Twilight and its characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. I'm just playing around with them.
Lots of thanks to MelissaMargaret for making this pretty, and to anhanninen and xxluvCarlisleEsmexx for prereading.
EPOV
"Are you excited?"
I snorted as I looked up at her from tying my shoes. "I . . . I really don't know. I don't know what to think about this."
Tonight was the night I was meeting Jasper at Newton's. It had taken us over a week to find a time that worked for both of us. After that blizzard and the time off, we were both swamped with catch up work. And now that it was tax season, I had even more on my plate.
I was definitely ready for a break. Was I ready for one-on-one time with Jasper — the brother-in-law I hardly knew? That I wasn't so sure of. It wasn't that I had a problem with Jasper. And there was no way I had a problem with going out and destroying some nachos and wings while watching a game. But lately I went out alone or watched from the comfort of my own room with beer from our fridge.
Going out with anyone wasn't something I hadn't done in a long time. Not knowing what to expect did not fit into my well-planned routine.
"You could always stay here with us tonight," Bella suggested, giggling softly at the face I made. "I know you love watching movies with Lucy."
"I think I'll pass on that." I tried to control my grimace because the kid wasn't all that bad. Well, at least not all the time.
Lucy still found her way to my bed almost every morning. Sometimes she would stare at me until the creepiness woke me up, and other times, she'd just bounce on my chest until I pushed her off. She'd only laugh and crawl back up again, thinking it was some kind of game. At least I could easily carry her back to Bella after that and lock my door until I left for work.
Having Bella and Lucy at our building every day was okay, too. They mostly stayed in Mom's office so Bella could do assistant things, but sometimes they ventured out to visit the rest of the family. That's where the movies came in. I had a large TV on my wall – mainly for presentations – but it could also play all the movies Lucy liked. And that's what it had been used for the last week which was just peachy – except for that whole productivity thing I usually liked to have happen.
"You all can handle the movie watching tonight without me. But save me some cookies?"
Bella smiled and nodded, standing when I did. "Of course. I think Esme already started baking so you might be able to sneak some before you leave. But I'll save you some puff pastries that I'm making later."
"Oh God, that would be awesome," I practically moaned. If the puff pastries were anything like the apple tarts she'd made a few days ago, my mouth would be in heaven tonight. I definitely didn't doubt her story about working in a coffee shop anymore.
For some reason, Bella blushed as we walked downstairs together. And her cheeks darkened even more when Mom and Dad both stared at us when we walked into the kitchen.
"Off to meet Jasper?" Dad asked, breaking the awkward silence.
Before I could answer, Lucy suddenly appeared from behind the island and attached herself to my legs.
"Eddard! Eddard where go? Watch Punzel? Peas?"
I sighed as I lifted her into my arms, knowing I wouldn't be moving if I didn't. "I'm going out with Jasper. You're staying here and watching movies with Nona and Granddad and your mom." She frowned as I placed her in Dad's lap, but I didn't make eye contact anymore. She wouldn't be using her magic tonight.
Now that everyone's focused had shifted from me and Bella, Mom moved to the oven and removed a pan. "Would you like a cookie, dear?" she asked me as she placed the cookies on a rack.
I shrugged. "Sure. But I have to hurry." Glancing at my watch, I saw it was even later than I thought. "The game starts in forty and Jasper wanted to make sure we had a seat before that."
As Mom plated cookies and fixed small glasses of milk for everyone, I put on my jacket and grabbed my keys, nearly running into Bella as I walked to the counter. She seemed to be frozen in the same spot, her face twisted in some weird expression.
"Hey . . . you okay?"
I looked over at Mom for help when Bella didn't answer, and she quickly rushed over.
"Sweetheart, what's wrong?" she asked, taking Bella's hand and squeezing it. "Are you all right?"
Bella jumped slightly, her eyes flying across the room before finally shaking her head. "I don't . . . I don't know. W-what's that smell? I know . . . I know it. The smell . . . " She trailed off and seemed to breathe in deeply. Weird.
I slowly backed toward the island to get to my cookies and then toward the door, not knowing if I wanted to be involved with this. I needed to have a fast way out in case things got weird – which happened way too often lately.
"Do you smell the cookies, dear?" Mom carefully led her to sit by Dad at the island, sliding her designated plate toward her. "Is that the smell? Have you had snickerdoodles before? They're Carlisle's favorite."
"Yes, they are," Dad agreed, disgustingly talking with his mouth full. Lucy thought it was hilarious, of course, and giggled as he pretended to try to steal hers and nibble her fingers.
Bella stared at the cookies before picking one up and taking a small bite. "It's . . . that . . . spicy?" she mumbled – thankfully after swallowing.
"The spice? That's cinnamon. Do you recognize it?"
"I think so?" Bella took another bite and nodded. "I know this. Not exactly this, but I know. From somewhere . . ."
"Maybe someone made something similar for you in the past?" Mom suggested lightly.
We'd all been told to not ask Bella specifically about her past because for some reason, she didn't want to talk about. Usually, we didn't want to upset her but apparently Mom had forgotten all about that.
"Maybe," she answered, still focused on the plate of cookies. "They're really good. Thank you, Esme."
"Oh, you're very welcome, sweetheart. I can share the recipe with you, if you'd like. We can make them together next time."
Bella looked up at Mom and nodded, so I decided it was time for me to escape before any other weird moments distracted me.
"All right, I'm gone. See you guys later."
"Say hello to Jasper for us," Mom called before I closed the door behind me, and Lucy yelled out a "bye bye, Eddard."
The drive to Newton's didn't take long, and the traffic was surprisingly light for a Saturday night. Not that it was great or anything, but at least the suburbs were as bad as downtown.
It was cold as fuck outside – another reason why I hadn't been excited before leaving the house. I managed to rush from my car to the door without freezing my nuts off which had to be a miracle.
Jasper was waiting for me right inside the door, and after greeting each other with an awkward handshake back slap thing, we found seats at the bar and ordered our first round of beers and wings just in time for the Bears to kick off to the Seahawks. There was a good amount of people here, though. It wasn't every year we played for the division championship.
"Hopefully this'll be a good game," Jasper said, taking a sip of his beer.
I mumbled an agreement as I enjoyed my own drink. "A Super Bowl would be good. Lucy really likes watching the bear for some reason."
He chuckled. "Alice watches to see the bear."
I snorted, but it was completely believable. Alice had never been a sports fan.
"I'm surprised she even watches at all. She'd throw a fit when Em and I got to pick what we watched. I'm glad she lives with you now. Bella doesn't care that my TV lives on ESPN."
We didn't say anything for a few minutes, so I focused on the game, thinking Jasper was doing the same. But I realized he kept looking over at me instead.
"What?" I asked, not wanting this to be awkward all night. Yeah, I hadn't really wanted to leave the house, but now that I was here, I wanted to have a good night. Jasper had been pretty cool during our poker night, so I didn't know what was wrong now.
"Nothing," he quickly said. "It's just . . . you talk about . . . I mean," he paused and looked at me again, "you're different, man."
I raised an eyebrow, not expecting that. "From?" I prompted.
"Even from last week. It's good, don't get me wrong. Just unexpected."
Well, this was getting weird. Weirder than watching movies with Lucy which I was starting to wish I was doing.
Our food came before I could defend myself, not that I knew how. I rolled up my sleeves and focused on the hot wings in front of me along with finishing my first beer and making good progress on a second.
"Look," Jasper said with a sigh. "I'm probably fucking this up, and I don't know how I keep doing that, but I just think we should hang out more or something. I think we have a lot in common. And it's like since Bella and Lucy came into the family, you're more . . . something. They're changing you, but it's all good."
"Huh." I couldn't think of much else to say to respond to that. My first instinct was to disagree. I hadn't changed. I was exactly the same as I had been before I was pushed into that stupid alley.
But deep down, I wasn't that pig-headed and maybe I'd noticed a difference, too. I let a near stranger hang out in my room most of the time, for God's sake. That wasn't me. Or it didn't used to be me. Who was I now? Or then?
Jesus, I needed more beer for this.
"Yeah, maybe," I finally admitted. Being ahead by ten at the end of the first quarter had put me in a good mood or something. Jasper choked on his beer, clearly not expecting that. "It's the kid's magic or something," I defended. "Hell, that kid jumps on my bed when I'm still in it, and I don't even stop her. Something's seriously wrong with me."
Jasper laughed loudly, reaching over to slap my back. "Nothing's wrong, man. You're just living. The same thing happened to me when I met your sister. I was working in a fucking Starbucks of all places one summer, but all I really wanted to be doing was sitting in my apartment." He shrugged, taking a long drink of his beer. "But then Al came skipping into that shop – ordered too much espresso for her size – and suddenly I wanted to go out and do things. Weirdest trippy feeling ever."
I nodded, actually sort of understanding what he meant. Since Bella and Lucy had invaded our lives, I'd been doing some weird shit. Besides being around them all the time, I had played with Seth and Brady, joked with Emmett, and went grocery shopping with my mother without complaining the whole time.
"And that's why I feel like I get you," he continued. "I used to be that guy who stayed in my room all the time. And that's still cool, but sometimes it's nice to get out a little. Sorry if I offended you last time. I'm not the best with words, but at least I'm not Emmett."
"Pfft yeah, you got that right. You bring up some deep shit, but at least you don't scream it out to the world."
We shared a chuckle, and I flagged down the guy working the bar to order some nachos, fried pickles, and sodas. Hopefully we were done with our weird talk so I wouldn't need anymore alcohol. I had to drive home after all.
As weird as these talks were, and as weird as it was that Jasper and I seemed to never avoid them, I was starting to like the guy. He was serious and never bullshitted me, but we also had a lot in common. Like how we enjoyed talking smack at whatever team played the Bears – tonight the Seahawks weren't hearing any compliments from us – and our mutual dislike of the little douche who worked under Emmett in the landscaping department.
The rest of the night was actually fun. We cleared the plates of food placed in front of us – along with another plate of wings – and jumped up to yell and high five each other when the Bears finished destroying the Seahawks with yet another touchdown with twenty seconds left in the fourth. The victory high even made me invite Jasper to play xbox one evening after work, but only after he promised to not start anymore weird conversations.
As I drove home, I didn't even think to complain about the cold in my head as I waited for my car to heat up. And it didn't seem strange when I walked in my room and found Bella sleeping on my couch. Once I noticed she was there, I tried to be quiet as I entered the room, but she still jerked awake and sat up, looking around the room quickly.
"Hey, it's just me," I said softly. "Why were you sleeping in here?"
She leaned back against the couch, breathing heavy. "I'm sorry I came in without asking. Lucy went to sleep and I couldn't and I didn't want to wake her so I came in here to watch TV. Sorry. I'll go back and I won't do it again."
I put my hand out, trying to stop her as she stood. "No, it's okay. I don't really care if you want to come in here. Do you want to stay for a while? I'm not tired yet."
I really didn't mind Bella coming in my room. I knew she wouldn't go through any of my stuff or bother anything. She was in here a lot of the time anyway and I had yet to stop her, so it wasn't like tonight would be any different.
Her breathing finally slowed down, and she nodded. "That'd be nice. Thank you, Edward. Do you want me to go get the puff pastries I saved for you?"
And that was definitely a good reason to let her hang out in here.
As Bella went downstairs to get the dessert, I quickly changed into a t-shirt and my Bears pajama pants Mom had bought me for Christmas. The feeling of the win was still strong, and I was going to celebrate.
When Bella returned, we sat on the couch together, and I inhaled the four pastries she'd brought me as she slowly ate one herself. She'd even brought me chocolate milk to wash everything down, adding to the list of why she was slowly becoming my favorite person.
"These are fucking awesome," I managed to mumble out after my second one. Bella giggled, probably at my choice of words, and she smiled as she watched me stuff my face. "Seriously, dude. You can cook."
"Thank you," she said, blushing. "Your mom and dad really liked them too. I'll have to make them more often, if you want me too."
"Hell yes, I want you to. This is the perfect victory food."
"Oh, did your bears win the game?"
I nodded. "Yep. We're going to the Super Bowl."
"Is that a game, too?"
I took the opportunity to try to teach Bella the important things about football. There were plenty of highlights on TV that I tried to use to help her understand, but I didn't think I got very far. We ended up laughing together as she kept messing up all of the terms I explained, and I also told her about my weird conversation with Jasper. The time passed without me noticing, and soon it was almost two in the morning.
"I guess I should go to bed now," Bella said, yawning. "Thanks for letting me stay for a while. I'm glad you had a nice night with Jasper."
"Sure. Thanks for the food. "
After Bella left, I turned out the lights and crawled into bed. Sleep didn't come easily thanks to everything Jasper had said to me. I'd basically proven him right yet again by hanging out with Bella tonight. I was different, and it was thanks to or because of her.
I was afraid to admit it, but maybe I more than just tolerated her. What did that mean then? Were we friends? Acquaintances? Colleagues? I had no idea. But what was the scariest was realizing that I didn't care. I had no idea how to define our . . . relationship, but whatever it was, it was okay with me. Maybe.
My realization made falling asleep easier, surprisingly. If only the kid had a concept of sleeping late on Sunday.
"Eddard. Eeeeeddaaaaard. Wake wake wake, Eddard!"
"Go 'way," I mumbled, turning over to try to get away from the loud voice coming from somewhere on the bed. Unfortunately, I turned in the wrong direction and little arms wrapped around my neck.
"Hi, Eddard. Wake?"
Obviously she wasn't going to let me go back to sleep without a fight. With a sigh, I slowly opened my eyes, finding her brown ones right in front of me.
Lucy grinned and choked me tighter. "Eddard! Love you all much, Eddard. Watch Dora and Punzel?"
I shook my head, mostly trying to relieve my airway. "Not now, Lucy. Sleep. It's Sunday."
She frowned. "Sun no sleep. Sun wake. I wake. Eddard wake. Peeeeas?" Then she pulled the face out. The one that gave me major heartburn even if I hadn't eaten anything. Well, shit. Her little bottom lip was a dangerous weapon.
"Edward doesn't want to be awake right now," I said as nicely as I could. "Either stay quiet or go back to your room."
"TV?"
"Sure." If that was what it would take for me to catch up on sleep, I'd just deal with it. If I made her cry, I definitely wouldn't be getting anymore sleep because Mom would be fussing me out.
After grabbing the remote and finding an acceptable channel, I turned to my back and closed my eyes once again. Lucy crawled over my arm and settled herself right beside me, leaning back against my arm. There was no attempt to fight left in me, so I let her be and drifted off.
When I woke again, Lucy was still beside me and I felt a little more rested. I wasn't even old, but apparently I was too old to stay up late. Turning my head as stealthily as I could, I looked at the clock and rolled my eyes at the fact that it was only nine thirty. What God-awful time had she come in here?
"Eddard wake now?" Apparently I wasn't as stealth as I thought.
I scrubbed my hand over my face and sat up a little. "Yeah, yeah. I'm awake. Shouldn't you go find your mom or something?"
"Mama with Nona and Granddad," she said, scooting over to sit in my lap. "I stay Eddard."
"Obviously," I mumbled. Suddenly, my stomach growled loudly which made her giggle.
"Eddard! Tummy rawrrrr." She made a weird face and giggled some more as she patted my stomach. "Uh ohhhh!"
"Uh . . . yeah." I moved her hand and gently pushed her over so she was on the bed instead of me. "I'm hungry. Do you want to go downstairs with me to find food?" Might as well ask since she was usually so into food.
Sure enough, her eyes brightened when she heard the word food, and she nodded quickly. Telling her to stay, I quickly took care of some things in the bathroom. She didn't listen, and I almost knocked her over as I came out since she'd decided standing in front of the bathroom door was a good idea. With those little arms in the air, I had no choice but to carry her downstairs with me, and she thanked me by trying to suffocate me again. Weird kid.
The kitchen was quiet when I walked in, thankfully. Everyone was around the table, so I gave Lucy to Bella before fixing myself a bowl of cereal and some coffee.
"Good morning," Mom said as I sat down. "Did you have a nice evening with Jasper?"
Swallowing, I nodded. "Yeah, it was . . . fine. Bears won so that was good."
"Yes, that I knew." She cut her eyes to Dad. "Your father made us watch nearly an hour of it."
"Hey, it was Lucy's idea," he defended, grinning. "What my sweet pea wants, my sweet pea gets. And she wanted to see the bear. Who am I to argue with that sweet face?"
"She needs a Bears shirt," I said. "For the Super Bowl."
"Bella, too," Mom added. "We'll have to go shopping for some this week. I'm assuming we'll watch the game and have a little party here, and if we all match, it'll be perfect for our first new family picture."
Great. A party. Mom never half-assed any kind of party, so it was bound to be night full of anything but watching the game. Hopefully no one would mind if I escaped to my room if necessary.
"Speaking of party," Mom continued after Bella had fixed Lucy some breakfast and they were back at the table. "Our annual Valentine's Day banquet and silent auction is coming up very soon. Less than a month, in fact. I'm going to need everyone's help to accomplish everything needed."
"What is that?" Bella asked. "A silent auction?"
"A waste of a night with annoying people and getting dressed up just so we can give more money to charity than usual," I told her, earning a glare from Mom. But Bella bit her lip and smiled, proving why she was slowly becoming my favorite person.
"Don't listen to Edward," Mom said while still glaring at me. "We've been doing it every year for about twelve years or so. Our family hosts the party every year, and people who want to come pay for a ticket. We also contact different companies, stores, and organizations to donate certain items to auction off. Whoever bids the highest wins the prize, and we give all of our profits to a different charity our family picks each year. It's basically a night of fun and giving."
"It's basically a night of giving and for the girls to get all dressed up," Dad corrected. "Apparently there's something exciting about fancy gowns and tuxes."
At least I wasn't the only one who didn't really understand the appeal. I'd be much happier spending the night in some jeans and a t-shirt, not a monkey suit.
"That sounds . . . really nice," Bella said with a smile. "What is your charity this year?"
Mom looked over at Dad and waited for him to nod before she answered. "Well, we actually wanted to talk to you about that first, dear. I've talked with everyone briefly, and we all agree that we'd like to give to a shelter this year – two, if possible – and we'd like to make sure we include the one that helped you."
Bella gasped. "Oh. That's . . . well, I don't know . . . "
"Only if it's okay with you," Mom quickly added. "We don't want to upset or offend you in any way. We just feel the need to help those who helped you."
Dad reached across the table to pat Bella's hand. "You're part of the family now, sweetheart. And we'll always be grateful for the people who took care of you before you were ours."
"Wow," she whispered, grabbing Dad's hand in hers. As her eyes filled with tears, I looked back down at my cereal, not liking how this was turning into some kind of . . . emotional thing. I hadn't had nearly enough sleep for something like that.
I also hadn't had enough sleep to deal with the banana slices that were finding their way into my cereal thanks to the shifty kid sitting beside me. What had my life become?
"Sometimes I don't know if you're real," she said softly, sniffling. "But thank you. Thank you for everything. Of course this is okay with me. They definitely need help. Some nights Lucy and I . . . some nights were bad."
Deciding to glance up was a bad idea because now Mom was crying too. Even Dad looked like his eyes were glazing over.
"I can't even imagine, my brave girl. But I'm so grateful you and Lucy are safe here with us now. I pray none of my loved ones ever have to experience that, but we're going to try our best to make it easier for those who do. You can help with the planning, if you'd like. Alice and Rose will be in and out of the house and office the next few weeks, and I'd love for you to join us."
Bella agreed, and the conversation shifted to planning. I completely zoned out and managed to finish my breakfast, grab another cup of coffee, and escape to the family room without anyone stopping me.
I was flipping through the channels when I heard someone walking downstairs. I braced myself for impact, but let out a sigh of relief when I saw it was Dad, albeit with Lucy. She wanted to sit with me right away which didn't bother me too much. I'd take this over party planning any day.
"Couldn't handle it either?" I asked Dad as he sat beside me.
He shook his head. "Nope. If there's anything I've learned in the last thirty three plus years, it's that your mother has some interests I'd rather not touch with a ten foot pole. And when those come up, it's best to just be supportive and let her do her thing. It's even better if I can be supportive from far away."
I snorted and chuckled. Being far away was my approach to mom's "interests" too.
"Just remember this, son: relationships are give and take. You support your partner, and she'll support you. Fifty-fifty always, plus a whole lot of respect. Remember that, and you'll be very happy."
"You can remind me in twenty years or so when I'm ready for that," I said dryly. I couldn't really imagine myself with more than a one night only relationship for quite a while.
Dad laughed loudly, reaching over to rub my shoulder. "It might be much sooner than you think. I'm a firm believer that you can't predict these things. Love hits unexpectedly, son. Remember that, too."
Love. I definitely didn't know anything about love. And right now, I didn't want to know anything either.
I was content with how my life was - even with Lucy making me skip football highlights to watch some movie about a girl with freakishly long hair. At least there was a guy in the movie who didn't know what was going on either. The guy seemed to get off easy, though. He didn't have a kid in his lap the whole time who liked to bounce back and forth between me and Dad, give hugs and kisses, and make horse noises.
Maybe I'd been too quick to judge the party planning.
A/N: Hi. I hope you guys will forgive me for once again taking a long time to update. Holidays make everything crazy, and job hunting is . . . not fun. But I'm hoping to do better next time! We've got some big things coming up. ;)
Thank you all SO much for reading and for the awesome reviews! I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
