Chapter 3

When Caleb got home, he found that a lot of the men in the family were gathered around a large table, each with a hand of cards. His father sat with Edward on his left and Emmett on his right. On the other side of Emmett was Jasper, then William and Michael. Rosalie was the only woman at the table amongst them all and sat directly across from Emmett with a glass of wine just in front of her on the table.

Scattered all around were bottles of wine, and each of them had a glass. Emmett's was in a semi-tall beer mug, rather than a wine glass and he took a long sip before giving Caleb a wave.

"Anyone want to turn the music up a little?" he asked, "How about the cheater?" Emmett raised his eyebrows at Edward, who shook his head.

Carlisle snickered and took it upon himself to get up to turn up the volume on whoever's I-pod was plugged into the small stereo on the countertop. He then returned to his seat and realized then that Caleb had entered the room.

"Caleb," he said with a wave.

He waved back and smiled, still coming off his happy-high from being out with Delilah. There was a part of him that was a little disappointed because he wanted to talk to just about any one of them at the table about his feelings for her, but decided that everyone was relaxed and enjoying themselves, so he decided to wait.

"Hey Dad," Caleb walked over and reached his hand out to give him a casual handshake, then high-fived Emmett who was reaching his hand out as far as he could.

Carlisle looked over his shoulder and laughed, "Edward's the cheater huh?" he asked, placing his cards face down on the table.

"What?" Emmett asked, smiling wide to reveal in non-so-innocent dimples.

Rosalie tossed a poker chip at him, "No cheating!"

He laughed and Caleb smiled at everyone.

"Join us Caleb!" William encouraged, "You just can't have any of this." He raised his glass, "Unless your dad says it's okay."

"I'm good," he said with a laugh, "I'm going to go do some reading upstairs."

"You are so Carlisle's kid," Rosalie said with a laugh.

Caleb shrugged and smiled, "Have fun. Rosalie, I hope you win."

"What!?" Emmett called out, taking another swig from his glass.

Caleb laughed again and looked at his father, then made his way towards other parts of the house. He heard all the women of the house chatting and laughing. There was an occasional splash and he knew they were all sitting around in the pool together, watching whatever was on the flat screen that hung on the wall.

"Oh, I love this part, it's so funny," Alice's voice called, as Caleb rounded into the room. "Caleb!" she shrieked, "How are you doing this evening?"

He smiled and looked down, aware that Alice had previously known about his plan and most likely had a vision of his night date with Delilah. "I'm good." He looked at the screen and saw they were watching the movie The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds.

"How was your date with Delilah?" Esme asked. She didn't know all of what he had planned, but had heard some of it from Alice and Alex.

"It was... fine," he said with a shrug.

"More than fine," Alice said with a wink, drawing an almost concerned look from Esme. "Oh, nothing bad. Just some kisses, and romantic gestures by our little heart throb over here. Two dozen roses for an extraordinary girl..."

Caleb began to laugh at Alice's teasing and he shrugged, "What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing at all," she told him, "I loved the idea. Good work, Caleb."

Esme smiled and looked at him, "Is she coming over?"

"Not tonight," he said, "She feel like she imposes on everyone."

"We'll have to have a chat with her and set her straight about that," Nicole said, rolling her eyes. "We could have an army in this house and no one would be crowded."

Esme agreed, "Tell her that she can come over whenever she'd like. She's not imposing at all."

"I told her," Caleb said with a shrug, "But is it okay if she comes by in the morning."

Alexandra jokingly put her thumbs down and Caleb cocked his head and gave her a look. "I'm kidding," his sister assured him.

"That's fine," Esme said, "Will I need to sign her out?"

He nodded, "If that's okay."

She smiled, "That's fine."

There was a loud slam from the other room and an excited yell from Emmett, "Yes!" he called out, "Yes! Yes!"

Alice and Esme exchanged a glance and laughed.

"I guess our guys aren't doing so well," Alice said, hearing Emmett round up the poker chips on the table.

"Guess not," Esme said.

"Michael never wins when they play," Alex complained, then laughed.

"How does Edward not win every single time?" Mackenzie asked.

"He tries to block everything out," Esme told them.

"I've tried to block their thoughts from his mind, but I guess winning at poker isn't really anyone's necessity," Alex told them all.

Caleb's eyes drifted up toward the television again and Alice smiled. "Caleb, join us."

He shrugged.

"Or have you gotten enough swimming in for one night?"

Caleb couldn't help but smile, then walked out of the room. "Let me go get my suit." He went up to his room, called Delilah quickly, then made his way back down into the pool area with his swim trunks on.

"Nothing yet huh?" Alice asked Esme casually.

Esme raised her eyebrows and shook her head subtly.

"Nothing yet what?" Caleb asked, slinking himself down into the pool. He leaned his arms up on the sides.

"Just... nothing yet," Alice said, smiling at him, wanting to bite her tongue.

"Nothing yet for what?" Nicole echoed Caleb.

"Nothing," Alice said with a laugh.

"Surprise party?" Nicole asked her mother, narrowing her eyes with a grin.

"Yep," Alice nodded.

Caleb and Alex exchanged a glance and Caleb looked back at Alice, knowing she was lying.

Esme thought for a moment, and decided that maybe it wasn't a terrible time to run the idea of her having another baby by her two children. Alice already knew, and if it did happen, then there wouldn't be much of a secret. For some reason, expressing it out loud to them was harder than she had anticipated; much harder than speaking with Alice or Rosalie about it.

"Um..." she started, "I guess we could talk about this a little now."

Alice smiled and shrugged, then went under the water for a moment and resurfaced, wiping the water away from her eyes. Caleb laughed at her hair and she stuck her tongue out at him.

"What's up Mom?" Alex asked.

She sighed and decided there was no use trying to go around the subject. She wanted to be honest with them, and realized that Alexandra had already gone through this with Caleb, though she wasn't quite sure what Caleb would say. He was still "the baby" in her eyes, and she knew he had already just dealt with some big changes in his life. Again, she second-guessed whether or not it was fair to him, but had had the same feeling regarding Masen when she and Carlisle had planned for Alexandra.

Alice's casual demeanor on the matter somewhat eased Esme's mind, as she seemed in a trance by the movie on the screen, hardly paying attention to what Esme was about to say. For whatever reason, it gave Esme a sudden bout of confidence and she just said it.

"What would you think if..." she paused, "Well, if your dad and I decided to..." she shrugged and looked at Caleb, "... have another baby?"