04/20/2014

Dog Pile

º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º

Quil caught Bella's eye and dramatically extended his arm to point right at her. "Dog pile!" he shouted as he leapt from the edge of the waves.

"No!" Bella shrieked as she tried to scramble away from them all without disturbing the blanket all the women were seated on. "You're all wet!"

Embry broke out of the waves. "We're at the beach. Wet happens."

"We're gonna get her this time!" Sam scooped up his one-year-old daughter while Jared circled the blanket and grabbed Sam's three-year-old son from Emily's arms.

"It's not fair!" Bella ran up the beach, her hair flying out behind her.

"Hey, we got Rachel last time," Paul said reasonably. "Isn't that right, Buddy?" He chucked his two-year old daughter under her chin as they loped along with the growing mob to catch Bella.

Seth and Collin each grabbed one of Jacob and Bella's excited twin boys while Quil and Brady gathered up the clapping one-year old twin girls. Jacob winked at them and sprinted away to catch his wife.

Putting up with the Pack's antics and chasing after four little ones had given Bella a strength and grace she had never known before, but she still couldn't outrun her husband.

Listening to the joyous squeals and giggles of the Pack's seven pups, Jacob delayed catching Bella too quickly. He couldn't help admiring the view either as she ran away, but he soon caught her and wrapped his arms around her.

"Jacob! You guys don't fight fair! You always catch us!" Bella pummeled his chest with her fists, knowing she wouldn't hurt him, but also knowing she had to put up a token fight for all the kids. "Oh, someone please help me!"

"I'll always catch you," Jacob murmured as he kissed her cheek and set her gently on the ground.

"I know you will," she whispered back to him. As she rolled to her back, she looked to the mob bearing down on her and slapped her hands to her cheeks. "Oh, no! Not the dog pile!"

To the music of deep throated chuckles, high-pitched giggles, squeals, and shouts of "Bewwa", "Momma", and toddlers trying to say "dog pile," Bella was soon covered in jubilant, squirming babies.

"Oh! You caught me!" she exclaimed as she pressed her pursed lips to chubby cheeks and blew raspberries on little round bellies.

Had she married Edward four years before she would have missed out on so much life-the sleepless nights, the aching back with carrying two babies at once-two times. Mountains of laundry, sticky hands, runny noses, and all the kisses.

All the warm, sweet kisses.

Jacob planted another one on her forehead as he untangled little fingers from her hair. "The dog pile keeps getting bigger and bigger."

"Yes, our family sure has grown," Paul said softly as Bella handed him his wiggling daughter.

"It sure has. When they're all bigger, you guys are going to be under the pile."  She caught her escaping, sand-dusted daughters and pulled them to her lap, while Jacob pried their boys from her back.

What in this life could be better? The warmth, the touch, the love-the dog pile- of true family.

~~ The end ~~