Good Morning, Darlings!

Thank you to Melferd, DaniDarlingxx, and Lily Jill for pre-reading this chapter. Any mistakes are my own.


Five: Edward

June 23, 2022

Los Angeles California

"You're sweating through your shirt."

I turn and glare at Bella. "Shut up."

She grins and ducks under my arm, wrapping her arm around my waist. I shake my head and hold onto her, even though she's a pain in my ass.

"Dad should be landing any second," she says, glancing down at her watch.

I suck in a deep breath and nod. She looks up at me, squeezing me. "Hey," she says, and I look at her. Fuck, she's so beautiful. "If you want, we can go really fuck in the car while we wait since you refused my road head."

I laugh and bring her against my chest. "Christ, Bella." She giggles against my shirt, and even though I know she's teasing me, it does help take the edge off my nerves. She sinks against me, her arms wrapping around my waist, her fists sinking into the back of my shirt.

"I don't see why a quickie in the car is a bad idea," she points out, relentless as ever.

"Because I don't want the car smelling like sex," I tell her, shaking my head. She giggles.

"Do you remember when we went up to visit my dad?" She asks.

I have to wrap a hand over her mouth to stop her from saying more. I am desperately trying to block out the memory of her dad walking in on me railing her. I'd been so traumatized, I'd put her off on sex until well after we'd gotten home.

How she can even joke about it is beyond me.

"You know, now that we're getting married, everyone is going to start asking you when you're going to get pregnant."

She stiffens in my arms, and I move my hand away from her mouth in time to see her scowl. "Don't even fucking joke about that," she hisses. "We have plenty of time to worry about that shit."

I laugh. We've talked about kids of course. Fuck, we'd talked about kids a few months into fucking when she'd had that fucking pregnancy scare. It's never been a topic we've shied away from.

I think at some point Bella does want kids, but she's right. We're still young, and there is a long time ahead of us before we need to worry about any of that.

I tug the ends of her long hair, smiling at her as she tilts her head up to look at me. She's got that look on her face, and she's either about to say something sentimental or batshit, but either way it's going to be unexpected.

Before she can say whatever is on her mind, a large crowd of people starts coming through the arrival doors, getting our attention. We turn to look at the crowd, and Bella lets go of me to pop between other waiting loved ones. I check the arrivals board. Charlie's flight has landed so it's possible he's somewhere in this crowd…

"Dad!"

I turn, and there is Bella, elbowing past a couple embracing to fling herself at her dad. He catches her with a heavy grunt.

"Hey, Bells," he says, patting her back awkwardly. He's a great guy, and Bella is his whole world, but the man is textbook taciturn.

I move over to them as Bella lets go of him. He looks at me and clears his throat. "Edward," He offers me his hand and I take it.

"Good to see you, Charlie."

He nods, shouldering his bag and Bella grabs his arm, leading him toward the doors. "How was your flight, dad?"

"Fine."

Bella rolls her eyes at him. "Sit next to any hotties on the plane?"

I snort at her, and Charlie honest to god blushes. "Bells," he growls softly. She grins at him.

"Oh come on, Dad. You're allowed to date you know," she says, squeezing his arm. Bella misses it, but I catch a look on Charlie's face that makes me pause. Is he dating?

He glances at me, but it's hard to read him, and Bella is talking again, demanding both of our attention. I smile to myself as we head out of the airport, tucking that information away for another time.