Bella's POV
I sat beside Edward in his Volvo on the way over to Alice and Jasper's house for the family's weekly Friday dinner. My fingernails were digging into the skin of my palms, and I was so nauseous that I was afraid I might have to have Edward pull the car over so I could throw up what little I'd had to eat all day.
"Bella, calm down," Edward said softly, reaching over to take one of my cold hands in his warm one. "I've told you...my parents already love you."
I caught him glancing at me from the corner of my eye as I stared down into my lap.
"Really," he continued. "Alice has done nothing but sing your praises, and from her conversations with me, my mom knows how happy you make me. That's what's most important to them. So please, try not to damage yourself."
He chuckled as I glanced down at my free hand and gasped. Unclenching my fist, I realized I had four perfect half-moon impressions on the inside of my hand from where my nails had dug in.
"I didn't realize," I murmured, rubbing my palm against my thigh. My hand hadn't been stinging until Edward had pointed out what I was doing to myself, but now, it was hurting almost as bad as the time I stepped on a bumble bee with sandals on and got stung on the side of my foot.
By the time we pulled up in front of the house, the sting was gone and I'd calmed down enough that I wasn't completely worried about throwing up.
Edward grabbed the beer we'd bought and ran around to open my door. He held out his hand, and when I took it, we walked casually up the stone path to the door.
I started to reach for the doorbell, but he just shook his head. "Go ahead and open the door, Bella," he prompted. "They're expecting us."
Swallowing nervously, I just nodded and knocked once—it was against my nature to just walk in without at least some sort of warning—and then turned the knob so we could go inside.
Edward let go of my hand and moved his to my lower back, guiding me across the threshold, into the open entryway. He turned slightly to close the door behind him, and I froze, unable to move until he was with me.
Just as he turned back around, a casually, but well-dressed woman walked around the corner. She was drying her hands on a dishtowel hanging over the edge of an apron, which was tied around her waist. Of course, I'd seen pictures of his parents, so I knew immediately that it was his mother.
"Bella!" she cried happily. "It's so good to meet you finally." She quickly moved to where we stood right inside the door.
The smile on her face was catching, and I found myself echoing her expression as I held my hand out. "It's good to meet you finally as well," I told her sincerely.
I was shocked when, ignoring my hand, she pulled me into a warm hug. The embrace only lasted seconds, but I could feel the motherly warmth radiating from her, and I instantly felt as ease.
She released me and turned to Edward. "Hello, Edward," she said warmly, opening her arms for him.
He walked into the hug, his hold almost fierce, as he told his mother hello.
"Well, come on," Esme said, leaving one arm around Edward and wrapping her other arm around my shoulders. "Carlisle's in the kitchen with the rest of the kids."
"Mom," Edward replied with a chuckle, "we haven't been kids in years."
We heard Rose squeal and Emmett's booming laugh from the kitchen, and I chuckled when I looked over and watched Edward roll his eyes.
"Well, all of us but Emmett," he clarified.
Esme walked us into the kitchen, where everyone stood at different stations, already prepping for dinner. Alice and Jasper were sitting at the table, with big piles of chopped red and green bell peppers in front of them. Rose was standing at the island, slicing mushrooms into perfectly even slices. Emmett was beside her, tears streaming down his face as he tried blindly to wipe them away while he chopped onion. We watched as he reached out and swiped a mushroom slice, earning another growl from his wife.
Edward's father pulled away from the counter where he'd been shredding a block of cheese and walked over to us with a smile on his face. "Bella, it's good to meet you. We've heard so many good things about you from all our children. Edward couldn't stop talking about you on the drive to Forks yesterday."
I laughed as Edward shook his head, his cheeks turning pink. "It's good to meet you, too, Dr. Cullen."
He gave me a warm smile. "Call me Carlisle, please."
"Okay, enough chitchat," Alice barked, pulling a tray out from behind her on the counter. She pulled off the kitchen towel to reveal four smooth, rounded balls of pizza dough. "Every couple come get some dough and spread out some cornmeal on an empty spot."
Edward led me over to the sink after setting the beer down on the counter. We washed up quickly before grabbing our ball of dough and a handful of the cornmeal. Together, we worked at shaping the dough in a somewhat round shape—I wouldn't exactly call it a circle—and began talking about what toppings we wanted on our pizza.
We spread sauce over the entire thing and then added chopped ham, onion, black olives, both kinds of peppers, and a combination of mozzarella and pepper jack cheese. When Emmett asked Alice if she had any pineapple, we looked up and grimaced.
"That's just nasty," Edward said to his brother.
"What? It's good!" Emmett claimed, and Rose nodded her agreement.
"No," Alice said firmly, a shiver racking her small frame. "Just...no."
"Dude," Jasper said with his own shiver, "fruit and pizza do not mix."
Emmett scoffed, shaking his head as he added jalapenos to his pie.
When all four pizzas were in the oven, Jasper set the timer, while Alice got out the ingredients to make drinks. Five minutes later, we all settled down in the living room with our drinks. The guys were drinking the Peroni beer—Alice had insisted Edward bring something Italian—and the other girls and I were drinking Peach Bellinis.
I whispered to Edward, "When they do family dinners, they go all out on themes, don't they?"
He smirked and nodded before taking another pull of his beer.
Esme took a sip of her Bellini and then turned to me, a warm smile on her face. "Bella, Edward told us all about your bookstore. How do you like being a small business owner?"
Edward threaded his fingers through mine and looked over at me with a smile.
I smiled back at him before answering. "I love it," I said honestly. "It's been a lot of work, but I'm getting to do what I want, and that's worth all the hassle. Your kids were all a lot of help to me when I first opened."
"Have you always wanted to own a bookstore?" Carlisle asked, a curious expression on his face.
Nodding, I answered, "I've always loved books and reading. I hadn't actually planned on doing this. I didn't have the money." I looked down, taking a sip of my drink to give myself a moment. When Edward squeezed my hand gently, I looked over at him and smiled before continuing. "When my mother and stepfather were killed, I inherited enough money from Phil and from their life insurance to buy the store."
"I'm so sorry, sweetheart," Esme cooed with empathy, frowning softly. "My own mother died when I was fifteen, so I do understand what you went through."
Everyone was quiet for a moment until Rose cleared her throat and turned to Carlisle and Esme. "How was your time overseas?"
Carlisle chuckled when Esme launched into stories about some of the children and families they'd helped while in Haiti. She spoke animatedly until the timer dinged in the kitchen, and then we all made our way back into the kitchen for dinner.
~*~*~CIBD~*~*~
Edward's POV
After we finished dinner and cleaned up—which was a relatively easy task, considering most of the cleanup had happened as the prep work was done—Alice asked, "Trivial Pursuit, anyone?"
"I call Bella," I said immediately, pulling her to my side and wrapping my arm around her waist.
"No way," Rose huffed, shaking her head. "Girls versus guys. With Bella, we're even. No more four against three."
Bella grinned and kissed my cheek. "Sorry, but I gotta side with the ladies on this one. You're going down!" she teased.
With eight of us working, it took no time at all to get the game set up at the dining room table. Bella, Alice, and Rose sat on one side of the long table, while Emmett, Jasper, and I sat across from them. Mom sat at the end, with Bella on her left and me on her right, leaving the other end for Dad, between Rose and my brother.
"Okay, ladies and gentlemen," Alice said, handing out the two containers of questions. "Each team gets one box. Mom, do you wanna be in charge of the pie pieces? And you and Dad can ask the questions. You won't let the boys cheat that way." She smirked, looking across the table at our brother, who raised he hands in an "I'm innocent" gesture.
When our parents agreed, Alice handed our mother the little baggy containing the smaller pieces for the game and one set of cards, while the other half was passed down to the other end of the table.
"Okay, ladies, since I chose the game, we get to choose our player piece." Alice smirked and looked at Bella. "Cappuccino cup?"
Bella nodded, laughing when I winked at her.
Esme laughed softly. "Like your coffee, Bella?"
She held up her thumb and pointer finger and answered, "Just a little bit."
I reached across the table and snagged the musician with the guitar from the table in front of Alice. "This is ours."
Alice rolled her eyes and said, "Surprise, surprise. Like that isn't what you choose every time."
Shrugging, I smirked, not ashamed of my choice in the slightest.
"I've never played this version," Bella said, looking around the game board. "What are the categories?"
"This is the '90's Edition," I said, "so the categories are slightly different." I grabbed the instructions Alice held out to me. "Pink is Oops: all about the mistakes and mishaps that made the headlines. Yellow is Wired: all about technology, gadgets, and the Internet. Brown is Viewing: all about movies, television, and things we watched during the 1990s. Orange is Trends: all about food and fashion. Green is Important: all about real news. The last is blue, which is Hangin': all about what people did in their leisure time, like games, sports, reading, and the like."
"Got it," Bella said with a nod, but then she smirked. "Just in case, though, keep that paper handy."
"Are we ready yet?" Emmett asked, looking around at everyone. When we nodded, he slid the single die down the table. "Since Bella's new, and because we're such gentlemen—" he glared as everyone else at the table snickered "—we'll let you roll to see who plays first."
Bella rolled a four and then handed me the die. I rolled a three and looked up to see her grinning at me.
"All right. Ladies first, thanks to my brother," Em grumbled.
Bella grinned cheekily at him before taking the die from me and rolling again.
When it landed on five, Alice, in the middle of the group and closest to the middle of the board, picked up their game piece. "What color?"
"Brown," Rose said immediately.
The others shrugged, so Alice found the correct square and moved their cup to it.
My father pulled out the first card and read, "What Star Wars character was digitized atop the costumed antics of actor Ahmed Best?"
I nearly laughed out loud when all four faces looked blank.
When everyone else shrugged, Rose said, "C-3PO."
"Bzzzt, wrong," Jasper told them, shaking his head. "Edward's favorite, Jar Jar Binks." When we all looked at him, and then my dad—who nodded—and then back to him, Jasper said, "What? I read about it somewhere recently."
"Nerd," Emmett said through a cough, earning a punch in the shoulder from Jasper and a laugh from everyone else.
Bella passed the die to me, and I rolled a six, cringing at Emmett's loud whoop of joy. I moved our piece to the blue space. If we answered correctly, we'd have our first piece of pie already.
"What receiver copped the ESPY—" my mom was interrupted when the ladies groaned "—award for Pro Football Player of the Decade?"
I looked at Jasper and Emmett, and together, we said, "Jerry Rice."
My mom nodded, sticking the card in the back of the box before digging out a blue pie and passing to me.
I gave it to Jasper and rolled the die again. Jasper moved us four spots to a brown, and we all turned to my mom to wait for our next question.
We answered Cats as a group when she asked what the longest-running musical left purring on Broadway was when A Chorus Line closed in 1990.
"That's such a 'gimme' question!" Alice complained, glaring at us. "Left purring? Oh, I dunno...Wizard of Oz?"
We all nodded, making her laugh and roll her eyes.
I just chuckled and rolled the die again. When we moved to roll again, I rolled one more time, and that landed us on the yellow for pie.
"You're a lucky little shit!" Rose said to me and then winced. "I mean, uh, a lucky little booger. Sorry," she told my parents, grimacing when they just chuckled in response.
My mom pulled out the next card and asked, "What phrase does a fast-typing cyberchatter shorten to 'IMHO'?"
"I think it's in my humble opinion," I told them, even though I didn't do much "chat-speak" myself.
"No way," Emmett argued. "I think it's honest, not humble."
"That's because there's not a humble bone in your body, Em," Alice teased, earning a snort of laughter from Rose.
"Em," I said, pulling his attention back to me and away from our sister, "I, uh, honestly think it's humble. What do you think?" I asked Jasper and my dad.
"I agree with you, son," my dad answered with a nod.
"Me, too," Jasper said. "Sorry, man." He looked at Emmett with a shrug.
"Fine," Emmett grumbled. "In my humble opinion, then."
We all looked at my mother in anticipation.
She nodded. "Edward was correct," she said, handing me a yellow pie piece.
"Geez, that's two already," Rose said, pursing her lips in frustration.
"Don't worry, Rose," Alice told her. "We'll catch up. I can feel it."
"Oh yeah, our sister the psychic," I teased, yelping when her small foot connected with my shin under the table.
It was our turn again, so I handed the die off to Emmett to roll, since Jasper was moving our game piece around the board.
Em rolled a six, moving us to a blue.
"What animated characters are hyped as 'Heroes in the Half-Shell'?" my mom asked.
Immediately, Emmett, Jasper, and I began singing the theme song from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, ending with, "Heroes in the half-shell. Turtle power!"
We all laughed, and when my mom nodded, Emmett rolled again, landing us on another blue space.
When my mom pulled the card out of the box, she flipped it over, laughed out loud, and then looked up. "Good luck with this one, boys." She grinned and then asked, "What Pixies spinoff band was dubbed 'The Bangles From Hell'?"
I raised an eyebrow, absolutely clueless. When I looked over at the rest of the guys, they all looked dumbfounded.
Alice, on the other hand, was bouncing in her seat.
"We have no i—" I began, but I was interrupted before I could even finish the sentence.
"The Breeders!" Alice called out. We all looked at her curiously, and she shrugged. "Don't ask me how I knew that. I just did."
Emmett didn't say a word; he just passed the die over to Rose and shook his head at our sister.
Rose rolled a one, landing the ladies on their first shot at the yellow pie.
"What's an 'FPS' game, to a bloodthirsty video gamer?" my father asked them.
I nearly groaned when Bella, Alice, and Rose all yelled out, "First person shooter!"
"For a pie!" my mom called happily, handing Alice a yellow pie to put in their player piece.
After the ladies failed to name the cyclist who won his third Tour de France in 1990, it was our turn again. We got another chat-speak question and answered laughing out loud—even my dad knew that one—for "LOL." The next roll landed us on pink for a pie.
Emmett knew—although none of us dared ask how—that Chuck Berry was hit with lawsuits for allegedly filming women in his restaurants' restrooms, earning us our third piece of the pie.
It wasn't long before we hit a real history question that Jasper easily knew the answer to, which earned us our fourth—a green—pie piece, much to the ladies' dismay. Our high didn't last long, unfortunately, because none of us knew the answer was David Duchovny to a Twin Peaks question.
The game went back and forth for a few more minutes, with my respect for Bella's intelligence growing as she continued to answer questions none of us knew the answer to. I knew I was beaming with pride when she earned them their second pie piece—the orange this time—with the correct answer about The Three Tenors' first performance. She blushed with the praise my sisters and mother heaped on her, and she'd never looked more lovely to me: her eyes were bright and shining, her cheeks were just the slightest pink, and her smile was wide and honest.
At one point, my dad laughed when he got ready to ask them a question. We looked at him curiously, until he finally spoke. "The reptiles Donatello, Leonardo, Michaelangelo, and Raphael are collectively known as what?"
All four ladies, including my mother, looked around the table at us and then began singing the same theme song we'd sung to them only a few minutes before.
"That's so not fair," Emmett groused. A second later, he cried, "Ow! What the hell was that for, Rosie?"
"Emmett, language!" my mom said with a frown, making the rest of us snicker.
"I can't reach you to slap the back of your head, so stomping the top of your foot will have to do," Rose explained. "Now quit being a baby and hand me the die."
He grumbled, but slid the die across to her.
A minute later, when she was the only one of the ladies to know the correct answer about the number of yearly grizzly attacks in Yellowstone, Emmett smiled wide and said, "That's my girl!"
"How did you know that?" Alice asked her, raising her eyebrow in question.
Rose laughed. "I'm married to a man obsessed with bears. How could I not know that?"
The ladies hovered around the blue pie for several rounds, answering what seemed like pink after pink after pink question, before finally landing on the elusive blue. Mom's answer of Jethro Tull earned them their third piece of pie, but they missed the next question.
The die went back to Emmett, and we landed on the brown pie, but we missed the question.
On the next roll, the ladies landed on the same space.
Dad pulled a card from the box and groaned loudly. "Sorry, boys," he said, looking at us before looking back down at the card. "Who tools around in a phone booth larger on the inside than it is on the outside?"
My mother clapped her hands and squealed, looking and sounding much like Alice, and answered, "Doctor Who!"
The score was tied at four a piece.
"Who wants something to drink?" I asked, looking around the table. Everyone raised their hands, so I turned my gaze to Bella. "Help me in the kitchen, love?"
She nodded and slipped off her chair to take my hand when I came around the table.
The minute we were around the corner and into the kitchen, I pressed her back against the counter and molded my body to hers. "I've been wanting to do this for hours now," I murmured before dipping my head and caressing her lips with mine.
There was nothing hurried or frantic about our kiss. It was slow, tender, and by the time Emmett called out, "Anytime!" we had already pulled apart, breathless.
"We'd better get back in there," I grumbled, running my fingers softly down her pink cheek. I took her hand and turned to leave the kitchen, but I was stopped when Bella didn't move.
When I looked back at her, she grinned and asked, "Shouldn't we get drinks?"
"Oh!" I snickered. "I guess so, huh?"
We each grabbed four bottles of water and took them back into the dining room, passing them out as my siblings laughed.
"Have a hard time finding the water there, Edward?" Jasper asked, smirking.
I slugged his arm as I sat down beside him, grinning as Bella blushed even brighter.
"Enough teasing your brother," my mom said. "I'm sure the water was just...hidden, or something, and that's why it took so long."
"Roll, Rose," I said, shaking my head in amusement.
The ladies answered a few more questions before landing on the spot for a green pie. Alice and Bella both knew the answer that Time Warner was the conglomerate that earned the biggest U.S. magazine revenues, earning them their fifth piece and pulling them into the lead.
Several questions and Roll Agains later, Alice moved their nearly full piece to the pink pie spot. Unfortunately for them, it was a basketball question that no one but Emmett knew the answer to, making it our turn again.
The game went back and forth for another thirty minutes, and the ladies again landed on the pink pie space.
Dad pulled out a card and asked, "What fifteen-year-old actress documented her six years of drug and alcohol woes in the autobiography, Little Girl Lost?"
I saw Bella's eyes light up, and then I looked at Alice and Rose, who were beaming. I knew then that we were in trouble.
After speaking quietly together for less than a minute, they sat back, and Bella said, "We're pretty sure it's Drew Barrymore."
"Correct," my dad said.
"Last pie!" Alice said happily, sliding the pink piece into place.
"Yeah, but you still have to land in the center," Emmett reminded her.
Rose rolled the die, and when it landed on six, the ladies all cheered.
"We get to choose the category," I reminded them before looking over at the other guys.
"Not brown, orange, or blue," Jasper said quietly.
"Let's go green," I said. "I think that's their shakiest category."
Emmett and Jasper nodded.
My dad pulled out the next card. "Green question," he told the ladies, sounding much like a game show host. "What biological project featured a fierce rivalry between teams led by Craig Venter and Francis Collins?"
Bella didn't even wait to talk to the rest of her team. She slapped her hand down on the table, grinned, and said proudly, "The Human Genome Project."
My mother smiled proudly, and Alice and Rose both held their breath, waiting for my dad to respond.
After a moment, he looked up and grinned. "Good job, Bella. I'm impressed. Ladies win, boys. Sorry!"
I pretended to be upset, simply to appease my brothers, but inside, I was bowing down to my Bella. I had fallen in love with a smart woman, and I couldn't be happier about it.
After helping put all the game pieces away, Bella and I gave out hugs goodbye, with promises to speak to my mother later the next week, and then walked out to the car, hand in hand. We were both quiet as we drove back to our apartments, but it was a good, comfortable silence. It had been a wonderful night, but we were both glad it was just the two of us, on our own, away from the rest of the family.
As we walked up the steps leading to our doors, I wrapped my arm around her waist, holding her close.
"Stay with me tonight?" Bella murmured.
"Of course," I told her, smiling. "Let's run in to my place first so I can grab some clothes, and then we can go over, okay?"
She smiled and nodded, letting me lead her to my door.
Thirty minutes later, we were lying in bed, her back to my front. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" I asked quietly, running my fingers lightly up and down her arm.
She yawned, quickly covering her mouth with her hand. "Oh, shit, sorry," she told me. "All the stress I had myself under made me exhausted." She turned over in my arms and rested her head on my arm and her hand on my chest. "No, it wasn't bad at all. Your parents were great, and they made me feel comfortable right away."
I nodded. "They loved you," I told her. "Of course, not as much as I love you, but still, I could tell they were impressed."
"I'm glad," she said, stifling another yawn.
"Get some sleep, love," I said softly. "I've got the alarm set for in the morning so we can both get ready for work."
"Mkay," she mumbled, eyes already half closed. "Love you, Edward."
Chuckling, I brushed her lips with mine and said, "Love you, too, my Bella."