EPOV
Chapter Thirty-Seven
My parents left about an hour after Bella to do some last minute Christmas shopping. I decided to use that time to finalize my plans for our weekend together in Seattle. I called the hotel and made sure that they knew to have champagne, roses, and chocolate covered strawberries waiting in the room for us. I knew that Bella wasn't very into the whole romantic thing, but I did want to do nice things for her every once in a while. Besides, I had some rather unromantic fantasies regarding that champagne and licking it off of my beautiful girlfriend.
I had just finished my phone call to the hotel when I heard a knock on the front door. I ran downstairs to answer, hoping that it was Bella, but was more than a little surprised when I opened the door to find Charlie waiting. I had never before been afraid of Charlie, but from the look on his face I had a feeling that this was not meant to be a friendly visit.
"Edward," he said. "You and I need to have a little chat."
Shit. He sounded pissed and I could only assume that he had driven straight over here from his conversation with Bella. I really hoped that she was okay.
I let Charlie in and he followed me into the living room. I started to speak once we had sat down, but he held up his hand and stopped me.
"Save it, Edward. I'm sure you already have some speech planned out and I really don't want to hear it. What I want to hear is how you went from being married to one of my daughters to dating the next in less than a month."
"Sir, I promise you that I don't mean any disrespect to you or to either of your daughters. I never meant for any of this to happen. Jessica and I should have divorced years ago. Truthfully we probably should have never gotten married. I loved Jessica and she is wonderful, but we just weren't right for each other. We both tried to make it work and we just couldn't."
He looked at me, his face completely blank. The man had a damn good poker face. I had no idea what he was thinking or if I should be worried that he had brought his gun along.
"I know you and Jessica tried and I also know that you two weren't right for each other. You were a good boy and you turned into a good man. I don't hold the divorce against you. But you can bet your ass that I will hold it against you if you were cheating on my daughter, especially if it was with her own sister. So tell me right now, what the hell happened? And I want the truth, Edward. Don't try and bullshit me."
"I promise you that I never cheated on Jessica. I would not do that to her. But I'm not going to lie and say that my feelings for Bella are new. She and I got together for coffee about once a week or so after Jessica and I moved to New York. At first it was nothing more than me being nice to my wife's kid sister. At some point, however, I fell for her. She's amazing. But she wasn't the reason for my divorce and she and I did not go out or do anything together until after the divorce was final. I promise you this. I respect both of your daughters too much."
Charlie stared at me for a moment longer before nodding and leaning back in his chair. I relaxed slightly, only because I was fairly certain he wasn't going to shoot me. At least not today.
Finally he said, "I believe you. I also can't say I'm shocked. Bella didn't even have to tell me it was you, I knew it. I saw the way she looked at you last month at Thanksgiving. And I saw the way that you looked at her. I think that you are a good man, Edward. But Bella is my little girl, my baby. She thinks that she is strong and independent, but she is also passionate and loves with all of her heart. If you hurt her, I promise you that I will make your life a living hell."
I nodded, and replied "I have no intention of hurting her. She doesn't know it yet, but I love her. I love her more than I ever thought possible. She means the world to me."
"I know," Charlie said. "And you have my blessing."
I let out a breath of relief and chuckled slightly. "I'm not going to lie, Charlie, I thought you were either going to shoot me or kick my ass."
Charlie gave me a quick grin before standing up and walking to the front door. Before he walked out he turned around and smirked at me, saying "Oh I thought about it. Regardless of how much I like you, you are now taking a second daughter away from me. But then I realized that you still have to break the news to Jessica. And I have a feeling that she will give you a much bigger ass kicking than I could have. That will be worth me not doing it myself."