A Fresh Start
By BetterInTexas
Chapter 16:
BPOV
“So it’s nice to meet you Emily.”
“It’s so good to see you again. You look… beautiful. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for your wedding. When I heard I really, really wanted to but there wasn’t enough time.”
Shit.
“So, I hear we were… are… best friends?” This wasn’t awkward at
all.
“Yes. At least you were my only real female friend and I am pretty
sure I was yours. You and Leah got along but I like to think we
were… close.”
“How did we become friends?”
“Jacob. As I’m sure you noticed, Sam and Jacob are close. All the
guys are. Jake brought you around and we met.”
“Yeah, I noticed all the guys are close and, well, big.”
“Yes…” Emily said, I guess agreeing.
“So what is the story with those guys? The way they all hang out.
The size? The muscles? The incredible body heat coming off them. It seems like they are all running fever. I could feel it through my
clothes when they all hugged me.”
“Its,uh, a genetic thing.” She said quietly.
“They are all related?”
“No…” she replied. She wasn’t looking at me. I guess Emily was a
member of the lie to Mary club as well.
“All the tribe isn’t like that. At least that I saw.” I pressed.
“Yes. I mean no, they aren’t.” Emily was definitely getting nervous
now. May as well go for it.
“Emily I need help. I am trying to understand what happened to me while I was here. Before I left and got taken. You are my friend. I need you to be honest. Tell me about Edward Cullen.”
The look on her face told me that was the last thing she expected.
“Uh, what do you want to know Bella? I mean he was gone when we met each other so I never actually met him.”
“But you were my best friend. I must have told you if he had been
abusive, like I have been told. Why I reacted the way I did when he
left. I must have said something.”
“Bella…”
“Start talking or start calling me Mary. If you were my friend, if you consider me a friend still and you want me to consider you a friend Emily, I need you to tell me the truth. The truth about why I lost my damn mind because a boy left me.”
“Bella, I can’t. You need to forget about Edward Cullen. He was bad
for you. You have a good life now. Be happy.”
“Yeah but that is a problem Emily. I am happy. But I am also afraid. My father found me. Your Sam found me. How do I know he won’t
find me Emily? I don’t like being afraid. I need to know what I am up against here.”
“No you don’t, Bella. You really don’t.”
“Okay.” I took a deep breath. Uley wasn’t going to tell me anything.
Neither was his fiancée. Neither were his boys. I would have to wait to get Leah alone in Texas. Away from him. Something strange about him. Those giants seemed to rotate around him and Jacob. They took their lead from the two of them.
Why did I like Sam? We had obviously been close. He said he saw
me as a little sister. I was supposedly best friends with his fiancée.
Why wouldn’t they tell me the truth? Not only the truth. They would not tell me anything. They expected me to go off in blissful ignorance and be happy with that. They didn’t know me well apparently. Maybe I was clueless before. But I wasn’t now.
“So when are you and Sam getting married?”
“Uhm, this summer.”
“Congratulations Emily.”
“Thank you Bella.” Damn it she was tearing up again.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“What’s wrong? I thought you were dead for a year! Now you are
here and you are mad at me because I don’t want to talk about your worthless fucking ex! I love you Bella. Ever since this happened…” she motioned to her scarred face… “I haven’t had any real friends. Leah hated me because Sam and I were together. My old friends tried to act normal around me but I could tell they didn’t want to look at me. You were the only one who ever made me feel normal. I have been so lonely since you were gone. I want to tell you about him Bella. I want to tell you what an evil bastard he was. How he nearly destroyed you. But nothing good would come out of it.”
“What if he comes after me, Emily?”
“Sam protected you once and he will again! He would die before he
lets you get hurt by that bastard!” Emily was getting way too
emotional. I needed to back off.
“Look I’m sorry, Emily. Maybe I should go. I didn’t come here to upset you.”
“No! I’m sorry. I just… Bella I missed you so much.” She was full on
crying now. I reached over and hugged her. She grabbed onto me. I
could feel her tears seeping through my shirt. Great job Mary. Make your old friend cry at your reunion.”
“It’s okay. Look let’s talk about something else. Tell me about your
wedding.”
“Well we have been engaged for so long, sometimes I wondered if it would ever come. But I am glad we waited. You were going to be my maid of honor. I hope you still will.”
Oh. Wow.
“You want me too? Even though…”
“Bella, I don’t have any friends besides you.”
“Oh. Of course I will Emily. Of course.”
“Thank you.” She used her sleeve to wipe her eyes.
“So tell me everything. From being woke up on the side of the road
by a Texas hunk to getting married. I want to hear it all.”
I took a deep breath and began to talk. It felt good. I felt natural
around her. I could see why I was close to her. She was easy to talk
to. Funny. She listened. I wish she didn’t feel the need to hold back
from me.
We talked for three hours. It was nearly three. I needed to get to Bo. He had been with the “boys.” All afternoon.
God knows what they have gotten into.
As I was walking out, Sam was walking in. He hugged me. Still
burning up. Guess its genetics huh?
“Where is my husband?” I asked smiling.
“He is still with the guys. They are down by the beach. We all went
hiking earlier.”
“Everything okay?”
“No. Everything is great. He and Jacob are especially… bonding.”
“Great. Glad to hear it.” I bet they were.
“Yeah. You should probably go find them on the Beach. Just take
that path over there. I need to help get dinner ready for everyone
tonight. We are grilling in the backyard so be back in a couple hours okay?”
“Okay.” I stopped.
“Hey Sam?”
“Yeah Bells?”
“Charlie told me you found me in the woods after Edward left me
there?”
“Yes, Bella.”
“That was the first time I met you right?”
“Yes.”
“So you saved me?”
“I found you and helped you out.” He smiled.
“But you did more right?”
That caught his attention.
“What do you mean Bella?” Damn that was getting old. If they had a second identity I would make an effort to try to call them by their new name.
“Emily said you protected me once and you would again.”
“Yes. Yes I would.”
“What were you protecting me from?”
“What?”
“She didn’t say you saved me. She said you protected me. What
were you protecting me from Sam? Edward was gone when you met me.”
“She must have meant when I found you Bella. That’s all.”
“Okay. See you in a couple hours.” Liar.
He looked relieved. Too bad. I wasn’t done with him yet.
“Sam? Did I ever tell you why I just didn’t follow Edward out of the
forest?”
“What do you mean?” he wasn’t looking at me.
“He left me. I was lost. But it seems like I could have just followed
him out. Why did I go so deep in the forest? It doesn’t make sense. A lot of things don’t make sense. Charlie wants me to forget it. Not ask questions. Maybe that’s who I was. But it isn’t who I am anymore. I have a husband to look after. I have a new life to protect. I’ll be damned if I am going to not know what could be coming from the past to endanger me or my family now.”
“No danger from your past is out there, Bella.”
“Where is Edward Cullen then Sam? Where is his family?”
Sam said nothing. Color me surprised.
“Be back in a couple hours Sam. I got a husband that needs looking after.”
Bo POV
Why did I agree to this again? Hey Bo, why don’t you go hiking with the boys and I will visit with Emily? Sure, sounds fine Mary. But shouldn’t I help Charlie at Sue’s place? No, we have plenty of time.
Find out information.
I found out information all right. I have been in these fucking wet
woods for three hours. Two of these guys were in love with my wife and the rest thought they were way funnier than they actually were.
“So Bo, do you have bears in Texas?” Quil asked.
“No. If we did they wouldn’t last long I’m afraid. Too slow.”
“Oh that’s right. Big tough Texans, right Bo?” Jake asked.
“Well we ain’t as well known as the big tough west coast guys from
Washington State, but we try to hold our own.” Asshole.
“So Bo, tell us what’s it’s like to find a wife the way you did. Pretty
nice and easy right?” Paul asked.
“What do you mean Paul?”
“You know. You find a pretty girl on the side of the road. No memory. No way to support herself. You happen to take her in and become the big hero. Help her out. Give her a job, working for you. Must have been pretty easy to get her to fall in love with you right? I mean what? You guys get engaged after maybe 6 months?”
I was seriously beginning to hate this guy.
“I helped out someone who needed help.”
“So if it had been a 50 year old overweight bald guy, you would have moved him in too?”
Yep. I officially hated this guy.
“I don’t know what I would have done Paul. All I know is I fell in love with her the moment I looked into her eyes. Love at first sight. You guys know anything about that?”
That shut them up. They were all looking at each other now.
“I mean you must have known the first time you saw Rachel that she was the one, right Paul?”
Still nothing. They were beginning to look uncomfortable. Hmmm.
“What about you Sam? I bet when you saw Emily that had to be it for you? The moment you knew?”
“I have to get back and get started grilling the steaks for dinner. I will catch up with you guys later.” Sam said, walking away.
“No problem Sam. We are going to take Bo to First Beach. Show him the scenery.” Jake said.
We walked without saying much finally reaching the beach. I admit. It was beautiful. Gray. Much different than the Texas coast. Not sunny. Wild though. Huge waves out past the reef. Cliffs on both sides.
Beautiful.
“Wow.”
“Yeah. It never gets old. Bella loved it out here. We used to hang out at the big piece of driftwood down the beach. Hang out for hours, just talking.” Jake said. I looked and saw the rest were playing with a soccer ball down the beach. Apparently Rachel and Jarrod’s girlfriend, I think her name is Kim, had already arrived. That left me and Jacob.
“Jake did you fall in love with Mary after Edward left or have you
always been in love with her?” May as well get this out in the open.
“I fell in love with Bella when she first moved to Forks. I never got to see her much until Cullen left.” He said without looking at me.
“And Paul?”
“Paul loves my sister.”
“Yeah. And Paul?”
“I suspect the first time he saw her. She slapped him. Paul likes that sort of thing.”
“You think if I slapped him he would like me better?”
Jake actually laughed.
“No, he probably wouldn’t have a good reaction. He has a temper
problem at times.”
“So how are you doing with all this?” May as well try to make friends.
“With what? Thinking the only girl I ever loved was dead? Finding out that she was alive and had no recollection of me at all despite being best friends? The fact that I was so in love with her I would die for her and when I found her I had to watch her marry you?”
So maybe we wouldn’t be friends.
“Yeah. How you doin with all that?”
“How do you fucking think I am doing?”
“Getting better every day?” I’m an optimist.
“Try again.”
“So tell me about the Bella you knew. Is she a lot different now?”
Mary wanted information. So far I had learned nothing I hadn’t
already known.
“She is pretty much the same now. She just has horrible grammar
and talks a lot slower.”
“Really? I’m just getting to where I can understand her 90% of the
time.”
“You got lucky.”
“Yep.”
“She was supposed to be with me.” He said.
“Don’t appear so, does it?”
“You stole her. You took advantage of her when she needed
someone.”
“So you were just being noble when you became her best friend
after Cullen left?”
“She came looking for me.” He replied.
“You had your shot. You didn’t get her. If you had she never would
have ran. Get over it.”
So he was starting to piss me off a little bit.
“There is a pretty high divorce rate in the US.” Jake commented,
staring at the waves.
“Where I come from there is a pretty high death rate for smart ass
motherfuckers who think they are going to take another man’s wife.”
I stared at the waves as well. They were pretty.
“You think you’re a bad ass, don’t you?” he asked.
“Nope… wait, yeah. Yeah I do.”
“I could beat you to the point they would need DNA samples to
identify you.”
“I could rip your steroid shrunken nuts off and feed them to a
rattlesnake for an afternoon snack.” This back and forth dialogue is good for relationship building.
“You will never be worthy of her you redneck piece of shit.” Keep
staring at the waves and smiling.
“You have to live with the fact that I get into bed every night with her moaning underneath me and I wake up every morning with her draped on top of me.”
“You goddamn hick.”
“Stupid fucking child. Nice tattoo. Real original. Only seen it on every other guy you hang out with. Is that a boy band thing? Or some kind of secret club house?”
“I will fucking kill you.”
“I’d love to see you try you motherfuck…”
“Hey you two! I’ve been looking for you baby.” Mary said, walking up behind me.
I turned around and pulled her in my arms. She kissed me and I took a step further because I love the taste of her tongue in my mouth and I wanted to piss this little shit off.
“Damn baby. Did ya miss me?” she smiled.
“Couldn’t stop thinkin about you. I found a few places while hiking I would love to take you to.”
“I bet you did lover.” She kissed me again and I let my hands drop to her little ass and squeezed. Damn I loved her body.
“So what have you and Jake been up to?”
“Just enjoying the scenery. Jake was telling me about what great
‘Friends’ you were. It’s cool that a girl and a guy can be best friends
without it ever going farther. You don’t see that often. Apparently you saw Jake like a little brother. What are you Jake? Two years younger than Mary? Three?”
“No I guess you don’t see that often. How are you doing Jake?”
“Doing great ‘Bella’.”
“Glad to hear it.” She replied.
“Bella, do you think we could talk later? Alone?” Jake asked.
“No Jake. Probably wouldn’t be appropriate. Bo is my husband and
we don’t have secrets, unlike some people around here. If you want to talk to both of us alone, we would be glad too. C’mon Bo. I want you with me. I need to help Emily with dinner. You can peel the potatoes.”
“Sounds good darlin.” Mary walked in front of me and I turned
around and shot both fingers at Jake while mouthing fuck you and
giving him a big smile.
We walked thirty yards towards the steps leading from the beach to the parking lot.
“Really Bo?”
“What?”
“I heard you turn around. I know you weren’t getting a last gaze into his eyes. Was that necessary?”
“Oh darlin you have no idea how necessary it was.” I told her
truthfully.
She laughed. “Fine. But don’t be getting into fights. Not here. Those boys… something isn’t right with them.”
“Ya think? The smallest one is Seth. And they hang out like a pack of dogs. You never seem to see one of them alone. Plus they all have the same tattoo. I saw it on Jake’s shoulder and on the others when we got to the beach and they decided to take off their shirts. Those who were wearing shirts.”
“You work without a shirt on.”
“Only cause you like it.”
“I thought it was because of the heat?” she asked, grinning. May as
well come clean.
“I never worked a day in my life without a shirt on until the first time you came into that shed.”
“You seduced me!” she was smiling. She already knew.
“Like you weren’t seducing me when you laid out in that tiny bikini sunbathing in front of the shed?”
“I was not. I didn’t even know you were home.”
“Okay. Whatever.” She hit my shoulder.
“It’s true!”
“Okay.” I told her. She hates that.
“Fine. Did you find out anything?”
“No. Not really. They are a strange bunch but we already knew that. What about you?”
“Emily is in on their secret and intent on me not finding it out.”
“You think they are just hiding information about Cullen?”
“Nope. The tattoos, the size, the body heat, the way they hang out
together and take their cues from Sam and Jake. They have their
own secrets they don’t want me to know about. They know
something about the Cullens. I have a feeling I used to know.
Something they decided not to tell me after they realized I lost my
memory. You know Emily told me not to worry about it? She said
Edward was an evil bastard and Sam protected me once and would
do it again.”
“Protected you from what? Cullen?” I asked. That was a strange
thing to say.
“No. Edward was already gone when Sam found me in the forest.
And what I was doing so deep in the forest makes no sense either.
Especially as clumsy as I have been in the past.”
“And now.”
“I’m not as clumsy now.”
“Yeah a little bit.” I said quietly but she could hear me.
“You plan on getting lucky tonight?” Mary asked, cocking an
eyebrow.
“I wasn’t aware luck had anything to do with it but if you are referring to making love to my wife, then yes. Yes I do.”
“Then you better lay off, Bo.”
“Yes ma’am. How about a walk in the forest, while we have a little
time before dinner?” I could show her the fallen tree I happened to
notice.
“Sounds like someone wants to go wood shopping for a new desk.”
She rolled her eyes but walked with me towards the woods. Bo is
gonna get lucky.
I walked towards the tree keeping close to her in case her non
clumsy self, fell on her cute little ass. That’s when we saw her. Or
him. No it was definitely long blond hair.
She was off a ways behind some brush. I could barely make out a
human form.
“You see that?” I whispered.
“Yeah. Is that a woman?” Mary was seeing her too. Thank God I
wasn’t seeing things.
Suddenly our attention was torn from her by a series of loud howls.
In the middle of the day.
“What the hell is that?” I whispered.
“Sounds like wolves.” Mary whispered back.
We both turned towards the woman to warn her. She was gone. No
trace she had ever been there.
We were in an unknown giant forest with chicks who disappear in
less than a second and big fucking wolves somewhere around us. I
looked to my right and could hear the footsteps. I pulled my gun from the back, where it stayed underneath my shirt. I pushed Mary behind me and turned in the direction I heard the ground pounding.
The running passed us. I would guess about 50 yards away. I
couldn’t see what caused it. Too many damn trees.
“You brought a gun?” Mary asked, when the footsteps were gone.
“Yeah. We are in an unknown forest. I don’t go into woods I know
without a gun. You know that.”
“Sorry. I forgot. Bo that sounded like a damn stampede. No way
those were wolves.”
“Yeah? Well I don’t know what they are but the howls definitely
sounded like Coyotes. Since there aren’t any here, it had to be
wolves.”
“They were so loud.” She whispered.
“Yeah. I know. Maybe we should hold off on visiting Bo’s hiding place for a while and head back to Sam’s. I don’t like you being out here.”
“Fine. Holster your gun though. I don’t want you to shoot yourself by tripping over a root.”
I had to turn around at that.
“What the hell…” okay. She was smiling. It was good. I thought for a minute she was questioning my skills as a woodsman.
“What do you think happened to that woman, Bo? She wasn’t native. From what little I could see of her she looked pale.”
“You think she may be related to the Cullens? Following us?”
Mary shrugged her shoulders. “Fuck if I know, anymore. Lets’ get
back to Sam and Emily’s.”
We walked at a brisk pace getting out. Whatever the fuck was going on out there, I didn’t want Mary anywhere near it.
Walking into Sam’s place Emily greeted us at the door. She looked
very nervous.
“Oh good, you two are back.”
“Yep.” I agreed. We were back.
“Did you enjoy your stroll? See anything interesting?”
I was about to answer when Mary did for me.
“Nope. Just a beautiful forest.” Okay then. That’s how we were going to play this. Seemed like a good plan.
“Bo, could you check on the steaks? Sam had to run to the store.”
“Of course. I figured some of the other guys would be here by now.” I asked, looking around.
“Oh, those boys are always playing around until the last minute.
Charlie just called and he and Sue are on their way over.”
“That right?”
“Yes. That’s right.” Emily wouldn’t look either of us in the eyes.
“Bella would you mind helping me with the side dishes? You were
always better at them than I was.”
“Of course. Do you think you could, and maybe get the guys to start, calling me Mary? It’s kind of freaking me out being called Bella all the time. Especially since everyone wants me to forget who Bella was.”
“Oh, of course Bella. I mean Mary.” The two walked out and I was
left alone. May as well go check on the steaks. I walked out the front to take a look one more time and saw… wow.
Jake, and Sam and their friends had been joined by Leah and Seth.
They were walking out of the woods. Only Leah had a shirt on.
They all stopped when they saw me.
I smiled.
“So what have you guys been up too?”
Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction 
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