Chapter 20- A New Home.

Carlisle hires some men with a truck to move the furniture and thousands of books. This turns out to be a mistake, as we sit and watch their painfully slow progress as they move furniture and boxes to their truck, knowing that all of us would have had it done in a fraction of the time. I think how stupid it is to have all this strength and not make use of it.

Or maybe I'm just in a bad mood, because I get more and more irritated by the way they look at Rosalie, sitting on the porch oblivious to everything as she reads. She plays absently with the pendant at her neck, her delicate fingers drawing attention to the smooth curve of her throat, long legs in dark stockings stretched out before her. The men look just once too often with far too obvious lust, and I inadvertently make an animal snarling noise at the worst offender, giving him such a shock that he drops and breaks a glass fronted cabinet.

Edward drags me away. "You're the only person I know who is responsible for breaking things even when they're not touching them," he says in exasperation. "Really Emmett, you can't go around threatening anyone who looks at her- practically everyone looks at her! At least you don't have to hear what they're thinking…"

"That doesn't help!" I exclaim. "Geez Edward, you really know how to make a guy feel better, don't you?"

Edward laughs. "Sorry! Look, I'm just trying to give you some friendly advice. Rosalie's beautiful, men notice that. She likes them to. She gets offended if people don't notice how beautiful she is! You have to just let all the ogling roll right past you, because it's going to happen regardless and in the end she's coming home to you." He glances back towards the house. "I wish we were moving the things ourselves- I don't trust those oafs with my piano," he mutters peevishly.

I laugh at what an old woman he sounds like. "Come on then, I'll help you get it on to the truck yourself if you like." I roll up my sleeves. "I know you're right about people looking at my girl- I just haven't had to deal with it so much because we're all on our own out here. Carlisle doesn't see anything but Esme, and while it blows my mind that you spent a year and a half with Rosalie without even trying to get into her bed I'm just damn glad you didn't!"

"I'd as soon get into bed with a mountain lion as with Rosalie," Edward mutters. "I think I'd stand a better chance of getting out with my life with the lion, to be honest!"

Edward and I manhandle his precious piano into the truck. I could have lifted it in with one hand, but we're maintaining appearances and Edward fusses over the thing like it's made of glass.

I leave him to it and go over to Rosalie. She's finished her book and is sitting up on the porch railing and playing with her hair, winding it around her fingers to make it curl. She's wearing red, and I love the way her golden hair shines against it. I brush my hands over her knees and push her legs apart so I can stand in between them, as close as I can without touching her. "Hey pretty girl," I say.

"Hey yourself," she grins back. "We're going to go pretty soon." She rolls down my sleeves and buttons the cuffs- it's an overcast day but the sun keeps breaking through briefly and the less skin on show the better really. "I'm going to drive."

I make a face. "And here I was thinking that we'd be in the backseat together…"

"Ha," Rosalie snorts. "With Edward right there? No thanks."

As it turns out, I sit in the front with Rose while Carlisle, Esme and Edward take the back seat. Since I'm the biggest and take up the most room no one except Rosalie is really willing to squeeze right up beside me, and my girl would rather drive- half because she prefers it and half because it annoys Edward, who also has a thing for cars. I swear it's like two children fighting over a toy, and Carlisle has to play the diplomat and make them take turns while they flounce and grump and criticise each other. I get so tired of their bitching that in the end I throw Rose into the passenger seat and drive for a while myself. I'm not a good driver though, and when I tell them I've had enough and I'll let them have the car back if they promise to behave they're quite glad. They're even nice to each other after that, when they realise that the alternative is enduring my driving.

Actually, between my driving and my whistling and humming and a string of knock knock jokes I think I annoy them all the entire way to Oregon- certainly once we finally reach our destination and we're climbing out of the car I hear Carlisle whisper to Esme that he'll be buying a second car before we take a trip like that again.

The new house is huge. I've never even been inside such a place before, and I'm half intimidated as I follow Rosalie through the double front doors and into the imposing entrance hall. There are spacious living areas, a library, a brand new modern kitchen that we'll never use, six bedrooms and a bathroom with a huge old claw foot tub that's even going to fit me.

"Rose and Emmett, you two can room upstairs," Esme directs. "Carlisle and I will take the suite down here and Edward, you can either go upstairs with Rose and Emmett…"

Edward gives her a tortured gaze.

"Or there's another room off the kitchen," Esme continues without missing a beat. "It's much smaller, but more private…"

Edward grimaces at me. "I'd room in a cupboard to get a bit further away from those two."

"Shut your mouth," I say cheerfully. "It's not like I want you up my ass and in my business all the time either."

Edward opens his mouth to say something, catches Esme's eye and closes it abruptly, before chuckling with good humour and going off to look at his room. I follow Rosalie up the stairs. The room she chooses is the biggest one on the upper floor, with an attached dressing room, and a wide window seat overlooking the forest.

"This is okay," I say. "We're coming up in the world." I look out at the trees and wonder at the hunting. There's not much of a yard- I open the window wide and lean out, debating whether I'm going to be able to jump from here to the tree line.

"You can have your own room if you want," Rosalie says suddenly.

I look over at her in surprise. "Why would I? Don't you want me in here with you?"

She's at my side in an instant, and I automatically put out my arms and catch her as she jumps. "Of course I want you!" she says. "I just thought…you've never had your own space before. I didn't know if you might want it."

I shrug, sitting down on the window seat with Rosalie in my lap. "I wouldn't know what to do with space if I had it. It's not like I've got much stuff!" That's true. My worldly possessions are minimal- the only thing that remains from my human life is the knife I had in my pocket when I ran into the bear. I'm glad I have that even if I don't need it now, it was my Pa's and has a bone handle with a compass set in to it and it reminds me of home and the human I used to be. Apart from the knife I have some clothes, mostly stained and patched now despite Esme's best efforts to keep me looking nice, a couple of books Edward or Rosalie have given me, three baseballs, and a journal that Carlisle gave me that has nothing written in it besides my name.

Our possessions arrive several hours later, and we watch the packing process in reverse, as the men trudge along following Esme's directions on placing the furniture. Edward insists on he and I moving the piano, and once it's in place he fusses over it, tuning it to match his perfect ear. I'm bouncing with energy after being in the car for so long but while I was busy with the piano Rosalie has disappeared, and Carlisle and Esme are busy arranging the house and tell me to go away before I start breaking things. In the end I go upstairs and start unpacking but it's boring and I get distracted, and I'm sprawled across the bed with Rose's journal when she eventually returns.

"I'm so glad to see you're making yourself useful," she comments sarcastically. "Having fun with my journal?"

"I drew you a picture of a flower," I say and then look up, noticing the changed colour of her eyes. "You've been hunting?" I don't sound very pleased and I bite my tongue to stop me saying more.

"I was thirsty," Rosalie says lightly, moving towards her suitcases. "It's good hunting out there- you and Edward should go out soon."

I don't say anything, turning back to her journal. It's not all that much fun to read actually- the first one I picked up was written very soon after her vampire change and the rage and pain contained in her pretty, girlish script cuts in to me like a knife. The most recent one is less angry but not all that interesting, being mostly thoughts about clothes and shopping, complaining about Edward, and plans for model planes. I did draw her a flower on the last page- not because I'm an artist but because I am not and I know it will make her laugh. I slam the book shut and flip it across to the desk, where it lands face up right in the centre. "What a shot!" I murmur, wishing we could go out and play baseball or something.

Rosalie unpacks vampire fast, and the room is organised before I even bother to sit up, let alone help her. She examines the room critically once she'd done.

"We need to redecorate," she comments. "I'm not living with this hideous wallpaper."

I don't see what's wrong with it, but I also don't care about it- if Rose wants to decorate I'm not going to object. When you get down to it the only thing I care about is that the room has a big, solid bed in it…and even if it doesn't I'll make do. I smile lazily at Rosalie, and she stops what she's doing and eyes me knowingly.

"I know that look, Emmett," she says archly. "Is there something you wanted?"

"Maybe something," I murmur, as she moves closer to me. I unbutton my pants, watching Rosalie's eyes go dark as she takes in the sight of my maleness, hard and ready as I move my hand over it. "I mean, I've got this nice new room that's all private at the top of this big house, and a pretty girl who seems to be watching my hand on my cock…there could be something I could with all that, hmmm?"

"Maybe there is something," she says huskily. Then suddenly she's wearing a lot less than she was and she joins me on the bed so that the two of us can start turning this new house into our home.