Assumptions Chapter 25

New York

BPOV:

After all the time zone issues, layovers, and delays, Edward and I ended up spending all day in various airports. We were so tired and hungry by the time we got to the hotel that all Edward and I really just wanted was a hot shower and nice warm bed. But food had to come first. After we checked into our hotel we asked for directions to the nearest diner. I was craving a big greasy burger and cheese fries. And a large chocolate malt. The desk clerk said she knew exactly where to send us.

"I'm going to have to remember this place for the next time that I come to New York." I said, leaning back in my seat and groaning. I was stuffed to the point that I was tempted to undo the button on my jeans. I would have, too, if we hadn't been in public.

"Do you come here often?"

"You do know that I'm already going home with you tonight. So there's no need to use cheesy pickup lines to get me into your bed." I said with a smirk.

"Ha, ha," he said throwing a French fry at me. "Seriously though, how often do you have to come to New York?"

"Occassionally. Not too often. I have to meet with my editor, Kate, and the rest of my team."

"You have a team?"

"Well, they're not 'mine' mine. Just people that work at the publishing house that edit, besides Kate, and watch for continuity, set up the press releases and book tours, stuff like that."

Once we were back at the hotel, Edward called Tanya while I started the water running for us to share a bath. He told her that we had a breakfast meeting then we would come straight to her apartment to pick up Abby. Tanya was agreeable to our plans. Personally, I thought she was a little too agreeable. But I really didn't know the woman other than from what everyone else had told me.

The hot water felt amazing on the tight muscles in my back. So did Edward's hands as they kneaded the tension out of them. Once he realized that I was totally relaxed his hands wandered to my front and started massaging my breasts. We didn't stay in the tub long after that. I was glad that we were already naked, it saved us some time.

Edward fell asleep practically as soon as we were done. "So much for cuddling," I said to myself before I got up and grabbed my nightgown that I'd set out on the chair. I adjusted the temperature in the room to keep it from getting too cold in here overnight and made sure that the alarm on my Ipod was set for the morning before crawling back into bed.

I was tired to the point that I knew that I wasn't going to be able to get to sleep anytime soon, so I got back up and grabbed a notepad out of the desk. I found an old movie on TV and turned the volume down so it wouldn't wake Edward and started making notes for the morning. I didn't get far with the notes before I got hit with a scene that just had to be written. I ended up filling up the whole note pad with the scene and a couple more that came to me while I was writing. I didn't know if I'd put them in my next book or ever use them at all, but they had to be written. The next thing I knew, I woke up to Edward shaking me. I opened my eyes and found him standing over me, completely dressed and holding a cup of coffee out to me.

"You were sleeping so soundly I didn't have the heart to wake you before you absolutely needed to be up. How late were you up till?"

"No idea. I got inspired."

"I saw that. I didn't read it though. I would never do that. Not unless you told me that I could."

"Thanks. I appreciate that. I don't think those notes are ready to be shared." He handed me my coffee before sitting in the chair in the corner. I looked over and saw that he had his own cup of coffee and the remote and was flipping through the channels, stopping when he found the news.

We drank our coffee in silence. I was half listening to the news and half lost in my own head. Today was going to change our lives. I had never really had a child in my life before and I had obviously never dated anyone with a kid. And not just a kid, Abby was less than a year old and I had opened my mouth and volunteered to be responsible for her while Edward was working. I didn't know much about babies, but something told me I was in for one hell of a crash course in infant care.

Rose had brought up the fact that my house really wasn't prepared to have a baby in it. She asked me where Abby was supposed to sleep when she was at my place. I had no idea. I feebly suggested one of those portable thingy's. Rose rolled her eyes at me and told me that she'd have Emmett bring Bree's old crib over and set it up in the spare room while we were gone. She cited the need for Abby to have a decent bed for the evenings that Edward stayed the night at my place.

That got me thinking about a lot of things. Was it alright for him to still spend the night with me, or me with them, at his place? Would he still want to? Then I thought about turning the spare room in my house into a room for Abby but couldn't make myself actually decide to do it. I was afraid that Edward wouldn't want me to. That was something that he and I were going to have to sit down and discuss. There really hadn't been much time to talk about anything. This was all happening so fast.

I sighed, drained the last of my coffee, and got up to get dressed. I was by no means shy at this point with Edward and stripped off my nightgown and walked across the room to my suitcase completely naked. I grabbed my clothes out of my bag and turned to walk back to the bed when I noticed that Edward was no longer watching the news. He was watching me with his coffee cup inches from his mouth. I laughed and walked over to him and kissed him before finally getting my clothes on. I could have sworn that I heard him call me a tease but he never took his eyes off of me after that.

The meeting took a little longer than I had expected it too. Kate didn't come alone. She brought Riley with her. He was trying to set up the book tour but they needed my input. Kate told me that they wanted a publishing date around Thanksgiving, that way people could market it as the perfect Christmas present. That also meant that I would be traveling around Christmas for the book tour. Edward's bookstore would also be busy and I was going to have to leave him when he needed me the most. I promised that I would do two and half weeks as close to Thanksgiving as they could plan it but wanted to be home as Christmas neared. We parted with a promise that they would do everything they could in regards to the schedule, and then Edward and I were free to go get Abby.

We hailed a cab to take us to Tanya's apartment and I was so nervous at the idea of meeting her. I had never been in a situation like this. What if she decided to play the jealous ex-wife and cause trouble for me and Edward? It turned out that I didn't need to worry about Tanya at all.

The only time that Edward let go of my hand once we were in the building was to knock on the door. We only had to wait a couple of minutes for someone to open the door. I was a little confused when I looked at the woman. I was told that Tanya was a pale strawberry blonde. This woman was older and the darker tone of her skin made it plainly clear that this woman had never been a natural blonde. I turned to Edward who looked just as confused.

"You must be Edward and Bella. Tanya told me you were coming to get little Abby. I'm Zafrina," she said with a heavy Spanish accent, before moving aside to let us in. That is when it hit me. This woman was the baby sitter. Tanya wasn't even here. She didn't even bother to stay and spend the last few minutes she could with her baby before sending her across the country to live with her father. I was fuming. What the hell kind of woman was this that it was so easy for her to throw away her child like that? Did she leave Abby with sitters a lot? I looked back at Edward and from the look on his face I could tell that he was thinking the same things I was.

EPOV:

I was dumbfounded and I was pissed. I couldn't believe that Tanya didn't wait for us to show up. When I brought Abby back I had to force myself to walk out the door. I hated the idea of missing a mere second of her life. "When did Tanya leave?" I asked Zafrina.

"She left last night around five. She told me that you'd be here this morning to pick the little angel up."

"I talked to her last night. She didn't tell me that she'd been called into work."

"Oh, she's not working. She is at that horrid Demitri's place. He's not a nice man."

"He didn't hurt Abby, did he?" Bella broke in and asked before I could.

"No. He ignored her. He's just completely in love with himself and money, and nothing or no one else. But Tanya won't listen to reason."

"How do you know Tanya?" I asked her.

"I own the building. My husband and I bought it many years ago. He's with God now. Lord rest his soul. But I couldn't bear to part with it even if our children keep telling me I'm too old for the stress."

Zafrina seemed like a nice woman, I thought as I followed her into the living room of the apartment, I was just furious to find that Tanya had been gone since last night. She should have told me that she had left Abby with a sitter; I would have come straight here to get her. I wouldn't have waited until now. Bella would have been fine going to her meeting on her own. I walked to where Abby was standing in her playpen and picked her up and held her to me. I let the beautiful scent of her baby soap calm me down. I had been worried that she would be too young to be able to remember who I was but I believed that a baby needed her mother.

"I have to tell you that I am glad that she is going to live with you," Zafrina said, "Tanya is not ready to be a mother."

"Did she leave her with you often?" I asked.

"With me and various other neighbors. That baby needs stability." Thinking back to the day that I brought Abby back to New York, I realized that Tanya never bothered with Abby while I was there that day. She disappeared into her bedroom and left us alone for hours. She only came back out when I knocked on the bedroom door and told her that I had to go before I missed my plane. At the time I thought that she was just giving me some space to say goodbye to Abby, but now I was more inclined to think that she just didn't want to be bothered with her and that made me even angrier.

"I agree. I assure you that I have no intention of leaving her all the time like Tanya apparently did. I had absolutely no idea she was doing that. I do have to work but Bella is going to keep her, and when she can't it will be my mom or sister-in-law." I was trying to remain as calm as I could. I didn't want to upset Abby or snap at Zafrina, she had taken good care of my daughter.

"And so it won't be often that I won't be there for her. I'm an author so I work from home and Edward's brother and sister-in-law live across the street from me so she'll have her cousin to play with as she grows." I heard Bella telling Zafrina.

"That is wonderful but I am not here to judge you. I just hate seeing a beautiful baby like her be treated like she doesn't matter."

I was getting angrier by the second, "I'm sorry. I had no idea that she was leaving Abby like that." I repeated. "I…I…should have known. She let me take her as a newborn. She insisted. Rose wouldn't let Bree out of her sight for the first year and a half of her life, even if it was Emmett that wanted to take her. I should have seen that there was something really wrong with that."

"We should get going and let you get home. I'm sure that you have things to do." Bella and I gathered the bags that Zafrina pointed out to us and we were on our way.

I was going to make sure that I got full custody of Abby. I wasn't an unreasonable man to believe that a parent can't leave their child to go out, but Zafrina basically told us that Abby was with strangers more than with Tanya. That Tanya didn't seem to want to be bothered with her own daughter.

After dropping off Abby's bags at the hotel, we went shopping for a few things that Tanya didn't seem to have for Abby. Like a car seat. Neither Bella and I could figure that one out, how did she not own a car seat. As a mother and a cop she should have known better.

We found this great baby store and I laughed as Bella went a little crazy buying outfits and toys for Abby.

"Bella, we are flying home and we're only allowed so much luggage before they start charging us."

Bella rolled her eyes and kept shopping. The clerk walked up to me and told me that they'd ship whatever we wanted anywhere in the continental US free of charge with a purchase over $100. That was a relief because Bella's shopping habit would have cost us an arm and a leg on the plane.

I finally got Bella out of the store without sending either of us into bankruptcy and back to the hotel. She had most of her purchases shipped except for a few items. I walked over to the clothes that were lying on the bed and picked up one of the outfits. It was a 0-3 month size. "This is too small for Abby."

"That's because it's not for Abby. It's for Jessica Lynn." I smiled. Angela was going to love the outfit, and ironically it actually looked like something that the original Jessica would have worn. I kissed Bella on the cheek and walked over to the chair and sat down. Abby was asleep in the crib we'd asked the hotel to bring up while we were gone today. I was eager to take Abby home with us to Forks, where she would always belong and feel loved and wanted.

A/N:

Happy Saturday! I'm posting this even though I'm not quite down with Chapter 26. It's a tad over half way there and should be done tomorrow. At least I hope that it will. Thank you to Sweetpea123 who is an amazing beta and friend. I was looking at my plans for this story and I am thinking that there will probably be about 4 or 5 chapters left. I do have another story that I am developing in my head. Can we say Reverend-ward. I'm eager to get it started but can't until my two WIP's can be marked complete. See you in two weeks and Happy Easter for those that celebrate.