ASL Chapter 17

Happy Days

EPOV:

Bella and I did have that second date. And a third. And a fourth. And many more times of getting together just to hang out in-between since our first date a month ago. Things were going so well in my life I sometimes worried that the bottom would drop out and my life would fall apart again.

Rose called me last night and asked me over for an early dinner tonight. It wasn't unusual for my mom and sisters to try to get me over for meals to keep me from eating takeout too much. Rose met me at the door carrying a fussing Skylar with her. I grabbed the baby from her arms and followed her back to the living room where Emma Rose was sleeping in the baby swing. I loved how they found a way to name one of their daughters after both of them.

We sat there and talked, mostly about my new relationship with Bella, until Emmett came in and told us that dinner was ready. I knew that Rose was not trying to be nosy, she was just, as she put it, 'making sure I didn't screw this up.' I was doing my best not to. Both Rose and Emmett were really nervous as we took our seats around the dinner table. Emmett had set out several trays of appetizers on the table.

"They are called Tapas, or small plates of food that are meant to be shared. They are becoming more and more popular right now. A lot of restaurants are adding them to their existing menus and new restaurants are opening featuring nothing but tapas."

Emmett explained what was on each plate. There was too much food for just the three of us but I attempted to try a little of everything. Emmett was an amazing cook. I really thought that he was wasting his life working in the corporate world. I kept telling him to go for his dreams and live for today. He would always look at Rose and say that he wasn't ready to take the risk. I stopped pushing him after Rose had the twins. It took until then to realize that they were his ultimate dream and all he really needed to be happy in life.

"So what did you think?" Rose asked when Emmett retreated to the kitchen with a couple of empty platters.

"I love Emmett's cooking. I've told you before that I'd be here for dinner every night if I could."

"What if you could eat Emmett's cooking every night?"

"What do you mean?"

"She means that when I was helping out at the bar when you were off with Bella, I found a lot of unused equipment in the kitchen that is still in amazing shape. I thought that I could prepare a Tapas menu like the food I served you tonight and sell it at the bar. More like I'd own and run the kitchen and you'd own and run the bar."

That was an interesting idea. Garrett told me that he'd tried it once before because he'd heard that people tend to drink more when they are eating, but he couldn't make a go of it. The cooks kept quitting and he couldn't afford one that was high quality. He wasn't interested in working in a kitchen all night, every night, so he quit doing it. But Emmett dreamed of doing this kind of thing and he was good at it. This could work out. "You realize what a time commitment this is, right? That Emmett will be at the bar nearly every night till the early morning hours?"

"Yes. We've talked about that. We are prepared for that. Plus, if this works out the way we hope it does, you could both start taking off two nights a week." They were right. Garrett only worked five day weeks when he owned the bar. I would love to be able to spend more time with Ethan and Bella. Between Jane, Emmett, and I, I think this could really work out great.

"Let's go for it. But don't you think the term 'tapas' is a little pretentious for a sports bar?"

"We can call it something else. The term doesn't matter so much. We just need to set a menu and get a license to sell food." We spent some time going over everything else that we thought we were going to need, and hoped to start serving by the beginning of the next month.

Bella surprised me the next night me by showing up at the bar with a pizza after her shift at the hospital. It was a quiet night for us since it was a Tuesday and there were no huge sporting events going on. Jane told me that she had everything under control and to take a break. After Bella ensured that Jane got a couple of slices, we retreated to my office with the rest of the pizza and a couple of beers.

After we were finished eating I poked my head out of the office and saw that Jane still had everything under control, so I grabbed Bella and pulled her down on the couch with me until we were both lying side by side. We kissed for awhile, then I told her about my dinner about Emmett and Rose's the day before and that we decided to go for it. Then we kissed some more. She told me that Emmett had come to her and asked her opinion on his idea and if he should even bother to bring it up and she told him to go for it. She said that she thought it sounded like a great idea. Then I kissed her a lot more. Pretty soon, I had to put a stop to what we were doing. I didn't want our first time being together to be on the couch in my office. For her it had to be special. It had to be right, because there was no way that I was going to screw this up like that, by being stupid.

Finally we had to leave the seclusion of my office and rejoin the real world. "Don't forget Dad is coming up tomorrow to go to lunch with us."

"I'll be there. I promise." I kissed her once more before she turned and left the bar. "Call me when you get home so I know you made it there safely," I yelled out to her as she walked out the door. She waved in response and then was gone.

The rest of the night remained just as quiet and I ended up sending Jane home and closing up alone. The walk back to my apartment was always peaceful in these early morning hours. There were never many people out, as most people were tucked away in their warm beds, like I knew that Bella was. I didn't realized that I had taken a detour over to her place until I was standing there staring at her apartment building. I was so tempted to show up at her door begging for one more kiss goodnight but I didn't want to wake her, or Angela and Mia.

That is when it hit me. Damn it if it wasn't absolutely crazy and impulsive, and a little bit insane, but it felt so right. I really wanted to do this more than I had wanted anything. My family was going to think that I had completely lost it, but I didn't care one bit. All I really cared about was first, getting Bella to agree, and second, putting my plan in motion. I turned to head on home to my apartment but I knew that I was not going to get to sleep anytime soon. I was too excited and hyped up to get any sleep now. I went straight to my kitchen table wanting to set my plan in motion immediately. I just had to get everyone to agree to help me.

BPOV:

Being with Edward made me happier than I had been in a very long time. I would love to say that I was the master of my own happiness but I can't. It was all Edward's doing. It was a fact and I never wanted anything to change that. The plus was that Tanya had been so great about him and me going out, too. She told me, the first time I saw her after our first date, that there were so many times that she didn't even recognize Edward as the man that she married. She was happy in her current relationship and wasn't going to deny either of us the chance to be that happy.

Angela was just taking Mia out of the bathtub when I got home from my surprise dinner with Edward. They had been here almost a month now and Angela had started her new job last week. Her new boss was a pediatric oncologist with a private office. That is where she worked most of the time, so her hours were quite steady during the day. She did have to do some nighttime and weekend on-call hours, and I told her that with everyone around here willing to help out, someone would be able to take care of Mia for her. She had spent so long doing everything on her own that it was hard for her to grasp that she had people around her that wanted to be there and help them. That there were people that cared. Just like the Cullen's easily welcomed me into their family, they welcomed her with the same ease and open arms.

Angela and I curled up on the couch to watch Chopped on the Food Network before going to bed. Emmett had gotten us both hooked on the show. I was excited to see my Dad tomorrow. I didn't get to see him enough and I saw my mother even less. He knew that I was dating Edward now and that he was joining us for lunch, but I didn't foresee any problems. Dad liked Edward, and while he was surprised that we were dating, he was actually quite happy about it. He knew that Edward was a good guy from a good family.

My phone went off, waking me up an hour before the alarm was set to go off. One glance at the phone told me that it was the school of one of my patients with Autism. I groaned and answered it, knowing that I was going to have to go to the school if it was bad enough that they were calling me on my day off.

I called Edward on my way out of the door, asking him to come by my place and wait for Dad to get here and I'd be back just as soon as I could. He told me not to worry about it, they'd be just fine. I got to the school to find that the little boy in question was in the corner screaming and wouldn't even let his parents touch him. The psychiatrist was on his way, but we really needed to attempt to calm Josiah down as soon as possible. This wasn't the first time he'd lost control this bad. Three hours later, an ambulance left to take the sedated child to the hospital and we had decided that the best place for Josiah, for now, was a group home. He just could not cope with life well enough to be in a place that chaos reigned. It sucked big time. He was such a sweet boy and he couldn't help it when he lost control. I felt like I had failed him in some way.

By the time I got back to my apartment Dad was there, and he and Edward were deep in a conversation and laughing hard. I was thrilled that they got along so well. It cemented that feeling deep inside me that being with Edward was right. I was totally and completely in love with the guy. I kissed them both on the cheek and ran off to my room to change out of my work clothes. I was not going to lunch with them in a business suit.

We went to a burger joint that dad like to go to whenever he came to Seattle. Lunch was great and a lot of fun. I just kept getting this odd feeling that they were keeping something from me, like they had conspired against me while I was off dealing with Josiah. I just could not shake that feeling that something was off.

We finished eating and then took Dad to see Edward's bar. He hadn't seen it yet and I think he was thoroughly impressed by it. After a couple of beers we left Edward there to get some paperwork done, while I spent some time alone with Dad before he had to start his drive back to Forks.

I called Edward to tell him that Dad had left and he asked me if I'd like to join him for dinner. "You're taking the night off from the bar?"

"Yeah, Jane has everything under control. I trust her. I really want to spend the evening with you."

I laughed, "We spent most of the day with each other, but I would love to spend more time with you. How fast can you get here?" He didn't say another word. He knocked on my door instead.

"Is this fast enough," he asked as he grabbed me and kissed me.

"Maybe we could just stay in and keep doing this some more," I suggested with a wink.

"No. I have plans for you tonight. Let's go."

He took me to a little café down at Pike's Place that we both liked. I was suffering a bit of a sweet tooth so we took a piece of cake home that we could share. We sat on the couch, watching a movie while he fed us the cake. Actually, he would give me a bite and then kiss me, then take a bite himself and kiss me again. It was the most romantic thing I think that I'd ever done. When I couldn't eat another bite he set the plate down on the coffee table, and what he did next very nearly made me pass out.

EPOV:

It couldn't have worked out better that Bella had to go see a patient and I was going to get time alone with Charlie. I had been worried how I was going to talk to him without Bella realizing what was going on.

I explain my whole thought process to Charlie as we sat in Bella's living room, waiting for her to get home. Thank God he was all for it. I was nervous and stressed all afternoon, but I was able to hide it well. At least I think I did. Bella never said anything if it showed. I had called my mother while I was waiting for Charlie to get here and she promised to meet me this afternoon after I split from Bella and her father. We had gone back to the bar and had a couple of 'after lunch beers'. I eventually excused myself, saying that I had paperwork to do. Bella bought it. I knew she would. I usually had a lot of paperwork and ordering to do. Charlie knew better. I had told him exactly what I was going to be up to this afternoon. I had told Mom and Charlie what I was doing. Mom would tell Dad, I was sure of that. They never kept secrets from each other and this would constitute a big-ass secret. I told her that I didn't want anyone else to know, for fear of jinxing the whole thing.

After dinner I took her back to my place for dessert. When I finished feeding it to the both of us, I moved to drop to one knee and pulled out the ring that Mom had helped me pick out this afternoon. "Bella, I know that this is impulsive and maybe a bit crazy. But I love you so much and I want you to be my wife. I want to hold you and protect you. I want to love and cherish you every day of my life. Will you marry me?"

She sat there staring at the ring that was in my hand that I was offering to her. Bella and her dad hadn't been gone but mere seconds this afternoon when Mom walked in the door with Mia in tow. She said they saw them leave the bar and stayed hidden around the side of the building until she was sure they were going and wouldn't see her and Mia. I locked the place back up and we headed out immediately. While Mom drove us to the store I gave her all the fine details of my plan, including feeding her the desert. She was thrilled and said that Dad was, too. It wasn't easy to find the ring that was meant to be Bella's. We had to go to three different jewelry shops before I finally found it.

I looked at her and realized that she was still sitting there staring at me in shock, so I leaned forward and put my hand on her cheek and kissed her lightly.

"Edward, this is crazy and impulsive."

"I know, sweetheart, but nothing else had felt this right. And whether I asked you tonight, six months from now, or even a year or two; I would be asking you to marry me. I love you, Bella."

That seemed to get her attention. She got the biggest smile on her face right before she threw herself at me, screaming 'yes' and kissing me. I managed to pull back from her assault to get the ring on her finger. It was a little big on her and we were going to have to take it to be sized. I knew it was going to be, since I had to buy it without knowing Bella's ring size.

"Did you want to have a big wedding?" I asked her.

"No. I really don't want to have to get up in front of a bunch of people that I don't know, and embarrass myself trying to walk in a big poofy dress that isn't me, and getting hurt, or hurting someone else, by wearing a pair heels that I should never even consider putting on. I've always wanted small and intimate. Why?"

"I was thinking of the beach, as soon as possible, like in the next couple of weeks."

"That soon? Wow. We have a lot to do to make that happen then, because that sounds perfect to me."

I pulled her to me and kissed her again before grabbing a notebook and we started putting together ideas. We were going to look into the beach wedding thing here first. If we couldn't do it then we'd head down to First Beach in La Push. Her dad would definitely be able to get us permission to have it there.

What really stood out to both of us was how we both had the same ideas of what we wanted our wedding to be like. We talked until late in the night and we both were too exhausted to continue on. It was the first time that Bella and I had spent the night together. We were both too tired to do anything but hold each other until we both fell asleep.

I woke the next morning before she did and laid there next to her playing with her ring. I knew that there was a lot more work to be done today. I didn't care what hoops I had to jump through, I just wanted Bella as my wife as soon as possible.

A/N:

Happy Saturday. Ok, I was going over my plans for this story and have decided that I should have it completed around chapter 21, maybe 22. I just wanted to warn you that we are coming to the end.

I also wanted to remind you that I donated a one-shot to no kid hungry. Here is a teaser (There is another teaser attached to the last LL update):

I stood before that Stupid judge. Does he really think that I have time for this community service thing? There was no way that I was going to be road kill on the side of some highway because some jerk thought I was a, what were his words again, oh yeah, A self-entitled, spoiled, little jackass. I ought to have fired my attorney when he told me that it would be better if I pled guilty and took the deal the DA was offering. "There is too much evidence against you Edward." "It would take a miracle to get you off this time, Edward." If he wasn't my cousin I would have fired him and started the process of having him disbarred. But I wouldn't do that to my aunt. I couldn't do that to her. She didn't need to be even more disappointed in me than she already was