A/N - Sadly, these characters all belong to SM.

You guys rock! I love getting little messages that "Meant to Be" has been added to someone's favorite stories. I was afraid that if I started writing it, no one would like it.

Sorry that it's taken me so long to post. Christmas with toddlers has worn me out!

One more thing… If anyone knows anything about beta readers, please PM me. As of now, I'm going it alone because I don't know anything about FanFiction, and I don't know how to go about getting a beta.

Happy Reading…

Chapter 3

EPOV:

****

I rolled over expecting to find that perfect little body next to me as it had been all night. I had woken Bella up several times throughout the night to make love to her, and I imagined that she would have been pretty tired. I was a little surprised to find the other side of the incredibly comfortable bed to be empty.

Looking around the room, I noticed how much she had really changed since we were in high school. Gone were the traces of the sweet innocent Bella that used to have stuffed animals and posters hanging up on her walls. This room was decorated in earthy yellow and orange tones that reminded me of the sun. I wondered if it made her think about Phoenix, or if she just liked the colors. There were no pictures in the room with the exception of a school picture of Seth and a picture of Leah and a man that I assumed is Jacob's father, because it says "Grandpa" on the frame, and it sure as hell wasn't Charlie.

Slipping out of bed, I put my shorts on and went to the bathroom. Memories of that incredibly large shower and the night before came flooding back. When you think about it logically, one person shouldn't have a need for a bathroom this big. Not only is there a two-person shower, but there are two vanities and two walk-in closets as well. Not to mention the enormous Jacuzzi bathtub sitting in the middle of the room. I made a mental note to ask Bella about her need for accommodations for two. The shower was calling me, but I decided to look for Bella first.

I looked in the kitchen and out on the back porch where we had eaten dinner last night. I couldn't find her, so I was roaming through the rooms of the house. When you really look at it, the house is beautiful. The floors were all wood, but Bella had put bright rugs in each room to bring in some light and color. The living room furniture was formal but comfortable. She used the same earthy oranges and yellows for most of her walls and decorations, and she had rust colored leather furniture with red accents throughout. The kids' rooms had obviously been given a little leeway with the motif. Seth's room was covered with racing and matchbox cars. He had a racecar bed and books everywhere. I walked through the adjoining bathroom to find that Leah's room was covered in pink and brown polka dots. I mean, they were everywhere. Both children had several framed photos of their dad in their room, and they both had some sort of shadow box that was filled with mementos. I assumed they were things that would help them remember their father too.

Not finding her yet, I went back through the living room and kitchen to see if there was a room I had missed. I saw the door leading into the laundry room and figured there may be another porch or something on the side of the house that I didn't see last night. There was another door in the laundry room that opened to the basement steps. I remembered Bella telling me about the property being on a river, so I thought she may have gone out that way. I wasn't expecting to walk downstairs to what seemed like another entire house. There was another kitchen, a less formal living room, two more bedrooms, a gym and two more bathrooms downstairs. It gave me an idea, but I wasn't sure if Bella would go for it. It was something that I would need to approach very carefully.

I finally saw her sitting on a small couch in what looked to be a sun room. She looked so peaceful sitting on the couch with her coffee mug that I almost hated to interrupt her. …Almost.

****

BPOV:

*****

Considering the several times I had been woken up last night, it was the most sleep that I've had in several years. My body was not prepared for the barrage of activities it endured, but it certainly enjoyed all of it. In high school, Edward and I had healthy sexual appetites, but I felt like more than a sex-crazed teenager last night. Neither of us could get enough.

I was surprised when I woke up and the clock said it was 7:00. I never sleep that late anymore. But since I figured I really didn't haven anything that had to be done or anywhere that I had to be, I decided to enjoy my morning.

Edward was sleeping so soundly that I hated to wake him. Although I really wouldn't mind sharing the shower again! I moved around a bit hoping that it would make him stir, but it didn't. I moved loudly into the bathroom and stepped into the shower. My goal was to get him to join me again, but after being in there for about 15 minutes, I realized it wasn't going to happen. I put my fluffy bathrobe and socks on, brushed my hair and went to make coffee.

It was a rare sunny morning in Port Angeles, and the reflection of the sun over the river almost made you think summer was actually settling in. I decided to take my coffee down to the sunroom where it was warm enough to pretend it was hot outside.

One of my favorite parts of this house was the basement. I had designed it to be almost like an apartment so Renee and Phil could visit, but I wouldn't have to share too much of my space with them. It also came in handy when I had other visitors. The downstairs kitchen was very basic, but it had the essentials. I loved the big open family room, and this is where the kids and I spent a good amount of time. There was a game table and a huge TV. We loved to play video games all day when we didn't have other obligations, and the TV down here was perfect for that. I also had some exercise equipment installed since getting to the gym had become much more difficult than it used to be. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep me from having an excuse to not work out.

The sunroom was directly off the back of the house underneath the deck that we ate dinner on last night. To the right of the sunroom, was a hot tub that I had installed because I knew we wouldn't get much use out of a swimming pool. I still missed Phoenix sometimes.

I loved to come out here in the mornings before the kids were up, or in the evenings after they had gone to bed, to curl up with a book or work on my next project at work. I had every intention of catching up on some work this morning, so I brought my laptop out with me. I sat down to work and realized pretty quickly that my mind was not in the right place to work on evaluating test scores. I was a counselor at Port Angeles Middle School, and I had several students that I was responsible for completing some testing on before the end of the school year.

I didn't even open the laptop before I stuffed everything back in my school bag and decided to just enjoy the quiet morning. My mind started wandering to Edward, of course, and I knew that I needed to put things in perspective before I fell into my old habits. The feelings that I had for Edward have never been in question. My priorities were different now. I would be damned if I was going to expose my children to another man that would leave them. When Jake died, I resolved to keep them from ever going through pain like that again. Hell, it was the same pain that I was trying to avoid when I became involved with Mr. Safe in the first place. Only my pain was inflicted by someone who chose to leave. I still remember my breakup from Edward like it was yesterday.

"Bella, do you really think we'll still be together in two months when I leave for school?"

We had been making out in Charlie's recliner like we usually did before he got home. In between make-out sessions, we started talking about college. The plan was for Edward to go to UW for a year and me to join him the following year. He was going to come home most weekends, and I was going to sneak around so that I could go visit him some weekends too. For some reason, Edward was changing the plan on me. He was still going to go to UW for a year, but all of the sudden, he was planning on going to Dartmouth - yeah, the one on the other side of the fucking country!

"Of course, why wouldn't we be?"

I had known he was pulling away for a few weeks, but I had no idea why. I tried to hold on tighter, even though I knew that never worked…

"I just think it's going to be too difficult. I'll be at school and you'll be here with all of your friends. Mike Newton is just waiting for me to leave."

"Edward, don't be stupid. If I wanted to date Mike Newton, I would have gone out with him a long time ago. What's this really about?"

"I just don't think we're gonna work B. We're just not good for each other."

I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes just like they did when I was seventeen. We had discussed things for several hours that evening. Edward, trying to convince me that he loved me so much he was letting me move on, and me, trying to convince Edward that if he loved me, he would try to work it out.

Thinking about the fact that Edward broke my heart probably wasn't the smartest thing to do while he was asleep in my bed upstairs, so I got up to get another cup of coffee. I had run out down here, so I had to climb onto the counter to get some out of the cabinet. I pulled out the coffee can, and one of Jake's old beer coozies caught my eye. It was the one he always pulled out during football games - he swore it brought the Seahawks luck. I couldn't help but wonder how he would feel knowing that I had been with Edward last night. Deep down, I think he always knew…

I finished fixing my coffee and settled back onto my favorite couch to compare the two men. I didn't get long to compare though, because Edward came out right after I sat back down. I was a little concerned about there being some morning after awkwardness, so I didn't say anything. He came and sat down beside me, put his hand on my leg, and said good morning.

We talked for a few minutes without much awkwardness and decided that we were both starving. Edward wanted to take me to breakfast which sounded great because I didn't really want to cook. I stood up to go get dressed and didn't make it far before I felt pulling on my robe.

"I just wanted to see what you had on under that thing. Wouldn't want you to catch a cold."

His hands began rubbing up my calves and thighs.

"It's pretty warm in here, I think I'll be alright," I said through heavy breaths.

"Well if that's the case…" Edward pulled my robe completely off and pulled me down into his lap so that I was straddling him.

"My God, I can't get enough," he said with his warm breath blowing right into my chest as he began licking my right nipple.

I arched my back into him and kissed the top of his head. He smelled like sex and … Edward. I began nibbling on the top of his earlobe which caused him to moan into me.

Edward began massaging my left breast while sucking on my right. His other hand traveled slowly down to knead my ass pushing me into his erection.

Knowing that I was able to make him hard so easily turned me on even more. I began thrusting my hips into him and moaning into his ear. I moved around so that I could kiss him, and he began thrusting his tongue into my mouth rhythmically.

Edward took his hand from my ass and grabbed my hand out of his hair. He moved my hand to his stomach while his hand reached around me to slide his fingers inside of me. I gasped and bit into Edward's collarbone. I was frantically trying to unzip his pants and free him, but he kept distracting me. One of Edward's hands was sliding into me from behind, and his other hand had moved down to rub. I could feel my orgasm building.

"Stop… I want you inside me. Please."

Edward stopped long enough for me to move so we could pull his shorts the rest of the way down. I climbed back on intending to straddle him, but Edward had different plans. Edward lifted me off of his lap and stood up. He then pulled me over to the side of the couch where he bent me over. He entered me from behind and then pulled me up so that my back was next to his chest. His hands explored my body as he thrust into me causing little explosions to go off in my head. His hand moved down and rubbed my center causing the orgasm to come on strong and fast. I grabbed the arm of the couch and screamed as my entire body tensed before release. Edward screamed right after me, grabbing my hips tightly and pushing harder. We both slumped over the arm of the couch for support.

"Damn"

I smiled as he collapsed. "Are you sure we need to eat? I could find us some cookies or something to nibble on here."

"If we don't get out of this house, neither one of us are going to be able to function properly. Besides, I thought you could go look at apartments with me today if you don't have anything else to do."

"Whoa, apartment shopping together… sounds serious!"

"It could be. I'm okay with that."

"No, Edward. We need to get that clear now. My priorities are my children and I am not about to introduce a man into their life that may or may not stay around. I probably should have told you that sooner."

"Relax B- I'm here, and I'm not planning on going anywhere. If you don't want things to be serious right now, I will give you that space. But this isn't a conversation that we have to have right now. I'm hungry and I need a place to live. Let's take care of those needs first."

****

I should have thought about the fact that getting out of the red Mercedes SL 600 would draw attention. I really should have thought about the fact that I was getting out of the red Mercedes at the Cornerhouse Restaurant, where everyone in Port Angeles went on Sundays, with Edward. We walked in to the small restaurant to be greeted by a former student of mine. She squealed and ran over to hug me. I was pleased to see that she behaved appropriately when I introduced her to my friend, Edward. She was able to get us a table immediately, and for that I was grateful. The last thing I wanted to do was sit in the front of the restaurant and make small talk with people that were asking questions about Edward and I.

After being shown to our table, I excused myself to go wash my hands. As I was walking back to my table, I heard Edward speaking to someone. It was a very familiar voice, but I couldn't quite see the person from where I was. Just as I turned the corner, I realized where I knew the voice from. It was Lauren. She was sitting at the only other table in the area, which was right next to ours. I wanted to run and hide before she saw me, but it was too late. I had no choice but to sit down calmly and pretend it didn't bug the shit out of me to be seated next to Jake's best friend. Lauren was the other coach for the track team that Jake coached for, and she was the only woman he had ever lied to me about. I wasn't jealous of her. In fact, there were many times that I wished Jake would have had an affair with her (or gotten caught - I still wasn't sure) so I would have an excuse to leave. What I didn't like was the smug way in which she treated me and my children. Lauren didn't have a husband or children of her own, so she had no concept of the family thing.

"Well hello Ms. Black. What brings you here? Where are the little ones?"

"Jake's dad took them to Seattle for the weekend to spend some time with their family there."

"Oh. I didn't realize Jake had family in Seattle."

Not knowing if Lauren was trying to bait me into an argument, I just nodded at her, hoping she would go back to eating with her track kids and leave me alone. … Not so lucky.

"Aren't you going to introduce me?"

Edward had noticed that I was pretty uncomfortable, so he introduced himself as a friend from high school and shook Lauren's hand. She was way too interested in the story here.

"You two must have met up pretty early in order to have a breakfast date."

"Actually, I went to Bella's for dinner last night and we have been having sex ever since. I was starving after all that sex, so she brought me here. She was hoping to run into everyone she knows so they could all talk about her." Edward was chuckling to himself by this point.

Blushing furiously, I said, "Edward!"

"Come on Bella, anyone who knows you knows that you wouldn't just hook up with some random guy and bring them out to the local diner for breakfast. Lauren knows that I'm just kidding, right?"

I couldn't tell if Lauren felt like she had been chastised by Edward's remarks or if she was trying to keep her track kids from hearing all the "sex" talk, but she left us alone for the rest of breakfast. We found a little apartment guide and began circling places where Edward wanted to look.

We were leaving the restaurant preparing to start apartment hunting when I felt an undeniable presence. I heard it before I saw anything… that squeaky little voice yelling, "Edward… Bella." I turned around the see one of my favorite people in the entire world bounding towards us.

"Oh My God! Alice! What are you doing here?"

"I could ask the same of you. And with my brother nonetheless."


A/N - Yay! It's Alice. Wonder if Jasper is coming up as well???

What do you think Edward's plans are?

Reviews are great!!!!