*A/N* On today's episode of Vampire House Hunters, Edward is a part-time dream analyst, and Bella is a wolf-whisperer. Their budget is fifty-gazillion dollars. Will they find the house of their dreams, or will Edward's controlling tendencies bleed them dry? (😂*slaps knee* I'll be here all week.)
**EPOV**
"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty, we're home," I whispered into Bella's ear. She was lying across the backseat of Carlisle's rented sedan with her head resting on my lap.
We typically booked evening flights to ensure we didn't arrive at our destination in the daylight hours. Between the late hour and her jetlag, Bella slept most of the way to New Hampshire.
"Get her to bed, Edward. The poor girl must be exhausted," Esme's 'mother hen' tone was more of an order than a suggestion.
"Yes ma'am," I obliged, carrying the still-groggy Bella out of the car into the balmy early-morning air.
I carried Bella down the short path to the guest house that was some 500-feet off to the east side of the main house.
It was a single-story A-frame structure, something between a cottage and a house. It boasted three bedrooms, a luxuriously renovated bathroom, a sunny country-style kitchen, and two matching rocking chairs on the porch.
"Is this it? Is this our house?" Bella asked in an awed voice. I set her down on her feet so she could get the full effect.
"This is it!" I beamed. She took a few steps toward the door, and I swooped her back up into my arms again, making her yelp.
"Thresholds are kind of my thing," I shrugged with a boyish grin and carried her through the unlocked door, setting her down once we were inside.
"Esme gave me strict orders to put you straight to bed, but let me give you the nickel tour first."
There was a combined living room/dining room with an overstuffed sectional couch that curved around the stone fireplace with a huge flatscreen tv mounted to the wall over the mantelpiece.
The dining room area was appointed with an intimate table for two.
The attached kitchen with its white cabinetry, stainless steel appliances, and butcher block counters was somehow country and modern at the same time.
There was a small island, with the same butcher block top, and two wrought iron bar stools.
Walking through more of the house, I flung open a door and switched on the light. "Spare bedroom #1. If you have no objections, I thought I could soundproof it and make it into a music room?" I asked.
"Of course, but why would you soundproof it? I love to hear you play," Bella's brow creased in confusion.
"You might not think so when you're trying to sleep," I chuckled.
"That's sort of a long-term solution for a short-term problem, isn't it?"
"We won't be living here once you've changed, Bella. Even miles away from the next house, it's still too close to town."
Bella frowned. "Of course not. I'll be the reason everyone has to move, again, because I'll be too much of a monster to live so close to civilization," she sighed bleakly.
"It's not forever," I reassured her. "And didn't you see us in action yesterday? Moving is like any other Friday to us," I grinned.
I excitedly tugged her by the hand down the hallway and swung open the next door to the second spare room.
Bella immediately walked over to the far side of the room and curled up contentedly on the upholstered seat of the large bay window.
The view outside was of a trout pond that butted up against a densely wooded area at the base of Smarts Mountain.
"You're welcome to turn this room into a library, a study, a crafting nook-anything you'd like. Esme purposely left everything pretty bare because she thought the lady of the house might like to decorate it herself."
"Library. Definitely a library," Bella's smile was ear to ear. She was stunning, framed by the mountain scene behind her. I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and snapped a quick photo.
Because while mental pictures were great, they weren't the best for framing and hanging on the wall.
"Can we get one of those tall bookshelves with the rolling ladder, so I can glide around on it like Belle from Beauty and the Beast?" Bella asked with uncontained excitement.
"Anything you want," I chuckled, charmed by her childlike enthusiasm. "Come on. You haven't seen the best part, yet!" I nodded over my shoulder toward the door. Bella reluctantly pulled herself away from her new favorite spot.
The next stop was the master bathroom.
"We had to cannibalize a bit of the closet space to make room for the shower. But it's everything you asked for. Bench seat. Skylight. Rainfall showerhead, and even more showerheads on the walls. And the clawfoot tub by the window came with the house.
Bella's eyes were huge; she looked like a cartoon character. "I'm going to have to get a part-time job to pay for the water bill."
I rolled my eyes. "Silly girl. That reminds me." I took the envelope from my back pocket and handed it to her.
Bankcard, credit cards, social security, passport, and driver's license all freshly issued with her new surname.
Looking closely at the heavy titanium AmEx black card in her hand, she tentatively asked, "Is there a spending limit? In case I want to go buy a yacht on a whim or something," Bella joked.
I just laughed and shook my head.
"Was that a 'no' headshake, or a 'you're a ridiculous woman' headshake?"
"Both," I pursed my lips, biting back a laugh.
Her eyes widened and she looked again at the credit card in her hand as if it might grow legs and walk away.
"I know the subject makes you uncomfortable, so suffice it to say, you don't have to worry about money. Ever. And neither do your parents."
The look of relief on her face was palpable. I knew she worried about Phil's ability to support Renee on the earnings of a minor league athlete.
And soon enough Charlie would be providing for a whole new family.
In a tone that was uncannily Charlie, she asked, "I don't have to worry about the Feds busting in and carting you away for tax evasion, do I?" Bella lifted an eyebrow suspiciously, but the smile never left her face.
"Evasion? Certainly not. Insider trading laws get a little fuzzy. Though, the authorities would have an awfully hard time proving that Alice can use her gift to see stock futures," I shrugged, unconcerned.
"Well, that's nifty," Bella snorted.
"Quite." I flashed her a grin. "Shall we?" I offered her my hand, excited to show her our bedroom.
I pulled her through a different door than the one we came in through, the door that adjoined the bedroom to the bathroom.
It had been decided to leave our old bed in Forks since it wouldn't make it here in time for Bella to use when she arrived.
The new one was a low profile 4-poster bed (made of carbon fiber, my design) with panels of intricately filigreed wrought iron for the head and foot boards.
The bed was adorned with a quilted duvet. Navy blue, inspired by the nude sun-bathing incident on Isle Esme. Though, I opted for a synthetic filling instead of goose down for obvious reasons.
Opposite the bed was a stone accent wall housing a gas fireplace and another TV.
Adjacent to that wall was a set of patio doors. These ones opened up to the trout pond we'd seen from the library.
I stood there, a bit nervously, watching as Bella surveyed her surroundings. She gingerly wrapped one of her hands around one of the bedposts and had to hop a little to sit on the tall bed.
"Esme called it 'cabin chic," I supplied with a nervous-sounding laugh. "And Alice will be here tomorrow to stock the walk-in closet," I pointed to the door next to the bathroom.
"Well, it's perfect, of course. Or it will be as soon as you crawl into this bed with me," she said, kicking off her sandals and crawling under the covers.
I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding, pleased by her reaction. I shut off the lights and turned on the fireplace for ambiance, and quickly went to join Bella in our bed.
Settling into my arms, she asked with a yawn. "So when does the semester start?"
"Today is Saturday. Tomorrow is the new student orientation, and then classes start on Monday," I said matter-of-factly, giving her a little squeeze.
She hummed in receipt of that information. "You never did tell me what you decided to study this time around."
"Music composition," I answered, guiltily omitting the fact that my classes would be in a building just across the way from hers.
I hadn't planned that for any obsessive, protective reason-well, not protective anyway.
The truth was that I had a whopping crush on my wife, and I just wanted to be near her, always.
"What about you? Did you find any interesting classes to sign up for?" I asked pleasantly.
"Oh, yes," she said excitedly. "I can't believe I haven't told you yet. I'm taking an overview of Shakespeare, another course called Romance in Medieval England, and the one I'm most excited about...Early Modern Literature and the History of Sexuality."
My eyes widened in response.
"I thought you could help me study for that one since you were around for that," she giggled.
"Was that an old man joke?" I asked with put-on indignance. She shrieked and squirmed to get away from me as I mercilessly tickled her ribs.
"First of all, the early modern period ended a hundred years before I was born, thank you very much.
"...Second, and more importantly, I would hope that my age is not the reason you would want my help studying for a sexuality course," I teased over the sounds of her breathless laughing.
"K-kidding! Now quit it before I pee myself," she said, red-faced, between uncontrollable giggles.
My fingers stilled, holding her close to me. I sighed contentedly, listening to her breathing slow.
"I really want to break in this pretty bed, but I'm just so," she yawned loudly, "tired," she finished redundantly.
"I think that's allowed. You've flown for over 10,000 miles and been in three different time zones over the past 72 hours. Rest up, my little jet setter. If you wake up and I'm not here, don't panic. I'll just be over at the main house helping Esme get unpacked."
She mumbled an unintelligible response into her pillow and was soon sound asleep
I didn't tell her that I'd be able to hear her from the larger house. The longer she had the illusion of privacy, the better. I'd have to see what Emmett wanted for his silence on that little matter.
It made me absolutely crazy that Bella felt so self-conscious about her human needs as if she were the anomaly. As if the urge to use a toilet was somehow more shameful than a never-ending urge to murder.
What Rosalie wouldn't give for the ability to defecate, I snorted to myself. What any of us wouldn't, for that matter. Except for Emmett, who was rather content with his lot in life, and Alice who couldn't remember being any other way.
I followed Esme's thoughts to the kitchen where she was putting away groceries, of all things.
"How's it going, Mom? Anything I can help with?" I asked, quickly unloading the last bag of Bella staples that Esme had thoughtfully thought to provide.
To Esme, Bella was something like having a new baby to care for. Though instead of diapers and formula, Esme's new baby required pop tarts and soda pop.
"No dear, not until Emmett and Rose get here tomorrow with the rest of it...How is Bella managing with everything?" Concern was apparent in Esme's warm, golden eyes and in her thoughts.
Folding my hands together, I rested my elbows on the warm marble of the kitchen island and blew out a breath.
"Fine, I think. She seems excited about the new house and about starting classes.
"...Though, I'll be eager to talk to Jasper when he gets in. I didn't get a chance to talk to him about anything other than moving logistics yesterday."
Esme gracefully slid into a barstool next to me and crossed her legs.
"You don't give yourself enough credit. You may not hear her mind, but you know her heart every bit as well as Jasper does."
I smiled somewhat disbelievingly. "I hope you're right about that."
While getting married might have lessened some of Bella's anxiety about the (nonexistent) possibility of me leaving her again, it hadn't done much to quell my own insecurities about Bella's capacity to run if something someday became too much.
For example, saying goodbye to her father.
Every time I watched her give up a piece of her humanity, I watched with paralyzing fear wondering if this would be the final straw. How many blows could her love withstand?
She could stand losing Jacob and her other friends, apparently. But could she stand losing them and her parents? Could she stand losing Jacob and her friends and her parents and her fertility? Which sacrifice would be one too many?
Bella's anxiety over my leaving her would be almost funny if it didn't gut me so much.
If anybody had any real cause to fear a separation now, it was me. Not that she could trust that, trust me, after my total jackassery last year.
If Bella hadn't asked me to 'remind her" yesterday in the meadow, I probably would have done it anyway.
"Tampering with her memory," I'd called it once before. Though when her worst fears were as ridiculous as my running into a tree, the action hadn't felt so….coercive.
But as I'd told Jacob, I wasn't taking anything for granted. I would fight for her, and I wouldn't necessarily fight fair. And I was beginning to realize, and more than a little ashamed to admit... that maybe that applied to her, too.
"You're doubting her," Esme's voice broke me from my abstraction. "I can see it in your face."
I smiled a little ruefully. Who needed supernatural vampire gifts when you could be a mom? Certainly not Esme.
"Not her so much, but rather my hold on her. I keep watching her give up so many pieces of herself to be with me. I find myself wondering when she'll wake up and realize that I'm not worth it." I hung my head. Esme rubbed soothing circles on my back.
"Oh, Edward," she sighed. "What does that girl have to do to prove that she's not going to give you up? She had me at 'You have such a lovely home,'" Esme smiled fondly, remembering their first meeting.
In a sterner voice now, "Have a little faith. Bella is as tough as they come, and she can handle this.
"And if you want to save yourself an argument later on down the road, I suggest that you stop using your brother like the key to her diary.
"If you want to know how Bella feels, ask her. And if she doesn't want to tell you, well then you've got bigger problems," Esme pointedly raised her brow.
I groaned in exasperation. "I already ask her twenty-five times a day what she's thinking. I'm supposed to ask her what she's feeling, too?" I put my face in my hands.
Esme laughed good-naturedly and patted my shoulder. "It'll all work out, my boy. You'll see."
*A/N* I thought this one was a bit of a snooze with all the house description (but still necessary), so I waited to post this until I had a bonus chapter to post along with it. Happy reading! Thanks for taking the time to review! I always love to hear your thoughts, questions, and suggestions! Til next time!