The Fantasy Basket

By Esme Incognito

Inspired by Stephenie Meyers' Twilight series. No infringement intended.

Posted 10/10/12. Re-posted 6/21/14.

Outtake to Chapter 8—Man to Man

Carlisle & Edward During the Girls' Passionista Party

2012

"Thank god, he's finally asleep." I dropped into the couch, exhausted. "How can someone so little be so much work? Sometimes I wish Riley had an off switch."

My dad just laughed at me. "He reminds me of you." He closed the refrigerator door.

"Yeah?"

Dad nodded and handed me a beer. "You were full of energy. And you were so LOUD!"

"Really?" I twisted the cap off and took a sip.

"You had to be, to get any attention with Emmett around. He was SO much bigger than you. You were a scrawny little thing, tall and skinny, and four years younger."

"Gee, thanks." I yawned. "Man, two days in a row with him and I'm beat! I don't know how Bella does this every day."

"You should tell her that. Let her know you appreciate it."

"I s'pose…" I need to tell Bella a lot of things. She really tore into me last night about keeping her in the dark about stuff. I never really thought about it that way, but she was really pissed.

"How are you and Bella doing?"

I shrugged and looked at my beer. "Fine," I lied. Actually, I'm scared to death of what's happening between us.

"You know, your mom and I had a really hard time after we had kids. It's a pretty tough adjustment." I raised my eyebrows, curious. "There were a few years that we barely even spoke to each other."

"What? That doesn't seem like you and Mom."

He nodded. "Yeah. I had this misguided notion that the harder I worked and more money I brought in, the better things would be. Taking care of the family, you know?" He took a sip and chuckled, shaking his head. "She didn't quite see it that way."

"Shit… that sounds familiar."

"Women and men are just programmed differently. I thought I was doing everything right, but she thought I was an asshole."

I nodded in agreement.

"A happy marriage takes a lot of hard work, Son."

"So what did you do? How'd you get from barely speaking to where you are now?"

"Well, I started spending some time alone with her, away from you and Em."

"So having kids is the problem and escaping from them is the solution? Couldn't you have told us this about three years ago?"

"Take the easy way out, huh?" he laughed. "No, we just needed to put each other first and that required some time to talk to each other again without all the interruptions."

"Talking, communicating, listening to her instead of talking about myself, that's the big thing. We needed to remember why we fell in love in the first place and then get back to something resembling that. And then my dad taught me that…"

"Grandpa Ed?"

"Yep. As a pastor, marriage counseling was part of his job. Anyway, he said I needed to figure out what makes her tick, what makes her happy, and to do whatever that was for her every single day. So I did a little detective work and listened really closely to things she said to try to figure it out. When I still didn't have a clue, I just asked her outright what she wanted from me."

"What'd she tell you?"

"Hm Mm," he shook his head. "It's different for everybody. You have to figure Bella's out for yourself."

"Ssss…" I hissed. "You're no help at all!"

"Edward! Just talk to her, pay attention to her. You'll figure it out. And once you know, then you give her some of whatever that is every day."

"It could be hugs and kisses, it could be making her coffee every morning, it could be little presents or carving out time to spend alone with her, it could be compliments or back rubs or whatever. Whatever makes her happy. And trust me, when you make your woman happy, the rewards are well worth it." He raised his eyebrows at the innuendo as he swallowed the last of his beer.

"Oh, Dad!" I grimaced. "Jeez, that's Mom you're talking about. Gross!" I cringed inwardly, trying hard not to show him how revolting it was for me to hear about him and Mom.

He grinned. "Mom's a happy woman! Definitely worth the effort."

"Ugh!" I stood and took our bottles to the recycling bin, hoping the change of scenery would scrub the thoughts of my parents… together… out of my mind.

"What are they doing tonight, anyway? What's this party they went to? Bella said I should ask you."

Dad laughed out loud and slapped his knee. "That girl does have a sense of humor…"

A/N:

Thanks for reading.

It's short, I know. This was part of Ch. 8 that I cut when I decided that the story would be told solely from Esme's & Bella's perspectives.

Did you like this visit into Edward's thoughts? Please leave a review and tell me what you think.

Jen