Surprise! No, your eyes are not deceiving you. This really is an update! All I can say is, I am just as sad as you that it's taken this long. But I can promise you this story will be finished. And I must send a huge thank you to My-Bella. I couldn't do this without her!

When we last left these two they'd spent the morning horseback riding and got caught in a rainstorm. Bella showered at Edward's, he loaned her some clothes and made them lunch before he had to go off and help Emmett with some work around the ranch. Then promised he'd come get her later. That's where we pick up with this chapter. Let's go see where he takes her?

Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own Twilight or any of its characters. I just like to rewrite their lives.

Drunk On You

You're lookin' so good in what's left of those blue jeans
Drip of honey on the money make it gotta be
The best buzz I'm ever gonna find
Hey, I'm a little drunk on you
And high on summertime

Drunk On You, by Luke Bryan

~Bella~

Edward had texted me about a half hour ago saying he was taking a quick shower and would be right up. Tying my converse, I heard the rumble of Edward's motorcycle coming closer to the house. I quickly shoved my phone and wallet into a small crossbody purse so I wouldn't have to worry about dropping it while on the bike with him.

"I'm heading out with Edward," I called as I quickly made my way down the stairs and out the kitchen door.

"Have fun, honey," Mae called after me.

The bike came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs. Shutting off the bike Edward put his feet down, balancing it between his legs. The sound of the screen door smacking the frame must have caught Edward's attention, because he quickly looked in my direction. Pulling his aviators off, his eyes roamed over me from head to toe before finally settling on my eyes. The intensity of his gaze had me suddenly feeling like I was in an oven and someone had just turned up the heat.

"You ready?" he asked as I stopped on the bottom step of the porch.

I opened my mouth to reply, but was unable to form even something as simple as a "yes." I couldn't even nod in response. In that moment he had me rendered completely and totally brain dead by the sight of him sitting on his bike. Everything from his flannel shirt, his aviator sunglasses, to his jeans hugging his legs as they wrapped around his bike—the man screamed sex appeal.

Blinking a couple times, I was about to regain control of my senses, only to be stunned again by his lopsided smirk, telling me he was fully aware of the way he made my blood feel like lava flowing through my veins. Where's one of those late summer afternoon downpours when a girl needs one to cool her off?

"I don't suppose you somehow got a jacket in there?"

"Huh?"

His smirk turned into a full-on panty melting smile. "You got room in that tiny thing for a jacket?" He nodded in the direction of my small purse.

"Nope," I replied, finally able to speak. I looked down at the jeans and t-shirt I was wearing. "This not enough? Its August in Oklahoma, Edward. Hardly cold this time of the year."

"I know it's not cold out, but the wind can be a bit much when you're not used to it."

A gust of cold air would be real welcome right about now.

"Okay just let me run back in and get one," I said, motioning with my thumb back towards the house and turning towards the house.

"Here, he called, pulling off the flannel shirt he had on over a t-shirt and tossed it at me.

"You know I didn't get cold the other day," I told him while taking the shirt and trying not to let him catch me reveling his scent that lingered on it.

"Right, but it was the middle of the day, and warmer. The rain earlier and clouds we got now cooled the temps a little and the sun will be going down before we get back. Trust me, you'll want the shirt."

"If the air is gonna be so chilly, won't you need it?" I countered. I used to love wearing his shirts and he had always said how much it turned him on seeing me in his clothes. Said it remined him and everyone else of just how much I was his. Was that possessive side of him waking up again? If so I wasn't gonna complain.

"I'll be fine, Kitten. I'm used to it."

Rolling my eyes at him, I humored him and put his shirt on. With Edward being nearly a foot taller than me his shirts were almost long enough to be a dress on my shorter frame. Once I'd rolled up the sleeves a bit and tied it at my waist to take up the extra length of it, I was ready to go.

I looked up just in time to catch him looking me up and down. "Like what you see, Edward?"

"Two can play this game, Cullen." With a knowing smile on my face, I took the helmet he was holding out to me. "Thanks."

I was glad I had decided to braid my hair so it wouldn't be blowing around in my face. After securing the helmet strap under my chin I took the hand Edward offered as I threw my leg over the seat of his bike and climbed on.

"Feet on the pegs?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Remember, like last time, if the bike leans, lean with it. Okay?"

"Got it."

"One last thing," he said as he leaned forward. "Hang on to this for me?" he asked, removing his hat from the handlebar of the bike.

"Sure," I said a little unsteadily, realizing it was the hat I'd given him when we'd visited a college we'd both been considering. The one he went to without me.

Your fault, not his. I reminded myself. Plus, we were working past that and doing pretty good at it, I thought. Still, I was surprised. Not only that he still had it, but that he also wore it so often.

I undid the plastic tab on the back of the hat and closed it around the strap of my purse and then tucked them both between Edward and me. I didn't want to risk holding on to his hat and accidentally letting go of it should I change the position of my hands. Though I knew I'd likely not be letting go of Edward the whole ride.

That's not a bad thing. Nothing bad about it at all. It was fucking amazing. Any reason I had to put my hands on him, I'd gladly take. And I didn't ever want to let go.

"Ready?

"Yes," I answered, leaning closer to him and sliding my arms around until my hands were holding on to his waist.

"Hold on, Kitten, here we go," he said as he switched the bike into gear and we took off.

"Shit!" I cursed, looping my fingers around the belt loops of his jeans, causing Edward to laugh. Only being my second time on one, I wasn't used to the way the bike shot off and the momentum pulling you backwards a bit. Almost like the kickback when you shot a riffle.

A few minutes later once we were off the bumpy gravel driveway of the ranch and on the smooth paved surface of the road, I was able to relax and enjoy being behind Edward on his bike. My purse had come out from between us, and I could feel it and his hat flapping against my thigh as we rode on. Hesitant about letting go, even with one hand, I decided it might be best to tuck it back in between us as I wondered where he was taking us. He'd mentioned maybe grabbing something to eat and that we'd be gone past sunset. However, it didn't really matter to me at that moment. I took in the scenery all around us as we passed it by. The countryside was truly beautiful. But what was more compelling was the scenery in front of me. The man I had my arms and legs around. Yes. I was absolutely content to stay right where I was. Leaning against him, I closed my eyes and breathed in his freshly showered scent. Mmmm…heaven.

Knowing we were heading in the direction of town, that meant we had a fifteen-to-twenty-minute ride ahead of us. Unless Edward changed course somewhere, but I just couldn't come up with anyplace that would cause him to do so. Even our favorite spot down by Old Miller Road was on the other side of town. Adjusting the hat as it started to come loose again, my thoughts went back to our trip to Norman years ago during our senior year in high school. I'd gotten it for him when we'd gone to explore a college there with a meteorology program. The campus and the program had blown us away and we'd decided that day it was our first choice. Shortly before heading home, we'd stopped into the bookstore to grab a snack and something to drink. A few days before our trip Edward had lost his favorite hat to the tractor. He'd been helping his uncle in the fields when a gust of wind had plucked it off his head and freakishly blew it right into the path where it had gotten sucked up under the mower blade attached to the tractor. So, when I'd seen the Oklahoma University hat, I'd had to get it for him. From then on, he'd started wearing them backwards while riding the tractor if there was the slightest hint of a breeze. I never imagined he'd still be wearing that hat today, especially after how things went down between us. But despite it being extremely worn and dirty, he did.

Just the thought of it made me smile, the fact that he'd hung on to something so personal from me after all this time. My smile widening and butterflies taking flight in my belly, I leaned forward against him and tightened my arms around him. I was so grateful to have this second chance with him.

We hit a bump in the road, causing me to yelp and tighten my grip on Edward. I could feel his body shake as he laughed at my expense. I fought the urge to smack or pinch him, but only because he was driving this contraption we were on and I didn't want to risk doing anything unsafe.

"You'll pay for that, Cullen," I said to myself, wondering if he did it on purpose.

By the time we reached our destination, I was grateful. Not only had we hit a few more bumps, but as much as I enjoyed having my arms and legs wrapped around Edward, the combination of him being so close and the vibrations of the bike had me a mess and aching for a certain kind of relief I hadn't needed so badly in quite some time. It had me re-thinking our agreement to take things slow, especially the physical side of things. I wasn't sure how much longer I'd be able to wait. Not only had it been a while for me, knowing what it was like to be with Edward, what an amazing lover he was, made it all that much more difficult. Of course, we'd only been eighteen back then and neither of us had been with anyone else so what did we really have to compare it to? Nothing. That line of thought led me down the road of entertaining the idea of Edward having been with anyone else in our time apart.

"You don't have any right to wonder about that, Bella," I scolded myself. And while I knew that was true, given I'd left Edward and left behind any claim I had on what he did and whom he did it with. But my heart had a harder time deciding how it felt about Edward being so intimate with anyone else.

I was surprised when I heard Edward calling my name and I suddenly realized we'd come to a stop in the parking lot of The Bar.

"You fall asleep back there, Kitten?" he teased.

"No, uh, I was just daydreaming a bit and lost in my thoughts."

Edward flipped the ignition switch, and the bike was suddenly silent. Although I still felt like I was vibrating. "Must have been some daydream," he said with a chuckle, pulling his helmet off.

You have no idea.

I removed my helmet and handed it to him to hang on the handlebars along with his and smoothed back the hair that had come loose from my long French braid during the ride.

"You hop off first, Kitten." He'd been using my old nickname more today than any other time since I'd come back. It made me hope his level of comfort in the progress of our relationship was growing. I knew I was at a point where I didn't feel like I needed to be worried something from our past—me leaving—was going to pop up and ruin things. And while Edward had seemed a bit hesitant before, and at times guarded with his emotions, today he appeared to be completely relaxed and all in this with me.

Holding on to Edward, I slid off the bike and waited for him to do the same. He quickly moved the kickstand into place with the heel of his shoe and hiked his long leg over the bike with ease.

"Ready?" he asked, holding his hand out. "Hat please."

"Sure, but what are we doing here?" I handed him his hat and watched as he ran his fingers through his hair and then slid the hat on backwards, holding his hand out once again. This time I placed my hand in his, smiling brightly at him, all the while doing a huge jump for joy inside knowing this was the first time we'd be walking in somewhere as a couple publicly.

Kiss my ass, Tanya, ran through my head before I could stop it.

Edward pulled the door open for us and in we went. The smell of beer and fried foods assaulted me instantly, causing my stomach to growl in hunger as we made our way over to the bar where Jack had his back to us, calling some orders back to his kitchen staff.

"What's it take to get a beer in this crappy joint?" Edward called out sarcastically to his friend. I couldn't help giggling. Something told me these two carried on much like Edward did with Jasper and Emmett.

Jack stopped what he was doing, chuckling and shaking his head he turned around. "Didn't you hear? We don't serve assholes in this upstanding crappy joint." He crossed the short distance to where we were and leaned on the bar right in front of me. Winking at me and flashing a megawatt smile that surely made all the local ladies swoon, he stated, "However, this here sweet little thing can have whatever her little heart desires. What's your poison, darlin'?"

"We'll both have a bottle of Guinness," Edward replied, giving Jack a playful shove. "You hungry, Kitten? Jack's chef, Dave, makes a fantastic cheeseburger with these little fried onion pieces and homemade bar-b-que sauce."

"Sounds great, I'm starved. Share some fries with me?" I suggested.

"Make it two fries, I'm quite hungry myself," Edward said before we both noticed Jack standing there watching us, looking back and forth between us, with a curious smirk on his face.

"Kitten? It's Kitten now, is it?" Jack asked, taking notice of how Edward had his foot resting on the back of my stool, basically sitting me between his legs. Wagging his finger back and forth, he added, "You two work shit out? Everything all good?"

"We're working on it," Edward said, draping his arm around me and pulling me to him for a quick kiss.

"That's great, man," Jack told Edward and then turned to me. "But you," he declared, pointing his finger at me, "you know where to find me if you decide you want a real man." He then wagged his eyebrows and turned to call out our order before either Edward or me could say anything. Once the order was placed Jack made his way back over to us. "So what brings you two in here today? I know Dave's burger is good, but this isn't exactly around the corner form the ranch."

"Actually, we came to see you."

Jack's hand that was raising a bottle of water to his mouth stopped midway. Setting his drink on the smooth mahogany wood bar, he turned his back to Edward and leaned in close to me on the bar. "Well, that was fast, darlin', I knew you'd get tired of weather boy over here." He nodded his head in Edward's direction. "But aren't you a feisty little thing doing it right here in front of him."

"Knock it off, ass. She said we, as in we both came to see you." Edward clarified, motioning to the two of us with his beer bottle before taking a long drink from it. It was a possessive side of him I'd not seen in a long time.

"We need your plumbing services. You know the ones you offered the other day," I added.

"Oh, sweetheart, I will lay some pipe for you any day."

I could feel my face heating and no doubt turning red. "Oh my God, stop!" I begged. "Are you always this obnoxious?"

"Obnoxious? Oh darlin' I haven't even gotten started yet." I felt saved by the bell when the chef rang one, alerting Jack that our orders were ready. Jack winked and spun around to grab them from the serving counter between the bar area and the kitchen behind it.

A few other people came in so Jack left us to our food as he went off and took care of them. We were just about finished by the time he made his way back over to us. I could see why Jack was so popular with the ladies. He was by all rights a gorgeous man, very alluring. His long blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail showing off his strong jaw covered by a beard. Jack had a gorgeous smile that caused his eyes to crinkle a little when it was full, and deep ocean blue eyes, framed by dark lashes that would make most women jealous. Come to think of it, Edward had thick full lashes too, which was absolutely unfair. Why did women have to use makeup and false lashes to get what they seemed to have naturally and they didn't even care. And holy biceps his arms were thick and muscular. The plain white t-shirt he was wearing only made them more noticeable. Might as well have had a neon sign on them with the way his shirt stretched across the bulges showing them off. I suspected Jack knew he was good looking and liked to use it to his advantage, but I didn't think he was conceited. He was just very confident in his prowess when it came to getting what he wanted. It was more like he knew the women thought he was good looking. And while he was a constant flirt, and seemed to be a smidge of a showoff, he still came across as a genuinely nice guy. I could only imagine the heads he and Edward had turned in college. Poor girls probably had whiplash seeing them go by. Especially when together. Not that I particularly wanted to think about Edward's college conquests. But before I could fall down that rabbit hole too deeply again, I was saved by the sound of Jack's voice.

"So when are you in need of my services?" he asked in a semi-serious tone.

Swallowing my food, I cleared my throat. "Does that mean you'll help us?"

I internally braced myself waiting for him to sling some sexually charged comment back at me.

"Yeah, weekends usually work best for me since I have extra help here in the bar on those days."

"That works since I am usually working during the week too," I agreed.

"Where's this house we're working on at?"

"It's old Chief Swan's place," Edward added with an edge of unease in his voice. My father wasn't quite as high on Edward's list of favorite people with the knowledge he'd gained about Charlie's role in my leaving.

"That's right," Jack replied. "I forgot you're Emmett's sister since you ain't been around since I moved here." Jack raised a finger for us to hold on while he refilled the mug of another customer.

I could've sworn I'd seen Edward flinch just barely at Jack's comment. I'd thought we were moving past me leaving, but maybe not quite as well as I'd been thinking. I made a mental note to ask him about it later.

Edward reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. He laid his card on the counter and motioned to Jack to head back over here. Then looking to me he asked, "You 'bout ready?"

"Yeah."

"Can I get y'all another round before you go?"

"Naw, man, thanks but we're on the bike today, but we'll take a couple bottles of water if ya don't mind."

"Sure thing." Jake took his card and went to run it.

"I'm gonna go use the restroom, I'll be right back." I scooted off the stool, brushing Edward's hand with mine as I did. He grabbed hold of it and pulled me in for a kiss before letting me go.

When I returned Edward stood and handed me a slip of paper. "Jack's cell number and here too. He said to give him a call around Thursday and let him know what time to meet ya at the house."

"Okay." I looked around for Jack to thank him, but saw he was busy chatting it up with some little blonde at the end of the bar.

I followed Edward towards the door while stuffing the paper in my purse.

"Later, guys," Jack called just as Edward pulled the door open.

"Thanks," Edward called back, both of us waving on our way out.

"Where to now?" I asked, taking the helmet Edward held out for me.

"You'll see." He smirked and climbed onto the bike, bringing it to life with a loud rumble of the engine. I smiled and climbed on behind him, knowing at that moment, he could take me anywhere and I'd not care one bit as long as I was with him.

It didn't take long to realize where Edward was taking us. As soon as he took the turn for Old Mill Road I knew exactly where we were headed. This time instead of staying on the road, Edward took the bike off the road and onto the trail that rain along train tracks. Following along the tracks took us less time to reach the spot where we usually sat under a big old oak tree and watched the sun set over the horizon, but when Edward yelled hold on, I wasn't prepared for what he was about to do and I couldn't hold in the scream that came out. He gunned the throttle and took off up the hill. As the bike shot up the dirt path, I could feel him chuckling the whole way at my reaction as I held on for fear of sliding off the seat backwards.

"You ass," I screamed, smacking him on the arm as the bike finally stopped at the top.

"What'd I do?" He turned to face me and was trying to act all serious but the sparkle in his eyes told me he knew exactly what I was talking about.

"You could have warned me." I hopped of the bike and folded my arms across my chest. Yeah, he did startle me a bit but I could hardly be mad at him when it was just as exciting as it was scary.

"I did. I told you to hold on," he claimed in his defense.

"Yeah, over the roaring of the bike. What if I hadn't heard you, you… you, butthead."

"Butthead? What are we like twelve again?"

I doubled over laughing at how ridiculous I'd sounded. "It was the first thing that came to mind that wasn't too mean."

"So you wanted to yell at me but not be too mean?" He quirked an eyebrow at me as he grabbed hold of my belt loops and pulled me closer to him as he still straddled his bike.

I nodded.

"I'm sorry. You're right, I should have warned you ahead of time. I forgot that you've only been on the bike a couple times. Am I forgiven?

"I suppose."

He leaned forward to kiss me, only for the helmets we both still had on to bang together, making us both laugh again.

"Why'd you come all the way up here anyways?" I asked. I looked around at the parking lot and playground that over looked the tracks and river beyond it. He could have parked the bike down below so we could walk up the hill to our spot. Unless… "Edward Anthony, were you trying to spook me on purpose?"

"What? No."

"Then why are we up here?"

"Because we need a flat smooth surface for you to drive the bike on."

"A what for what?" Surely, I'd misheard him. There was no way I was driving that thing.

A/N Looks like Bella has another of Edward's shirts. Lucky girl. How many of you think Edward will get her on the bike by herself, and who doesn't. Would you? Let me know.

Thank you to everyone who is still here with me.

EA