Thank you all for the amazing feedback. I'm blown away by the amount of reviews!

As always, big 'thank you' to CoppertopJ for all the help. Mwah! All mistakes are still mine, because I can't help and change/add stuff in the chapter before posting it.

Bella was ready to break one of Aro's rules about using the bathrooms for sex, when Jared interrupted their make-out session. He placed a glass of Cosmo in front of her, apologizing for disturbing her.

"I didn't order this. I want another vodka, actually," she said, twisting to him, but keeping Edward between her legs.

"This is courtesy of that gentleman over there."

Edward's fingers clenched on her waist, as they both turned in the pointed direction.

It wasn't the first time Jared had brought her a drink offered by someone. It had happened several times since the beginning of the year. But considering there were only a few patrons tonight, she could see clearly who was behind her mysterious drinks.

Bella had managed to forget how Tia had told her about Benjamin returning for good after several months of struggle with the authorities and bringing their siblings to the States. His dark eyes were on her and a smirk forming on his lips.

"Oh, my God!" Bella slipped from Edward's arms, rushing to Benjamin and throwing her arms around him.

"You're pretty hard to impress, Lady Isabella." His voice was as smooth as she remembered it, deepened by his native accent.

"You complete idiot. You freaked me out with these drinks." She slapped his shoulder, slowly turning to Edward. He was standing where she'd left him, frowning. She reached a hand toward him, and he approached them. When he was close enough, Bella wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning into his warmth. "Edward, this is Benjamin."

Edward thrust his hand forward, gripping Benjamin's hand, still frowning.

"Hello. Nice meeting you." Benjamin was his usual cheerful self, but Edward seemed to treat Benjamin as a potential threat.

"I'd like to say likewise," Edward commented.

"Edward is my Sub and boyfriend," Bella continued what she'd planned on saying. "Sometimes, a caveman," she giggled.

Edward met her eyes, pursing his lips. She grinned at him, feeling the effects of the vodka coursing through her veins.

"I figured. I'm sorry for scaring you, but making the first move has never been my forte," Benjamin apologized.

"The creepy stalker slash offering drinks to strangers doesn't suit you," she said lightly.

Benjamin shrugged. "There was never a good time to come over and talk to you." His eyes slid to Edward. "Your new Sub was kind of intimidating."

Bella couldn't help but laugh. She pinched Edward's chin, kissing the spot behind his ear. "Hear that? You scared Benjamin." Edward didn't seem impressed. He actually looked ready to scold her for making a fool of herself for having drunk one too many glasses. "He's not usually so grumpy."

"I'm not grumpy," Edward protested. He moved the hair off her shoulder, kissing her neck. "I'm ready to go home." There was an underlying tone in his voice that stopped Bella from pushing him.

It had been a long few hours for both of them. And she only wanted to drink and forget about the conversation they had with Aro, because all the memories were flooding back. If she didn't have a nightmare, it would be a miracle.

"We have to catch up. I might indulge Tia for that dinner invitation," Bella told Benjamin. "But you have to tame her. I don't care how you do it, because I'm not ready to talk about work."

"I'm sure we can find some rope in that house," Benjamin joked.

"Or duct tape for her mouth," Bella said, amused. "We were headed home. It's late." Truthfully, she didn't even know what time it was.

Benjamin glanced at Edward, before meeting her eyes. "I'll talk to Tia. She'll call you with a time and date. It was very good to talk to you again, Lady Isabella."

"Same, Benjamin. Good night." She steered Edward to the door, keeping her arms around him.

"I'm driving. I only had a few sips from the whiskey." He brutally opened the passenger door, waiting for Bella to get in the car.

"Are you jealous?" Bella asked curiously, stopping next to him.

His eyes narrowed at her. "I'll admit, yes. I didn't like how happy you were to see your former Sub."

"You know you have nothing to worry about." She cupped his cheeks. "I never loved Benjamin. You taught me what love is, Edward."

His glare softened. "You're my savior." He cupped her elbow, leaning closer to kiss her. "Fuck, I'm an idiot. I'm sorry for how I just behaved in there."

"I fully expected a much worse reaction from you when you met Benjamin."

"It doesn't excuse my behavior. I know you're mine, and I'm yours. I trust you, Bella."

She stroked his cheek. "You're still a man, at the end of the day. You felt threatened," she said softly. "Shh." She pressed a finger to his lips. When Edward nodded in understanding, Bella got into the car.

.

.

.

Riley's stay with them didn't bring as many challenges as Bella had expected. He mostly stayed in his room reading or playing on his new laptop. Like Edward had predicted, he left his room only if he was hungry or he needed something.

They were a week into his stay with them, when Riley knocked on Bella's opened office door. She glanced at the clock in the corner of her laptop's screen – 11:12 in the morning.

"Yes?" She turned to him, because usually this was a time when he was cooped up in there with his games. She used her free time to write.

"The Internet is down."

"It is?" She didn't need it for writing, unless she had to research something. Another check at the task bar on her laptop showed the WiFi was down, and Bella hoped a restart of the router would be enough. "Let me see if I can reboot it."

Riley followed her into the hallway where she had the WiFi router. He hovered while she unplugged the device, then plugged it again after a few seconds. He followed her back to her office, when Bella went to check if the Internet was back. It looked like it wasn't, but she still opened a browser to be sure.

"Sorry, it's on their end."

"Can you call?"

She pursed her lips. "You know, I hoped we'd get to spend more time together now that you're here for a month."

Riley rubbed the back of his head, shrugging. "I guess."

"So tell me what you want to do," she insisted, steering him out of her office and into the living room.

"What do you do for fun?" he asked, throwing himself on the couch.

"I think our concepts of fun are different," she said, amused. "I like to read, to walk with Freddie…" Bella understood how boring she was, as she thought of what else she liked to do. "I like baking."

Riley's eyes sparkled as they met hers. "What sort of cookies can you make?"

"Any kind." She grinned, grasping that thread of hope that she found a way to get close to him.

"Can you make gingerbread?"

"Isn't that a Christmas cookie?"

"Says who? Can you?"

"Of course. Want to help?"

He sprung to his feet. "Yup. I took some cooking classes a couple years ago, but Pops wasn't sure about allowing me around an open flame." He rolled his eyes.

"Well, he was right. You were too young back then. Come on. Let's see if we have what we need to make gingerbread."

After taking out all the ingredients they needed for the cookies, Bella understood a shopping trip was the answer to everything they were lacking. She'd put off shopping for a couple of weeks now, and it showed when the fridge lacked basic ingredients like eggs and her pantry had almost no sugar left, never mind honey or the usual spices needed for gingerbread.

Riley was eager to accompany her shopping, so while he went to change clothes, Bella called Edward. He answered after several rings, which meant she'd pulled him out of his class.

"Hey. I know you're busy, but I'm going grocery shopping. Do you want anything?"

"I'm afraid I took the car this morning. You were clearly asleep when you agreed that I should take the car and not walk in the rain."

"Fuck." Bella moved in front of the window to glare at the empty driveway.

"I'm sorry. I should have known you'd need it."

"We'll go to the corner store then," Bella conceded.

"I'm really sorry," he said softly.

"It's okay. I don't even remember talking to you this morning."

"I should distinguish by now when you talk in your sleep and when you're fully awake," he joked.

"Ha." She turned to see Riley in the doorway, ready to go. "I'll let you go back to class."

After hanging up, she went to put her Chucks in her feet, because there was no need to get better dressed for the corner store – yoga pants and a tank top was perfectly acceptable.

"We're not going far. I didn't realize it, but Edward took the car to work this morning," she explained.

"Oh. Cool." He shrugged.

When Bella unlocked the front door, Freddie hurried to them, expecting another walk.

"Can we take him?" Riley pleaded. He really liked her dog, and Freddie had warmed up to him, especially when Riley petted him for much longer than Bella did.

"If you don't mind waiting outside the store with him. I don't leave him alone, by default."

"I don't mind," he answered happily.

Bella fastened the leash to Freddie's collar and handed it to Riley, before they left.

"I always wanted a dog," Riley commented after a few minutes.

"Well, here you go." Bella gestured to Freddie. "All grown up and trained."

"Was he a good puppy?"

"He tested my patience every single day, but we got through it. You saw how he has his specific place, like we have our own rooms? It took him a while to understand that was his safe spot and not a punishment."

"Yeah, like when Pops sends me to my room."

"Kinda," Bella agreed. "And routine is very important for him. For instance, last year, when Edward moved in, he didn't know my rules about locking Freddie at night. It took that simple misunderstanding for me to find Freddie sleeping in the living room with Edward." She thought back fondly at that memory.

"Huh. You have to tell me his rules. I don't want to mess up," Riley said seriously.

"Maybe not so much petting."

Riley nodded, as they stopped at a tree on the side of the road for Freddie to sniff it and decide if it was worthy to mark it as his or not.

The ten-minute walk to the store turned into a thirty-minute walk. Bella left Riley waiting with Freddie by the entrance. She went to the aisles she needed, only getting sidetracked by a few other items she realized they needed before they went shopping for groceries at a bigger store.

As she was paying, her phone rang, but she ignored it. There was no way she could fish for her phone and place her purchases in the bag.

"That was fast," Riley said, impressed, when she joined him.

Bella grinned, leading the way back home. She pulled her phone out to see it was Rose who'd tried calling her. Rose didn't know about Riley, and if she wanted to visit, Bella would have to explain the situation. She didn't doubt that Rose wouldn't be understanding, but confessing to Aro the previous week had been draining enough. And she had nightmares almost every single night that followed.

"You got him?" Bella checked, noticing how Freddie had started to pull. He sometimes got too excited to return home.

"Yeah." Riley jerked the leash back, holding it with both hands.

"Let me. You have to keep him close. You can carry the bag." They exchanged the leash for the bag, then Bella kept the leash short so Freddie couldn't tug in all directions. Once he was calm, she called Rose.

It took only two rings for her friend to answer. "I heard you were at the club last Saturday. Why didn't you come up?"

"Hello to you, too," Bella answered, amused.

"So, what's your excuse?"

"Jesus, Rose. We had to talk to Aro about something, then we came home."

"I see," she said distantly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bella demanded.

"I don't know. Are you going to act all high and mighty now that you're part of the committee? We've barely seen Jasper lately, and his excuse is he's busy with committee stuff."

"That was between Aro and us, but yes, it's committee stuff. Look, we'll be busy for the next few weeks," Bella said carefully, allowing Freddie near a tree. "It's personal," she added, before Rose could get ideas.

"I told Emmett this was going to happen."

"I won't become Aro's lap dog, if that's what you're afraid of. What happened on Saturday…what we talked to him about, was something very personal for both Edward and me. And you'll probably find out about it, too…eventually."

"How about tomorrow? Are you coming to the club?"

"Since when do you frequent the club so much?" Bella inquired, not feeling okay talking about her lifestyle in front of Riley, although he didn't understand what she was saying.

"Since you don't," she said as sarcastically as possible. "If you won't come to the club, how about a visit?"

"Let me talk to Edward, but you could come over this weekend." Bella wasn't sure if that was a wise decision, but Rose was going to find out about Riley one way or another.

"Let me know. I didn't mean to sound bitchy," she apologized.

"It wouldn't be you if you were sweet."

"I'll leave you the crown for the sweetest, Stingy Bee."

Bella felt nerves churning in her stomach after she hung up with Rosalie. They had to go grocery shopping that evening for her to be able to cook something for Saturday, because that was the best day of the weekend to have them over. Bella hadn't had friends over for lunch or dinner in years. Her tiny house barely allowed for a fourth chair to be squeezed at the kitchen table, let alone a fifth, and never mind the plates of food on the table.

She chose not to worry about the weekend, and focused on baking gingerbread cookies with Riley. He was the best apprentice, and he actually liked spending time in the kitchen. Bella was happy to find common ground with him.

That was how Edward found them in the early afternoon.

Riley was eating some of the freshly baked cookies, while Bella was shoving the last tray in the oven. Edward stood in the doorway, staring at them with a curious and anxious expression.

"I thought I'd lost my mind when I realized it smelled like Christmas in here," he said carefully.

"Do you eat cake only on your birthday? Or someone else's birthday?" Riley asked between mouthfuls of cookies.

"As a matter of fact, yes." Edward grinned at him.

Riley scowled, catching Bella's eyes. She laughed at his resigned expression.

"I like cake anytime," she offered, making him beam.

"See? Gingerbread can be ate…uh, eaten anytime."

"Eaten," Bella agreed.

"Yeah, I figured it didn't sound right." Riley chuckled.

Bella took a cookie, going to Edward, and lifted her hand to his mouth. He watched her amused, but accepted the bite.

"Are you tired? I want to go grocery shopping. Rose sort of invited herself this weekend. I couldn't tell her no."

"Is that a good idea?" Edward glanced at Riley, who'd moved to crouch in front of the oven window.

"She knows the worst part," Bella reminded him.

"Let me grab a shower and we can go."

"Hey, why don't you have free time, too?" Riley asked curiously. "It's summer."

"The classes I teach are all year round. It's not part of the school curriculum. Like your guitar lessons," Edward explained.

"Oh, of course. Did you like the gingerbread?"

"Delicious."

Bella went to wrap an arm around Riley. "I had a wonderful apprentice."

"Good job, buddy!" Edward came closer to ruffle Riley's hair. "Can I talk to you for a second?" He met Bella's eyes.

"Make sure the last batch doesn't burn. Don't take the tray out – just shut the oven and open the door."

"Okay."

Edward led the way to their bedroom and into the bathroom. "I'm really sorry for taking the car."

"Did you torture yourself about that until now?"

"I felt really bad."

"God, Edward. It's not a capital crime. I'm not mad." She kissed his lips softly. "Want something to eat before we go?"

"I'll take another cookie," he replied, smiling.

So...we met the mysterious person behind the drinks. Some of you had already guessed it was him, but I didn't want to spoil it.

Thoughts about Rose and Emmett finding out about Riley?

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