Beautiful Days

Chapter 80 - Memories, Love and Flowers -

It was a Sunday that everyone planned to join us. John, Anna as well as Charlie and Sue would arrive today while Robert and Julie had already been in Rio de Janeiro for a few days and decided to visit us today when everyone was there, too. There would be fittings, discussions of designs and order of events and lots of planning happening as well and I would need to finish my speech, decide which cake and flowers I would want and I of course had to be present the entire time for our guests. There will be discussions of our sudden disappearance and Haven's recovery and pretenses needed to be upheld. We all needed to return to our roles in some way. The carefreeness and freedom we enjoyed needed to be cut down so that we upheld our façade in society. Although we were used to it over the decades and we did it because we wanted to have these special people with us, it promised to be a stressful day that I did not look forward to. 

I had already gotten used to just staying on our little island and I didn't really want to exchange that freedom anymore, but I kept telling myself that I would regret it if our guests hadn't been there. I knew it was a necessary evil and because of that I simply enjoyed the morning hours before everyone would arrive. Carlisle was playing outside in the water with Carlie before that would be rendered impossible due to the constant sun. Rosalie and Alice were enjoying the sun in their own way by simply lying on the warm sand, sunbathing and chatting. Bella, Edward and Nessie were playing volleyball with Jake and Seth. Everyone enjoyed their last hours of freedom. I sighed and took a sip of my cocoa. No matter what I thought about in the last days it all returned to the time I spent with Carlisle here. It were the simple things that kept replaying in my mind: leaning against a palm tree and playing with Haven and Carlie, swimming, exploring the jungle and finding our favorite waterfall again, watching the sun set over Rio and the starlit sky from one of the highest points of the city, fooling around with body lotion and doing yoga... 

I couldn't help but smile at the memories we created in such a short time. I pushed away the curtains from the windows of our bedroom and the room was immediately suffused with sunrays. I had a perfect view of the beach and the bordering jungle. If it weren't for our family, I could imagine living here for several years.

The silence was broken by small whimpers all of a sudden. I turned around with a smile at once, put the cup of cocoa away and walked over to the cradle that stood right next to our bed in case Haven would stay with us. His beautiful blue eyes were open and he searched his surroundings until he saw me. His soft cries stopped at once and Haven watched me curiously, lightly swinging his arms and kicking. "Good morning, big boy," I cooed and leaned over the cradle to tickle his tummy. He squirmed and cooed. I laughed lightly and carefully took him into my arms, the blanket always around him. We were still very careful that Haven wouldn't catch an illness. He shouldn't be exposed too much so that his body had time to fully recover. An illness, a simple cold would suffice, could set back his recovery. That was why we wouldn't expose him to big groups of people for one, and rather went to the mainland without him. Rosalie or Jasper and Alice readily offered their services to babysit so that it was never a problem anyway. Carlisle insisted on the blanket because of his icy skin even though I told him that Haven wasn't bothered by the coldness due to his higher body temperature. But to ease his mind at least a bit, I gave in and Haven was mostly swaddled in a light blanket. Carlisle would probably insist on a thick blanket and winter clothes in the house if we were home in New Hampshire at the moment I thought and had to laugh at the thought. 

I looked down to Haven and stroked his cheek with my fingertips. He gurgled sweetly and grabbed hold of the corner of his blanket and swung it around happily until he tried to bring it to his left hand to examine it closer. Haven concentrated greatly on the task but couldn't quite manage it. He cried slightly in frustration and I took the corner that was decorated with a small bunny and gave it to him. Haven smiled brilliantly and kicked happily as he examined the piece of fabric thoroughly.