=oooOooo=

FOUR

Lunch with her dad the next day was a relaxed affair. Charlie Swan was a quiet man who loved his daughter and granddaughter more than anything in the world. He was a retired police officer who led a comfortable life, giving occasional lectures at the police academy, going fishing with his buddies and taking care of Paulie whenever Bella needed him to. He had never remarried after the divorce from Bella's mother, who was now living in Phoenix with her new husband.

They talked easily, and Charlie played a few games of Parcheesi with Paulie, letting her win the majority of them. He inquired after Jasper, who felt almost like a son to Charlie. After that loser James had left his daughter pregnant and alone, it was Jasper who had stepped in. Charlie would have loved to see them get together, but had come to accept that it would never be. He told Bella about his friend Sue, with whom he went to the movies every Saturday night, and played bingo on Thursdays. Bella thought that Sue was much more than Charlie's bingo partner, but she never revealed her suspicions to her dad. He seemed happy, and that was the only thing that mattered to Bella.

Charlie left around three, and while Bella prepared some batter to make Belgian waffles, she felt a slow excitement spread through her entire body. She had put on a dark blue blouse and jeans, and she'd taken extra care with her hair, curling it slightly. She looked okay, she thought. Nice, even. Not that it mattered.

Soon enough, the doorbell rang and Paulie dashed to open it, her mother following at a more respectable pace, though Bella would have loved to run as well. Edward stood in front of them, Lucy's hand in his, looking even more delectable than she remembered him. He was wearing a pale blue button-down and jeans that were low on his hips. His hair was almost as messy as yesterday, his eyes shining brightly. Lucy looked cute in a little red dress with yellow stars.

"Hi," he greeted her with that smile… That smile…

"Hey, you two! Good to see you! Come in."

Edward and Lucy entered their home, and Lucy held out a lovely little bouquet of red gerberas, pine sprigs, candy canes and little Santa hats for Paulie. It was adorable.

"We got this for you," she said a bit shyly.

Paulie's eyes became huge at the sight of such a grown-up present as she took it from Lucy's small hands.

Bella looked at her daughter expectantly, slightly raising her eyebrows.

"Thank you!" Paulie beamed.

"Thanks," mouthed Bella to Edward. "But that wasn't necess-"

She stopped dead in her tracks when Edward produced a second bouquet from behind his back. It was similar to Paulie's, except that rum truffles and Christmas tree ornaments had replaced the candy canes and Santa hats.

"Oh my God," Bella gasped. "You two are crazy, do you know that?"

"Did you hear that, Lucy?"

Edward's grin was infectious, and his daughter smiled back, displaying a gap between her front teeth, where one of her baby teeth had fallen out.

The next hours passed so quickly that it seemed like mere minutes for both of them. In between their interactions with the children, Bella and Edward's conversation covered every possible topic from food to movies, childhood accidents, and their daughters' favorite ice-cream flavors.

There was a lot of delighted squealing from Lucy when Paulie showed her the bunnies. Edward needed to explain to her that Fred would not be good company for the two furry pets, and Lucy begged him to allow her to bring the dog downstairs so she could prove him wrong.

After the two girls had put the pets back in the home-made cage that Charlie had bult, Bella checked that the roof was secured, while Edward and Lucy went upstairs to collect Fred.

He sniffed the cage for a minute, but quickly lost interest when Lucy coaxed him away with a dog biscuit. While the girls played with the little button-eyed animal, Bella and Edward retreated to her kitchen, which was a far cry from Edward's state of the art showpiece. To her surprise, Edward complimented her on the warmth and coziness of her home, remarking on every little gold paper star that Paulie had made, noticing Bella's extensive collection of books and admiring the tons of photos on the mantelpiece, most of them showing Paulie during different stages of her life.

Again, they had coffee, made from a standard machine, and worked together to prepare the Belgian waffles. The first one, which Edward made, was pale and mushy and he pretended to be heartbroken when Bella giggled.

"It's not about the looks; it's about the taste," he snorted. "Don't you tell that to Paulie when she won't eat a squishy banana?"

"I do," Bella laughed, "but I'm not sure that this even deserves the term waffle..."

They discovered that they shared a sense of humor, laughing and giggling about the simplest things while they and the girls ate the waffles with whipped cream.

Bella and Edward stayed in the living room and talked while the girls were having a great time with Fred, who was a sweet-tempered dog, not even protesting when he was adorned with a Santa hat.

"We got him from a shelter," Edward explained. "He was just a tiny puppy, the last of his brood. He was sickly and no one wanted him because of his limp."

"His limp?"

"It's hardly noticeable, but yeah, that's what kept people from taking him in."

Edward smiled, a smile that Bella had already come to know and adore, which did something to her insides, making them as mushy as the waffle Edward had produced.

Fred had fallen asleep on the rug and the girls were playing in Paulie's room, the occasional laughter that could be heard assuring their parents that all was well. Every now and then, one or both of them would burst into the living room, where Edward and Bella were sitting on the couch, talking, laughing, blossoming in each other's company.

When it was time for dinner, Bella invited her two guests to stay over, and both Edward and Lucy gladly accepted. They had spaghetti and meatballs with a green salad, and the grown-ups shared one or two glasses of red wine. It felt natural, and all four of them were happier than they had been for a long time.

Once again, the little party broke up only when it was bedtime for the girls. Edward and Bella said their good-byes under the mistletoe, and the many things that were left unspoken later caused both of them another sleepless night.

=oooOooo=

A/N: Thank you, as always, to my brilliant beta dellaterra. I don't want to ever work without you again.

Any remaining mistakes or errors are mine.

I do not own Twilight.

Please, please leave a review if you liked it. It only takes a second and means so much to me!

Thank you,

harperpitt