Chapter 12: Method of Secrecy (Teaser)

My mouth dropped open, eyes widening in shock. His answer was not one I expected to hear at all. “What do you mean ‘here’?” I asked incredulously. He continued staring at me, wearing the same expression upon his face. He seemed thoroughly amused by my confusion. “You actually take a bath here?” He shook his head, which only served to confuse me more. “But you just said-”

“Shower, not bath…Bella,” he interrupted, cocking an eyebrow while still wearing that little smirk. My eyes widened further at his statement and facial expression. His reactions proved exactly how much of an enigma he really was. There were many layers to Edward; that much I ascertained.

“But I don’t…How do you...” I paused, running my hands down my face, shaking my head. I was completely stammering my words, thrown by the fact that he actually showered here. I never in a million years expected that, it just didn’t seem probable to me. Yeah, his body didn’t appear dirty so I figured he was able to manage some kind of personal hygiene, and I guess I really didn’t know what I anticipated him to say, but it wasn’t that. “Why…I mean, where do you shower in this place?”

He stared at me, eyes twinkling with intensity as his face shifted through emotions. I was trying to read him, trying to understand what I was seeing behind those green orbs, hoping to understand the reason behind his silence and the look he was giving me. And it dawned on me as his eyes roamed my face that he was doing the same, trying to read me. Was he afraid to tell me?


His eyes finally lowered toward his lap as he whispered, “Where…where I found you.”

Chapter 11: Endeavor the Warmth (Teaser)

I was staring openly at our hands to the exact spot our fingers touched.  Neither of us made a move to pull apart, nor did the sensation dissipate the longer our skin stayed connected.  “There’s…so much,” Edward breathed out.

My head snapped up, eyes locking onto his face. His were focused on our hands, but his expression more than defined his confusion – I understood that feeling all too well. I was wearing my confusion badge a lot since I’d met Edward.

One of his eyebrows was raised higher than the other, nose was slightly wrinkled and there was an obvious crease between his brows. “Why, Bella?” he whispered, shaking his head. I bit my lip hard, completely terrified of the underlying reason to his question. This thing that kept happening when we touched, was it too much for him? Would he want me to leave now?  I was terrified that was the case, that I was going to be rejected by him now, and because of that, I’d never wanted to know someone’s thoughts more than I did in this moment. “Why are you?”

“Why am I what?” I asked as I pulled my hand away, careful not to do so too abruptly.  I tried to mask the tension in my voice, but I knew I was failing miserably.

“It’s so warm. Why…why are you so warm?”

“I don’t-”

“He didn’t… It was never…” He seemed lost in his musings, so much so, I felt as if I were standing outside a room, eavesdropping. “He wasn’t warm.”

The way he said it, the agony twined with his words, made my heart feel as though someone took a straight razor to it, slicing through the tough muscle to the source of me, penetrating my soul. His pain had such a daunting affect on me, and I barely knew much about him or what happened to him. “Edward, what did he-”

He inhaled sharply, glancing down at his hands. “I don’t want to, Bella.”

“What, Edward?” I wanted to reach out to him, terrified I might be pushing too hard. No, what I really wanted to do was touch him again. “What don’t you want to?”

His eyes met mine pleadingly, and he exhaled his words on a crushed whisper. “Be in the cold anymore.”

Chapter 10: Labyrinth (teaser)

I tried to understand the sensation as I glided my fingertips across my bottom lip. It was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. It definitely felt like an electrical current or something of equal power, but it wasn’t painful. On the contrary, it was warm and intoxicating, like heated silk whispering along my skin. How I managed to feel that by sharing a touch with someone was beyond me.

Edward’s gasp interrupted my reverie, so I glanced up, meeting shocked eyes. I instantly froze, terrified that whatever happened between us in that touch would set him back, that I’d lose the ground I’d gained with him. “I’m…uh…sorry.” I ended up blurting out the first thing that came to mind, and it certainly wasn’t that articulate.

Apologizing may not have been the right approach, but it wasn’t as if I really knew what approach to take. I was flying completely blind here. But my apology didn’t seem to ease his tension, so I took a deep breath, doing the one thing I could think of, I told him the truth…sort of. “It’s okay, Edward, that was just a static shock. It happens sometimes when people touch each other or touch something metal. It happens to me every now and then when I grab onto a door knob.” He seemed to ease moderately, but there was something that passed within his eyes, something fleeting that I couldn’t name, but my heart definitely reacted to it.

Chapter 9: Acquiesce (teaser)

When I arrived, Marcus was on the second floor, filling a copious amount of lawn bags with garbage that lay cluttering the cemented floors.  I chuckled at his incoherent mutterings. “Bad morning?”

He laughed as he dropped the bag he held between his gloved hands. “You could say that.” He looked around, exhaling a sonorous breath in annoyance. “I knew this would be a lot of work, but no sooner do I get one portion finished, kids come through here vandalizing or partying, and I have a whole new mess to clean.”

“Marcus, I-”

“That wasn’t a jab at you, Bella,” he interrupted, his tone compassionate. “So please don’t take it that way.”

I nodded, cleared my throat, then gestured toward my tote bag. “I brought you lunch. Should I set it on your bench in the boiler room?”

“Bella,” he shook his head, sighing. “You have to stop doing that.”

“Why?” I asked. “I just…I’m sorry if I offended you.”

A small smile played at the corner of his lips. “You didn’t offend me, I’m just not used to someone doing something nice for me, let alone wanting to. I’ve never been high on anyone’s priority list. I guess what goes around comes around, right?”

“I don’t believe that,” I told him. “And it’s never too late to let people see the real you, because I happen to see someone who’s very unselfish.”

“You’re wrong, Bella. Taking care of one boy doesn’t make up for years of being self-absorbed.”

“I think it does. People change, Marcus. You’re proof of that.”

“If I’ve changed, it’s all because of that boy.”

Chapter 8: Meet the Parent (teaser)

I kept my eyes off him as he ate, because the last thing I wanted was for him to be self-conscious around me in any way, but I talked to him, telling him all about the idea Marcus and I came up with so I’d be able to stick around longer. I made sure to include, “Only if you want me to.” at the end of the sentence - which he seemed to. At least, that’s how I interpreted the grunt in response. Sometimes I wondered if he ever tired of me talking so much, but then again, I had to make up conversation for two people. In the end, I guess maybe he didn’t because he’d yet to ask me to stay away. I honestly hoped that day would never come.

Being that Edward presumably was a belated eater, or maybe it was simply because he still wasn’t used to being around someone while eating, even though he’d been doing it for the past week now, he’d just finished when six o’clock rolled around. I glanced up at him when I saw through my peripherals that he was laying his bowl beside him.

“It’s time for me to go, but I’ll be back in the morning.” I grabbed my tote bag, slinging it over my shoulder and stood up, stretching my limbs a little before I walked toward the only exit/entrance in the room.

“I wish-” he paused, as if hesitant to continue what he wanted to say. “I wish…you could stay.”

I stood inches from the door now, unmoving. “I do too.” I bit back the tears that stung the corner of my eyes. “But I’ll be back tomorrow.”

I moved through the doorway, knowing if I stood in that spot any longer or even chanced a look at him, I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to leave, and that was not a possibility right now; I had to leave. I’d barely cleared three steps between me and the doorway when I heard him say, “You…you make it…not hurt so much.”

The tears fell relentless now.

Chapter 7: The Plan (teaser)

I turned back around and proceeded down the hallway. I pushed through the doorway, parting the blanket that obstructed the door, and glanced around the room for Marcus. “Marcus, are you in here?”

He poked his head out from around the large boiler. “Yeah, I’m over here.” I stepped toward the boiler, stopping when I stood beside him. He was on his knees, fumbling through archaic parts piled in an old crate, but paused when he saw me next to him. “Everything alright?”

I sighed. “Yeah, everything’s fine. I just…do you remember when you told me if I needed anything to come find you?”

He nodded. “Of course.”

“Well,” I started, biting my lip. “I need your help.”

He immediately stood up. “Tell me what you need me to do.”  There was no delay, just a simple, sincere response.

Chapter 6: A Slight Progression (teaser)

I sat back up, placing my back against the wall and glanced over toward Edward. My mouth fell open, and I let out a low trembling breath. He’d been watching my interaction with Lancelot, and apparently was pleased by it because the right side of his mouth actually turned up into a small smile. I was completely staggered, though it was a pleasant shock.

I had to correct myself almost immediately so that my reaction didn’t startle him. I smiled back at him, and reached inside my bag to pull out the book. “I brought Walden by Henry David Thoreau. I hope you like it.”

I began to read, getting completely lost in the words. He remained quiet, of course, but listened intently to what I was saying…until the fourth chapter. “There is commonly sufficient space about us. Our horizon is never quite at our elbows. The thick wood is not just at our door, nor the pond, but somewhat is always clearing, familiar and worn by us, appropriated and fenced in some way, and reclaimed from Nature. For what reason have I this vast range and circuit, some square miles of unfrequented forest, for my privacy, abandoned to me by men? My nearest neighbor is a mile distant, and no house is visible from any place but the hill-tops within half a mile of my own. I have my horizon bounded by woods all to myself; a distant view of the railroad where it touches the pond on the one hand, and of the fence which skirts the woodland road on the other. But for-”

“I,” he started, then paused. I waited anxiously for him to continue speaking, my heart fluttered triumphantly in my chest, because that one word was the first word I’d heard from him in nearly a week, but right now, that one word was everything. He was staring at me, almost pleadingly, so I smiled to reassure him. “I…like it.” He glanced from me to the book.

“Me too,” I whispered hoarsely. I bit my lip to catharsis myself of my emotions. “This book was always one of my favorites. I have a weakness for classic literature.”

I swear he smiled again. It was fleeting, but it was there. “Please,” he whispered.