Now You See Me [Jasper Hale story]

XXV. Shy Blondes, Spanish Sociopath and Normal Carmen

 I wasn't willing to get out of the car. Not when all those people would see what a tragic mess was left of the strong, beautiful, awesome Gwyneth Callaghan, who had been absolutely independant... until Jasper Hale happened to her. More awesome and less depressed Gwyneth, I missed you so much!
Even Bella was out of the car already, hugging Esme Cullen, who stood only a few feet away from her. Alice came to my side, trying to open the door, but I hadn't let her; for that, we ended up tussling. In the end (after Alice lost her patience), she jerked the door so forcefully, that I hadn't managed to release my hold on it in time. In the following second, I found myself, falling down from the warm, soft seat in the car, straight onto the ground, because of the lingering effects of Alice's vampiric temper tantrum.

"Oh, Gwyn! I'm so sorry!" Alice squeaked out solicitously. I was expecting her to help me stand up, however, someone else overtook her. Suddenly, I felt strong, cold hands, squeezing my forearms and pulling me up in one, quick, swift move. When I was standing on my feet once again, able to deal with the great embarrassment, I looked up at my savior.

"Uh-huh..." Although the fact, that it was Hale hadn't surprised me, somehow, I wasn't able to say anything. Not even a stupid thank you. So miserable my life was.

"Thank you would have been appropriate," Jasper mocked in the absolutely hot, deep tone of voice. I had to bite the inside of my cheek, because if not, I would surely have told him how much I missed him. And none of us was ready to hear it.

I snatched my arms out of his grip vigorously. Wanting to pass around him, I realized something important though. I wasn't the one who should be thanking him. It was Hale who should thank me. For coming to Alaska (not that I had much of another choice), for being there for his brother's girlfriend, for having accepted what he was what he was without a significant hesitation. It was him who should have been sorry for what he did, not me.

Approximately that was the moment, when my hand fired up towards his cheek. I slapped him hard enough for the smack to make a loud sound.

Afterwards, I was left to watch Hale's head as it flinched to the side, while the vampire touched his cheek in shock. He huffed in pain and on his perfectly pale skin, there appeared rather huge, red imprint of my hand. Before I got an opportunity to start wondering how the hell did my slap manage to leave a visible damage on the vampire's skin, appreciative whistling came from crowd behind Hale.

"Whoa! That was amazing!" Suddenly, Emmett's huge, smiling self came to my view and I simply couldn't do anything else than return the grin to him. He hugged me tightly, yet, this time, he hadn't lifted me from the ground. "One point for team Callaghan, zero for team Whitlock."

"You should better be cheering for me, Em," I murmured into his ear. Cullen winked at me conspiratorially, when pulling away, leaving the space for another adept - Esme. I felt really good after having heard Emmett's taunting Jasper for his weakness. That (and much more) was what the bastard deserved.

"Aw, come to me, Sweetheart," Esme offered me a large, honest smile, before she pulled me to her and breathed in the scent of my hair, "You proved to be very brave and independant woman, Gwyn. I am so proud of you!"

"That obviously doesn't mean we haven't missed you," Carlisle spoke up, shaking my hand warm-heartedly.

"Thank you. I'm so glad to see you, people," I blurted out, out of words. Honestly, I felt pathetically touched by their welcoming. Last time something like that happened to me was ten years ago, after I had gotten back home from a two-weeks-long camping with Hayden and her husband. My parents welcomed me with the kindness of their own, no less warmly.
No matter how much I wanted to supress the tears (especially in front of a family that wasn't mine), a few of them simply escaped. I felt happier than in the past five months.
I decided to put the blame on the Cullens, for that they hadn't given me an opportunity to get a surely acid enough greeting from Rosalie yet. Once the sassy blonde showed up though, I wiped the tears away, done with being pathetic in public.
My eyes travelled to hers and we started struggling through glances. Standing opposite to each other, only a few feet away, we remained in the same position for at least five minutes. It reminded me of a silent, cold war between a Goddess of Beauty and... well, me.
Rosalie managed to surprise me nevertheless. It was her who ended up the fight, nodding her head at me. Not knowing whether to start jumping in happiness of that she had finally considered me to be a person worthy of her attention, I nodded my head at her as well. And that was all. My longest interaction with the Ice Queen herself was gone; still though, it was an interaction. Twice a hurray!

The Cullens introduced us to the rest of the Denali coven. At first sight, they seemed to be less self-confident than the Cullens; especially the three women (Tanya, Kate and Irina), who acted shyly even. Carmen was almost as warm-hearted as Esme though, and I started to like her the moment she slapped Emmett's nape uncompromisingly, because of his having attempted to steal a bloody beef steak from her pan. Carmen then swore in Spanish, shouting at Emmett that the steaks needed to be bloody, because they were steaks, and because Bella and I were hungry. Which, at least in my case, was a complete truth.
While Carmen was working on the meat, Tanya - or what ever was the particular blonde's name - was peeling and cutting potatoes. Esme's job was the salad. It was a really entertaining view. The three women were like a combination of Nicole Kidman in Bewitched, Queen Latifah in Last Holiday and Katherine Zeta-Jones in No Reservations. I was wondering which one of them would start dancing and singing first.

Me and Bella had been sitting on a huge sofa in the living room. Both of us wondered why did vampires have such a big sofa, considering that they didn't need to sit, lay, sleep, chill, or whatever. Bella had chosen a book (Anna Karenina, if I wasn't mistaken), biting her nails tensely while turning the pages.

"Carmen, Esme and the shy blonde woman are amazing together, aren't they?" I suggested in a conversation tone.

"Hmm..." my dearest companion murmured indistinctly. A sigh escaped my throat.

"You're still mad, aren't you?"

Bella frowned gloomily, not looking at me. "Of course not, why should I be?" Her irony literally made me flinch.

"Look, I'm sorry about what I said earlier," my head jerked in her direction, "I didn't mean it, Bells. When Alice told me what her plan was about, I was as angry as you were. However, Alice loves Edward - that's a fact, for which I'm not afraid that we won't get to Italy in time. She certainly has everything pre-planned to the very last detail."

Bella sighed, running a hand through her hair, "Right," she breathed out resignedly. "I was acting like a bitch to Alice, she did what was best for the family. Guess I'll have to go, beg for her forgiveness."

"Alright, don't overdose," I called out as Bella got onto her feet, "Alice doesn't deserve such credit. Don't forget that it was me who was there to give you moral support, after you jumped off the cliff!"
Swan waved her hand dismissively, on her way to the stairs. I grimaced in discontent, sticking my tongue out at her back. Before I managed to take a proper look at the book she had left here though, as I had originally planned to, someone grabbed it.

I was left to stare at my fingers for a few seconds, surprised with the sudden speed of following actions. Expecting the worst (Jasper Hale), I started to feel a terrible headache the moment my worries came true.

"Gwyneth," he pronounced my name with a strange hint of tenderness, that I had never detected in his voice before. "I believe we need to talk."

"Is that so? Well, it's a pity, really," I frowned down at my knees, not wanting to look at him. "'Cause I don't wanna hear anything, while I obviously have nothing to tell you myself."

I hadn't even heard him moving, nevertheless, the sudden motion of air, which started being saturated with the damned, attractive scent of his, told me about Hale's having come closer.
"I'm sure you're interested in what I have to tell you," he took a seat next to me (against my will).

Meanwhile, I barely managed to blink in shock the moment his tired, absolutely perfect, dark eyes pierced through mine. Never in my life had I expected to see something so tragic in the eyes of a vampire. His kind was destined to hold all the grace and glory above humanity; they were supposed to be free of any narrow-minded problems and pitfalls, besides their craving for blood. So why the hell did Jasper Hale look so miserable?
The violet bags under his eyes were even bigger than at Bella's birthday party. His hair was messy and his face - the epitome of beauty - literally called for its former amenity. And here I was, observing leftovers of literal pain and apparent sorrow in the vampire's face, not willing to hear him out. In moments like that, I felt ashamed of myself.

"Fine," taking a deep breath, I looked away from him, "I'm listening."

"You have changed a lot since September, Gwyneth," he lifted his hand to my now red hair carefully, tucking a strand behind my ear. "When I spotted you for the first time, in Chemistry, you were so shy, uncertain, indecisive. You sat next to Rose and I pitied you, for knowing that only a fraction of people is able to face her temper. I honestly thought she would make you run away, or cry, as she did with everyone else."

I grimaced over the memory, "She almost did. I honestly thought I'd rip her head off, after the lesson."

"I'm glad that you hadn't tried," his lips twisted in a grin.

"I'm glad too. My nails wouldn't have survived the fight."

After that, Jasper laughed whole-heartedly. I couldn't help myself but smiled at him, seeing his face shining with sincere amusement once again.
"Look at you now. You have grown into a witty, bright, gorgeous woman, who will attain the world one day. And all I'm able to think of is my not having been by your side. Not even thousand apologies would expiate the yellow streak which I had chosen to act with, Gwyneth. I was preoccupied about myself, afraid of that I might lose control around you, that I hadn't realized how important you became to me," the man exhaled quietly, looking away. "Since we left Forks, moreover, I've been dealing with what happened between us, in the forest."

"Well..." I blurted, rolling my thoughts over my tongue. "It's not that I'd regret what we did."

I watched his handsome face turn back to me in pure shock, "How can you not regret it? I used you."

Shrugging my shoulders, I folded my legs on the sofa, in front of myself. Jasper's eyes darkened a bit, once my dress rolled up over my knees. I blushed, of course, "I know you did. But sometimes, people need to be used, to understand what's best for them. That's my case. If it wasn't for your departure, I wouldn't have realized how great life I had in fact, or how many stunning people there are around me. I bet I would have never known how it feels to miss someone so dearly and..." I threw my hands up eloquently. "I don't know, it was just a tragically memorable experience."

Jasper palpated my hand, brushing his fingers over its skin. My gaze lowered to it and I thought really hard about my possible reaction. In the end, I decided to brush my thumb over the knuckles of his fingers. Hale then lifted our palms up, entangling our fingers. I didn't protest.

"Gwyneth," he pronounced my name urgently enough to make me bite my lip. "I owe you an apology for my not having given our relationship an opportunity to develop. You are a woman of worth, who deserves much better treatment than I had given to you. I promise you though, not to do the same mistake again," pausing, Jasper released my hand, in order to pull a narrow, dark red, velvet box out of the inside pocket of his jacket.

My eyes widened at the sight of the most beautiful I had ever seen. It was made of gold, hanging on a golden necklace. Thin lines of miniature, initial letters (J and W, to be exact) were engraved to its smooth surface, alongside a few, curled signs of... wait, was that corn?

"God, Jasper. That's... gorgeous." I touched the watch gently, opening it, to reveal an elegant, white dial with black, Roman numerals. At first, it hadn't even occurred to me, that it might have been a present for me.

"It is, ain't it?" Feeling his amused eyes all over my face, my cheeks burned slightly. "The watch belonged to my great-grandfather, Julian Whitlock. When I was a child, he taught me how to tame fierce horses, how to load a gun with gunpowder and treat injuries. Without him, I would have never gotten the title I had in the army." From the tone of his voice, I could tell he was proud. "Julian had a very inspiring personality. That is why you remind me of him. Now, I want you to take the watch, to guard it and look after it, as if it belonged to your own family."

Well, that knocked my breath out. Holy shit! I was given a golden watch of an inestimable value, from the American Civil War, by the man whom I should have been angry at. What was I supposed to do now?!

"But I-I... I can't accept it," I merely managed to stammer, "I-It's... it belongs to you, I can't have it, I-"

"Calm down," Jasper ordered and a huge wave of serenity flooded me. The man then pressed the watch into my palm, lifting my chin up with his free hand, "You must have it, Gwyneth. Especially considering the fact that I want to ask you an important question."

I literally couldn't imagine what my face expression was like in that moment (rather not to imagine it anyways). If he hadn't overtaken me, I would have started babbling about how bad idea this was. Hale, however, looked straight into my eyes, shutting my mouth with his completely honest gaze.

"Would you give me another chance to make you happy, Darlin'?"