Chapter Text
“Edward!” I yell as I run across the street as fast as my six-year-old legs will carry me. “Edward, the ice cream truck!” I cry again as I bound up his front porch steps.
Esme opens the door. “Hey, Bella!” She hugs me, “Edward is getting his shoes on. Do you have money?” She asks, reaching for her purse on the entryway table.
“Yup.” I reach into my pocket and pull out the four quarters my mom had given me.
Edward comes down the stairs and darts around me and out the front door. “We are gonna miss it!” He calls to me from the sidewalk.
“You two stay out of the street and be home by dinner!” Esme reminds us from the front porch. She waves at Renee. She was keeping an eye on me from the kitchen window of my house.
This was the last summer I would get to live across the street from my best friend. The Cullens were moving at the end of summer. I didn’t know where Washington was, but I knew it was a long way from our little neighborhood in Phoenix.
We run to the end of our street, sweating and panting in the summer heat. The ice cream truck rounds the corner. We jump up and down in unison. “You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream,” we yell at the top of our lungs.
The ice cream truck parks, and I waltz up proudly to the window. I stick out my hand with my money and order our treats. Edward always lets me order. He’s so shy. “Two Bomb Pops, please!” The man takes my money and gives us our ice cream. We walk back to his porch to sit on the porch swing and eat our sticky popsicles.
He stares at me for a long moment. I turn to him, “what?” I ask.
He kisses my heat-flushed cheek with his red-stained lips. “I love you, Bella Swan. I'm going to marry you someday.
“I love you too, Edward Cullen,” I reply.
Twenty-two years later, he made good on that promise.