A/N: Hope this finds you all well. xoxo

Chapter 62 – Hiding This Stranger

The next morning he's back to standing out on the patio. It's a small patio. Everything about this cabin is minimal. A single mother with barely any money, getting herself through school, even if it is just supplies and books, it all adds up. Bella works like mad during summers. Sue and Charlie watch Elliot, or sometimes she drops him off with his grandmother.

Bella opens the door to let him in as the sun is coming up. It's like she has this secret that is very much about him. She knows his family, all odds and ends, she's visited and stayed in his childhood room. All of these details and he doesn't know.

Well, she mentioned his family, but he hasn't asked. She doesn't know he's planning to today. Every night he leaves this place he camps for the night in the woods like he always does, and he thinks. Every detailed conversation, he runs through in loops.

Jane helped Elliot learn to walk. That seems surreal. His mother knows? He doesn't know what to think. He didn't think they'd be invested.

Bella is moving around in the kitchen.

He's silently standing in the middle of the room, not really in the kitchen, not really in the living room.

"He's still. asleep, it won't be long." She confirms about Elliot. The buffer. It's … a lot without him. "That room, straight ahead, if you're wondering," Bella adds in case he was.

He slowly walks over, hands in his pockets, after hesitating for a long pause. He pushes the bedroom door with a finger; the door makes no sounds. He peeks in. The boy's room is one of a little boy's dreams. Well, at least it would've been his when he was young. The race car bed. The little furniture. The shelves with tiny books. And toys, lots of toys in a colorful room.

Bella looks over her shoulder … she's all twisted guts inside seeing these unfathomable scenarios. He did go to see his room. She thought he never would.

She quickly shakes off any more scenarios where he goes in every night to tuck him in, read him a book. She feels too greedy.

Bella, calm down.

But she can't. This is like torture and a dream coming true all at once. Time. Time will tell. What if he doesn't want to come back, to be here for years to come? What if this is the routine every morning … him never stepping a foot in that room she dumbly made for him. She feels so stupid. She can't hold him here, begging through tears to stay.

She can't.

She takes in a staggering breath because as her mind whirled in agony, Edward quietly walked up to her. He's suddenly … close. She freezes. The spatula in her hand, the flames under the pan blazing.

Well, she's blazing a blaze so hot; his breath at her shoulder, her hair. He thinks; another dress.

He remembers that skirt and her long legs wrapped around his that night she didn't sleep on his bed. He slept on the floor, and he was so furious. Then she found her way there with him, abandoning a perfectly comfortable bed to calm her fears.

He remembers that, too. Lately, vivid memories seem to come easily. He stares up at treetops at night, pitch darkness, his eyes trained, but trained at the images conjuring up. In the morning, he walks back. He can't help himself. It's too extraordinary what's happening here. He's discovered it.

That, and her delicious scent.

He's been thinking about it. A dream he had where he was enveloped in it. A cloud around him. He woke and sought after it.

He breathes her in. Injecting him for keeps, when pitch darkness out in the woods is unbearable.

"Your hair is longer," he muses.

Bella turns her head. Just that. Her limbs tremble but stay put.

"He has your hair," he adds to this. What is this?

Bella nods slightly. "And he has your eyes and mouth."

Mouth. She tries not to think of it. She won't turn around to see it, to compare.

"... and so many things, really." She smiles to herself.

He's quiet. But she swears she feels her hair move at the ends.

"No. He looks like my brother."

"Which one? Emmett?" She asks, moving the spatula. There's also Garret, and Erick, and Seth. Edward is the fifth. She's dying a little. He's still so close, immobile. She feels him peek over to watch her profile. "Yeah, he does," she agrees. "Emmett thinks so too, but he doesn't admit it." She nervously chuckles.

She's a puddle inside.

"You've met them? Jane?" Here it comes. She's mortified. "How?" he asks.

Bella moves the pan to another burner with the browned eggs in it. She gives up. What she does try again is her nerve to turn around. She does. And there's barely room to do so. She leans against the counter and looks at anything but his eyes. The button of his shirt is enough.

"I wanted to meet them. I wanted to tell them. You spoke so little, but with your name alone, I was able to find them." She rubs her neck where she felt him. "Well, Emmett figured it out when I tried to run." She laughs. She sobers when nothing is said.

"Forgive me. I overstepped." She glances up at him.

He knows no balance. The spindle going from one extreme to another; his no contact rule to invading someone's personal space for a stretched moment, especially during this delicate conversation. She doesn't mind one bit. How many times has she dreamed this up? She absorbs the warmth coming off him, dizzily.

He watches how her lashes fan her face, and the red of her lips pale when he's this close. They're perfectly red when he's farther away. He analyses. He watches the fidgets in her hands, the tuck of hair behind her ear. She folds her arms under her breasts, then lets go, barely skimming his chest. Her dress is modest. The memory of that day she slipped it off her body to show him, far from. He remembers.

"Your sister is wonderful with him. Elliot loves her. And you have so many nephews and nieces. They've all met him, actually." She shrugs. "I figured he would at least know a part of you if we never got to see you again. Your mom just accepted, no question. It was remarkable.

"Your parents are remarkable. They love you." She nods, babbling. "Your mother cried, but only asked after you once. Like she understands. I didn't. Still don't. I'm not sure why she never looked for you."

Bella lets that linger. She doesn't know why she's let that out. She winces slightly.

"I had good parents," he says, "We're not emotionally bleeding all over each other. We're not touchy-feely; that's expected."

Bella noticed. Actually, she noticed how a loud and spirited Elliot broke the dreariness a little. The Cullen house is more colorful; it matches Jane's mural.

She lets her gaze trail to his face. Him still looking on, not quite done with taking in all the changes. She's far more grown than he remembered. Much so with the rushed life she'd had. A lot to learn as a mother in so little time. Age in her eyes, far beyond her years.

Bella tests that theory. The touchy-feely one. She's beginning to think it's not true. She skims a hand over his arm to his shoulder. It's bashful, almost like a silly pat there, to ease in. He doesn't move, so she keeps going. Next is his collar, she tugs at it a bit, as it slips between her fingers. She finally lets her hand fall over his heart. The moment she aims to touch his face, he pulls away. He simply takes a few steps toward the table, runs his fingers over the top, and roams the rest of the kitchen like he's interested in the lines and structure.

Sue walks in through the patio when they finally part. Bella and a strange man standing close. It was a sight.

It just took a moment, but Sue did stand at the threshold, suddenly feeling like she should keep silent.

"Oh," Bella says. Her face flushed. She quickly straightens from where she stands. She shuffles around, a bit lost. "I forgot to call you. I was … about to tell you I was keeping Elliot today. Maybe for the rest of the week."

Sue nods, but with a soft grin over her lips. Her eyes going from her step-daughter to the stranger.

Edward is a bit stoic where he stands with the surprise guest. He looks at anything but toward the door. He turns and stares out a window giving them privacy, if that's possible.

Bella walks up to Sue. "Sorry I made you come all this way."

"All this way? It's down the path, sweetie." Sue teases. She looks over Bella's shoulder.

"Oh, this is …" Bella stumbles to explain. She's a shaken mess, and Sue likes this new look on her.

"Edward, isn't it?" Sue says. Edward looks back. Sue boldly walks past Bella and into the room, her eyes taking him in like a ghost story has materialized. "It's an honor meeting you. I've heard … quite a bit." She grins as she stops a yard or two away. Not a bit, but a lot. Substantially. "You can call me Sue." From now on. She assumes he'll stay, or insinuates.

Edward dips his head at her with arms crossed over his chest, his eyes not catching hers completely, but he remembers her from the trail, looking for Elliot. "Pleasure," he politely says.

Sue's eyes roam from his head to the toe of his boot. His dated frames tucked into his shirt. "Now that you're here and need anything … medical care as a general, it's free. I know a great doctor. I can imagine the... long journey you've had. It wouldn't hurt to check if you need anything."

Edward's brows knit, but the offer makes him really look at her. Her kindness. He's never been sick in his life.

"You don't look traveled. Impressively so." She folds her arms at her chest just like him, the handsome man in front of her, standing with his shoulder to her, like he'll run away any second. "But I wanted to extend the welcome anyway. I can't help it. It's part of my DNA to offer." She smiles.

"Thank you." He says nothing else.

"Welcome back," she finishes saying. Edward frowns at that. He was widely missed? He doesn't know what to make of that.

Sue walks out, but before she does, she gives Bella a strengthening hug, the delightful promise of telling the people who have been eagerly waiting for this return is all-consuming inside her. She could just squeal loudly.

Well, maybe to just telling her dad, Sam, the man who has tirelessly been sending word to all his friends living in all corners of Maine that a very special man is missing. The word traveled, but it never did get to where Edward stepped foot. Sam tried. Charlie did, too, or looked on wondering what would become of his daughter's secret hope. Sometimes, a bit unfairly angry.

Sue will definitely tell Sam. Maybe not Charlie, not just yet.

She watches from outside in, as Elliot runs from his room straight into the arms of his father, who's caught by surprise. Well, what do you know … it looks like Bella has been hiding this stranger long enough for a child to find trust.

She can't take it. She does laugh out loud as she walks away.

….