Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight
*BPOV*
When I pulled into the driveway of the Cullen's residence Alice and Rose were on the porch waiting for us. I couldn't believe that they didn't trust me to be there on time. Emily was chattering away, singing along to the songs on the cd I was playing for her. Joey had fallen asleep and looked like an angel. "Mommy, that's a big house." Emily said her eyes as big as saucers looking up at the house.
As I pulled Joey's car seat out of its base and the let Emily out of her car seat the front door opened and out walked Esme. She hadn't changed at all since I had last seen her. She approached my suv and instantly greeted me and my children with a hug. "Oh Bella dear. It is like one of my own children had finally come home!" She sounded relieved, hopeful and sincere in her words.
"Oh Esme, I have missed you all so much." I said feeling like her hug was the completing factor of my coming back to Forks. She held me at arm's length and examined me and then my two children. "Well dear Bella. You look like you could use a good meal. But these two little ones are absolutely beautiful. And from the sounds of what my youngest son had to say to his father on the phone this morning, I will not be asking about their father. Oh Bella. I wish you had felt you could have come to us at some point. You really are like a daughter to both Carlisle and I." I found myself fighting back the tears. "Esme, Alice and Rose don't know about any of it. And I am not sure what Edward has told Carlisle. Please let's not get into it at lunch." It came out sounding more like a plea than anything else. She nodded in understanding. "I have a couple of people I would like you to meet. Would you like that?" She said to Emily holding out her hand. I wasn't sure my little girl would take it, but she did and walked up and into the house with her.
I followed behind carrying Joey. When I reached the porch I was instantly embraced by the silly pixie and all her strength. Rose threw an arm over my shoulder as well and I was welcomed back into my former second home. Alice couldn't wait to get her hands on Joey and declared that she couldn't wait for one of her own. Esme laughed from the kitchen, and then said something I hadn't expected "You know I will believe it when I see it. Just like Rose declaring all those years that she would never have children. And now look at her." And so I did. She looked no different than she did when I last saw her. In fact she looked more stunning to me. And then I saw it, the glow. She must have sensed it and held up her fingers, three of them. My jaw dropped.
"I must have missed something here; you are going to have triplets?" I knew as soon as I said it that I was wrong. And all she did was shake her head. "No silly Bella. I am only having one this time." She giggled at me. At that I realized that there were more voices in the house than just the four of us. Emily, Esme had said she had a couple of people for her to meet. "They are in the play room, come on." Esme said holding her hand out to lead me to where Emily and the other two children were. I couldn't believe it. They looked just like Rose and Emmett only reversed. The boy had blonde hair like Rose but was definitely a miniature Emmett, and the girl had dark ringlets. I couldn't believe it. They were beautiful just like Rose, and then the little boy proved to be a bear just like Emmett when he gave Emily a hug and picked her right up off the ground. She giggled loving it. I could have sworn for a second that she had a sparkle to her eye, all I could think was "oh no, another Swan-Cullen crush. What am I going to do about that?" Rose was smiling away and I turned to her and couldn't help but smile too. "So when are you due? I asked her trying to remember if I had seen her drink anything the night before. And to be honest I remembered Emmett only bringing her water. At the time she had said that she was driving her car home, because no one else was allowed to drive it.
She smiled "New Years Eve, but we already scheduled the delivery for the week before." I hugged her and congratulated her. Alice was very excited now, and said to me "I am so glad you are home now, because you can totally help me with the baby shower." I smiled looking at Emily playing with Rose's children, "What are their names?" I couldn't help but ask, so that I could remind Emily of the fun she had with her new friends. "Jane and Alec, we both choose one boy name and one girl name up them in a hat and drew. Turned out we both put Jane in. At the time Edward was reading a lot of Jane Austin books. And one was always around, it stuck out to both of us."
It was clear that the twins were about a year older than Emily, I looked at Rose and said "Edward was reading Jane Austin? He always complained about me reading her books in high school. I thought he hated her work. Why was he reading Jane Austin?" It was more to myself really. But then Alice answered, "It was after he came back from that conference in Rochester. I think. He started with Pride and Prejudice." Then Rose without thinking said "Yeah, it was. I think Emmett said at one point back then that he had seen you and when he came back he was knee deep in Jane Austin books and Wuthering Heights. It was depressing really." My head was spinning; Edward had been in my city. Why hadn't he contacted me? He told them he had seen me, but when?
While we had talked Joey awoke in Alice's arms and was taking in his surroundings, and bless his heart he must have sensed that he was in a safe place because he looked up at Alice and smiled a big grin at her. And right there she melted. "We need to go shopping for this little man. I can only imagine what you have for him to wear. And I won't let any nephew of mine be left up to your fashion sense." She sounded so confident about it, smiling away at Joey and unaware of the look on my face. Standing there in the middle of the three "Cullen" women (even though Alice was now a Hale) gaping at Alice. "Um Alice, not to burst your bubble but…" I began but was cut off by Esme who was setting the table for our lunch. "Dear if Edward still has that ring up in his drawer that he bought for you, Alice isn't too far off."
"RING?" It came out as a yell, but I didn't mean for it to, this was a lot for me to wrap my head around, and then I realized that both Rose and Alice had said it too. "Oh damn, he has no idea that I even know that it is up there. Poor boy bought it with money he had saved for over a year or so. He hid it after you left. I found it while putting away his laundry several years ago, I'm sure it is still there. But like I said he has no idea that I found it." I sat in the chair, just totally overwhelmed. And then I heard Alice say in a tone that made me nervous "I need to see it!" and she handed Joey off to Esme and was up the stairs and gone faster than I could even turn my head to watch her. It took a few moments and then, then there was the screech. My heart knew that she had found it.
Okay, so she knows about the ring and somethings are hitting her pretty hard about his possible feelings. Next chapter...more alone time for the two of them. He did promise to stop over so they could talk...