Brave This Storm

“Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to Paul,
Happy birthday to you!”

Paul grinned and blew out the candles on the cake that Emily made, before wrapping his arms around Mariana’s waist, pressing a kiss to the side of her head. Today was Paul’s 23rd birthday, and he had decided he wanted to spend it with Mariana, Donovan and all his friends. So after Paul had picked Mariana and Donovan up early in the morning (and received a birthday hug from Amelia), they’d headed over to Emily and Sam’s house, where everyone was.

“Alright, so who’s ready to go cliff diving?” Paul called loudly.

All the guys hooted and hollered, with the girls just groaning. Apart from Mariana, who had no idea what cliff diving was. Paul saw her confusion and chuckled, before pecking her lips lightly.

“It’s a major adrenaline rush. You literally jump off a cliff ledge into the water below. We’ve been doing it for years,” Paul reassured.

“If you’re sure,” Mariana frowned.

“I’m positive. You can even start off on the baby cliff if you’re that worried,” Paul teased.

Mariana nudged him with her hip. “Continue like that and you aren’t getting any tonight,”

Jared, Embry and Quil overheard this and made jeering noises, until Paul glared at them.

“You’d better be joking about that,” he murmured in her ear, his tongue lightly tracing the edge of it.

Mariana bit her bottom lip but chose not to reply. Why not leave him on the edge for a little while?

“So who’s going in what cars?” Seth asked loudly.

“Uh, Emily, me, Quil and Clare in mine…Jacob, Embry, Seth and Leah in Jake’s…Paul, Mariana, Donovan, Jared and Kim in Paul’s?” Sam suggested.

Everyone shouted their agreement, and they headed out to the vehicles. In no time at all, they all arrived at the cliffs, and parked away from the roadside. Paul, Jared and Jacob carried the large picnic baskets that Emily had packed, Sam leading the way.

“So they do this cliff diving a lot, huh?” Mariana asked Emily and Kim, kicking off her shoes and pulling over t-shirt over her head so she was in a bikini top and shorts.

“Oh yeah,” Emily chuckled, nodding, Kim nodding too.

“Looking fine,” Paul growled in her ear, pressing a kiss to her neck as he walked past.

Mariana blushed deeply, which Emily and Kim laughed at.

“He is so going to be horny tonight,” Kim snickered.

Mariana blushed a little more, before shaking her head to clear her embarrassment. Trust Paul to have no shame in front of her friends.

“LET’S GO!” Jacob hollered, pumping his fists in the air.

Mariana inhaled sharply as he and Jared started running towards the edge of the cliff, before they jumped and disappeared from sight. She quickly got up to look over the edge to see where they’d gone, and bit her bottom lip to hide her smile when she noticed they were happily swimming to shore. Mariana had never been much of a risk taker, but this seemed like something that would be a lot of fun.

“Are you up for it, Ana?” Seth grinned.

“Maybe?” Mariana offered.

The remaining group whooped, making her laugh.

“MOMMY! Please don’t jump over da cliff! Please!” Donovan shrieked, clutching her leg.

Mariana’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, but she sat down on the ground to let Donovan crawl into her lap. Emily and Kim made aww noises softly, before walking away so Mariana and her son had some privacy.

“It’s the cliff, but this is a perfectly safe fun activity, Donny. Jacob and Jared are fine. I’d be fine,” Mariana soothed, stroking his hair.

“P-Paul, please don’t let mommy jump?” Donovan said desperately, looking to his left.

Mariana stifled a laugh at Paul’s surprise of being included, but smiled as he sat down too.

“If you don’t want your mommy to jump, then I promise she won’t,” Paul promised.

“Thank you,” Donovan said quietly.

“But, if she was to jump, I would protect your mommy at all costs. I will protect her from everything,” Paul said softly.

“Really?” Donovan asked happily.

Mariana just blushed. To hear Paul saying those words to her son really touched her heart, not only because of the promise but because he was taking measures to make sure her son felt comfortable. That was the most important thing to her, a man that loved her son as much as she did, and for Paul to try to step up to be that man meant the world to her.

“Really, really. Now, do you want to watch the rest of the guys jump or do you want to get started on the picnic?” Paul mused.

“Picnic!” Donovan cried out happily, jumping off Mariana’s lap.

Paul got up to follow Donovan, but not without sending a small smile to Mariana first, to which she smiled shyly back to. This felt like the start of something good. She could only hope it stayed that way.