Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

Game Of Love

By Momma2Fan

Chapter 06:

Springtime

EPOV

‘Cullen puts in Overtime off the Field!’

The headline shouted at me above the picture of Bella and I almost kissing. I crumpled the paper and chucked it at the wall. I ran my hands through my already disheveled hair and shouted at no one.

“Fuck!”

Jasper burst into the room. “What’s wrong, bro?”

“Nothing…everything. Dammit!” I wanted to hit something. I settled for picking up a baseball and throwing at the lockers. All conversation around me stopped.

I felt my teammates eyeing me warily. We had all been called here for a meeting and first thing I see is that picture taped to my locker. What I wanted to do was find the fucker who had put it there and beat him to a pulp. Emmett came up to me and looked at my pissed off expression and backed up a bit. He looked around and saw the crumpled ball and picked it up. I watched as he unfolded it and smoothed it out so that he and Jasper could look at it.

“You know this is bullshit, right?” Emmett said. I continued to stare at him.

“Edward? Come on man, we all know this wasn’t how they are making it out.” Jasper jumped in.

“I’ll be back. I need some air.” I grabbed my cell and walked out of the locker room out onto the field. I wonder if Bella had seen it yet.

Did you see the paper? ~E

I waited impatiently for her response. Maybe she saw it and hated me for it.

Yes. Are you okay? ~B

Actually? No. ~E

My phone rang in the next instant. “Hey.”

“What’s wrong?” Bella’s soft voice greeted me.

I sighed. “Someone had the article taped to my locker when I got there. Bella…I’m sorry. I never meant to put you in an awkward situation.”

“Edward…stop it. Did you even look at the picture? I wasn’t exactly fighting you.” Bella whispered.

“What do we do now?” I asked.

“I’m not sure. Listen, you have a meeting to get to and I have a lot of paperwork to do before you guys leave for Arizona in a few days. Why don’t you come to the house for dinner and we’ll talk, okay?”

“Yeah, okay. I’ll see you around six.”

“See you then. Bye.”

“Bye.” I closed my phone and headed back in for the team meeting.

I walked back into the room and took a seat next to Jasper. No sooner had I sat down, and Sam walked into the room followed by Caius Higginbotham and Jacob Black. I hated that man. Something about him rubbed me the wrong way. It may have been the way he looked at my Bella. 

“Afternoon, gentleman. Welcome to a new season of Mariners baseball.” There were whoops and hollers all around the room. “We will be making some changes this season. We’ll be starting a new pitching rotation, still under the direction of Caius. Where’s Whitlock?” Sam looked around. “Whitlock, I know that you always start the opening game, but this year Crowley will do that.”

“What!?” Jasper yelled.

Crowley spoke up first. “Sam, I don’t think that’s such a good idea. We want to start out the season with a win and I’m not the guy to get us there. I’m more of a closer, if you know what I mean.”

“Not in a few months you won’t be. I plan to whip you into shape. Jasper can’t lead the team alone.” Caius explained.

The meeting droned on for an hour as Sam outlined his plan to take the team to the World Series. At the end of it we were all excited. I honestly couldn’t wait to leave on Sunday.

I just didn’t want to leave Bella.

BPOV

I walked out the door of my house into a firestorm. The photographers were waiting at the edge of my driveway. Others were shouting questions about whether or not Edward and I were seeing each other. I finally got out of the driveway after laying on the horn to get them to move. At that moment I didn’t care if I ran one of them over. Fucking vultures!

I got to my office and saw the newspaper lying on my desk, the photo of Edward and I together screaming at me from the front page.

‘Cullen puts in Overtime off the Field!’

“Fantastic.” I mumbled.

I looked out at the field and saw a shadow sitting on home plate. I wondered who could be sitting out there in this weather. Rain pelted the window. I got my answer when my phone buzzed with a new text.

Did you see the paper? ~E

How could I have missed it? I answered him and waited. We texted back and forth until I didn’t like his answer and called him. The invitation to dinner surprised me, but I knew we needed to talk. I may be young, but I’m not an idiot.

I finished up the status report I wanted to give to Sam and the outline for what I expected for this season. Most of it Sam and I had already gone over with each other. I knew his goals and he knew mine. Now we just needed to implement them.

I checked my emails and answered a few. I emailed some assignments to my professors and then closed things down and went home to start dinner.

At fifteen till six, my doorbell rang. “Bella?” Edward yelled.

“In the kitchen.” I called out. I was just taking the chicken out of the oven when I heard him behind me.

“Something smells great.” He commented.

I turned and ran right into him. He reached his arms out to steady me and our eyes met. Not a word was spoken as we lost ourselves in each other’s gaze. Before I could blink his mouth was on mine. The minute his lips met mine, I was lost. He sucked my lower lip into his mouth extracting a moan from deep within me.

I reached my arms up and wrapped them around his neck as he ran his tongue along my lip. I exhaled and opened my mouth granting him entrance. Our tongues danced for a moment, before oxygen became necessary. When we broke apart, he leaned his forehead against mine as we fought to catch our breaths.

“Edward, I…”

“I’m sorry, I just couldn’t not kiss you this time.” Edward explained.

“You won’t hear me complaining.” I giggled. “Are you hungry?”

He grinned. “Famished.”

I put everything out on the table and we sat down. Edward moaned after his first bite and although it shouldn’t have, the sound went straight between my legs and lit a fire.

“This is fantastic, Bella. I didn’t know you could cook like this.” Edward complimented.

“Thanks. Sue taught me.” I explained indicating our hold housekeeper. “She said that the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach.”

“She was right.” Edward laughed.

We talked about everything except what we knew we needed to. When we were finished and the dishes were done, we sat in the living room and tried to avoid the elephant in the room. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Edward, what are we?” I asked.

Edward sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “I don’t know. We’re friends, but…”

“Edward, friends don’t kiss the way we just did. If friends is all we are, that can’t happen again.” I said sadly.

In a flash Edward was kneeling in front of me. “Bella, I don’t want to just to be your friend. I want to be with you, friend, lover…whatever. I’m in love with you, I have been for a while. I just don’t want to lose you. God, Bella, I love you.”

I reached a hand out and smoothed his furrowed brow and ran my hand down his face. “Oh, Edward. Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

“Honestly?” I nodded. “At first I worried about the age difference. When I first realized I had feelings for you, you were in high school. Another thing, I worked for your dad. I didn’t want anyone to get the impression I was with the owner’s daughter to further my career. Then your dad died and I didn’t want people to think I was with you, the new owner, to further my career. Plus, I was afraid.”

“Never be afraid to tell me how you feel. No one can ever tell me you’re here to further your career. I know you better than that. You have been one of my best friends for as long as I can remember. I have never needed anyone as much as I need you. I love you, so much.”

Edward reached up and brought his lips to mine. This kiss was different. It held all the passion and love we had been fighting. It was a promise. We were promising to stick together. Nothing was going to tear us apart.

At least that’s what we thought.