the basic shape of a triangle in order to find the proper size. Giving back the pad, I guided him to completion.
"Yeah, that looks a lot better. Thanks, Bella," He smiled. "Let me see yours," he said, eyes bright.
"Uh, well it's not finished, but here." I handed him my pad, still face down.
"You drew me?" He asked, astonished. He looked up at me as I nodded. "It looks just like me." He gently traced the drawing with his finger.
"It's not done." I reminded him.
"Looks pretty done to me." he gawked. "So, so talented" he muttered, making fire flood my cheeks. After admiring the picture one last time, he stood up abruptly. "Let's take a walk."
He held his hands out to me, and I eagerly accepted. He pulled me to my feet with a little too much force and I flew into his body. His arms wrapped around my waist to steady me. "You okay?" He asked.
I could only nod, as I was in such close proximity to his body. He released me, but I wish we could have stood there longer. His arms on my waist, my hands on his chest, looking into each other's eyes.
I grabbed the bag of corn as we left the shade of the tree. He lead us to the water's edge.
"I brought the duck food," I said while holding up the corn. I stood next to him as he admired the lakefront. Children were playing in the shallow water, splashing around. Boats in the distance pulled tubes, bobbing the passengers over the waves. A group of ducks swam by.
I opened the corn and tossed a few pieces to them. They beelined over to the food offering, quacking away. I offered the bag to Edward, and he grabbed some, also tossing the corn to the group. More ducks swam over to us. I took a step forward to give some corn to one of the ducks who didn't have his share, but I must have taken too big of a step because I slipped on some mud and fell towards the water. I panicked. The corn flew out of my hand as I tried to steady myself. The ducks squawked and flew away.
Before I made contact with the water, two arms slid around my waist, pulling me back to my feet. Instinctively, I turned around in the arms and placed my hands on Edward's chest.
I could feel my heart rate out of control, and I was breathing too rapidly.
"Are you okay?" Edward whispered. He rested his forehead on the top of my hair.
"Yes," I breathed, looking at my hands on his firm chest. I took a deep breath. "Thank you," I said, looking up at him. His face was merely inches away from mine.
"I seem to be always catching you," He said lightly, a small smile on his lips. I couldn't help but stare at his lips. "Bella?"
I met his eyes, but his eyes darted downward. Was he looking at my lips?
Was he going to kiss me?
He pulled us a few steps backward, away from the water and removed his arms from my waist. My hands went to their side.
"I feel...very protective of you." He said, his voice deepening slightly.
"It seems like you're always saving me." I lifted the corner of my lips. He laughed and nudged me playfully. We started walking back to the Live Oak tree.
"I think we should start heading out." He said.
"Oh, okay," I responded, disappointed.
"I have some work to do around the house," he began.
"No, that's fine," I said.
"Do you have plans this evening?"
"No, not really. I am trying to get a head start on paperwork for the show opening this upcoming Thursday, but that's pretty much it." I shrugged.
"How does dinner sound?" He asked, his eyes swimming with hope.
"You're asking me to dinner?" I had to fight my jaw from dropping.
"Yeah, guess I am." He threaded his hand through his hair. He sounded a little nervous.
"Sure," I replied, smiling widely.
He returned an equally wide, crooked smile. "Great!" Glancing at his watch, we both noticed it was almost four. "How does seven sound?"
"Sounds good." I couldn't stop smiling.
"Perfect."