AN: Hi all!
Thanks to all who read, follow, fave & review! Huge thanks to ForrestersWitch, catgrl, and twi nana for reviews last chapter!
(Honestly I'm getting waaay more excited about the sequel for this than I am about this story itself. The sequel will tell the story of the next generation so as you can imagine, it will have a very, very different version of Bella in it. But she has to be born before we can tell her story and since she's gonna have three older siblings and two younger ones, you can see we have a ways to go!)
Chapter Seven: Necessary Redecorating
We went into Port Angeles to do our shopping and the girls happily dragged us around to stores all afternoon, though we hardly minded. I think the salespeople at the furniture store must've thought we were all nuts when all four of us jumped on the king size beds to try them out. Thankfully, we had a pretty good eye for workmanship and none of the beds we tested broke when we jumped on them.
So it ended up coming down to design choice and it took a while to find something all four of us liked, but once we did, we were pretty happy with it. After that, we selected linens for the bed and then looked at nursery furniture. We decided that whatever gender the twins are, they would share a nursery and that way we only had to decorate one room at a time as more children came along.
Renée seemed convinced that she was already pregnant, after only one night with Billy since quitting her birth control. But I was pretty sure it was just wishful thinking since she wanted so badly to be pregnant alongside Sarah. Still, she made us buy a home pregnancy test, just in case.
After all of our furniture shopping, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up fresh steaks, mushrooms, and asparagus, to go with the potatoes we already had at home. And of course, we also picked up some Vitamin R, which is what we jokingly called our favorite beer, Rainier.
The new bed was being delivered the following day since we had paid extra for delivery on the weekend. So we were going to switch places for our last night in separate beds so that Billy and I each had a chance to check out both of the double beds and that would make it easier to decide which double bed to keep and which one to sell.
We already had a buyer lined up. Harry and Suzie didn't have a very good bed so we were selling our extra double to them at a fair price. That way they could afford to upgrade and we'd make back a portion of what we spent on the king bed.
And speaking of Harry and Suzie...by the time we got home, we only had about an hour until they'd be arriving, so Billy and I prepared the rub for the steaks while the girls started working on the potatoes for mashing.
"I'm excited about the new bed." I heard Renée tell Sarah as they washed potatoes.
"So am I." Sarah beamed. "But I wanted to ask you…you were just kidding when you made that joke at breakfast, right?"
"Joke at breakfast? You might have to refresh my memory on that one…" Renée puzzled. I realized right away what this was about.
"Yeah, when Billy was teasing us and you made it sound like we might actually…" Sarah trailed off, obviously uncomfortable discussing it outright.
Realization dawned on Renée's face when she realized what Sarah was worried about. "Oh, Hunny, relax! It's definitely not something I expect, though it would be something I'd be open to."
"Oh okay, good." Sarah sighed with obvious relief. "That's not actually something I've ever been interested in. I mean, if the boys requested it, I'd be willing to try it, but I've never had those kinds of desires before," she clarified.
"Okay, that works for me." Renée nodded cheerfully. It was hard to tell with her if she was disappointed, but Sarah seemed okay and that satisfied my wolf. I had to trust that Billy would be able to tell through their imprint if Renée was upset.
Shortly after the girls had put the potatoes on to boil and the meat was resting in the rub, ready for the grill, Harry and Suzie arrived early.
Sue joined the girls in the kitchen and together she and Sarah prepared the remaining sides while Renée worked on the foolproof dessert for after, making three different kinds of pudding and whip cream to go with them. The puddings were all from a box and it's pretty hard to mess up whip cream, so it was the perfect job for Renée, bless her heart.
Billy and I visited with Harry for a few minutes, until it was time to cook the steaks.
"So, you got the big bed, hey? That's gonna be pretty interesting, I'm sure." Harry smirked.
"Yeah, it should be fun." I nodded, sipping my beer.
"Well, at least until the first time everyone changes positions in their sleep and you wake up spooning Billy." Harry chuckled.
"I think we'll survive." I laughed. "He used to always crawl into my bed when there was a thunderstorm anyway, so I'm pretty familiar with waking up to find him in my personal space."
"Actually, Chuck...dammit, I mean Charlie. That's going to take some getting used to. But anyway, it seems to me, I remember that the other way around." Billy frowned.
"Okay, sure, sure. If you wanna save face, we'll just say I was the one scared of storms." I grinned appeasingly.
"That's better." Billy nodded.
"You two are a riot," Harry observed, cracking open his beer. I looked at my watch. It had been six minutes since I handed it to him.
"Damn, I just lost twenty bucks!" I sighed, pulling a twenty out of my wallet and handing it to Billy.
"On what?" Harry wondered.
"How long it would take before you opened your beer. Billy said between five and ten minutes. I said ten to fifteen." I grinned.
"Oh. Yeah, I often forget I have a drink available." Harry laughed.
"Meanwhile I'm halfway finished and Billy's probably done already." I looked over and sure enough, Billy was crushing his empty can.
"To be fair, I'm the same way with other drinks. Sue pours me an orange juice with my breakfast and I usually don't drink any of it until I'm on my second helping of food." Harry shrugged.
"I'm not sure if that makes it less weird or weirder." I chuckled.
"Less weird, definitely. It'd be far more bizarre if he only neglected booze." Billy laughed.
"I dunno, at least then it could be because he wants to stay sober. Then we could call him a teetotaler at least. Since it's all drinks, I'm not sure how to make fun of that," I puzzled.
"I suppose we could call him a cactus? They don't need much fluid," Billy suggested.
"Harry Cactus? I kinda like that," I teased.
"Okay, time to put the steaks on, Boys!" Sarah called from the kitchen.
We headed out to the grill to cook the steaks while Harry tried to figure out what plants Billy and I would be if he was a cactus. He settled on Hops and Barley.
"Dinner was amazing, thank you both, so much!" Suzie beamed as our girls cleared the table.
"Thanks for your help, Sue. The asparagus was delicious!" Renée gushed.
"Thanks. The trick is to take them off the heat before they go floppy when they still have a nice crisp to them," Sue revealed.
"Ooh, thanks for the tip!" Renée cheered. "I'll have to remember that."
"Now, can we give you folks your present?" Sue beamed excitedly.
"Good idea, then we can have dessert after!" Sarah nodded as we gathered in the living room.
We let the girls open the package. It was a decor set with a matching picture frame, wall plaque, indoor planter, and coat rack.
"Oh wow! This is great!" Sarah applauded.
"Totally! And we'll definitely be able to use most of it too!" Renée assessed.
"Most of it?" Sue questioned casually.
"Well, I have a history of killing indoor plants. The only thing I've never managed to kill is a cactus," Renée admitted.
"That's perfect!" Billy grinned. "We can plant a cactus and whenever we see it, we'll think of Harry!"
I burst out laughing and so did Harry, but the girls didn't hear the joke earlier, so we had to explain it to them. It lost a little in the retelling.
"Thank you, so much, Sue and Harry," Sarah smiled, hugging them each in turn. "I really love the wall plaque especially."
We all agreed, gushing over the plaque which read:
Love x Abundance = Happiness
Sue had gotten it custom made for us.
We each took turns thanking them for the generous gifts and they were thrilled that we liked them. Soon it was time for dessert. Renée's pudding was a hit, and afterward, we spent a few hours talking and laughing and drinking with our friends. It was probably the last time we'd all be able to visit together like this for a long time because the council was going to expect us to set up regular patrols soon, so one of us would almost always be in wolf form here forward.
They'd looked the other way while we were setting up house, and we were bound to get some time off for the weddings and whatnot, but that would be about it. And I knew the time was coming that I'd have to resign from the Forks PD. Our grandfather Ephraim's pack had never had outside jobs, they had been full-time protectors of the tribe and we would be expected to do the same.
Plus I knew that me becoming chief would bring with it added responsibilities, and I couldn't afford to devote so much time to the town of Forks when I was needed on the Rez. But that wasn't to say my career in law enforcement was over. Not by any means. La Push had its own small police department and as chief, if I wanted to run it, I could.
In fact, there was nothing to prevent the wolves or our Imprints from having jobs on the Rez as long as they didn't interfere with our patrol schedule. And we wouldn't be nearly as busy as Ephraim's pack because there was a family of vampire living in the area when their pack was phasing.
You might wonder why the pack let them stay, but they claimed to only subsist off of animal blood, so Ephraim had arranged a treaty with them which kept them off our land and apparently they co-existed peacefully. They must've been much different than the Cold Ones we had seen so far because the ones we had seen were pretty terrifying.
I had to hope they wouldn't come back while our pack was phasing because I don't think I'd personally feel very comfortable with vampires living in the area, especially once we had children.
Grandpa Ephraim must've been some kind of Saint to allow them to stay. I didn't think I could be that generous.
"Whatcha thinking about?" Renée asked as we crawled into her bed for our first time together in the new house.
"Vampires." I shrugged. Renée shuddered.
"I have to wonder if they're all as awful as the ones who tried to kill you, Charlie," she reasoned. "I mean, maybe it's the same as with humans. Maybe there are good ones and bad ones."
I smiled. "Renée, it's good of you to hope that. But I have to say, if I ever meet a good vampire, I'll probably faint from shock."
"You never know, Charlie. Stranger things have happened." She shrugged. And given the way our lives had been going, that was probably a true statement.
The next morning, after a whole lot of lovemaking, the girls made us another stellar breakfast.
This time there was an egg, homefry, and sausage scramble with tomatoes, onions, and green peppers and grated cheese. There were also Belgian waffles with homemade strawberry syrup. Not to mention, thick slices of honey glazed ham.
"You ladies are certainly out to spoil us!" I laughed as we dished our plates with mountains of food and began to eat.
"Well, you boys only have so many months of breakfasts like these before we have little babies keeping us up all night and are too tired to make you anything more extravagant than bacon and toast, so enjoy it while you can!" Sarah grinned.
"That's right. And besides, this is a good opportunity for me to learn cooking from Sarah. This way, by the time the twins arrive, I should be proficient enough to pick up the slack in the kitchen," Renée beamed proudly.
"That sounds nice." Billy beamed.
"What parts of this breakfast did you do?" I asked her.
"I made almost the entire scramble except for the potatoes! It wasn't that hard actually. The sausage meat was pre-cooked, so all I had to do was add Sarah's potatoes when they came out of the oven to my scrambled eggs and the meat and chopped veggies and then scramble it all together until the meat was heated through. The tomatoes keep it from drying out, I learned." She announced.
"Aww, well I am very proud of you!" Billy cheered, hugging her tightly, still chewing. "The first few bites are delicious!"
"Yeah, it's pretty good, Renée." I agreed, scarfing it down. "The waffles are amazing too, Sarah. And the ham is to die for!"
Billy seconded that assessment and the girls were very pleased we appreciated their cooking.
Then about an hour after breakfast, the bed arrived. Billy and I spent the next hour taking the downstairs bed apart and replacing it with the new king. We had settled on using the downstairs as our main living quarters and the upstairs as a sort of guest suite, since having decided to all share a room, it made no sense to use the whole house for several reasons.
Sarah liked the fact that it was less area to clean and Renée liked the fact that using only the downstairs meant if the place were ever really messy, we could entertain upstairs at a moment's notice without having to tidy up first. Billy liked that we'd be using the downstairs because that way if we ever had guests staying upstairs, they wouldn't hear our bed creaking.
And I liked that if anyone we knew ever needed a place to stay, we could easily accommodate them in the spare suite. Plus we all agreed, if we ever needed an extra source of income, we could easily rent it out.
Once Billy and I had the new bed set up, the girls made the bed with the linens we bought and spent a couple hours arranging the room to their liking. Then they went through the rest of the house taking everything from upstairs that was more homey and bringing it downstairs and taking everything from downstairs that was more showy and moving it upstairs.
For instance, the China cabinet went upstairs along with the glass coffee table, the fancy bath towels Renée's mother gave us as a housewarming present, the antique tea service Sarah inherited from her grandmother, etc. Basically, anything we thought the kids could easily break went upstairs and anything we wanted to use on a regular basis went downstairs.
Once it was all arranged, we ordered pizza and spent the rest of the day relaxing and watching movies. We were all looking forward to trying out the shared bed for the first time that night. I was already getting aroused just thinking about it!
AN: Okay so the time skip will probably be next chapter, and we'll be starting off with a lemon. Maybe we'll do Charlie & Renée's wedding next chapter too, we'll have to see how far the muse takes me!
As always, I love reviews!
Blessings,
-BMW