My sincere apologies for not updating. I had so many ideas for this chapter, I had trouble choosing just one. The next few chapters have already been written. I just need to proofread them. Usually I write a chapter, post it, and then get started on the next one. So this is the first time I've already had chapters written.

I made a mistake a couple chapters back. Emily said that there are some houses listed for sale between five to nine hundred dollars. I meant to put five to nine hundred THOUSAND dollars as it's impossible to buy a house worth only nine hundred. Unless it's some ratty, old shack.

Any mistakes that you see are my own.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Twilight Saga. Stephenie Meyer owns The Twilight Saga.


"Girls! Not so far!" I practically yell. The twins are way ahead of us, running towards the next exhibit. They stop and wait for Jake and I to catch up to them. "I thought I told you to stay close," I scold them.

They bow their heads in shame. "Sorry, Mommy," they murmur in unison.

I smile sadly before pulling my girls closer to me, getting down so I'm at their eye level and taking both their hands in mine. They lift their heads to meet my gaze. "Do you know why I told you to stay close to Mommy and Jake?"

"So we don't get lost?" Charlotte guesses.

I nod. "That's right. Because if you got lost, Mommy would be very sad. You don't want Mommy to be sad, do you?"

"No, Mommy," they say. "We don't want you to be sad."

"Then are you going to run off again?" The twins shake their heads. "Are you going to stay close to Mommy and Jake?" They nod. "Good. Now go have fun."

They give me a hug before turning on their heel and running toward the exhibit that's just in front of us.

"You're a good mom," Jake praises, wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me against his side, kissing my temple before moving to whisper in my ear. "And a very gorgeous one, too." He kisses along the outer shell.

I giggle, playfully pushing him away. "Officer Black, there are children present."

He just chuckles, moving to kiss the top of my head.

My work schedule alters between part-time and full-time—while Leah works evenings three days a week since she's in school. So when Jake asked me out on another date, I had to decline because I was working a full forty-hour week. However, that didn't stop him from coming by the diner every day that I was working and taking advantage of the cop's discount we have. While he was mostly by himself, either Officer Lahote or Officer Jared Cameron, Kim's husband, was sometimes with him, also taking advantage of the discount.

On my last work day of the week, Jake once again asked me out on a date and once again, I had to decline because I was taking the twins to the children's museum. But then I asked him if he'd like to join us and he said he'd love to.

The museum's busy what with it being a Saturday. The twins have been here before, on a school field trip just last week, and they loved it so I figured I'd bring them myself. While I don't like to take them to places where there's a lot of people, I don't want to be that kind of mom who doesn't take her children anywhere and instead, just keeps them sequestered inside the house. Also, Seth's back in California, Leah's working, and Emily is on a lunch date with Officer—or I should say, Chief—Uley. When she came to pick me and the girls up from the station that day we came to visit my dad's old colleagues, Sam went from being the commanding Chief of Police to bashful, like a dorky teenager with a crush on the prettiest girl he's ever seen. It was then that he finally asked Emily out on a date, but they could only do lunch as they both had busy schedules.

After spending a couple hours at the museum, I tell the girls it's time to leave and we head outside to my car. After buckling them in their car seats, I drive us to our family's favorite restaurant for lunch.


An old friend of my dad and Sue's owned a restaurant called Ateara's before it was passed down to his son after he died last year. It was where my parents had their first date and where we had our first family outing. Even after they died, Emily, Leah, Seth and I still went to Ateara's, only because Leah—although she'll never admit it—had a crush on the son, Quil Ateara V. His grandfather happens to be the principal of the twins' school.

The restaurant is surprisingly empty when we walk in, with a few customers here and there.

"Hi, Bella," the day hostess, Kate, greets us. "Your usual table?"

I nod. "Yes, please."

Kate grabs two menus and two kids' menus with crayons for coloring and we follow her as she shows us to our table. Once we're all seated, the twins start grabbing crayons from the small plastic cups, coloring on their paper menus while Kate goes back to the hostess stand.

"Bella!" Quil emerges from the kitchen at the back. "It's nice to see you again."

"Hi, Quil," I smile up at him as he approaches our table. "It's nice to see you, too."

"What's it going to be this time?" he asks. "If it's the veggie lasagna, it's only available for dinner. But for you, I'll make an exception." He whispers this last part to me.

"Oh, no thank you," I say. "I'm sure I'll like whatever's on the lunch menu."

Quil just smiles before turning his attention to Jake, sitting across from me. "Is that the hot cop you kept bragging about the other night?" he murmurs to me.

"Yes," I murmur back.

"You must be Jake," Quil says, rather loudly, sticking his hand out. "I've heard so much about you. Quil Ateara, the fifth. I'm the owner of this very fine, legal establishment."

Jake shakes Quil's hand with his own. "It's nice to meet you."

Quil pulls away, turning his attention to the twins. "Hey, girls." He reaches up to ruffle Susannah's—who is sitting beside me—hair.

"Hi, Uncle Gil," the twins say in unison, mispronouncing Quil's name and looking up from their coloring.

Quil, ignoring their mispronunciation, mock whispers, "Don't tell Mommy but there's chocolate cake in the kitchen. I'll each give you one big slice to eat after you've had lunch."

The twins giggle while I just glare at him.

"Well, I'll be back in a few minutes to take your order," Quil says. He leans down to whisper to me. "I suggest getting the chicken wrap." He then leaves to go back into the kitchen.

Jake and I fall into conversation while scanning through the lunch menu and the girls are immersed in their coloring. I explain to him about knowing Quil for a long time and that his father was friends with my parents. The Atearas are like family and because of this, we get a discount every time we come to the restaurant.

Quil comes back two minutes later with a tray filled with two glasses and two kid-size cups of ice water. Jake and I both order the chicken wrap and I order mac and cheese each for the girls. Quil scribbles on his notepad and smiles widely at us.

"By the way, my mom says hi," he tells me. "She'd come out and greet you, but she's working the kitchen today. One of our regular cooks called in sick so she's covering for him."

While ownership of the restaurant was given to Quil, management was given to his mother, Joy Ateara. But some days, she's the cook, which explains why I didn't see her when we came in.

"Tell her I say hi back," I say.

Quil smiles again before leaving our table and disappearing into the kitchen.

"So, my lease on the apartment is almost up," I tell Jake.

"That's good then, right?" he asks, taking a sip of his water. "It means you can finally buy Paul's old house. He's been nagging me all week for an answer. I guess it's because he thinks we're moving in together."

"Which we're not," I point out. "Not yet, anyway. But I'm still not sure about it. There's enough space to fit a family of ten."

"That's because it's Paul's family home," Jake says.

"Oh, that's right," I say. "He's the youngest of eight kids and after his parents passed and all his brothers and sisters moved out and went their separate ways, he decided to stay in the family home because it was given to him. Neither of his siblings didn't want it."

Jake just stares at me, blankly.

"What?"

"I find it fascinating yet scary that you know everything about every cop in Seattle," he tells me.

"I don't know everything," I tell him. "Only what I read in their files. I was going through my dad's things in his office at the station after he died and couldn't help myself."

"You've read all of them?" Jake's eyes widen.

I shake my head. "No, only some." He's about to say something else, but I stop him, adding, "Before you ask, no, I did not read your file."

"I wouldn't be upset if you did," he smirks. "You'd be very impressed at what you might find." He then winks at me.

I'm about to say something else, but our food arrives. Jake and I continue to make small talk while we enjoy our meal. Quil comes out every now and then to check on us and refill our cups. When we're done, he clears our table and serves us each a decent size slice of Joy's famous chocolate cake. I guess he saw the angry look I gave him earlier.

Both Quil and his mother know about Susannah's allergy to peanuts so they make sure not to serve us anything that contains nuts or traces of it.

Jake pays the discounted price for our meal and we leave the restaurant, but not before Quil hands me a big white box that has the chocolate cake inside—because neither my siblings nor I leave Ateara's empty-handed. When I mention that there might be other people who would want a slice of the cake—because it's on the menu—Quil tells me Joy made about four of them last night.

Jake and I take the twins to the same park Jake took them to before and just let them drain out their energy so when we get home, they're tired and I can put them down for their afternoon nap. Jake and I sit on the bench and just watch them run around and play. They have the whole place to themselves, much to their happiness. After about a half hour, their energy's drained out and we practically drag them back to my car where Jake buckles Charlotte in her car seat and I do the same with Susannah. By the time I pull into my parking spot in front of the building, they're passed out and Jake carries Charlotte and I carry Susannah to my apartment, where I unlock the door and make my way to the twins' bedroom, Jake following behind. I lay Charlotte down in her bed, tucking her in, and Jake does the same with Susannah. We then leave the room and I quietly close the door behind me.

With the girls napping, Jake and I sit on the couch in the living room and cuddle while watching a rom-com movie on Netflix. The twins have not yet woken up from their nap so we watch another movie, this time an action/adventure one. When we're done, the twins finally wake up and I decide to order pizza for dinner. I ask Jake if he'd like to stay and he says he'd love to. Just as I suspected, when the pizza arrives, he takes out his wallet and pays the delivery man. I know he's being a gentleman and all but him being the one to pay for everything is getting annoying.

After dinner, it's time for Jake to leave and I follow him out the door, but the twins stop us.

"Mommy, can Mr. Jacob sleep over?" Susannah asks. She and Charlotte both look up at me with puppy dog eyes.

"You have to ask him," I tell them.

They look behind me at Jake with the same puppy dog eyes. He steps forward and gets down so he's at their eye level.

"I'd love to sleep over," he explains, "but not tonight. I'm a police officer and it's my job to get the bad guys and put them away."

"So, you'll be really busy?" Charlotte asks, pouting.

Jake nods, smiling sadly at her. "Yes. But maybe next time, I'll sleep over. Hopefully when you and your sister and your Mommy move into a new house. That way, I can have my own room."

"But Mommy will be lonely," Susannah says. "Who will sleep next to Mommy?"

"I'm sure she'll manage," Jake tells her. "She's been doing fine before I came around." He turns to grin at me, giving me a wink, before turning his attention back to the twins, speaking to Susannah. "And you and Charlotte will keep her company, won't you?"

They nod and Jake spreads his arms wide for them to run into. He wraps his arms around both of them and squeezes them gently against him before pulling away.

"Now, are you going to be good for Mommy?" he asks, already acting like a father, which puts a smile on my face.

The twins nod, smiling widely.

"Are you going to do as she says?"

They nod again.

"Good," Jake smiles before standing up. "I have to go, but I will see you next time, okay?"

"Okay," the twins say in unison.

I open the door and Jake steps outside before turning to face me. "That was really nice what you did," I praise him.

"I've read a few parenting books," he tells me. "Since I met the twins, I wanted to learn everything I could about being a parent so that I can be the best father to Charlotte and Susannah." His grin turns sheepish as he steps forward so we're almost touching. He's so tall, his chest is at my eye level. "And so I can impress you with my parenting skills."

"That's sweet of you," I smile up at him, reaching to take both his hands in mine. "And the twins already think of you as their father. You don't need to be the best. You just need to be good."

Jake grins at me before leaning down to give me a kiss on the lips. It ends up being a mini make-out session, right in front of my girls—or our girls, I should say—as he wraps his arms around my waist and I wrap mine around his neck. It's when we hear giggling that we pull away but don't let go of each other. Instead, we both turn our heads to find Charlotte and Susannah grinning up at us.

"I think it's time I put the princesses to bed," I tell Jake.

He nods before giving me a quick peck on the lips. "Good night, Bella," he says, grinning before looking behind me at the twins, giving them a small wave. "Good night, girls."

They wave back and with that, Jake leaves and I close the door.

I turn around to face them. "Okay, ladies. Time for bed."

To my surprise, Charlotte and Susannah don't whine or complain like they usually do when I tell them it's bedtime. Instead, they run towards the bathroom and I can hear the water running as I follow them and find they're already getting started on brushing their teeth.