This chapter is fun and it continues moving forward as Edward and Bella are continuing their long distance relationship. Good times!

BPOV

Edward and I went straight from the condo to Alice and Jasper's. As soon as the door opened Alice shrieked. "You got it!" Obviously, the smiles on our faces were a dead giveaway. Alice pulled us into the apartment and started babbling and bouncing up and down as she started talking about fabric choices and paint colors, and I couldn't help but laugh.

Alice was sitting at her drawing table, which was set up in the middle of the living room at the moment, working on sketches, but she quickly pushed them aside and pulled up a chair for me to sit with her.

"I'm gonna grab a beer, you ladies want anything?" Edward was planning on staying clear of this estrogen ocean until Jasper got home, and then they could hide in some sporting event on ESPN.

"That sounds good, get me one too."

"Soda." Alice called over her shoulder, before turning back to me. "What are you guys thinking about as far as a color scheme?"

Edward came in and handed us our drinks as he turned one of the dining room chairs to face us. "Well, I like cool colors in the bedrooms, because it's soothing, but for the kitchen and the main room, I want to use warm colors, like a nice brown, or maybe a muted orange. Nothing too crazy."

Alice giggled. "Nice, and here I was afraid that I'd have to twist your arm to get you to even think of using color."

I shook my head. "When I was younger my room was brown, I love that color. Plus if we go with dark woods and neutral colors the paint will really stand out."

"Mom's going to be so excited to see how into this you are. It was like pulling teeth to get Edward to help with our place, I had to help her with everything." Alice smiled at Edward and he rolled his eyes.

"Just don't let Alice paint the place with you, she's horrible." Edward bit his lip to keep from laughing at his sister.

"Are you going to paint it yourself?" Alice cocked an eyebrow at me and I nodded.

"I enjoy it; I'm going to be painting the bar with Jake too. I really don't see the point to paying someone else to do it when I can do it myself. I'll get Leah to help, it'll be fun."

"When are you going down to Portland?"

"The closing is in a week, so I'm going down there on Tuesday. I'm so excited. Jake and I have everything coordinated, so as soon as we get the key's we're going to hit the ground running." I was ready to have it done already, I'd been planning it for so long I want to have the work done and have the place open.

"When are you going down Edward?" Alice turned to her big brother, trying to include him in the conversation.

"I'm going down on Sunday to see the place and then Bella and I are coming home for our condo closing on Monday." The smile on his face was undeniable and I just had to cross the few feet between us and plant a big kiss on those perfect lips of his. We waited around for Jasper to get home, wanting to share our news with him, but he wasn't much in the mood for celebrating.

"I'm sorry guys, you know I'm happy for you, but today was a long day." Jasper said as he took the seat next to Edward at the table.

"Jasper, don't worry about it. We should probably get going anyway. Talk to you later, son." Edward clapped Jasper on the back and we said our good-byes and made our way to the door.

I was pulling up to my hotel in Portland when my phone rang; I looked down and smiled as I saw Esme's number show up on the display. "Hi Esme."

"Bella, sweetheart, I just spoke to Edward and I'm so thrilled that you want me to help you decorate the condo. I was wondering when you were free so we could get together." Esme's quiet enthusiasm colored her words.

"Esme, I'd love to get together with you, but I'm in Portland until Sunday, can we do it next week?"

"Oh, of course honey. I'm sorry, Edward mentioned something about you going to work on some things with the new bar, but I didn't realize you had already left. Call me when you get back into town and we'll talk then. Bye Bella."

"Bye Esme." I hung up and checked-in before dropping off my stuff and heading to Jake's apartment.

"Bella." Jake pulled me into a bone crushing hug before letting me go and pulling me into his new apartment. "Okay, so I know we don't have a lot of time before you have to get back to Seattle, so I wanted to show you everything that I've got."

I sat on the couch with him as he began flipping through an accordion folder. "Hit me with it."

Jake laughed and pulled out several applications. "So, I've been interviewing some prospective bartenders and waitresses and I've got some really good possibilities. These two guys used to bartend at the place that was here before, and the old owner said they were great, and they're responsible. They showed up fifteen minutes early to their interview, and you can tell they work really well together. Next is Lydia, this chick is crazy, she knows every mixed drink imaginable and she's really outgoing, plus I think she'd balance out the guys on nights she worked with one of them. Then there a few possibilities for waitresses, but with them it's really a judgment call, any of them would be fine. Oh, and this is the best, there's a DJ in the building. I know you wanted to have music here more often than at Ballet Studio, and she said that if we wanted she'd help us pick out sound equipment and set up the booth. She used to be a theater techie, so she knows her shit. And there's Felix, this guy is built like a brick shithouse and he's an ex-cop, he's the only guy I even considered for a bouncer."

I smiled and looked over the applications Jake was showing me as I listened intently to his descriptions. "Okay, so why don't you call them and see when they can come in, we can sit down with them at the bar and I'll give you my opinions, but unless there's something extreme, I'll go with you on this. Oh, and try to get your DJ down ASAP so we can talk to her about sound equipment. Because I want to be here for that."

"Sure, sure. Oh, and the sign is being delivered and hung on Thursday, here's a picture of it." Jake handed me the picture of the oval sign in its deep cherry finish with the gold lettering and accents, Charlie's Place. I smiled down at it and then handed it back to him. Jake took out his phone and was making some calls, setting up the various interviews, and when he was finished we went over some more of the installation stuff and then he got the call from DJ Nik, who would come by tomorrow. I left Jake's and headed back to my hotel, going to bed early so that I was ready for the long ass day tomorrow.

When my alarm went off I got out of bed and put an old Ballet Studio shirt and a pair of jeans before heading over to meet Jake and the owner at the bar. We got inside and signed all the final paperwork and with the cashier's check in hand, we were given the keys. Jake and I immediately set out to paint the back corner behind the stage, and the back office, which was right across from the storage space that would soon have the stage between them. Neither of the jobs took too long and by 1:30 we were cleaning up, excited to be done so the guys from the home depot could install the floor and paneling tomorrow. Jake had the contractor who was building the stage and seating area come in and he was good. He was bringing in a few guys and was going to have the two jobs done quickly, but from the plans he had brought, he wasn't cutting any corners. Seeing how on top of everything Jake had been made me really happy, because it meant that he was the perfect person to get to run this place, and I was happy with my replacement cook, so all was right with the world.

Around 2pm DJ Nik came by and I guffawed as I saw that DJ Nik was a tiny, red-haired girl whose first name was Nicole. She walked around the space telling us that the portion of the wall shared with the office that was sunk in by the front of the stage was the perfect size for a DJ booth and told us about where we could hang speakers and monitors. I called up Jared and asked his opinion of her assessment and he said that she knew what the hell she was talking about, so Jake and I hired her and told her we'd go shopping with her on Friday.

Two of the waitresses came in and I really liked one of them, while the other one was kind of snotty, so Jake and I agreed that we'd hire the one and pick one more out of the other two girls stopping by tomorrow. By some hysterical miracle, all three prospective bartenders came in at the same time and were joking and playfully teasing each other within minutes, so they were officially hired too. I was completely in awe of everything we had gotten done today and how Jake had pulled this together. It's not that I ever really doubted him, but considering the fact that he had never been any type of manager, he was all over everything, coming up with back-up plans and scheduling everything so that it was flowing beautifully. The next few days would be hectic, but I wasn't worrying anymore.

EPOV

When I pulled up to the address Bella had given me, I thought that I must have gotten it mixed up somehow, because the sign didn't say Ballet Studio, but then I read the lettering and smiled to myself, Charlie's Place. It was a nice gesture, and it made sense to make the bar a little more masculine considering the fact that Jake was running the place. I walked in and was amazed by the activity. Bella was standing by the bar talking with this tiny girl, pointing to different spots on the ceiling and gesturing wildly. The petite redhead saw me staring out of the corner of her eye and motioned to Bella. "Edward!" Bella ran and jumped into my arms, laughing and smiling so wide that it crinkled her whole face.

"Hey baby, I missed you too." I kissed her quick and then she pulled me back to the bar.

"Nikki, this is my boyfriend Edward Cullen, Edward, this Nikki, also known as DJ Nik, she's going to be our DJ as well as helping with all the sound equipment. And some of her old techie friends are going to come and hang it for us, so we know it's done right." Bella was beaming; this was obviously an unexpected surprise.

I held out hand and shook hers as she turned to smile at me. "Nice to meet you Nikki."

"Same here, Edward." She turned back to Bella for a minute. "So, just to finish up quick. When these guys finish up the seating area, which should be tonight, it's a shame though, because that one guy is fine, my guys will come in. If they can get in here tomorrow, that'd be better, because they don't have shows on Monday's but beside that, they'll come in and hang it. Then after the stage is painted we can set up the booth and we'll be all set. I have to go, but I'll see you next time you're in Portland." Nikki hugged Bella and then turned to me and pulled me into a hug of my own. "Good to meet you, I'll see you at the opening!" With that, Nikki was grabbing her stuff and bounding out the door.

"Bella this place looks great! How'd you get everything started so quickly?"

Bella shook her head and let out a small chuckle. "I barely did anything; Jake took care of most of it. He found these guys to do the stage and the platform as a side job, which is why they're here on a Sunday, he found Nikki, he got great employees, and he took care of the minimal renovations that needed to be done. All I can say is thank God the old owner was renovating his bar when he ran out of money and decided to cut his losses and sell the place, because all we had to do was transfer the permits."

I pulled her to my side and held her close. "So, does anything else have to get done?"

She shrugged against my chest. "Honestly, we're just waiting on the furniture and the different inspectors and licenses. That stuff will take a while, but it's all a formality now, this place was a bar before and it's in great shape. The inspector who checked it before I bought it said it should be a cake walk. Now I'm just waiting for Jake to get back so I can tell him good-bye and then we can go get some dinner."

I was so delighted that everything was going well here, it gave Bella less to be concerned about, and she had been a little frazzled lately and I was starting to worry about her. She relaxed into my side and then started telling about how the bar would look when it was completed. It's funny because listening to the details I couldn't help to realize that this totally was Charlie's place; from the little I knew of him, it had Charlie written all over it. "So, when'd you decide to change the concept?"

Bella smiled and looked up at me. "As soon as I saw the place it reminded me of him, and then I thought about it, and I bought Ballet Studio with the money from my mom, so why not make the bar Charlie helped me buy a memorial to him." Bella took a deep breath and then pulled me over to the office. She reached into a box of frames and pulled out two of them. "These are going to hang around the place, and some of the smaller ones are going behind the bar." The photos in the various frames were of Charlie; him fishing, standing next to his cruiser in full uniform, and a few pictures of him with friends and two of him and Bella, one when she was about two, and another when she was probably eleven or twelve, and the last was one of Bella, Charlie and Renee when Bella was an infant. Bella's eyes were glassy as she held the picture of her family, before she set it back in the box with all the others.

I pulled Bella into a tight hug and kissed her forehead. "I'm sure he would have loved it, it's a beautiful thing you did, honoring him like this." Bella gave me a quick squeeze before wiping her eyes and leading me back into the bar, where Jake was waiting. "Jake, great fucking job man." I walked over to shake his hand and he smiled wide at me.

"Thanks Edward, but I was just following the plan, this was all Bells." Bella hugged Jake and then got her purse from behind the bar.

"Okay Jake, we're going to grab a bite and then we're off to Seattle. Call if you need anything."

"Sure will." Bella and I stepped out and headed to our cars, going to eat at a little diner Bella told me about. We ate and then got back on the road to follow each other for the three and a half hour ride home.

When we got back to the apartment we parked and walked hand in hand up to the elevator. Once the doors opened to our floor, we stepped out and went into the apartment. "You haven't started packing?" Bella looked around and saw that there was little that had changed since she left.

"No…but I will. I just don't know where to start." I knew it was a little bit of a copout, but I just didn't do much but go over the revision of the novel without her here.

Bella raised an eyebrow. "Start in the bedroom, pack up anything you don't want me to pack, or anything personal that you may not want me to see. That way if you get called to LA and we're not done I can finish without worrying that I touched something that you didn't want me to."

I pulled her against my chest and kissed her hard. "There's nothing you're not allowed to see, no secrets here."

Bella arched an eyebrow at me mischievously. "Really? You don't have a porn collection hidden like the entrance to the bat cave?"

She giggled and I used one of my hands to arch her neck so she was looking up at me. "Baby, why have that trash when what I have in my hands is so much better." My lips crushed hers and I felt her hands running over my scalp, while my hand returned to her waist. I bent down and lifted her bridal-style and carried her to the bedroom to give her a proper homecoming.

Bella and I woke up and got ready to go to the condo and sign the papers. The room felt electric, and not in the normal way it felt when we were together, but heightened, as if our excitement was adding to the intensity. We drove over to the building and walked up to the offices. We sat down with one of the board members, who handled all of our paperwork and finally handed us the keys. Bella and I went straight to our new home and she started bouncing up and down as soon as she crossed the threshold. "It's ours! It's really ours."

I wrapped my arms around her and smiled down at her. "Welcome home, love." Just then, there was a knock at the door. I opened it, and my mother was standing there with two bags filled with swatches and samples. "Mom?"

"Hello darling, where's Bella?" My mom walked in and Bella ran over to hug her.

"Esme, I'm so glad you came. I want to tell you what I was thinking about as far as colors." Bella latched onto my mom's arm and began walking her through the apartment as my phone rang. I went to the balcony to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Edward, its Robert at Summit. Look, Edward we have a problem."

Fuck! "What's wrong Robert?"

"There's a problem with the script. James wants to redo the opening, but he wants to make it different from how it is in the book."

I could tell he was holding back. "How different?"

"He wants to start with a flashback to Harry's childhood."

Oh for the love of everything that's holy. "You can't start with an explanation of why he is the way he is. The whole point is you spend the whole movie trying to figure out what made him that way and if he'll be able to change his ways. If you explain that up front, you've just killed all of the suspense. He's a screenwriter for crying out loud, shouldn't he know that?"

"I know. Edward, he won't listen to anyone but you, because it's your baby, you have to come down here and kill this. You have veto power when it comes to this crap."

"Can't I just call him? I just closed on my home this morning, and I was counting on the next few days to get everything set before coming down for the beginning of shooting."

"I'm sorry Edward, you have to at least hear him out before you tell him no and he wants to pitch the idea to you in person. We can get you on a flight at 8pm."

I growled quietly to myself, pinching the bridge of my nose. I was supposed to have the week with Bella, and now I was hopping on a plane for the next two and a half weeks while I left her to deal with everything. "Book it." To say I was miffed at having to go in there and tell Bella that I was leaving her to deal with everything while I went to go kill James was an understatement. I know I gave her free reign with the decorating, but I at least wanted to contribute by packing up my stuff.

"We'll send you the flight info, see you tomorrow." The line went dead and I walked in to see Bella and my mom looking out at the balcony, waiting for me to come in.

"You have to leave early?" Bella already knew it was bad news.

"I'm on the eight o'clock flight tonight."

She took a deep breath and blew it out, clearly disappointed. "And you'll still be there until the first?"

"Probably, but if I can get away sooner, then I will. After they start, then I'm really only there to see some of the dailies and approve of certain things, but once they're underway they won't need me anymore."

My mom walked over and hugged Bella. "Okay, why don't we finish this up tomorrow, and you two spend some quality time together before you go." My mom wrapped her arms around me and gave me a quick peck on the cheek. "Fly save, I'll talk to you soon."

As she began to pull away I stopped her. "No, you guys finish here, that way you can get the paint taken care of. I have to pack for the flight anyway. We'll get something easy tonight for dinner and stay close to home until I have to leave."

Bella nodded. "We won't take long; I'll see you in a little while."

I left, and headed back to pack for the trip. It didn't take too long to pack, seeing as I was so annoyed, and when my luggage was by the door I returned to our bedroom to pack up the rest of my clothes so that would be one less thing Bella would have to do without me. I got through with that and decided to make my way to the bathrooms. There wasn't much to pack there, only toiletries or cleaning stuff, but everything else I knew my mom was going to get based on the color scheme they chose. I left nothing but Bella's stuff in the master bath and brought the garbage to the dumpster. I started wrapping up the photos and paintings that were around the apartment, there weren't too many, and it didn't matter what room they had been in, because I was sure that would change in our home. All of the little knick knacks my mother had picked out with Alice were next, once again there wasn't much, as Alice took the ones she liked when she had moved and I hadn't felt the need to replace the missing items. It was 1:42 when Bella came in the door and saw me writing a note before putting it in the box I was finishing up and taping it up.

"You were busy." Bella smirked at me.

"I had to contribute in some way; by the way, the bathrooms are finished with the exception of your stuff. And if there's anything that doesn't work with what you guys are doing, don't worry about it, none of this stuff every held any real sentimental value for me except a few things in that box over there." I motioned to the box I had just taped up.

Bella nodded and then took my hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Okay, what do you want for lunch?"

I cocked my eyebrow and dropped my voice down to the husky timbre that always got a reaction out of her. "You." Bella's breath caught and she was on her tip toes and capturing my lips in an instant. I picked up her up by the waist and she wrapped her legs around me. I carried her to the bedroom for the second time in as many days, and lowered her onto the bed. We quickly stripped off our clothes as our heart rates raced and our breath became shallow. Bella rolled on top of me and slowly slid me inside her. I grabbed her hips and thrust up as she came down to meet me, enjoying the sensation. We found our rhythm and I was mesmerized by the movement of her breasts as she slammed into my pelvis. I started panting as I got close to cumming, reaching up to stroke her bundle of nerves, when Bella stopped and grabbed my hand.

I looked up at her concerned as she smiled devilishly at me and leaned down to whisper in my ear. "If this is the last time I get to be with you for a few weeks, then I'm going to make it count." She leaned back up into a sitting position and took both of my hands in hers and intertwined our fingers. She started moving again, bringing us both to the edge before pausing long enough to bring us down some. This time she placed my hands on her breasts as she arched back and gripped her ankles, changing the angle and pushing me closer to the edge. As she slowed a third time, I pulled her to me as I rolled over growling, "Bella, as amazing as this is, I'm about to explode!"

She giggled to herself and whispered as she tangled her hands into my hair. "Well, I wouldn't want to be responsible for that…" she sucked my earlobe quickly into her mouth before releasing it and breathing into my ear, "take me…I'm yours." Her words and the passion behind then sent me spurring out like a rodeo rider as I thrust into her at our rhythm and within minutes we were both quivering and calling out to the others names.

I collapsed on top of her, resting my forehead on hers and tried in vain, to move. "I don't think I'll be able to move to get on the plane."

Bella chuckled, shaking us both. "My plan worked. But let's go. We have to get you showered, and dressed and fed before I put you on that plane."

So Bella and I did just that. We took separate showers to keep us moving and got dressed before ordering Chinese food for what seemed like the 50th time this month. As we sat at the table eating, I stared at her intently, trying to commit her features to memory so I'd make it through the next few weeks. "I can't wait until you have the new kitchen all set up, I love watching you cook."

Bella shot me a funny look and rolled her eyes. "You like eating my food. But I can't wait for that either. Maybe I'll be able to get everything done now that I have more free time."

"Free time?" She was still pretty busy with the Ballet Studio, so I couldn't see her having a ton of time.

"Yeah, I'm giving Emily a trial run. She's going to school for accounting, but what she really wants is to be a bookkeeper, and when Jake was going through everything she told me she'd like to do something like that someday, so I told her I would train her after she graduates in June, and make her an assistant manager eventually. I've been doing it on my own for so long, it's nice to have someone that I can leave in charge. I haven't taken a vacation since Leah and I went to New York." She shook her head.

"Isn't that like four years?" I can't imagine not taking a vacation for that long.

"Five this July."

"Well that'll be the first thing that changes when I get back; we're going to plan a trip."

Bella smiled and stared at her plate, pushing her rice around with her fork. "I'd like that."

We pulled into a parking space and I got out, taking my luggage out of the back of Bella's SUV. "I hate waiting in the airport, people go to the bookstores and buy one of my books and then see me sitting there; it's such a pain!"

Bella smiled apologetically at me. "Poor baby, let me kiss it and make it better." Bella closed the small gap between us and kissed me sweetly, yet still passionately. "Come on, let's get you through security before I decide to lock you in the apartment and never let you go." Bella was joking a lot about my leaving, but I knew it was hard for her. As much as she trusted me, she was still afraid that I'd be taken away, and going to the land of busty actresses and cosmetically enhanced women was eating away at her insecurities somewhere in the back of her head.

We made our way to the skycap and I checked my luggage and got my ticket before I pulled Bella into the security line with me. With our arms around each other's waists, we snaked through the line until eventually I was near the head of the line. I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her as passionately as I dared in the crowded airport before letting her go and giving her one last peck whispering, "You have my heart, take care of it until I can come back to you both." Bella looked at me and then ducked under the rope, waiting until I had cleared security then waved and mouthed "I love you," before turning and heading back to her car.

BPOV

I showed up to the condo at 8am, ready to get started with the insanity that was painting this monster. Esme had left the painter's tape and a step ladder yesterday and I began taping the second bath, so I could work my way around the apartment. I was in the master bedroom when my phone rang. I reached into my pocket and answered without looking at the display. "Hi Esme."

"Bella, I'm downstairs, could you meet me at the car? I'm parked out front." Esme spoke with that same understated excitement, but it was clear where Alice got her giddiness from.

"Sure Esme, I'll be down in a few."

I went down and met her and she rolled down the window before calling out to me. "Get in; I have a surprise for you." I did what she said and twenty minutes later we were pulling up in front of a large furniture warehouse. "Surprise! I wanted to bring you here before we got all covered in paint, plus if they need to order anything, I wanted us to have a few weeks to play with before Edward gets back." We got out of the car and headed into this behemoth of a building. Esme brought me straight back to the section with the bedroom sets. We were snaking through several displays when I saw it. I walked over and ran my hand over the supple brown leather headboard, with its thick padding; I could see myself leaning against it reading a book. Esme walked up behind me, resting her hand on my shoulder. "It's a lovely piece, and with the shade of blue you've chosen for the master bedroom, it'll look perfect."

I turned to face her, "How did you know…?"

Esme smiled. "No one falls in love with a bed like that and puts it in the guest room. Now what do you think about the rest of the set?"

I looked around at the warm dark wood furniture, caressing the surfaces and opening the drawers. "I love it. Do you think its Edward though?"

Esme nodded. "I think Edward would love anything you pick out, but yes, this is something he would pick out if I could ever get him into a store like this." Esme wrote down the name of the set and the item numbers for the items before we continued. Esme and I continued for a little while until I stopped short again as I came upon another beautiful bedroom set in a rich dark finish. The headboard was curved and had three strips of wood running horizontally, and four vertically creating these broken up arches. The nightstand was smaller than the one in the Master Bedroom set, but the dresser was an impressive piece. I turned to her and Esme laughed and wrote down the information. "So, we have nine pieces in less than two hours. Bella if half of my clients knew what they wanted as well as you did, my job would be exponentially easier." We laughed again and then Esme motioned me forward. "Next we should look for an armoire for your clothes and a media armoire for the living room." Esme and I walked around and found an armoire that looked like it was made for the bedroom set and then quickly followed that with a nice one for the living room. After marking them down Esme and I walked over to the living rooms and sat down on one of the couches. "Is this too much for you? Because we could always check on this furniture and then come back another day and finish it."

I shook my head. "No, I'm enjoying it, are we going to look anywhere else before we order them?"

Esme thought for a minute before gazing at me with those kind, mothering eyes of hers. "Bella, if I thought we could find something better then yes, but this place has a large selection, and you've found pieces that you adore, there's no second guessing reactions like the ones you had." I was glad that she felt I was one the right page, because I would have been lost in a place like this without her. After another half hour we had found a beautiful coffee table but no other living room furniture. Finally we made our way to the dining room section and after some searching found a nice set that with the leaf could fit eight people, which we would need if we ever had a dinner with his family at our place. Then, I truly fell in love. I found a beautiful china cabinet that would look perfect on the wall next to the doors to the balcony. Esme checked the measurements to the plans and sure enough it would fit there. So feeling supremely accomplished, Esme and I went up to the front and placed our order, before heading back to the condo. "Tomorrow we can go and look at couches and office furniture, because if I know Edward that spare room is going to be his study."

I faced her and shook my head. "He doesn't want an office, he just wants a desk that can temporarily life in the spare room, but it has to fit in our bedroom eventually without getting rid of the furniture we have now."

Esme looked confused, which was understandable considering we were leaving a large room completely unused. "Why doesn't he want to decorate it?"

I took a deep breath and explained the reason. "When I saw the room, it was why I fell in love with the condo, because we could turn it into a nursery someday, and Edward thinks if we make it an office for him, then we'll put off adopting when we get married."

Esme was speechless, if we weren't parked I'm sure she would have crashed the car. "Adoption? Marriage? Have you two…?" She trailed off looking at my face intently.

"We've talked about it, and we will someday, but we're not rushing it. But the moment your son asks me, I'm telling him 'yes!'"

Esme beamed and reached across the console to hug me. "Bella, I'm so happy for you both. Just the fact that you've talked about wanting children together, I know with your past that must have been difficult."

I nodded. "It was, but I want that with Edward, and nothing's going to stop me from getting it now."

Esme smiled at me again and we headed inside. It was 12:30 so we decided to finish taping off the spare room and the guest room, before finally taping off the "great" room as Esme called it. We laid out the drop cloth in the guest room and then there was a knock at the door. I opened it and saw Carlisle standing at the door with a hand cart filled with boxes of paint and several pieces of plastic sheeting draped over it. "Paint delivery." He smiled the crooked grin that Edward had inherited from him and I blushed, as my thoughts were immediately 1,000 miles away. I let him in and gave him a hug as soon as he set the cart down.

"Carlisle, I wasn't expecting to see you here."

Carlisle took the drop clothes off and placed them on the floor as Esme began picking out paint cans and placing them in the proper room. "Did you get the other paint supplies?" She called over her shoulder.

"Of course, it's still in the car. Bella, will you come out to the car and help me?"

"Sure." I grabbed my keys and walked out to the elevator with him.

As the doors closed on us, Carlisle turned to me. "Bella, I just wanted to tell you how thrilled I am that you're a part of our family. I know it's not official, yet, but I consider you to be a daughter to me already, and I couldn't have found someone better for my son if I had created you myself."

The tears welled up in my eyes at the sincerity of his words and they spilled over as soon as I blinked. Carlisle pulled me into another hug as I took a shaky breath. "Thank you Carlisle, I never got the chance to know my own father really well, so I know just how lucky your children are to have you."

It was Carlisle's turn to shed a few tears, as he pulled back to look at me just as we reached the lobby. "Thank you, Isabella." We went to his car and got out the rollers and poles that were laid along the back of the leather seats of his Mercedes. He saw me shake my head slightly and laughed. "We can't all have trucks, can we?" I joined in as he continued towards the building again.

Once we got in Esme and I set to work painting the guest room while Carlisle draped the many drop clothes in the great room and then moved on into the bathroom. After he finished he took a roller to the ceiling of the second bath finishing it quickly and moving into the great room. We finished the first coat and moved on into great room, continuing to use the trimming tool so we could begin painting the walls without fear of hitting the section of the ceiling Carlisle had just finished a little while before we began. Around 4pm Leah showed up and took up residence in the second bathroom. We finished up around 7, and Esme and Carlisle insisted on taking us to dinner after we cleaned up.

The next four days were filled with painting and picking out the few remaining pieces of furniture. We found the living room set and a nice chaise lounge for my corner of the bedroom. We also found a few bookcases for Edward's and my massive book collection. That Sunday, when painting the apartment was finally finished, I slowly started emptying the boxes out of our living room and bringing them by the carful over to the condo. Alice called me on my second trip and within an hour there were three more cars outside my apartment. Jasper, Emmett and Alice loaded up their cars and we made a few trips and by mid afternoon I was once again looking at an eerily empty apartment. All of the furniture was still there, and the things I needed to live here for the next week or two, but the place was still bare. We organized the boxes and then Alice set off to attack my closets with her supplies of containers, contraptions, and the "right" hangers.

Emmett and I went to look at kitchenware, because Edward wanted me to have top of the line equipment, now that I had my big kitchen. Emmett kept me in stitches the whole time, randomly picking up things and asking me what it did, while having a field day with anything remotely phallic. I felt really weird using Edward's card to buy all of this stuff, but as I started to set up the new appliances and nice set of everyday dishes I got really giddy, while Alice's giggles could be heard in my closet. Having prepped the other closets, she was now organizing my clothes by color. Yeah, like that would last. After my kitchen and closets were done, we all ordered pizza and ate it like a picnic in the living room. I called Esme on my way home, mentioning that we had to go get barstools. Monday started the deliveries, and everyday something new would arrive and I would stand there directing traffic. By Saturday I had all of the furniture delivered, and now that I had considerably less to do, I really started to miss Edward. We talked on the phone every day, but we were both too tired to attempt our new phone activity. On Sunday, the guys brought me to pick out a TV for the guest room as well as a small stereo. The boxes were now gone with the exception of the box of knick knacks that Edward had packed himself. I opened it and read the note he had sealed inside.

B,

If you've reached this box it means you're either almost done or going crazy thinking about what this note said. I love you and I can't wait to see what you've done to our home.

E

I took out the items that he had deemed important and smiled at how much they said about Edward. There was the unsigned baseball that Emmett said Edward had caught at a game they had gone to with Carlisle. Or an antique quill pen and inkwell that his grandfather had given him when he decided he wanted to be a writer at 14.

And that was when it hit me. I was living with Edward, I'd been dating him for almost six months and I had never read one of his books. I freaked out and called Leah, who picked up two sets, one for each of us, on her way to help me finish hanging the pictures. I took my set and put them in my nightstand with the exception of the first one, which I brought home to read. Reading the book as I sat in bed, I could feel him with me, his style was so much a part of who he was, and yet the contrast between his hopeful personality and his stories was stark.

In the last couple days before Edward's return I spent more time doing paperwork at the bar, instead of our empty apartment, or lonely condo. Edward was coming home on Thursday, and I had two and a half days left without him. I would be glad when he came home and finished up the apartment, because I was letting the boys handle the heavy lifting, and then we could move into our home. Wednesday was a fun filled day of waiting for the cable guy, but I passed the time reading the third of Edward's seven published books. As I turned out the light in the master bedroom, I smiled at the neatly made bed, because tomorrow, Edward and I would be spending the night here.

EPOV

Thank God it was Thursday! I went to finish up a few things on set and then said my good-byes and got in the car. The driver brought me back to the hotel so I could get my bags and check out. When I got back into the car he looked at me through his rearview mirror and asked, "Are we going straight to the airport now, Mr. Cullen?"

I looked up and shook my head. "No, I have to make a stop first."

"Very well sir, where do you need to go?"

I met his eyes in the mirror. "The Cartier store on Rodeo Drive."