Me: I'm back once again!

Alfred: We can see that… Your point?

Me: I didn't take months.

Alfred: Okay…good for you?

Me: *poking Alfred with pencil* Shut up.

Alfred: Anywho….Thank you all so much for your support whether that be reviews, favorites, or putting this story on alerts, we greatly appreciate it. What the hell, we love and adore you for it!

Me: Too true!

Alfred: Now, so we don't get sued for claiming stuff is ours and end up in jail with only your family to bail our asses out, please do the disclaimer. Your brothers scare the hell out of me.

Me: That was quite a rant for just wanting to have me do a disclaimer. *raising eyebrow*

Alfred: Whatever, just post the damn thing so we can see what's going on with Eddie Boy.

Me: Fine. I do not own Twilight or any of the Twilight characters. However Alfred is mine. *evil grin*

Alfred: *crosses arms over chest and huffs* I belong to no one.


Music of the Heart

Chapter 9

EPOV

Damn it! Stay focused! You are not some horny 14 year old. You are a man! So her ass looks amazing, and she glows when she sings with your sister. That doesn't mean you get to go all cave man on her. You will not jump her! I told myself as I started walking out of the kitchen, Bella's soft footsteps telling me she was following.

I had come home from work earlier that day to hear sweet voices coming from up stairs. Further questioning of my mother told me that she had asked Bella to come over to see Abby and they had been singing and playing for hours. Only a couple minutes later I heard my dad and Jasper pull up. We all talked to my mom while she cooked for a while, even though I was itching to go up and see Bella.

I hadn't seen her since that day at the hospital, and I longed to see her again. I had had the scary realization that I wanted a relationship with her a couple. This came from Jasper when he said that I acted different around her. I wasn't a playboy by any means, but I had had a couple of one night stands and other relationships with women. At first I thought that I was just attracted to Bella, Jasper didn't think so.

"Are you listening to anything I'm saying?" My best friend asked me.

"Huh?" I had been day dreaming about Bella, and to be honest hadn't heard anything.

Jasper shook his head with a smile. "Dude, you were thinking about Bella again weren't you?" He asked.

I shook my head. "No, of course not."

"Bullshit." He called me out. "You get this dreamy smile when you even talk to her. I mean, your whole demeanor changes."

"It does not. I'm just attracted to her and would like to get to know her." I said, shrugging it off.

"Edward, I've never seen you act this way around any other woman. You're unsure and skittish almost. Not the cocky man with the panty dropping smile that I'm use to seeing. The one that knows he can have any girl in the room. No, you're….I don't even know. It's like you're asking out your first girl again and you don't know what to do."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing, but he was right. When I looked back on our encounters I was different. Not as sure and cocky as I was with others.

"You're also quieter around her. No sarcastic remarks or witty comments. You're a different person, and it's not just because you're attracted to her." Jasper stated.

I was quiet for a moment. "Shit. You're right." I said finally. "So what do I do? Maybe you're right I want a relationship with her, she is different than other girls."

"You make a move." He told me like he was explaining that the sky was blue to a retarded child.

"When?"

"Uh how about the next time you see her? This is horrible." He laughed at me.

"Whatever. I just don't want to screw it up."

We were both quiet for a moment. "What convinced you I was right?" He asked.

I smirked at him. "The fact that I sound like you when you're talking about Alice."

That was four days ago and now Bella was only a few feet away from me. After we got the girls we all sat down to dinner. I was quiet again and everyone but Bella seemed to notice. My father kept shooting me glances as did Abby. But my mother just gave me smirks that said she knew exactly what was going on. This was confirmed when she asked if Bella was seeing anyone – which I held my breath for the answer – and again when she asked me to give Bella a tour.

Bella had dropped her fork; I was induced with lust as I watched her pick it up. Then when I met her innocent eyes I shook the thoughts from my head. And here we were, me giving the girl I was smitten with a tour of my childhood home.

Shit, I had just said smitten in my mind…

I pointed to the living room. "This is our living room and that door is to a bathroom." I told Bella pointing it out. I then continued walking showing her that to the right was the dining room, the library (which she loved) and the study. I told her that the east wing was manly the old style ball room that we never really used and a couple of other rooms, and the west wing was mainly the pool and dressing rooms that went with it. Next I took her upstairs. "This is where all our bedrooms and guest bedrooms are. I said pointing it all out. "Abby's you've seen, guest bedroom, guest bedroom on the other side next to Abby's, mine is next on the other side, and then my parents bedroom." I turned around and walked to our entertainment room. "This is where all the fun happens." I said with a grin. It was one of my favorite rooms in the house. I opened the door and let her look in. It was mainly our hang out place. The room held a flat screen TV, a lot of love sacks and couches, along with foosball and air hokey and some other arcade games.

"Wow." Bella said with a laugh looking around. "Is this where you spent your life as a teen?" She asked with a smirk.

"Yeah, and where I schooled all my friends at video games. Plus, it doubles as a great sleepover/party room." I walked back to the door, making my decision that I didn't want to ask her out here and decided I had the perfect place in mind.

"Do you want to see the grounds?" I asked.

She laughed. "I can't believe that you used to live in a mansion. I mean who has 'grounds'?" Bella asked making air quotes.

I laughed. "Come on. I'll show you the best part of the whole thing." We walked back down to grab her coat and then I showed her out the back door through the living room.

The air was still warm, but was cooling and the sun was perfect, just starting to sink and tint everything deep pinks, reds, and oranges.

We walked slowly over the fields that surrounded my parent's house. I broke the silence realizing that this was going to be an awkward relationship if I couldn't talk to her.

"So Bella. Tell me something about yourself." I said looking at the ground.

"Um, okay. What do you want to know?" She asked me.

Everything. I thought, but instead I asked, "What's your favorite color?"

"Green." She said, and then blushed. I didn't want to push my luck so I didn't ask about the blush, even though I really wanted to know.

"Where are you from?" I asked as we continued to walk.

"Washington State, a little town south of Seattle called Forks." Bella answered a far off smile on her face. We walked in silence as I processed the information. I had a feeling that she wasn't from around here… After a few minutes we got to the barn.

Bella sighed as she looked around. "This is amazing." She said. "I can't believe you grew up here."

I rubbed the back of my neck. "Yeah, it's really amazing. I never really thought about it when I was a kid." I looked around. "Do you have any siblings?"

Bella shook her head and sat on the swing that came off of an old tree next to the barn. "Nope, just my parents and me. My dad is the Chief of Police and my mom owns a health food store. She's a bit of a hippy…" She told me with a laugh.

"Really I can't imagine you with hippy parents."

She raised an eyebrow at me. "Oh really? And why may that be?"

"Oh-um-well… Ya know, you just strike me as- you don't really… Look at you!" I settled with.

Bella looked down. "Yes, and what am I looking for?" She asked.

Jaspers words came back to me about acting differently around Bella, but I didn't want to offend her. "You just have a classy look about you, not at all hippy." I told her, laughing at myself.

"I was just messing with you. In truth it's really just my mom that's a hippy; my dad is the exact opposite, guns, tight lipped, doesn't really show emotion." She said with a smile.

I rolled my eyes. "Sure take advantage of the poor little man over here. You know I'm not usually this nice." I almost smacked myself for saying this out loud but I had to keep going now, I'd look like even more of a jackass if I backtracked.

"Oh, so you're just nice to me? Should I be offended?"

"A girl like you? I would take it as a complement." Bella hopped off the swing and started climbing the tree to my old tree house. I followed, trying not to stare at her ass.

"Okay, I will. But just because you said so. I always think of Calvin and Hobbs when I see tree houses like this." Bella commented.

I laughed. "I loved those comics when I was little." I said looking around. I wasn't going to tell her that the tree house was actually built for the reason of Calvin and Hobbs though.

"So did I!" She told me with a grin. "I even had a stuffed tiger when I was little. I use to leave tuna out for it when I had to leave him at home."

I laughed. "I'm sure he greatly appreciated that."

She smacked me as we sat down in the entry way of the tree house. "Hey no hatin' on the tuna or tiger." We were quiet for a moment while I tried to psyche myself up to ask her out.

"Sooo…I should probably get going." Bella said standing up.

"Oh!" I looked at my watch to see we had been sitting there for a while, me inside my head the whole time. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I've already over stayed my welcome and I need to get back into the city."

I stood also and started to climb down the latter, Bella made her way down after me but her tennis shoe caught on the last step and she stumbled.

I reached out and caught her in the most cliché way possible. We stood there, like straight out of a movie, so close it would take a millisecond to lean in and kiss her.

"Bella." I said as I looked into her eyes.

She didn't speak but kept looking between both my eyes before I caught her gaze jumping down to my lips and then back up again.

"Bella…" I said again trying to clear my head. I didn't know if I was going to ask her if I could kiss her or ask her out, but something was going to happen.

"Can I-"

"BEEELLLLLAAA! EDWAAAARRRRDDDD! WE'RE DOING DESERT! GET YOUR BUTTS IN HERE!" The yelling made both of us jerk our heads back suddenly.

"I'm going to kill that freaking bastard." I mumbled under my breath. I was going to punch Jasper in the throat when I saw him next.

Bella giggled slightly covering up her mouth her hand. She shook her head and then grabbed my hand tugging me slightly towards the house.

"Come on. We better go before they send hunting dogs out after us."

I laughed but followed her willingly. As we walked I tried to gather the courage to ask her out, but just when I thought I had it, I saw that we were back at the house, Abby sitting on the porch swing expectantly with a smug grin.

"You take her to the tree house Eddie?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, he did, I always wanted a tree house growing up." Bella said with a smile and let go of my hand as she went to go sit next to Abby.

I glared at my sister, knowing what she was going to say. "Well ya know Bella, Edward only brings girls to the tree house when-" I rushed over and put my hand on her mouth before she could utter another word. Abby's theory about the tree house was not going to surface with Bella around, especially when I wanted to ask her out still…

"Abby. I would think very cautiously before you speak again." I warned.

"And why is that brother dear? You don't want Bella hear about the tree house?"

"Not your theory I don't."

"We talkin' about the tree house?" Jasper asked a piece of pie in his hand.

"No, no we were not." I said.

Bella giggled and looped her arm in Jaspers. "Come on darling',"Bella said with her best southern accent. "Why don't you show me where you got that pie and tell me all about the tree house theory that he doesn't want me to know about." As they walked into the house Bella looked back and winked at us.

I groaned and fell against the post, my fingers pinching the bridge of my nose.

"Oh come on Edward. You took her to the tree house. How could I let that slide? I'm your little sister it's my job to do things like this." Abby said.

I walked over and sat down next to her, shaking my head. "You, are evil." I told her grinning. The truth was even though Abby was teasing me, she was getting better. I hadn't seen her laugh and joke like this for a very long time.

"Do you really like her? Or do you just think she's 'hot'?" My sister asked me making air quotes.

I sighed. "I really like her. I want to ask her out, but I can't get up the nerve." I flung my arm around my sister. "Your brother seems to be a wimp Abbs."

She sighed dramatically. "I know. I don't know why I put up with him…"

"Well….it could be because wimpy-ness aside, I am pretty awesome."

"I guess. But face it, you learned it all from me." She said leaning into my side.

"Yes, I did. Because you sister, are the most awesome person to ever live."

"I should get a medal."

"I'll get right on that."

We were quiet for a moment and I hugged my sister closer to me. It was getting dark and the fireflies were coming out. I remembered a time when a little Abby would chase the creatures around laughing and giggling. I missed those times, but I was getting them back.

"I missed you sis."

I felt Abby nod into my chest. "I missed me too." She choked.


Alfred: *sniff* I need a minute.

Me: *wiping face* Sorry that this was shorter, but with this ending the next chapter should be up soon.

Alfred: I'll make sure, and not our regular 'soon' either.

Me: Review for getting Abby back!

Alfred: See ya'll and if you review I'll tell you if Edward grows a pair and asks Bella out next chapter… :)