By Sunday night I was feeling all settled into the cottage. Pictures from home lined the bookshelves in the living room and I'd purchased a hammock for the yard out front. My new favorite spot was sitting in the hammock with my morning coffee and a good book. Esme and Carlisle had been wonderful in making me feel at home. It turned out that they had quite the business selling food from their vegetable garden to residents in town. Carlisle was also a doctor at the local medical center in town. The cottage was usually rented on a weekly basis during the tourist season, making me the first to stay for the long-term. They had two grown children who lived nearby, but I hadn't met yet. Tonight to celebrate my first week here and starting the job tomorrow, they'd invited me to join their family for dinner at their home. I was excited to meet their children who were around my age.

I headed down the path to the main house, noticing two extra cars in the driveway. Knocking on the door, I could hear voices and laughter from inside. I knocked again to be heard over the sounds and heard a shout to come inside. Opening the door I was first greeted by Esme who was standing at the stove with a petite girl by her side.

"Bella, you made it. This is my daughter Alice."

"Bella, my parents haven't stopped talking about you since you moved in. If I didn't know that I was their favorite, I'd be a little jealous about being replaced," Alice laughed and greeted me with a hug.

I was a little thrown off guard by the warm welcome but she returned to the stove with her mother.

"Do you need any help with dinner?" I asked placing down the bottle of wine that I'd brought.

"We are just finishing up. The boys are out back if you don't mind letting them know we're ready in here" Esme replied.

Walking towards the back door I was unsure of what boys I was calling. There's nothing like being thrown into an instant family. Growing up with just my dad and myself I wasn't sure how to act at a family dinner. I was used to dad watching the game in the living room while I prepared dinner and then eating together with stilted conversations. I love my father and know that he loves me more than anything in the world, but conversations aren't his strong point.

As I step into the backyard, I see two men talking with Carlisle at the edge of the garden. Hesitant to shout out, I walked towards where they were standing and must have caught Carlisle's eye.

"Bella!" Carlisle called out, "Did you escape the girl talk in the kitchen to hide out here with us?"

The two other men turned towards me. One was tall and slender with blonde hair. The other must be Esme's son because his hair color matched hers exactly, a mixture of copper and brown.

"Esme sent me out to let you all know that dinner is just about ready" I shared as I neared the group.

"The bearer of good news then. I like you already. I'm Jasper, Alice's husband" the taller blonde shook my hand as he introduced himself.

"It's nice to meet you, Jasper."

"And I'm Edward," the bronze-haired one stated as he reached out his hand. His handshake was a strong one, feeling the calluses as we shook. "Welcome to our island, Bella."

We all headed back into the house where Esme and Alice were placing dinner on the table. I hadn't noticed on the way through before but the aroma was delicious. Meals always taste better when you aren't the one to do the cooking and I was going to enjoy this opportunity to experience that.

Conversation moved easily between the six of us throughout dinner. I shared my story of how I had decided to leave the United States and ended up on the island. There was a bit of teasing since it was a book that brought me here but I could tell it was all good-natured. It turned out that Alice and Jasper were both teachers at local schools. Edward on the other hand had taken after his parents and was starting up his own farm a few towns away. That explained the rough hands. At the end of the evening the boys cleaned up the dishes since the women had done the cooking this evening. There was talk of dinner the following weekend at Alice's house and she made sure to include that I was invited. I was thankful to be included into the fold and while I didn't want to intrude too much on their family time, I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to spend time with them all.