Hello again, everyone! Just a little warning this time. If you have ben in a tornado and details of it upset you, then you may want to skip ahead to Bella in this chapter. Also, I've taken some creative license here. I have done some research, but I am not a meteorologist, although I do watch the weather channel quite frequently. So, if I've gotten something wrong here, I apologize.
Thank you to my partner in crime, My-Bella, for always making sure all those dang commas go where they are supposed to, and for helping me keep my sanity when the plot bunnies get out of control. I couldn't do this without you.
Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own Twilight or any of its characters. I just like to play with their lives every once in a while.
~Edward~
It had been three longs day on the road. Alex, Mike, and me were all tired of chasing down what we'd thought was a supercell storm that would give us a tornado, only to have it fizzle out just as we got to it. Sure, we'd seen some nasty weather, but none of it had, had the end result we were looking for. Adding to our frustration we'd had to stop in the last town long enough to have the windshield replaced on my truck thanks to the golf ball sized hail we'd driven through. The rest of the truck was beat up too, but it was still running fine.
The weather channel really needed to get me a storm-resistant vehicle.
Today we were playing catch up with the current storm system we were chasing down because of the lost time of fixing the windshield. However, luck might finally be on our side this time because of it. Just maybe the extra time had given the storm system a chance to blow up into something more severe and develop into a tornado producing system.
While I'd love nothing more than a massive F5 to document, safety was first and foremost. In a perfect world that F5 would be in the middle of a field, with no houses around for anyone to get hurt. Problem was, that was rarely the case with any tornado of any magnitude, and that was why we were out here studying them. So we could help improve the warning system and recommendations for housing standards so homes built in storm prone areas could be made to hold up better under extreme conditions. Much like the areas prone to hurricanes had done.
Much like what Bella went to school for too.
"Damnit, Mike, how many times have I told you not to fold the maps?" We were pulled over trying to plot the safest and fastest way to catch up to the system, while Alex monitored the storm itself on radar.
"I didn't fold the maps," Mike claimed.
"Well Oklahoma is a mess, there's a big crease right through Norman," I shot back at him. "Is it really that hard to understand?" I asked. "Roll the fucking maps."
"What the hell's crawled up your ass?" Alex asked from the backseat. "You're never this short tempered."
The backseat where Bella slept. Where I'd also found her jacket, but couldn't bring myself to give it back to her after I'd realized it smelled like the shampoo she used to use…coconut oasis or some shit like that.
Get out of your head, Cullen.
Ignoring them I continued trying to press out the crease in the map so I could see where the two-lane highway we were on would take us if we stayed on it.
That is until Mike mouthed off again.
"Whatever it is, it's shoved in there so deep it might take Old Man Molina's backhoe to dig it out."
While Mike cracked up over his own comment, Alex at least had the decency to try and muffle the snort he couldn't hold in.
"Bet a good lay would fix that angry monster that's got your nuts in a vise grip."
"That blonde sure had eyes for you while we waited for the windshield to be fixed," Alex added. "I'd tap that shit every day and twice on Sunday."
"There's nothing stuck up my ass. I'm just tired of trying to navigate through the damn folds in the map. And last time I'd checked, my sex life is none of your fucking business," I barked back at them.
I rolled the map up and shoved it at Mike before putting the truck into gear and pulling off the shoulder.
"Besides, she wasn't my type," I told them, feeling some strange need to clarify why I hadn't paid any attention to the blonde's blatant flirting. Yes it had been a while since I'd been laid, but lately no one seemed to catch my attention that way.
Well almost no one…
"Well what is? Do you have to have a type just to scratch an itch, man?" Alex asked.
"Word is that purdy little brunette in town is what has you all twisted up in knots. Heard ya'll used to be together or something and you still got it bad for her."
"Mind your own fucking business, Mike."
"Rumors must be true," he muttered lowly.
"Mike, unless you want that roll of maps shoved where the sun don't shine, I suggest you shut your trap."
"Knock it off, Mike," Alex added, just as a huge bolt of lightning cracked across the ever-darkening sky. "This ain't the time to be bullshitting around. It could get us killed out here, and you know it. So, shut up and pay attention."
"He's right," I agreed. "And I'm sorry if I was being an ass."
None of us said anything for the next fifteen minutes or so. The further we drove down the highway, the angrier the sky was looking.
"We should be coming up on the turnoff over the hill ahead of us. Check the map," I told Mike.
"On it," he replied.
We had checked and rechecked the weather conditions several times. These storms had everything they needed to go tornadic. Convective energy was high. It was extra hot. The arrival of a large low-pressure system was like giant whirlpools, drawing in all the surrounding air. Hot air was pouring in from the low-pressure area from the desert southwest, while moist air was surging north from the Gulf of Mexico. The atmosphere was ripe with instability, lift, and primed for rotation to form. Now it just had to all come together in one spot and organize into a monster supercell storm.
Lightning continued to strike all around us as we drove head on into a forceful rainstorm that had our visibility next to zero. The downpour was like being inside a huge drive-through car wash. I had to slow the truck down to enable the wipers to keep up with the amount of rain coming down on us, and because we were now in a potentially very dangerous situation. Tornadoes wrapped in rain were difficult if not impossible to see by eye and we could end up driving blind right into one.
"Alex, keep your eyes glued to that radar. I want to know if there's even the slightest sign of rotation developing since we won't be able to see anything as long as the rain keeps up."
"Already on it. According to the SPC, were headed in the right area. These are the storms they said would blow up today."
We continued and the hail started to fall again. Hopefully it wouldn't destroy the windows this time. My truck was going to look like a golf ball before this chase was over, if it wasn't totaled. I really needed to talk to my boss at the Weather Channel about getting a company vehicle for me to drive on these chases.
Thinking about how dimpled this truck was going to be reminded me of the first storm chase I'd ever gone on. Jasper and me had been college freshmen at Oklahoma University and I'd dragged him out with me one afternoon when I'd noticed some thunderheads, otherwise known as cumulonimbus clouds, forming. He'd insisted on driving and his poor car had taken a beating that day. We hadn't learned much about chasing storms, but we sure had learned how to read a map better and to find the secondary roads to keep us safe.
It was about fifteen minutes later when Alex called out, "We got one!"
"Really?" Mike asked.
"At least on radar we do," Alex confirmed.
He relayed the coordinates of the rotating cell and Mike punched them into our GPS system.
We kept driving, not seeing a tornado. However, just because one was indicated on radar, didn't mean it had touched down. It meant that there was rotation in the storm and one could drop out at any time. After finally being able to pick up our speed and making a series of turns, we'd gotten ourselves in position just ahead of the storm. To our west was an incredible storm cloud formation. The thunderstorm had the telltale vertical element, which was accompanied by shelf cloud, or as some would call it, the mother ship cloud, since they often looked like the alien mother ships in some of the popular sci-fi movies.
I was looking at the map to make sure we had a way out of here if things went wrong. Tornadoes, storms in general, were unpredictable beasts and didn't always stay on the path they started out on. They could shift in most any direction or even back build if the conditions warranted it.
Come on, drop a fucking tornado already, I mentally screamed to the rotating mass of clouds.
"There it is!" Mike shouted, his hand almost taking my head off as he pointed in the direction of the storm.
"Holy shit," I hissed. There on the horizon was a huge cone shaped tornado lowering itself to the ground. It was perfectly shaped, just like those seen in the movies and on TV. I watched as it looked like a claw tearing at the ground as soon as it touched down. The power these storms had was terrifying and beautiful at the same time. Awesome and scary.
For a second I thought about how back in college I'd wanted to learn to chase storms my own way. I didn't want the more experienced chasers to tell me how, when, or what storm to chase. I'd have felt like a dog on a leash. Instead I'd wanted to experience it all first hand and learn as I went along. But when my thoughts began to turn to how Bella was supposed to have been there with me at college, I stuffed those thoughts away. They would have to wait for another time, I had a team to worry about and a tornado to get info on.
"We need to get closer," Mike said.
"I know, but we need to watch it first to make sure it doesn't shift tracks on us. Last thing we need is for it to be coming right for us," I told them.
"That might be the only way we get close enough to get the sensor up in it," Alex added.
"Only as a last resort."
The funnel was rapidly rotating and widening as it moved closer to us.
"Fuck," I yelled. "It's coming right for us!"
"What now?"
"We're gonna try to get up alongside it at a relatively safe distance so that we can deploy the sensor and then we'll backup as fast as we can and turn the hell around first chance we get. I know it's not the safest option, but right now it's our only option since we're out here in the middle of nowhere. There's also the chance we could end up taking shelter in the truck, which we all know is dangerous. Tell me now if you guys aren't ok with this. We can turn around and hightail it out of here now and hope for another one."
"I'm in," said Alex.
"Me too," added Mike.
"Good. Mike, get the launcher ready," I ordered. I'd really wanted to be the one to do it, but as fast as this monster was heading for us, I didn't have that choice.
Jasper's brilliant tech mind had altered the force that the air cannon launcher shot out the sensors so that they didn't end up shattered before the storm could suck them in. They would automatically begin transmitting data, much like the ones seen in the movie Twister several years back. Only ours had feather lite plastic propellers on them instead of cut up soda cans to help them fly.
Gripping the steering wheel like a vise I headed in the tornado's direction. It was sucking in the air with a tremendous intensity. Even from a distance, driving a high-profile vehicle like this truck into the outflowing winds from the storm was like driving with an invisible giant hand pushing and pulling you as you tried to get away. The truck was shaking and the winds were howling, but somehow, I'd gotten us to where we needed to be. With no time to spare, Mike already had the window down, waiting for me to stop the truck. He quickly stuck the air cannon out the window and fired it off. The five sensors shot out of it like rockets and were instantly sucked into the storm.
"Yes!" we all cheered and high fived.
"Fuck! Get us out of here, Edward," Alex screamed over the roaring winds of the storm. With no way to turn around, I backed the truck up as fast as I could and was barely able to turn around. The storm was barreling across the field heading in our general direction.
"We can't out run it," I yelled over the roar of the winds. I'd tried to outrun it, but it was still gaining on us. "We've got nowhere to turn off the road."
"What about over there?" Alex hollered and pointed to the side of the road.
"The ditch?"
"Yeah."
"I'm in if you guys are."
"Do we have a choice?" Mike asked.
"No not really," I told them.
I pulled the truck off the road and into the ravine so fast I nearly rolled the truck over in the process.
"Tuck the laptop under the seat and toss a couple of those blankets up here, Alex. Fast!"
He did it as fast as he could. With one last peak behind us, the huge wedge of a storm was still headed this way. The three of us grabbed our cellphones and stuffed them in our pockets, and then tightened our seatbelts before covering ourselves with the blankets and ducking down as far as we could to protect us from the glass or any flying debris that came our way.
"It's gonna hit us," Mike hollered. I looked over and saw pure fear in his eyes. He was a seasoned chaser, had been my partner for a couple of years now, and this was the worst situation we'd ever been in.
The wind was howling it was blowing so hard. The truck was even rocking back and forth a little in the ditch. I glanced up and saw a huge tree branch fly by and the tornado plowing straight in our direction in the side rearview mirror. I knew we weren't in a safe place, not really at all. But it was our only option and that was my fault. The adrenaline rush had left all three of us and reality was sinking in quickly. I was genuinely worried, and thought that maybe this was it.
I felt something hit the truck and next thing I knew the rear windshield was being blown in on us. I barely had time to cover my head before the glass pebbles began flying in all around us.
"Stay down," I screamed, knowing these two guys were my responsibility. I was the lead on this chase.
We kept covered until I was certain the storm should have reached us but hadn't. I could still hear the growl of the wind, but it somehow seemed to be getting further away instead of closer.
Removing the blanket off my head, I raised up and looked out the window. By some miracle, the storm had changed its course at the last second. We'd somehow been gifted with some insanely good luck and the tornado had turned and headed away from us before it had a chance to blow us all away.
Mike and Alex came up too.
"Damn that was fucking close," Alex said, relief filling his voice.
"Too damn close," Mike added.
As I looked around us, tree branches and trunks were snapped like match sticks.
We were damn lucky it had turned. That was the thing about these storms. They were unpredictable beasts. They often spun out just as fast as they fired up. Their fury can ebb and flow over the life of the storm, being a monster one minute, a fading whirlwind a few later, and then spin back into a monster shortly after that. They can zig zag across their paths, missing one, hitting the next, and jumping up and down as they go. Or come right after you if you weren't careful. We'd taken a huge risk this time. One that we probably shouldn't have. There isn't a weather man or a storm chaser on the planet that can tell you with 100 percent certainty exactly where a tornado will go or what they will do one moment to the next. It was this unpredictability that had saved us.
We climbed out of the truck and up onto the bank of the ditch and watched as the storm moved away from us. I'd have loved nothing more than to hop in my truck and follow this one to see if we could get off another round of sensors, but with the rear windshield blown out this time, that wasn't going to happen.
"Whadda you guys say we get the truck out of this ditch and we head to the nearest town?" I asked them.
"Sounds good," Mike said, with Alex nodding in agreement.
After trying for the better part of an hour to get the truck out of the ditch, we had only succeeded in getting it stuck even further in the mud created by the rain associated with the storm.
I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket, extremely grateful to see we had service. Once I called for help from a tow truck, all we could do was sit and wait.
By the time a tow truck was able to get to us, it was late evening and dark when we reached the nearest town. The three of us got hotel rooms in the small motel across the street from the repair shop that was in the closest town that hadn't been hit by the storm. While the town hadn't taken a direct hit, the local cell tower had been knocked out and half of the town was without power. The motel manager had told us they had backup generators giving the building power, but asked us to use only what was necessary, meaning things like the TV should remain off. After a quick shower, I was exhausted from the day's events and crawled into bed, trying not to let the close call we'd had shake me up.
The next morning as I was walking through the motel lobby to head across the street and see when my truck might be ready, I saw they had a TV on with the local news playing. It was then I'd learned the first details of the tornado. It had grown in strength after it moved past us. It had reached an F5 level with winds over 200 miles per hour and had been close to three-quarters of a mile wide. It had annihilated everything in its path. Current reports were saying two had been killed, another group of storm chasers had been injured, asphalt peeled off the roads, and homes and buildings demolished. It had even dropped a ripped off small airplane wing into the middle of someone's corn field. I again thought about how we'd been incredibly lucky. It was the closest call I'd ever had while chasing a storm. If it had gained its maximum strength before it passed by us, we might not have been here now.
There had also been a report of a family injured while taking shelter somewhere further down the highway under an overpass. There needed to be more information put out that it's not a safe place at all to seek shelter in a tornado. The winds only intensify as they squeeze through the structure by as much as 25 percent. They're also elevated, which means when you crawl up under them, you are elevated too, and that puts you in a path of greater fury. Not to mention it leaves you exposed to flying debris. That didn't mean what we'd done had been the best idea either, but it was safer than an overpass. We'd been extremely lucky, that's not always the case. I made a mental note to make sure more information got out to the public about what to do if caught out on the road in extreme weather situations. The more knowledge people had, the more prepared they could be.
Once I'd checked on my truck, I let the guys know we'd be getting back home late that night. Until then we'd see if we could be any help in the parts of town that had been damaged by the storm.
~Bella~
"Don't forget the chicken too," Mae called after me as I raced out the door with Dottie hot on my heels. I could hear Mae and Carlisle chuckling at my behavior.
"Got it," I hollered back.
Edward's truck had driven past the main house not even five minutes ago, and I needed to see for myself that he really was okay.
Better slow down, figure out what you're going to say before you make a fool of yourself.
We'd all seen clips of the horrible damage the tornado's path had left behind. There had also been reports of a team of storm chasers being hurt and we'd all been terrified that it had been Edward and his crew. Cell service had been out in the area hit by the storm, and he'd finally called this morning when he'd made it to an area that had service to let everyone know he was safe and would be home late this evening, that they were currently helping out in the town they'd spent the night in.
So, remembering that Mae had said he often forgot to eat much while out on a chase, I used that as an excuse to take him the leftovers she had from dinner to satisfy the overwhelming urge I had to see for myself that he was not hurt.
I stopped halfway to the barn where Edward had converted the loft into an apartment for himself to slow down my pace and take in a couple of long pulls of air to attempt to calm myself down. Dottie kept on running, eager to see Edward herself.
Couldn't blame her!
I heard him before I saw him. He was greeting Dottie, telling her how much he'd missed her.
As I came around the bend in the drive and his truck came into view, even in the dark I was shocked to see the damage it had gotten. The body of it looked as if someone had taken a huge hammer to it and had beaten the entire surface of it. It was dinged and dented everywhere. Edward was squatting by the back of his truck, hugging Dottie as she covered his face in doggy kisses. I stood there watching the happy reunion between the two of them until Dottie noticed me and let out a quick bark and pointing her head in my direction, alerting Edward to my presence.
"Hey," I said, suddenly feeling like a deer caught in the headlights.
"Hey," he replied. "What brings you dow n here?" He grabbed a load of stuff out of the back seat of his truck. I noticed when he turned back and did a double take as if he couldn't believe I was really there. "I just got back and usually don't see anyone until the next day."
"Oh, um, uh, I'll just leave this and go then," I said holding up the basket of food and setting it on the bed of his truck.
"I wasn't saying you had to run off. Just surprised is all."
"Oh well, Mae mentioned you might be hungry." I nodded towards the basket, somehow thinking it would make my reason for being there more believable.
"She did, huh?" He had a smirk on his face that told me maybe he wasn't buying my story.
"Yeah, she did," I insisted, reaching down to pet Dottie, who was prancing back and forth between the two of us in her excitement over Edward being back.
I hoped I was doing a better job at sounding more believable than I was feeling at the moment.
"Hmm, well since my hands are full," he held them up just like I had done with the basket, causing me to smile, "would you mind grabbing it for me?"
"Oh, no, I mean, no I wouldn't mind,"
Pull yourself together, Bella.
"There's one more bag on the truck seat. Would you grab that for me too?" he asked. "Let's go, girl," he called to Dottie with a somewhat mischievous look on his face.
"Sure," I answered, wondering what the look was all about.
Turning to grab the bag for him, it was then I really saw up close how his truck looked like it had been through a war zone. I couldn't believe he had been able to drive it home.
"Must have been a hell of a hail storm," I said to myself.
As soon as I grabbed the bag I knew why he'd had me get it. The end of my jacket sleeve was sticking out just enough for me to know what it was.
What was he doing?
I tried to quiet the millions of questions in my head by telling myself he was probably just going to give me the jacket back. That, that was why he'd had it in his bag.
Sure, sure. My brain taunted.
All thoughts of my jacket disappeared as I followed Edward up the stairs to the barn loft and was pleasantly greeted with the sight of just how perfectly his jeans clung to his ass. They weren't overly tight, but just snug enough so you knew he had a fine ass under that layer of denim.
"Sweet baby jeebus," I muttered under my breath. The view was nothing short of spectacular.
"Wow," I whispered reaching the top of the stairs and looking around.
I may have still been relishing the image of his rear too.
Finally focusing my attention on my surroundings, I liked what I saw. The space was very rustic, very masculine, and very Edward. I could totally picture him living in the place he'd created for himself.
The barn loft was a wide-open space that was sectioned off into different living spaces. The center and largest area of the loft was the main living area that had a wooden futon being used as a couch, a worn but very comfortable looking tan leather chair, with a large dog bed behind it, and wine barrel end tables with wooden lamps on each end of the futon. In front of the futon was what looked like an old chicken cage with a plank of wood on top to serve as a coffee table. Hanging on the ceiling was a mason jar light fixture, and on the wall across from the living space was a large flat screen TV.
Against the wall on one side of the loft was the bedroom area which had a huge king-sized bed, on a platform frame made of pallets that Edward had probably built himself, and had an old barn door headboard. There was an American flag hanging on the wall over the bed and two wooden crates stacked to be a night stand on one side of the bed.
Across the room on the other side of the living area was the kitchen space that had a small vintage looking refrigerator, stove, a small cabinet with a sink, and another chicken cage that was attached to the wall and had pots and pans hanging from it as a makeshift rack. The back wall of the kitchen had a set of sliding doors that looked like they led to a small balcony. And in the corner, was a desk made from a couple of saw horses and an old table top with a large computer screen and a laptop on it, along with a scattering of papers, books, and several large rolls of paper that I imagined to be maps of the area.
"It's not much, but it's mine," Edward said, pulling me from my thoughts as I took in where he lived.
"It's really kind of great. I like it," I told him honestly.
"Thanks."
"But, I do have one question."
"Ask away," he offered, as he began to put away the stuff he'd brought in from his truck.
"What's that?" I asked, pointing to the area in the corner next to the bedroom that looked like a closet made out of old doors as its walls.
"That," he said pointing to it, "is my bathroom."
"Really?"
"Yeah, look and see if you don't believe me." He waved his hand like they did on those game shows where the host was showing off whatever prize that was up for grabs.
It wasn't that I didn't believe him. It was just that I had a hard time picturing it. I walked over and peeked into the room. "Not bad," I said taking it in. one side had a shower with a concrete floor and corrugated metal walls, and the other side had the toilet and a small vanity with a sink in it and a small frameless round mirror hanging over it. On the wall was a couple of old horse shoes attached so that they could be used to hang towels on.
"Like I said, it's not much, but it's mine."
"It's great. I like it."
Standing there, not knowing what to do, and having seen that Edward was indeed home in one piece, as much as I hated it, I thought it was probably time for me to go.
"Well, I'll just be going now." I headed across the space back to the stairs and was just about to turn and say bye, when Edward's voice stopped me.
"Hey."
"Yeah," I replied, not having any clue what he was going to say.
"I uh…I was gonna head down to the river for a bit to unwind. I'm sure Aunt Mae put more than enough food for one in that basket. Wanna come along?" he asked, almost a little nervously, but then that faded away when he added, "I mean that is if you remember how to fish?"
"Are you sure? I don't want to be in the way or anything."
"Are you sure you can still bait a hook, Swan?"
"Is that a challenge, Cullen?"
With nothing more than a cocked eyebrow shot my way, he strode across the room and grabbed two fishing rods from their spot hanging on the wall by the stairs. Tossing one my way, he grabbed a few other things and nodded for me to head down the stairs first. Without hesitation, I did.
~Edward~
The river came into sight a few miles down the road. I turned onto the narrow dirt road that was really nothing more than grooves in the grass worn away by the tires that had driven on it over the years. After I parked my truck, I made sure the parking brake was set before turning the truck off. Last thing I wanted was another truck of mine taking a bath in the river.
Not that it mattered much with the damage the storm had done to this one.
Neither of us had said a word as we headed down here. More than once along the way I'd wondered if I should have asked her along or not. However, watching Bella fumble with the radio, flipping through the stations like she'd had a TV remote, reminding of before she'd left me, I knew I'd never regret her being there.
Climbing out of the truck, I looked across it and Bella hadn't moved.
"You comin'?" I asked, nodding my head towards the river.
"Oh, yeah." She opened the door and made her way around to the back of the truck where I was pulling the gear out. Bella grabbed the handle of the cooler on wheels that was packed with ice for any fish we caught along with the two fishing poles, and I grabbed the basket that had the food she'd brought, the bait can, and two folding lawn chairs for us to sit in.
I was dangerously curious to see who she was now. Was she still the girl I'd fallen in love with, had she changed into someone I wouldn't recognize or something else altogether? I just wanted to know her…be her friend.
Friend?
Yeah, right, my conscious blared at me…Maybe my heart too.
We made our way down to the edge of the water and I popped open the folding lawn chairs.
"I'll take that," she said as she grabbed the bait can out of my hand and thrust a pole at me before she sat down in the chair closest to her.
I watched as she put the worm on the hook like she'd been doing it every day.
"Ha!" Bella exclaimed and looked over at me. "Told ya."
She flashed me a sly smile, that was also sexy as hell.
Sexy? Where the fuck did that come from? I asked myself.
Before I could overanalyze my thoughts, Bella was calling out to me, "Better sit or duck! Now!" She stood and cast her line into the river.
"You still have to catch something," I teased, shaking my head slightly to clear it of the thoughts that wanted to creep back in. I then baited my own hook and tried to focus on fishing.
After we'd traded a few competitive jabs at each other about fishing Bella had been pretty quiet. The only sounds around us besides the rippling of the river, was the crickets and the croaking of a frog every now and then.
I glanced at my watch and without even realizing it I saw we'd been at the river for about an hour. It's funny how the years go by, time seems to fly, but the memories stay the same. I wasn't ever able to completely let go of the memories of my time with Bella before she'd left, I could push them to the back of my mind most of the time, but they were always there and would pop up now and then. Right now, it was a memory of the last time I'd been fishing with her and I wondered if she remembered it too.
"You awake over there?" I asked her before jumping right into what I really wanted to know.
"You betcha."
"You betcha? Is that how they talk down in Miami?"
"Yes, when you're a Miami transplant who grew up near Canada."
"Someone you went to school with?"
"Yeah, my roommate actually. She grew up near the border and swears she's never going back. Loves the ocean too much and after being around her for four years the phrase just kinda stuck with me," she explained.
"So, I was wondering…" I started, but then got worried. What if she didn't remember? What would I say then? "Never mind."
"Bullshit."
"What?" I asked.
"Bullshit," she repeated. "Spit it out, Cullen. What were you wondering?"
I chuckled lightly, I should have known she'd call me on it. That I'd never get away with not telling her what was on my mind. It had always been that way.
Started with the first time I'd kissed her. It had been a few weeks after Alice and me had permanently come to live with Aunt Mae and Uncle Carlisle. After the first-time Aunt Mae had sent her out with some water for me while I did my share of the farm chores, it had become a habit of Bella's to do so. I think from that first time she'd done it, we'd both sensed the changes happening between us, but we'd not really acted on them and I had been dying to kiss her. But without either of us acknowledging those new feelings, I was nervous as hell to do it.
On this particular day, I'd been a bit further from the house so she'd ridden her horse down to give me the water. When she'd climbed down from her horse, her foot had gotten caught in the stirrup and she'd literally fallen right into my arms. I'd been wanting to kiss her ever since my first day back in Oklahoma. As I'd put her down, she looked up at me and I could clearly see for the first time her feelings for me reflected in her eyes…
"Can I…" I began.
"Can you what?" she whispered, her eyes never leaving mine as I kept her locked in my arms.
"It's nothing. Never mind," I lied, forcing myself to look away from her as I let her go.
"Hey." She reached up and turned my face back to her. Once she held my gaze again, she said, "You can ask me anything, Edward. Anything. Okay?"
I simply nodded.
"Well?" she then asked.
"It's just…well it's just I really wanna kiss you right now," I told her.
Her eyes got as big as saucers, then she whispered, "Okay." Her hand that she'd turned my face with was now fisted onto my shirt.
"You want me to kiss you?" I asked, just to be sure. I knew what a pissed off Bella was like and she packed a mean punch despite her small size.
Taking a deep breath, I reached up and cupped the back of her head. Her eyes were sparkling as she angled her face upwards just slightly. I leaned down and softly touched my lips to hers. A sigh rushed out of her as her fingers tightened their grip on my shirt. I pulled back briefly and when I saw no sign of hesitation on her face, I pressed my lips back to hers. I kissed her slowly, our lips fit perfectly together. Bella slipped her arms around my waist and moved closer to me. I gripped the ponytail sticking out of her hat to tilt her head to the side so I could deepen the kiss and slide my tongue into her mouth. When her soft sweet tongue touched mine, I moaned and kissed her even harder.
"Fish for your thoughts," Bella chimed, dragging me back from memory lane.
"Huh?"
"Where'd you go? Are you gonna spit it out or not?"
"Yeah," I told her, not really knowing if it was smart to ask her about what was on my mind, or if it was an idiot move, but at the same time I found I couldn't stop myself either. "I was uh, just curious if you remember the last time we went fishing together?"
"Oh," she quietly replied.
I didn't know if her response was good or bad. She used to be an open book to me, but right now I couldn't tell anything from her expression. I was about to suggest maybe we should eat or head back when she spoke again.
"Prom night."
Before either of us could dwell any more on what was going on, Bella's rod started to bend. "Oh, I think I got one," she squealed and began furiously spinning her reel to bring in the fish.
Bella popped up out of her seat and took a couple steps forward and started tugging on the pole to reel the fish in. With the way her pole was bending, I was thinking it would be a pretty good sized one. Immediately I went over and moved up behind her to help pull the fish in.
"Hang on, Kitten," I said, cursing myself in my head when my old nickname for her slipped out. "The city's made you rusty," I teased. With my arms around her, my hands placed one below and one above hers on the rod, I pulled with her as she spun the reel.
"What in the heck do you think you're doing?" She shrugged her arms while trying to pull the fishing pole out of my hands.
"Trying to help ya, now hold still."
"Oh, for fucks sake, Edward, I know how to reel in a fish," she snapped, jerking hard on the pole to get it away from me, but as she did her elbow came around and whacked me in the ribs.
"Fuck," I yelled, releasing her quickly as I grabbed my side. The sudden movement caused Bella to lose her balance and in trying to catch herself by stepping backwards, her foot came down hard on mine— the bruised one from dropping a large piece of wood on it when we were helping after the storms this last time out. Trying to ignore the pain, I grabbed her to try and stop us both from falling, but instead it sent us both tumbling to the ground.
We fumbled around, trying to get up, but all that accomplished was me ending up with Bella under me in a very compromising position.
We were breathless and speechless as we laid there, frozen, staring at each other. Despite my best efforts my brain betrayed me and all of the times I'd had Bella in this position before rushed in. How I fit perfectly between her long creamy thighs, how she'd wrap them around me, or how her entire body would flush a gorgeous shade of red as she'd reached her climax. And if my brain betraying me wasn't enough, my body did so too, reacting to those memories.
"Edward." My name fell from her lips in nothing more than a whisper, but it was just enough for my self-preservation to kick in and remind me that yes, we may have had many nights in this position, but it still didn't stop her from leaving.
I quickly rolled off her and hopped up. I held out my hand to help her up. "We should just eat and then head back."
She took my hand and brushed the dirt off her pants. "It's okay, we can just go back now. I'm not hungry anyways."
"Fine."
"Or I can just walk, it's not like I haven't walked back to the house in the dark before," she huffed out.
"You're not walking."
"Fine."
We gathered everything up and were headed back to the house in a few minutes' time. Where the ride to the river had been silent, it hadn't been filled with the tension that now flowed between us so thick you could cut it with a chainsaw.
Instead of stopping at the barn, I drove on up to the house to let Bella out.
"I'm sorry," Bella said reaching for the door handle as the truck came to a stop.
"For what?" I asked and shifted the gear into park as I waited for her to reply.
She chuckled roughly. "What ain't I sorry for? Everything, Edward. I'm sorry for it all. For ruining your fishing, for forcing my way into your evening, for…for leaving, for destroying what we had, for hurting you and for breaking both our hearts. You didn't deserve any of that and I'm sorry."
She pushed the door open and started to jump out, but I quickly reached over and grabbed her belt loop and stopped her.
"Let go," she ordered. "Just let me go, I said I was sorry. What could you possibly want now?"
"Well for starters I asked you to go fishing. So, you didn't intrude or force your way in on anything. As far as fishing goes, you didn't ruin it. It was fun while it lasted and it's just as much my fault as it is yours."
"Okay."
She started to get out again.
"I'm not done yet," I told her.
She just looked at me confused.
I let out a long sigh. "About the other thing." I sighed again. "I don't know."
She looked down and picked at her fingernails, then whispered, "You don't know what? It feels like there's something you're not saying."
"Did you know you were going to leave prom night?" I asked, trying to hold my voice steady and failing.
"Yes," she whispered.
"When did you know?" I felt my heart ripping open again, but it was something that had been bugging me more and more since she'd come back.
"Right after spring break. That's when I got my acceptance letter to Miami."
"For weeks…weeks, Bella, you knew and didn't tell me. Why? Damnit, why didn't you tell me sooner?" The question had come out much harsher than I'd meant it to, but my pain and anger were getting the best of me and I was really struggling to keep a lid on my emotions.
She finally glanced up at me with tears pooling in her eyes, making them look like liquid pools of dark whiskey. I watched one roll down her cheek as she started to speak.
I wanted to reach out and wipe it away, but I held myself back.
"Because I couldn't," she cried. "Because I was weak and selfish and wanted to have as much time as I could with you before I left."
I didn't know what to say. So many thoughts were swirling in my head that, "Wow," was all I could manage to say.
Apparently, Bella wasn't finished and went on to say, "Was it wrong and horrible of me to keep it from you? Yes, Edward, it was. Yes, I was a selfish, bitch who was weak and held on to you until the very last possible second, I could. But I only did it because it was absolutely the only way for me to survive leaving.
"You seem to be under the impression that my leaving only hurt you and those I left behind. But that's where you are wrong. So fucking wrong. It broke my heart too, Edward. I love—loved you with all my heart, that part was real. That part was never a lie. And I am so fucking sorry I hurt you. But I hurt too and I couldn't bear not to hold on until the very last minute."
"If it hurt so bad, then how could you leave me?"
"I'm sorry," she said again. "I guess I was foolish enough to think that you'd understand how, why I left once you knew the whole story. That you could see beyond your own pain and maybe understand the pain I was in. I know I probably don't deserve your forgiveness, but I was hoping that maybe somehow you could find it in your heart to forgive me anyways. That maybe you'd just be willing to try to. Guess I was wrong."
Bella looked away and sighed as she wiped away the tears streaming down her face. She glanced over at me again quickly and mumbled a quick goodbye. With her shoulders slumped and her head down, she then climbed out of the truck and never looked back before she entered the house.
It wasn't a long drive back to the barn where my loft was, but the entire time all I could see was the completely broken and defeated look on Bella's face and the tears streaming down her cheeks. Seeing her pain, hearing it in her words, affected me far more than I ever imagined it would at this point. Why hadn't I ever considered that she had been hurt too? Was I simply blinded by my own pain, or was I really that big of an insensitive jackass? Maybe it was both?
Did I really want to know? I didn't think I was a heartless bastard.
By the time I was back at the barn my frustration was boiling over. "Dammit," I yelled as I slid out of the truck and grabbed the cooler from the back. Unable to hold it in any longer, without thinking I slammed the cooler to the ground and walked away, not caring that the contents spilled out all over the place. I was done with this night.
The next morning as I went to make my way out to clean up the mess I'd left I was shocked by what I found stuck under the windshield wiper of my truck. Sitting there, slightly flapping in the steady breeze that was blowing, was the polaroid picture of Bella and me on the ferris wheel at the carnival we'd stopped at after we'd left our senior prom.
Images from that night hit me like a freight train. It was like there had been magic in the air. Her laughter had been magic as she'd tried to climb into the seat of the ride in her prom dress. The way she'd kissed me when we were stuck at the top. The taste of her lips was the best thing in the world. I found myself licking my lips trying to recall how it was. How it felt to hold her in my arms and the way we couldn't say goodbye that night. We just kept kissing.
She'd held on to this picture all this time. Turning it over I saw a sticky note on it that said, "In case you don't remember."
*SPC- storm prediction center
*Enhanced Fujita Scale for Tornadoes
EF-0 65*85 mph winds
EF-1 86-110 mph
EF-2 111-135 mph
EF-3 136-165 mph
EF-4 166-200 mph
EF-5 greater than 200 mph
*** According to NOAA and if a tornado is imminent and you are forced to stay in your car, the NWS- National Weather Service recommends keeping your seat belt on and making sure your head is covered, below your windshield and windows to protect it from glass. The Red Cross recommends covering your head with a blanket, if you have one in the car.
And never hide under an overpass. What Edward said about using them as a shelter in a tornado is true.
I hope you all enjoyed it. I can't wait to see what you thought.
Thanks for reading,
~EA