? DISCONTINUED ? Between the Perennial Blooms || Paul Lahote

Twenty Eight | Gardenia

"Yeah," Bailey mumbled, leaning into his side as his hand dropped from her hair to wrap around her small waist and begin helping her up. "Lets go."

"Leaving us already?" Emily piped up upon notice of the Imprint pair's rising from their seats. Her eyes were warm and teasing, filled with light as Sam sat beside her with his arm slung across her shoulders whilst he pressed careless little kisses against the scars on her face every so often as he spoke to Jared at his side. Seeing her attention drawn elsewhere however, the Alpha followed his fiance's eyes to Bailey and Paul as the latter helped situate the blonde's crutches back beneath her armpits.

"Ah," Sam interjected with a nod Paul's way, as if bestowing permission and simultaneously wishing him good luck. "Have fun with your plans, you two."

"Plans?" Bailey questioned, glancing at the warm body beside her.

"It's a surprise," Paul dismissed, flashing a brilliant grin her way before he looked back to his Alpha. "Thanks-" he told him, wrapping his hand around the back of Bailey's neck in a habitual way he remained unaware of as his tone grew more serious. "-and call me if you need me."

Sam nodded and stood, the rest of the table following suit.

"See you later, Bay," Jacob was the first to farewell, ignoring Paul's narrowed glare as he wrapped his arms around his best friend and pulled her tight against his chest. All throughout brunch he had been uncharacteristically quiet, and though he had smiled and joked and laughed with his packmates and fellow Imprints, Bailey had still caught the glimpses of sadness that befell his face anytime he got lost too deeply in his thoughts. She surmised the problem to lie in Bella's reunion with her beloved Edward and the fight the two had gotten in the day the eldest Swan sister ignored the shifter's pleas to stay by instead leaving rather abruptly to save said vampire. To anyone with a working set of eyes it was plain as day that the Black boy was completely head-over-heels for Isabella Swan and that her choosing not only someone who wasn't him but someone who was his natural-born enemy, no less, had caused such a wide rift in their relationship that Bailey often worried it would prove irreparable. Her heart hurt for him even if she didn't truly understand his pain — not enough to empathize with it at least. Nonetheless, Bailey had experienced her fair share of heartbreak, and that was something she could empathize with in leaps and bounds. So instead of acknowledging the pain he felt deep in his chest, Bailey only cuddled into it tighter. She wondered if she squeezed tight enough, maybe some of it would ease. Maybe it would dissipate slightly. Maybe it would dwindle down to little more than an ache left.

"I know we can't- can't see each other as often now," Bailey whispered as she rested her chin against his sternum to look up into his warm gaze earnestly. "But you can still call me," she told him, smiling in that sweet, shy way she often did. "Anytime," she reassured. "Night or day; I'll answer."

Jacob made no move to reply audibly but instead drew her so tightly into his arms that for a moment she couldn't breathe. "See you," he lowly grumbled with a smile that though small in its width, still managed to display every bit of fondness he held for the tiny blonde. It was a lasting gaze, one stemmed from an affection that distance would never be able to quell and only resulted in the heart growing even fonder, and then he let her go.

"C'mere, Little Wrenning-bird," Jared piped up as soon as Jacob had retreated back to the seat from which he came. "My turn now."

Paul's low growl rumbled throughout the house and Bailey giggled when Jared's mouth quirked up into a smirk. "Don't think so," Paul interjected as he took a protective step in front of her. "She's skipping you."