Chapter Three

"Here, sit Carlisle next to me," Bella offered, snatching the high chair from Rosealie's hands. She shot her friend a scowl as she slid Carlisle into the chair and buckled him. Now she had a safety buffer between herself and Edward. With Alice chatting happily on her other side, she was in no way required to give Edward all her attention.

"So what do you do, Bella?" Edward asked as they waited for the waitress to bring their drinks. Bella kept her eyes on Carlisle as he banged happily on the tabletop.

"I run a child care program. Little Carlisle here is one of my customers," she teased as she nuzzled his chubby cheeks.

"We were blessed to have found Bella," Emmett said, winking at her from across the table, making her blush.

"No seriously," Rosalie interjected, "I can drop Carlisle off and know he's being treated like one of her own."

"Well with my three little sisters there at school too, what's a few more?" Alice giggled. Bella rolled her eyes and turned to Edward.

"Alice is my oldest, she turns six at the end of the month. I have twins, fraternal, not identical, Tanya and Bree, who will be four and my littlest, Katie, is two."

"Wow, that's a lot to handle," Edward admitted, unconsciously pulling at his tie. Bella looked up at him, ready to reply defensively, when she was distracted by how green his eyes were. The hunter color of his shirt made them pop even more, and if she didn't know better, she'd think he'd worn it just for that reason.

"Yes it is," Bella replied. The moment was broken when Carlisle started slamming his fork and spoon down on the table loudly.

"Guess we have a drummer on our hands."

"Looks like someone is going to be a drummer."

Bella and Edward spoke at the same time, causing Bella to turn pink once again. Pretty soon, red was going to be her permanent color.

Once the food arrived, Bella was able to concentrate on making sure Alice didn't spill on her new shirt and that Carlisle didn't choke on the copious amounts of mozzarella cheese that was smothered on top of the pasta. She had neatly deflected any conversation away from herself and with dessert quickly approaching, she was confident that she'd made herself boring enough that Edward would never think twice about a second date.

"Carlisle, come back here," Bella faux-growled as her little charge crawled away from the table. He'd started to get restless after the coffee arrived so she let him out of his chair. The restaurant was nearly empty so she didn't have to worry about him disturbing any other diners. He'd somehow managed to find a dirty fork on the floor and Bella quickly slid out of her chair to grab it before he stuck it in his mouth.

"No, that's cock," she said, instantly realizing her error. "Oh shit, I meant cocky, yucky, not cock…I didn't mean to say cock," she rambled. Emmett and Edward both started to chuckle. Alice yawned and Bella silently thanked her daughter for her exhaustion.

"Thanks so much for coming out to eat with us, you guys," Emmett said as he led the way out to the parking lot. They had sent home the leftovers with Bella, much to her embarrassment. She hated being treated like a charity case, but Alice was excited to share the pasta with her sisters the next day.

"You want to help me get Carlisle strapped in, Alice?" Rosalie asked, shooting Bella a glared over the child's head. Bella sighed as she realized she was not going to get away with just a handshake goodbye to her blind date.

"So…" Bella mumbled, keeping her eyes on the ground as she stood next to Edward.

"Sorry this was so awkward, but Rosalie is a bit…demanding," Edward said quietly, his deep voice vibrating through the quiet September night. Bella smiled as she realized she wasn't the only one who was ordered around by both Rosalie and Emmett.

"She always seems to get what she wants," Bella agreed, daring to meet his gaze. Those damn green eyes caught her once more and she couldn't seem to look away. "Thanks for humoring her."

"No, it was my pleasure. Thanks for having dinner with me," he replied, before reaching for her. The hug was short and fairly impersonal, but Bella couldn't remember the last time she'd been hugged by anyone who didn't smell like pee and cheerios.

Driving back to her mother's house to pick up the rest of her crew, Bella wasn't able to shake the feeling that her life had just taken a sharp turn.


A/N: So I finished writing this. It was a roller coaster trying to get everything down, and I skipped a ton of stuff, but the gist is here. There are 15 chapters, so you get three today and two every day until next Friday, my wedding day. I hope you are enjoying this little peek into my real life but when we get the the sex scenes, pretend it's Edward and Bella :-P

KK