TLS Special SNEAK PEEK Feature

The Lemonade Stand has spent years bringing you the best the fandom has to offer, and we are very excited to have the chance to offer you MORE. We’ve watched stories grow and develop from first post through COMPLETE in The Nursery, and now we’re sharing previews of the stories that will soon be your new addiction.

This week, the exquisite Pattyrose, author of many great stories like The Cullen Legacy and Indecent Proposal, shares some details about her upcoming story Begin Again.

banner by Lolypop82

Begin Again

by pattyrose

Summary: When your nineteen-year-old boyfriend breaks your heart, you move on and build a life without him. When he pops up in your world almost a quarter of a century later, you wade through the time and misunderstandings to see what, if anything, remains. When you’re done going through it all, if you’re lucky, you might be ready to begin again.

~~~~~

Jesus Christ, it’s Bella Swan - or I suppose these days she’s better known as Bella Laurent: Widow. She looks…well yes, older. After a quarter of a century, there are bound to be changes. The round youthfulness of her features have narrowed and matured into an elegantly attractive face. There are a few laugh lines around her eyes. Her figure is curvier than that of the slim seventeen-year-old girl of my memories. The dress and heels she’s wearing are unlike anything the grunge-loving, Seattle-dwelling Bella of my youth would’ve worn. 

Yet so much of her is still the same: that smile, Jesus, I should’ve recognized that off the bat. Her eyes…even in this dimly-lit restaurant, her dark eyes still stand out against her creamy skin. And her hair – it used to fall in curls to her bottom; now the soft waves end at her shoulders. She used to be a pretty girl; that was never a question. 

 Now she’s an absolutely gorgeous woman. 

“Bella.” 

Her eyes sweep over to me, and I’m equal parts thrilled and surprised by the easy grin she graces me with.  

“Edward.”  She says my name in that pleasant way in which you’d greet a friend you haven’t seen in over two decades, not the way you’d greet an old boyfriend who…who stupidly cheated on you. 

Right around here begins the story of Edward Masen and Isabella Swan Laurent, a couple whose romance ended almost twenty-five years earlier when a then nineteen-year-old Edward made a disastrous decision. But how many of us can cast our memory back a couple of decades, when we were just beginning to learn about life and love, and not cringe at some of the choices we made?

A lifetime has passed since Edward and Bella last saw one another. Both have gone on to lead full lives with experiences that have shaped them into the individuals they are now. Edward has a failed marriage under his belt, while Bella, after almost twenty years of marriage, now finds herself a widow.

Yet it’s never as easy as meet again, fall in love again, and live happily ever after. The years have reshaped the world around them, piled on responsibilities, and introduced into their lives priorities which take precedence over all else – even over the one they once thought they’d love above everything.

Add onto those difficulties the complications that arise from events of the past, and you’ve got a road ahead with twists, bumps, and a few turns.

But Edward and Bella haven’t spent the past couple of decades stuck in the past. They live every day, normal, and sometimes humorous lives. Some of the situations they deal with while trying to find each other and themselves may sound familiarly like our own lives. So too may their reliance on close friends to keep them sane during some of their more irrational moments.

“Number one: men, in my humble opinion, are like cuts of steak: they must already be of some quality to age well. A piece of chop meat won’t ever morph into a filet mignon. Number two: don’t start with your self-deprecating bullshit, Bella. You look great.”

“For someone my age.”  

“For someone any age. Don’t fucking start!

“Alright, Alice. Alright!” I raise a hand in equal parts surrender and a plea to halt her tirade. 

“Number three…” She grins. “What you’re saying without actually saying is that he’s hot.” 

“He was always good-looking, and he knew it; consequently, he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants.” 

So although there might be some soul-searching up ahead, there will also be laughs and friends with whom to share both the highs and lows. We’re dealing with an Edward and Bella who are past the games of immature youth and are ready to explore the possibility of doing more than starting over.  

“Edward, it may just be a cosmic fluke or the universe playing with us. Nothing more and nothing less. After all, actually starting over after so many years…if you knew me, you’d know that’s not part of my belief system anymore. When you fuck up a batch, you fuck up a batch.” 

“The problem is you’re seeing it wrong. It’s not starting over, Bella.” He whispers the words close to my ear, and the strength and tenacity in them make my entire body shudder. “If you fuck up the batch, you go ahead and gather up all the ingredients that worked the first time around…leave out the ones that didn’t…and you begin again.” 

Begin Again will begin posting May 30, 2016. It will be approximately 30 chapters and will post three times a week: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Rated M because we’re not kids any more.

 :)  PattyRose

Be sure to pop Pattyrose on alert so you don’t miss out!  

~Nic