My Sam Uley... ::le sigh:: (I know I'm a little nutters when it comes to this guy... but COME ON. Give a girl a break.)
Photo courtesy of coolspotters.com
The Leah that never was... ::sad face::
Photo courtesy of Twilight Indonesia
Without further ado... Chapter 3 of When Destiny Calls...
DISCLAIMER: Stephenie Meyer owns all Twilight-related material. I'm merely borrowing Sam for a bit... ;)
Chapter Three – Plans
“So what do you say?” I whispered softly, wiping the tears falling freely down her face.
A slow smile crept up on the corners of her mouth. She nodded her head slowly, encircling her arms around me.
“Yes,” she murmured back, closing her eyes and pressing her face against mine.
I stared up at the sky, watching the dim lights of stars hiding behind the veil-like clouds. As Leah leaned back into my arms, I smiled contentedly, marveling at how nothing I could’ve planned would have come close to how perfect everything turned out to be.
It had been a week since that night and I had to still keep reminding myself that she had said yes.
She said yes.
I was constantly having to check myself because apparently I had taken to walking around with a stupid, half-moon grin without even realizing it. Not that I minded people seeing how ecstatic I was, but some people tend to look at you funny when you walk around smiling at everything and everyone for no apparent reason.
I tried to think of other things, things that needed to get done before I went away to school. Taking the semester off and starting in the spring was a better idea than I’d anticipated. I figured that I’d have more time to help Leah plan the wedding, though I already knew that my opinion would probably be overruled by the three active female contributors to the future nuptials. Still, I could drive Leah around, help her out if she needed it, and even offer an opinion should she want it.
My time with her was limited enough as it is, her senior year of high school taking a larger toll on how much freedom she usually had from studying. All of her friends had already been told about my popping the question, obviously. I liked watching how her eyes twinkled as she recounted her daily grind, never failing to mention how incredibly green with envy all the girls were. She always looked smug whenever she told me how all of her friends were wishing their boyfriends would take a cue from me. I couldn’t help laughing each time because with Leah, each gesture, each action, each word spoken, was a natural thing. There was no cue to take from it because it was an ease that couldn’t be duplicated. And so I laughed because being with Leah was never hard; it was the easiest thing in the world to me.
“Oh, crap…” I groaned, turning over to look at the alarm clock. “Jeez, she’s gonna kill me! I can’t believe I overslept!”
I hopped out of bed and shuffled into the bathroom to take a quick shower. I heard a loud knock on my door as I tried to hurry through the motions, poking my head around the curtain of the shower.
“Sam?”
My mother’s voice was drowned out by the loud noise of the water.
“SAM?”
“YEAH? I’M IN THE SHOWER!” I called out, hoping she heard me.
I came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, wearing just a towel around my waist and stopped short when I saw Leah, sitting cross-legged, at the foot of my bed.
“H-hey! Scared me there for a sec. When’d you get here?”
“A few minutes ago. Your mom said I can come in and wait for you. I think she’s going to the store,” she answered, grinning at me. I saw her eyes move down the length of my body and relished the slightly provocative glow she now wore. She turned her head away when she realized that I had noticed her scrutiny, her face burning with color.
“Oops! Sometimes I get a little carried away…” she laughed, the blush moving up to her ears. “Ugh, why do you have to be so damn cute?”
She threw me a look of mocked loathing, narrowing her eyes in pretense.
“Only to you,” I replied, a half smile playing at the corners of my mouth.
“No way! All the girls think you’re completely hot and it makes you that much more attractive because you walk around not knowing it! You need to look in the mirror more often, I think. Get a reality check or something.”
She was trying to hold her face to the serious expression she had managed to display, but failed miserably as we both burst into hysterical laughter.
“Seriously, though, how could you not notice them staring at you? They’re not exactly the most discreet bunch, you know. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m not about the whole jealousy thing, but I just don’t get how you don’t know.” She gazed at me, genuinely exasperated.
I shook my head, snickering as I pulled her close to me.
“I don’t know about a mirror; I’d much rather be looking at you. And I really don’t know what you mean. I look perfectly normal to me.” She snorted and rolled her eyes.
“Right, normal. If you’re normal, I’m rotting fruit,” she said, pouting her lip in feigned sadness.
“Rotting fruit? Where’d you get that analogy? You are ridiculously beautiful and you shouldn’t care what your friends say anyway. I’ll bet they were just trying to create more drama.” I kissed the tip of her nose, inhaling deeply as a smile played on her lips. I was vaguely aware that I still had nothing but the damp towel on, but I didn’t want to let her go just yet.
She let out a sigh as she put some distance between us. I kept my hands on her waist, still unwilling to oblige. She chuckled lightly, the tiny crinkles around her eyes growing deeper as I leaned my forehead against hers.
“You’d better put some clothes on before we get ourselves into trouble,” she whispered, closing her eyes.
“Mmm…but what if I like trouble?” I murmured, trailing my fingers along the side of her face.
“You’re making it very hard for me to resist, you know,” she giggled softly, stealing a quick kiss before she closed her eyes again.
“Then stop resisting,” I urged coaxingly. I started trailing kisses down her face, starting from the tips of her ears and working my way down to her collarbone. I felt her shiver as her heartbeat began to race and her breath came in short bursts.
“Lee-lee,” I whispered tauntingly, moving in the opposite direction and planting kisses all the way up to her temple. I continued to caress her face with my fingers as I slowly pressed my lips on hers. She responded willingly, our mouths finding a comfortable rhythm. I heard a small whimper escape her and she pulled away abruptly, breaking into bemused laughter.
“Ugh, you’re killin’ me,” she sighed. “Now, come on, get dressed. We’re gonna be late.”
I laughed, rolling my eyes as I slipped on a pair of jeans and an old Metallica t-shirt. I rummaged in my drawer for a pair of socks before throwing on my chucks and she gave me the once over before nodding her head in approval.
“Okay, let’s go. My mom’s gonna kill us if we’re late and I do not want to be on the receiving end of that stick.” She tugged on my hand, dragging me outside where I had parked the truck.
A short while later, we pulled up in front of her house just as Harry clambered up the steps carrying extra fold-up chairs. His face lit up when he saw us and I ran over to help him with the load in his arms.
“Happy birthday, Harry! You don’t need to be lifting all of this,” I said, taking the chairs he was holding. “Take a load off, relax…”
“Thanks, but I’ve got a lot more years on this engine, Sam! You don’t need to worry about me,” he replied, chortling loudly. “Besides, a guy can’t rest around here for too long, what with Sue planning around the you-know-what.” His voice trailed off in a mocked whisper as Leah rolled her eyes behind him.
“You can say wedding, Dad,” Leah muttered quietly into his ear as she kissed his cheek hello.
“I know that, honey, but I don’t want to set your mom off again in case she hears me,” he joked, continuing to laugh. “Now, I better get inside and see if she wants me to do anything else before I settle myself in front of the television. You kids be careful; Lord knows I love her, but that woman’s on a rampage this morning!
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He threw us a jovial wave as he walked back to the house and disappeared through the front door.
Leah and I looked at each other, both of us wearing tentative expressions. I shrugged my shoulders, managing to open the door for her with the chairs still in my arms. I couldn’t help feeling the knot in my stomach tighten as I walked in after her.
We made our way through the living room and into the kitchen to find Sue moving frantically back and forth between the stove and whatever else she seemed to be busy with. Her face was contorted in concentration and she was muttering to herself, recounting the things she still had left to do. It was a few minutes before she realized we were standing by the doorway, cautiously waiting before we interrupted her self-inflicted tirade.
“O-oh! You’re here! Great! I could use a few extra hands here. Sam, could you please put those in the living room,” she instructed, pointing the chairs that I now realized I was still holding. “Leah, grab that bowl and mix the sauce so I can add it to the stew. I swear, if it wasn’t your father’s birthday, I wouldn’t be running around like this.”
Leah and I exchanged a quick smile as I made my way into the living room.
“Yes, you would, Mom. And you know it! You know you live for this stuff,” she said affectionately as her voice faded, drowned out by the volume of the television that now blared in the living room.
“Where should I put these, Harry?” I asked, indicating the chairs I was holding.
“Just open them up and put them alongside that wall over there,” he replied, pointing to the far wall of the room.
Leah walked out, a grimace on her face. I glanced alarmingly at her, my expression questioning.
“What happened?”
“Oh, you know, the usual. She’s decided that I might be better suited to help you out here. ‘Spend some time with him, go on.’ Not like we don’t spend almost every waking moment together already,” she replied, rolling her eyes. She caught the expression on my face, even though I was trying to carefully hide the flash of emotion.
“You know I didn’t mean it like that,” she murmured, trying to assuage whatever ridiculous thing I had felt a second before. “Of course, I want to spend time with you. I was irritated because it’s like she keeps trying to push me off on you and I didn’t want you to feel crowded. That’s all,” she finished lamely, tilting her head down so that her long eyelashes brushed against her cheeks.
“I’d never feel crowded, you nut. I’d take up every spare moment you had if it was left up to me,” I said, grinning wickedly. She laughed as she threw a chip at my face.
“You’re so bad. Don’t let my dad hear you say it that way. I’m still his little girl, you know,” she chastised, wagging a mocking finger at me.
“Well, I don’t know about that. I don’t see a little girl anywhere…” I was trying to be seductive, remembering the little scene from this morning, but she wasn’t having it. I pulled her hand and led her outside so we could sit on the porch until everyone got here.
She settled down on the step below me and leaned back against me so that her arms were resting on my thighs. There was a slight breeze that was starting to pick up and it blew wisps of her hair around, surrounding me with her smell. I absentmindedly traced the curve of her jaw with my fingertips and she closed her eyes, contentedly.
“Do you think we should set a date?” she asked casually.
“Next summer would be good, I think. What do you think? Next summer good for you?”
I felt her body stiffen just a little bit and I was half afraid that I’d scared her or that I was trying to push things faster than she wanted them to go.
“N-next summer? As in right after I graduate?” she stammered, turning around to face me.
“Yeah, that would be what I meant by next summer. Why? Are you having second thoughts?” I asked, not knowing if I really wanted to hear the answer.
“No, of course not. That’s so stupid, Sam. I’m just saying, don’t you think it’s a little soon? I mean we only just got engaged.”
I sensed the reluctance in her voice and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. It had only been a week for her, but it had been a long time coming to me. Truthfully, I didn’t really have a problem with putting it off for as long as she wanted, but I was trying to figure out why she wanted to. Getting married seemed like the natural step in our relationship and all I was waiting for was for her to finish high school. Now I was stuck trying to decipher what exactly she wanted when I thought I had known all along.
“What do you mean too soon? Are you sure you’re not having doubts? Because if you are, I think that might be something I’d be interested in knowing,” I snapped unnecessarily.
I regretted it the instant the words came out of my mouth. Leah’s face recoiled like I’d just slapped her and her expression crumpled, leaving her speechless. I wondered for a brief second what was going on with her because she usually wasn’t so emotional and well, soft, but the fire in her returned as my Leah finally came back from where ever this wedding planning thing had taken her.
“For your information, Samuel Uley, I don’t have any plans on backing out. Unless, of course, you’re the one with the cold feet. Stop trying to put words in my mouth. I’m still getting adjusted to this whole thing, you know. I didn’t think you’d actually propose, let alone suggest we get married so soon. I mean, I thought I was having one of my delusional one-sided conversations again before you actually slipped the ring on my finger –” She stopped short, eyes wide, as she realized that she said too much.
“Again?” I asked, smirking.
“Well, I, uh, well…” She was at a loss for words again and I could’ve sworn that my heart skipped a beat as I continued to watch her struggle for words.
“So you’ve been imagining this, have you?” I murmured into her ear, as I pulled her close to me. I could see her glowering from my peripheral vision and it was all I could do to keep from bursting into laughter.
“Hm, so quiet…I take that as a yes then?” I teased, playfully burying my face in her hair.
“Silly boy, of course I’ve been imagining it! We’ve been together since I’ve hit puberty and you were this unattainable thing that I wanted and I wanted you all to myself, but I was always afraid that you would find someone better, prettier, someone you would want more than you wanted me and I –” I place a gentle finger on her lips to stop her from rambling on as I leaned in close so that my breath echoed in the clouds of her hair.
“I could never want anyone more than I want you,” I whispered, my voice completely devoid of humor.
“Really?” she asked softly, though her face was set in a disbelieving façade. “But why? I’m loud, I’m bossy, and I don’t ever let you get your way. Are you sure you wouldn’t be happier with someone else? Someone less volatile, maybe?” A little humor had made it into her voice, but she looked at me expectantly, waiting for my answer.
“Hm, well, when you put it that way…” I started, as her hand yanked hard on my right earlobe. “Ow! Okay, okay. I was just kidding. I figured, you wouldn’t believe me if I came right out with it anyway, so I might as well have a little fun.” I chuckled as she folded her arms across her chest.
"But really, really, really. I don’t know what else you want me to say. I love you exactly the way you are, crazy and all. Although, I have to admit, I’m not too thrilled about this side of you.”
“What side? This is how I’ve always been,” she replied quizzically.
“Nuh-uh. This side of you that’s completely insecure and completely oversensitive. This wedding thing’s really getting to you, I think. I’ll just be glad when all of this is over and truthfully, it’s kind of one of the reasons why I wanted to get married sooner.” I felt the heat rising in my cheeks, like I’d just confessed some really horrible sin. Leah surprised me by bursting into hysterical laughter.
“Oh my god, I don’t know what I’ve been thinking. I’m so sorry! God, I must sound like a whiny little – oh, I don’t even know what! – and I’m really sorry I just put you through that third degree. I was just going over the conversation in my head and realized that I sounded like someone I would be annoyed with.”
“I’m glad I didn’t have to go into greater detail,” I mused, moving my head to the side as she made a move to take a backhanded swipe at me.
“Very funny, mister. Okay, but seriously, last time I’m gonna ask, I swear! Are you sure you’re sure?”
I made to wrap my arms around her again, but she stopped me, turning around so that she was looking directly at me. I was completely rendered speechless by the depth of her brown eyes for a second as she gazed at me, trying to read my face before I responded. I nodded my head once, overwhelmed by the feeling of wanting her in my arms. I pressed my forehead against hers and closed my eyes, feeling the heat from our breaths wafting across my face. I cupped her chin with my hand, tilting her face towards me.
“You are what I want. All volatile, loud, bossy, crazy you. I’ve wanted you for as long as I can remember and nothing humanly possible can ever change that.” I leaned down and put my lips on hers, relishing the moment, as Leah’s tears fell quietly down her face.
**Chapter 4 to come... ;)
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