Delicate (Jasper Whitlock Hale)

Chapter 29

Good luck with Chapter 30. I'm writing two alternative endings, and one will be published in a separate book as it could be extremely stressful to readers, and not the ultimate way I want to take the book. Most of you probably know how it will go, but Laela's fate hasn't been decided. I'll explain more when and if I decide to finish writing the alternative ending.

For now, enjoy Chapter 29!

South America.

90 degrees in the middle of December and shining bright, meaning we were night owls and I was still hot after the sun went down.

"Whoever you're looking for needs to relocate. It's hotter than Arkansas in the middle of the summer here and it's damn December." I complained, looking at Alice as I pulled off my shirt, tired of the fabric sticking to me, leaving me in only a tank top.

On our adventure down here, we had managed to gather a couple more nomads to send to Carlisle. Most of them went and stayed, deciding to stand with the Cullens. Now we were in the middle of Argentina, still trying to further track down Alice's blind spot. It was officially the early hours of Christmas morning, so early everyone was still asleep in the city. We were on the edge of the city, with a rain forest just a mile away from us. Alice said her blind spot changed to a blind hole the deeper we went into the rainforest, and we had been on the hunt the entire time. We were making our way out of the forest, heading to a hotel Alice said would still be open.

"I'm coming up blank anyway. If you haven't even been able to smell it, we aren't near it." She said, sounding annoying with the whole thing.

Jasper's arm was wrapped around me as we followed behind her,

"Please tell me I get a redo for next Christmas and this won't be the Christmas you remember for the rest of your life?" He joked, just barely speaking, but it was enough that the two of us could hear it.

"We both get redos. I haven't even had time to go shopping." I said, going under his arm and leaning my head on his shoulder.

"Do you remember when I first talked to Sam and Emily? The first night you spent the night at my place before our first date." Jasper asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"I was actually asking them permission to give you your Christmas present." He stated, and for the first time I'd ever seen it, he looked truly shy as the air around us practically vibrated with nervousness.

"Asking permission?" I questioned, an eyebrow quirked and I heard Alice chuckle up ahead before seeing her dart off, leaving Jasper and I alone.

"Yes...in some sense I am still traditional in the way I do things, and I know things may not have gone by plan for either of us, but I still wanted to ask them before asking you."

I went to ask exactly what he meant, but he beat me to it.

"Laela Tala Jaime, you are singlehandedly the most amazing person I have had the pleasure of meeting in the past 150 years, and the fact you love me for who I am is something I have yet to fully understand or process. In my entire existence I never thought I would have someone to call mine the way Carlisle and Esme or Emmett and Rose have found someone. You've made me feel confidence in myself around humans I hadn't ever felt, and I've been able to start forgiving myself for my past with you around."

I could feel my heart hammering in my chest, and I knew he could hear it, too. Neither of us shied away from how we felt about each other, very frequently talking about how we felt about one another, whether it was common 'I love you' or some more in-depth talks, but the entire atmosphere around us seemed to change.