Edward sat in his car looking up at Bella's house nervously. He was still ten minutes early, and he was getting up the nerve to get out of the car. He didn't understand why he was so nervous now. Now was not the time to be nervous. Now was the time to get out of the car and get the woman that he loved.

Slowly, Edward opened the door and made his way toward the steps. He didn't like them on first seeing them. They were brick, and he could all too easily see Bella tripping and ending up in the hospital. Worse, what if she had her baby in her arms when it happened? Edward couldn't imagine how much it would kill Bella if her son was hurt while in her arms.

Shaking off that thought, Edward rang the doorbell. He heard some shuffling and the sound of a whimpering baby, and then the door opened for him to see a very disheveled Bella, baby on her hip. She looked up at him and her eyes got huge. "I didn't forget, I swear. Jacob's just being fussy."

Edward smiled as he looked down at the most beautiful sight that he had ever seen. Even though she was obviously tired and a little frazzled, Bella had taken to motherhood beautifully. The little boy she carried, clung to her with all his might. And she was clinging to him right back, like he was the answer to every question in her life.

"There's no worry sweetheart." He said as he stepped into the hallway so she could close the door. "Is there anything that I can do to help?"

Bella blew her too long bangs out of her eyes. It had been a really long time since she'd done anything for herself like get her hair cut. It was definitely something that she would have to take care of if she was going to look for a job. No one would hire her if she looked like she didn't take care of herself. "There's not really anything you can do. Just make yourself comfortable."

Edward wanted to protest because he wanted to help. But he knew that she was right. He didn't know anything about babies, especially not her baby. But he couldn't stay away from her. It was killing him that she was down the hall, in the same house, but still so far away. So he followed her to the nursery.

She looked up, still frazzled, but smirked and shook her head, accepting that he was going to be there and resumed attending her son. "What are we doing tonight?"

Edward shrugged his shoulders. "I thought we'd go traditional. Dinner and a movie." He ran his fingers along the soft fabric of a blanket hanging from the back of the rocking chair. "It's not the same as the diner and the little theater in Forks, but I thought it would give us a good opportunity to get to know each other again."

Bella nodded as she snapped together the bottom of Jacob's little blue outfit. Smiling down at her finally happy infant, Bella began to clean up the nursery.

Jacob giggled and Edward watched as the most beautiful smile he'd seen since that day on the football field spread across Bella's face. His heart fluttered as he watched her pick up the little boy, raising him above her head, and blowing raspberries on his stomach. She was an incredible mother.

She turned her smile and him and he felt like he might lose his balance. "Just give me a few minutes. Now that he's taken care of, I'm going to run over and make sure that he's settled in with Angela, and then I'm gonna change so we can go."

"You look beautiful just like this," Edward said, taking a tentative step forward.

Bella rolled her eyes, "I look a mess and we both know it." She brushed past him, but he followed, not wanting her out of his sight if he could avoid it.

So they both made the short trip to Angela's house. Angela's husband, Ben, opened the door, and he wasn't sure what to make of the scene in front of him. He barely knew Bella, but his wife adored her, so that made her important to him. After that jackass of a husband she'd divorced had finally left, he hadn't thought that she would be able to date for at least a few years. But somehow, this man had convinced her otherwise.

"Bella," Ben tried to smile at her, but it came through as more of a grimace. "Why don't you take Jacob up to our bedroom? Angela is setting the pillows on the bed."

Rolling her eyes, Bella made her way up the stairs. Angela always made a makeshift cradle on the bed out of pillows for Jacob. It was kind of cute, but it was also unnecessary. Jacob would rather be held than surrounded by soft pillows. And Angela knew that. She just always made the little bed just in case.

Of course that left Ben with Edward, because Ben had stepped in front of Edward before he could follow her. "I don't know who you are," Ben started, trying not to sound intimidated. "And I don't know how you convinced Bella to give you a chance. But she is the closest thing my wife has to a sister, and if you hurt her, you will have to answer to me."

Edward nodded, "My name is Edward Cullen," he said formally. "Bella and I dated in high school. I have always loved her, and you have my permission to do whatever you wish with me if I do anything to hurt Bella. That is," Edward qualified, trying to lighten the mood, "if you can beat Rosalie to it."

Ben nodded, still not sure how he felt about his Edward. He'd have to talk to Angela.

"Angela, I am so scared," Bella confided in her friend as they fussed over the baby in her arms. "It's so hard to not want him. What if he decides to leave me for my own good again? I can't afford to go through that again. It would kill me."

"But what if he doesn't?" Angela reasoned. "What if he's learned from his mistakes? What if he's the man that you're supposed to spend the rest of your life with?"

"What if he doesn't like Jacob?" Bella asked quietly, kissing her son's head. "I just don't think I can handle that."

"What if he loves Jacob?" Angela countered. "What if he is the best father for your son? You'll never know if you don't give it a try."

Bella nodded, looking away. "I'm just so afraid. My feelings for him haven't changed at all. When I'm with him, I'm that naïve high school girl with her first crush. And I can't afford to be that person."

"You don't have to be that person," Angela reached out and rubbed Bella's arm. "You don't have to make it easy for him, but you need to give him a chance. If nothing else, your heart wants this. You love this man. You can't deny that, because you wouldn't even be considering this if it weren't true."

Bella swallowed, "That's true." She held out Jacob's hands and played with his fingers. "I do, and I'm going to give him a chance, but it still scares me."

"I'd think you were crazy if it didn't," Angela said seriously. "But I want you to know that I think you're making the right choice by going out with him. You deserve the chance at a real life with a man who actually cares about you, a man who loves you."

Smiling, Bella wiped away a few tears. "Thank you, Angela. I know I haven't been the best friend with everything, but you have been really great."

Angela snorted, "You're being ridiculous Bella. Ben and I both love you. You've been through a tough time. And we just want to see you happy." Angela plucked the giggling little boy from Bella's arms, "So now you are going to go get that gorgeous man and have a night out. Nothing will happen with Jacob. You know we'll take care of him."

Bella looked down at her son hesitantly. She didn't want to leave him. She never wanted to leave him, never wanted to be without him. But she needed to do this. Angela was right. She owed it to her heart to determine if Edward was going to stick around.

She looked at the door hesitantly. "I'm surprised he didn't follow me up here. He's been on my heels since I let him in the door."

Angela gasped, "He's in my house, and we're up here. Are you crazy? I want to see him."

"You are making a much bigger deal out of this than you need to." Bella looked toward the door, really wondering what had stopped Edward from following her in. "He's just a guy."

"Yeah, sure," Angela snorted. "He's just a guy. Just a guy made you jump his bones in front of an audience." Bella tried to protest, but Angela pushed forward. "Just a guy made you rethink men as a possibility in your life. Just a guy has you checking the door ever five seconds. Just a guy? I don't think so."

"Okay, okay," Bella nodded. "So he's not just some guy. But I didn't jump his bones. We remained fully," Bella blushed. "Well, mostly clothed."

Angela stood and made her way downstairs, with Bella close behind. She had to see this person. She'd yet to get a description out of Bella about Edward, and she couldn't even begin to imagine what an exotic dancer would look like. And nothing had prepared her for Edward. While she would never even think of leaving Ben, she couldn't deny that Edward might start to appear in a few inappropriate dreams. He had brown hair with red streaks, making it look like a copper penny or a bronze pan, that was mussed just perfectly. He was tall, as compared to her husband who barely came up to her nose. And his tall lean form promised a pleasure that no woman could deny. His face was angled, much sharper than she was would have liked, like maybe he rarely ate, but maybe if he got a few pounds on him it would soften up. His green eyes met hers for only a moment before dropping to Bella.

"Well," Angela stepped closer to her husband, feeling as if she were invading on a private moment as Bella and Edward's gazes connected. "I guess you two should get out of here. It won't be too long, and Bella will be beating our door down to get her son back. I'd suggest you try to get as much time as you can now Edward."

Ben gave his wife a strange look, but wrapped his arm around her waist and reached out to play with Jacob's tiny fingers. He hadn't admitted it to his wife, but he was beginning to fear that he was sterile. The thought had never occurred to him before, but they'd been trying for a little over a year now, and nothing had happened. Angela said that a baby would come when it was time, and they should just enjoy the process until then. And though he did, he couldn't deny the spark he saw in Angela's eyes when she looked down at their neighbor's baby.

Edward smiled and reached out to take Bella's hand, "Are you ready?"

Bella chewed on her bottom lip, glancing at her son before nodding. "Yeah, I'm ready. I just need to change and fix my hair, and then we'll be on our way."

Angela and Ben watched as the couple made their way out, Bella only glancing back four times before they made it to the door. Much less than Angela was used to. Definitely progress.

Ben waited until he heard the click of the door to speak, "I'm not sure I like him."

A breathy chuckle escaped Angela's lips. "I'm sure that he's not that bad. So he made a bad decision. If he hadn't, we may have never met her. And that, is not something I want to think about."

They made their way to the living room, Angela sitting carefully on one side of the couch and Ben on the other, bodies facing each other. "Bella needs a few more years," Ben complained, sounding like a properly disgruntled older brother. "She just got out of a messy marriage. It's not the right time for someone else to step in."

"We don't really have a say in it," Angela said as she looked down at the infant who was looking around for his mother. This was his habit. He would search for her, cry for a little while, and then settle down to sleep. But Bella wasn't going to know this. If she knew, she'd never leave her home, and Jacob would never be properly socialized. "But you should know that Bella loves this man. She may not be willing to admit it to anyone, including herself, but she does, probably always has. So we have to be encouraging."

Ben didn't want to agree. There was so much wrong with what was happening, including his wife's pushing Bella into a new relationship. But he wasn't going to argue with her about it. Angela had a way of knowing what was best for her friends, and he'd learned that he was fighting for no reason. So he simply scooted closer and reached down to tickle Jacob, praying again that God would bless them with a little one of their own.

"You stay here," Bella pointed sternly at the couch. "It's gonna be a while before I let you follow me into the bedroom."

Edward didn't like having Bella out of his sight, but she'd just alluded to more time together as well as being able to follow her into the bedroom eventually. Which, if she had been truly thinking about it, would have meant marriage, but he wasn't going to assume that her mind had jumped that far. So instead, he plopped himself down on the couch and waited.

"Do you have a reservation time?" Bella called down the hall as she pulled on the dress that she'd already chosen for the occasion.

Edward looked in the direction of her voice, hoping to catch a glimpse of Bella, but all he saw was an empty hallway. "Not exactly. I figured we wouldn't have a hard time getting in because it's a Tuesday. But I did chose a movie time, so we will be a little restricted by that. Of course, it's a romantic comedy, so I'm not totally opposed to missing it if you want to extend dinner."

Bella snorted and leaned out the door so Edward could only see the color of her straps. It was almost Tiffany Blue. God, he had marriage on the brain. "Edward, you were the one who insisted that we go see the movies at the Theatre. I didn't make you see movies like 'Sleepless in Seattle' and 'Sabrina' over and over again."

Smiling Edward nodded. "It's not like we really had any other choice. Going to Port Angeles was out because your Dad would have killed me if we were even a moment late for curfew."

Slipping back into her room to quickly brush through her hair, Bella quickly rebuffed. "Charlie trusted you. He was asleep before we came back most of the time. We could have easily gotten away with getting out of town for a few hours."

"You weren't so full of ideas then." Edward chuckled.

"I was a little distracted then," Bella mumbled so that Edward couldn't hear her.

"That option aside," Edward said after a moment of silence. "There wasn't really much else to do. We lived in Forks. Everything started to shut down by 7"

"We could have stayed in," Bella pointed out as she pulled back the front of her hair into a clip. "Your mother was always offering to bake sweets for us and we could have created a nice movie collection."

"Or we could have made sweets." Edward added, thinking of Bella covered in flour as they had a flirty food fight in the kitchen.

"See," Bella said with a smile as she thought of a smudge of chocolate on the corner of Edward's mouth that she would have thoroughly enjoyed licking off. "There were plenty of things that we could have done." Nodding to herself, in the mirror, she slipped on her shoes and stepped out into the hallway. "You were just insistent that we go see whatever was on in the Theatre."

"So I'm sucker for romance," Edward said as he stood up and looked her over. God, he'd missed her so much. She was beautiful. "Can you really blame me?"

Bella blushed as his gaze travelled the length of her body. Nothing and everything about the way that he looked at her was sexual, and it left her utterly speechless.

Edward held his hand out, wanting to take her into his arms, but afraid to scare Bella with how much he wanted her. "Are you ready to go?"

Nodding, Bella closed the distance between them and took his hand. She squeezed his hand tightly before grabbing her jacket and purse and leading him out the door. She locked the door, and glanced toward Ben and Angela's building once before looking toward Edward's car, and giggling. "Edward, remember when you used to make fun of me for how old my truck was?"

Edward shook his head and slowly and began to lead her down what he considered far too treacherous steps for someone like Bella, "I like my Volvo, okay? And it's nowhere near as old as that 'beast' you drove was. At least mine was built while we were in high school. We weren't even single celled organisms when they built yours."

Bella just smiled as she let Edward hold the passenger door open for her. She planned on enjoying tonight.