Chapter 2: Meant to Be
Bella
I couldn't get him out of my head. The gorgeous guy who wanted to see me again even with all my evident baggage? It seemed too good to be true.
I got the kids home, put Kyle and Jason in their cribs since they were still sleeping, unpacked the groceries and Emily and I started making the cookies that we are going to be taking over to the neighbour who helped me move some of the boxes inside while we were moving in last month. I know it's a bit delayed but I've been busy and haven't had a lot of time for baking.
"Alright, my dear, what kind of cookies are we making today?" I asked.
"Hmmm… How about sugar cookies!" she exclaimed.
"Sound good, did you enjoy seeing your friend at the store today?" I asked her.
"Yes! Bella, she is my bestest friend ever, after you, cause you taked care of me when mommy and daddy were gone so you are my best best best friend in the whole wide world. And you gave me two little brothers to play with. Even though they're not my brothers really, they're my whats?" she went on.
"They're your nephews, because I am your sister and they are my children, but you know I consider you my big girl, right? And you can just call them your brothers for now, we'll talk about it when you're older," I smiled at her, she is literally the cutest child even, always so happy, it makes my day.
"Ok, Bella! I love you!" she said as she danced around getting things out of the cupboards.
"Love you too baby girl," I smiled as tears came to my eyes. I had been very worried about moving us back so close to where my parents raised me but now I knew I had made the right choice, we were happy here and it's a nice small town with an intimate feel.
An hour later we were both covered in flour and sugar with matching smiles on our faces as we pulled the last batch of cookies out of the oven.
"How about we get you a bath, I'll have a quick shower, we'll get the boys up and then we'll go give the cookies to Carlisle and Emmett?" I suggested.
"Yay! I love going to see people!" she exclaimed.
"I know you do, sweetie."
We walked up to the door of their house and I knocked. Emily was holding one tin of the cookies and I was holding the other. The boys were in their stroller amusing themselves with their toys. Whoever came up with toys that make noise when you shake them is a genius; my kids could be occupied for hours with those things.
A beautiful woman opens the door and says, "Hello, dear. Are you Bella? My husband and son told me about helping you move a few of your things into your new house. My name is Esme."
"Yes, I'm Bella; this is Emily, my sister, and my two sons, Kyle and Jason."
"Wonderful, well why don't you come in for a few minutes if you're not in a hurry," she opens the door wider.
"Oh, no thank you. We actually need to get going but I wanted to drop off some cookies to say thanks for the help."
"Well, thank you very much, dear. I will pass these on the Emmett and Carlisle, but please feel free to drop by anytime to say hi or to come in for a visit," she smiled.
"Thank you very much. I'm sure I'll see you around soon," I said as we turned and walked down the driveway.
"Where are we going now, Bella?" Emily asked.
"I was thinking that we could go to the park? There might be some swings there that we can use," I suggested.
"Yeah! Let's go!" and she was off.
After spending a while at the park enjoying the cool weather and the play structure we started our walk back home. After having a simple dinner of quesadillas and feeding the boys, I put them down on the floor in the living room and turned on the TV for Emily to watch while we all played.
I got a bunch of the toys out and put them around on the floor. Jason was lying on the ground on this back so I threw a small blanket over his head. This was one of his favourite games, he would start laughing and flailing his arms until the blanket came off and then he would smile at me and it makes everything I went through completely worth it. I still can't believe how my boys came into my life, some days I wake up thinking it was all just a terrible nightmare but then I get up and look around and realize that this is the reality of my life, but I really wouldn't change it for the world.
Early the next morning I was woken up to Emily's screaming and crying. I rushed to her room expecting to find her being scared awake from a bad dream.
When I got to her room, I saw her clutching her ears and thrashing against her bed.
"What's wrong, baby?" I asked as I scooped her up in my arms.
"Mommy..." she groaned. It wasn't a habit that I encouraged, her calling me Mommy, but when she was in pain she seemed to revert to wanting a mother and I was the closest thing she has to one. Without even remember our parents, she understand that mothers are there for comfort when you needed it. "It hurts!"
"What hurts?" I asked.
"My ears," she continued with tears still running down her face.
"Which one?" I started looking at her face and ears, feeling her forehead and checking over the rest of her body.
"This one," she pointed to her right ear.
"Alright, we'd better get going to the hospital to get you some medicine, you probably have an ear infection and the clinic isn't open anymore," I said. "Let's get you changed then I'll go get the boys."
Twenty minutes later we were sitting in the Emergency Room of the hospital waiting for a doctor to see us. Emily had, thankfully, stopped crying and was currently sitting, pulling on her ear and snuggling against me. Luckily, the boys didn't wake up when I moved them to the car and then into the hospital with us. I wasn't too happy about them being in this place with all sorts of germs everywhere but I didn't have any other options, I didn't know anyone in this town that might be able to watch them, especially in the middle of the night so here we were.
I had signed all the papers and got her registered so now it was a waiting game. There weren't very many other people in the waiting room so I was hoping that we could see a doctor quickly and get back home.
About half an hour later we were called back to a room by a nurse, who gave me a weird look when she saw me walking in with Emily and two baby carriers. I've gotten a lot of those looks over the past year, and they don't faze me anymore, people are just nosy and judgemental without knowing the whole story.
The nurse asked a bunch of questions about what Emily was feeling and finally left saying the doctor would be in soon.
Emily fell into a fitful sleep on the bed while we waited.
"Hello, I'm Dr. Cullen, wha- Bella?" I hear a voice as someone enters the room; and when I turned around I saw Edward there in a lab coat with Emily' file in his hand.
"Hi, Edward- er, Dr. Cullen," I said. "Emily has an ear infection, I think, she woke up screaming an hour ago and I would have just taken her to the clinic but it's closed at this time of night."
"You can call me Edward, its fine," he smiled at me gently. "Can you wake her up for me? It's good that she's sleeping but I need to check her out to figure out what's going on."
I woke Emily up gently and Edward started asking questions, "Which ear is hurting?"
She pointed again to her right ear then exclaimed, "You're Ashley's daddy."
"Well, I'm actually her uncle, but I saw you yesterday when we were both at the store, yes," he smiled back at her.
He started looking in her ear with some light thing, and then took her temperature. After a couple minutes he turned to me and said, "Well, it's an ear infection, she has a low fever, but that's normal when kids are sick, here is a prescription for her. The pharmacy right down the street is open 24 hours so you should be able to get it filled right away. If you can, I would highly suggest it so that you can get the first dose into her and she can hopefully get some more sleep."
"Ok, thank you so much, Edward," I said sincerely, relieved that it wasn't something more serious than an ear infection.
"Of course, Bella. I wish it were under better circumstances, and it's probably not very appropriate for me to say this, but I'm really glad to see you," he smiled at me.
I noticed that he had a beautiful smile.
"I was glad to see you too, Edward," I told him.
"You have my cell number, so if she starts to get worse or if her fever spikes, call me, I'm serious," he said seriously looking in my eyes.
"I will, thank you so much, you've gone way above your duty," I replied.
"Anything for you, Bella, I'll call you in a couple days to see how she's feeling and figure out when we can go out, does that sound alright?"
"Sounds perfect," I smiled and picked up the boys and followed Emily out of the room to the car. On the way home, we stopped and got her prescription filled. I put the boys back in their cribs and got Emily settled in her bed after taking her medicine before I finally collapsed back into my own bed.
Not an hour later, the boys woke up and wanted fed. The life of a mother…