Chapter 2

Somebody Else Will

Dane's Sporting Goods is only a ten-minute drive from the gym. It's also surrounded by a mob of fast food joints, including my favorite place to escape, Ziggie's. I've been going to that dive for as long as I can remember, way before Mike and I met. Unfortunately, my visits have become few and far between in recent years. Thanks to my ability at allowing my ex to run my life, I haven't had Ziggie's famous onion rings in forever and right about now my stomach is sending me a big fat reminder.

I push down the urge to make a quick left, launching myself into Ziggie's and reluctantly find a parking spot right in front of Dane's.

"This is bullshit." I grab my bag and force myself out of my car. "What I wouldn't give for a foot long weenie topped with fat, juicy pickles slices and smothered in goopy mayonnaise."

"Mm…" I look up when I hear a cross between a growl and a low, throaty moan just inches from my neck. "Sounds delicious."

The look on Jake's face has me a bit confused when his tongue peeks out of the corner of his mouth as his eyes glaze over, looking like he's about to drool all over the parking lot.

"You okay there?" I ask, nearly jumping about ten feet when his body jerks away from me and his eyes go wide. "For fuck's sake, are you good or what, dude?"

"Uh, yeah," he replies, letting out a rough, ragged breath before straightening out his back and clearing his throat. "Why wouldn't I be?"

The forced smile on Jake's face tells me that he'd rather be anywhere right now than here with me.

"Ya know, I can do this by myself," I tell him, pointing to the entrance of the store. "I mean, I've been pretty successful in the past shopping for myself. Can't get too tricky. All I have to do is look for my sizes, fat and fatter. Nothin' to it."

Jake purses his lips and his brow shoots up his forehead. "Now, what kind of personal trainer would I be if I didn't help my client find the perfect outfit? Besides, that outfit you wore today made you look like a unicorn shit out a bag of Skittles. Nobody wants to taste that rainbow."

Two-point two minutes later I watch as Jake nonchalantly flips through a rack full of various athletic tops, gripping the sides of the fabric, holding each piece up as he examines each one, scrunching up his nose to a few while his eyes brighten and his smile widens with others. But it's when he snatches up a bright pink Lycra sports bra, looks around and then holds it up against his chest, that I nearly come undone.

"What the eff?"

"Don't you mean fuck."

My eyes spring open and I quickly turn on my heel when warm breath ghosts across the back of my neck, causing goosebumps to crawl across my skin.

"Excuse me?"

I swear to all the baby cherubs, the big ass moon, all the twinkling stars in the sky and to any deity that will listen to me, I think my ovaries just disintegrated.

"Sorry. Thought you got a little tongue-tied. Just thought I'd give ya a helping hand."

A helping hand? How about two helping hands? How about two helping hands, eight fingers and two thick thumbs? How about two helping hands, eight fingers, two thick thumbs knuckles deep while that mouth of yours entertains my cli…

"Close your mouth, honey, you're drooling."

I blink my eyes several times pretty certain that I've lost all motor skills when I realize my mouth is hanging wide open, and my ability to speak has literally failed me.

"Say something, girl." Just as I look up at Jake his brow goes into a wicked arch as he gives the minty breathed stranger a once over and then smiles back at me. "You better get on that or somebody else will."

Words fail me as I continue to stand there stuck on stupid.

"How's it going, Eddie?"

"Pretty good, Jacob, how're things at the gym?"

"Ah, you know. One tight body after another. Can't complain." Jacob points at the man before introducing us. "Where're my manners? Bella this is Edward, our local dive bar owner, and the town's most eligible bachelor, besides me of course."

Something about Edward looks familiar.

My eyes go wide when I notice Jake's gaze slowly travel across the expanse of the other man's chest. I don't blame Jake one bit. Edward is absolutely gorgeous in a rough and rugged kind of way. His grey eyes are stunning under long, thick lashes, and that thick, black stubble around his mouth and covering his cheeks causes me to press my thighs together and bite the corner of my lip.

When Edward looks over at me and the corner of his mouth lifts into a sexy crooked grin, I swallow hard and nearly choke on absolutely nothing, trying to regain any kind of composure I can pull together so I don't end up looking like an idiot.

"It's nice to meet you," I reply and hope that my smile doesn't look like I'm constipated. I clear my throat and try not to sound like a complete fool. "So, Edward, you from Seattle?"

"Nah, the Cullen's are from Forks," Jake responds as he goes back to flipping through the rack of tops. "Edward's only been here for about five years just before he bought Ziggie's, which I might add is the only place within a five-mile radius that you can buy a humongous burger, a bottle of Dom and watch an intense battle of arm wrestle while picking up a game of pool all in the same joint at the same time. It's like a petri dish of social dysfunction. Isn't that right, Eddie?"

"Cullen? As in Edward Cullen?"

Wait! He owns Ziggie's?

"That'd be me," Edward replies as his brows bunch together and a brief look of concern flashes across his rugged features. When I'm sure the color in my face has nearly drained due to nausea, Edward grips my elbow and dips his head to look into my eyes. "Hey, are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Ghost, that's hilarious," I reply with a dry chuckle. "More like a blast from the past."

"I'm sorry," he says as he releases my elbow. "I don't follow."

"Yeah, cookie, just spill it cause' I lost ya way back there in the dandelions."

I look over at Jake and shake my head. There is definitely something off about the guy that I just can't figure out.

"Bella? You're starting to worry me. Are you sure that you're okay?"

The concern in Edward's voice shakes me from my thoughts and back to my shitty reality. Because, not only am I standing in front of the only boy from my past who I had a crush on during my entire high school career, I'm also standing in front of the same boy who turned my world upside down and inside out.

"Isabella Swan."

"Excuse me?"

"That's my name." I suck in a deep breath and close my eyes. "My name is Isabella Swan."

When I slowly open one eye, I watch as the recognition starts to become clearer to Edward, and when that familiar crooked grin lifts at the corner of his mouth, I nearly come undone at the seams.

He remembers me.

"My brown-eyed girl."

I pull in another deep breath. He really does remember me. My heart begins to slam against my chest as I watch his eyes travel down to my lips.

"You've changed…a lot." Edward runs a hand through his hair; a sign of nervousness. It was something he used to do when we were kids and I thought it was cute as hell to watch him fumble. "You look amazing."

"I know you're mom taught you not to lie," I reply with a nervous laugh before taking a chance and looking up in his eyes.

"Like I said, you look amazing."

"Well, I appreciate the compliment but let's face it. I may have lost the headgear, but I'm still a fatty."

My breath gets caught in the back of my throat and my mouth goes dry when Edward takes the few steps and closes the gap between us. When his grey eyes look down at me under those thick, black eyelashes every nerve ending in my body fires off, and thoughts of fucking him right here in front of the entire store cause heat to ignite between my legs.

But it's what he leans in and whispers in my ear the words that only he's ever said to me that causes tears to pool in the corners of my eyes.

"You're beautiful, stunning, and you're mine."

Remember when I said that Edward Cullen stayed fifty feet away from me until graduation because I shredded his lip with my braces? Well, that wasn't entirely true. Truth be told, there's a whole lot more to our story.

A hell of a lot more.

Until Next Time...

OzellaMarie