LL Chapter 27

Her answer

I should have known that my ignorance would come back to bite me in the ass with Bella. I shoved the umbrella in her hands and started pacing on her porch in the rain, "Bella, I am ashamed to admit that for many years I've lived under the ignorant notion that the only thing that the girls in this town aspired to was to get married and have a baby, and not necessarily in that order. Then a few weeks ago an amazing woman, who happened to be a teen mom came into my life and challenged every ignorant, boorish, moronic, offensive notion that I had about teen moms and teen girls in general. Not only did she storm into the NICU I work at and punch me, but she stormed into my life and turned my world upside down and changed me for the better. You challenged everything I thought that I knew about life and showed me my ignorance. You never care what anyone else thinks about you and no matter what they do to you, you continue to hold your head high and continue with your life. You have had so much shit thrown at you, but you kept following your dreams and living life. I am in keep awe of you all the time. I am falling completely head of heels for you and for Tanya. The two of you have become the most important people in my life."

"Oh, Edward. Yes."

"Yes?"

"Yes! I'd love to be your date for the fundraiser. I just needed to hear from you that you know that you understood that my daughter and I are a package deal. You don't get me without her too."

"I know, Bella, I know you are a package and that is absolutely fine with me. I adore your daughter just as much as I adore you. Just because this date won't include her doesn't mean that I am not already considering things that the three of us can go together."

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

At that point, the Chief Swan poked his head out of the door, "What are you two doing standing out here in the rain?"

"Hey dad, uh…Edward just asked me if I would be his date to the hospital fundraiser."

"He did?"

"Yes, I did."

"Well, Hell! That means that Leah owes me fifty bucks! You just made my weekend, Edward!"

"Why does Leah owe you money because Edward asked me out?" Bella asked narrowing her eyes at her father, who cowered a little bit. It was such a funny sight to see a man that carried a gun cower from a small teenage girl, that I had to look away to keep from laughing.

"Don't get all hyper. She and I just had a little bet that's all."

"What was this little bet about?"

"Well, sort of on whether or not Edward was gay," that made my head shoot up, "I said he wasn't. That he was just smarter than any of the other little hormone driven fools around here and he was just waiting for the right girl to come around."

"See, that's what I told you. Only he said it a lot better than I did. I had better get home and you should get out of the rain before you get sick. Good night Bella. Night Charlie."

I heard them both respond good night back as I started to return to my car. I was sopping wet and freezing to the bone so I cranked the heat and watched Bella and Charlie disappear into the house. I do not remember how I actually made it home, one second I was pulling out of the Swan's driveway and the next I was pulling into mine. I could not believe that she actually said yes. I fell into bed with the most amazing sense of calm that I had felt in a long time.

When I entered the kitchen the next morning, Mom was making waffles, Dad was scrambling eggs, and Alice was cutting up fruit to put on the waffles.

"It's about time you got out of bed, sleepyhead," Mom teased me; "You can make the fresh juice." I grabbed the bag of oranges, a knife, and the juicer and set to work. I loved fresh juice much more that the juice you buy at the store so I really did not mind all the hard work it takes to make it. Besides, while it was a task that kept my mind busy it left my mind free to wander to thoughts about Bella.

As we sat eating our breakfast, Dad turned to Alice, "I need to know how many tickets I need to order for the fundraiser, is Jasper joining us again?"

"Yes he is."

"Ok, so that's five tickets."

"Six Dad," I spoke up after swallowing a bit of waffle.

"Six?"

"Yeah, Last night I asked Bella to be my date and she said yes."

All three of them just sat there staring at me as if I had grown a second head. After a moment, Mom smiled at me and then looked at Dad and said, "Six it is then." I knew that this was not going to be the end of the discussion. I knew that Mom and Dad would want to discuss the ramifications of dating someone with a child. There was nothing they could say to me I had not already thought of. I was already attached to Tanya and I would like to think that Tanya was becoming attached to me too.

I volunteered to wash the breakfast dishes because for one, all I had really done this morning was the juice and two; I knew that it would get me out of doing the dishes after dinner later tonight. I was scrubbing the waffle maker when Alice hugged me from behind, "Oh Edward, I'm so happy that you are going out with her."

"I thought that you were all for me going out with Angela?"

"All I have ever wanted was for you to be happy, whether it was with Angela or Bella or whoever."

"I am happy. I guess you could say that she's the one that I was waiting for. What about you and me hanging out this afternoon? Just us? We haven't done that in ages. Maybe drive up to Port Angeles and catch a movie?"

"Ooh, twin time! You're on brother dear," and she ran off to change while I finished the cleaning.

A/N:

Ok. First things first, to the person or persons responsible for recommending Living Life for 'fic of the week' over at the lemonade stand, this is me tackling you to the ground and smothering you with hugs and kisses. I love my readers so damn much. And the response to the last chapter was nothing short of amazing. The link will be on my profile.

For those that are FYH readers the chapter is coming along. It's about half way through at this point. I am going outside my comfort zone with that chapter. Next chapter of LL, maybe tomorrow.