A bunch of you were right—Charlie did get his head out of his ass (with Renee's help) and accept it, even though he's a little wary of the whole situation at the moment. Just remember that he sees Easy as a pseudo little brother and you'll probably understand his hesitation a little more.

Somebody asked if Jackson Bay is fictional, and the answer is yes, it is. I made it up for the purposes of this story. It's set an hour or so outside Jacksonville and sits right on the coast. I hope that helps? Also, just a friendly reminder that if you're looking for my chapter images, teasers, or anything like that, they're all exclusive to my FB reader group now. Come just me in CiaraShayee's Subconscious for all the fun stuff. Everyone is welcome!

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Bella

"...and that's you, and me, and Jax, and Finn, and Easy, and—"

"Whoa, kiddo," I laugh, stifling a wince because laughing hurts my bruised sternum, but the boys get upset when they think I'm in pain. Arlo's cheeks flush fire-truck-red as he halts his rambling speech. "Take a deep breath before you pass out, okay?"

Sucking in a big breath, he flashes me a grin and nods. "'Kay, Momma. But look, Max is here, and Nana and Papa, and Uncle Benji and Aunt Ang." He continues pointing to the stick figures on the paper, pointing out almost everybody he knows here in Jackson Bay as well as Jude and a couple of his old friends from nursery back in England.

Content just to listen to him talk, I cuddle him as close as I dare and soak him in, breathing in his apples and pear shampoo and revelling in the softness of his hair between my fingers. The last week has been painfully slow as my strength has started to return bit by bit. We're now on day twelve after the accident and I'm finally able to stand unaided, although I am a little wobbly, and I can make my arms move enough to hug my boys. It's killed me not being able to snuggle my babies and comfort them when they've needed me.

Thankfully, they've got a great support system in place. My family has been beyond amazing. We've had friends stopping by for the last week and a half with food, gifts for the boys, flowers for me, and offers of help with Max. Luckily, our floofy beast is perfectly happy staying with my brother, so at least I don't have to worry about him. As much as he's a pain in the ass at times, I miss Max like crazy.

It makes me smile, remembering my hesitation when we first brought him home and Edward's assurance that I'd fall for him fast enough. He was right.

As Arlo jibber-jabbers on, my gaze wanders to the window between my room and the corridor. Edward is out there now with Dad, Benjamin, and Jude. They're all smiling and laughing, getting on like a house on fire. There aren't words to express how happy it makes me to see Jude slotting into my family so effortlessly, as if she's always been here. There have been a few awkward moments while we all adjust to everyone knowing about me and Edward, but overall, they've all been a steady mixture of supportive and teasing..

Now people know about us, our relationship feels real.

My sisters have taken the news in stride easier than I ever expected. Rosalie quietly told me that Edward is exactly the sort of man she's always pictured me ending up with; someone mature and secure in themselves and their career. "You've always struck me as someone who'd need an older man to balance you out," she said with a shrug when I laughed and asked what she meant. Everly...Everly loudly congratulated me on landing 'a Daddy,' which didn't go down well with Dad, who walked in just as she raised her hands for a high ten.

Mom is over the moon—she's told me as much a hundred times already. Dad is more hesitant, but still not as bad as I expected. We can appreciate how weird it must be for him, seeing his best friend-pseudo little brother dating his daughter, so it's easy to be patient with him. He'll take a while to come around but I haven't had the 'he's not right for you, you need to ditch him' speech he gave me after I introduced him to Richard. Incidentally, he was right, but I'll never tell him that. I'd never live it down. I guess it helps that he's seen the same things in Edward that I have, at least occasionally.

I've never felt more like a family than when Edward has helped me tuck the boys in at night or spent his meager breaks video-calling the boys just to watch them eat dinner or jibber-jabber about their days at school. I don't think it's always intentional, but he's a dad without actually being their dad. The developing bond between him, Jaxson, Finley, and Arlo is a beautiful thing to behold. Dad—and everybody else—has seen most of those things, too. Maybe not all of it, but Jaxson, Finley, and Arlo don't see the harm in telling Nana and Papa how 'Easy' tucked them in last night or raving to Benjamin about how he's teaching them soccer, all things that would have seemed innocent until they found out about me and Edward.

"Hey, can we come in?" Jude asks, poking her head into the room with Edward, Dad, and Benjamin right behind her.

"Sure."

Thanks to my now-less-critical state, I've been moved down the hall to a new room. This one doesn't have a visitor limit, thankfully. They all pile in, but Jude quickly explains they're not all staying.

"We're going to head off now and let you get some rest. It's been a long day." To Arlo, she adds, "Come on, little love. Shall we get you back to Nana and Papa's for dinner? Jaxson and Finley are waiting for us in the cafeteria with Auntie Everly."

"'Kay, Nanny Jude." Leaning up to kiss me on the tip of my nose, he grins. "See you tomorrow, Momma. Be good, 'kay?"

"How about you be good, and I'll see if we can go get some ice cream together tomorrow?"

"You'll come with me?" His eyebrows lift, his sweet smile widening. So far, I haven't made it further than the end of the corridor, but I'm determined to get more mobile so I can get home. Being in here is driving me crazy and the only way to get stronger is to keep building myself up. I can't do that stuck in this damn bed. Plus, my slow gait makes him feel better about being awkward on his 'wonky foot,' as he calls it. His brothers are all healed up and tearing around the hospital corridors while he has to limp along behind them. He hates it.

"I'll walk as far as I can and maybe get someone to bring a chair with us, in case my legs get too tired."

"Okay, that sounds fun. I'm gonna go tell Jax and Finn! See you tomorrow, Momma! Love you!"

"Bye, baby," I laugh, blowing him a kiss as he slips off the bed into his miniature wheelchair. Toward the end of the day, he's usually too tired to use his crutches, so we keep his loaned chair on hand just in case. "Love you, too!"

After saying 'bye' to Dad, Benjamin, and Jude, I'm left with Edward and his crooked grin as he sinks into the worn seat beside the bed.

"How are you feeling? Tired?"

"I'm always tired," I tell him for what has to be the thirtieth time this week. "Sitting around all day makes me more exhausted than working a late at Vaughn's."

He smirks, taking my hand and rubbing small circles over my knuckles with his thumb. The gentle motion makes me hum as I wriggle around to get comfy. "Did I tell you they hired someone to fill your position?"

"No, but if you get me their address, I'll be sure to send a sympathy note," I grumble, unable to resist smiling when his beautiful, rich laughter fills the room.

He really has no idea how much I adore him. This silly, sweet, complicated, and sometimes grumpy man has well and truly ruined me for all other men, and he has no clue.

My eyes sting with ridiculous, impending tears as I gaze at his face, watching him check his phone when it chimes. So handsome. My gaze roams over him while he's too distracted to notice, following the curve of his neck into his broad shoulders and muscular arms. Those arms have held me together when I've been emotional and in pain over the last few days. They've cradled Jaxson, Finley, and Arlo when I wasn't able to. The defined chest that draws my attention next has been a pillow for my sons and a place for me to cry when everything hurts and my recovery is too slow.

My mind wanders, because I know what that chest and those arms look like without the henley currently covering them and I miss seeing them. I miss the intimacy we had before I wound up in here. I miss falling asleep wrapped up in him and I miss being able to jump his sexy body.

"You're testing my restraint, short stuff," Edward rumbles, his voice gravelly as my eyes snap up to meet his, a blush heating my cheeks. His dark gaze and faint smirk tell me he knows exactly where my thoughts had wandered to. "I spent six years on my own but a couple months with you and I'm like a teenager again."

A delighted grin steals over my face. It still blows my mind that this gorgeous man wants me. I'm confident enough in myself to be able to say I'm relatively pretty and have a good figure, thanks to having three very active little boys and now a dog, but still. Edward is Edward, the hot guy I drooled over as a teenager and crushed on hard.

Now he's mine and everyone who really matters knows it.

"If it makes you feel better, I'm the same way," I offer, not quite able to squash my grin completely. However, it slips a little at the look on Edward's face as he reaches up to tug at his hair, refusing to meet my gaze. "What? Talk to me."

"This isn't going to be smooth or slick in any way whatsoever," he grumbles softly, seemingly to himself, before shaking his head and blowing a breath out through his nose. Only then does he look at me, curiosity and hesitance written all over his face. "We talked about my relationship with Kate. Is it...would you…"

My lips twitch toward a wider smile. "Would I mind sharing my horrendous dating history?"

Snorting, he squeezes our joined fingers and nods. "Pretty much. Sorry, there's no nice way to ask and this is the shittiest place for this conversation."

"Nah, it's okay. I'm not going to get upset and bawl on you over it," I tell him wryly. "I'm way over it. The only feelings I have for Richard now are frustration and disbelief that I put up with his bullshit for so long." Twisting a little to get comfortable facing him, I offer Edward a genuine smile. "I met Richard during my freshers' week at university. He was a couple years ahead of me but we ended up with a bunch of mutual friends so we saw each other a lot, then he wouldn't quit asking me out so I eventually said 'yes' just to shut him up and ended up falling for him."

Saying it out loud now, knowing what I know and having spent the last decade growing as a person, I can't believe I ever fell for a man like Richard. He's selfish, immature, and a pigheaded douchebag. He has his good qualities, of course—I wouldn't have had children with him otherwise—but my youth and inexperience with relationships definitely made me naive. I stayed for too long and put up with too much. We weren't compatible, but I was stubborn and determined to make it work.

"It doesn't surprise me that he was a persistent asshole. I mean, you're you," Edward murmurs, obviously not enjoying the subject even though he was the one who brought it up. "But I guess I don't understand why you stayed so long."

"I was young, dumb, and I thought I was in love," I admit with a shrug, hating how foolish it makes me sound. "I thought we'd get through it and prove the doubters wrong. Lots of people warned me about his reputation but I just didn't see it for the longest time. Then we had Jax and Finn, and I was determined to make it work for their sake. 'It's just a rough patch,' 'being new parents tests every relationship,' and 'we just need to work harder' became my mantras. I even told myself him not caring about their surname was normal because it just didn't occur to me to think otherwise. We were never engaged, so I just figured it didn't really matter."

Kristen interrupts the conversation with a gentle knock on the door. "Hey, sorry to disturb you. I just need to check in before I leave for the night."

"That's fine," I tell her with a smile, glad of the brief respite from rehashing mistakes I'd rather forget. I'll never regret the boys, but if I could forget the years with Richard and just leave memories of my boys, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

When Kristen leaves, Edward rakes a hand through his hair and silently pleads with his eyes for me to continue and get everything out in the open.

"I found out I was pregnant with Lo three weeks after I broke up with Richard," I admit quietly. Jude and Mom are the only two people who knew that.

Or so I thought. Frowning, I realize Edward looks more guilty and less surprised by my admission.

"Jude actually told me that. She didn't say anything else, but she wanted me to be sure that I have nothing to worry about with you and Richard."

The mere idea of him having to worry about me ever getting back with Richard is enough to make me laugh, even though it hurts. Edward's smile is small but his eyes crinkle slightly in the corners.

"Handsome, you don't ever have to worry about Richard. He's no competition, okay?" Carefully twisting to swing my legs over the edge of the bed, I let go of his hand to cup his beard-covered jaw instead. His gaze is earnest and gentle as I lean in, resting our foreheads together and breathing in his woodsy, fresh-grass-scented aftershave. It's new, but I love it. Nerves scatter through my veins, worried anticipation pushing a shaky exhale from my lungs.

My mortality has been thrown into stark contrast. I don't want to wait another day to tell Edward how I feel about him, how I want more than the sneaking around and casual situation we've fostered up until now.

Sucking in a deep breath, I pull up my metaphorical big girl panties and ready myself for his rejection, should it come. I know he's got lots going on and our relationship isn't as simple as some, but I've seen the way he looks at me, the way he looks at the boys. He's been here every day for a week and a half. He's made us—me, Jaxson, Finley, and Arlo—his priority. He has no idea what that means to me after being in a relationship with a man who constantly put me and our sons last.

Closing my eyes for a moment, just to gather my thoughts, I feel my lips curling up into a small smile as I open them to say those three little words. I want him to say them back, but even if he doesn't, I know he's on his way there.

I've seen them in his heated gaze as we fall into bed at the end of a long day and his soft, sleepy smiles when we wake up wrapped around each other. I've seen them in the grins he shoots me over the boys' heads as he goofs around with them in the pool and the winks he offers when they're not looking. I've seen the words hovering on his lips when we Facetime before bed and he cuts himself off after 'goodnight, short stuff.'

So even if he doesn't say them out loud now, I can be patient.

"Edward...I l—"

The sudden, harsh sound of my cell vibrating across the overbed table makes me jump. Our noses knock together as I spring back, hissing and wincing at the pull of my still-healing muscles. My heart thumps hard in my chest, my pulse beating in my ears as I blindly reach out toward the noise.

Adrenaline leaks from my body. It's replaced by worry when I see it's Mom calling. She wouldn't disturb us if she didn't need to—she promised over and over today to sneak the boys away so we could have some alone time. Shooting Edward an apologetic half-smile, I quickly hit the flashing green symbol and raise my phone to my ear.

"Mom, hey. What's up?"

She doesn't get a chance to answer before I hear it. The wailing is loud enough for me to tell that it's my baby, my littlest boy, and he's distraught.

"Oh, God, Lo…" I breathe, my stomach falling to my feet. "What happened, what's wrong? Is he hurt? Is it his ankle?"

I see Edward frowning, already reaching for his keys on the table as he lifts slightly from the chair.

"Don't panic, sweetheart, he's not hurt," she finally says, soft and calm even though I can hear the edge of panic in her voice. "He dozed off in the car on the way home so we let him sleep, but he woke up after a nightmare as we carried him in and he's been inconsolable ever since."

Every fiber of my being screams for me to get out of this bed and make Edward drive me home to comfort my boy, then I hear it. A single word in the middle of Arlo's muffled cries, and my heart stops before taking off again with a sputter.

Easy.

Tears fill my eyes but they're made of mixed emotions as I blink them away and mouth to Edward that Arlo needs him. Him, not me, his momma. It breaks my heart but buoys me at the same time. I can't go to him right now, but Edward can.

It doesn't escape my notice that he's never, not once, cried for Richard. He's been emotional after a no-show, but he's never asked for Richard when he's sick or upset, he's never woken for a nightmare wanting comfort from the man who should be there for him.

"I'll call you," Edward murmurs, pressing a hot, hard kiss against my head before rushing from the room.

All thoughts of romantic declarations are forgotten as I ask Mom to hold the phone to Arlo's ear. "Hey, baby, it's Momma. Lo, can you hear me?"

It kills me to listen to him sob down the phone, but I continue a steady stream of reassurances until I hear Mom say, "Look, EC is here."

"Keep me on the phone, please," I plead, torn between gratefulness that Edward's presence gradually quiets Arlo's crying and guilt that I'm not there to comfort my son.

When it all falls quiet, only Edward's gentle, lilting humming coming through the phone and Mom's hushed whisper that Arlo is asleep, I breathe out a request for someone to call me if Arlo gets upset again before hanging up and letting the tears fall.

~ oOo ~

The next afternoon, I'm sitting in the sunshine on a bench outside the hospital entrance when Edward's Jeep rolls by, turning off into the parking lot. Jaxson spots me, all three boys waving like loons as they sail past and a smile spreads over my face.

It's been torture, waiting for them to finish school today. After Arlo's freak-out last night, I wasn't sure if Mom would end up bringing him in to me instead of school this morning. As it happens, he woke up quieter than usual and a little clingy with Edward, who slept on the pull-out in the den just in case, but otherwise okay. A day with Miss Mickey and his friends seems to have done him good though, because he's grinning so wide his eyes are squinty when he heeds Edward's warning to go slowly over the crossing before racing the last few feet.

He's gotten more confident on his crutches, which in turn makes me more nervous. The kid has no fear.

"Hey, kiddo," I breathe, wrapping him up in my arms as soon as he's close enough. The familiar apples, pears, and cookies scent of him makes me relax, his obvious joy only calming me further.

"Hi, Momma. Are we gonna get ice cream?" Jaxson asks, trailing behind Arlo with Finley and Edward.

"We sure are, baby," I tell them with a grin, giving them all the same squeezy hug before tugging Edward down to my level by the front of his tee. The boys groan and make yucky noises as I plant one right on his lips, laughing softly at his wide green eyes and slack jaw.

I see no reason to hide us from the boys now everybody else knows, and judging by the grins on their faces, they're not unhappy about it.

"Are you Momma's boyfriend?" Arlo demands with raised eyebrows.

Edward runs a hand through his hair, fumbling for his words before sighing and crouching so he's eye-level with them. "Yes, I am Momma's boyfriend."

A silly, girly sigh escapes me at that, but I can't help myself. Edward freaking Cullen is my boyfriend.

He smirks my way before addressing the boys. "Is that okay?"

Finley, Jaxson, and Arlo share a mischievous look. "I need to have a huddle with my brothers," Jaxson says, and all three of them step away a few feet to create a mini huddle.

Edward and I stifle our laughter, both perfectly able to hear their loud whispers as Finley points out that he told them we were dating and Jaxson says it's great because they'll probably get to use the pool more, leaving just Arlo wearing a pensive little frown.

"We're cool with it," Jaxson finally announces, apparently the chosen spokesman today. "But you gotta look after her, 'kay?" he warns, wagging a finger at Edward, who, to his credit, takes it very seriously. He manages to keep his straight face even when Jaxson flushes and adds, "And us, 'cause we're just kids."

"That sounds like a fair deal, so long as you guys promise to help me out from time to time when I get stuck. I've been on my own for a while. It's going to take me a bit to get used to having a family around again."

Eyeing me, then his brothers, Arlo hobbles closer on his crutches before tucking one under his arm so he can reach out to squeeze Edward's shoulder. He's so tiny compared to Edward, but it's the latter who seems small as Arlo clearly and confidently tells him, sounding for all the world far older than his tender four years, "We're your family, Easy, and families look after each other."

Next update: Wednesdayish

Can I tell you how much I love that you're all loving Sully? It's possible I have plans for him beyond this story, so it makes me incredibly happy to see you all loving on him in your reviews.

We're winding down into the last couple of chapters now! After this, there's two more regular chapters and then the epilogue. They're all written and edited now, so my update schedule may just go out of the window at any given point LOL. We all know I'm a sucker and usually end up posting early anyway.

If you haven't already, run along and check out Sunshine1220's new story, Clutch. It's one chapter in and I can already tell it's going to be a humdinger! It's got Sons of Anarchy and Charlie Hunnam as inspiration...need I say more? ;)

As always, huge "thank you's" need to go to the wonderful ladies who help me out with this story, particularly my good friend annaharding because she's always so darn helpful and great at talking me off the ledge. Can't wait to see you again later this year!

And big hugs to all of you wonderful people taking the time to read and review. When there's other bullshit going on, it's your reviews and sweet words that get me through the writer's block and the 'can I do this?' wobbles.