A/N: Thanks again for all the reviews and comments on the recipes. I hope you are enjoying them!

And super thanks to my beta Sweetthunder who stayed up extra late to make this chapter awesome.

Tapas at Twilight

Chapter 4: Add a dash....

That Saturday Alice, Jasper, Renesmee and my Mother accompanied me on a whirlwind search for a space to rent. Alice's list of requirements was a mile long. Mine was pretty simple, not too much to renovate, and some place respectable enough to give James a run for his money.

We'd found several locations that were perfect. Too bad they were perfectly out of my price range. After we'd seen all of the spaces on the list, my realtor Giana, pulled me aside and said, "it might be good to look in a little bit different neighborhood. Maybe one that is more up-and-coming, where the rent is low and the night life is infused with a younger crowd and lots of disposable income."

We agreed to meet up on Monday to look at a few more places. On this trip it was just me and Giana, so things went much faster. The first two locations were a total bust, and now here we stood in front of a quirky four story building in one of those up-and-coming neighborhoods.

I shot an incredulous look at Giana. She had to be kidding, she kept using words like 'quaint' and 'cozy'. I learned quickly that those words, along with 'up-and-coming', is just another way to say old and busted.

"So. This restaurant was just closed a few months ago. Furniture and appliances come with the place, so that should save on cost. The owners were never really able to update anything, so just try to see the potential. Imagine what kind of magic Alice can work in there okay? Just keep an open mind." She walked forward and unlocked the front door.

As I walked in my jaw dropped at the state of the place. Tables and chairs were piled on top of each other, dust had accumulated in a fine layer over the black and white checkerboard floor, and we were surrounded by a dismal paisley wallpaper. I walked a bit further in a noticed a giant gaping hole in the wall and ceiling between the dining room and the kitchen. It felt like a health code violation just standing in here.

I rounded on Giana who held up her hands pleading for open-mindedness. I jabbed my pointed finger towards the ceiling silently reiterating my shock.

"If it helps, the fourth floor apartment can be included in the lease deal for an extra $250 a month. I know it's no where near perfect, but this really is a very hot neighborhood, buildings are converting and renovating left and right. In fact a really hip club just opened down the street, this place has major potential Bella. I wouldn't steer you wrong on this one, I know how important it is."

"It's just so much work G, I don't know." I was walking around the dining room making a mental list of all the things I would need to do before this place was even close to ready. The cosmetic stuff Alice could do. Some of the repair work I could ask Jasper for help with. Now the big question was the condition of the kitchen.

I was surprised to find that the appliances weren't completely ancient. I would definitely need to get everything serviced, there might be a few things that needed replacing, but I didn't think it would break the bank.

I knew how much time was involved opening up a restaurant and being able to live here, to have Nessie right here, that would count for a lot. I was determined to make her a part of this, I wouldn't deprive her of my presence anymore. James had already taken too much of my time from her.

I walked back to where Giana was waiting for me. "Okay, let's take a look at the apartment. If I'm going to make this place work, I'd need to be close." It didn't hurt that we were just minutes away from Renesmee's school either. I wouldn't miss the commute from Bloomingdale, but I sure would miss all of the help my mom had given me.

We climbed the stairs to the top floor and Giana opened the door. It took all of 30 seconds to take the grand tour. It had a total of 4 rooms; a bedroom, bathroom, living/dining room, and a teeny tiny kitchen. It was old but at least it was clean, if I had seen so much as a hint of bugs or vermin, I would not even think about considering this place.

But now here I am, sitting on the top stair, mentally running the pros and cons of all of the places we'd looked at. None of the other places had a living space available. Which meant I would need to rent a place and that would be triple or more than this apartment.

Considering how quickly and decisively I had quit my old job, this decision was taking too long. I was over thinking everything just like I always do. It was time to spread my wings. They'd been closed for far too long.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

We piled out of our cars and everyone stood in front of the building wielding various cleaning and painting equipment.

"So how far do we have to walk?" Alice asked looking up and down the street expectantly.

"This is it. We're here!" The idea of this place as my first restaurant had grown on me and I was truly excited. Did I just say first? That would imply that I wanted to open more than one. I must be losing my mind.

I pulled the keys out of my pocket and began opening the door. Alice continued to mumble behind me things like, "this is what happens when I don't supervise."

We walked in and it looked even shabbier than I remembered, but this was it, it HAD to work. I took a second to arrange my face into the most positive and excited expression I could and turned to look at my crew. I felt like someone had popped all the balloons at my birthday party. Ness looked doubtful, my mother was concerned, Alice was rolling her eyes and Jasper was running his hand through his hair letting out a low whistle.

"Come on you guys, catch the vision. Once we get this place cleaned up it'll be like a blank canvas. Mom, Esme does freelance drafting doesn't she? We could get the dimensions of the dining room and she could draw up some plans right? She'd give me a discount, I named my first child after her for crying out loud, she owes me." I looked hopefully at my mother. Leave it to her to understand what I needed at that moment.

She wiped the doubt and trepidation from her features and put on her brave face. "Honey, I'm sure Esme would be thrilled to help."

"I suppose once the layer of dust is removed and this awful paisley is gone we can make it work." Alice was starting to feel the vibe.

Jasper wandered back into the dining room, "the kitchen's not half bad, I've seen worse."

"Well, what are we waiting for? This place is a mess," said Ness as she pushed up her sleeves.

We all dug into the various projects and started making some serious headway on the dining room. In one day we'd managed to clean up all of the tables, which were actually a really nice marble top with a black wrought iron pedestal. We'd swept all of the dust away, the wallpaper was coming off, slower than I would've liked, but it was still coming off.

The only downer was when Jasper looked into the black hole, as we'd affectionately named it, and found a steady drip from one of the pipes in the ceiling. Well at least we knew how the hole happened.

"I think there was a list of contractors and handyman companies in the leasing documents. I'll have to call someone out here. But for now guys, I think we've done amazing."

"Why don't we have a mini dinner celebration at my house," said Renee.

"Sounds great, I already have some ideas and things I want to sketch out for Esme." Alice had been bouncing all over the space so quickly I couldn't keep track of her. She hadn't caught the vision, she'd yanked it out of the air, given it a make over, bought it ice cream, and I had little doubt that when she and the vision got home, the vision would be twice as good as it was when she started.

"You guys go ahead, Nessie and I will be right there okay?" We walked out of the restaurant and over to a solid black door.

"Where does this go Mom?" Nessie looked up at me, her eyes filled with curiosity.

"To our new place," I said tentatively.

"Here?!" I hoped she would be as enthusiastic when she saw the apartment. She raced up the stairs and was bouncing on her heels motioning me to hurry up. I opened the door and waited while she raced around the small apartment.

She reappeared in front of me looking a bit unsure. "Mom, where would I sleep? There's only one bedroom."

"You'd get the bedroom sweetheart. I'll have to share the closet, but I'd sleep on the futon."

She still looked doubtful so I decided I'd sweeten the pot. "We'd get to ride the 'L' train to school?"

"Really?!"

"Mmhmm." I ushered my exuberant daughter onto the landing and locked up.

"I love it, I love it, I love it! When can we move in?" I knew the train would tip the scales.

"How fast can you pack?" I threw my arm around her shoulder as we walked down the stairs together.

When we got down to the floor just above the restaurant, the cacophonic crash of a piano reverberated through the walls. Angry scales in a minor key began zooming up and down the keyboard. Renesmee stood there transfixed by the sound.

I tried tugging on her sleeve but she wouldn't budge. As the notes poured out into the small hallway I recognized the music as "The flight of the Bumblebee". Ness leaned over and pulled my ear down to her mouth.

"I wonder if Mr. Simms lives in there," she whispered. Mr. Simms was her piano teacher at school.

"Why would you think Mr. Simms lives there?" I'm sure that old codger was living in a fancier place than this, set for life with his salary from the academy, the tuition there cost an arm and a leg, this place wasn't worth a pinky.

"He says he always plays this when he's feeling tense."

When the final chords rang out Ness began walking down the steps. "That was awesome," she breathed.

I was thinking more along the lines of 'I hope that jerk doesn't go slamming around on his piano when I'm trying to run a hip new restaurant'. I would probably have to go introduce myself and diplomatically suggesting he keep a lid on the noise.

"Come on, everyone is waiting for us at home!"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When I checked on my daughter the next morning her room was nearly completely disassembled and in boxes. She was more than anxious for our new adventure, and I had to admit that I was too.

We'd found out the night before that Phil was being offered an assistant coaching job for the AAA team in Jacksonville Florida. I guess he'd been on the injured reserve list here in Chicago for too long, and he was no spring chick, so coaching was a good alternative for him.

That meant that they'd be selling the house and moving soon, so the timing of things just seemed to be working out perfectly. Mom told me to take any furniture that I wanted so I had made a list, including Grandma Swan's old upright piano.

After dropping Ness off at school I pulled out my phone and the list of handymen. I started at the top of the list but kept getting shuffled to voice mail. I needed the work done yesterday so I wanted to talk to a live body.

I was again sent to voice mail, but the message was different than your standard greeting. I hadn't paid much attention to the name of the company so I was a little surprised when I heard, "You've reached the doctor. Sorry I'm out of the office, leave a message and I'd be happy to make a house call." The voice was dripping with sensuality and my eyes grew wide thinking I'd called some nasty phone sex number. When I looked down at my list I chuckled.

The House Doctor

"We can heal your home"

555-4231

E.C. Construction M.D.

I decided to leave a message just because the hook was so inventive. I pulled up to the restaurant and parked my old truck in front and began unloading more cleaning supplies. I ended up having to rent a steaming contraption to get the ancient paisley off the walls. There were so many layers the job was turning into more of an excavation than a simple renovation. Hopefully now, things would go much quicker.

I had just loaded up my arms with a bucket, paint rollers, a mop and a few drop cloths when my phone began to ring. I tried to hurry into the building stubbing my toe in the process and dropping the bucket of cleaners on my foot at the same time. On the third ring I was still cursing my injuries but didn't want to miss the call, in case it was the doctor.

Out of breath I mashed the on button on my phone and answered with a huffing, "Hello?"

"Ah, yes is this Ms. Swan?"

"Yes, ow, shoot," I was still trying to shake off my purse which had gotten tangled up in the mop handle. "Yes, this is Ms. Swan."

"Hi, you called about a leak in your ceiling?" It was then that I began to melt at the mere sound of his buttery smooth voice. I began to lose focus for a moment but snapped out of it once my purse hit the floor.

"Yes, are you available to come take a look at that?"

"I do have some time right now, where are you located?"

I gave him the address and started on directions but he stopped me stating that he knew exactly where I was located. I hung up and began sorting through the mess I had made trying to get into the building.

Alice came bouncing in a few minutes after I ended my call.

"The handyman is on his way. Hopefully we can get the black hole taken care of soon."

"Oh good, that really is an eye sore. I see you got the steamer, do you want to steam or scrape?"

Alice had her "work" clothes on, which basically consisted of a designer sweat suit with some silly phrase embroidered on the rear end.

"Nice outfit," I quipped. She poked her tongue out at me and said, "I got one for you too."

"Thanks, but I think I'll just stick to my mom jeans and ripped up t-shirt."

"Bella, you need to throw those high waisted, tapered leg, atrocities in the trash. I can't believe you still have clothing like that."

"What? They're good for painting and doing dirty work like this." I said pointing to all the stuff around us. "I brought lunch, there's some quiche and a spinach salad in the cooler, if you're nice maybe I'll share."

We got to work steaming off the wallpaper and it was coming off much easier than before. I had gotten up on the ladder and was scraping when I heard a strange squishing noise above me. No sooner had I looked up when the drywall from the ceiling gave way and wet muck splashed down all over me.

"Oh my gosh, Bella! Are you okay?"

"Bleeech, ew ew ew ew ew." I was soaked in nasty water and grime from whatever was up in the ceiling. "I'm fine, just completely grossed out."

Once Alice had figured I was fine, she started smiling at me. "Say it Bella," she sing songed.

"Say what? I'm totally fine. I'll just go get myself cleaned up in the bathroom." I took one look at myself in the mirror and turned back to the door. When I opened it Alice stood there with bag in hand and a self-satisfied smirk on her face.

"Can I please have the outfit?" I asked grudgingly.

"Hmmm? What was that Bells?"

"Just give me the stinkin' clothes Alice. Please?" She handed over the bag and I pulled out a bright pink velour track suit with the word "Juicy" on the butt. I did a quick rinse of my hair in the sink and got most of the crud out, pulled on the dry clothing and set to work cleaning up the mess on the floor.

I was on my hands and knees when I heard the front door open. I turned my head backward and nearly passed out. In walked perfection incarnate. He was the stuff naughty dreams were made of.

He wore a pair of snug fitting jeans with a leather tool belt slung around his hips. A thin white t-shirt that showed off every ripple of his abs and sleeves that fit tightly around his muscled biceps. He was peering down at the mess over the top of his old school Ray-Bans. And in the kind of slow motion that doesn't happen in real life, the kind you only see it in the movies, he pulled off his cubs hat and the sunglasses from his face shaking out his coppery brown hair. He semi-squatted down and raised an eyebrow looking directly at me. On my hands and knees. With my "juicy" butt sticking up in the air.

I stood up too quickly and tried to brush my hands off. I tried to be nonchalant. I tried to not faint. Epic fail. He raised up and extended his hand out to me and said, "Hi, I'm Edward, the house doctor."

Have . Mer-cy .

A/N: Who'd like a dash of some of that? Please review, I love reading every single one of them! And now here's your recipe.

Quiche Lorraine

1 9in pastry crust (unbaked-store bought or homemade)

6 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled

1 medium onion, diced

½ C Cheese (swiss/cheddar/mozzarella whatever you like)

5 eggs

1 C milk

1 C sour cream or heavy cream

2 Tlbsp flour

pinch of nutmeg

Salt and Pepper to taste

Unroll the crust into a pie plate. Sautée the onions in a Tblsp of the bacon fat. Line the bottom of the crust with the bacon and onions and sprinkle with half of the cheese. In a bowl beat together the eggs, milk, cream, flour, nutmeg, and S&P. Pour into the pie plate. Sprinkler remainder of cheese on top. Bake 350 until the egg is firm (40-50 minutes)

Make sure the pie crust is on filled just over ½ to 2/3 of the way, it does puff and rise a little.

Option, change the bacon out for some frozen spinach thawed and most of the water squeezed out. Just whisk it into the eggs and voilà, quiche florentine.

Bonus:

Grandma's Hardly Never Fail Pie Crust (1 Crust)

1/3 + 1 Tblsp Shortening or Butter

1 1/4 C all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 Egg, lightly beaten

1 Tblsp white vinegar

6 Tblsp cold water

Use a pastry blender to cut the shortening into the flour and salt. Mix until it's crumbly. Mix the liquid together and add approximately half to the flour mixture. Using a fork mix until it just starts to come together. If it's too dry add a little more egg mixture. Finish with your hands and form the dough into a ball. Don't knead or over work the dough.

On a floured surface roll the dough out to 1/4" thick. Fold gently into fourths and place it in the pie plate. Trim off the excess and use your fingers to pinch/flute/finish the edge. You could also use a fork to press around the edge. (But then it looks like a banquet pot pie)

For quiche, don't bake it. For chilled pies like cream/pudding pies, bake the crust at 425 for 10-12 minutes.