Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

Perfect For Me

By Mama4Dukes

Chapter 12:

New Year’s Eve brought about the birth of Leah and Sam’s first baby – Allie Sue, named after both grandmothers. The birth was a blessing in disguise. Bella spent increasingly more time with Jasper because the infant had lungs of steel and didn’t stop crying.

In February, Pete was promoted to Senior Project Manager at his engineering firm, necessitating a move to Dallas. Jasper and his friends were absolutely devastated. Pete was one of the pack. His moving four hours north felt more like he was moving to a foreign country.

In March, Rachel announced she was temporarily quitting her job for a year to attend the University of Houston full-time to earn her PhD in Higher Education Leadership. Meanwhile, her brother, Jacob, had moved into a small apartment nearby with his girlfriend Rosalie.

In April, Jasper was a groomsman at Emmett’s wedding to Angela Weber, Charlotte’s sister. The wedding was officiated by Reverend Weber, the girls’ father, who had expounded on sins of the flesh; Angela was three months pregnant at the time of her marriage. While others kept a straight face, Bella was unable to do so, which had a ripple effect. Paul started chuckling, then Jasper, followed by Emmett and Peter, both of whom received firm slaps on the hand with the Bible from their father-in-law during the ceremony, which was probably unprecedented.

Finally, in May, Bella completed her final exams and her first year of graduate studies at Rice. Instead of going home to Forks, she decided to stay in Houston and work full time at Red’s rather than working at Jiffy Lube, like Jake was doing.

In the same month, Jasper flew to Florida with her to meet her mother, who was as loopy as she described. She declared she felt good karma between the two of them; yin and yang were working cohesively together. She was a really nice lady, though – maybe not a conventional mother, but she still loved her daughter fiercely.

It was Memorial Day weekend. They were back in Texas. Jasper and Bella had three days off in a row; and were spending the time at his house, installing a new kitchen faucet, which had suddenly sprung a leak last night while they were cooking dinner. Jasper was going to call a plumber, but Bella lectured him about how ridiculous the idea was, considering there were two engineers currently present in the house.

So they went to Home Depot and picked out a faucet, which they were now in the process of installing when the doorbell chimed all of a sudden. Jasper went to answer the door. Sadly, it was his mother, whom he had not seen since the Christmas fiasco, standing on the doorstep.

“Mother, how are you?”

“I’m doing well. And you?”

“Busy. Why are you here?”

“I wanted to see how my son was doing. I…”

“Jasper! I’m getting sprayed!”

“Oh shit! Bells!” He rushed into the kitchen to find her soaked from head to toe in water.

“You forgot to shut the water off at the source.”

“Sorry.”

Edie Cullen Whitlock stepped into the kitchen. Her countenance became horrified as she took in the sight of a drenched Bella, who was barefoot in her shorts and tank top with a wrench in her hand. Without smiling she greeted, “Hello, I’m Mrs. Whitlock – Jasper’s mother.”

“Oh, nice to meet you. I’m Bella. I’d shake your hand, but I’m a mess. Jasper forgot to shut off the water.”

“Why would he need to shut off the water?” She had a bewildered expression on her face.

“Oh, we’re replacing the faucet. It sprung a leak.”

“Shouldn’t you call a plumber?” She turned to Jasper. “Honestly, son, you need to hire a good butler to oversee this sort of thing. Why you’re exerting yourself doing manual labor is beyond me.”

“Mother, why are you here?” Jasper repeated.

She held her head up high and stated quickly, “I came to apologize about Christmas.”

“I should make myself scarce,” Bella noted.

“No, stay,” Jasper insisted. “There’s nothing she has to say that you can’t hear.”

“Your father and I are hosting our annual Independence Day Ball. I would like it if you would attend. You may, of course, bring a guest if you wish.” She stood stoically staring at Bella and taking in her disheveled appearance.

“I’ll consider it, Mother.”

“Thank you. Well, I’ll be going now.” She placed the invitation on the dining table. “I hope you can attend.”

Edie quickly left the house. Jasper shook his head, deciding to analyze the encounter later. He turned to his girlfriend. “Well, now you can say you’ve met everyone in my family.” She had met his grandmothers at the beginning of the new year when they all went out to dinner at the country club with Bella’s father and stepmother. It had been a joyous occasion, filled with laughter.

The only person who refused to attend was his mother. His father came along, though, and even invited Charlie Swan to go hunting with him on Saturday. Apparently, he’d had a grand time with the man.

“So, should we finish up?”

“Absolutely, but first I think we should get some towels to mop up this mess.”

“Good idea.” They got the faucet installed in no time, and then hit the shower together to get cleaned up. Of course being naked together always led to more amorous pursuits, and soon, Jasper’s worries were all but forgotten.

Later in the evening, over a dinner of take-out Thai, the couple finally got to opening up the invitation. They stared at the foil-embossed card.

“What should we do?”

“What do you mean ‘we’?” Bella asked.

“I’m not going to this shindig without you.”

She turned to him with a nervous look on her face. “Jasper…” She closed her eyes and sighed. “Jasper, I don’t belong at a party like this. I’m too… I’m a Forks girl. And I’m not high society. I can’t… I’m not the type of girl you take to a ball.” Her eyes were glistening with tears by the end of her speech.

“Bella…” he whispered, and pulled her into his arms, and ran his fingers through her soft locks. “Bella, I can’t do this without you. If you don’t want to go, we won’t go.

“But I won’t have you self-deprecating yourself. You might not have grown up in the environment I did, but it doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to be a part of it. You earned every bit of all you’ve accomplished, unlike me, who was handed everything on a silver platter.” He tilted her chin up and kissed her gently on the lips.

“Now who is the one doing the self-deprecating? You claim you were handed everything on a silver platter, but I can tell you for a fact, those three degrees you earned weren’t just handed to you. No matter who paid for the degrees, you’re the one who went in there and earned them yourself. I highly doubt anyone entered your brain and did all the learning and thinking for you.” She climbed onto his lap, straddling him. “You need to go to this party.” She put her arms around his neck. “It’s your family’s big to-do.”

“I’m not going without you. Can’t you see? There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be at the ball because you’re important to me. You’re the only one I want by my side each and every day, not some high society debutante whose only goal in life is to marry into money for the sake of social prominence.”

“Jasper, I’ve never been to a formal ball. I’m from Forks, Washington. You’ve been there. We have one main road – not even a mile long – which constitutes the center of town. The most formal party I’ve ever been to was my high school prom. I can’t even walk in high heels!”

“So, then, wear flats! Bella, I love you! I love you because you’re you. You never put on any false airs, and you’re not afraid to admit you’re not perfect, but you know something?” He fixed his tender gaze directly on her. “You’re perfect for me.”

“Do you really love me?”

“Of course I do. I can’t imagine my life without you, and I detest the fact you still live with Leah and Sam.”

“I hardly do anymore, you know? I have more things here than there.”

“Then move in with me,” he suggested.

“I thought we were discussing your mother’s ball.”

“I don’t care about the ball. I just want you here by my side. Besides, your home is here with me.”

“Fine. I’ll move in with you, but only because you’ve infiltrated my heart. And I love you.” She winked at him and snuggled closer to him.

“And the ball?”

“If it means so much to you for me to be there, I’ll go, Jasper.”