Chapter 10
"She's taking a nap with Sierra before the party starts. They've been asleep about an hour now." Alice told me as she pointed up the stairs to where Bella slept. "It's the door at the end of the hall."
Nodding I placed Sierra's wrapped gifts on the table, clearly being kept out of her reach, before ruffling Landon's hair on my way past the couch where he sat playing a video game. "Thanks, Alice. Jasper should be here soon too." I told her with a wink before disappearing up the stairs that I had never went up before. I looked at all of the pictures that lined the entire length of the stairway and hall to Bella's room. When each child was born their baby pictures were added to the wall and they just kept going until I reached the door that held a sleeping Bella beyond its thickness.
Taking a deep breath I twisted the knob pushing the door open slowly just in case she was still asleep. Poking my head around the edge of the door I spotted Bella curled around a snoring Sierra in the middle of her large bed. I walked in closing the door softly behind me before gently crossing the hardwood floors to the edge of her bed easing my body down behind hers as I placed a kiss gently to the back of her head. She groaned but didn't wake up so I place a soft kiss against the back of her exposed neck as I slipped my hand across her waist until my hand was spread across her warm stomach. "Angel, wake up." I whispered softly into her ear.
"Edward?" She croaked sleepily.
"Yeah, angel, it's me." I whisper back as I placed another kiss to her neck causing her to groan.
"What time is it?" She groaned as she stretched leaning back into my chest while making sure Sierra stayed asleep.
Easing my other arm under her head and pillow I pulled her more firmly back against my chest. "About 1 o'clock." I whispered against her neck before placing kisses there quickly. "You smell divine, Angel."
"Hmm….thanks handsome." She said just before rolling over so that we were lying face to face with Sierra at Bella's back. "You don't smell so bad yourself." She said before burying her nose in my chest.
We lay snuggled quietly in her bed until we both heard Sierra shifting around. "I should go." I whispered to Bella when I saw that the toddler was still asleep but surely wouldn't be that way for long.
"No, don't." She pleaded tightening her grip on my shirt.
Placing a kiss to her forehead I glanced over her shoulder at Sierra's eyelids fluttering against her rosy cheeks. "Last chance to back out because she's waking up." I whispered to Bella, because being spotted in her bed by her toddler child was a big step in our relationship and we had only been together a month.
"Mama?" Sierra's sleepy little voice called out.
Bella smiled at me before rolling back over to face her sleepy daughter. "I'm here birthday girl, are you ready to get up?" Bella asked her softly as she brushed a few strands of her curls back off her face.
Sierra rolled over into Bella's chest throwing her arm around Bella's waist. "No." She said causing me to chuckle out loud which caused her to sit up and blink at me over Bella's waist. "Eddie?"
"Hi, birthday girl." I said using the nickname that Bella had just used for her. "Have a good nap?" I asked her as I reached out to tweak her nose playfully.
"Yep." She said just before a huge yawn broke out across her face causing Bella and I both to chuckle out loud.
A quick rap at the bedroom door caused all three of us to turn and look at it in alarm. "Who dat?" Sierra asked quietly as she turned to look at us with wide eyes.
"Bella? Edward? You guys up?" A tiny feminine voice asked from the other side that I immediately recognized as Alice's.
Sierra quickly scrambled off the bed racing for the door. "Ali!" She squealed as she tugged open the door revealing Alice and another person that I had only seen at the club where Bella worked. "Unca Jake!" The toddler squealed before launching herself at the hulk of a man.
"Hi, birthday girl! Your Aunt Nessa is downstairs with your present, want to go check it out?" I heard him ask in a soft voice that was not matching the heated glare that he was sending Bella and I as we rolled out of the bed side by side.
"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" Sierra cheered as Jake sat her squirming body down onto the floor. She hightailed it down the hallway and out of sight, leaving her mother and I under the intense scrutiny of her 'Unca Jake' and 'Ali'.
Alice grinned at us before ducking under Jake's massive arm. "I'm gonna go back down and keep an eye on the kiddos." Well, that left us with just us and Jake who had the protective glare down pat but I decided to be the bigger man and introduce myself before the trembling woman sitting nervously beside me on the edge of her bed had a nervous breakdown.
Wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans I placed a kiss to the side of Bella's head before standing and heading towards the doorway and huge man that actually didn't scare me because Emmett was bigger and I have been around him all my life. "You must be the Jake that Bella, Alice, and the kids keep talking about. I'm Edward." I told him as I extended my hand out towards him in a friendly gesture.
Eyeing my hand for a few seconds didn't waver my decision to the bigger man so I stood my ground and waited him out until finally he shook his head and slapped his hand in mine. "Nice to meet you, Edward. Treat my girl and her kid's right or you will answer to me first and foremost." He said with a nod and shake of our hands. "Got me?"
"Gotcha." I told him with a firm nod of my head and wink to Bella over my shoulder.
Bella sighed audibly from behind us. "Now that the testosterone show is over I would like to get ready for my baby's big party." She said slipping her arm around my waist. "Hi Jake." She said with a smile and pat to his chest. "Get lost, both of you." She said sweetly before shoving Jake backwards and tugging me out of the room with every step she took.
"You wound me, sweetheart." Jake said placing his hand over hers on his chest.
I watched in fascination as she curled her fingers and his face contorted into pain almost immediately. "Okay okay, point proven. I'm going. Want me to send the squirt back up here?"
Bella giggled prettily and it quickly became my favorite sound in the entire world. "Yes please. She has to get her hair done and clothes changed." She said before unwinding her arm from around my waist and ducking back into her bedroom.
I looked between Jake and the closed bedroom door several times before shaking my head in exasperation. "What the hell was that?" I asked out loud but more to myself than to the other man standing in the hallway with me.
"That was Bella at her best. Come on, let me introduce you to my wife."
The rest of Sierra's birthday party, the first kids party I had been too since I was a kid myself, was very entertaining but exhausting. I was helping Bella clean up the wrapping paper that Sierra had had a blast tearing off of her presents earlier when my phone rang from my pocket. "Hello?" I said as I put it on speakerphone without looking at who was calling.
"Bu—bub—bubba…" My sister's trembling voice came through the phone.
I immediately went on high alert tapping my screen to take the phone off speakerphone and quickly bringing it to my ear heading for the kitchen where it was fairly quiet. "Rosie, what's wrong? What happened?" I asked her quickly as I pushed my hand through my hair nervously.
She stuttered nervously through the next several sentences but I finally got the gist of what she was trying to tell me. She had gone to the post office to pick up some of her supplies that had shown up today only to come home to a house full of Dad's colleagues which happened to be all men dressed up. The panic had sat in almost as soon as the front door shut behind her causing her to close herself up in the hall bathroom refusing to come out until they all left. "I can't come out, bubba. Not alone." She said in a trembling voice just as I felt Bella's slender arms wrap around my waist sliding her fingers into my front pockets hooking her thumbs on the sides.
"Okay, Rosie, I am at least an hour away from there." I told her softly as I slid my spare hand down into my pocket on top of Bella's giving her hand a gentle squeeze. "I'll leave right now and stay on the phone the entire time, okay?"
"I...I don…I don't wa…I don't want… I don't wan— " She stuttered out before hushing completely when she couldn't get her words out without a stutter.
Bella squeezed my waist gently before resting her head on my shoulder. "It's okay, we understand. Your sister needs you. Go." She whispered against my ear.
I turned my head to kiss the top of her head. "It's fine, Rosie. Bella said that she understands plus she just doesn't know it yet but I have plans for her and the kids in the morning before their day at the park." I told my sister while I tugged Bella so that she was sandwiched between me and the counter. I knew that talking normally to my sister would get her out of her head which in turn calms her down.
"Wh—wha—what p—plans?" Rosie stuttered out before sighing in irritation.
Winking at Bella I began to disclose my not so secret plans to my sister. "Well, I know from Bella's insane overly-obsessive party planning over the past two weeks that she had no plans for the morning after Sierra's birthday so I was hoping to invoke some our family traditions on them." Bella just looked at me with a raised eyebrow and an expression that said she thought I had lost my mind.
"Break—breakfast?" My sister asked softly.
"Yep. Breakfast and Miss Sierra gets to pick the place." I told both my sister and Bella. Bella beamed up at me before pecking me gently on the lips and pulling away from me. I frowned down at her holding my hand back out for her. "Where are you going?" I asked her turning the phone away from my mouth.
"To get Sierra so she can say bye. Your sister needs you and we will see you bright and early in the morning according to your plans because these kids like breakfast by eight o'clock." She said with a wink.
I chatted quietly with me sister about the party, Bella, the kids, meeting Jake, and basically anything to keep the mostly one-sided conversation going until Bella and Sierra came into the kitchen. "Hey, birthday girl." I told her as I tugged playfully on one of her ponytails causing her to swing and slap at me.
Bella was immediately on her for her behavior. "You do not slap people, young lady. Do you like to be slapped?" She asked her sternly causing tears to pool in her eyes. "Do you like it when Mama or Ali slap your hands?" I asked her again waiting for her response.
She shook her head negatively. "No, Mama."
"Okay then, you don't be slapping at other people. Edward was just saying bye to you because he has to go help his sissy." Bella explained to her calmly. "Give him a hug and apologize." Bella told her as she stood right beside me so that Sierra could accomplish her punishment.
She leaned over to give me a tight hug whispering "Sowwy, Eddie" into my ear before cuddling into Bella's shoulder.
"Apology accepted, sweetheart. I will see you in the morning for a surprise okay?" I told her patting her on the back gently.
"Otay."
After a quick peck on the lips I headed out the back door to avoid the crowd of kids still gathered in the living room to make my way to my parent's house to save my sister from her internal demons.