Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

Holiday Road

By Mama4Dukes

Chapter 08:

“You’re kidding me?” Charlie questioned with incredulity after the boys informed him and everyone else of what had just occurred in the lobby. “How much more can she possibly take? She’s going to go to Florida for sure after this.”

“Forgive me for saying this, but it might be the best thing for her,” Billy noted.

Charlie looked up at his friend stunned and angry. “Fuck you! It’s all fine and dandy for you, isn’t it? Everything is working out for you. Your kids are with you. This is my kid, Billy, and she can’t handle more upheavals in her life. Why? Why did you have to show up this weekend? This weekend was supposed to be about spending time with Bella because she won’t come and see me because of your goddamned brat! Do you know what the past five years have been like for me with her living so far away? I have to drive to Seattle to see her, and she rarely ever visits me in Forks. Contrary to what you might think, I love my kid. I miss her, Billy! And if she goes to Florida, I’ll never see her!”

“We came because Leah said that you would want us at your wedding,” Rachel admitted. “We would have never intruded on your private family time had we known.” She flashed a scathing glare at her father and then at Leah.

Leah looked down at her feet then burst out into tears. She had thought Charlie and her mother truly wanted everyone at their wedding. She had screwed up again. She truly believed Bella would play nice with everyone for the sake of Charlie and Sue.

“Listen, I appreciate the fact that you’re here at my wedding, I really do; but if Bella comes out hurt because she loses both of her friends. I’m going to be pissed off.” He eyed Embry in particular. “Whatever you do, do not brush aside my little girl. She can’t take anymore pain.”

“I’m going to go and look for Bella and Emily,” Lauren said. “I’m not going to abandon her, Charlie. I swear. She’s my best friend.”

“Lauren, with you and Emily being imprints; she’s going to know something is up when you start keeping secrets from her.”

“I’ll figure it out.” Lauren left the room telling Jacob not to follow her.

Sue couldn’t look into her fiancé’s eyes. She felt absolutely horrible. She knew he missed Bella, but not to the extent he did. She also knew that this latest fiasco was Leah’s fault. She couldn’t be angry with her, though, because she meant well. The girl was sobbing her eyes out in front of everyone-overcome by guilt.

“One good thing will finally come from it,” Taylor noted. “At least Emily will finally understand what happened between Leah and me.”

“But at what cost?” Sam questioned. He truly felt terrible for Bella Swan. If she lost her friends, she would be destroyed. He wished he could go to her and explain everything, but he couldn’t-it was pack law. Then again, why couldn’t an exception be made? The elders would probably forbid it, but who the hell were they to make the rules for the pack? They had no idea what it felt like to phase. They had never experienced the physical and mental anguish of transforming into a wolf. There was another thing, though-something no one, but Sam had experienced. He had been the one to find Bella in the woods after the bloodsucker abandoned her. He had been the one to cradle her in his arms and comfort her before he carried her out to the woods to her father. He also knew how much Charlie Swan loved his daughter. He had seen the worry, the fear, and the devastation in his face; the sheer relief when he handed his daughter to him; the way he cradled her protectively; shielding her from harm; rushing her to safety.

No, Sam couldn’t let Bella Swan get hurt again… nor Charlie. He couldn’t bear it. He was the alpha of the pack. The elders had no say over his actions. Someway, somehow, he would prevent it.

---

After having lunch, Bella and Emily wandered poolside to work on their tans. They stripped down to their bikinis, found some loungers, and relaxed.

Bella surveyed the pool area with wide eyes full of wonder. “Um, Em? Is it my imagination or have we landed in the middle of some Abercrombie and Fitch pool paradise?”

Emily didn’t reply. She couldn’t. Her jaws had dropped down to her knees at the sight of all of the tanned, toned men hanging out by the pool. After a while, she finally managed to croak out, “You take the right half, I’ll take the left.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Hi, I’m Andrei.”

“You’re… you’re… Weren’t you on the cover of ‘My Personal Trainer Is A Vampire?’” Emily questioned the Norwegian god standing in front of her.

“Yes, that would be me.”

“Oh… um… I’m Emily and this is… this is…” She pointed to Bella, but could not for the life of her remember her name. Her mind was all in a muddle from admiring the sex statue talking to her. “You know what? Forget it. I’m Emily. Are these your friends?”

Bella was staring at her friend, dumbfounded, for forgetting her name, but understood where she was coming from. Damn, these guys were hot!

“Hey, Andrei. Who are these lovely ladies?” a hot, dark and smoldering Latin man approached him.

“This is Emily and her friend whose name I didn’t catch.”

“Isabella. The name is Isabella, but you can call me whatever the hell you want.”

“My name is Marco. Are you from around here?” he questioned Bella.

“Would you like me to be?”

“You’re cute. Where are you from?”

“Seattle. And you?”

“Sao Paulo.”

“Oh, Brazil. Sizzling. You look familiar. Were you on a cover of a romance novel, too?”

“No, I model underwear.”

“ Thank you, God,” Bella whispered mentally. “So, what are we going to do now?”

“How about we go for a swim?”

“Swimming… What a fabulous idea? Don’t you think, Em?”

“Absolutely! Let’s go.” Emily took Andrei’s arm. “You can introduce us to all of your friends.”

Paul had witnessed everything, and overheard the entire conversation between Bella, Emily, and the models. He was hanging out poolside with Rachel, Jared, Kim, Quil, and Claire.

“Holy shit! That’s the chick that Embry imprinted on.”

“Which one? The cute Native girl or the hot brunette with her?” Jared asked.

“Dude, the hot brunette is Bella Swan.”

“Damn! She grew into her body. She’s got those perfect grapefruit sized tits,” Quil noted.

Their imprints rolled their eyes, they were used to their men ogling other women. Besides, they were at some sort of male god lollapalooza-they weren’t about to say anything. Fair was fair, after all.

“That’s Bella Swan?” Jared questioned.

“Yeah.”

“She’s pretty. No wonder Jake was all gaga over her.”

“Yeah, well, she wasn’t that pretty when we knew her. She was too skinny and depressed. Now she looks… well, she looks hot.”

“Be that as it may, we have an issue. Embry’s imprint is hooking up with male models.”

“So what? It’s her last opportunity to have some fun,” Rachel noted.

“Hey, I take offense at that statement. We wolves can be fun.”

“Meh, you guys are like a dime a dozen-those guys are… they’re like fantasy men. In fact, I think that guy was on the cover of ‘The Warrior and the Virgin.’” She pointed to some oiled up, Native American bo-hunk with a tribal tattoo running down his thigh.

“You know, Rach-I bet Taha Aki looked like him,” Claire piped in.

“Oh, for sure. That guy has warrior written all over his body.”

“Him? He looks like every other Native American guy. I’m hotter than he is. In fact, we all are!” an incensed Paul defended himself and his brothers.

“Um, you wolves have an unfair advantage. That guy has to work for his bod,” Kim stated.

“Yeah, well those two work for their bods. I wish you’d put in a bit more effort,” Jared returned, pointing to Bella and Emily.

“We don’t have to. You see we found our soul mates. They’re still looking.”

“So that gives you an excuse to be lazy. Oh, and Embry imprinted on Emily, remember?”

“Yeah, but she doesn’t know that, and until he tells her-every guy here is fair game.” Claire smirked at the three wolves, all of whom really didn’t know how to reply to her statement because she was absolutely correct. They let the women get back to drooling over the oily dudes in the Speedos while they pounded back more beers and ogled Bella Swan’s outstanding body.