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The Practice of Love	By : belladonnacullen Category: Twilight Series > AU/AR > Het > Het Views: 2642 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or make any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 13
- 14
EPOV
I was probably pushing Lauren too hard. She’d worked two Sundays in a row, and now it was Saturday, Labor Day weekend, and she was running around the office, frantically searching for her Blackberry where the caterer’s number had just been stored. We were three tablecloths short.

That’s right. Three tablecloths. Tanya was a bitch.

This wasn’t Lauren’s job, and fuck if it was mine, either. I had places I wanted to be, people I wanted to see. To be specific: one place, two people. But after I’d dismissed Tanya, and after Tanya barred Kate from doing any more work on the fundraiser, I was suddenly in charge of linens and silverware and servers, and the fucking list was endless. As if Lauren didn’t already have enough to do. As if I wasn’t already at the end of my fucking rope.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. It was Emmett, texting for the tenth time in four hours. I excused myself from the conference room that Lauren and I had taken over. No one minded that we were using it. It’s no like anyone else in the firm was working on Labor Day weekend.

I didn’t bother with pleasantries. “Emmett, if you want to leave, then leave. You have a fucking car and you know how to drive.”

“That’s a waste of fossil fuels, and you know it.”

“What the hell are you talking about? I don’t have time for your bullshit.”

“Global warming isn’t bullshit, Edward.”

“Just cut the crap, Emmett.” If this was some kind of joke, I didn’t have time to fucking get it.

“I’m downstairs. We’re leaving. We, as in you and me.” He hung up, and I fought the urge to throw the phone against a wall. I glanced at my watch. It was already one in the afternoon. There was still an endless list of details that had to be sorted out before Tuesday night. This was the last fucking weekend I should be taking off to the beach.

But, when I thought about what I might miss, I was back in the conference room within seconds, stacking papers, shoving files into my bag, grabbing my keys, wallet, and anything else that seemed necessary and useful. Lauren stared at me like I was deranged, and truthfully, to leave this much undone, I must have been.

“My cousin’s here. I’ve got to go,” I stopped to explain. “You’ve got a handle on the caterer? The linens, silverware and place settings?”

“I’ve got them on it, Mr. Masen. Don’t worry. Found my phone.” She held it up as evidence.

“Keep it with you. I’ll be working all weekend, and it’s up to me and you now to make sure this doesn’t all turn into a pile of shit.”

“Uh huh,” she nodded solemnly. I would have preferred a more coherent assurance, but it would have to do. I rushed towards the exit, but paused as I pulled the heavy wooden door open.

“And Lauren?”

“Mr. Masen?”

“Thanks for your work these past few weekends. You’ve made all the difference.”

Lauren’s shoulders relaxed, and her nervous twitch was replaced with a shy smile.

“Why don’t you get some lunch and finish this up later?” I offered. We’d both been working since eight without a break.

“No, thanks, Mr. Masen. I’d like to get this all out of the way now, so I can go home.”

Right. Generally, people liked their homes. It was a foreign concept to me, one I had to remind myself about from time to time.

“You’ll be available this weekend, though? Even when you’re home?”

“Yes, Mr. Masen.”

I slung my bag over my shoulder, in a rush to leave before Emmett could find his way through security and make it up to the office. “Um, Mr. Masen?”

I turned back towards Lauren, holding the door open with my shoe.

“Have a nice time at the beach. It’ll be good for you… to have a break.”

xXxXx

“What the hell, Emmett?” I growled as I threw my bags into the back seat.

“You might not realize this, Edward, but the term ‘weekend’ generally includes Saturday. Rose is there by now, man. With my parents.” Emmett was already sitting in the passenger seat. If he could have willed the engine to start, he would have.

“Carlisle and Esme have seen enough of your… dates over the years. Two hours with Rosalie won’t phase them.” Emmett fidgeted like a nervous fifteen year-old. “You know, you could have gone by yourself, or driven with Rose.”

“Alice has this whole girls’ thing going on. I don’t know, she’s like kidnapped Rose, Bella, and Bella’s kid.”

“Alice,” I muttered, and Emmett and I both fell into silence. We knew how Alice could be.

The thought of Alice and Bella together made me more nervous than I cared to admit. The things she could tell Bella were worse than embarrassing. And the fact that Alice was so close with Tanya, and now seemed to be adopting Bella, was unsettling. Bella was my client, and Tanya was the woman that was suddenly making my life a living hell. I didn’t want to imagine the kind of stunt Tanya might try to pull if she met one of my clients. As it was, she was threatening to ruin my weekend… with my client.

Of course, having a weekend ruined had never really mattered before. Weekends were the two days of the week that I could work undisturbed. But as I sped down the Atlantic City Highway, mile after monotonous fucking mile, watching the minutes tick by, I wanted to fucking punch something. This weekend I was going to be buried in paperwork, constantly on the phone. Up until this morning, I’d had stupid ideas about playing with Little Bell in the water, building fucking sand castles or something.

And I wanted that. I kind of couldn’t wait for that.

I wasn’t even thinking about her mom. At least, not when I could stop myself. But, these past two nights, after Bella told me I should be at the beach this weekend, well, those were the times when I couldn’t help thinking about her… What she would look like in a wet bathing suit. How I’d like to finally get my lips in that little hollow between her tits, before I pulled back her bikini top with my teeth, so, this time, I could wrap my lips around her tip of her tit instead of her fingertip. And how I’d slip my finger underneath the Lycra of her swimsuit bottoms, how I could also slip that material out of the way...

I was getting too excited alone in a car with Emmett. I had no fucking plans to actually act out those little fantasies, but my dick didn’t seem to care about that technicality. Suddenly uncomfortable and straining against my jeans, I tried to inconspicuously rearrange myself.

But I could have whipped out my semi-hard dick, for all Emmett would have noticed. He was staring hard out the passenger side window, tapping nervously on the glass, like he was trying to break through to the other side. I tried to ignore him. I turned up the stereo. I ticked through a list of things I had to get done for Tuesday night. It didn’t work.

“Em?”

He didn’t hear me. I turned down the stereo and tried again. “Em!”

“Dude?”

“You think you could fucking spare the window. You’re driving me fucking nuts. Rose is a big girl. She can handle a couple hours with your parents.”

Emmett groaned and ran both his hands through his hair, staring up at the roof of the car. “I don’t know what I’m doing here, bro. Seriously, the only reason I’m even with this chick is because of Bella. But now that I got her, I don’t know where to go from here.”

“Bella?”

“Yeah, the pretty doc. Don’t play dumb. You know who I mean.”

“Bella helped you out with Rose? That doesn’t even make sense.”

“I have a way of wearing women down,” he laughed sinisterly. And the idea of Emmett wearing Bella down, or up, or any which way was obscene, even if that wasn’t what he meant at all.

“I don’t fucking want you wearing Bella down.”

Emmett grinned, and looked like he was about to say something, before he shut his mouth and looked back out the window. “Dr. Isabella Swan, huh?”

“What about Bella?”

“I need to know what I’m supposed to do next.” He glanced over at me, his eyes eager and desperate. I blinked. I had no idea what he was after.

“With Rose,” he clarified, rubbing his hands over his eyes.

“I don’t think you need my help with that one,” I laughed. “You and Rose seemed to be doing fine on your own.”

“That’s not what I meant, asshole. I’ve never, you know, been in it for the long haul. I’ve never had, like, a serious, long-term kind of…”

“Emmett, you just met this girl.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“And you’re fucking asking me for advice?”

“I don’t know. You and Tanya were together forever.”

“And have you noticed that I’m living in your office, Tanya is trying to sabotage my fundraiser, Esme isn’t talking to her best friend, and Alice isn’t talking to hers? Would you like me to advise you how to fuck up just your life, or how to fuck up the lives of those all around you?”

“I’m seriously out of my league with this chick, Edward. And you do serious. You don’t fuck around. I don’t know how to do that shit. Do I sleep with her? I mean, I would normally sleep with her. Or do I wait, or I don’t know… do I tell her I’m not going to date other people, or is it too soon for that? What if she wants to see other people? Do I screw around too, then?”

“I don’t fucking know, Emmett.”

“How do you get to serious in a relationship?”

“You just stop taking it lightly, I think. But maybe she doesn’t want to jump into something serious.”

“Dude, I’m already there. What if she doesn’t want that? Fuck. I hadn’t even thought of that.”

“Em, maybe you should talk to her and see where she’s at, tell her how you feel. If it’s too much, then it’s too much. But at least you’d both would know where you stood.”

I watched Emmett relax a little. He rolled his shoulders, cracked his neck and settled into his seat. “Thanks, dude. You’re right. We should talk. You too, don’t you think?”

“What?”

Emmett gave me a knowing look and shook his head. “You seriously don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“You’re hopeless, Edward. How can you give someone sound advice and have no clue when it comes to your own life? I mean, Isabella Swan, or Bella, as you like to call her. The pretty doc?”

“She’s my fucking client, Emmett. Leave it the fuck alone.”

“I’m gonna take a nap. Thanks for the advice, asshole. You should take it yourself, sometime.”

xXxXx

The Cape May house had been in Esme’s family for over one hundred years. It wasn’t as over-the-top and ornate as some of the other architectural travesties in that little beach town, but it was imposing and well kept. The small yard was cluttered with trees that kept the house cool in the summer, and protected it from the storms that blew through in the winter. Esme, of course, had renovated the first floor, so that it was light and open. There was an enormous fireplace in the large front room, and the kitchen and dining area took up the entire back half of the house. There was a large dining table here, just like in their home in Philadelphia, waiting for the extended family Emmett and Alice were supposed to provide.

The chairs around the table were generally filled one way or another, though. Emmett had brought countless women here over the years, and Alice dragged along the odd celebrity she was trying to get into her clothing: usually some lonely thing that didn’t mind spending a holiday out of the spotlight. Last year it was Taylor Swift, and after that, Esme put an age restriction on Alice’s guest list. Nothing happened with Emmett, from what I hear, but it’s not like he didn’t try.

The second floor had originally been divided into countless tiny bedrooms, but Esme had changed that up as well. These days, there was a master suite and three other large rooms, each filled with as many twin beds as they’d hold. When I was a kid, my dad stayed in one, Alice in the other, and Emmett and I in the third.

The house was quiet when Emmett and I finally arrived. It wasn’t surprising; I figured everyone was down at the beach. I spotted some plastic ponies and a dirty stuffed sheep on the ground and found myself smiling. Little Bell was here.

“Dude, let’s unpack and get to the beach,” Emmett said, taking the stairs two at a time. I couldn’t agree more. The bag of paperwork hanging on my shoulder was feeling especially heavy, but I convinced myself that I could ignore my work for a couple of hours.

At the top of the stairs, we noticed the little signs tacked to each of the bedroom doors. I immediately recognized Esme’s ornate script.

Boys
Girls
Little Girl

I had to laugh. Esme always tried to keep a proper household, despite her son. Honestly, though, did she really want Emmett fucking Rosalie in the bushes instead of a bedroom? I kept right on laughing as I threw my stuff onto one of the three twin beds in the boys’ room, and pulled out my swim trunks. Emmett looked miserable, nervous and slightly peeved. “Em, I’ll sleep on the couch downstairs. It’s not the end of the world.”

“Yeah, but what about the other guy?” Emmett nodded to the other empty bed.

“What other guy?”

“Alice’s dude.”

“Alice… has a dude?” Alice always seemed to find a date when she needed one, but I don’t think she’d ever brought a guy home for the weekend. I figured it was a result of Esme’s constant pressure, coupled with Alice’s natural obstinance.

“J Whit. She met him a couple days ago at that diner where she likes to hang out.”

“He’s coming here?” I asked, pointing to the extra bed. “And Alice met him a couple days ago? Esme must be having a fucking fit.”

“Dude, mom’s probably knitting baby booties,” Emmett countered.

I chuckled. “No, you’re right. What’s his name? What did you call him?”

“J Whit. He’s some kind of --”

“Holy shit, he’s that country rocker guy, right?” No wonder Alice hadn’t said a thing to me. She knew how I felt about country music, especially this guy’s brand of alt country crap for the hipster set. Well, this would be something.

“I think that’s what she said. I don’t know,” Emmett muttered, surveying the beds in the room, and looking fucking pissed all over again.

“Listen, you and Rose take one room, Alice and that J dude take the other, Bella and Ness --”

“You want me to have my little sister shack up with some strange guy she just met?” Emmett interrupted. “Some rock star that’s probably slept with half the girls in Texas?”

“Crap, Emm, get changed, and let’s get to the beach. Who the fuck cares where we sleep?”

Emmett stalked off to the bathroom and I made my way downstairs just in time to hear the back door thrown open and Little Bell screaming in pain. I ran down the rest of the stairs, and raced to the back of the house. Esme and Carlisle were hovering and Rosalie was running water in the sink.

“Esme, please, just go get a clean cloth,” Carlisle said in his best calm, doctorly voice. When my aunt stepped away, I could see Little Bell’s wet and sandy body clinging to Bella, as Carlisle tried to pry her off.

“What the fuck happened?” It came out louder than I’d planned. Five sets of eyes turned towards me, but only two mattered, both dark brown.

“Ewoord,” Little Bell whined, her big eyes full of tears.

“Baby, you’ve got to let go, so Carlisle and I can have a look at your forehead,” Bella murmured, her attention immediately back on her daughter.

“She got knocked over by a wave,” Esme explained, squeezing my arm as she walked quickly past on her way to the linen closet. “Good to see you, Edward.”

“No!” Nessie whined. “I not want you to look!” She held onto her mom tighter and buried her face against Bella’s chest.

“I could look, Vanessa,” Rose offered.

“No! I want Ewoord to do it.”

I felt Bella’s eyes on me, hell, everyone was suddenly watching, but I didn’t care about everyone. I tried to ignore the way Rosalie was glaring, and the way Carlisle was trying to size up the situation. Because Bella was smiling as I walked over to her and her daughter, and Nessie loosened her grip and settled onto the countertop without further protest. Her chubby cheeks were stained with tears, and there was a trickle of blood over one eye.

“Ewo-, I mean Edward isn’t a doctor, baby,” Bella explained, pushing Nessie’s curls out of the way. “But you’ve got three doctors here to choose from.”

“Ewoord, can you look at my boo-boo?” Ness asked between dramatic sobs.

“Umm,” I started, ignoring Carlisle and Rosalie’s scrutiny, brushing the tears from the little girl’s cheek. I didn’t know what to say.

“Only if I can look too, Ness. Okay?” Bella asked. “Can Edward and mama both do it?”

“Okay,” she sniffled.

“Hey,” Bella breathed, really looking at me for the first time since she’d come in. I tore my attention away from Little Bell long enough to smile back, but I got caught in Bella’s bright eyes, drawn in by her pretty pink lips. Her wet hair looked more black than brown, and it stuck to her shoulders and chest, and little rivulets of seawater made trails over her black bikini top, dripping from the tips of her perky tits.

“Hi,” I croaked.

“You came after all. I thought, when you weren’t here…”

“I had work that --”

“Dude, what’s going on?” The floorboards shook as Emmett bounded into the kitchen. “Babe!”

Rosalie was a flash of blonde hair and pale skin as she rushed past us towards Emmett. Their kiss was enough to make Bella turn Nessie to face the other way, enough that Carlisle suddenly found something he needed in the refrigerator. Esme could put up all the signs she wanted, but unless she installed some titanium locks on the bedroom doors, I’d say she was shit out of luck. And I’d say that whatever Emmett’s worries were about whether Rosalie wanted a serious relationship; they definitely had some common ground.

“Umm, work?” Bella asked, looking suddenly uncomfortable, and maybe a little afraid. “Like, about, anything we talked about the other --”

“No, nothing about you’re case, baby. Just shi-, I mean, stuff for the fundraiser on Tuesday.”

A different look lit Bella’s eyes, and she bit the inside of her cheek. Carlisle was suddenly by our side again with an ice pack for Little Bell. “Glad you could finally join us this year, Edward.”

Esme returned with a damp washcloth, and Bella patted Little Bell’s forehead clean, wiping away the blood. Carlisle edged me out of the way, smearing some goo over the scrape, and Bella quickly followed up with a Band-aid. Truthfully, having two doctors work on that scratch was probably overkill. But once it was cleaned up, I felt relieved, finally able to smile without reservation.

But Nessie looked confused. “Mama’s not a baby.”

“Ness,” Bella said, trying to hush her.

“You not, mama! You not a baby!”

I had no idea what Nessie was talking about. “I know your mom’s not a baby, Little Bell.”

“Then why you call her that? You called her a baby.”

Holy fuck. I’d called Bella ‘baby’? Bella’s face blushed bright pink; Carlisle patted Little Bell on the shoulder and walked out the back door without another word. Esme laughed nervously, tidying an imaginary mess.

“Sorry,” I offered, fighting the urge to run away, fighting the equally strong urge to try something along the lines of what Emmett had going on. Emmett pulled Rosalie out onto the front porch, and the door slammed shut behind them.

“Yeah, umm…” Bella started to say. But Little Bell interrupted her.

“I all better, Ewoord?” Nessie asked, standing on the counter, tilting her forehead in my direction.

I was happy for the distraction. I noticed that her forehead was beginning to look a little purple. But the cut was cleaned and covered, and Bella didn’t look fazed, so I wasn’t going to worry. “I think your mom and Carlisle have you as good as new.”

“Then, I wanna go back! I wanna see Alice! I wanna go to the beach!” Ness cheered, jumping up and down.

“Baby, I think I need a break. You scared me. Do you want to take a walk, or play around the house?” Bella asked, picking Ness off the counter, and depositing her on the floor.

“No! I wanna go to the beach with Ewoord! Pa-lease, Ewoord?”

I didn’t know how to say no.

“I could run around after her… if you don’t mind,” I offered, holding the little hand Nessie offered me. Bella sighed and smiled, shifting her weigh, weighing my offer. She was wearing those same khaki cut-offs, only now I could see the way her small waist flared at her hips, the way the shorts hung just below her naval, the gentle curve of her nearly flat tummy. “You could stay here,” I continued babbling, “or, umm, come and just, you know, lay on the beach or something.” And take off your shorts, and maybe jump around in the water a little.

“Yeah?” Bella asked, grabbing Nessie’s other hand. And it was too good, too much, and I knew I shouldn’t be there, that this was all a farce. This was Jacob’s life; I was just pretending.

“To the beach, Little Bell?” I asked.

“To the beach!” she cheered, jumping up and down between us. I picked her up and swung her around, so that she was sitting on my shoulders, pretending for all I was worth.

Out in the yard, we could hear the patter of water, and I guessed Carlisle was rinsing off in the shower stall around back of the house. I couldn’t tell for sure because Esme had planted bamboo and large palm-like plants all around it, so the soggy old boards were hidden from view.

Bella glanced around, searching for the source of the sound.

“A shower,” I explained, nodding towards the back corner of the house.

“I didn’t even see it.”

“Yeah, it’s camouflaged. Esme’s wanted to get rid of it, but I think my uncle likes taking it all off out here,” I said with a smirk. “He’s its biggest advocate. So, instead of tearing it down, she’s covered it all up with plants.”

Bella looked a little sick with my mention of Carlisle’s nudist tendencies, and I couldn’t help laughing.

“Just stay away if you hear the water running.”

“Definitely,” Bella laughed.

“I see it! I see the beach!” Little Bell called out from on top of my shoulders. “I see’ed it first, cause I big! Not a baby, like mama.”

Bella and I both fell into silence, and I tried not to feel like the world’s most inappropriate asshole. Baby. It’s something I’d called Tanya without thinking, something she’d called me back. And I didn’t fucking want Bella in that category. But my mind kept moving effortlessly in that direction. And my body was betraying me, as well. Even though I wasn’t looking at Bella, I could feel her, like I could feel the sun shining; I could feel the warmth and light of Bella’s presence next to me. And my hand itched to take hers. Instead, I held on tighter to Little Bell’s legs.

“Have you been out here before?” I asked. And Jesus fucking Christ, I sounded like I was trying to pick her up.

“Once, with Rose a couple summers back. For a day. It’s weird, the houses, the beach, at first they don’t seem to match, or something. You must come here all the time.”

“No. Not since I was a kid.”

“Really?” Bella asked. But I didn’t look up, and I didn’t explain myself. I wasn’t getting into my shit today. Not like the other day in the car. First I’d opened myself up to her, and the next thing I knew, her fingertip was between my lips my dick was erecting a tent in my pants.

“So, work?” Bella tried again.

“Some unexpected shi-, I mean, stuff, with the fundraiser.”

“Rose mentioned something about that.”

My heart sunk. I fucking knew everything Rose must have said to Bella. In fact, I couldn’t believe Bella was still talking to me. I didn’t know what to say.

Bella filled silence. “I thought I had something to wear, but Alice brought over this gown last night. You should see it. I’ve never worn anything like it.”

“I will see it, I think.” I finally hazarded a glance at Bella, and I was surprised to see that she looked almost frightened. Shit.

“That’s right,” she agreed in a whisper. And in a second, the air between us was inexplicably charged, again.

“If you don’t want to go, I didn’t mean to force you into it. There are other ways for you to --”

“No, of course I’ll be there. I was serious. About doing something with… Project Legal Advocacy.” She said the name of the organization like she was embarrassed. “I’m really impressed.”

I was proud and satisfied, and surprised that Bella’s approval meant something. The air was still alive between us, and Bella drifted sideways and closed that space as she walked, so our shoulders brushed, our arms rubbed against one another, the waistband of her shorts swished against the material of my swim trunks. I wanted to press back, to feel her against me, to wrap an arm around her, to pull her face to mine.

I paused, took a deep breath and tried to set my thoughts straight.

“Did Alice bring a tux, too?” Bringing up the kid was like a bucket of cold water over my head every time. I was able to shake off the feeling that had been building, and I relaxed as we continued walking, but I could tell something was wrong with Bella. She looked pained, and she moved away from my side. I didn’t understand her reaction, what it meant.

“Alice said she’d get him a tux.” It wasn’t like Alice to overlook details.

“No, she did. She brought something for Jake. It’s just that… he gets in Tuesday. It should be… weird.”

“Jet lag?”

“Something like that.”

We walked past the dunes and onto the sand and Ness started kicking her little legs against my chest and hopping up and down on my shoulders. “Put me down, Ewoord! Put me down!”

“You ready to play, Little Bell?” I asked, swinging her back down to the ground. I glanced at Bella, and she seemed grateful for the interruption.

“I big, Ewoord,” Nessie protested before she took off in a surprisingly fast sprint towards the rough surf.

“Fuck,” I cursed, taking off after her.

I heard Bella laughing behind me. “You asked for it, Ewoord.”

That little kid was fearless. The waves were taller than she was, but she ran and jumped into the water belly first, no matter that she couldn’t swim. She hopped and skipped and ran along the shore, she tried to swim and to float on her back. A little water down the throat, up the nose and in her eyes didn’t slow her down.

She had me pick her up and walk her out past the breakers, where I spun her and tossed her around a little, and held her up so she could kick and pretend to swim for more than an hour. By the time her lips were light blue and shivering, and I was ready to fucking collapse, I knew I should get her back on land.

As I slogged towards the shore, Nessie wrapped her wet little body around me. She stuck to me like a starfish, except softer, with dripping curls and droopy eyes. Her little heart pounded so fast against my chest, her tiny breaths were warm against my neck. I didn’t know that I’d ever been so close to a little kid like that, and it was sweet and scary. I concentrated on the sweet.

I scanned the beach for signs of Bella, or anyone from my family, when I was stopped in my tracks. Bella was just walking out of the water as well. I hadn’t even noticed her. Her back was to me, and she was readjusting the material of her bikini bottoms over her pretty little ass. She stopped walking, her hands on her hips, water streaming from her hair, down her back. Her limbs were slender and toned, strong and feminine all at once. But, fuck, how was it possible I’d never noticed her ass before?

With her daughter in my arms, exhausted and half asleep, I had to put those thoughts aside… Until Bella turned around and I noticed the hard knots of her nipples barely restrained by the little triangles of her bikini top. Until I saw her lips upturned in a smile when she saw me, until I looked in her eyes. She had the same eyes as her daughter, and they were bright too, like when Little Bell laughed. She was beautiful and wet, and she looked happy, and she waved and started to walk in my direction.

And Alice’s body collided with mine, and she wrapped her arms around my neck, sandwiching Little Bell between us, practically knocking the three of us over in the process. With Bella half naked and wet in front of me, I hadn’t even noticed Alice. “Hey, Edward! There’s someone I want you too meet.”

“Fuck, Alice,” I mumbled, trying to steady myself on the wet sand with water churning around my ankles, trying not to drop a mostly sleeping child.

“Language, big brother. Kids and boyfriends present,” Alice whispered in my ear, before letting me go and bounding over to a tall blonde man covered with tatts. His hands were in his pockets and he looked like he wanted to crawl into the nearest hole. But Alice grabbed his hand and he smiled shyly at her.

“Boyfriend?” I asked. In about an hour this guy had gone from Alice’s dude, to her boyfriend.

“Edward, this is J. And J, this is my cousin, and my best friend, and business partner, Edward.” J turned his shy smile on me. His eyes were ice blue, and it struck me that he bore more than a passing resemblance to Carlisle. I couldn’t wait to give Alice shit for that.

“I guess I’ve got to make a real good impression on you, then,” J chuckled, holding out a colorful hand in my direction. His sweet-ass Southern drawl and soft voice stood in sharp contrast to the angry art on his arms. I repositioned Little Bell, who was now soundly sleeping on my shoulder, and tried to give a strong, manly shake. With a tiny girl in a pink tutu swimsuit cuddled up on me, it wasn’t fucking easy.

“Rose, Emm and I are going to J’s show in Philly on Monday night. You should come,” Alice said, bopping on her heels like she was twelve and going to see The Jonas Brothers, or some shit. I tried to get comfortable with Little Bell again, but I wasn’t used to juggling thirty-five pounds of dead weight on my shoulder.

“Uh, maybe,” I allowed. Alice would have to do better than that to get me to some country music show.

“I can take her, Edward,” Bella offered as she walked over to the four of us.

I carefully handed Little Bell over, and watched as Bella easily tucked her daughter’s shoulder into her neck, how her arms found the perfect place to support her daughter’s limp body.

“So, I guess these are your girls, then?” J asked me.

“No, uh --” Bella started, glancing at me, her cheeks pinking again, looking fucking guilty, for Christ’s sake.

“This is Bella, she works with my uncle. And that’s her daughter, Lit-, I mean, Vanessa,” I clarified, doing my best to set everything right. My tone may have been a little harsh, but I didn’t like that he’d made Bella feel badly about being here, with me.

“I see. Well, er, nice to meet you, Bella.” J started acting awkward all over again, studying the sky over our heads, humming a little under his breath, looking like he wanted to run. But, seriously, who would just assume something like that?

“Edward,” Alice said. “I also came down because your assistant’s been calling the house phone. She says it’s urgent, and she can’t get in touch with you on your cell.”

“Fu-, shi-, I mean, damn it. I should go. I mean, I have to,” I tried to explain to Bella.

“I’ve got to take her back, anyway.” Bella bounced Little Bell in her arms. “You really tired her out. I think she’s out for good. Could you bring our stuff up, Alice?”

“Of course, Bell. We’ll just hang back here a while,” Alice said, grabbing J’s hand again, trying to make eye contact, smiling like she just won the lottery. “You go back with Edward.”

I shook my head, thrown at seeing Alice swooning over a guy for the first time. Bella and I began silently re-tracing our steps from earlier in the afternoon.

“I mean, the way they looked, I just figured… “ I could hear J drawl from the beach behind us.

“Whatever,” Alice laughed. “Don’t let Edward bother you. Hey, I’ll race you.” Fast footsteps over sand faded into the distance, followed by shrieks of laughter.

Bella and I trudged wordlessly back to the house. I tried to stay pre-occupied with work and whatever tragedy must have happened to make Lauren resort to searching out my relatives’ phone number at the shore. But my mind was all over the fucking place lately, and it settled on the woman walking silently next to me, and the way Alice’s boyfriend had assumed we were a family. They weren’t my family, and I hated Jacob Black just a little bit more.

I called Lauren as soon as I made it to the house. The guest list file that Tanya had emailed over was corrupt, Lauren’s computer was frozen, and she was in tears. I was no fucking good at talking women down from hysteria, and in the past I probably would have driven back to Philly and fired her ass. But, I fucking bit my tongue, tracked Kate down, and found some tech guys and a new computer for Lauren. It wasn’t as easy as all that, and several hours of my life were wasted on what I could only imagine was Tanya’s intentional sabotage. I was wound up and pissed, and after talking with Lauren, I knew I had hours more work ahead of me this weekend. Hours I wouldn’t be spending with Jake’s family. I changed into a T-shirt and track shorts, figuring a run would help calm my nerves.

By the time I made it back down the stairs, the house was dark and quiet. I filled a glass with water, and made my way out to the front porch, but paused in the doorway. Bella was sitting on a chair, alone, drinking a bottle of beer.

I paused there, watching the rise and fall of her chest. She was still wearing her bikini top, a little black number with strings connecting the triangles. I could see the beat of her pulse shaking her abdomen, her legs were spread, her feet placed firmly on the ground. She looked relaxed, tired, pretty. And I was ogling her. I had to get a hold of myself. I’d done this on purpose; she was my client, and I was being with her the only way I knew how. I had to remember that.

Bella turned and looked over her shoulder, and she jumped when she saw me. Of course she did. What the hell did I think I was doing?

“Where is everyone?” I asked, walking out onto the porch like I hadn’t been doing anything wrong, like the idea of hanging out with Bella at sunset wasn’t the making me sweat and smile.

“Alice, Jasper, Emmett and Rose went out for drinks. But, you know, Ness is upstairs sleeping.”

“Do you mind?” I asked, lowering myself into a chair.

“Are you kidding? It’s your family’s house, do whatever. I’m just a guest.” That wasn’t what I’d been asking. I was wondering if she minded staying behind while Nessie slept. But her words made me smile. Bella wasn’t just anything.

“You’re not just a guest,” I laughed a little and took a sip of water.

“What makes you say that?” Bella’s voice was suddenly defensive, and I didn’t know how to answer her question.

“They like you… and Nessie.” I watched Bella relax a bit and she took a swig of her beer, before she glanced in my direction. Her brown eyes swept quickly over me, before they settled on my face.

“You look tired.” I laughed again. It wasn’t exactly what I’d hoped to hear.

“Fucking stressed.”

“Work?”

“Right.” And there was that dead-end topic. I wasn’t going to speak badly of Tanya; I wasn’t going to mix up my association with these women. I drank my water in silence. Bella crossed her legs and uncrossed them. My eyes wandered.

“Do you miss it?” Bella asked, and if she meant having a woman’s bare legs wrapped around my body, the answer was hell fucking yes.

“Alcohol, unwinding with a beer, when you’re stressed like this?”

“Oh, uh, no. It’s been forever, and that’s not exactly the way I used to drink. It was a lot messier.”

“But the whole ritual of it…”

“Don’t try to add drinking to your prescription, doctor. I’ve gone that route, and ended up the opposite of happy.”

Bella turned away from me, and gazed out at nothing: the trees, the streetlights, there was nothing to see. I felt irrationally bad about my answer. “There are other ways to unwind.”

“What do you do?”

“Exercise. These days I mostly run. I lost my gym when I lost the condo.”

And with those words, everything about her softened and she smiled.

“I heard about that. That was nice of you.”

“What?”

“Sorry… Your family has surrounded me so much, these past couple weeks. I don’t know what I heard. You were saying - you work out to unwind. Anything else?” And the way she turned back to me with her whole body, not just her face, looking at me like she liked what she saw, like she liked me. What the fuck was she asking?

“Nothing, besides running… lately.”

Cicadas filled the humid silence. There was no breeze off the water. I watched Bella swallow. I took a long drink of cold water.

“You know, I uh… this is going to sound funny. But after we first met, I pictured you in a house like this. But, uh, you were wearing more clothes.”

I almost spewed water all over myself. I choked on it, instead. “You were thinking about me, and I was covered from head to toe? I’m sure Jacob would be happy to hear that.”

“I haven’t mentioned it.” We listened to the insects again. Bella took another sip of her beer.

“You work out,” I said. It wasn’t a question; it was obvious. “But not to relax?”

“My leg,” she murmured, holding her scared leg out in front of me, resting her track shoe on my knee. “If I don’t stretch and work the muscles they can seize up on me, the scar tissue starts to adhere. I end up limping. So, yeah, most mornings I go to the gym. Not enough, recently. My life’s been… messy.”

“Mine too,” I whispered. I placed my hand on her foot. “Come for a run with me.”

“What?”

“I’ve gotta go for a run, unless you want to see me fucking explode.”

Bella laughed and thankfully put her foot back on the ground. “I can’t. Ness.”

“You’ll make Esme’s night if you ask her to keep an ear out.” I put my glass to the side and sat on the edge of my seat. If we couldn’t fuck, well, running was a very distant, second place option.

“I just drank a beer. That seems… wrong.”

I moved my chair closer to hers. “I’ll go easy on you.”

That did it, Bella blushed and stood to her feet and was gone without another word. I heard her mounting the stairs, and she was down in another three minutes wearing a sports bra, some cut-off sweats and a mischievous grin. “Show me what you’ve got, Mr. Masen.”

So we fucking ran. No words, just our breath and the sound of our feet. I wasn’t going to push, but Bella was driven and her pace pretty much kicked the shit out of me. We came to a stop at the southernmost point of the cape, where the ocean flooded the bay and a lighthouse stood guard over it all. Bella leaned against a light post catching her breath, and I sunk down onto the sand. Bella soon followed. “A break before we go back?” she asked between breaths.

I could only nod in agreement.

“Sorry, I don’t know what got into me,” Bella gasped. “I haven’t run on the beach since I lived back home.”

“Back home, like Washington?”

“Mm hmm. Forks. It’s on the Olympic Peninsula. Kind of hanging onto to the corner of the country.” Now that her breathing was more even, Bella started tracing lines in the sand.

“And Jacob, too?”

Bella pressed her lips together and that look of pain I saw earlier returned. “Yep, kind of. From a little town right next to Forks, La Push. His dad is my dad’s best friend. Jacob and I have known each other forever.”

“Huh.”

“What?” Bella asked, looking up from her drawing.

“My ex, Tanya - her mother is Esme’s best friend. Or was, maybe. They haven’t spoken since the barbecue.”

“Shit. God, that’s awful.” Bella seemed to take it personally. She hung her head and began tapping her toes against the sand nervously. “Was it hard, breaking up with her? Or is that too personal?”

“It’s right up there with back-to-back detox and chemo. It was brutal, and it never seems to end. It’s like I’m still going through it.”

“Jacob’s with my dad right now, out in a cabin somewhere.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. I didn’t want to pry. I said the next thing to pop into my head. “There’s a picture of you in your office, when you were maybe twelve. You’re on a beach with these big cliffs.”

Bella glanced at me and smiled. “That’s first beach, by my dad’s house. That’s where I ran.”

“I can’t fucking believe you grew up someplace like that. I don’t know, it’s like another world, so different from all of this. But you seem to fit here, in Philly. At least it seems like you do.”

“I do. I mean, I didn’t go back after residency, you know. I said it was because of Little Bell. Didn’t want to upset her life; this was all she ever knew. And it was because of James too, maybe, although I never said that out loud. But it was more than that. Now that James is here, its like he came to my home. It really feels like my home. Just recently, I think.”

“I’d like to see you back there, though. To see you in person on a beach like that.”

“Yeah?” Bella smiled and looked back at the sand, and I’m pretty sure she blushed, but it was dark and I couldn’t be sure.

“I don’t know,” I mumbled, picking up a stick and throwing it towards the surf.

“You say that a lot: I don’t know.”

I shrugged. “It’s a defense mechanism, like swearing. At least that’s what the shrinks all say.”

“Hmm. I think if I had a defense mechanism, it would be not to say anything, to just get quiet.”

“But you’re not quiet.”

“Not with you. I’ve never felt the need to defend myself, I guess.”

I let that statement hang in the air for a moment. She should want to defend herself around me. Here I was threatening to fuck up her life the way I’d fucked up my own, all while I told her I was here to help. But the more I thought about it, the more I was sure that she’d been defending herself, in her own way. “You let your hair hang over your eyes, a little. Or you look at your feet. Sometimes, you bite the inside of your cheek, or your lip too, but not as much.”

“Maybe the hair thing is defensive,” Bella agreed. But with her hair tied back in a ponytail, she couldn’t demonstrate. “But not the other stuff. That’s… different.”

“How?”

“It just is. Trust me.” Bella stood to her feet and tried to brush the sand off her body. But it was hopeless. Fucking sand. That shit was a nightmare for someone like me. I’d be finding grains of it in the car for the next month. “I should get back,” Bella continued. “Esme’s been sweet, but I can’t have her babysit all night. I’m already imposing by sleeping in her house and eating her food.”

But as I stood up, Bella stopped breathing and froze in her spot. I watched the blood drain from her face. Her hand reached for mine and she clutched it tight, not the way I’d been dreaming of her touching me. Like she was scared for her life.

“What? Bella, what is it?”

She took a deep breath and her eyes scanned a clutch of pine trees just beyond the dunes. “Nothing, I guess. I thought I saw something.”

“James?” I let go of her hand and took a few steps towards the trees. But I didn’t see anything except shadows, nothing moving but branches. “I should go look.”

“Don’t leave,” she choked, and the fear in her voice was almost too much to bear. “It was nothing, I’ve just been seeing things, lately.”

“James?”

“His creepy sister, Victoria. She’s the one that told me James was moving here.”

“Has she done something to you? Has she threatened you, hurt you?” I grabbed Bella’s hand again, looking her over like I might find some evidence of foul play.

“No, nothing like that. I see what you’re thinking, Edward. There’s nothing you can do about Victoria. Unless you can get a restraining order for being bitchy.”

“We’ll see about that,” I growled. I made a mental note to call Jenks in the morning to see what he could dig up about Mr. Hunter’s sister.

We jogged back to the house at an easy pace. I kept a half step behind Bella, so I could keep an eye on her, like I was some secret service agent or something. But I was looking out for more than her safety. I couldn’t help noticing the way her skin almost glowed in the moonlight, the way the little wisps of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail brushed against her neck, the way her cut-offs were hanging on her hips like her shorts had. And don’t even get me started about her ass. With each breeze, I could smell the flowers on her skin, and as I watched perspiration bead along her neckline, I wondered if it would taste sweet, like she smelled, or salty, or both.

Esme was sleeping on the couch with a book in her lap when we got back. Bella hung behind while I woke my aunt up. She smiled sleepily at Bella and me as she got to her feet, and kissed the top of my head as I hugged her good night. It was something Esme did often in the hospital when we thought I was dying, something I could sometimes sense her still longing to do, yet something she hadn’t done since then, when I was nineteen.

Esme shuffled out of the room, quickly making her way up the stairs. Bella and I followed wordlessly, the pressure of saying good night to one another looming in the darkness around us. The door to the master suite clicked shut as we made it to the second floor landing. And that’s not all we heard. Bella and I avoided one another’s eyes, and I turned to make a hasty retreat back down the stairs.

Bella caught me by the back of my T-shirt, stopping my before I could get too far. “There are three beds in Ness’ room,” she said with a shrug.

“Oh, uh, no. I can sleep downstairs.”

“I’m just saying there’s a bed for you to sleep in. Just sleep.”

The serious look in her eyes let me know that she meant what she said. As if it were that easy; as if I could just lie down at eleven p.m. and go to sleep, in a room, with Bella. Right.

“I’m gonna run to the restroom. You have until I get back to decide,” she said, as she loosened her hair from her ponytail, and let it fall over her face. She laughed a little and I smiled, and she left me standing on the stairs.

I was downstairs washing my face and swishing water around my mouth, and back upstairs in less time then it took most men to unhook a bra. I waited by Ness’ room, trying to ignore the soft moans and rhythmic rustling of sheets that drifted into the hall from the other bedrooms.

Bella didn’t meet my eyes as she quietly closed the bathroom door and tiptoed down the hall. She hadn’t changed, but I was sure her stuff was in her room, just like mine was.

“You coming in?” she asked, staring at the doorknob.

I laughed under my breath. Why the hell else would I be waiting there? To listen to my cousins fuck?

“Be quiet, then, okay? I don’t want to wake Ness.”

“Right. Sure.”

“And I call the top bunk,” Bella giggled, climbing into the bed over where Ness slept. I settled into the little twin bed on the other side of the room. I had no idea what I was doing. I lied on my back, staring at the ceiling, sneaking glances in Bella’s general direction, but I couldn’t see anything because my eyes hadn’t adjusted yet.

“Edward?” Bella whispered.

“Hmm?”

“Are you sleeping?”

“Are you kidding? I just laid down.”

“I like your family.”

“They like you, too.”

“Ness likes them. It feels good to have family around. I never had anything like this growing up. It was just my dad and me.”

And Jacob, I added silently. Motherfucker.

“You don’t have any brothers or sisters?” she asked.

“No, but Alice and Emmett, they might as well be.”

“That’s nice.”

Well fell into silence, and there was so much I was suddenly dying to say. That being with the Cullens had never stopped me from feeling alone, always. That it never made me feel like I actually belonged with them. That I never let them in, and that I let them love me, but never deserved it. The fact that I wanted to say those things made me feel slightly sick and excited. Tanya fucking knew all of that, but I never had to say that shit out loud. She’d just been there firsthand; it had made it easier. And the fact that Tanya popped into my head again, in conjunction with Bella, made me close my eyes and try some of those deep breathing exercises my therapists had pushed over the years.

Something knocked to the ground in the room next door, and an unfamiliar feminine giggle echoed through the wall. Bella sighed and her bed creaked as she shifted on her mattress.

“Were you ever scared of the dark as a kid?” Bella asked.

The question took me off guard. “Of course.”

“Of what?”

“How come you have the uncanny ability to ask such loaded questions?”

“Sorry.” Her voice was small, apologetic.

“No, it’s not your fault that I’m fucked. Seriously, you want to know this?”

“I don’t know…” and I knew she was asking about ghosts or some crap like that… but something inside me wanted to tell her the truth, exactly what was on my mind. Something made me open my mouth. Just like that first day in her office, she brought the shit out of me.

“I was scared of my dad coming home wasted, scared of what he would break, if he’d fall down and I’d have to do something to help him. I’d lay awake, holding my breath, scared. And after I left, I slept in these falling down cracked out houses, and I was fucking terrified. I hardly slept at all. But I preferred that, in a way, because I was scared about things, and people that I didn’t care about. I could forget what was happening to my dad.”

Bella was silent, and I spent the next few minutes hating myself for trying to get her to pity me, or whatever the hell I’d been doing. Something thudded against the wall, then again, then again. Fuck. I kicked the wall with my foot, and there was silence.

“Anything ever scare you?” I asked Bella.

She sighed. “Besides James?” Her laughter was bitter, and it died quickly. “Vampires.”

“What?” I asked louder than I intended.

Bella quickly shushed me, and then continued in a whisper. “I was always scared one was going to climb through my window when I was a kid.”

“That’s ridiculous,” I laughed back. And then I remembered that book she had on the bookshelf in her office, and I can’t help but laugh harder.

“What? I was a kid. You shouldn’t laugh.”

But I couldn’t stop myself. “It’s just that you seem to feel differently… about vampires… these days,” I choked out between chuckles.

And in an instant, Bella knew what I was laughing about. I heard her catch her breath, and in another second, a pillow hit me in the face.

“Good night, Edward.”

“Night, Bella.”

It took some time for me to quiet down, and even longer for Bella’s breathing to go even and soft, meeting Little Bell’s breaths in an arrhythmic counterpoint, that made music just the same.

But I’m no fucking saint. I quietly snuck out of the room and made my way back to the bathroom on the first floor. I had too much on my mind for my dick to calmly and chastely handle. Her tits: fuck if they weren’t the two most perfect things in the world. Her ass in a bikini. Shit. The way she panted after our run. The smell of her sweat, the way it looked dripping down the back of her neck. And how she’d laughed, and how she was embarrassed, and how when I told her about her defenses, I realized that I knew her better than I thought.

And when I was done, I spent a few minutes wandering around the first floor. Looking at pictures of the happy family, pouring another glass of water. But lurking alone in a house full of people fucking seemed creepy, even for me. And truthfully, there was one place I wanted to be, whether or not I’d be able to sleep. She said she wanted me there, so I walked quietly back up the stairs.

I slipped into the bed across from Bella and her daughter, laughing under my breath, because they were both snoring. And I closed my eyes, and just listened to the crickets, and the sound of the waves, and to Bella and Little Ness sighing in their sleep. And before I knew it…
xXxXx

“Ewoord!”

I was woken up by the worst fucking pain in the entire world. I groaned and curled into a fetal position, and tried not to throw Little Bell on the ground. She had the deadliest knees, ever.

“Ewoord! You sleeped here! You sleeped here!”

A/N: I planned on getting through the whole weekend in this past chapter, but it got way too long. I'm going to try to finish it up this week, since it's mostly written. But no promises.

Anyway, I know these two are frustrating, but they're cute. And I don't think there's any denying where this is going... it's just a matter of how they get there. Please review... it will make my Monday. M
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The Practice of Love