Chapter 37

Now

"Your father is remarried now, right?" Mike asked with an awkward look on his face.

I smiled. "Yes, he is. Him and Sue have been married for a few years now. He met her my first year here, they were married about six months after they met." I explained quietly.

"Your dad moves quickly compared to you and Mr. M." Justin snickered.

I laughed and nodded. "Yes, he does and he has told me so too."

"Is that the only time your dad talked about his relationship with your mom?" Mary-Beth asked quietly.

I nodded sadly. "Yes. I'm sure he would talk about it more if I asked but I don't feel the need to know about it since it didn't work out and she wasn't a part of my life."

Before they could say anything else the bell rang dismissing them for the day.

"Oh, Edward, they're here!" I cheered as we pulled into the garage. There was a brown UPS box sitting on our doorsteps and the only thing we had ordered recently was the puppies with the recording chips in them.

I practically vaulted from the car once it was turned off sprinting as fast as my unbalanced body could sprint. I sliced my house key through the tape on the top of the box and let out a gasp as I saw the two floppy eared dogs inside the box along with the recording devices that would slip inside the back of them after the recording was added to them. "Oh, Edward." I breathed out as I pulled the box over to the porch swing that I was just talking about during 'story time' today. "They're perfect." I told him as I pulled Jaylon's puppy from the box.

"Why isn't there any stuffing in them?" Edward asked pulling Trystan's brown and white puppy from the box.

I chuckled as I spotted the two bags of stuffing in the very bottom of the box. "That's the stuffing there." I told him pointing it out in the box. "It's that way so that we can make them as fluffy or flat as we want them. It also helps with stretching the push button into one of the legs of the dogs because we can add the stuffing after we have the button in place." I explained pulling the recording device with extension button from the smaller box it was in. "See?" I told him laying it all out in my lap.

"That should be simple enough. How many minutes will it hold?" He asked turning the small device over in his hands spotting the USB port that would allow it to be hooked up to a computer for the file transfer.

I smiled at him. "Five minutes. How long is the song?"

He breathed a sigh of relief. "Just under five minutes. Let's go into the house. I recorded it onto my laptop today at school during my free period since Marcia had the choir out on a field trip."

"Yay!" I can't wait to get these set up and stuffed." I told him dumping everything back into the box.

It took almost an hour to get both puppies stuffed with the recorded modules and stuffing but they both turned out perfect. "These are absolutely perfect." I told him as I carried them up the stairs to put in the boys' rooms. I stopped between the two nurseries. "Which room is who's?" I asked Edward looking between the frog room and the pirate room.

"It's all up to us, baby. We need to buy their letters and get their names hung on the walls behind their cribs." Edward said walking into each room flipping on the light switch before joining me back in the hallway where I stood with the puppies. "Who do you want to have the pirate room?" Edward asked pointing at the room.

I shrugged closing my eyes holding the puppies out to him. "Just pick one." I told him knowing that the puppies had collars with a J on one and a T on the other.

He chuckled as he grabbed one. I knew without looking that Trystan was getting the pirate room because Edward had grabbed his dog. "Jaylon gets the frogs then." I told Edward as I opened my eyes.

Walking into Jaylon's room it just felt right as I sat the stuffed dog into the corner of his crib. "Jaylon, buddy, I really hope you like frogs." I commented as I rubbed my stomach as I walked to the rocker that sat in the corner beside the solitary window in the room. I couldn't help but smile as I looked around the room. Books filled the bookshelves, along with a few stuffed animals, some picture frames, and a piggy bank that already had some money in it. Most of their clothes had already been washed, folded, and put into their dressers and closets. Esme had found a beautiful blue, green, and brown shag rug that covered most of the space in the middle of the room tying everything together perfectly because in the middle of the rug was a frog prince. To keep the room from taking on a feminine tone we had put a lot of frog prince items throughout the room so the rug was fitting.

"What are you doing, baby?" Edward asked as he leaned against the doorframe.

I smiled at him as I soothed my hands down my stomach. "Just admiring the room and how well it has all come together." I told him honestly.

He nodded as he came to sit on the ottoman propping my feet in his lap. "It has. I just got off the phone with Alice who is going to drop the boys' letters off at school tomorrow during lunch."

I gasped because we hadn't told anyone the baby's names yet. "You didn't…" I trailed off as tears pooled in my eyes blurring my vision.

I jerked my chin out of Edward's grasp when he tried to turn my face towards his. "How could you!?" I said loudly.

"Isabella, that is enough!" He said cupping my chin firmly turning my face to his. "I gave her a scrambled list along of their first and middle names so there is no hope of her figuring it out, baby. I wouldn't do that to you, sweetheart." He said gently as he wiped at my tear tracks.

I took an unsteady breath. "I'm sorry, babe." I whispered hoarsely.

He shook his head. "It's no big deal. I know how much it means to you to keep that a secret."

"What if she figures it out?"

"I have that covered too. I told her that if she figured it out to act like she didn't know anything because it meant the world to you to keep it a secret. Baby, you have to remember she's a mother too so she knows the importance of all this to you."

"As always, you are right one again. I love you from-"

"-now until forever." He said repeating the last half with me before kissing me gently. "Now let's order some dinner."

*~*~*~*J2FT1*~*~*~*

"Is this really what you sent Alice?" I asked Edward Tuesday morning as we drove to school. Alice had sent me a frustrated text message because she couldn't make heads or tails of the jumbled letters Edward had sent her.

JCTEMMDRHAYAYWLRSAOLTRNEADSN…WHAT KIND OF NAMES ARE YOU GIVING MY NEPHEWS!?

Once Edward glanced at the message he couldn't help but laugh. "That looks about right. See, I told you that you were freaking out over nothing. There is no way anybody could make heads or tails of that jumbled mess." He said as he pulled into the faculty parking lot.

I quickly typed out a message to Alice:

They are beautiful names, Mary Alice. Are you getting the letters or not?

Yes, I will see you two at lunch.

I stowed my phone in my bag before handing it to Edward as we climbed from the car. "You did good, babe. I'm sorry for freaking out last night."

He just laughed as he threw an arm around my shoulders leading me into the school. "All part of my job description, baby, and I wouldn't have it any other way."

As we were walking towards my classroom I spotted a familiar head of hair. "Hey! What are you doing here?" I asked Jasper who was standing just outside his classroom door.

"Hey you two! I'm just checking in to let Dr. Rollins know that I still planned to return next Monday. I figured I would check in on my class while I was in the building." He explained with a smile as he high fived James as he walked into Jasper's classroom.

I giggled because he seemed eager to come back. "Ready to come back already?" I teased him.

He nodded and smiled broadly. "You have no idea. I don't see either of you taking off very long to stay at home with the boys. I love Ali, Ari, and Alex more than anything in this entire world but I need constructivism in my life and teaching gives me that."

"We'll see." Edward told him with a smirk as the warning bell rang overhead.

"It will be good to have you back next week, Jazz. I know the students have missed you." I told him with a sincere smile.

Edward nodded. "Talk to you later, brother." Edward said as he steered us towards my classroom a bit further down the hall.

"I know we've talked about me taking the school year off to stay home with the boys but we haven't even thought about you staying home with us for the year. Is that something you would want to do?" I asked Edward as we walked towards my classroom.

He shrugged. "I don't know. I never thought of it as a possibility even though we have the money to be able to do it. We'll talk about it more at lunch, okay?"

I chewed on my lip as he sat my bag down on the edge of my desk before walking towards me laying his hands on my shoulders. "I will think about it, okay? I promise." He said sincerely as he placed a gentle appropriate kiss to my lips.

"Okay, I love you."

"Love you too, baby."

Alice did indeed drop off the large bag of wooden letters. "These are huge, Alice." I told her as I looked at the stack of wooden letters in the bag.

She nodded. "They are but they can either be hung on the wall behind their cribs by strings or something or they can be sat on top of the dresser or on a shelf also. I was going to buy paint and paint them for you but sense I don't know which letters are going in which room I figured I would leave that up to you guys." She rambled with her hands flying in every direction as she pushed Alex's stroller with her foot to keep him asleep while Ari tinkered with Edward's piano lightly.

"Thanks, Alice, I really do appreciate this. We will stop sometime this week for paint colors and maybe you can come over this weekend to help paint them?"

She smiled broadly. "You know, you will have to tell me their names if you want my help decorating the letters. They have to be coordinated."

I smiled and nodded. "I know." That's all I told her as the ten minute warning bell sounded overhead waking Alex from his slumber.

"This weekend is no good for the decorating party because we are going on a last hurrah before Jazz comes back next week, so maybe next Saturday?"

I nodded. "Sounds good, Ali. Have fun this weekend." I told her just as Alex let out a little cry.

"Okay, I guess that's our cue to leave." She said popping the pacifier into Alex's mouth to soothe his whimpers.

"Bye, Ali!" We called as she collected Ari before scooting out the door.

*~*~*~*J2FT1*~*~*~*

Edward laughed as I tugged the mason jars off the shelf in the living room on our way out the door to school. "Going to the beach today?"

I smiled and nodded. "Yep."

My morning went like it usually did until my Advanced English 12 students walked in. Once the bell rang I held up a jar of beach sand and sea shells to the class. "Who's ready for spring break?" I asked them enthusiastically.

Everyone cheered and jeered in anticipation. "Well, your spring break is still a few weeks out but I will take you back to the spring break of my junior year of college. We went big and headed south for our vacation and let me tell you…"