Disclaimer: SM owns Twilight


Chapter 7

BPOV

"Bella what's wrong? Is Nathan okay?"

I had decided to call Edward before calling Nathan's mom. I used my office phone, so he would see the school number.

"Edward, uh Nathan isn't feeling well. I have him in my office."

"What's wrong, did he get hurt?" I could hear the panic in his voice.

"No he's fine physically. He says he wants you, but that you're not allowed to see him? What's going on?"

He sighed loud on the phone. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Kate isn't taking the idea of you and me dating very well, but to be honest it doesn't matter to me what she thinks. We got into an argument, and she told me I couldn't take Nathan this weekend… and I'm guessing Nathan heard us."

"Can she really do that, keep Nathan from you? If I'm going to be a problem for you-"

"No. No, Bella. You're not a problem at all, Please don't think that. Besides I have custody of Nathan too. Kate was just blowing off steam.I'm giving her a couple ofdays to sort out her issues, and I'm gonna talk to her again. I told her my personal life is not up for discussion anymore. I don't think there's anything to worry about."

I looked down at Nathan, and he was looking up at me expectantly. I asked Edward if it was okay to pass the phone to Nathan for a bit.

"Yeah let me talk to him, I'll explain it to him."

"Okay."

"Hi daddy," Nathan mumbled.

I can't believe all this started because of me. Is Kate just jealous or is she honestly concerned about Nathan? I don't know how trying to take him away from his dad is gonna help, but she has her reasons for saying what she did.

"…but I want to stay with youuu!" Nathan whined, and the tears came again, I walked over to him to rub his back. "You promise, promise?" it sounded like Edward said he would see him, since he stopped crying immediately. He wiped his eyes and told his daddy, he loved him.

Nathan passed me the phone. "Edward, maybe we should talk about this later…"

"Yeah… Bella, I'm sorry about this mess. Apparently, I have a crazy ex wife who all of a sudden cares about who I'm dating."He let out a frustrated sigh. "She's just having some personal issues, but we'll work it out. Okay?"

"Don't worry about me Edward, I'll still be here." And I meant it. I wasn't about to let Kate dictate my lifethe way she was trying to do with Edward.

"You have no idea how happy that just made me." he laughed."I've gotta go but I'll call you when I get out. I'm looking forward to dinner."

When I hung up with Edward, I asked Nathan if he was feeling better, and he said, yes. He didn't want to go home early, so I decided that instead of calling his mother, I would talk to her in person when she came to pick him up in a little over an hour.

I stood by the door while parents were coming in, to pick up their children. I was waiting for one parent, in particular.

Kate. I finally saw her coming up the stairs. She was long legs, blonde hair and blue eyes. She's always been genuinely friendly toward me but the tight lip smile told me she wasn't comfortable seeing me.

For a millisecond, I was intimidated. She's the ex-wife after all.

Nathan came running from behind me to his mother. She looked down at him, and her face softened.

"Mommy!" he jumped into her arms. I watched as they interacted. Nathan snuggled into her neck. She looked up and placed Nathan back on the ground.

"Bella, can I have a word with you?" she asked me.

"Yes, I needed to speak to you too. Let's go to my office." I walked back inside my classroom, and she followed. We stopped in front of my office. She knelt down to be eye level with Nathan.

"Nathan, mommy's gonna talk to Miss Bella for a little bit, can you stay here and play?" I turned around and suggested to Nathan that he go check on the class pet, a turtle that one of the parents donated to the class.

"We'll leave the door open, so we can see him." I told Kate, she nodded and followed me in.

As much as I wanted to express my disapproval to Kate about what was happening, I knew that this conversation needed to be a parent-teacher oriented, unless she said otherwise. She sat on the chair across from me and studied me briefly before she spoke.

"I'm gonna cut to the chase here, Bella. I'm concerned that whatever it is that you have with my ex husband is going to affect Nathan. I don't want him to get confused when he sees you here as his teacher and then as his father's girlfriend."

I understood what she was saying, but Nathan wouldn't be in my class too long, and then I'd just be Bella, his dad's girlfriend.

Girlfriend…That sounds nice. I can definitely live with that title.

"I understand your concern Kate, but Edward and I haven't had a chance to talk about anything, and I was going to suggest not telling Nathan for a while. I want to give us some time to see where it goes. We've only been out once. You can hardly make any major life decisions from that." She stayed silent. I was surprised that she wasn't hostile toward me like I expected. It was going well.

"That sounds reasonable enough. I tried talking to Edward yesterday, but it's like talking to a brick wall," she huffed and rolled her eyes, "it's nothing personal against you, Bella. Believe me. It just caught me off guard when Edward told me, and it's really something he has never done. I've never met any of the women he's dated and neither has Nathan. Edward and I agreed that we would not be bringing Nathan around people who were not gonna be permanent in his life. You understand that right? I'm just trying to protect my son; he has enough to deal with right now—having to go back and forth between two homes. I felt that having his teacher in his dad's house would be confusing to him..." I understood that very well. I smiled and nodded at her. I couldn't blame her. She was just being a protective mother. "And when I tried to talk to Edward about it, he got defensive and just wouldn't hear me out. That man is so stubborn!" I smiled.

This is not what I had in mind when I said I wanted to get to know Edward a little better—to hear about the kind of person he is from his ex-wife. In the end, I'll be the judge but this is just so odd for me.

"Kate, I'm sure that if I was to be in Edward's home, we would talk to Nathan first… or you guys would...right now I'm just getting to know Edward. I don't want to be tangled up in any drama between you and Edward. I hope we can all be adults about this and be able to communicate with each other if there is a problem. We shouldn't forget that in the middle of all this is Nathan."

"Which also brings me to what I wanted to talk to you about, I needed to let you know that Nathan had a little incident today. He was crying for his dad. He said he wasn't allowed to see him anymore…and I called Edward, so he could clarify things. He talked to Nathan and calmed him down." I looked up at her sheepishly. I wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do, but it was my first instinct, to call Edward. I didn't want her to think that I was going behind her back.

"It's fine. I'm glad you did. I only said that to Edward because I was so upset with him." she shook her head. "Edward will have my head first if I ever make good on my word—which I never would. Nathan is his whole life. I would never do that to either of them." Relief washed over me. Kate was never going to keep Nathan from his dad. That poor little boy was so broken today. It hurt me to see him like that.

I went on to discuss Nathan's progress and participation in the class. I showed her his projects that hung on the wall. I told her what a pleasure it was to have Nathan in my class this year, and that I hoped she would come in, to volunteer someday soon.

Shortly after the meeting Kate and Nathan left my classroom. She said she was going to talk to Nathan about what happened today and let him know that it was okay to see his daddy.

We agreed to keep the lines of communication open for the sake of Nathan.

I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome today after talking to Kate. I thought Kate was being an unreasonable bitch at first when Nathan was crying in my office, but when she came to me and expressed her fears I figured out she was just looking out for the best interest of her child.

Who could blame her?

I'm sure I would do the same for my child.

Chile Rellenos. Mexican Rice. Salad (finely chopped lettuce) with sour cream and guacamole. That was on the menu tonight.

I sent a quick text to Edward earlier asking him if he liked Mexican. He replied saying that he did not like Mexican—he loved it! Those were his exact words. He also told me that he hated beans. Done deal. No beans!

I quickly tidied up the house and got started on dinner. The tricky thing for me is roasting the chilies, so I like to throw them on the grill.

Half an hour later I have dinner in the oven, and I have about twenty minutes before Edward gets here. I rush to take a shower and hopefully get all that smoke off my hair and skin.

I throw on my skinny jeans and a navy blue top. I forgo the blow dry and let my hair dry naturally for some loose curls. My makeup is minimal; mascara, soft pink lip gloss, and shimmery blush because it's awesome.

I hear Edward drive up as I'm setting the table. I peek out through the kitchen window and see he's just parked behind my car. I take one last look at the dining table and make my way to greet him out front.

"Hi, you're just in time." Edward looked up from behind his car and his face lit up with that smile I love already. When he came around, he had a bouquet of flowers in his hand.

"These are for you" he smiled shyly. I took the flowers from him. They were a beautiful arrangement of pink, yellow and red tulips.

"Wow, thank you Edward. These are so pretty I love them!" I hugged them to me and Edward laughed, "let's get inside, I'm sure you're hungry." I told him.

"Starving, actually. I didn't get much time for lunch today." He said as he followed me inside, "my day was pretty hectic."

I gave Edward a quick tour of my comfy two-bedroom home and ended the tour in the kitchen.

"It smells amazing in here, Bella. What did you make?" Edward said as he tried to sneak a peek at the oven. I didn't tell him what I was making, just that it would be Mexican food.

"I hope you like it; I worked really hard on it." I told him. He sat on the breakfast bar while I got the pans out of the oven.

"I'm sure I'll love it. Do you need any help?

"Nope. Here we go…"I placed the dish of chilies in front of him and made a grand gesture of revealing them. "Chile Rellenos!"

"Wow, you made these?"Edward leaned over and took a big whiff at the dish and I laughed, "they smell delicious, are you gonna keep me waiting cuz I want to dig in!" he looked up and grinned at me.

I hurried and got everything plated how I wanted. We both walked over to the dining table and took our seats. Edward hummed in approval on his first few bites.

"I can get used to this." he said while putting another forkful in his mouth. "Homemade food is rare in my house when I don't have Nathan." Edward laughed and I giggled.

"Well you can come over for dinner anytime, I love to cook."

"I just might take you up on that, but you might not be able to get rid of me after." his eyes sparkled with a wicked grin.

I laughed. "I don't see a problem with that as long as you pull your weight around here and wash dishes."I joke with him; he threw his head back and laughed. His smile was so beautiful and carefree; I couldn't help but stare at him.

I felt amazing today. Having Edward here and sharing a meal that I made…it felt right. To my surprise, the conversation flowed easy. I was expecting to be nervous and stumbling over my words, but Edward made me feel relaxed with the way he showed interest in everything I was saying.

After I cleared up the table with Edward's help, I refilled our drinks to take into the living room with us.

We sat on the couch at a comfortable space between us, both turned slightly toward each other.

"So do you have any brothers or sisters? Edward asked me.

Up until this point we had been asking each other questions about our family, work, hobbies, taste in music, but I couldn't help feeling like he was avoiding talking about Kate. I wasn't comfortable bringing the issue up, so I just went along.

"I'm an only child," I told him, "my parents had a perfect child on the first try so they found no need to go for another," I looked at him with a straight face, but couldn't hold in my laughter at his disbelieving look. He shook his head and laughed with me.

He reached over and held my hand. My stomach felt like it held hyperactive butterflies at his touch. I looked up and smiled shyly at him.

"You think you're so funny." He tugged my hand playfully.

"I am funny, thank you very much. So what about you, do you have any brothers or sisters? Or are you the perfect only child?" I grinned.

"Actually I have an older brother, Emmett, and if I apply your theory, I can say that my parents had to try for another child after him and found the perfect one with me." he smiled brightly, "it's just me and my brother, but I can hardly say we were perfect."

"Why is that?"

Edward shook his head as he recalled memories of his youth. "Let's just say there wasn't a day that we weren't in some sort of trouble with my dad where he had to whip us soundly." He chuckled at the memory. I looked at him incredulously.

"Your dad used to hit you?"

"Well he'd give us a few swats here and there when we misbehaved, but he'd never beat us or anything like that. Why? Were you not spanked when you were young?"

"No, never. At least I don't remember anything like that. I got grounded a few times, but then again, I didn't do anything that warranted a punishment very often. Do you use that same discipline with Nathan?" It's not that I was against spanking; I was just not brought up that way.

"If you're asking if I spank him, then yes I do but not all the time. He gets timeouts and they seem to work for him. It's only in rare times when he just doesn't listen or follow the rules that I have to give him a spanking, and not even hard. Is that something you're against?"

"No I was just wondering. Everyone has their own way of parenting. I can't say how I'll handle situations until I'm there."

"So you want kids?" Edward smiled at me and squeezed my hand.

"Yeah, I do."I answered wistfully. "I want a house full of them!"

Edward chuckled. "Wow, a house full huh?"I grinned and nodded, "don't you get enough of with your class?"

"Don't get me wrong, it's rough sometimes, but I enjoy the kids and it just makes me want to experience motherhood for myself." I really warmed up to the idea of having a family when I first started teaching kindergarten, but now the feeling is stronger.

"What about you, do you want more kids?"

Edward began to play with my hand while he thought it over. "I always thought I'd have more than one. That's for sure…Kate…uh Kate and I had planned three." he paused and sighed. He ran his hand through his hair and tugged at it. He looked stressed and uncomfortable. "I've been trying to avoid the subject of Kate for as long as possible. I'm having a really good time with you, and I didn't want to ruin it. I'm sorry…I just didn't want to face any of that yet."

"It's okay Edward, but have you talked to Kate today at all?" I wanted to know if he had talked to her, since I knew that she wasn't too upset today as she was yesterday with Edward. There was really no reason for him to be stressed out anymore.

"No I haven't talked to her."

"I think you should. I had to talk to her today about what happened with Nathan, and I told her I called you. She wasn't as upset as you think she is…"

"Wait, did she talk to you about our relationship?" He pointed between us. Crap. What am I supposed to tell him? I wanted him to talk to Kate first!

"She's just concerned about Nathan…" Edward looked like I had just slapped him across the face. He let go of my hand and got up to pace my living room.

"Do you agree with her?" He wasn't upset… he looked like a hurt little boy. "I told her she needed to stay out of it. Why would she go to you after I told her not to?"

"She's a mother Edward. She was just thinking of Nathan…and rest assured that there is nothing that she could have said that would make me want to back out from this." We just had a small conversation about what her fear was for Nathan. I told her that you and I wouldn't do anything in front of him or even tell him yet until things moved further along…" I got up and stood in front of him. I reached up and placed my hand on his cheek. He instantly leaned into it. "Don't worry, everything will work itself out."

"Thank you" He took my hand from his cheek and placed a soft kiss on it. "I was worried she was gonna scare you away before I even had the chance to date you properly" he smiled down at me with a big grin.

He pulled me close to him placing his hands on my hips, and I held on to his forearms. "And what does "dating properly" mean? I attempted to flirt by batting my eyelashes.

"It means I'm gonna take you out…show you who I am and hope that you like what you see…" he shrugged his shoulders and smiled sheepishly.

My heart was beating furiously in my chest as we gazed in each other's eyes. He slowly leaned down and kissed my cheek softly. His breath was warm on my skin, and it made me shiver.

Edward had nothing to worry about…I already liked what I saw.