Chapter 6 ~ Austere Attitude

Edward

I was sitting on the curb, across the street from the Volturi’s winery when Emmett showed up that night.  He was angry and frustrated…and very not drunk.

Unlike me.

He really wasn’t very much fun, when he was sober and I wasn’t, I remember thinking.

“Why’d you do it, Edward?” he asked, not taking a seat next to me, not at all sympathetic, like so many other times I’d gone off the deep end, before this, and definitely not in any kind of mood to hear my bullshit.

He was tired. 

Of me, my excuses, my attitude.

Who could blame him?

I was, too.

“Fucking Felix, he…” I had to think about the words I would choose, next. “…Pissed me off.”

“He always pisses you off, dude, he’s a dick…it’s what he does…do you not know how to control your temper with that guy, by now?” he lectured and I, of course, got a good chuckle out of it, for the moment. 

He was right, of course.  But this had been different.   It wasn’t as simple case of Felix being a dick but I answered him the way I always had, anyway.

“Now what fun would that be, Em?”

He ran a hand over his face.  “Do you have any idea what you just…”

“I know what I did, Em,” I slurred, cutting his words off. “I was there, remember?”

I looked up at him.

He looked…huge.

“What’s the matter with you, man?”  he asked me and I didn’t really have an answer for him, so I turned my attention back to the vineyard I’d ultimately set on fire and just watched it in awe as the fire trucks arrived and my father’s car pulled up to a halt next to where I sat.

And the circumstances surrounding the events of the night suddenly didn’t really matter anymore.

He wouldn’t hear me, even if I did try to explain.

No one would.

So why bother?

My eyes blinked open, as I lay in bed, at the memory of the look on my dad’s face that night, when he’d gotten out of his car and saw the havoc I’d wreaked.

It was like that moment of realization for him, that there was just no hope for his son.

Much like the moment of realization I was having that, a bottle of wine per night was doing nothing for my internal clock, because oh five hundred hours came awfully fast, the that morning.

I threw my running gear on and headed down the same road I’d been running, since returning home.

It had been a few days since I’d seen or heard from my mysterious, stalker type person, Pie Girl and although frustration from the too many to count mistakes back in my day were taking up a lot of space in my head, my run consisted of other things, too.

Focusing on a renewed determination to get a job done, while I was home, for instance.

Just another job.

Making a plan for my father…if he survived his stroke.

Just another town.

And thinking about anything and everything else…other than the woman that was Bella Swan.

Cousin to Emmett McCarty.

Fiance to…who knows.

Possible acquaintance of some sort to the town fuck up.

That one, I laughed at.

It had to have piss Emmett off that she’d not only come over here and spent most of the day with me but then she pulls back in to town the next day after being gone who knows how long…and I’m with her again.

Serves him right.

Prick.

She did make good pie, though.

I wondered if I’d even see her again or whether the Hales and Emmett would be locking her away in the tallest tower, somewhere…keeping her safe from the evil doer, never to be seen again until her wedding day.

A blurred vision of her wearing a white dress floated through my mind.

I wondered if she’d wear her hair down, or up.

What color lipstick would be on her lips…

Those lips.

“Shit,” I spat, stopping finally and bending over, holding myself up at the knees, breathing heavy.

I really needed to get her outta my head.

It wasn’t bad enough I’d been home almost a week and things weren’t going as fast as I thought they should with the cleanup of the vineyard…even though my commanding had made it clear that I should take the time I needed, because in my mind, what I needed, was to get the hell outta dodge.

To add woman…issues on top of that…not a good idea.

I started running again and forced my thoughts to the list of things that needed fixing up on the interior of the house, which worked, for the time being.

Thank God.

“Morning, Alice,” I teased, after exiting the shower, bumping into our grounds keeper, again…and once again, she scowled, passing by with a grumble of some sort.

I laughed to myself, unable to understand why she was so grumpy, all the time.

I hadn’t remembered her being that grumpy but then again, it had been four years.

A lot can happen in four years, as I knew all too well.

Then I remembered the question I’d had for her, the day before and stopped her.

 “Hey, Alice?”

She huffed as though I’d interrupted some important meeting or something and turned to me, sighing in exasperation.  Probably thinking I was about to say something completely annoying.

Or insulting.

I blew her attitude off and asked her, “The guys in the fields…are they the only staff that’s left?”

“That’s it,” she said, curtly and I cocked an eyebrow.

“Anything else for me?”

“Not my…”

“Yeah yeah, never mind,” I said and then, to hopefully lighten her up a little, I smiled and added, “Thanks,” hoping the gesture would help make things a little less cold between the two of us than they already were.

Coffee, two eggs, tons of bacon and some wheat toast later and I was out in the thick of the vines again but had decided I’d only spend half the day outside this time, the second half, indoors, adjusting floor boards, oiling hinges and possibly even repairing some of the entry way furniture that had been broken up during…whatever it was that had happened to Carlisle.

I’d have to think that one over and probably make a trip to the local Home Depot type place.

I sighed and then rubbed at my eyes a little, a few hours into trimming some of the vines back.

What a fucking mess.

Seemed to me, the small staff of workers and I were making a little bit of headway but honestly, I wondered why I’d even come back to that damn place and tried to…

“Hello, Edward.”

I was knee deep in vine weeds and seriously teetering on the edge of head case possibilities mental shit when I heard the soft voice of Bella Swan sounding from behind me.

I sighed and I honestly didn’t know if it was in relief..or annoyance.

“Helloooo, Pie Girl,” I said as I stood and turned and when I saw her, smiling up at me, I adjusted my baseball cap a little just so I had something to do with my hands, other than pushing the hair out of her face.

Definitely relief.

Yeah.

I was in deep…deep trouble.

I couldn’t help but look behind her to see if Emmett had driven her over but to my pleasant surprise, only that old crotchety truck was parked in the drive way.

Empty.

This action’s reaction was Bella’s smirk and she advised me, “He’s not here.”

A little throat clearing on my end and I answered her.

“I see that.”

There was only, maybe a minute or so of awkward silence before I asked her, “To what do I owe the pleasure this time, Mizzzzz Swan?”

I purposely pronounced the Ms. exaggeratedly but I wasn’t really sure for who’s benefit.

“I um…”

“We’re back to that, then?” I asked, teasing her a little, wiping my hands off on my jeans.  “I thought we’d moved on from the ums…really.”

She pulled the pie out from behind her back and I was confused, once again by her.

I looked at it and could smell it’s sweet, sweet scent, from where I stood.

Apple.

My favorite.

I must’ve been hungry, already, because all instincts that had told me to get her out of my head, turn her away and move along with my purpose flew out the window with the aroma of her evil pastry.

So I went with teasing.

“You haven’t offended me or our fine country, of late, so…I’m not following why you brought…pie.”

Although, I’m very glad you did because the chocolate is all gone.

“No,” she giggled and I couldn’t wipe the grin away.

Again, with this woman.

“I just, thought, you know…you seemed to like the last pie, and I’m sooooo bored at the Hale’s, most of the time…and Emmett was very rude the other day, so…”

So now she was apologizing for Emmett’s idiocy, too.

Awesome.

“Thanks,” I said and then told her, “I was just getting ready to head up to the house, you wanna…”

I let it set out there for a second, you know, in case she said no, then I could play it off like that wasn’t what I was saying.

At all.

It was probably a bad idea, anyway.

But her eyes got a little brighter and her smile got a little wider and even before she said, “Well, I guess I should make sure it’s to your liking, huh?”… I knew what her answer was.

I couldn’t figure her out.

I mean, she was engaged, wasn’t she?

And it wasn’t like I’d…called her or anything. Not that I had her number…

What in the hell would possess a woman to just, keep…bringing pie?

“So I uh…I hear you’re engaged,” I blurted out as we entered the foyer and I noted Alice’s glare as we made our way to the kitchen.  “Congrats!”

I held the pie up so Alice could see it and pointed to it, mouthing, “She brought pie,” but the grouchy groundkeeper wasn’t amused.  She just rolled her eyes and kept on, keeping on about her business.

It was all good.

More for me.

“What?” Bella asked, and I guessed she hadn’t heard me, the first time, so I repeated myself.

“I said…I heard you’re engaged…and then I said…congratulations.”

And why was I being such a jerk?

She hesitated and I, somehow, hopefully, wondered if Emmett had just said it to throw me off my game but then she replied, “Yeah, I’m…we’re supposed to…I mean, the wedding date is set for the end of the Summer.”

Crash and burn, buddy. Crash and burn.

“The end of Summer? I thought all girls liked June weddings,” I joked but she didn’t seem in the joking mood when she answered, fairly numbly, in my opinion, for someone who was supposedly getting ready for the happiest day of her life.

She swallowed. “Yeah, Jake, he…we had to work it around his schedule with work and…Summer is his busiest time of year…so…”

Idiot.

“Sounds like a schmuck to me,” I told her but then she got defensive with me. 

“He’s not a schmuck, he’s the nicest guy I know.”

Nicest guy she knows?

I laughed.

Yeah, that sounded just like someone she should marry.

“Besides,” she added. “I like Winter, personally,” she told me, rather flippantly, and I wanted to ask her why she liked Winter.  There was really nothing good that came from Winter.  It was cold…it snowed…did I mention it was cold?

Instead…I went with some generalities about her response.

“Doesn’t sound too convincing to me, Pie Girl,” I teased. “But hey, who am I to judge the nicest guy you know?”

And she was about to ream me a new one when…

“Knock, knock!” a voice boomed from the foyer and I didn’t have to look, even after all the time that had passed, to know who that voice belonged to.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I whispered and Bella’s head snapped, at my choice of words, probably.

“Sorry, it’s just…”  I sighed.  There was no avoiding this confrontation.  The one I was least likely to wish for, if I ever found a Genie bottle in the sand somewhere and was magically granted three wishes.

He stepped into the doorway separating the kitchen and the foyer and the look he gave Bella made me wanna stick my Smith and Wesson Bayonet right up, in between his jugular and his…

“Well helloooooo, there,” he said to her and I felt my jaw tighten.

Bella seemed put off, threatened…and she stood up a little straighter, showing the guy that she wasn’t afraid of him.

Even though every piece of body language she emitted said that she was.

“What do you want, Felix.”

I said it, not asked it, because I didn’t want him thinking I was the least bit interested in any offer he might be thinking about pitching to me.

He smiled as he made himself comfortable at Carlisles kitchen table and my hand, literally twitched, wishing my side arm was attached somewhere, so I could draw it out and…

Chill.  Just…chill.

I breathed in.

And breathed out.

Slowly and deliberately, unheard.

And Felix spoke, while he stared, menacingly, at my guest.

“Do you know how many times Carlisle has tried apologizing for what you did to my family’s vines over the years, Eddy boy?”

I didn’t answer him, but made eye contact with Bella, who was now looking at me, questioningly.  I didn’t know if she’d heard that story yet but judging by the look on her face, she hadn’t.

I might have glanced downward a little before turning my attention back to Felix and then he continued, returning the glare.

“He practically tried to GIVE Aro his property last year.”

And that was just another piece to the puzzle that was my dad’s life, leading up to the day he’d had the stroke.

I wondered what would possess him, on God’s green Earth, so want to get rid of the love of this life.

His vines.

There was no way in Hell I was asking a Volturi about it, though.

“But for some reason, my dad has a soft spot for your old man…despite the way he’s turned into basically a bum, recently.”

And that did it for me.

I stalked over to him, deliberately, but not aggressively. 

I didn’t care that the guy was two…maybe three times my size.  Or even that I could feel Bella’s stare, watching me lose it with this…gorilla type…human being.

Carlisle was a lot of things, but he wasn’t a bum.

“I think you need to leave, now, Felix, along with whatever bullshit you’re selling,” I told him, face to face, nose to…chest…and then I waited.

Because, deep down, I wanted him to make a move.

He just laughed, though, clapping me on the shoulder and I had multiple flashbacks of when we were all in High School together.

Felix laughed that same laugh whenever he was busy bullying someone or…taking their lunch…

Stealing their girlfriend.

“Get off my property, Felix.”  I said to him, pushing his hand off of my shoulder with just a little bit more umph than necessary.

“Not yours now, is it, Edward…” he said, building up for his finale. “I mean, Carlisle’s not dead or anything….yet.”

I had to swallow down the urge to rip his head off at that comment.  I really would have rather not done something so vulgar in front of Bella.

I could have, though.

I’d done worse.

“Okay, then, get the hell off of my father’s property…either way, you’re leaving.”

“You don’t have the right to…”

I cut him off.

“I’m proprietor of the land ‘till he’s…up and around again.”

Because I couldn’t bring myself to say, until he’s dead, just yet.

Felix didn’t budge.  He was trying to decide if I was bluffing or not.

“I’m pretty sure the cops will come, Felix, even if it is me that’s making the call.”

“He is, you know,” Bella said from the other side of the kitchen and Felix and I both turned to look at her.

He was probably deciding what size bra she wore.  I was wondering, why she’d bother to stick up for me like that.

And okay, maybe wondering what size bra she wore, but it was really just a side thought.

Probably a thirty-four c.

“I was there when Carlisle signed the documents,” she said and raised her chin a little, daring him to question her.

My muscles relaxed a little.  I could feel my head tilt and my brow furrow, slightly, in confusion over the whole thing.

“Well,” Felix chuckled. “That’s surprising.”

He grabbed an apple out of one of Alice’s baskets of fruit but he didn’t stay for more fun and games, after that.  He nodded to me, then left and I shut the door behind him, locking it, that time.

I also let out a short sigh of some type of relief when I did it.  

When I walked, a little slower than normal, back into the kitchen area, I saw that Bella was looking at some old photos that had been magnetized and left up on the refrigerator.

I leaned up against the door jamb and watched her for a few minutes first, as she stared at them, like they were telling her some kind of a story that she was listening, ever so intently to.

Then I interrupted her thoughts by faking a cough.

“I thought you wanted to sell it…” she stated, still staring at the pictures.

“What?”

She looked me in the eyes, then.

Big…brown…has her whole life ahead of her, eyes.

“The Vineyard, I thought you wanted get rid of it…why didn’t you just…”

She was right, of course.

The smart thing would have been to swallow the vile repulsion I’d felt toward Felix and his family, taken whatever they wanted to give me and thanked the Goddess of pity for the luck before heading back to Georgia.

I don’t know what I was thinking.

I should have run to the door, called Felix back and listened to his stupid, insulting banter.

Offer him some pie, perhaps.

But instead…I smiled politely to Bella, shrugged a little and told her, “Gotta draw the line, somewhere.”

She looked like she was about to say something or…ask something, so I beat her to the punch.

“Why’d you defend me like that?”

Why I wanted to know, was beyond me.  It really shouldn’t have mattered, it got rid of Felix, and that was the important end result I had been looking for.  The reasoning really wasn’t important and yet, I needed the information.

I probably wouldn’t have cared, had it been anyone else.

“I have a better question, for you, Edward,” she challenged and I narrowed me eyes, waiting for her to ask it, my heart sinking with every second she made me wait.

Making me wonder what curiosity that head of hers held, making me want to hear her voice again.

“Why shouldn’t I have?”

It caught me off guard, a little.

I’d expected something like, what did you do to that family’s vineyard? Or, why does Emmett hate you so much…so, not what she’d actually come up with.

She seemed so…sure.

So, adamant.

So…stupid.

“You do…know, who you’re…”

“I know who you are, Edward, I’ve heard the stories,” she started. “Bits and pieces, anyway.”

So, she didn’t know everything.

Bella smiled, then, when I didn’t say a word back to her and told me flat out, “I also know, you’re my friend, and I don’t turn my back on friends.”

My brow twitched downward a little at her words.

Well, one in particular.

Friend.

Ouch.

It was getting warm.  And I had work to do.  I didn’t have time for serious conversations with cute, pie making women who were visiting my ex-best-friend and engaged to some big wig back in Chicago.

“You might regret that policy when it comes to me, ya know.”

And she didn’t even blink.

“Don’t care.”

She was an enigma, I decided.

A strange, fascinating, freakishly adorable enigma.

“Think you can handle that, Edward?” she asked me, part teasing, part challenging… “Having a friend, that brings you pie and doesn’t tell you to fuck off at the first sign of trouble?”

And damn…she said fuck.

I smirked a little and couldn’t stop the slight laughter that came out at that word.

“I think can handle that,” I said, knowing I was a goddamn liar.

“Okay then,” she told me and then she hopped up, hugged me around the waist…not even giving me time to react to the unannounced physical contact she’d forced upon me.

And then she headed for the door, telling me over her practically bare shoulder, “I’ll see ya later, Edward!”

And what…the fuck…was that?

Her hands…arms…everything was…so…

Warm.

And that stupid smile.

“She’s cute.”

“Shit.” I jumped, spinning around to find Alice, poking her nose at my pie and I snatched it out from under her hands as she was about to open it up and check it out.

“Who is she?”

“None of your business,” I said, opening the pie up to get a slice.

“Girlfriend?” she asked, “You haven’t been home very long to…”

“She’s not…my girlfriend…she’s…” I sighed.  “Emmett’s cousin.”

Alice’s eyes popped a little.  Her eyebrows shot up some and her mouth gaped.

And I wished I’d had a camera to capture the moment.

I chuckled.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much what I said,” I told her, taking my pie slice into the other room to start on some of my inside work, leaving Alice to ponder over that story that wasn’t hers to tell.

Later that night, when I visited Carlisle’s personal stash of wines, I took note of the empty bottles I’d been lining up on the half wall of shelving that separated the wines from the tasting table.

Had I been younger…and he’d caught me touching his most prestigious wines, I’d have been smacked across the face, possibly punished…most likely grounded and definitely banned from the basement.

But that was part of the upside to having free reign of the vineyard, Carlisle wasn’t around.

If he had a problem with it when he got back to it, he could just hide his key better.

I expertly chose the wine for the evening and took it, along with a glass out to the back patio, taking my newly acquired seat, looking out at the vines.

“We’re getting there,” I said to them…and then, to my surprise, “Yes, you are,” sounded from behind me.

It was Alice, with her own glass in her hand, taking a seat next to me in the adjacent lounger.

We didn’t say anything else to each other but I poured her a glass and we just sat there like that, sipping on the wine, staring out at the moon covered rows of work I still had ahead of me.

And I smiled, thinking about Bella Swan and her crazy ideals of…marrying in the middle of Winter and lying for someone she barely knew…and wanting to be friends with the one person she probably shouldn’t be friends with in all of Napa.

And it was a good thought.




A/N: Austere wines are not nice.  They're usually very high in acid and low in fruitfulness.