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LadySharkey1 rocks my world by being the most amazing, kick-ass beta I could ever imagine.

Chapter 1

The stage is set

Two weeks earlier

"Mom!" I grin just from hearing my daughter's voice. "Mom! You'll never guess what I saw today!"

I smiled as I wiped my hands on my apron as my ten year old daughter buzzed through the bakery like a hurricane. She only stopped when her eyes finally landed on me.

"Careful," I warned her, pointing to the immaculate tower of cakes and delicate flower decorations that made up Rachel Black's wedding cake.

She blushed guiltily, taking her next couple of steps very carefully around the cake. Growing up in a patisserie had taught her to treat the fruits of all my hard work with the utmost care.

And for me, I always had to be on the lookout when I knew she was on the premises.

"You went on that school trip to the riding stables today, didn't you?" I asked. It wasn't like I didn't know that, of course. Charlie's constant, excited reminders would have certainly clued me in even if hadn't read their letter asking for permission and explaining the trip.

She nodded furiously. "It was so cool, Mom! I got to ride a pony! A real pony!"

Jesus take the wheel! Ten to one she'll want to take up horse riding now. Why was it a good idea to let her go again? I was already weighing the pros and cons of letting my baby girl take riding lessons as she took off into a comprehensive tale of just about everything she'd done that day since the second I'd dropped her off at school.

Apparently, horses kicked ass.

In a good way.

"So, what are you doing, Mom?" she asked as soon as her own stories had dried up. "The cake's almost done, isn't it?"

I nodded. "It's for Rachel. You remember her, don't you?"

"Uncle Jake's sister?" Charlie nodded, swiping one of the leftover fondant flowers from the tray.

"She's getting married tonight at the rez, so Uncle Jake is going to take up the cake as soon as he's finished with work today," I explained.

Jake, or Jacob Black as his full name was, wasn't actually family but he'd been working for me for the entire two years I'd been open, making my deliveries for me. And just like everyone who'd been a fixture in my daughter's life, she started to call him 'uncle' after a couple of months. Just long enough for him to prove to her that he was awesome enough to carry the title.

And Jake was pretty awesome, even if sometimes his head was a little too big for the shoulders it rested on.

His dad was a longstanding friend of mine, which was how I managed to find a delivery guy who would work on my terms (being: very irregularly) in the first place. His family had standing on the reservation he'd grown up on and I guess Jake was some sort of chief to his tribe. The paycheck he cashed in for that, though, was barely enough to support his family and pay for his ailing father's medical bills, which was where I came in.

If anyone would have told me ten years ago, when I'd just found out I was pregnant and thought the world as I knew it was coming to an end, that within the decade I would graduate from culinary school and open one of the most successful patisseries on the Pacific Peninsula, I would have thought they were playing a very cruel joke on me.

Luck, for once, had been on my side, though.

Luck, and two sets of amazingly supportive parents.

When Edward and I had finally worked up the courage to tell our parents about my pregnancy and our decision to keep the baby, we'd expected them to be angry and hurt. Knowing the high hopes they had of us, we knew they were going to be so disappointed to see everything they had dreamed of for out futures come to a screeching halt.

They'd been disappointed, that was for sure, but the screaming and anger we'd been prepared for had never come. Instead they sat us down to make new plans and adapt the roadmap Edward and I had already planned out for this new situation.

Oh, and they kept us from doing silly, spur-of-the-moment stuff like get married before we could even vote or legally drink alcohol.

With both my mom and his beside me, I'd been able (or forced was more like it, at times) to keep up with my schoolwork even when I hadn't been able to attend class; their care of little Charlotte made sure I had enough rest and free time to focus on my assignments and keep up with the rest of my peers.

After graduation, they'd set up a schedule around my college classes so that I could always leave my little girl behind, knowing she was in the best possible hands.

Then, luck came. I'd been working a weekend job at the local bakery for as long as I could imagine, helping out Mr. Molina with the weekend rush while learning all there was to know about bread and sweets. It was there, that I'd fallen in love with all things pasty and, though my life became increasingly hectic as I went to college, I'd always stayed connected to the shop. So much so that when I graduated from college, my graduation gift from Mr. Molina was a rental agreement to both the shop and the apartment above it at a very friendly rate. It turned out Mr. Molina had been longing to retire to some sunny place for quite some time, and with me graduating and looking for a place to work in town, he was seizing the opportunity to leave his business in good hands.

I was lucky to get this chance, even if it had cost me a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to build the business into what it had become today.

"What's for dinner?" my daughter asked, cutting my trip down memory lane short as she swiped yet another leftover fondant rosette. "I'm hungry."

"That's what you get from running around all day," I chuckled, swatting her hands away before she could steal the last of the leftover flowers. That one was mine; a reward for all the hard work I'd put into finishing the cake. "Grandma Esme called to invite us over for dinner tonight. She says she and Grandpa Carlisle have some important news to tell us."

Just then Rose, my shop manager, walked in. "You have a new order," she announced, winking at Charlie before she turned her attention back to me. "The Mallory's want to celebrate their son's birthday party with a balloon made out of cupcakes."

"Okay." I was a bit wary of her announcement, not because I couldn't do a cupcake balloon. However, the Mallory's had become known in the shop as people who wanted us to jump through burning hoops while pulling off small miracles only to not be happy with the end result.

"They want it to be three dimensional but without any inedible props supporting it." Rose cringed already knowing that was she was asking of me just couldn't be done. "Now I know this is going to be hard…"

"Impossible," I interrupted her, carefully placing my palette knife on the workbench next to the cake.

"Extremely difficult," Rose corrected me, "but you know they've been good, if not slightly hard to please, customers over the years and with that Newton worm establishing himself in Port Angeles…"

"Yeah, yeah," I grumbled, noting how my daughter had taken off up the stairs to our apartment as soon as shit got real. My little traitor. "We can't afford to lose customers and the referrals we get because of them." I sighed. "I just wish that, for once, Lauren would be happy with something that could actually be done."

"And you know, just like I do, that somehow you will find some way to pull this off," Rose retorted. "That's why the big fish always come to you."

"Oh, great!" Rolling my eyes I took a step back, regarding my latest masterpiece.

"Are you still working on that charity piece?" Rose scolded me. "I know you have at least three orders from customers who are actually paying the full price waiting for you after you've finished this."

That was why I'd hired her in the first place. Rose had always been my best friend and someone I could trust without question, but above that, she was a shrewd businesswoman where I was more concerned with the creative aspects of the shop. Meaning: if it had been just me, I'd have run this place into the ground two months after we'd opened for business. I really had no sense of self-preservation.

"You know what Jake said," I defended myself, my eyes proudly running over my latest creation. "Rachel's wedding is going to be huge and at least three of her cousins are engaged and another one probably will be soon. That's four wedding cakes that could come out of a job well done. Not to mention birthday cakes, holiday orders, and everything else in between."

Well, that shut her up. If there was one thing Rose never argued with it was the prospect of new orders. Still, judging by the small huff and the ferocity in her step as she marched back out of the kitchen, she hated losing an argument just as much today as she had when we were kids.

And it didn't help that she and Jake didn't get along either.

I wasn't sure what happened between the two of them but knowing Rose, I was pretty sure it had happened in a bedroom. Far be it from me to call my best friend a slut but that was kind of what she was.

I mean, what other name is there for a girl who'd fucked most of the unmarried men in town?

According to Rose it was just a simple case of 'try before you buy'. Seeing as she was a very physical kind of gal (her words) and sex was one of the key elements in a relationship to her, she just didn't feel like committing to a guy before she'd found out what his abilities were between the sheets.

Thankfully, Rose stuck to the front of the shop as Jake came in to pick up his sister's wedding cake; his nerves at maneuvering the cake into the back of our delivery truck quite adorable. If there was anyone who could get this cake from Forks to La Push without any harm coming to it, it was him.

Waving away his thanks, I made quick work of cleaning up the kitchen, the monotony of scrubbing the steel countertops and the huge stove as the dishwasher hummed behind me gave me the peace of mind to take stock of the orders that were waiting for my attention and visualize them in my mind.

By the time I'd made a few sketches and finished my prep work for the next day—I could start bright and early without having to bother with measuring out the non-perishable ingredients and set up my station—Rose had already closed the shop for the night and had dashed out the back to prepare for a hot date she had that night with a guy from Port Angeles.

Apparently she'd run out of local men.

Shaking my head, I made my way upstairs to my cozy home. Living above my business had its benefits—like when, even when I was running late, I could still grab a quick shower and be on time for dinner at the Cullens'—but the downside was that I never really got away from my work. It happened quite often that inspiration struck in my sleep and I couldn't stop myself from going downstairs to get a head start. That was fine and dandy when it came to the business side of things but not so much when you had an awesome but scarily energetic ten year old running around the place.

Buzzing through the house I was able to get ready, tear my daughter away from an apparently fascinating book on the creatures of the Amazon, and race across town to arrive at Carlisle and Esme's house with only minutes to spare. Esme chuckled, shaking her head as she opened the door to a beaming little granddaughter and her flustered looking mother. "You could have just called me to say you were running late."

I shrugged, smirking. "I wanted to be on time for once." I didn't have to explain myself any further. She already knew my issues with time management.

"Come on in, silly," she urged, stepping aside to let us into the house. "Carlisle's already on the back deck grilling the steaks. I thought we might make the most of the sun while it lasts and eat outdoors."

"Cool!" Charlie cheered. "Can I go help him?" With a pleading face like the one she pulled, neither Esme nor I had the ability to say no to her. Knowing her granddad would make sure she was safe, I was only too happy to see her enjoy being outside with him. After all, Edward's parents had a huge backyard that was perfect for her to run around, unlike the little stone patio with a few wilting plants we had at home.

"Alice will be down in a second," Esme reassured me as I followed her down to the kitchen. "She'll keep an eye on Charlie while Carlisle keeps an eye on the meat." True to form, I could already hear the footsteps of the Cullens' younger child thundering down the stairs as Alice rushed to join her niece.

She had been just as much of a 'whoopsie' as Charlie had been, arriving completely unexpectedly ten years after Edward had been born and Carlisle and Esme had long ago given up the hope of conceiving a second child. Maybe that was why Esme had understood the position Edward and I had found ourselves in from the start? She knew what it was like to assume your life was going in a certain direction only to have it make a complete u-turn on you.

Carlisle, however, was a different matter.

I knew he loved his grandchild unconditionally and outwardly he had never blamed me for being so scatter-brained that I'd apparently been careless with my birth control pills, but still…there had always been something in his behavior towards me that made me feel resented somehow. I knew he'd had big hopes for his smart son; hopes that were finally coming to fruition, but not exactly in the way he'd probably planned them.

His plans had no doubt been for Edward to study at Dartmouth, his alma mater, and make the dreams he'd had for his own future a reality. A couple of years ago, Esme had confided in me that the Cullens had only ended up in Forks because Esme's mom had become sick and she couldn't bear the thought of putting her in a nursing home. Moving out to Forks a year or so before Edward was born, Carlisle had had to put his hopes of earning a spot at one of the prestigious medical centers on the east coast on hold, only to give them up altogether a couple of years later when he realized just how settled his family had become in small town Washington.

As soon as Edward had professed an interest in medicine and the inner working of the human body, Carlisle's hopes that his son was going to set everything right had begun to grow. How I figured into those hopes back then I wasn't sure.

Hell, I wasn't even sure if I'd figured into them at all.

Sighing, I put the dessert I'd brought with me in the fridge. It made no sense to keep worrying about stuff that couldn't be changed, even if Carlisle's gruff behavior still stung.

At least I still had Esme in my corner.

"Do you have any idea of what you want for Alice's birthday cake?" I asked, knowing her seventeenth birthday was coming up in November. "I was thinking about doing something with different designer shoe boxes, stacked on top of each other." Just like so many other girls her age, Alice was completely obsessed with fashion and had ideas about becoming the next big designer when she was older.

It made me think back on when I was her age; a new mom and desperate to keep up with everything happening in my life in order to prove to the town gossips, as well as that little voice in the back of my head right, that I could do it.

"That would be amazing!" Esme gushed. "I hadn't even thought of that! How clever!"

"Well, it's kind of my job to think about that stuff," I shrugged, uneasy under such praise. "Anyway…you said you had some news to share?"

"I do." Esme was positively beaming when she turned towards me, setting my mind a little bit more at rest. At least it probably means it's good news.

I was a little shocked when out of nowhere, she grabbed my arm, her voice practically singing when she burst out, "He's coming home, Bella. He's finally coming back home."

Now I could have been coy and asked her who the fuck she was talking about, but seriously, there really could only be one person. And the thought of him coming home again had me dancing around along with her.

Finally!

"He's so happy he managed to secure a spot at Forks General," Esme gushed, her arms rocking me from side to side like a baby. "I've seen how much it tears at him to be so far away from you both."

I nodded. After all, Edward and I might not have been together anymore but we'd remained very close friends and were determined to both be there for our little girl so that she wouldn't miss out on anything, even if that mean Edward had to make the tough three hour drive from Seattle after having a full day of classes to spend some time with his daughter. Many of his evenings were spent on the phone with her when he probably should have been studying for his exams.

Even though becoming teen parents made our lives more difficult at times, we both sacrificed ourselves for the best possible reason, our daughter. We had no regrets bringing her into the world.

Edward and I had made things work but I'd be foolish not to acknowledge what our sacrifices it had meant; the most monumental one on my side still weighed on my heart like a ton of bricks. I sighed, as I remembered the conversation I'd overheard which had made my whole world spiral out of control. The pain I'd felt back then, was still just as grueling as it had been, even though I rarely chose to accept it.

None of it mattered anymore, though.

Edward was coming back.

After I'd all but given up hope, my second chance with him would finally come.

Thoughts?