Surprise?


Early Saturday morning my dad came to drive me back to Forks.

"Thanks for uh...not taking the cruiser," I joked. Last time he had gotten me, he had picked me up from school in it, which turned more than a few heads.

"Yeah, well. Sue convinced me otherwise. Something about not wanting to scare away your friends." He shrugged.

"Ah," I said. Suddenly it made sense that we were in Sue's sedan.

I didn't bother telling him that I didn't have any friends to scare away.

"Hey, you hungry, kid?" Charlie asked, nudging me.

"Huh?" I groaned, sitting up in the seat and stretching my neck. "Sorry I fell asleep. Food sounds good."

I realized I must have fallen asleep for a couple hours, because the coffee shop we stopped at was only about an hour out of Forks.

After a quick breakfast, we were back on the road. It seemed that the closer we got to Forks, the more uneasy I felt.

If my dad noticed it though, he didn't say anything.

Realistically, I knew that Jacob wouldn't be there.

I didn't have a restraining order or anything against him, but between my dad and his, he wouldn't dare to show up.

A part of me felt I was being stupid. Jacob had given me no sign that he was still thinking about me.

I felt like maybe it was just all in my head.

But I couldn't shake the worry.

0-0

The weekend seemed to drag by.

There wasn't much to do in Forks unless you were the outdoorsy type, which I definitely wasn't.

So, the majority of my trip home was spent parked in front of the couch, watching TV, or helping Sue around the house.

The definite bright spot in my weekend was talking to Edward.

We would text throughout the day. At night when I was laying in bed I would call him and I would talk in a hushed voice, careful that my dad wouldn't hear.

I felt sixteen.

My dad, ever clueless for a cop, didn't notice my small smiles as I clutched at my phone, texting throughout my weekend there.

Sue, however, did notice.

"What are you so smiley about?" She asked me. It was Sunday night.

We had just finished dinner and now I was helping to clear the table while Dad checked in at work.

"Nothing," I replied quickly.

"Liar," Sue laughed. "It's a boy, isn't it?"

"Well..." I paused, weighing the pros and cons of telling her.

"Don't worry, I won't tell your father," she whispered conspiratorially.

"Okay. Yeah. It is a...boy." I said. It felt weird calling Edward a boy. He was just so...not.

"I knew it," she smiled. "Tell me about him."

I thought of what to tell her. How much to tell her.

"His names Edward."

"Edward. That's a good name. Did you meet him at school?"

"Umm...not exactly." I quickly launched into the story about too much wine and Alice's meddling ways.

"Wow. So serious, so fast. That must be fun, and a bit scary," she said. "It's not every day you meet a guy your age that knows what he wants so well."

And there it was. I decided to tell Sue about the age difference though. I trusted her and thought that she could maybe give me insight on how to handle my dad.

"Well, that's the thing. He's not exactly my age. He's a bit older," I said, chewing on my bottom lip.

"A bit?"

I nodded.

"And my a bit you mean?" Sue trailed off, leaving me to fill in the rest.

"Nineteen years?"

"Oh, boy," she said, fanning herself. "I need to sit down for this. Go get the wine."

I carried the remaining dirty dishes to the kitchen sink and came back with a bottle of white wine and two glasses.

After almost filling our glasses with wine, Sue began to talk.

"Nineteen years is a lot, Bella. He's forty."

"Next month," I corrected her. "He's still thirty-nine."

Sue rolled her eyes. "I don't know if your dad is going to like this. Have you told your mom yet?"

"No." I shook my head. "Not yet. Everything is still so new...and happening really fast. Besides that, I already told Alice about his age."

"And?"

"It didn't go so well. I haven't talked to her since we fought over it. She thinks he's some sort of creep and accused me of having daddy issues." I laughed humorlessly.

"I'm sorry. You know how protective Alice is of you, though. She worries. Her hearts in the right place but she can be very...Alice."

I nodded, knowing all too well.

Another thought came to me. "You won't tell Leah or Seth either, right?"

Leah and Seth were technically my step siblings. Seth was in his first year of college in Oregon and Leah was Alice's age.

They didn't really seem like siblings to me, though. Sue and my dad had only been dating when I was in high school, so I had never lived with them before. I didn't really feel close to them.

"Of course not," Sue said. "This is just between you and me. But I must say, don't wait too long to tell your dad. I think it would be best to do it in person. Maybe even have Edward come with you to Forks. Meeting him might make him see that he's a good guy."

I blanched at the idea.

No way could I bring Edward here, to Forks.

At least not yet.

But I had a feeling that as soon as I told my dad about Edward that he would insist on meeting him.

"Bella, I'm not saying you have to tell him right now," Sue said, probably seeing that I was starting to freak out. "But the sooner the better."

I nodded, agreeing with her. Maybe I could come back in a couple weeks for a weekend, or Dad and Sue could come visit me.

Sue finished her wine and stood up, bending down to hug me. "Now, you go upstairs and go talk to your...man. I'll finish up in here."

0-0

"Are you having fun at home, baby?"

"Yeah," I said. "Well, as much fun as you can have in Forks. It's pretty dead here."

I walked over to my bed and laid down on it. As soon as Sue dismissed me, I ran upstairs and called Edward.

"At least you're coming home tomorrow. I haven't asked you yet, what are your plans for the summer?"

"Umm...I'm not sure. I probably won't be working a lot this summer and I'm not taking any summer classes," I told him.

The bookstore had limited hours during the summer session, so I would probably only work a few hours a week. This would also be the first summer that I hadn't taken summer classes. Basically, I was looking at a pretty boring summer.

"I see. That's good to know. Well, hopefully we can do lots of fun stuff this summer."

"Oh? And what qualifies as fun stuff?" I laughed.

"Whatever you want. Lunch dates, movies, day trips, walking the dogs in the park. I don't know. My parents have a boat. We could take it out."

Wow. "That sounds fun."

"Does it? Good," he replied, sounding pleased with himself.

There were a few beats of silence where I didn't know how to say what I wanted to.

So I just spit it out.

"I told my step-mom about you."

"How did that go?" His tone sounded cautious, worried, almost.

"It wasn't bad. Sue's pretty cool about things. She's more concerned about how my dad will take it."

"He'll take it badly, I assume?"

"Yeah," I paused, unsure. "I think he'll take it badly at first, but he'll warm up to you. I hope."

Edward laughed. "Wow, that's comforting, Bella."

"Hey, it's better than nothing!" I laughed back.

"Sue thought that it would be a good idea for you to come to Forks. To meet him. Maybe it would soften the blow? God, I know everything is moving so fast. This is probably freaking you out. I'm sorry. Now I'm rambling. Great." I clamped my hand over my mouth and groaned. How embarrassing.

"No, no. Everything about us is really unconventional anyway, Bella. Don't worry about me meeting your dad. I'm fine with it. Unless you think it's too soon for me to, or you don't want me to just yet. I understand."
"Okay. I think I'll tell him next weekend? I might go to Forks for a visit. Just to get it over with," I winced, realizing how that sounded.

"Geez, Bella," he laughed. "Tell me how you really feel!"

"Sorry, sorry. I just can't really imagine the conversation going very smoothly."

"I could always go with you, if you'd like?" he suggested.

"Nah, that's okay. I think if I give him time to process it and Sue to help him get used to the idea. Then you can come over. Thanks for asking though."

"Of course."

I changed the subject, asking Edward about his weekend.

"I went out last night with a couple friends. This morning I had breakfast at my parents. Sunday tradition."

"That sounds fun. What did you do with your friends?" I admit, my asking wasn't entirely innocent. Edward hadn't mentioned friends before, but I knew that he must have had them. But what I was really curious about was if they included girls.

"We went to a pub. It was fun. Emmett came along as well as my friends Garrett and Ben."

"Cool. I've never been to a pub before," I said.

"Really? We'll definitely have to go. I love the place. It's been around forever and has been one of my favorite haunts since I moved out here after college. It's actually an Irish pub."

"Oh, yeah. You're Irish, right?" I asked. I remembered him briefly mentioning he was.

"Through and through. My parents are both Irish. My mom was born and raised there and my dad's parents were both from there. He met my mom when he was vacationing there."

"Aww, that's sweet. It also definitely explains the reddish hair."

"And my two Irish wolfhounds. And my tattoos."

"Tattoos?" I asked, gulping.

"You haven't seen me without my shirt on. I have a Celtic knot on my back and a quote on my ribs."

"What does the quote say?"

"It says 'an rud is annamh is íontach,'" he said. I felt like I was going to melt. Edward speaking Gaelic? Hottest thing ever. "It means 'what is seldom is wonderful.' I guess I got it to remind myself to just...hold on to what's good. Appreciate the good in life. It's kind of stupid, maybe. It was an impulse tattoo."

"No," I disagreed, shaking my head even though I knew he wouldn't be able to see. "I like the quote."

"Thanks, you'll have to see them soon then."

"Yeah, that sounds good," I replied. I felt like salivating at the thought of seeing Edward without a shirt on.

I was disrupted from my thoughts when I heard barking and whining on the other side of the line.

"Ah, shit," Edward cursed. "I have to get going. Chester's harassing me to go out. Call me tomorrow when you get home?"

"I'll call. I'm hoping to get home before noon. But my dad is kind of slow in the mornings."

"Alright, well maybe if you're free we can have lunch or dinner?" Edward asked.

"Yeah, sounds good. Goodnight, Edward."

"Night, Bella."

0-0

The next morning I woke up with the sun.

I groaned and rolled out of bed, stretching.

After getting ready for the day, I headed downstairs and started on breakfast, hoping that the smells of bacon and coffee would wake up dad and Sue.

Sure enough, as soon as I started to plate the food, he came downstairs to eat.

An hour later, we were on the road back to Seattle.

Three hours later, I was being dropped off outside of my apartment.

"Well, you keep yourself out of trouble, okay?" he asked. We were sitting in Sue's car outside.

"Got it. I'll try to not get myself arrested," I joked.

He gave me a stern look. "Kidding, just joking."

"Right, well. It was nice having you home for the weekend. Maybe you can stop being a stranger and come visit more often." Dad tried to come off as nonchalant, but I could tell that he honestly meant it. I felt a twinge of guilt for not coming home more often. For letting Jacob continue to get to me.

"I will. Promise." I leaned forward and hugged him before grabbing my bags and getting out of the car.

Once I was back in my place and settled down, I grabbed my phone and called Edward.

"So, I was thinking we could get dinner?" I asked as soon as he answered the phone.

"Dinner sounds good. Do you want to come over tonight at 7? We could order in and watch a movie or something," Edward suggested.

Alone, in a house with Edward?

Yes and please.

"Sure. Dinner."


Happy Easter/Passover/Sunday!

I'm kind of blown away/thrilled at all the new alerts/faves for this story. It's really awesome. Also what's awesome is all the reviewers!

So, if you liked this chapter, maybe leave a review and say hi? If you haven't shared already, I'm still interested in hearing about your older guy/online dating stories! You guys already told me some pretty good ones.

As always, I reply to all reviews for the previous chapter.

Oh, and for a little olderward visual, as Edlovesme pointed out, the recent pictures of Rob paddleboarding are pretty much how I picture this Edward. Except without the beard. Maybe just a little scruff. And longer hair. I updated my blog with a couple of pics of him just in case you guys don't know what I'm talking about. As always, link for that's on my profile.

Wow, this is kind of a wordy A/N.

Anyways...don't forget to review! And I'll see you guys again on Friday. Maybe a little citrusy next time? We'll see.