A/N: What's this? An update in only a weeks' time? I know, crazy. LOL! Anyway… Thanks as always to all of you who continue to read and review. I really appreciate it. LovinRob and DannysMom are the best betas ever. Just sayin'. Ok, see ya at the bottom.
Christmas
EPOV
I come home from work to find Bella shaking her groove thing in the kitchen in nothing but my favorite pink and white cotton panties and a wife beater that doesn't even cover half of her protruding belly anymore. Damn! When did she get so big? I wonder. I wrap my arms around her waist, rubbing her belly and moving my hips with hers. She's eating Nutella straight out of the jar, as usual. I spin her around and pry the jar out of her hands, which is odd because she usually threatens to chop my balls off if I so much as lay a finger on one of her precious jars of Nutella. I swipe my finger through the creamy spread and rub it along her lips before I kiss her, licking the hazelnut goodness off her lips and plunging my tongue into her mouth. I strip her of the wife beater and lather her full and heavy breasts with more Nutella before sucking a nipple into my mouth. Once her other breast has received equal attention, I drop to my knees and nuzzle my nose against her huge belly before slowly pulling her panties down.
I look up at her and tell her to hold on to the counter as I lift one of her legs up and over my shoulder, opening her up for me. I lick and suck and nibble on her pussy. She has a death grip on my hair and is grinding her hips against my face. I slip my middle finger inside of her and curl it just so. I suck her clit in to my mouth at the same time that I make two quick swipes against that small elusive spot inside of her that I know so well. As predicted, she practically howls as her orgasm rips through her. She growls and pushes me back, making me fall on my ass, and makes quick work of my button fly. She straddles my lap and grips my cock as she…
"Huhhnngg!" I hear as I stir from my fucking awesome dream. My new alarm clock. I think to myself, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
I throw my boxer clad ass out of bed and stumble to the bathroom, adjusting my morning wood as I go. My new alarm clock is huddled over the toilet, where she is every morning without fail. My poor beautiful wife is having a hard time with this pregnancy and I can only hope and pray for her sake, and mine, that this will pass soon. She is not only limited to puking in the morning but anytime and all the time. She's miserable and I'm miserable because she's miserable and I'm trying to do anything she wants just to make her feel a little better. I'm a dude though and I have a penchant for unconsciously fucking things up. For example, she said the smell of the bathroom made her sick and asked me to go get some yummy smelling something or other so she won't be sick the second she enters the bathroom. Ok, I can do that. I thought. I spent 20 minutes staring at the Glade Plug-in display in Walgreen's. I don't know, they all smell like fruit and flowers and shit to me so I grabbed one called Island Paradise, thinking it would help her relax and maybe she could visualize herself on some Island Paradise. Yeah, I was wrong. She threw up before she even had the damn thing plugged in. I made three more trips to Walgreen's before I just bought one of every fragrance we hadn't tried yet. We finally had success with Apple Cinnamon Medley.
And just a few days ago, I decided to bring home her favorite pizza, Bacon Cheeseburger with jalapenos. She squealed when I walked in the door and devoured three slices before I could even get the plates out of the cupboard. Five minutes later those three slices were floating in the toilet while she expressed her hatred for me. The forlorn look on my face set her off yet again and she was instantly a sobbing mess. Damn pregnancy hormones. When do we get to the fun stuff, like increased sex drive and bigger tits?
I go and kneel behind her, pulling her hair out of her face and kissing her shoulder blade.
"I hate this, Wardo. Make it stop." She whimpers and breaks my fucking heart.
"I know, baby. I know. It's supposed to pass after the first trimester, which is soon." I tell her, rubbing her lower back.
"Why are Rose and Alice not having this problem?" She asks, letting her head fall back on my shoulder.
"I don't know." I tell her. Rose and Alice are not having any morning sickness whatsoever.
"Will you get me some juice?" She asks meekly.
"Of course, HB." I tell her, kissing her temple.
I pour her a glass of Fruit Punch, this being the only liquid she can drink without throwing up. I head back into the bathroom and she's sitting on the toilet now. I hand her the glass and she starts sipping it slowly as I move to start the shower.
"We don't have to go today if you're not feeling up to it, Bella." I tell her.
I love Christmas and I'm excited to see my parents but my wife is more important right now and if she wants to stay home and rest, they will understand.
"No. I'll be ok. We're just going to Alice and Jasper's, I can wear my pj's and no one will give a shit." She tells me followed by a small burst of laughter, "Well, maybe Alice will care a little bit."
"True. But Alice can suck it." I tell her.
We shower and dress for the day, me in jeans and a tee shirt and Bella in her flannel snowmen pajamas. At least she's keeping with the spirit of Christmas. I make her a breakfast of dry English Muffins topped with, wouldn't you know it, Nutella. She nibbles it slowly and is soon back to feeling like herself again.
After she brushes her teeth with her kids strawberry toothpaste, because regular toothpaste is another thing that makes her throw up, we decide to exchange our gifts now. I struggled over what to get her but ended up going with jewelry. You can't go wrong with jewelry, right? At least I had it custom made. It's a rose gold heart pendant with diamonds going up one side and an extra little loop at the bottom where a small diamond encrusted E hangs. I triple boxed that fucker so she wouldn't know what it was. I even wrapped all three boxes. She's a giggling mess by the time she gets to the third and final box. And her smile is radiant as she pulls the small velvet box out and opens it.
"Oh my god, Edward!" She gasps, "It's beautiful."
"You like it?" I ask.
"I fucking love it!" She says, bouncing in place. "Here, put it on me."
I clasp the delicate chain around her neck and run my finger along the outline of the heart. "Once the baby is born, you can add another initial pendant for his or her name."
"It's perfect, Wardo. I love it. I love YOU! Thank you." She tells me and I can tell she's trying really hard not to cry.
"You're welcome, baby." I say, kissing her nose.
"Okay, let's go. I'm famished." She says even though she just ate like three minutes ago.
"Umm…" I trail off.
"What?" She asks.
"Where's my gift?" I ask.
"Oh shit! I forgot." She says and runs back into our room.
I hear a bunch of banging and several curse words and when she shrieks I bolt off the couch and in to our room to see if she's alright. She's on her ass on the closet floor with her shoe rack laying in two pieces and shoes scattered all around her. There is also a huge boxed wrapped with sparkly silver paper and decorated with like a hundred bows of assorted colors laying to the side of her.
"Well, at least I got it down before the shoe rack broke." She says, shrugging.
"Are you okay?" I ask, pulling her to her feet.
"Yeah." She says, blowing her crazy hair out of her face.
"Why were you standing on the shoe rack?" I ask.
"Because your present was up in the ceiling." She tells me, pointing up and I see that the ceiling tile that covers the crawl space is pushed to the side.
"And why would you put my present up there?" I ask.
"So you wouldn't find it, dummy." She tells me as if I'm the biggest idiot ever.
"Ohhhkay. But no more acrobatics, alright? I don't want you to hurt yourself, HB." I mildly scold her.
"Yes, Dad." She rolls her eyes at me and drags the huge box into the living room.
I shake my head and follow after her.
"Open it! Open it!" She says excitedly.
I rip the paper open to reveal a brown cardboard box with nothing on the outside indicating what's in it so I decide to fuck with her a bit.
"Oh my God, Bella! A box? You got me a fucking box? How did you know that this is what I ALWAYS wanted? I love it!" I squeal.
She's not amused as is quite apparent by her crossed arms and narrowed eyes. "Ha. Ha. Very funny, Winkyward."
"Winkyward? Really, Bella?" I laugh.
"Dickward is too common." She shrugs. "Now, if you're going to be a winky and not open your damn present, let's fucking go. I'm hungry."
"You… are strange." I say, using my keys to cut the tape on the box.
What I see leaves me speechless. "You bought me a guitar?"
"Yeah?" She asks more than states.
"This is fucking badass, babe." I'm stoked. I've always wanted a guitar but was too cheap to buy one for myself.
"Well, I don't know shit about guitars and the guy at the store was trying to convince me to buy some $800 thing and, sorry, but that's way too much fucking money for a piece of wood and some strings. So if this one sucks, well, just deal with it." She tells me.
"HB, I love it and it's perfect. Thank you." I reassure her and pull her into my arms, kissing her smack on the lips. "Now let's go feed your face."
When we get to Jasper and Alice's, the house is loud and chaotic. They are rooming both sets of parents since they have the extra space. I don't envy them at all. Bella's dad and Rose's mom, Lily, are sharing the extra room at Emmett and Rose's apartment which is weird and… well, weird. Bella and Rose said that they are like best friends with the occasional benefit thrown in. Too much information if you ask me.
"Really, Bella? What the fuck are you wearing?" Alice hisses the second we walk in the door.
"Shut the fuck up, Alice, or I will cut you." Bella growls, pointing her finger at Alice.
Alice huffs and mumbles shit under her breath before getting back to cooking. Apparently Alice is craving Mexican food so that is what we are having for Christmas dinner. Green chile chicken enchiladas, carnitas and tamales. And yeah, we cheated and bought pints of rice and beans from Filiberto's. And churros because Emmett couldn't help himself. Apparently Alice has been trolling every food website under the sun lately and came across a recipe for something called Sopapilla Cheescake and decided she had to have it so that is what she made for dessert.
During dinner, Bella gently nibbles at a bird sized portion of rice followed by 4 churros. My girl loves her sweets. Alice puts ketchup on everything and by the noises she is making I'd assume that I know what she sounds like in bed now. Gross. And Rose out-eats Emmett before promptly falling asleep on the couch.
Once we get the dishes done and the kitchen clean, because Alice is OCD and can't do anything with a dirty kitchen, we open presents. We decided to wait until Christmas to tell our parents so we all planned out gifts together to announce the pregnancies. All the moms seem to know what's going on already. My mother has been way more emotional than normal and she keeps staring at the girls bellies, not that there is much to look at yet. Esme has been all smiles and baby this, baby that. And Lily has been her apparently normal snarky self, commenting on how much Rosalie ate and how only kids and pregnant woman drink fruit punch and put ketchup on everything. All the dads are clueless, of course.
"I'm gonna be a grandma!" My mom shrieks as she rips the paper off the picture frame. "And twins! Oh my god! Peter, our baby is having babies! Wait… Which one of you is having these babies?" She asks, confused.
"Ma, those are two different babies? Not twins." Jasper tells her.
"I don't understand." My mom says and I roll my eyes.
"Mom, Jasper and I are both having babies." I tell her.
"Oh my God! Two sets of twins! This is the best Christmas ever!" Mom wails, sobbing like a… Well, like a baby.
"No, ma, Alice and I are having one baby and Edward and Bella are having one baby. If you paid attention to the writing on the bottom of the frame you'd see that." Jasper tells our hysterical mother.
We got our parents a double photo frame and put the first sonogram pictures in it. On the bottom we, well Alice actually, glued some scrapbooking shit to it that said Edward and Bella, Baby Masen #1 and Jasper and Alice, Baby Masen #2. We did the same for Carlisle and Esme with Emmett and Rose's sonogram picture paired with another of Jasper and Alice's pictures. Charlie and Lily each had single picture frames similarly decorated. There were squeals and shrieks and wails and howls – that was Emmett trying to get in on the action – and lots of jumping and hugging. Rose managed to sleep right through all the excitement.
Once the girls settled down and the rest of the gifts were opened it was time for dessert. Rose popped up off the couch as if she hadn't just been sleeping for the past hour and headed straight into the kitchen. Emmett followed with a huge grin on his face. Alice cut us all big squares of her cheesecake and we dug in. It was really tasty except the top crust was a little soggy underneath and I had a feeling that it wouldn't sit well with Bella. And I was right because she didn't even manage to swallow the first bite before she was hightailing it to the bathroom.
"Fuck." I murmur, pushing my half eaten cheesecake away.
"Still getting sick all the time?" Alice asks with a sympathetic frown on her face.
"All the damn time." I tell them.
"Shitty." Rose says around a mouthful of cheesecake. "You gonna eat that?" She asks, pointing to my plate. I laugh and push it towards her.
"Well, hopefully it'll pass. And soon." Alice says, patting my hand on the table.
"Yeah." Is all I can manage because this is tearing me up and I can't do shit to help her.
Bella emerges from the bathroom a short while later and she looks awful. Her face is all splotchy and her eyes are red. Her hair is half up in a pony tail and half flying wildly around her face. I smile at her and push back from the table a bit, motioning for her to sit on my lap. She curls up and wraps her arms around my waist, resting her head on my shoulder. I simultaneously rub her thighs and her lower back and before I know it I can hear her soft snores in my ear.
We visit quietly for a bit longer while Bella snoozes on my lap. We chat about nothing of importance really. The girls are immersed in talk of babies and nursery themes and the upcoming nuptials of Emmett and Rose so the guys tune them out with talks of how the Cardinals and the Seahawks are faring this season and possibly getting tickets to the last game on the 30th.
"Take me home, Wardo." Bella mumbles into my neck when she stirs a short while later.
"Sure thing, HB." I tell her.
We gather all of our shit and head out with Charlie in tow. Bella heads straight for bed when we get home. Charlie and I hang out and drink beer for the rest of the evening. He plays on my Xbox and I tinker with my new guitar. We have put a pretty significant dent in the 18 pack in the fridge when Bella walks out of our room. She grabs a bag of chocolate chip cookies from the pantry and the tub of cool whip from fridge before plopping down next to me. I'm a little tipsy at this point, so I just smile at her and twirl the ends of her hair around my fingers as she dips the cookie into the cool whip before shoveling them in her mouth. She's got cool whip on her cheeks and crumbs all over her chest and it makes me giggle. She smiles at me and my heart swells. After she finishes about a dozen cookies she's ready for bed - again - and this time I follow, leaving Charlie to his own devices on the couch.
A/N: Charlotte cracks me up. LOL! And I took some of HB's pregnancy issues from my own pregnancy. It sucked big time. I survived off Fruit Punch, Lay's Potato Chips and Frosty's. For nine months. I only gained 20 pounds and my son weighed 9 pounds. Yikes. Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you soon. xoxo