Author's Chapter Notes:

Hi, gang! Back again with another chapter.

I'll keep this brief. The song for this chapter is another 90's classic, Cantaloop by US3. It goes perfectly with the Jazz theme of the evening. Here's the link:

watch?v=JwBjhBL9G6U

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Three

Edward and Jasper disappear into the crowd, and Alice leans into me. "Holy shit, Bella. Just ... wow. I'm actually mad that Edward is off limits to me." I laugh, and Alice takes me by the hand and leads the way out. After a pit stop at the ladies room, we head out of the banquet hall and through the grand lobby of the Edgewater Hotel. "You do realize you told Edward he was beautiful, don't you?" Alice continues with a snicker as we walk out into the damp, chilly night.

My shoulders slump. "God, I know. Why do I turn into such a spaz whenever I'm nervous?"

Alice hands the parking attendant her ticket and he radios a valet to deliver the car. She pulls out her compact and studies her face as she answers my rhetoric. "The same reason you trip over your feet ten times a day and put ketchup on everything. It's just who you are." Her car appears, and I climb into the passenger side of Alice's Mustang, failing to come up with a valid argument. She slides in and gives the car some gas. "Here," she says, reaching into her bag and tossing me the first things she can grab onto. "Make yourself beautiful for lover boy."

"What the hell is this?" I ask, holding up a makeup-stained Q-tip and a tube of mascara. "I'll tell you what this is; this is disgusting. Who do I look like? MacGyver?" Alice ignores my snark, and I shut up long enough to apply a fresh coat of black goop to my already smoky eyes. Thank God, Edward caught me at my best and not running errands on a Sunday morning. My frumpy grey sweats leave quite a bit to the imagination.

It's not long before we're pulling into the crowded lot at Dimitriou's, the upscale jazz club favored by the locals. Alice kills the engine, and I step out of the car, carefully adjusting the black Versace dress she let me borrow for the evening. I check once more to make sure my boobs are secured behind the thin fabric that splits in a V down my chest. Yep, the girls are locked and loaded.

Alice talks to me from over her shoulder as we make our way to the entrance. "I am giving you an hour and a half tops before I split. If you want to join me, great; if not, that's your call. Capisce?"

"Understood. Maybe we can ditch the dodo at some point and go back to my apartment."

Alice pulls the glass door open for me, and the rhythm of a steel guitar flows out onto the street. "We shall see," she purrs.

It doesn't take long for us to spot Edward. He must've been watching the door, and I see him waving at us from a booth in the corner. He and Jasper stand when we approach, and I smile when he opens his arms to me again. I find what already feels like my perfect nook and wrap my arms around his back.

"It's so good to see you. You look absolutely amazing," he murmurs into my hair, and for one hot second, I think I'm literally going to swoon. I want to tell him that he looks good too, but I think I already got my point across on that earlier.

Edward ushers Alice and me into one side of the booth and slides in across from us next to his new business partner. A waitress comes right away, and we go around the table with our orders. Edward orders a highball, and I feel like a rebel, switching from wine to vodka. Some occasions just call for a Grey Goose straight up, and that's all I'm going to say about it.

The waitress is quick to return with our drinks, and Jasper leans forward after taking a sip of his Jameson. "Let's start over, shall we? We didn't have the chance for introductions earlier, so I'll go first. I'm Jasper, but my closest friends call me Jaz." He looks pointedly at Edward, as if seeking reassurance that they're well on their way to becoming best buddies.

"I'm not calling you Jaz," Edward states quickly and very matter-of-factly. It's all I can do to stifle my snort.

Jasper continues, unperturbed. "Edward, how did we get lucky enough to be sitting across from God's most perfect creatures? Tell me again: how does everyone know everyone?" he says, his eyes on Alice.

Edward looks at me, and for a split second, there's something marring his happiness. Regret, perhaps. He shakes his head but doesn't look away. "Well, Bella and I were neighbors as kids. We sort of grew up together. Actually, she's my best friend."

I am lost in him. His eyes hold me in place, and Alice throws an elbow into my ribs to get me to wake the fuck up. "Say something," she says through a tight smile.

"Neighbors ... we grew up together," I murmur. Why do I have to be so goddamn awkward? I have to tear my eyes away from Edward so I can concentrate on my words. "And Alice and I met when I was hired on at Voss Butler. We've been great friends ever since. What about you and Jasper? Did you two know each other before you started working together?"

"No, Jasper and I met my first day in town. He'll be my mentor, so to speak, until I get my feet wet."

"Does Dean & Crater know about this?" Alice asks, dry and deadpan.

Jasper smiles and accepts the challenge that was never offered in the first place. "Shortcake, if you want to go somewhere in this town, you just give me a call. Let Uncle Jasper take care of you."

Alice straightens her posture and looks at me, repulsed. "I can't even ..." She pushes me down the booth until I'm forced to stand up. "I'm going to the ladies room, you coming?"

"No, I'll stay," I tell her. With my back to the guys, I mouth the words be nice.

"Whatever." Alice saunters away, and I take my seat again with an apologetic chuckle.

"I think I'll go have a drink at the bar," Jasper says, his eyes following Alice's every move as she makes her way across the club. He's off without another word.

Edward loosens his tie, and takes a long drink from his glass.

"What's with your friend? Is he always like this?"

Edward laughs with a shrug. "I have no idea. I just met him a few days ago, but I swear, he's been completely normal up until tonight. It's the weirdest thing. I guess the easiest explanation is that he's newly divorced and has no clue how to act around beautiful women."

Blushing, I stir the melting ice into my vodka. "Yeah, no kidding." We both look over at Jasper. He's already at the bar, trying out various poses for when Alice finally emerges and sees him. She'll be so pleased. I shake my head and laugh with sympathy. "Yikes, women are going to ruin him."

"I think they already have," Edward says with a chuckle and clears his throat. He seems nervous, but when he looks at me and sighs, all of his anxiety seems to melt away. "I can't believe I'm sitting across from you. After all this time, you're right here ... close enough to touch." Just as he says the words, his fingertips brush the side of my hand and every neuron in my body comes alive.

"I think it's great that you're back. Where did they end up moving you?"

Edward moans his response as he drains his Highball. "Sorry." He wipes at a drop of whiskey-flavored condensation from his chin, but it escapes and rolls under his jaw. I am captivated. "I'm in Ravenna right near the market, but I work over on the east side-Bellevue, actually. Do you know it?"

"Sure. I work on the east side, too-Kirkland. And I live in Hawthorne Hills; we're pretty close, actually. This is incredible. What are the odds you would end up back in Seattle after all?"

Edward sucks in a deep breath and draws his eyebrows in mock concentration. "Oh, pretty good, I would say." He chuckles at my confusion and shrugs his shoulders. "This place has been pulling at me since I left. I've wanted to come back for so long."

I stare into his eyes and try to see beyond any pretense, but there is none. "I had no idea."

"No ... you wouldn't have," he says with another light laugh as he studiously shreds a cocktail napkin into a pile under his fingertips. "Bella, I started showing interest in Dean & Crater years ago. I applied to their internship program my last year of college but didn't get picked. I've been sending them my resume every year since then. Until last year, that is."

I never knew of Edward's mission to return home, and his strange demeanor leads me to believe he'd purposefully kept me in the dark. How odd. I find my breath, but my voice is hardly above a whisper. "Why did you stop trying?"

Edward is silent for a long moment but finally runs a hand through his hair. I've seen the gesture a million times before and can't help but smile. He smiles back and reaches for my hand again. "I guess I just ... threw in the towel and gave up on that dream. I took all the years of rejection as a sign and realized I couldn't keep living in the past," he says. "Then, about a month ago, out of the blue, I got a call from Seattle, and here I am." He smirks at some undisclosed irony and shakes his head. "God, if I'd only known ..."

His unfinished sentence hangs between us, and I realize he doesn't intend to elaborate. I manage a smile, attempting to clear the cryptic atmosphere surrounding us. "They must've made an offer you couldn't refuse."

"They did, but ... there are other perks to living here," he says, holding my gaze. I have a million questions, but I'm too entranced by his eyes to voice them. Before we both get lost, Edward smiles and shrugs. "After all, I did meet Jasper."

I laugh and nudge his leg under the table with my foot. Thinking of Jasper makes me think of Alice, and I realize she's been in the bathroom for a while.

"Is everything all right?" Edward asks, following my searching gaze.

"Yeah, I'm just looking for Alice. I think I should go see if she's okay." I grab my purse and stand, taking one last drink.

Edward stands as well and takes a look around. His eyes focus on something across the room, and he smiles, nodding his head toward the other side of the bar. I lean over to peer around him and see Alice and Jasper chatting over a drink. Actually, they're more than chatting. They're having a real conversation, and she doesn't have the look of death on her face.

I plop back down in the booth, stunned. "What just happened here?"

Edward gives me a sly grin and takes his seat. "I think your friend just got Jazzercised."

I giggle and shake my head. "Gross."

"Who knows? Like I said, he's been a cool guy up until now. Maybe he remembered to take his medication while Alice was in the restroom."

"He should take extra." My head is swimming in spirits as we giggle together. Well I'm giggling. Men don't giggle.

We take advantage of the time alone to catch up. I ask Edward about his family, and a warm smile lights his face. His mom and dad are enjoying the retired life, and their favorite pastime is spoiling their grandchildren. Edward's older brother, Emmett, is now married with three little ones. He works for the Chicago Bears, but he stopped playing ball himself after college due to irreparable damage to his left knee.

I fill him in on my family, too. My mom finally retired last year, and she keeps herself busy teaching painting and sculpture at the Y. My older brother, Randy, lives in the Olympic Peninsula where he works as a game warden. At the mention of our siblings, we're soon reminiscing about the various pranks we would play on our brothers.

"Oh, the prank wars. How could I forget about the prank wars?" Edward says, scrubbing a hand over his face.

The impromptu wars always pitted the two of us against our brothers and usually ended with Edward suffering some form of punishment for our antics. We didn't always lose, though. Randy and Emmett may have been bigger and stronger than us, but Edward and I were quick, and we were clever. Every once in a while, the older siblings would show mercy on us, and we would all band together for what Edward and I referred to as mega-pranks. My own mother had no patience for our shenanigans, but Edward's mom, Esme, was an easy target. And she never ever saw it coming.

"Mom still gets upset about the Christmas tree," Edward says, and I crack up, remembering our greatest prank ever.

Late one Christmas Eve, after the parents were asleep, the four of us met up in the gap between our houses and formulated a scheme to beat all others. Quickly and quietly, we carried Esme's perfectly decorated Christmas tree outside and hoisted it onto the roof. Emmett and Randy secured it in a holder and plugged in the lights while Edward and I ran laps to and from the house, handing them presents and decorations of every kind. Before long, the Cullen's entire Christmas morning was pieced perfectly together on top of their house.

"How in the hell did we pull that off?" I ask, wiping a tear from my eye. "I remember I woke up the next morning and looked out the window to see your mom in the front yard, wearing nothing but pajamas with snow up to her knees. I wanted to feel bad for making her cry, but come on. Even your dad laughed."

Edward snorts. "Yeah, after he stopped grounding us. Remember how he made Emmett and I pack up all the presents and take them down to the Salvation Army for donation. Man, we got nailed for that one, but I still say it was worth it. It just doesn't get more epic than that."

We're still laughing when Alice appears beside us. She gives Edward a warm smile and turns to me. "I'm clocking out now. It's late, and I need my six hours. Are you ready to go?"

Before I can answer, Edward intervenes. "Actually, Alice, I'd be happy to give her a ride. If that's okay with you, Bella."

"Yeah, that'd be great."

"All right; you be careful," Alice says to me. I stand to give her a hug, and she whispers into my ear, "I did this for you because I'm your bitch. And now, you are mine."

I mouth my thanks when she pulls away from me. Alice bids farewell to the boys and is gone in a flash. Jasper starts to pull his jacket on. "Well, that's that; I am officially in love. And I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual."

Edward and I exchange a look behind his back, and I shake my head to indicate he couldn't be more wrong. Edward laughs and pulls out his wallet while I search for my cash. "It's on me, old friend," he says with a wink. "We'll drop Jasper off, and then you can show me where your building is."

"Sounds good. Thanks for the drinks."

We head through the crowd, and I melt into Edward's touch when he places a warm, guiding hand on the bare skin of my back.

Chapter End Notes:

And we're back. I hope you all enjoyed this week's chapter. Please leave me a review and let me know what you think. I've gotten some pretty great feedback so far, but I'd love to hear from all of you :D

Big thanks to my beta, Alice's White Rabbit. She is a special gal, and so very smart. Also, thank you to Discordia for pre-reading this mess. Love you both!

Devilsgenie is my VB and she is peaches.

Until next time!