It was a pleasant Sunday morning. The slight flutter of the curtains against the cold morning breeze that flew directly from the woods filled the room with its fresh fragrance.
It was just the crack of the dawn and I was up for an hour now. I felt him first before he draped his hand over my stomach and scooted closer to me.
He laid behind me, holding me close. I rested my head on his one arm, his chest pressed against my back, while his other hand rubbed circles on my arm.
“What are you thinking about?”, he murmured in his raspy sleepy voice.
I half turned to look at him, “How did you know I was thinking?”.
“You were doing the eyebrow scrunch, staring into the distance thingy”. I chuckled.
“I was thinking about what would have happened if I didn’t show up at Alice’s party that night”.
“I would have found you in some other way”
“How?”. He hummed against my bare shoulder, his hands mindlessly roaming over my skin.
“I don’t know. But my most probable guess would be Nora doesn’t shy away and gets my number and she takes me home to meet you and I find out”
“That would have been one hell of an awkward situation”, I laughed, “Don’t tell her I told you about that. She would kill me”. He chuckled, his bare chest vibrating against me. We fell silent and I relaxed against him, soaking it up.
“I can’t believe it’s been two years already and she’s pregnant with a baby boy”, I whispered, not wanting to stir the comfortable silence. “And I can’t believe you shoved me back the first time I saw you”.
“Yeah well, you tried to kiss me within the first five seconds and I didn’t even know your name at that point. It was either that or slap you, but I didn’t want to cut my hand slapping that cheekbone of yours”, he chuckled, his chest vibrating against my back.
“I’ve got something for you”, I felt him smile against my skin and kiss my shoulder so softly it tickled.
I half turned and raised an eyebrow as his grip loosened, “Anniversary gift?”
“Something of that sort”. He reached back to his side night stand while I laid there, facing away from him, playing with his fingers.
“I was going to wait until tonight’s party but this feels like the right moment”, he took a shaky breath behind me, his body tensing suddenly.
I was about to turn around to look at him when he brought his hand up and placed a black velvet box on the bed in front of me.
“I’m not the English major here so bear with me if I don’t get the words right”, I knew he could feel my heart racing at hundred miles per hour but I tried to hide it with a faint chuckle.
He kissed my neck, his voice rumbling through my body, “We didn’t have the mate pull others had. Although you had me from the first second, what we have now is solely because we liked each other, made an attempt to know each other and fell in love with each other”, he took a deep breath and flipped the box open, a sleek gold band with a solitaire diamond in the center sat inside the box, “You are my dreams come true, Bella. Will you marry me?”.
There was no audience, no fancy settings. Just us. In each other’s arms, half asleep and half awake, in a state of bliss where we could live forever. It was perfect for me.
I nodded frantically, unable to stop the tears, “Yes, of course I will”.
He pulled me closer, if that was even possible, buried his face in my neck and I could feel the tension leave his body. I rolled in his arms to face him and kissed him deeply, holding his face in my hands.
“Here”, he broke the kiss and took the ring out of the box, held my hand and slid it into my finger. I touched it, looking at it. It fit perfectly. He broke my thoughts, “It was my mom’s. I got it resized for you”.
“It’s perfect”, I snuggled closer to him, not able to take my eyes off the ring, a wide smile stretched across my lips.
“Alice is going to have one hell of a party tonight”, he chuckled, lacing his fingers through mine.
I kissed my mark on his neck, feeling him shiver under my lips. We did it a year ago, you know what I mean, sealing the deal. The mating was actually quite fun but the next part, my first shift was not.
For the lack of better words, if the marking hurt like period cramps then the first shift hurt like childbirth. It lasted for a whole night.
Alice and Ryan kept on drenching me with cold water and covering with wet blankets, trying to reduce my body heat and to dampen the pain.
I shiver every now and then, thinking about that night. Every joint in my body ached like hell. It was literally each one of your bones snapping and healing into an entirely different skeleton within your skin while you were completely conscious.
But it’s been a year since that and it has become less painful now almost as a routine. She was a beautiful white one, Alba.
–
I didn’t think I would ever get used to this look. The chill breeze straight from the forest, heavy with the smell of earth and pine trees and the feeling of warmth by the new sunrays just peeking over the tree line, painting the sky in exotic shades of orange and purple, like a seasoned artist’s canvas.
Serene. That was the only word I could find to describe this morning and my mind. Calm and serene.
A soft gasp out of surprise escaped my lips when I felt a warmth I was familiar with, behind me. I leaned into that warmth and let it encircle me.
Ryan gently pulled me against his front, his hands caressing my baby bump. He did that a lot lately after the quickening. If he was a mother hen before I was pregnant inserting the words ‘your safety’ into every sentence he spoke regarding me, he became an all time hoverer after I got pregnant. He rested his chin on my shoulder, leaving feathery kisses on my exposed shoulder. Leaning onto his chest and giving him full access to my neck , I let out a contented sigh.
“Beautiful”, he whispered nibbling my earlobe.”Yeah”
“You don’t have my view”. I laughed. “Someone is back on the sap train”. He chuckled and his wandering hands froze when he felt a movement on my belly. The baby has been going at it sine morning and even after six months, we still haven’t gotten used to it.
“What are you doing Mrs. Bleiz?”, I felt his smile on my neck, raising goose bumps on its way throughout my body.
“Just thinking “, I murmured, nuzzling into his neck, his hair that has grown an inch longer than it was when we first met, tickling my nose.
“About?” he turned me around within his embrace and tucked a stray strand behind my ear, his dreamy eyes wandering all over my face. It was four years after our first meeting, at the night of our wedding, he told me that he always had a thing for my freckles. Hmm. Who would’ve thought?
“What do you think, Mr. Bleiz?” a smirk found its way onto my lips as I tilted my head and looked at him. I knew something he didn’t know yet.
“Well, I think it’s about that little bundle of joy that is growing inside your tummy. Isn’t it?”, he raised his brow, smiling which made me weak on my knees. Something you would never get used to.
I turned around to my previous position, a knowing smirk on my face, so that I could break it to him without giving it away all the while watching his reaction in the glass.
“Bundles of joy, I suppose “, my smirk grew wide into a grin when I watched his smile turn into a pure shock and when realization hit him, into a gasp and eventually into an even wider grin.
And here we go…
This is us. And this is my happily ever after.
~~• fin •~~