A/N: Thanks so much for all your wonderful thoughts!

Most characters belong to S. Meyer. The rest belong to me. All mistakes are mine.

Chapter 10 – Tantrum Part II

Edward:

If there's one thing I've learned since becoming a father, especially one singularly in charge of his child, it's this:

If a toddler displays signs of exhaustion, and you fail to provide them with a bed within five point two minutes, you've just bought yourself an overtired, over-hyper kid for the foreseeable future.

Tristan's exhaustion was doused after our backyard dinner and subsequent…uhm, discussion regarding my giving Bella a ride to her part-time pub gig. He wriggled out of my arms, running up ahead, and I opened my mouth to deliver a reminder. But, the woman next to me beat me to it in a gentle yet firm tone.

"Tristan, don't run too far ahead, and wait at the truck, sweet pea."

I'd say the entire thing took no more than three seconds. Yet, the words may as well have been called out into a canyon that echoed and resonated within me.

It wasn't the first time someone other than me provided Tristan with gentle admonishment and guidance – there was my mom, Kate's mom, Alice, Tanya. It wasn't even the first time Bella provided Tristan with guidance. It was just…she and were still walking hand-in-hand, and there was something decidedly familial about the moment, something so achingly sweet it pulled at my heartstrings, painfully.

She looked up at me, and I could tell by her expression that she had no idea what she'd just done to my insides.

"Sorry about that scene in there," she said. "Leah's filter roams into negative territory, and my godfather…"

Forcing my mind away from musings that barely even made sense, I gave her hand a slight tug.

"Hey, I've told you about my little sister, Alice, right?"

She smiled. "The Pop-Tart feeder?"

"Poptots!" Tristan called out, waiting by the truck and eliciting a chuckle from Bella.

"The very one," I scowled. "She's a slightly older version of Leah, negative filter and all, and at least the Chief knows more or less when to back off. Though now I'm wondering if I should wear a life-vest to our fishing trip."

Bella's scoff held little amusement.

I glanced at Tristan to make sure he wouldn't overhear. "Seriously, Bella, my ex-mother-in-law wouldn't know when to back off if she were standing at the edge of a cliff."

Bella pursed her lips.

"And open-mouthed alligators were waiting down below," I added.

She grinned.

"With her name written all over their jagged-edged teeth – in blood."

Now, she threw back her head and laughed.

"There we go," I murmured, stopping in front of the truck but swallowing at the sight of her. "Man, I love to hear you laugh like that."

She smiled softly once again. "So…I suppose we've outed ourselves?"

I shrugged as I fumbled with the truck's key fob. "I wasn't looking for a secret. Trist, buddy, come on, let's get you in your seat." I picked up Tristan, but when I glanced at Bella, I noted she wore a wistful expression.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing." She shook her head. "Hey, show me how you get him strapped in there. I've always wondered how those gadgets work. Emmett's always yelling and cursing when he's gotta get Esme in it."

I chuckled while Bella paid close attention as I fit a squirming, kicking Tristan into his car seat. Once he was strapped in, and before I shut the door, she leaned in and brushed her lips against his forehead.

"Comfy, sweet pea?"

"Uh-huh! Now window down!" Tristan commanded.

"Tristan," I said, "that's not how we ask for things."

"Windows down, please?"

"Good job," Bella commended with a grin and lowered his window. She shut the door and turned toward me, her grin morphing into another soft smile.

"Edward, you're a great dad, you know."

The words that almost expelled themselves, accompanied by the fleeting image of a dark-haired toddler, struck me forcefully. My breath hitched quietly as I shook off the image because it was way too soon for that.

Meanwhile, Bella watched me, misconstruing my reaction.

"You must know you are."

"I…try my best. But, thanks, Bella." Exhaling, again I forced myself to focus on the present. "That means a lot."

When she leaned against the passenger side door, folding her hands behind her back, I stood in front of her. She spoke quietly, her words careful, meant only for our ears.

"It couldn't have been easy when Kate passed."

"It wasn't," I admitted. "Those first few months, trying to remain cheerful for him while concurrently mourning…"

"Yeah." She drew in a deep breath and sighed. "Yeah, mourning while feeling…grateful. I know what that's like."

My gaze narrowed, and my head tilted in question, but Bella changed the subject.

"Don't worry about the Chief. He'd never make such an amateur mistake like drowning you during a fishing trip," she grinned. "Too messy to explain."

She laughed when I rolled my eyes, yet we both sobered when she reached for my hand and weaved our fingers.

"Edward, Charlie likes to occasionally pretend I'm the same age as Leah, but deep down, he knows I'm a twenty-five-year-old grown woman. He's just surprised."

"Surprised you're dating an arrogant attorney?" I smiled.

"Surprised that I'm dating anyone."

My brow furrowed in confusion, though I kept smiling. "Bella, you're smart, funny, beautiful, and…amazing in new ways I only begin to discover every day – through our five-minute conversations."

She chuckled, though I could see the slight flush of her cheeks in the twilight surrounding her. "And texts. Don't forget the texts."

"Definitely can't forget those. So, why would the Chief be surprised that you're dating someone?"

"After what happened…" She swept her gaze to a spot just past my shoulder.

"You mean your accident?"

When her eyes reverted to me, they did so slowly. "Are we dating, Edward? We don't have to call it that just because Leah did."

I took another step closer. The scent of soap and clean linens and something soft and warm that I was beginning to identify with only her permeated the air. A few wisps of hair had escaped her ponytail, and they blew in the breeze. I tucked them behind her ear, but instead of pulling away, I stroked the soft curve of skin there.

"Bella, I've taken it slowly; I know I have-"

"Edward, I'm certainly not rushing you," she smiled. "We're both adults, and we both know that whatever this is…whatever it develops into, when the summer ends, it ends as well."

I nodded slowly, acknowledging the reality of her statement even as some inner part of me recoiled…refused to look that far ahead.

"I'm rusty, I know I am, unfamiliar with how these things work nowadays. But…if we're dating…would you mind if I called you my girlfriend?"

"I wouldn't mind," she breathed, shaking her head, "even though…"

"Even though what?" I inched closer, and she angled her head upward, holding my gaze.

"Even though, as Leah said, we haven't kissed yet."

"Mm," I hummed, heart racing as I leaned in close to her slightly-parted lips, but a moment before my mouth met hers, Bella jumped.

She jumped, then shrieked, then burst into peals of laughter, throwing her head up to the sky, while I looked on, startled. When something hit the truck window, I may have jumped a bit too.

"What the-?"

My confusion lasted the two seconds it took me to realize that Tristan had just flung a shoe at the window. His other shoe was missing, and I swiftly surmised that a children's size ten sneaker must've been the cause of Bella's vault.

When I looked at my son, he giggled impishly and unapologetically.

"I thought you were tired," I smirked.

"I's go work with Bella!"

Bella was still laughing, holding her stomach. "He's right, Edward. If we don't leave now, I'm going to be late."

Shaking my head, I opened Bella's door.

"Dating with a three-year-old in tow is gonna be a blast," I muttered, making Bella burst into another round of laughter.

OOOOO

We turned onto the forested road that would bring us into town.

"Edward, you handle my truck well," Bella grinned.

"I'm glad you approve. Do you ever drive?" I asked.

"No." She shook her head, smiling wistfully. "Not anymore. I mean, I suppose if it were a good day, and I was in a huge open field where I could just go wild without having to worry about knocking into houses or trees or..." she sighed, "then, I'd love to drive again. Leasing me this truck…" she shook her head again, "made no sense. I love and respect my godfather as if he were my father. And in many ways, he's more my dad than is my real dad."

"You don't get along well with your dad?"

"It's not that we don't get along. It's more that we don't…get along," she grinned wryly. "My parents, Renee and Phil, were very young when they had me, still in their 'me, me, me,' phase, and…well, they never outgrew it," she chuckled. "Charlie was a good friend of theirs and always the protective, responsible type. But he can go from protective to overprotective in a heartbeat, as you've witnessed."

There was just so much to unpack in there, way too much for a short drive.

"One of these days, I'm going to take you out to one of those fields," I said after a short pause. "Just you and me."

"How 'bout me?" Tristan asked, reminding us of his presence. "I go too!"

When I simply smirked at him through the windshield, Bella chuckled then shot me a challenging look.

"Edward, you'd ride in a car with me zig-zagging all over the place?"

"Damn right, I would. Wait, we'd go on a good day, right?"

She laughed. "Yeah, definitely on a good day."

The setting sun dappled through the canopy of trees we zoomed past.

"Bella, I didn't know you were involved in the business plan," I said, recalling Sue's comments earlier that day as the latter and I reviewed her draft business plan.

"I've just offered input here and there, made a couple of suggestions, wrote a couple of the sections," she shrugged.

"Is that it?"

She smiled in reply.

"You write extremely well, with a…passion that comes through even in material as dry as a business plan. One might believe you a writer by trade."

"Thanks."

"Which suggestions and which sections did you work on – if you don't mind my asking?" I qualified, although it was surprisingly beginning to feel as if I were pulling teeth. When she casually replied, I reeled back, and she chuckled.

"Don't fall over in shock, Edward."

"Dad, no falling while driving!" Tristan exclaimed.

"No, sweet pea," Bella turned toward Tristan quickly to assure him. "Your dad's not falling. Bella was just being silly."

Tristan giggled.

"Bella, I'm not shocked as much as bowled over by all your talents, overt and otherwise."

"Stop it, or you'll make me swoon more than I usually do even without compliments."

When I pursed my lips, she snickered. "Edward, I was an English major back at Berkeley before I came to live in Forks."

"Did you finish your degree?"

She shook her head. "After…what happened, well, the recovery period took a bit. Even after that, I suffered from horrible headaches, especially whenever I tried to read or write. What's more, I…I lost someone close to me the day of the accident. All in all, I just wasn't in the right frame of mind for a while. This well-adjusted individual you see before you took work."

She said the last part tongue-in-cheek, and while her semi-confession simply served to raise even more questions, I could tell the flippancy arose from discomfort. What's more, there was Tristan in the back seat, hearing everything, and though much of it likely went over his head, not everything did.

Therefore, I reached for her hand and squeezed it, then just kept my hand around hers, even as '…someone close to me…' circled my head.

After a few moments of relative silence, with Tristan singing to himself in the back seat, Bella drew in a breath and exhaled it in a long gust.

"Edward, I've made my peace with the past." Despite her words, there was an uncharacteristic air of sadness around her.

"I didn't mean to pry. I guess it's that…being out of practice thing. And there I go, tagging on a defense," I added, hoping to make her smile. When she did, it was like the sun rising instead of setting around us.

"You just can't help yourself with those defenses, can you?" she said.

"Part of being an attorney."

"I suppose it is," she snorted. "But you're not prying, Edward…and I know there's more you'd like to ask, and there is more I want to tell you."

I glanced at the rearview mirror, instantly drawing Tristan's attention.

"Dad, we's take Bella to work!"

"That's right, Trist." I winked at my son and returned my attention to Bella. "But not right now, huh?"

"Not right now," she agreed.

"Do you still get those headaches?"

She shook her head. "Only on bad days now."

"Good. Tristan has told me of the stories you read the campers at storytime."

"Storytime! Storytime!"

Once again, Bella turned to Tristan. "My little sweet pea sits front and center for those, don't you?"

Tristan pumped his arms up and down. "I like storytime!"

"I know you do, baby."

"Bella, have you given any thought to trying again, I mean, completing your degree?" I asked, reclaiming her attention.

She straightened. "I have given it some thought, though nothing concrete. As I said, concrete plans and I don't exactly go hand in hand, so." She shrugged. "Why? Is Edward Cullen, Esquire, embarrassed to call himself the summer boyfriend of a college drop-out?"

"There are just…so many things wrong with that statement."

For example, I already didn't like this 'summer boyfriend' business.

"That was a joke and a pretty lame one," she smiled apologetically. "I guess you're not the only one out of practice here?"

"You're right," I smiled.

"It's just…my family and friends here in Forks quit questioning me about completing my degree a long time ago. You caught me off guard."

"That wasn't my intention," I assured her.

"I know it wasn't. We're just horrendously rusty."

"Horribly so," I chuckled. "Do you mind if I ask one more question?"

"Ask away."

"How out of practice are you?"

She threw back her head and laughed. "You're prying!"

"I thought you said I wasn't prying!" I played along.

"Before, you weren't. Now, you are." She flashed amused eyes at me. "Since before my accident, and that's the short and sweet answer. The longer answer, though I will share it, belongs to that not-appropriate-for-the-ears-of-an-adorable-impressionable-three-year-old set."

I considered myself a reasonably intelligent man. After all, it usually took a decent level of aptitude to pass the Bar and make a career in Law. What's more, my line of work required a fair amount of research, interpreting information, of piecing together parts that weren't always given as a whole or even in a straightforward manner. Over the past couple of weeks, there were things said by Emmett, by the Chief, by Bella herself, and even by a couple of strangers while on the camp drop-off line, that had me thinking, beginning to form a picture, one that, if anywhere near accurate, made me shift uneasily.

"Fair enough, Bella."

"So, how about you?" Bella bounced in her seat, angling around to face me. It all made me suspect that she understood how the wheels were beginning to turn in my head, and she wanted to put a brake on them – for now. "How out of practice are you?"

And it was ridiculous how well that question worked to distract me because the answer wasn't straightforward. In fact, the image that flashed through my mind of the last time I'd shared anything close to intimacy with a woman since Kate's death made me inwardly cringe.

"Since Kate's passing…"

It wasn't a lie, per se. But much like Bella's earlier qualifications, neither was it the whole truth. And there was no way in hell I could clarify it just then, with Tristan in the back seat.

"Wow," Bella said. "We're a couple of sadly out-of-practice individuals. What will we do with one another?"

When I snorted, she swatted my arm. "I didn't mean it that way."

"What makes you think I meant it that way?" I grinned.

"Because I'm beginning to learn to read you, Edward Cullen, Esquire, and that crooked grin means mischief."

That wiped the smile from my face.

"You okay?" Bella asked.

"Yeah. Yeah," I repeated, exhaling through the shock of how much that simultaneously thrilled…and frightened me.

OOOOO

By the time I pulled up the truck in front of Emily's Pub, Tristan was five seconds from a meltdown.

"I's go work with Bella!"

"Tristan, you cannot go to work with Bella," I explained for the thirtieth time.

"NO FAIR! I's go work with…"

I looked over at Bella, expecting to find her as frustrated as me. Instead, she looked close to tears.

"Poor baby."

"Poor baby?" I snorted. "What about our poor ears?"

She shook her head, and when Tristan burst into loud wails, Bella climbed over the center console, took a seat beside him, and looked at me.

"May I unbuckle him?"

"Go ahead, Bella," I sighed, knowing it would do no good. We'd hit meltdown.

The second he was out of his harness, Tristan launched into Bella's arms and snot-cried into her clean shirt. I pulled open the driver's side door and quickly took a seat in the back, with Tristan's car seat between us.

"Trist, buddy, you've got to let go of Bella," I tried to reason.

"No! I's go with Bella!"

"Oh, sweetie. If I could bring you to work with me, I would. Shh," Bella cooed. "Look at me, sweetheart. Look at me."

Tristan lifted his wet face and gazed at Bella through swollen, red-rimmed green eyes.

"Guess what we're going to do at camp tomorrow?"

"What?" Tristan asked, a colossal hiccup accompanying the question.

"Tomorrow, we're going on a rock scavenger hunt, where we'll dig up and explore all different sorts of rocks and find out what we can learn from their shapes and textures."

"I...I like rocks." A series of broken sighs escaped him, but before he could recall his earlier misery, Bella kept going.

"But do you know what I really, really can't wait for?"

"What?" my son asked yet again, an excited smile on his face now.

"I can't wait for the day after tomorrow – two nights of sleep," she said, holding up two fingers, "when just you, me, and your dad are going to go to the beach. Just the three of us. And since I have to work, and your dad has stuff to do, guess who's in charge of planning all our adventures for the day?"

"Who?" Tristan wondered raptly, making me snort under my breath.

Bella tapped his chest lightly. "You."

"Me?" he asked in total and complete shock.

"Mhm," Bella nodded. "You."

Tristan's eyes rounded like saucers. "Can we go pirate exploring?"

"Ooh, that sounds good," she grinned.

Tristan gasped. "How 'bout...how 'bout picking seashells?"

"I love picking seashells! And how about..." Bella's eyes sparkled, illuminating the truck's dimly lit cab like stars in a vast night sky. "How about we build a huge sandcastle?"

Tristan sucked in a breath so sharp that his slight chest appeared to almost cave in on itself. "Sandcastles! I wanna build sandcastles! Dad! Dad! Can we's build sandcastles?"

"If that's what you and Bella want to do, then that sounds like a plan to me."

"That's what we'll do," Bella assured him, tapping his nose. "You, me, and your dad. Just the three of us."

"After two sleeps?" Tristan asked. "One sleep," - he held up one finger, "and then another sleep," – he held up another finger – "and then we goes to the beach and build castles?"

"Yes."

"You promise, Bella?"

Bella swallowed, hesitating for a fraction of a second that completely went over my son's head. "I promise, Tristan."

"Yay!" Tristan exclaimed, pressing his face against her shirt again.

"Hey."

Bella looked up as I moved in across the now empty car seat, her eyes growing wide. They flashed down to Tristan, slightly alarmed, then back to me with a question:

'What the hell are you doing in front of your son?'

But…if we were going to do this, a hell of a lot of it would happen around him. In which case, how could showing her affection in front of him be wrong?

Which is what I hoped to convey with my gaze as I maintained my approach. When her gaze softened, eyes growing half-lidded, I knew she understood. Then…gently, our mouths met in a quick back-and-forth stroke, a ghost of a tap, hardly even meriting the definition of a kiss.

Either way, I had to force myself to pull back.

Bella's dark eyes took me in, lips still slightly parted, tempting me to move in again and define that 'kiss' better. But if I did, Tristan or not, I wouldn't stop, and there was a difference between showing affection and consuming her in front of him.

"Thank you," I said. "You have…a way with him. And...may I now call you my girlfriend?"

Bella burst out laughing.

"Kisses! Kisses!" Tristan yelled happily. "I like kisses!"

She kissed his wet cheek, her own cheeks crimson. "I know you do, sweet pea." Her eyes met mine. "You two get home now."

"How will you get home tonight?" I frowned.

"The way I always do, Edward," she grinned. "One way or another. Don't worry about me. Make sure the little man here gets his sleep. We've got a summer full of adventures."

I expelled a heavy breath, but there wasn't much more I could do beyond dragging Tristan out of bed in the middle of the night to pick her up, and I already knew Bella wouldn't appreciate the gesture.

"I sleep one night, then one more night, and we go to the beach!"

"Exactly!" Bella smiled. "Good night and sweet dreams, little man. I'll see you in the morning." She brushed her lips against his forehead. "Good night, Edward. Sweet dreams."

"You too, Bella. And they sure as hell will be."

A/N: Thoughts?

Someone asked in their review of the previous chapter (and I apologize because I can't remember exactly who!) for a little more background on Bella's injury. Bella will expand on it in the story, but for now, I'll explain that it's a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) caused by what happened with Paul. This TBI damaged Bella's Vestibular System, a series of canals located behind the ear and critical for balance and coordination. So, it's not her eyesight that's affected as much as it's her balance as a result of vertigo and dizziness. Now, there are treatments for this, but they don't always work, and…well, we'll find out more soon.

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