Thank you to everyone who voted for Altered Measure on the November Top 10 Completed Fics poll at TwiFanfictionRecs dot com. I am beyond thrilled that Altered Measure came in second in the poll. As a thank you, here's a peek into the future of our Manwhoreward-turned-Daddyward.
Chapter 37 – Futuretake
"Come on, babe. The kids are sleeping and I finally have you all to myself," I say as I inch my hand up to Bella's breast from where I lay behind her.
"The kids are sleeping, and I should be too. I have an early morning tomorrow." She slaps my hand away playfully, and I know her halfhearted attempt means she's enjoying giving me a hard time.
I kiss the back of her neck and down across her shoulder while my hand runs light circles over her abdomen. I use the husky voice I know she loves. "I'll bet if I run my fingers between your legs, I'll find that you're wet and ready for me." As my hand creeps lower, I grind my erection into her ass cheeks.
Her sharp intake of breath lets me know my words have had the desired effect. After fourteen years together, I know my wife and how much she loves the dirty talk.
My hand drifts lower again and my suspicion is confirmed. "Oh, baby. Is all this for me?" I run my fingers through the slickness a few times but don't touch her where she wants.
With a huff, she rolls to her back to face me. "Stop teasing me, Edward, and fuck me already!"
"Your wish is my command," I say with a wiggle of my eyebrows.
An hour later, I'm watching the steady rise and fall of my beautiful wife's chest while she sleeps cuddled up against me. My body may be sated for the moment, but my mind doesn't want to quit. There's a melody running through it that I need to get down on paper. I've been working on it for the last two weeks to no avail, and unfortunately, when inspiration strikes I need to take advantage of it no matter what time of day it is.
I kiss my wife and quietly tell her I'll be in the studio. She mumbles something incoherent, but I know she understands.
Hours later I sigh, pleased with the way the melody finally came together. Picking up my cell phone, I note that it's after eleven o'clock. Bella's text message earlier told me she was taking Anthony to a friend's house while she goes to a meeting, and that Charlie would be out with her girlfriends for the day. The house will be quiet, which is perfect since I need to catch up on the sleep I lost last night. I still have to get the score on the computer before I can send it to the movie execs, but that can wait until I'm rested.
I close the door to the studio behind me as I make my way up the stairs and into the kitchen, wondering if I have enough energy to make myself something to eat before going to sleep. I take three steps across the kitchen floor and a sound stops me dead in my tracks ... a moan, to be exact.
It doesn't take long for me to cross the kitchen and step into the living room, but the sight that greets me threatens to knock ten years off my life.
"Charlotte Alice Cullen, what the hell is going on here?" I bellow.
The kid leaning over my fourteen-year-old daughter freezes with his hand halfway up her shirt. She quickly pushes him aside and sits up, all wide-eyed and innocent looking, while she pulls her shirt down over her petite body. "Daddy, Mom said you were busy today. I didn't think you were home."
"That's fairly obvious."
The kid with a death wish stands up and extends his hand to me—the hand that was just about to feel my baby girl up. "I'm Paul. It's nice to meet you, Mr. Cullen."
I glare at his hand for a second before I turn the glare on him. "Get out of my house ... now!" I add when he doesn't move.
He casts a glance in Charlie's direction before scrambling through the room and out the front door.
"You wanna tell me what that was all about?" I ask, turning my glare in Charlie's direction. Her bronze hair that is usually well tamed by numerous styling products currently resembles the haystack on my head.
She shrugs and picks at her nails like it's nothing. "I just invited him over to hang out since everyone else was busy."
"Charlie, in no way do I approve of what was just going on between the two of you. You're only fourteen, for God's sake!" I feel like a vein is going to burst in my forehead any second.
"I'm sure you were doing stuff that was much worse than that when you were my age," she says with an attitude.
I drop my head back and look at the ceiling as I take a deep breath and slowly count to ten. I have never hidden my past from the kids because it would have been futile with the amount of information they could easily find on the internet, but we've never sat down and discussed it either.
Once I'm slightly calmer, I take a seat next to my daughter on the couch. "Is Paul your boyfriend?"
She shakes her head.
"Are you dating him?" I have no idea what type of labels kids use these days.
"No," she says quietly.
My blood pressure is on the rise again but I keep my cool. "Are you even friends with him?"
She scrunches up her face and raises a shoulder. "Kinda … I guess."
My eyebrows hit my hairline. "Charlie, why would you want to be intimate like that with a boy you barely know?"
"I just wanted him to like me, Daddy," she cries. "Isn't that how you used to get girls to like you?"
"Sweetheart," I sigh. "I've made a lot of mistakes in my lifetime, and the way I used to treat women is definitely the biggest." I take a moment to gather my thoughts because although I knew this was coming at some point in time, there's no way I could ever have been prepared for it.
I wrap my arm around her shoulder. "You're right though. Before your mother and I got together I was intimate with a lot of women. But none of those women meant anything to me, and I can assure you that I didn't mean anything to them. All I ever got from those experiences was companionship for a very short amount of time when I didn't understand there were better ways to get it. I was also aware that they were using me for their own gains just as much as I used them.
"I can tell you one thing that was true of each of those encounters. I didn't respect those women." I shake my head at the memories of so many meaningless encounters. "I knew nothing about them and I had no desire to. I know that sounds cruel, but it's the reality of who I was before your mother came into my life.
"Sweetheart, any boy that wants to be with you in that way should want to be with you for what he already knows about you. The kissing and stuff isn't going to make him like you any more than he already does. It will just be an added bonus. He should want to be with the girl who wants to write her own screenplay, and the girl who loves to play guitar, and the girl who enjoys helping her mother out with charity work."
Her big, blue eyes are watery when they look up at me. "I'm sorry, Daddy. I didn't mean to let you down."
I smooth some hair back from her forehead. "Oh, baby girl. You didn't let me down. But you'll be letting yourself down if you allow yourself to fall into a situation like that. If there's anything any parent wants for their child, it's for them to not repeat their mistakes."
She nods. "Are you going to tell Mom?" she murmurs.
I chuckle lightly. "Yes. Your mom and I don't have any secrets, but I promise that as long as you and I understand each other, the discussion is over." Resting her head on my chest, she nods again. "That doesn't mean you get out of being grounded though. Not only did you lie to your mother about where you'd be, but you also had a boy in the house without permission."
She sighs deeply. "I won't do it again, I promise."
"Well then, two weeks oughta do it."
She huffs and pouts, but accepts her punishment. "Fair enough."
"Your mother and I love you very much, and if you ever have feelings that you're confused about, you know you can talk to one of us and we won't be angry."
"Thanks, Daddy. I love you too." With a peck to my cheek, Charlie leaves the room and trudges up the stairs to begin her two weeks of grounding.
Several hours later after a good nap, I exit the shower to find my beautiful wife dressed in a lovely black wrap dress.
"I thought it was just dinner at my parents' house," I comment as she puts on some jewelry.
"It is, but I thought it would be nice to get dressed up for the occasion," Bella responds. "You're the guest of honor so wear whatever you want."
I smile before crossing the room and kissing her lips. "You look nice. I guess there's no harm in dressing up so I might look half as decent as you."
She rolls her eyes at me, having never gotten good at accepting compliments, so I head into the closet to pick out some dress pants and a nice shirt. "Do I need a tie?" I call out.
"No. I know how much you hate them so don't bother."
Once the whole family is dressed and ready to go, we pile into the SUV and head over to my parents' house.
"Charlie," I call out, looking at her through the rearview mirror. "I don't want you on your phone all night."
"I know, Daddy. I'll be finished by the time we get there." She continues texting and I roll my eyes.
Teenagers. I'm glad Anthony isn't at that stage yet at only ten years old. I know at some point he'll be interested in girls, but for now he chooses to hide behind his shaggy brown hair, preferring the solitude of his room so he can read his books. Every day he's more and more like his mother.
"Someone must be having a party tonight," I comment as I pull into the neighborhood. There are a lot of cars parked on the street not too far from my parents.
I pull into the driveway behind my dad's car and turn off the engine. We all exit the car and walk up to the house together. There's a light on in the front room, but the rest of the house looks dark. I open the door and call out. "Mom? We're here."
"In the den, honey," I hear my mother say from the back of the house.
Bella closes the door once everyone's inside and we all head toward the den. "Why is it dark?" I mumble as we make our way down the hallway. I flip the switch to turn on the light and then jump.
"Surprise!" a bunch of familiar voices yell in unison.
"What the …" I look around and see all of our family and friends before spotting the sign hanging from the back of the room that says "Happy 40th Adoption Day!"
A smile overtakes my face as I fight back tears at the realization that so many people cared to share this day with us. Bella's fingers link through mine and she gives my hand a squeeze.
"I can't believe you did this," I say, spotting my parents in the front of the crowd. I drag Bella with me as I go to hug each of them in turn. "Thank you."
"This day is just as important to us as it is to you," my mom reminds me.
The kids run off with their cousins while I greet the rest of our friends and family. Everyone I love is in one room, and it's nearly overwhelming. Alice and Jasper are here with their eight- and ten-year-old daughters, Maggie and Emily. Rose and Em have their daughter Katie and their son Henry. They spent years trying to get pregnant again after Katie and finally decided to adopt a seven-year-old boy who had been in foster care for too long. He's only a month younger than Katie.
I also spend time with Eleazar, my personal agent and the agent for any Breaking Dawn issues that come up these days, and his wife Carmen. They've become part of the family since we started working with Eleazar after getting rid of Aro, who was more concerned with his bottom line than the good of the band. Although I could never prove it, I'm still sure Aro was behind leaking the information about Charlie all those years ago.
Jenks is also here, unfortunately alone since his wife passed away two years ago. He and my father are still close. Thankfully I haven't needed him in a professional capacity other than contract negotiations in quite some time.
There are also a few people from our neighborhood that Bella and I have become friendly with over the seven years we've lived there. It didn't take long after Anthony was born for us to realize we needed a bigger house. Since Bella and I were both working from home, she needed an office and I needed a studio. We decided to build our dream home in a nearby development that had the same security we had become used to. We didn't need it nearly as much as we did when I was still touring with the band, but it was nice to have anyway.
"Man, I feel old," I tell Bella as we sit on the couch with plates of hors d'oeuvres.
"Are you saying I'm old because I just turned forty?" she asks.
"No way. You'll always be my younger, hot wife." I kiss her temple. "You still love me even though I'm forty-two?"
"Always," she confirms, pecking me on the lips. "Even when you're ninety-two."
I wrap my free arm around her and take in the scene. There was a time when I didn't think any of this was possible for me. I knew my parents would always be there for me, but I thought I'd be otherwise alone, living a solitary life. I didn't think I deserved the good things in life because of those awful first two years of my life.
Now here I am, surrounded by a room full of people who love me and a family I can't live without. I've made plenty of mistakes in my life, but those only serve to make me appreciate what I have even more. I'll never take love for granted, and I'll do my best to show my children how much I love them every day I'm alive.