Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. I just own Lollie and Josh, Elizabeth, and Alex.

Author's Note: Hello readers! Just so you know, as for Lollie - I couldn't resist making her annoying. Just picture her as the preppy cheerleader kind of gal, add on an annoying high voice, and you got yourself a Lollie. The second half of the first part of this chapter was written early this morning, like before 6 a.m., so I was trying to get my brain into working mode. Just so you know, they are not going to be naming their son any of those names. I already know what they're naming him. :-)

Ok, on with the story! I sincerely hope you enjoy it!

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Chapter Twenty-eight: It's a Small World

(BPOV)

For several hours that night, I laid on our bed, not able to sleep. Part of me wanted to go out into the living room and apologize to Edward for being too harsh with him, but the rest of me just needed to be alone to cool off.

And, as I lied there, staring wide-eyed at the ceiling, I felt all my anger toward him ebb away. The anger was replaced by guilt – a huge wave of guilt that was so overpowering I contemplated for the tenth time on running out and forgiving Edward.

I felt guilty because I had snapped at him without meaning to, knowing that Edward was still alive and breathing, and hadn't been injured extensively by Philip, excluding the fact that he had a bloody nose and a dislocated shoulder. I felt guilty because I loved him so much. I felt guilty because I had let him go to Port Angeles. After this thought ran through my mind, I mentally groaned and pulled Edward's pillow over my face.

And then the guilt began washing away, and was replaced by…nothing. After the feeling of nothing creeped over me, I finally – after many hours – managed to fall into an un-peaceful, restless sleep. Or, in my opinion, doze.

It must have been somewhere around eight o'clock that a smell wafted under the closed bedroom door and up under the pillow to my nose, waking me from my little nap. I lifted the pillow off my face and sat up on my elbows. Was something burning? Who was cooking at this hour?

My head pounded as I sat up, and I moaned quietly. What a great day to get a pounding headache.

Slowly, I got off the bed and headed towards the bedroom door. I realized I was still in the clothes I had been wearing the day before – jeans and a T-shirt. I at least had kicked off my shoes, which were now on the floor at the end of the bed. I quietly opened the bedroom door and peeked out to see Edward scraping something off from a smoking frying pan. From what I could see, there was flour covering the counter and the cupboards. I shook my head in wry amusement and headed quietly out into the kitchen.

The floorboard halfway there creaked under my feet, and he turned around at the noise. "Hey," he said. He was holding the still smoking frying pan in one hand with a potholder and then a spatula in the other.

"Hey," I said quietly, coming to a stop at one of the table chairs.

Who was going to break first?

"I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't mean to snap at you last night." My voice was quiet, not angry.

"I'm sorry, too. You're not…mad anymore…are you?" he asked cautiously. I barely managed to hold back a small smile. Barely.

Slowly, silently, I shook my head. "I'm not mad at you anymore. I guess it lasted only a couple of hours."

A flicker of an amused grin flitted across Edward's face, and then after a second, stayed there. "So…are we cool?"

I looked down at the ground, biting my lip to fight the smile that was threatening to break through. I chuckled softly and nodded. "We're cool."

He grinned and I slowly began walking towards him again, this time looking at him. "But," I added, and his grin faltered the tiniest bit. "You have to promise that you will never do that again, deal?" I was standing in front of him now, not paying attention to the fact that there was flour smeared across his cheeks, chin, hair, ear, and forehead. It was also all over his shirt.

His grin widened and he nodded. "Okay, deal. Do I get to kiss you now, or do I have to do something to make you kiss me?"

Our faces were leaning closer together and I could already smell the sweetness of his breath on my face, intoxicating my brain. I grinned and closed the distance between us. As always, we both melted into the kiss. We only broke apart a few seconds later when a large crash sounded.

I let out a shriek as I jumped against the counter, placing a hand over my chest. "What was that?"

Edward barely held back a snort of laughter, bending over to pick something up off the kitchen floor. "I…uh…dropped the frying pan," he said and began laughing.

Letting out a breath of relief, I asked, "What were you doing with the frying pan anyway?" After a second, I added, "And why are you covered in flour?"

"Pancake mix, actually," Edward said as he placed the pan back on the stove. "I was trying to make you breakfast in bed as an apology. The bag exploded when I tried to open the bag and I got covered in pancake mix. Then they kind of got burnt. And we were kind of out of spray, and we don't have any oil so –."

I cut him off with another kiss. "Did you ever try using butter?"

He grinned sheepishly and shook his head. "No. I just thought that I would flip them over real quickly."

I just shook my head, laughing. "How about you go change your clothes and I'll make the breakfast?"

He smiled. "Okay. And just so you know, I plan on never getting into anymore fist fights with people we hate."

I smiled. "Good. You at least did punch him in the gut, right?"

He laughed and nodded. "Oh, yeah. We got him good." He leaned down and started talking to my belly. "And you, my dear Arnold Charlie Cullen, will learn to use the punching arm as a football arm when Jasper, Emmett, and I teach you how to play football after you're born."

My mouth opened in horror as I wrapped my arms around my stomach protectively as I felt the baby kick at the sound of Edward's voice. "Okay, two things. One, you boys are not going to teach him football until he is at least 10 years old, and two, we are not, I repeat not, going to name our child Arnold Charlie. It's a hideous name."

Edward stood up fully. "What's wrong with that name? How about Arnold Schwarzenegger Cullen?"

"We are not naming him after the governor of California, so you can take that name off your list," I said.

"Okay. How about tonight we talk about names, as the last two nights have sort of been...interrupted with the whole James/Philip debacle?" he asked.

I smiled. "It's a date. Now go change before you get flour everywhere."

Before Edward could respond, however, Lizzy appeared in the kitchen from her bedroom and came over to us. "Daddy, isn't it illegal to name someone who already has the same name? I don't want my baby brother to get arrested because he has the same name as…as…whoever you were talking about."

I bit my lip to fight back a laugh and said, "It isn't illegal. There are many people who get named after their fathers time and time again." I jerked my thumb towards Edward and said, "He's just being silly."

00

Later the next afternoon, I was down in the bookshop, ordering the books someone had placed an order on. Just as I was hanging up the phone, the baby kicked again, and I placed my hand on my stomach, giggling.

Edward and I had gone through the boy names of the baby name book the night before and written down every name that we liked. Some of them, we didn't agree with each other on, but we nonetheless put them down on the paper, knowing that it would get eliminated from the list. So far, we had 42 names, and tonight we were going to cross off a lot of them.

At almost quarter of four, the bookshop door opened and the bell above it tingled. I looked up and saw Edward coming through the door.

"Hey, what are you doing here? Did you get out early?" I asked as he came around to the back of the desk to kiss me.

"Yes. Hello," he said, smiling my favorite crooked smile and kissing me again. "Where's Elizabeth?"

"She's upstairs with Alex. I checked on them a few minutes ago and they were playing their own version of Candy Land," I said.

He laughed. "So, how's our little Ronald and his mother doing today?"

Rolling my eyes at the name, I said, "He's good. Making me a little tired, but other than that, we're doing okay. And I already said no about the name Ronald."

"Oh, come on. I put it on the list. We could always nickname him Ronnie," he said. "And it's a different spelling on Arnold."

I shook my head. "No," I said, just as the bell above the door tingled again and a woman who looked to be about my age walked in, followed by a man who looked to be about the same age.

"So, we still on for the name date tonight?" Edward asked.

I nodded. "Only if you promise to take Ronald off the list," I said just as the woman and man came over.

"Bella?!" screeched a voice that sounded familiar, but I couldn't place it. "Oh, my gosh, it's you! What a small world this piece of rock and land is!"

The man and woman had come up to the desk, and were now looking at me with surprise on their faces. The man was as tall as Edward and looked like he worked out; he kind of looked like a sports athlete. The woman was a different story, a complete opposite. Her really wavy, dirty blonde hair was pulled back into a half ponytail, and she had tons of make-up and what looked like expensive jewelry on.

There were only two people who these people could be, but I couldn't place my finger on it.

"Bella, don't you remember us?" the woman screeched loudly in an excited, yet annoying voice, shrieking an annoying laugh.

And then it came to me.

"Lollie Diamond?" I asked, hoping to the heavens that this was not the Lollie Diamond. "The Lollie Diamond from Lennor High School?"

"That's the one, doll," she screeched. She gestured behind her and said, "Remember Josh Hicks? We're dating now. Small world isn't it?"

I nodded my head. "It's a very, very small world, Lollie."

"And look at you, still working in a bookshop. Of all the darn places we could have run into each other after you ran off back when we were eighteen! And several states away?" Lollie said. "Isn't it just a small world, Josh?"

"It is. It's nice to see you again, Bella," Josh said. "Weren't you the one who was casted as a tree in that middle school play? I remember you fell over and rolled off the stage and knocked over the poor piano teacher, Ms. Hankin, right?"

My cheeks heated up, and I could see Edward fighting back a huge grin, barely holding back a poorly disguised snort of laughter. I quickly elbowed him in the ribs before saying, "Yep that was me."

"So, you still work in a bookshop, Bella? That's hilarious, you know!" Lollie said. Man, she was as annoying as she was back in high school and middle school.

"I own the bookshop, Lollie," I said, putting on my best fake cheery smile. I hated Lollie with my guts. She was the Lennor High School version of Jessica Stanley, but only more annoying.

Lollie's mouth fell open in surprise. "Wow? Own?" Then her eyes landed on Edward and she asked, "And who's this guy?"

"Edward, this Lollie Diamond and Josh Hicks. They went to the high school and middle school I went to in Phoenix. Lollie, Josh, this is my husband, Edward Cullen," I said, introducing the three of them. "We've known each other since we were babies."

"Pleased to meet you. Bella talked a lot about Phoenix in her letters," Edward said.

Lollie's eyes widened. "Husband?! Wow, you got luh-cky. Maybe you are more sociable than we thought." I glared at her, feeling the tears spark behind my eyes. Stupid hormones!

All of a sudden, Elizabeth and Alex came down the stairs from the apartment and came over to us. Elizabeth broke out into a smile when she saw Edward. "Daddy!" She went over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. Lollie smiled and said, "And who might you two be?"

Elizabeth nestled her face into Edward's side, clearly turning incredibly shy.

"This is my daughter, Elizabeth, and her friend, Alex," I said, messing the top of each of their heads as I said their name.

Lollie's mouth dropped again. "A kid?! Oh, my Bella. Did you get" – it was at this point that Edward and I covered Lizzy's and Alex's ears – "pregnant in high school or something? She can't be more than 6 years and we graduated six years ago. Wow, you are more –."

"Lollie, I suggest that you leave."

I had expected to hear these words come from my mouth, but apparently, Edward had sensed my temper flaring that should not be released in front of the two six year olds, and beaten me to it.

The woman in question raised her eyebrows in Edward's direction and said, "Alright. We were just wandering about town any-hoo. Later, Book-Nerd. Come on, Josh." She grabbed Josh's hand and pulled him out of the bookshop.

I uncovered Alex's ears and Edward uncovered Elizabeth's ears.

"Who the heck was that?" Edward asked.

"Lollie," I said, glaring after her. "She kind of had a conflict against me. I didn't have anything against her, but she wasn't the number 1 person I liked. More like 1,000th person." I got rid of my glare and turned to the two six year olds. "So, what can we do for you two ladies?"

"We're hungry," Lizzy said.

"You are? How about a snack before Alex gets picked up?" I asked, and the two girls nodded. "Alright, go on upstairs and I'll be right there."

"Okay," they said and went back upstairs.

After they were gone, I let out a breath and banged my head against the desk. Edward rubbed my back soothingly, and I didn't have to look to tell that there was an amused smile on his face. I banged my head one more time and then sat back up in my chair.

Then I got up and walked to the bookshop door and flipped the sign to 'closed'. I didn't know if I could handle any more people. Today had been very busy, and all I wanted was to just sit down and possibly take a nap.

"Well, that was one annoying reunion ever," I said, and walked past Edward and went upstairs. Edward snickered and followed me.

"You knocked over a piano teacher?"

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Author's Note:

Finally, a stress-free, funny chapter! Okay, does anybody else agree with me that Elizabeth is so cute?

Next Chapter: Our favorite couple finally decide on a name for their baby boy, with a little help from Elizabeth! And, Bella has another mood swing. The chapter probably will not be up this weekend, because I have to read The Red Badge of Courage for school. But I gauruntee you that it won't take me 10 days to write it! The story is coming to a close soon - maybe about four or so more chapters, then the epilogue - and there will be one more big plot twist to the story.

Remember to Review! Until Next Time: NerdyGuRu2

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