Eleven

*Edward*

I groaned and slowly rolled away from Bella and onto my other side as the alarm started going off the next morning.

The twenty minutes I’d promised her last night had turned into thirty and then forty and then an entire hour as I sat down in the dining room with Alice, letting her yap on and on about how great Bella was and how she’d stuck her foot in her mouth and felt really bad and blah, blah, blah.

I’d honestly stopped listening when she started going on about what Jasper did on a daily basis to piss her off. When she was done with that list, she then went on to tell me about what he did to apologize.

I had never realized how tightly she had him wrapped around her tiny little fingers until that moment and I prayed to God that I would never be as bad as that.

I was getting there, but I really hoped that I’d never have to buy Bella an entire house just to make up for something stupid that I’d done.

Yes, a house. And it wasn’t really a house, either. They were now the proud owners of an entire castle in Switzerland.

I had managed to escape when the twenty minutes were up, though. I’d walked upstairs long enough to use the bathroom and was armed with a perfectly good excuse when Bella questioned me to find that she was already asleep. On top of the blankets, on her back, wearing just my old t-shirt with her hair fanned out around her and one of the most peaceful looks I think I’d ever seen on her face.

It had been very hard to close the door and walk back downstairs to finish talking to my baby sister.

Then finally after an hour, Alice yawned. And that had been all it took to make her pop up from the chair and shuffle her way into the living room, throwing a last minute “Goodnight, Edward” out over her shoulder.

I’d never run up those stairs so damn fast before.

And I’d been peacefully sleeping with the woman who continued to breathe and moan my name in her sleep on occasion until that damned alarm clock began incessantly beeping at me.

I blindly began swinging my arm out next to me, hoping that I was at least in the vicinity of the alarm clock when I felt Bella press herself against my back and reach over me to shut it off.

“Go back to sleep,” she whispered into my ear, pressing a kiss to the base of my jaw.

“No,” I mumbled, yawning and grabbing her arm to wrap it around me before she could move too far. “I should get up.”

“It’s five in the morning. Go back to sleep.”

I groaned, yawning again as I stroked the back of her hand with my thumb.

“Christ, Bella. The sun isn’t even up yet.”

She laughed drowsily and kissed my jaw again.

“I’ve got a shipment of books coming in this morning. I need to be there early.”

I made some sort of noise in acknowledgement, squeezing her hand before finally letting her get up.

My body wasn’t going to cooperate with me no matter how much I wanted it to so I grunted when she got out of bed and rolled back over, burrowing into the warm spot she’d just left.

I heard the water in the bathroom start a few minutes later and argued with myself for the next fifteen minutes about making my body move. All I had to do was roll over, put my feet on the extremely cold hardwood floor and stand up. That was all I needed to do.

Sinking my nose into the pillow Bella used at night and inhaling the scent of her shampoo wasn’t really helping me out any.

She’d ended up bringing over her own shampoo and all the girly things she apparently needed to use in the morning, causing me to stand in my bathroom for ten minutes every morning trying to figure out what she needed a puffy mesh sponge thing for.

I’d never understand women and their grooming habits.

But I didn’t mind it. For all I cared, she could move everything she still owned over here and I wouldn’t give two shits about any of it.

At least there was a bed over here. And I was over here. And I wanted her wherever I was for as long as fucking possible.

I stayed where I was even after I heard the water heater shut off and listened as Bella shuffled quietly down the stairs when she was finished in the bathroom a little while later.

Yawning yet again, I stretched and finally made myself roll over and put my feet on the floor. She was up and I should be, too. I wanted to kiss her before she went off to work and ask her if she had plans for lunch.

I’m sure Alice would enjoy that.

Standing up, I bent backwards, stretching my arms above my head again before walking out of the bedroom and into the hallway.

I stopped when I heard Alice’s voice and pursed my lips, narrowing my eyes slightly.

She was still intruding on my time with my girlfriend. Just because she was staying on the couch and had always been one of those cheerful morning people didn’t mean that she could just steal the few precious moments I’d have with an unstressed Bella for the majority of the day.

“Bella,” Alice’s clear, quiet voice floated up the stairs. “I want you to know that I didn’t mean to offend you last night.”

I smirked and shook my head, listening intently to the burgeoning conversation below me.

I heard Bella stirring her coffee, the spoon clanging against the sides of the mug. I smiled softly and leaned my head against the wall as well.

It was nice to know that she was making herself comfortable in my home. I liked that she took it upon herself to either make the coffee or pour herself a cup without thinking twice about it.

“It’s okay, Alice.”

“No,” she sighed heavily. “It’s not.”

“Alice…”

I almost snorted. If Bella really believed that she’d be getting out of the house without hearing my sister’s full fledged apology, she was out of her mind.

“You mean a lot to him, Bella.”

They were both quiet and I closed my eyes, holding my breath as I silently cursed Alice up one side and down the other.

She had a very bad habit of saying entirely too much at the wrong times. All the time, actually and I really didn’t want her to blurt out what she thought I felt for Bella.

I was standing up straight, very much intent on walking my ass down those damn stairs to rudely interrupt whatever might be flowing out of Alice’s mouth next when I heard Bella’s voice again.

“He means a lot to me, too, Alice.”

And the smile on my face was impossible to stop from happening. Relaxing slightly, I leaned back against the wall and kept listening for any indications that I’d need to break up the conversation.

“It… uhm…” She laughed lightly. “It happened so fast with him, you know?”

“Is that bad?”

She was quiet again and I felt my heart drop into my stomach as my hands tightened around my arms.

“No,” she said softly, almost too low for me to hear it. “God, no. Alice, your brother has… I’ve never felt like this for anyone before.”

The smile was back and my heart was back in my chest where it should’ve been, the death grip I had on my arms loosening as I rested my head against the wall again.

“It’s been really hard for him to find someone that wasn’t out to wring him dry and leave him. He’s had a really hard time connecting with anyone else.”

I rolled my eyes, turning to press my back against the wall and slowly slid down it, stretching my legs out in front of me and placing my hands on the floor on either side of me.

“But when he talked about you on the phone and then when I saw him at the airport with that stupid hat on his head,” she laughed softly and I could picture her shaking her head, “thinking about you, it was pretty obvious that you were different.”

Once again, they were both quiet and I leaned my head back, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath.

“And when I finally saw you two together, it was even more obvious. He has real feelings for you, Bella.”

Complete silence covered the house and I wanted to slam my head back against the wall as hard as I could.

I was going to staple her damn lips together. It was the only way I could be sure that she wouldn’t say anything more.

“I uhm…” I heard Bella clear her throat and tilted my head toward the stairs, listening carefully, “I’m falling in love with him, Alice.”

My mouth dropped open and every muscle in my body turned into something close to molten liquid. My back was almost on the floor before I realized that I’d been sliding even further down the wall and I let it happen, rolling over onto my stomach and peeking through the spaces in the railing to see that they were both seated at the dining room table.

Bella had her hands wrapped around her coffee mug, her bottom lip in her mouth and her eyes shifting from the mug and back to my sister cautiously. Alice’s back was to me, but I could see that every inch of her was stiff and tense.

I swallowed hard, gripping the edge of the top step and pulling myself a little closer to the railing.

“Could you answer one question for me really quickly, Bella?”

She nodded, staring down into her coffee and chewing on her bottom lip.

I’d really need to try convincing her to stop doing that. Her lips were so damn perfect and if she chewed on them much more, she’d eventually just chew them off.

“He said that you broke up with your boyfriend.”

Bella nodded again, sparing a glance up at Alice before looking back to her coffee again.

“I assume that was recently?”

Once again, Bella’s head bobbed in a positive answer.

“My brother isn’t just a rebound guy to you, is he? You’re not using him to get over someone else?”

“No!” Bella said quickly, her eyes wide as she looked up at Alice again. “No, Alice, God no! I’m with him for him. Jake’s out of my life; he’s gone. I want Edward. I’ve never wanted anyone else like this.”

Even though my bones were still mush and my mind was still running a million miles a minute at those words – that beautiful, gorgeous, stunning “I’m falling in love with him” confession – I still managed to smile like a dumbass.

It even managed to stave off the incredible desire I felt to attempt murdering my sister for about a second.

Alice nodded, lifting her chin regally as she sipped off of her black coffee.

And just that little gesture had me wanting to lunge at her, wrap my fingers around her scrawny neck and begin strangling her. Wasn’t she the one that had reassured me that she knew that Bella wasn’t like that? Wasn’t she the one that had been declaring that I was in love with her yesterday afternoon?

What happened to all of that?

Just as I was beginning to pull myself up when I felt that my bones had started to solidify once more, I heard Bella’s sharp intake of breath.

“I’m not like any of the ones he’s dated before,” she started quietly, splaying her hands on the table and staring down at them, “I’m not rich or famous and I don’t really have all that much to offer him.”

I narrowed my eyes at her, sitting on the top step and staring hard at her. At this point, I didn’t care if she saw me. She was supposed to be past all of this; she was supposed to know better.

“But nothing can compare to the way I feel when I’m with him,” she said softly, a small smile playing at the corners of her lips. “The rest of the world disappears when I’m with him and he’s nothing more than my boyfriend. And I know that it won’t always be that way because he’s got a life to get back to pretty soon, but I know that I’m going to do whatever I can to make it work. I care about him, I’m falling in love with him and I’m not going to lose him.”

There was a slight pull in my chest, like my heart was demanding that I walk down the rest of the stairs and hold onto the beautiful brunette who had just declared that she was falling in love with me.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, Bella,” Alice started just as softly, reaching one hand out to place it over Bella’s. “I just don’t want to see my brother hurt.”

“And I’m not out to hurt him, Alice. I’m gonna try not to, but I’m not perfect.”

She shrugged one shoulder and I leaned forward, resting my elbow on my knee and my cheek in my hand as I smirked lazily at her.

Ah, if only she could see the way she looked to me, she wouldn’t be saying or thinking anything like that.

“I never want to hurt him.”

“I’m sorry for prying or coming on too strong.”

I rolled my eyes and barely resisted the urge to scoff. That was putting it mildly.

“You’re protecting your family.” She shrugged one shoulder again, lifting the coffee cup to her lips. “It’s nice to see.”

“I do like you.” Alice laughed then, that light tinkling sound that she’d inherited from our mother. “And I really do feel bad if I offended you or hurt you in any way last night or this morning.”

“So we’ll start over.” Bella sat up straight, squared her shoulders and held out her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Alice. I’m Bella and I’m falling in love with your brother.”

I grinned when Alice laughed and stood up, bypassing Bella’s hand to reach out and hug her tightly. Figuring that the questioning was finally over, I stood up and started down the stairs.

I met Bella’s eyes as she looked up and smiled widely, walking over to her when Alice sat back down and gently kissing her cheek.

“How are my girls this morning?” I asked cheerfully as I walked into the kitchen.

“Fine,” Bella called out behind me.

I smiled smugly to myself when I heard the smile in her voice and grabbed a mug out of the cabinet.

“Why are you so happy?” Alice demanded. “You hate mornings.”

I poured myself some coffee and walked into the kitchen, sitting down next to Bella and leaning back in my chair, grinning.

“They’re getting better,” I said cheerfully, raising the mug to my lips.

“Shit!” I jumped when Bella shouted, immediately leaning forward and slamming my mug on the table. “I have to go!”

My heart slowed and I began breathing easily again. It was absolutely amazing how one simple shout from her could make me paranoid.

She jumped up from her chair, grabbing her empty coffee mug and sprinting into the kitchen to place it in the sink.

“I’ll see you guys later.”

She walked back over to me, planting a kiss against my cheek and absently placing her hand on my shoulder as she did so.

“What time do you eat lunch?” I asked, quickly reaching out to hook my arm around her waist.

“Whenever,” she shrugged, trying to wiggle out of my grasp. “I have to go!”

She was laughing as she finally pushed my arm off of her and quickly walked into the living room. I jumped up from the table, ignoring Alice’s smug look as I followed after her.

“We’ll come in around one-thirty, okay?”

She stopped struggling with her coat and turned to me, her head tilted before she smiled and walked over to kiss me. My arms immediately wrapped around her waist again, suddenly not at all willing to let her go.

“Sounds perfect.”

“Have a good day,” I mumbled, kissing her again.

“Yeah, thanks,” she scoffed, sighing heavily even as she surrendered one more kiss. “Let me go.”

“Why do you wanna leave me, Bella?” I whispered, smiling as I brushed my lips against hers.

“I don’t want to,” she whispered back, her arms lazily reaching up to loosely circle my neck. “But not all of us are highly paid actors.”

“Low blow,” I mumbled, gently kissing her top lip.

“But true.” She kissed me again, her arms falling from around my shoulders as she finished shrugging into her coat. “One-thirty?”

I nodded, smiling as I finally let her go and watched as she reached out to grab her purse and keys from the table next to the door.

“We’ll be there.”

“You better be.”

She grabbed the doorknob and flung the door open, taking one step forward before turning back around and kissing me again.

“Bye,” she whispered, kissing my cheek and turning to disappear out the door.

“Bye Alice!” she called over her shoulder before the door slammed shut behind her.

I watched through the window as she ran across the road and immediately jumped into her truck, taking off a few seconds after she’d started it.

“Did you hear everything you wanted to know?” Alice’s calm voice came from the kitchen.

I continued to stand at the window, staring out at Bella’s empty driveway. I wasn’t going to question how she knew that I’d heard everything the two of them had said a few minutes ago. It would probably only confuse me, make me wonder what rock my parents had found her under and would ultimately get me nowhere.

“What was with the inquisition, Alice? You promised.”

“None of that was for my benefit, Edward.”

I turned around slowly, walking back into the dining room and plopping down in my seat, crossing my arms over my chest and eyeing her from across the table.

“What?”

“Well, okay,” she sighed, leaning her elbows on the table and picking up her mug to hold it in between both hands, “it was a little for my benefit. But honestly, I don’t know how the hell she didn’t hear you up there.”

“I was not that loud.”

“I heard you.”

“You hear everything,” I mumbled, pouting slightly.

She nodded in acknowledgement, leaning back in her chair and grabbing her coffee mug, mimicking my position before taking a sip.

“It sounded like you were squirming around on the floor.”

I eyed her again, drawing my eyebrows together as I lifted the mug to my lips and slowly sipped off of it.

She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“You’re pathetic. I don’t know what she sees in you, you know.”

“Thanks,” I drawled, crossing my ankles underneath the table.

“She’s got a good head on her shoulders, she isn’t living in a fantasy land like that one blonde psycho you dated about a year ago, she seems to know what kind of a dumbass you are and she’s falling in love with you anyway.”

I grinned and leaned forward, resting my mug back on the table and watching her.

I’d chosen to ignore the dumbass comment. I was focusing more on the whole love part again.

“What’s the difference?”

“The difference between Bella and the psycho?”

“No!” I rolled my eyes and ran my hands through my messy hair, sighing heavily. “Between falling and being.”

“In love?”

I closed my eyes tightly and moved my hands from my hair to smack them against my face.

One more day. One more day and she was back on a plane headed for Washington where I wouldn’t have to deal with her until the twenty-second.

“Yes,” I said through my teeth, loudly dropping my hands onto the table and staring at her. “What’s the difference?”

“Not much.”

“But there is a difference.”

“Have you never truly been in love, big brother?”

She narrowed her eyes at me, tapping her wedding ring against the side of the mug and studying me carefully.

“No,” I said evenly, leaning back in my chair to cross my arms over my chest again. “I haven’t.”

It was the truth. Sure, there had been a few girls that I’d gotten close to and a few more that had the potential to be something more, but none had come even close to being in love. And then there were the others that wanted nothing more than exposure and a jumpstart to their own career, merely using me for whatever they could before walking out of my life without a backwards glance when they finally got that call from that agent they’d been looking for.

I’d just started to accept that it wasn’t meant to be for me. Being completely and totally consumed by someone and trusting someone else enough to give up a large part of myself had stopped mattering to me all that much.

At least, it had until now.

But this wasn’t love; what Bella and I had wasn’t love yet, right? She said she was falling, not that she was there so there had to be a difference. And if Alice would just tell me what it was, maybe I’d be able to figure something out.

“Well, that explains a lot.”

“Would you just tell me?” I snapped, narrowing my eyes at her. “I wanna know what I have to do to get her there.”

“Get her where?”

“For someone who thinks she knows everything, you’re amazingly dim sometimes.”

“Why do you want her to be there?” she asked casually, sipping from her mug again. “If you’re so hell bent on not being in love with her yet, then why does it matter?”

“It just does!”

She raised an eyebrow at me, finishing off her coffee before setting the mug on the table and leaning forward.

“Admit it, Edward.”

“There’s nothing to admit!” I screeched, throwing my hands out at my sides.

She traced the rim of her mug with her pointer finger, thoughtfully tilting her head to the side as she continued to watch me.

“Okay,” she said simply, shrugging easily and getting up, grabbing her mug and walking into the kitchen.

I watched her, my eyes narrowed as she stuck it into the dishwasher and walked over to the refrigerator.

“So are you going to tell me what the difference is?”

“Nope,” she stated, popping the p as she pulled out a carton of eggs and walked to the stove.

“Why not?” I growled, crossing my arms over my chest again.

“You’ll know the difference when you feel it. Until then, I’m not saying another word about it.” She bent down and grabbed a pan from the bottom cabinet, snapping it on the stove and grabbing the cooking spray from the top cabinet. “Would you like some eggs?”

“No, I would like for you to tell me the difference!”

“Sucks for you,” she sang, tilting her head as she flicked the burners on and grabbed an egg.

“You’re infuriating!” I exclaimed, standing up and stomping up the stairs.

“I’m supposed to be!” she called out after me.

I walked into the bathroom and slammed the door, leaning back against it and glaring at the shower in front of me. My eyes landed on the puffy mesh sponge thing that Bella had hanging off the shower caddy and I felt my whole body relax.

I may not know what it was right now, but I knew that I was feeling something for Bella.

A lot came with being in love with someone. I knew that much. Expectations, dependence, and the sudden complete inability to think for myself without involving someone else into my thoughts wholeheartedly.

Was that something I’d been doing? Was I already incorporating Bella into everything I did and depending on her?

I began to pace back and forth in the small space, one hand in my hair and the other stuffed into my pajama pocket.

Of course I depended on her. She cleared my driveway out when it snowed, she made me dinner when she knew I was hungry, she kept me company when I was lonely and she was just there when I needed her to be.

She knew what I did for a living and had gone to great lengths to make sure that it was never a big issue between us. She’d even given me a damn cowboy hat to use when we went shopping, thinking so far ahead that she’d grabbed a bandana to cover my hair with.

No one else probably would’ve even given it a second thought.

But Bella did.

Because she cared about me.

Because she was falling in love with me and wanted to protect me from the crazy screaming fans I’d encountered that had made me uncomfortable.

She’d wanted to protect me from them the way I’d wanted to protect her from Jacob when he was still showing up.

But that didn’t mean that I was in love with her. I’d wanted her to be safe. That was all; nothing more and nothing less.

Just like I made her stay over here with me because I wanted her to get some sleep. I had no ulterior motive and she needed her sleep. So she was here, with me, exactly where I wanted her to be.

For the rest of my life.

I stopped in the middle of the bathroom, staring down at the sink with wide eyes as my hand fell from my hair and slapped against my thigh.

The rest of my life was a really long time. And not just for me, but for Bella, too. What if she didn’t want to stay that long? What if a few months from now, all the people following her every move and speculating about her on internet message boards finally started to take its toll and she didn’t want to be with me?

How would I do that? How would I get through something like that? Having Bella now, where no one that really mattered enough knew about us, completely secluded and distanced from prying eyes and camera flashes was perfect. How would I get through it if she left me because of all the things that would be taken away from her because of me?

I wouldn’t. There was no possible way that I would be able to survive living without Bella. Not now that I knew what being with her meant and how I felt when I just saw her.

Something inside of me snapped and popped, leaving me gasping for breath as I leaned forward and braced my hands on the sink. It wasn’t painful, just enormously shocking and surprising.

And that pull, that indescribable strong yank on my heart earlier when I heard her tell Alice that she was falling in love with me meant something. It was more than needing to be with her or seeing her all the time or falling asleep with her every night; it was more than that.

And it scared the fucking shit out of me. I’d never felt this way before. I’d never had every single part of me attached to someone else so strongly. And the attachment wasn’t with something flimsy like balloon ribbons; oh, no, they were like steel fucking cables that all had me attached to the one person in the world that I couldn’t live without.

“Alice!” I screamed, taking one large step toward the door and yanking it open when I managed to catch my breath again.

She was standing just outside the door, a plate of scrambled eggs in her hand as she stuffed a forkful in her mouth.

“Hm?” she hummed innocently, raising her eyebrows as she chewed.

“I hate you,” I grumbled.

“Figure it out yet?” she asked when she swallowed, completely ignoring what I said to her.

“It’s only been a few days,” I grumbled again, gripping onto the doorjamb and staring at her.

“It doesn’t take six months to fall in love, Edward,” she said calmly, stuffing another forkful of eggs into her mouth. “It took me about a minute to realize that I was in love with Jasper.”

I rolled my eyes, relaxing my fingertips on the door casing and taking a few more deep breaths.

She was always so over dramatic about the husband she’d claimed to need time away from a few days ago.

“I’m different from you.”

“Not by much.” Finishing the eggs on her plate, she gently poked my thigh with the fork before turning and walking down the stairs. “Now you just need to tell her.”

I collapsed against the doorjamb again, banging my head against it as I listened to her in the kitchen.

I couldn’t simply enjoy the way that I’d just started to feel; no, I had to immediately rush off to figure out a way to tell her. Oh, yeah, and it was just so damn simple, too.

As if I wouldn’t be pacing around the house trying to find the perfect way to tell her because Bella deserved perfection. Especially when it was something as important as this. As if I wouldn’t be tearing my hair out of my head because everything I’d think of would sound like a garbled, mangled pile of shit.

No, in Alice’s tiny little world of romance and perfection, it all was so damn simple.

“Say it!” she yelled up at me.

“Say what?” I yelled back down, starting to get a slight headache.

“Don’t be stupid, Edward! Say it!”

I stopped trying to bash my face into the wall and closed my eyes tightly, fisting both of my hands into my pockets and taking a deep breath.

“Don’t you think I should tell her first?” I asked, moving from the doorway to stand at the top of the stairs.

She was standing at the bottom, her arms crossed over her chest and her right toe tapping against the floor.

“Just say it!”

“Why?”

“If you can’t say it out loud to me, how are you going to actually tell her?”

“Have you always been such a pain in the ass?”

“Yes,” she said, smiling brightly up at me. “Say it!”

“Alice…”

“Edward! Why are you making this so hard?”

“Why are you harping on it?”

“Because I like her. I like her and I think she’s pretty damn perfect for you. And I want you to realize that and say it so that it can finally be real to you.”

“I never said that it wasn’t real.”

“You were banging your head against the wall!”

“Because of you!”

“Bullshit.”

She sighed, narrowing her eyes and glaring up at me. I glared back, determined not to give in to her.

“Fine. Don’t say it. Hell, don’t even tell her if you don’t want to! But I will not be the one consoling you when you leave and feel guilty that she doesn’t know how you really feel about her.”

“I’ll tell her before then.”

“Sure you will.” She rolled her eyes and waved me off before walking into the living room. “We’re meeting her at one-thirty, right?”

“Yes!” I called through my teeth, turning on my heel and walking back into the bathroom.

If I could’ve, I probably would’ve spent the rest of the day in this room. It was quiet and completely Alice free and that was exactly what I needed right now.

Flicking the nozzle in the bathtub, I let the water run until it was hot enough and stripped off my pajama pants before stepping in.

I smiled softly at the stupid mesh sponge thing that was still hanging off the shower caddy as I pulled the curtain closed.

“Bella,” I whispered, all the tension and stress I felt in my body from dealing with Alice and her accusations melting away as I closed my eyes.

One-thirty couldn’t come soon enough.

~*~

“You’re not going to say anything to her, are you?” I asked as we pulled up into the parking lot of the bookstore at one-thirty.

The rest of the morning had been spent mostly in silence, with Alice on her laptop in the living room and me on mine in the dining room. Jeannie had had a few questions about the movie premiere I had to attend on January second, but that had been the only pressing issue I’d had to deal with.

I’d spent more than half of the day playing online games that held no more interest than talking to my sister about the inner workings of my heart had, but it kept me occupied.

“No, chicken shit, I will not be saying anything about you being in love with her.”

I grit my teeth together, tightening my hands around the steering wheel as I pulled into a parking spot and yanked the keys out of the ignition.

There was a bright red BMW M3 and Bella’s truck in the parking lot, but other than that it was completely deserted. Shaking my head and briefly wondering how she stayed in business during the winter months, I got out of the car and waited for Alice to do the same.

“Flashy,” Alice quipped, her eyes glued to the car appreciatively before we walked down the pathway and up the walk to the door.

“Don’t know what the hell it’s doing in this town,” I mumbled, pushing through the door to hear Bella’s laughter bouncing off the walls.

I immediately grinned, waiting for Alice to walk in ahead of me before closing the door and walking up to the front counter.

The owner of the other car, I assumed, turned to look at us as she heard our footsteps and I recognized her as the blonde that had nearly stalked across the road to my house on the night Bella first kissed me.

“Hey, guys!” Bella exclaimed brightly, sitting behind the counter with a smile on her face and a half eaten sub sandwich in front of her.

“Hey,” I continued to grin, placing my hands firmly down on the counter and leaning over to kiss her quickly.

She grinned back at me, resting her chin in her hand and keeping her eyes connected with mine as I backed away from her. It was like we were in our own little world and I never wanted it any other way. No one else existed outside of the bubble we created until they had to and right now, no one had to.

At least they didn’t until the blonde cleared her throat and Alice kicked the back of my shin almost simultaneously. That couldn’t be a very good sign.

I hissed, turning to face her with narrowed eyes.

“Was that necessary?” I grumbled.

“Oh,” Bella laughed nervously and I quickly turned back to her when Alice merely smiled angelically at me. “Edward, Alice, this is my friend Rosalie Hale.”

Rosalie stood up, holding out her hand and waiting for me to do the same.

“It’s nice to finally meet you,” she said, her voice smooth and calm as she shook my hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

I jumped when I saw a paperclip bounce off the side of Rosalie’s head and snorted when we both turned to see Bella glaring at her.

“A paperclip?” Rosalie asked dryly, raising an eyebrow.

“It was the first thing I saw.”

Rosalie rolled her eyes, dropping my hand to turn to Alice and lift her head in much of the same fashion that Alice usually did when she was appraising someone else.

“I’ve heard practically nothing about you,” Rosalie stated. “Nice to meet you just the same.”

I saw Bella’s hand come up to her forehead, gently tapping her fingertips against it as she closed her eyes and shook her head.

“Rose,” she sighed heavily. “Tact, please.”

“Oh, it’s fine!” Alice bubbled, laughing lightly. “I’m Alice, Edward’s sister.”

Rosalie nodded, smoothing her hands over her midnight blue pencil skirt – it was sad that I even knew what a pencil skirt was - before balling up the wrapper I assumed her sub had been in and lobbing it into the trash can next to her.

“It’s nice to meet you both, but I really have to get back to work.” She smiled politely at the two of us before turning to Bella as she grabbed her coat and purse. “You’ll call me.”

Bella nodded, her bottom lip in her mouth yet again as Rosalie turned, waved and walked out of the store.

“Sorry about her,” Bella apologized, smiling awkwardly at the two of us. “She’s… she’s just Rose.”

She sighed heavily and stood up, wrapping up what was left of her sub and setting it off to the side.

“I like her!” Alice exclaimed, smiling brightly as she looked around the main room. “Very honest.”

“Oh, that’s an understatement.” Bella shook her head, sighing again before smiling at me. “What have you two been up to since this morning?”

“Arguing!” Alice stated brightly, walking over to the doorway and peering inside.

I glared at the back of her head, jamming my hands into my jeans pockets as she began to hum to herself.

“Oh?”

“Don’t ask,” I mumbled, moving my hands from my pockets and hooking an arm around her waist as she walked around the counter.

“Kay,” she yawned, leaning against me and resting her head against my chest.

“Do you get magazines here, Bella?”

She nodded, walking away from me and into the book room with Alice hot on her heels, happily babbling on about all the new designs she’d started this afternoon.

I sighed and sat down in the uncomfortable chair Rosalie had just vacated, waiting patiently for Bella to come back.

She finally did, thankfully without Alice and I quickly grabbed her around the waist again to pull her into my lap. She chuckled quietly before leaning against my chest and placing a small kiss against the side of my neck.

“I shouldn’t be doing this,” she mumbled, sitting up straight again and sighing down at me.

“Doing what?”

“Sitting on you.” She smirked and leaned in to kiss me softly. “It’s not very professional.”

“But I missed you,” I said quietly, rubbing her back.

“You saw me eight and a half hours ago.”

“That’s a whole lot of time left alone with Alice.”

She laughed and kissed me again, standing up and leaning back against the counter, her legs wedged in between mine.

“Six and a half more to go,” she sighed, reaching up to run her hands through her hair.

I looked up at her and my heart started beating painfully against my chest when I saw just how tired she really was. More than anything, I wanted to grab her up, tell Alice to mind the store for a while, bring her back to my place and make her catch a few hours’ worth of sleep.

“Can you hire someone else?” I asked softly, leaning forward to wrap my hands around her thighs.

“I don’t have the payroll hours to give anyone anything worthwhile. It’s the slow season.”

“The really slow season,” I mumbled.

She smirked and nodded, reaching down to run her hands through my hair and rest them on the back of my head.

“So,” she started, quietly clearing her throat, “Rosalie and Angela want to get to know you.”

I swallowed the sudden lump rising in my throat as my eyes widened, my hands twitching nervously against her thighs.

“Uh…”

“You don’t have to,” she said quietly, laughing nervously and shaking her head. “If you don’t want to. I mean… they won’t try mauling you and you’ve already met Rose so…”

“They’re your best friends, right?” I asked softly when she trailed off.

She nodded, biting her bottom lip as she began to drag her fingernails across the back of my scalp.

My eyes rolled back in my head and my eyelids fluttered shut, my breathing starting to pick up as I unconsciously began pulling her closer to me again.

“Edward,” she laughed, stilling her hands and dropping them to my shoulders.

I opened my eyes again, half lidded and looked up at her, smiling lazily.

“And they mean a lot to you?” I asked, quickly picking up on our conversation as my mind cleared again.

She nodded again, still quietly laughing at me.

“So we’ll have to figure something out with them. If they mean a lot to you, then they mean a lot to me.”

“Yeah?”

I grabbed one of her hands from my shoulders and brought the back of it to my lips.

“Let me know when you can set this up, all right? I have nothing better to do.”

“I’ll call them when I close tonight.”

I swallowed hard and pressed another kiss against the back of her hand, nodding.

I was nervous about the whole thing. Sure, I’d listened to Rosalie screaming at Bella a few times and had just met her, but spending a prolonged amount of time with her best friends was almost as bad as meeting her father.

Her best friends held a lot of power over her. Any girls’ best friends did and I’m sure Bella’s were no different from that.

If they didn’t like me, I was out. There weren’t a lot of relationships that survived if the girl’s best friends didn’t like the boyfriend; I’d seen it happen to Emmett quite a few times in the past.

And I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle that. Not after just realizing how I felt about her. Just the fact that she had to be standing up when I wanted her safely held on my lap at this current moment was like pure torture. Like someone had a large juicy steak dangling off of a rope in front of an extremely hungry lion; the closer the lion got, the more they ripped the steak away from it.

I would not be able to handle it if Rosalie and Angela convinced her that I was a horrid excuse for a man and snatched her away from me.

“Hey.”

I jumped when I felt her hands on my cheeks and my eyes focused enough to see that she’d bent down in front of me, her eyes level with mine. I hadn’t even realized that my own hand had fallen back into my lap when she’d freed hers.

“There’s nothing to worry about,” she whispered, stroking her thumbs over my cheeks.

I smiled shakily at her.

“That sounds vaguely familiar.”

She smiled back, leaning in to gently touch her lips to mine.

“They’ll like you.”

“Did they like Jacob?”

Her eyes flashed and I opened my mouth with every intention of taking it back when she blew out a deep breath and kissed me again.

“No, not really. But they will like you. What’s not to like?”

Oh, there was probably an entire list residing in Alice’s large purse that she’d be willing to show anybody if they just asked her for it.

“Uh…”

“Rhetorical question,” she mumbled, softly grazing her lips across mine. “Please don’t worry about it.”

“You know how you were nervous to meet Alice?”

She nodded, letting her hands drop from my face and standing up straight again. I replaced my hands around her thighs and looked up at her, licking my lips.

“That’s how I feel right now.”

“You’ll be fine,” she said softly, reaching out to place one of her hands on the top of my head. “It’ll be like a dinner party. I’ll make something and we can just sit around and talk for a while. It’ll be casual and easy; nothing too fancy and no pressure.”

“No pressure,” I echoed, scoffing.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” she sighed, her hand dropping out of my hair to rest at her side. “I’ll just tell them that you’ve got too much going on.”

“No,” I said softly, shaking my head. “I want to.”

“I don’t want to make you do something that you don’t want to do.”

But why shouldn’t she? She had every right to demand that I hang out with her friends and get to know them. She’d given up entirely too much for me and I’d done what? I’d dealt with her stupid associate in trade for her vacation time. That was nothing compared to all the shit she’d put on hold for me.

“You aren’t,” I said, reaching up and gently hooking my fingers around her palm. “They’re a big part of your life. I want to get to know them.”

She chewed on her bottom lip again, curling her fingers around mine.

“You’re a big part of my life too, you know,” she said quietly. “I want them to see that.”

And that stupid grin made a reappearance as I stood up and gently placed my lips against hers.

“You could invite them over tonight.”

Alice’s voice coming from the doorway made us both jump and look over at her. She was leaning casually against the door jamb, absently flipping through the copy of Vogue in her hands.

“I don’t have any furniture,” Bella breathed, placing her free hand on her chest.

“My place,” I said quietly, gently tugging on her hand.

“That’s okay with you?”

She looked up at me and I smirked, nodding and shrugging one shoulder as I twisted our fingers together.

“I trust you, and in turn, that means that I trust your friends. Have them come tonight.”

“Plus,” Alice piped up, her eyes still glued to the magazine. “I think Rosalie would make a good match for Emmett.”

I rolled my eyes, leaning down and resting my forehead against Bella’s.

“Can’t just leave it alone, can you?” I groaned as Bella laughed.

“You know I’m right,” she sang before turning back into the other room and disappearing yet again.

“Know it all,” I grumbled.

Bella laughed again and kissed me once more, squeezing my hand.

“You’re sure that you’re okay with this?”

“Positive. As long as you can stay awake long enough.”

She smiled lazily and nodded. “I’ll have some more coffee.”

“You should’ve told me. I would’ve brought you some.”

She shrugged, gently brushing the tip of her nose against mine.

“You showed up,” she said softly. “That’s good enough for me.”

I smiled and kissed her again, winding my arm around her waist and sucking on her bottom lip.

And I almost told her as I pulled away from her. It was on the tip of my tongue, ready to make its way out of my mouth when we both heard the front door open and slam shut behind us.

“Sorry,” she mouthed before stepping around me and smiling brightly at the customer that had walked in. “Hello!”

I plopped back into the chair and watched as she walked over to the elderly woman who was rasping out a book title that she wanted. I smiled and tilted my head to the side as Bella led her over to one of the plush chairs on the other side of the room and told her that she’d find it for her.

My girlfriend was amazing and I was done being worried about all of it. I was completely in love with her.

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