A/N Here's update 3 of 4 for the week! First tomorrow! Thanks for all the love! Let's see what Dad has to say about all of this!

Words with Friends Chapter 36

Rose and I grabbed a bite to eat while we were out and then returned home with our packages. Alice practically attacked us the instant we walked in the door.

"Let me see!" I thrust my bags at her and she raced into my room and started oohing and ahhing before Rose and I even got in there. "Damn, Bella, these are great!" She was holding up a barely there pair of black underwear and I winced when I saw it.

"Rose picked that out. I picked out that red nightshirt." Alice snorted at me. "And the red and black number."

"Not bad!" she said referring to the second. I was irritated that she didn't think much of the first choice but I liked it and it was more me. I thought Edward would like it too. "How much damage did you do?" Alice asked Rose.

"Let's just say Dad might regret all that money he forked out for their cruise," she said with a glittery smile.

Alice shook her head. "Fuck them; we'll have a good time at graduation without them."

"Yeah we will," I echoed. "Dad might even bring his new girlfriend. I'll have to ask him what he's planning."

Rose brightened. "Charlie with a girlfriend, will wonders never cease? Guess my dream of doing Daddy Swan will be cast to the wayside now."

I threw what I had in my hand at her, which unfortunately was a pair of underwear that fell halfway between us. Apparently flimsy panties didn't travel far, good to know. I bet trusty cotton would have at least hit her. She was laughing at me.

"What? Your dad is a total DILF and you know it, Bella." Rose loved to tease me about how hot my dad was. I just had to cut her off before…" You just know that moustache would…"

"SHUT IT!" I shouted as she and Alice dissolved in laughter. Her theories on oral sex and my dad's moustache were not to be endured. Once had been too much. "Haven't you had enough of cops this week anyway?" I asked, because if she was going to slam on me, I was damn well going to get one back at her.

She narrowed her eyes and huffed. "I should go find that whore and kick her ass on principal. Did you know that Emmett sent me texts yesterday about how he wished that he could have seen me handcuffed, though not with her around? I thought I was going to pass out in the middle of my Human Physiology class."

"Oooh, a bondage man, you two were meant to be," Alice pointed out.

"Shut up," Rose told her, but with little heat. Oh yeah, she was gone over Emmett. Not that I was surprised. "The man is driving me nuts. He sent me a picture of him shirtless. Damn him. I'm going to drive him crazy."

"Sounds like he might do the same to you," Alice said with a giggle.

"Maybe, but I'll win." I wasn't about to challenge her from the look on her face.

"Well, Bella, you're going to drive Edward to his knees in these things," Alice said, holding up the peach number that Rose had picked out. I really kind of loved that one. It was more fitting than the see-through black stuff. "Oh! You should totally wear these under your school girl outfit!" She held up this pair of lacy white panties and a matching bra. "It looks almost virginal. And put your hair in two ponytails or a braid. Think Britney Spears in that Hit Me Baby video."

Rose burst out laughing. "Would you hold IT against me, Eddie?" I smacked her for that one. "Come on, that email was epic."

"What email?" Alice asked. She sounded a little sad and I immediately felt bad that she'd been left out of so much of my relationship with Edward. She was really trying hard to support me in it now and I appreciate that more than I could say.

"Remember the night we got drunk after you kicked Jared in the balls?" Alice grinned and nodded. "Well, I kind of sent Edward an email."

"You didn't!" she gasped. "Bella, you were drunk off your ass. What did you say? You're so lucky you didn't bust yourself."

I laughed. "Tell me about it." I picked up my laptop and opened my email. I wasn't going to show her everything, but Rose had read that email, so it was only fair that Alice got to. "Here."

She was giggling from the first sentence and in tears by the end. "Oh my God, that is so perfect. No wonder the guy's crazy about you. I love that you told him about me kicking Jared in the balls and explain Jasper sort of."

I chuckled. "I can't believe I managed to do it without explaining how you met and whatnot. Of course, he got kind of distracted by other things I said and didn't question me too much about it."

"Yeah, well when you ask him about anal sex, you can't blame the boy for failing to focus on other stuff," Rose drawled.

"Anal sex?" Alice screeched. "Where? What? You didn't?"

I groaned. "No, we certainly did not. I was drunken rambling on Words and asked if he liked it. I have never been more mortified in my life as I was in the morning when I read that email and then what I'd sent him. Fortunately he didn't run away screaming."

Rose snorted. "I told you he wouldn't. What guy wouldn't want an email like that? That's it! I'm going to send Emmett dirty texts. If he can do it, so can I."

I grinned at her. "Their mother is with them right now, at least she was when Edward and I talked." Rose whipped her phone out and started texting, smiling evilly. I did not want to know.

Alice handed me back my computer. "Thanks for showing me this, Bella. It's awesome. If I hadn't already seen it in person, I'd know that he was the one for you. You'd never talk to Tyler or anyone else like this, even blitzed out of your mind. This is the shit you share with us, not men."

Rose nodded. "I told her that."

I moved the piles of underwear out of the way and sat on my bed. "It's the weirdest thing. Other than the first message I sent him, I've never had a problem talking to him. You'd think, out of all the guys in the world, Edward would be the hardest for me to talk to, since I wanted him for years. But he's the easiest." It still blew me away. I hadn't freaked out when I walked in my bedroom and saw him sitting here, well, not much anyway. Sure I thought I lost my mind for a minute there, but who wouldn't?

"That's because it's right," Alice said quietly. I looked at her and she shrugged. "It was really easy for me to tell Jasper anything. I know how it is."

I stood up and hugged her. "Maybe that's a sign that he's right for you, despite the age thing," I told her.

She hugged me back and then released me. "Maybe. I've got to head to my lab." She looked at the bed and smiled. "Edward will love it."

I grinned. "I hope so."

"I know so." Rose looked up from her phone and grinned. "I'm a genius, you can admit it."

This time I tossed my pillow at her. "Get out of here, both of you. I have to break the news to Dad that I'm not coming home this weekend."

Rose laughed. "Good luck with that. Are you going to tell him why?"

I bit my lip and shrugged. "I guess I kind of have to. Edward's family knows about me and we're together. He wants me to go to Europe with him this summer and…"

Both girls stopped in their tracks. "What?" they each demanded.

I nodded. "He's going to be over there filming Steele this summer and he wants me to come out after graduation. I know I should probably just stay home and work with my dad but…"

"Fuck no you shouldn't. You should go! Holy shit, Bella, he wants you with him all summer? That's huge!" Rose's eyes were bugging out of her head. Alice looked shocked.

"Yeah, he wants me there." And it felt amazingly good to know that.

"You're going. Tell Charlie whatever you need to, but make it happen," Rose ordered. "I'll make Emmett invite me if need be, he said he's supposed to be with Edward on this movie."

That would be awesome. "You should go. You should both come! I'd need someone to hang out with while he works all day."

Alice laughed. "Rose maybe could go but I…"

"No, Alice. I get why you don't want to do the cabin but Edward works long ass hours during filming. We could tear it up all across the continent while they're working," I told her. I didn't want her to be left out of this too.

"I'll think about it. I'm not just inviting myself to Europe and I might be working at the hospital this summer. Let me think it over," she begged. I couldn't say no to that. "Alright, I'm going to class. Good luck with Charlie!" she called.

Rose watched her go. "We need to make her come."

"We'll try. You know Alice," I told her. "What did you send to Emmett by the way?"

She giggled. "I told him that he could use his handcuffs on me only if I got to use them on him first and that I have no gag reflex."

I burst out laughing. "You're a liar and a perv."

"You know nothing about my gag reflex, Bella." She smirked as she backed out of my room. "I hope his mom was right next to him when he read that. I think I'll go take a picture of my domme costume and send it to him."

I shook my head and watched her leave. She was crazy but I loved her for it. And now it was time to do the thing I'd been dreading, but I couldn't put it off any longer. I should have called him yesterday after Edward left but I hadn't been up to it. And yes, I'd wanted to keep my phone free for any texts and calls Edward would manage while he was traveling. Sue me.

I dialed Dad's number and waited. "Hello."

"Hi, Dad."

"Hi, Bella. I was just about to call you."

I shifted guiltily. "Sorry it's taken me awhile to get back to you. I was busy this weekend."

He grunted. "I remember. How was that date of yours?"

Date? What date? Oh God, I forgot he knew about Colin. So much had happened since then that I'd forgotten myself. "Oh, it wasn't very good, Dad. I actually came home early."

"That boy didn't try anything, did he?"

I had to laugh at that. "No, Dad, he was a perfect gentleman. He could tell my heart wasn't in it so he brought me home." To Edward. I still got tingles when I remembered walking into the room and seeing him there.

"Well, that's good. So what kept you too busy for your old man then?"

Shit, here we go. "Uh, remember how I told you there was another guy that I was avoiding?"

"Yes." He drew out the word, sounding suspicious.

"Well, I couldn't avoid him anymore. He was here when I got home and we talked." I smiled. "We're good now. Better than we were before."

"That's good. You sound happy," he said.

"I am, Dad. He's amazing." Too amazing. "There's something I have to tell you though."

"What is it, Bella? You can tell me anything, you know that."

I could, too. Well, anything that wasn't sexual. There were just some places I was not willing to go with Dad. "He's famous, Dad."

There was a long pause on the other end of the line and then a sharp intake of breath. "Bella! Are you dating Jake Locker? I told you that you could meet him if you just put yourself out there! How'd you meet him? Can he get me sideline passes?"

Holy hell, he was off and running. Charlie had made no bones about the fact that he'd love it if I dated a UDub football player and Jake was the best we'd had in a long time. Of course his mind went to sports. I should have known.

"Dad, I'm not dating Jake Locker."

Charlie finally stopped babbling and heard me. "Who then?"

"Edward Cullen."

There was another long pause followed by a laugh. "Seriously, Bella, who is it? It's really Jake, right? You just want to pull my leg."

I sighed. Was it so hard to believe? Actually, I supposed it sort of was. I wouldn't believe me. "No, Dad, really, I'm dating Edward Cullen."

Charlie cleared his throat. "Alright, I'll bite. Just how did you meet Edward Cullen? Have you, Rose and Alice been taking road trips down to California instead of going to class? Is he there shooting a movie? I think I would have heard."

And here was where he'd get pissed at me. "No, he's not here shooting a movie. We actually met over the phone, from playing Words with Friends."

"Bella, I know you're smarter than to believe some yahoo who claims to be Edward Cullen over a game. I've told you time and time again how people misrepresent themselves over the internet and that you can't trust them. Please tell me you haven't given this guy any personal information that he can use against you. Give me his name and I'll do a search." His voice had taken on a hard edge and I cringed at what was about to come.

"Dad, I know for a fact that he's the real Edward Cullen because we've met. He was here, waiting for me, when I got back from my date."

"What?" Charlie yelped. "Explain, Bella. From the beginning."

Right. Probably should have done that from the get go. "Alright, Dad, he was on TV and mentioned that he played my favorite game, Words with Friends. Using what I knew about him, I found him and started a game against him. We started talking and then emailing and then talking on the phone." I paused and waited for it.

"You gave him your phone number? Bella, how many times do I have to tell you how many crazy people there are out there? You can't just give your phone number to some guy who may or may not be famous."

"I knew he was by the time I gave him my number, Dad. I'm not that stupid."

He muttered something about "that stupid" and I sighed. "You can get mad at me if you want but I've already confirmed with my own two eyes that it was Edward Cullen." And other parts of my body. Not mentioning those, thank you very much.

Dad sighed. "So what was this falling out you mentioned?"

"I saw him with his friend Jane at an awards show and got mad at him and let it slip that I knew all along who he was. He'd liked talking to me because I didn't know who he was so he was angry that I'd been lying to him all that time." I waited and he said nothing. "We had a big fight about it and I figured he'd never talk to me again."

"I see. So how did you go from that to him being in your apartment?"

"Well, Rose was a bit angry at him for upsetting me and she called him but got his brother. His brother told her that he really liked me and was very hurt that I'd lied to him. Rose explained that I liked him beyond him being famous and Edward's brother drove him up here so we could talk face to face and find out if there was anything between us."

"And I presume there was?"

More than I could possibly say. "Yes. Dad, he's great. He's kind and caring and sweet and somehow he really likes me."

"What the hell kind of statement is that?" he demanded. "Of course he likes you. You're smart and beautiful and a great girl. He'd be a fool not to like you."

I felt myself smiling. "Thanks, Dad, but you're a little biased." He made a noise that sounded like humph but I hurried on. "We're going to be spending Spring Break together."

"You're going away for a week with a boy you just met?" he asked, his voice sounding a lot like it had the time he'd caught me and Eric necking in the parking lot behind the gas station.

"We've been talking for over a month now and I'm not going alone. Rose is coming, too." She'll be in another cabin but you don't need to know that right now. Or ever. "And we're inviting Alice and some other people." We had invited Alice. Still, not a lie.

"Bella, I know you're excited and that he's rich and famous and whatnot but I really don't think you should rush into anything. You know how these Hollywood types are. He could have women in every city."

That made me mad. "Dad, you don't know Edward. He's not like that. I know him; I really, really do. He's a good person. You need to give him a chance."

"How am I supposed to do that, Bella? When can I meet him?"

Shit. I didn't know. "I'm not sure yet, Dad. He's going to Europe to film the next Steele movie in a few weeks, so maybe after that." There, I'd put Europe out there. It was time.

Silence greeted that statement. "So you're going to spend a week with the guy and then he's off to Europe for months on end to do who knows what with God knows who? Bella, sweetheart, I just don't see this going anywhere that won't leave you hurt and alone. I don't want you to go through that again."

I winced. He knew what Tyler had done to me and of course he was worried now. But he didn't need to be. "He invited me to go with him."

"He what?" my dad's voice thundered over the line.

"Dad, you were worried he'd go to Europe and mess around behind my back, weren't you? I'm just showing you that he's not going to. He wants me with him."

"For the summer?" Charlie asked.

"Yes, it would be for the summer. Rose and Alice are talking about going too." That wasn't a lie either, we'd just discussed it. "He'd be working all day long so I'd need somebody to go see the sights with."

"And just where would you get the money to go to Europe? From him?" Dad demanded.

"Yes, Dad, he'd buy my ticket. I'm not exactly thrilled with that, but he has money and I don't and I want to be with him. He doesn't have to do it but he wants me with him."

"I just bet he does," my dad muttered, but at least he wasn't yelling.

I closed my eyes and prayed for patience. "Dad, I know this is a lot for you to process, I get it. I can't even believe it and I'm living it. But I can tell you that Edward cares about me and I care about him. Obviously with the distance between us, we need to do things like this in order to be together. We can't just go out to dinner and then go about our regular lives. We have to sneak away and spend all the time we can get together."

"Sneak away? Is the boy going to hide you like a dirty little secret, Bella?" Dad sounded pissed at that idea. I couldn't blame him there.

Bad choice of words. "No, Dad, he doesn't want to hide me but he does want to protect me. He doesn't want the press following me and taking pictures of me while I try to go to class. I don't want that either. We haven't figured everything out, of course, but he wants me to be with him. That should tell you something."

"I don't like this, Bella."

Of course not. "I didn't expect you to, Dad, but I do expect you to trust me. You raised me right and despite what you may think of how Edward and I met, I am smart and I wouldn't have given up information about myself to just anybody." I decided to give him everything. "I love him, Dad. He's so much more than I thought he would be when I went looking for him."

"Oh, Bella, are you sure you love him or is it the idea of him? Everybody has celebrity crushes and you're just getting a chance to live yours out." He sounded resigned to what I was telling him.

"No, Dad, I love him. You can question just about anything else I've told you today, but don't question that."

He sighed. "I can't tell you what to do, Bella. You're twenty-two years old and you know your heart. I can tell you that I don't much like it and I'd very much like to meet the boy before you go gallivanting off to Europe with him for the summer."

That was probably as close to a blessing as I was going to get. I had no idea how I was going to get him and Edward together before then. Maybe he and I could leave the cabin for a day or two, though I was loathe to do that. I'd talk to Edward about it. "I'll try to make that happen, Dad."

"Good. I'd appreciate it. And be careful, Bella. I know you trust this guy but I just don't want to see you get hurt again."

"I know that, Dad. But I also know that I have to put myself out there eventually. Not all guys are like Tyler. Not all women are like Mom."

Dad made a choking noise and I wondered if I'd gone too far. I was right, though. Dad had closed himself off for a long time after she left. "I know that, Bella."

"Good, Dad. He makes me happy."

"Alright, Bella. I'm not happy about this but I do trust you. I expect you to check in from wherever it is you're going and give me the address and phone number and everything."

Great, now I had to worry about Dad pulling up in his cruiser to check everything out. I'd have to make sure Rose had her phone on at all times in case he did show up and she had to come running to pretend to be protecting my virtue, such as it was. Dad had to know that wasn't happening. "I will, Dad."

"I hope that he's everything you think he is, Bella. I want you to be happy, you know that. I'll do my best to keep an open mind, but I better not see that boy with a different girl on his arm in all those stupid magazines they carry at the grocery store."

I laughed at the thought of Charlie scanning tabloids looking for evidence of Edward cheating on me. "He's going to be busy with work, Dad; I doubt you'll see much of anything."

"We'll see," he muttered. "Just find a way for me to meet him or I'll find a way myself."

Ugh. "Yes, Dad, will do. I'll call you Friday when we get there."

"Good."

"I love you, Dad."

"Love you too, Bella. Be safe."

"I will." I disconnected and closed my eyes. That had been draining. It hadn't gone well but it hadn't been terrible either. He hadn't tried to forbid me to see Edward or anything, which I wouldn't have listened to anyway.

I must have dozed off because the ringing of my phone startled me. I smiled when I saw Edward's name on my screen.

"Hello, Edward," I said by way of greeting. I couldn't keep the happiness out of my voice.

"Hi, Bella. It's so good to hear you."

I giggled. He'd survived Mom's visit. "I'm the one who's relieved. I was afraid you'd be grounded for being a big, bad spaghetti thief."

Edward's beautiful laugh came over the line. "She wasn't that mad and we distracted her with talk of you girls, which is why she really came over."

"Really?" She wanted to know more about me? "What did you tell her?"

"I told her how beautiful and smart and funny you are and how happy you made me. Of course, she saw that for herself."

God he knew how to make me feel good. Though how had she seen it for herself? "She did, huh?"

"Oh yeah. Emmett took a couple of pictures of you and she agreed that you're beautiful. She can't wait to meet you."

I wish I could say the feeling was mutual. I mean, I wanted to meet his family but I was a bit nervous about it after all I'd heard about his mother. "Well, we'll have to see when we can arrange that."

Edward made a little noise. "We actually kind of have."

"What does that mean?" Please tell me she's not showing up at the cabin, too. She and Dad could haul us off together.

"Um, Emmett came up with the idea of us going to your graduation and Mom was all over it."

Graduation? That could work. Then Charlie could meet Edward and not have to take away from our alone time. But could Edward manage that without getting mauled by thousands of people? "Could you do that? I mean, people would see you."

"Well, if anybody notices me, I could say that I'm there for a family member or something. We'll figure it out. Is it okay with you if we come? I'm assuming your dad will be there and will want to meet me at some point."

If he only knew. I choked on a laugh. "Uh, yeah, he wants to meet you." That's an understatement. I wouldn't be surprised if he was doing background checks and researching tabloids as we spoke.

"You talked to him? What did he say?"

"Well, he was kind of fatherly about the cabin thing, so I may have let him think that we'd be sharing with Rose and Emmett and a couple of other people." I'd have to ask Alice not to drop in to see him when she went home this weekend.

Edward chuckled. "You may have, Bella? More like you did."

"Okay, so I did! He was a little blown away that I was dating you and I had to tell him how we met, which he wasn't thrilled with since he's a cop and hears all those stories about people meeting people on Craigslist and one of them getting killed and whatnot." I was pretty grateful that I hadn't gotten a Craigslist lecture again.

"Well the fact that I'm famous should put him at ease a little bit, right? Killing you would be bad for my career."

I should have told him that. I couldn't hold back the laughter. "I'll be sure to point that out."

"Did you mention Europe to him?"

Yes, it was a real blast, let me tell you. "Yeah, I did. That went over less well than the cabin, but he didn't tell me I couldn't go. Just that he has concerns."

"Well, maybe coming to graduation would be good. He could meet me and I could put his fears to rest." Edward didn't seem remotely bothered by my dad's lack of enthusiasm, but then he hadn't had to hear it.

I laughed. "It couldn't hurt, I suppose. And if your parents are there, he'd have to be on his best behavior." Edward's mom would defend him from any torture from my father, I'd bet money on that. Crap, what if they had a huge Jerry Springeresque fight?

"Do you think you could get us tickets?" Edward asked.

That was the easy part. With Rose's family not coming we'd have hers, plus I had no intention of inviting Mom and her current boy toy. "Oh yeah, that won't be a problem. If Dad brings Sue, I'll still have two left over and Rose's parents aren't coming so she'll have all four."

"Rose's parents aren't coming?" He sounded as disbelieving as I had been. Even knowing what they were like, they'd surprised me by not wanting to see their daughter graduate. Parents lived for that crap.

"No, they're not exactly a close family and they just told her to buy herself something nice." I hated them. "Hence our shopping trip."

"Oh yeah, the shopping trip. Are you going to tell me what you bought?"

You wish, Cullen. Just you wait and see. "No, I'd rather wait and show you."

"Why don't you show me now?" He was using his sexiest, most cajoling voice. I felt my insides melting.

What did he have in mind? "And how am I supposed to do that?"

"Skype, baby. That's the one form of communication we haven't used."

That was…I hadn't thought of that. I wanted to see him, badly. "You want to Skype with me?"

"Hmm, do I want to look at my beautiful girlfriend, hopefully wearing one of the things she bought today? Yes, I think I do."

What should I wear? The pink number? The red and black? Red and black, definitely. "Okay, give me ten minutes. Same login I always use."

"Okay, see you then, Bella."

"Bye, Edward." I hung up and reached for the red nightie with the black lace edging. It would be perfect. Ready or not, here I come, Edward.

A/N Charlie took it pretty well, all things considered. Though he probably is running that background check. And the image of Charlie Swan reading tabloids just makes me giggle. And I know Rose isn't alone in her naughty thoughts about what that mustache could do!

I forgot to bring my Words list with me, so I'll list the rest of you tomorrow, but had one request in my email today that I can at least do: Quixera is looking for fellow players.

See you next week with the Skype date and maybe a little time jump that everybody's anxious for ;) Happy Holidays!