Esme must have had the same idea as me, because the next morning she called with news: her only remaining family was coming up to meet me for Easter. I was worried about overcrowding my place at first, as my five living relatives were also coming, but Esme explained that this meant all of two people were coming. Her cousin Hank was coming and he would bring little Peter with him.
Jasper and Peter's remaining grandparents were on their dad's side of the family, so they were not related to Esme and would not be coming. And although they would not be coming for Easter, they did agree to fly up for the wedding in October. And since Esme's family was small in the first place, and her sister and parents were deceased, this left cousin Hank and Peter. Two additional people for Easter should not be too bad.
Esme also informed me that her best friends Shannon, Linda, and Hillarie had agreed to fly in for the wedding. My friends from med school, Alex and Daniel, had said that they would fly in as well. And when I got to work and made my announcement, my nurses Donna and Jill, along with my boss, Karen all said they would not miss it for the world. But after that, I took a step back and looked at the guest list: it was already quiet large and Esme and I had just wanted to have a small little wedding.
Our number one reason for not wanting to invite the whole town was that Edward would be wearing a dress. It was our wedding and we wanted our children, as is, in it. But we did not want to out Edward as a cross-dresser in the process. I knew that he would love nothing more than to prance around in a dress at our wedding in front of the whole world, but I was thinking about his safety, which was something he did not even understand.
When I called Esme and told her my concerns, she agreed that we should pretty much freeze the guest list as is, because we had already invited our families and closest friends. No one else really needed to be there. So from then on, when we told our acquaintances our news, we made sure to mention that it was going to be a private affair, with family only.
But the whole incident got us thinking about Edward's future: we were not going to be able to hide his cross-dressing forever. We did not even want to. It would be easier for everyone if everyone knew. But cross-dressing was dangerous, because of its association with homosexuality. As long as he was cross-dressing there would always be a risk that he would run into a homophobe while wearing a dress and be beaten or seriously injured, so Esme and I agreed that Edward needed to learn how to defend himself.
I told Esme of Edward's refusal to take karate classes and she agreed to talk to him for me. That night, after Edward's ballet class, the four of us went back to my place with our take-out Chinese food, and Esme sat my son down for a mother-son chat. I sat next to her with Jasper on my lap as she explained to Edward that there were people out there that would hurt him if they found out he wore dresses.
Esme went into more detail than I would have. I actually thought her description of all the bad things that could happen was quite graphic; especially for my sweet little boy. I had always just said that someone might hurt him and left it at that. But Esme told my son that people might beat him up, attack him with a weapon such as a knife, or even try to rape him. Edward did not even know what the word rape meant, but he did after Esme finished her talk. He was crying by the time Esme was done with him.
Then she told him that he needed to be able to defend himself, so if anyone tried to hurt him, he would know what to do. I had said this same thing before, but only now did he understand why. Esme said that she was signing both him and Jasper up for karate; no arguments allowed. Edward was frightened and crying, so he just nodded his head. Even I was frightened by the detail that Esme had given him: I would have never thought to lay it all out on the table like that. Edward was just a boy and I had been trying to protect him from the ugly truths of the world.
So now Saturday afternoon karate classes in Port Angeles were added to our weekly schedules. And wedding plans and Easter arrangements filled the rest of our free time. We decided that for Easter, Peter and Hank would squeeze into Esme's apartment, while my five cousins would stay at my place. Adding in five more people to my place would be hard, but Esme had submitted the last of her work for the museum, and was now free to work on renovating my place full-time.
If she finished just two rooms, then Tanya, Irina, and Kate could share. But if she only finished one room, I would give up my room and bunk with Edward for the week. There were plenty of antique furnishings upstairs, so about ninety percent of the job was to repair the holes in the floor and replace the crumbling dry wall. All of which was doable in the allotted time frame.
Esme had other plans for the second floor besides just putting in the minimum amount of repairs to make it livable. She wanted to add a few walls and take out dozens of ceiling length bookshelves to turn what had been a large library into three huge bedrooms. She wanted to turn what once was a darkroom for developing pictures into a bathroom for the three bedrooms. And she wanted to convert the large sewing room into a fourth bedroom. Plus she wanted to remodel the master bed and bath, which were huge.
Once this work was complete, she wanted to redecorate the place with as many of the restored original pieces as possible, but add a modern touch. By the time this was done and the five bedrooms on the second floor were ready for move-in, I fully expected to be married with a wife and two children. Esme and I would take the new master bedroom, while Edward and Jasper would each get their own rooms, leaving two remaining rooms on the second floor.
Esme said that we would move our offices into the two remaining rooms, while she remodeled the downstairs. I did not even want to think about her plans for the downstairs, as it was all just too much renovation for my overly stressed mind to handle. I trusted that Esme had it covered and that was enough for me. For now, all I needed to know was that Esme was fixing the floor and the walls and moving four antique beds, which had come with the house, into the old master bedroom and sewing room upstairs. Add some fresh sheets and blankets for the beds, put in new plumbing in the bathroom, and we were done. At least I thought we should be, but Esme kept running around up there working on something. Do not ask me what.
Preparations for the holiday were so time-consuming that I was looking forward to getting the whole thing over with and was rather relieved when the Friday before Easter arrived. Esme, on the other hand, was a nervous wreck because that was the day Hank and Peter were flying in. I had to work, so Esme took the boys with her to the airport. The five of them were to go back to her place afterwards, so I headed straight to Port Angeles as soon as my shift ended.
When I arrived at her place, Esme greeted me and introduced me to Hank. Hank was a rancher, complete with cowboy hat and boots. He had Esme's brown hair and eyes, but he had a much darker complexion from being out in the sun all day. He told me a little about life on his ranch, while I told him about the medical emergency we had had today: three traffic accidents due to the rain.
Truthfully, I was getting a little bored talking to Cousin Hank while Esme cooked, so I was quite glad when three little boys came running into the living room. Edward threw himself into my arms for a hug, while Jasper stood back politely for his hug, and Peter stood just behind him with his hand out to shake. Peter was a foot and a half taller than Jasper, with bright blue eyes instead of brown, and short straight blond hair instead of Jasper's wavy mop. But besides that, they looked like they could be twins.
"This is Jasper's brother Peter!" Edward exclaimed and he moved over.
I hugged Jasper and reached my hand out to Peter saying, "Hi, I'm Edward's dad. But you can call me Uncle Carlisle. It is really nice to meet you Peter."
"Nice to meet you too Sir," Peter replied like a proper little gentleman. But that image was ruined by Jasper, who jumped on Peter's back and put him into a head-lock before anyone could even realize what was happening.
"Esme said no rough housing in the house boys!" Hank was the first to respond.
"They have been doing that all day!" Edward exclaimed looking at the two brothers go at it. "I thought Jasper was going to get hurt, but he won almost every single fight today!"
"Isn't Peter eleven now? Shouldn't he know better than to fight with his little brother?" I asked Hank. Jasper was only seven, after all.
"Nah, Jasper starts it. Now get to the yard outside boys," Hank replied opening the front door and ushering the boys out. Peter walked out, and since Jasper was on his shoulders at the time, he went with him.
"I don't want to watch anymore Daddy. I keep getting scared Jasper is going to get hurt and then Jasper just keeps bringing Peter down," Edward said as we watched Hank go outside after the boys.
"Well then let's go help Mom with dinner," I suggested leading Edward into the kitchen.
Esme was almost done, so Edward and I made some pudding and set it in the fridge.
"Go bring the boys back in the house, while Edward helps me set the table," Esme instructed me once the pudding was done.
"Sure honey," I said kissing her cheek.
I went outside and found the two boys and cousin Hank on the lawn in the middle of Esme's apartment complex. I arrived just in time to see Jasper force his older and much larger brother down to the ground. "This boy is going to be a champion wrestler, I tell you what," Hank greeted me.
"Where did you learn to do that?" I asked Jasper amazed.
Jasper just shrugged and let Peter up, but Peter answered for him, "We've been rough housing like that since he was a baby. He is just a natural."
"You should put the boy in classes and train him up a bit," Hank suggested.
"We will have to look for wrestling classes," I conceded. "But Esme said it is time for dinner. You boys need to go inside and wash up."
"Do we have to Uncle Carlisle?" Jasper whined.
"Just do what you are told for once Jazz," Peter complained popping Jasper on the back of the head. That probably was not the best move for Peter, because he was on his back in the dirt before I realized what happened.
"Knock it off Jasper. We all know you can flip your brother. Now let's go inside to eat," Hank ordered as we once again headed towards Esme's apartment. "Sorry about that. This is the first time Jasper has been big enough to bring Peter down like that and I'm afraid he's showing off a little."
"Pay back for all those times Peter used to beat him up when he was little?" I asked.
"Darwin no!" Jasper shouted. "I always won!"
"He did. But it wasn't until this year that Jazz could flip Pete single handedly," Hank added. Oh, that must have been what Jasper had done to Peter.
I looked over at the boys and this time I saw Peter giving Jasper a piggy-back ride. At least they were no longer fighting and looked somewhat civilized as they entered the apartment. I sent them both straight off to wash their hands, while I joined Esme in bringing out the roast. The six of us had a nice dinner and I got to know Jasper's brother and Esme's cousin a bit.
But I was exhausted from the long day of work, so I took Edward home early that night. The next day was Saturday and I wanted to give Esme and Jasper some time alone with their family, because they were flying back Monday. But when I was thinking about what to do, I was shocked to realize that somehow Esme and I had fallen out of our routine of taking the boys to therapy on Saturday mornings. We had just become so busy that neither of us had been in months.
So I loaded Edward into the car and took us to therapy. We had not been since before the engagement, so I had news to share with everyone when I returned. Everyone was really happy for us, but wanted to know where my bride to be was. I explained that she was with relatives visiting from out of town and all of the fellow parents told me to send her their congratulations on the engagement.
My therapists even told me that she was happy for Esme and me; she just wished that the four of us would show up to therapy a little more often. I told her we would make more of an effort, but we were busy with work, wedding plans, and remodeling my house to fit a family of four, so not to expect too much. After that she got into her evaluation of my life.
My therapist told me that I was rushing the wedding thing, because Esme and I had not even known each other a year. I really did not care what she had to say on this matter for three reasons. One, I loved Esme and knew that we were going to be together forever. Two, we had two children who would both be better off with two parents: Jasper needed a father figure, while Edward needed a mother. And three, I wanted biological children of my own and I did not want to wait and allow the age gap between possible future children and our current children to grow.
I told my therapist all of this, but she had other thoughts on the matter, which I tuned out, because I really did not want to hear it. I was also disappointed with her advice on parenting this week, because she once again told me to stop spoiling the kids rotten. Like I said before, spoiling the kids was really working for me, so I choose to ignore this week's advice, yet again. No wonder I had stopped coming here: it had stopped being useful.
Author's Note: Review, please? Pretty please?