EPOV
Something was building within me I could feel it since Renee went off on me. Between me trying to make sure Bella was comfortable and soothing her because of the frequent nightmares. She insisted she was fine, but I wasn't convinced.
I was about to go for a run when I came face to face with Jasper at my front door. He looked like shit. His usually longer blonde hair was cropped shorter, which the guy never cut his hair that short, always saying he didn't want the man bring him down or some hippie shit like that. How he ever became a psychologist blows my mind.
"Can we talk?" he asked shifting uncomfortably from side to side.
"Is this of importance?" I questioned finally breaking the silence after almost four months.
You think my wife can hold a grudge, please. I can hold out longer.
"Edward quit being a prick and let me in," he sighed.
I grudgingly let him in, following him into the living room. We were both quiet for a couple minutes until Jazz decided to say what he needed to say.
"You were right about me hurtin', Alice," he said quietly.
"What did you fucking do to her?" I growled, about ready to break his nose again.
"She came to my house this mornin'…Maria stays when she's in town. She's been havin' problems with Lucy or so I thought."
"What do you mean or so you thought?"
"Maria's tryin' to get pregnant, she's been sleepin' with me tryin' to get pregnant," he clarified.
"You knew about this?"
"No, not until I heard her on the phone with Lucy this mornin'."
"And Alice showed up," I concluded.
"Alice is pregnant," he said blankly looking at his feet.
"This is seven fucked up shades of All My Children," I scoffed.
"You watch All My Children?" he asked with a slight smirk, which I wanted to slap off his face.
"Not the fucking point asshat." He nodded returning to his sullen state.
"Alice knew about Maria cause I told her, I wasn't sure what I wanted. Maria and I have a history, but Alice is my future. I've been tryin' to tell Maria this for the past two weeks, but you know how she is."
"What exactly happened?"
"Alice came by while Maria was on the phone with Lucy. She looked nervous as hell and I didn't like her lookin' like that. She just kinda blurted it out and clung to me. She is so tiny; I wanted her to feel safe and loved. I love Alice," he said adamantly.
"What happened?" I said again more forcefully.
"Maria heard, raisin' all sorts of hell, Alice was quiet… She was cryin' I didn't like it. Alice pushed away from me and left, I kicked Maria out."
"You know what you said to me?" he nodded slowly. "This is your karma."
"How do I fix it?" he asked looking completely lost. I'd never seen him look like that.
"You're asking me, when it took me five years to fix mine?"
"It took ya'll five years to get married, but your relationship was strong before that."
"You thought I fucked around on her," I said raising an eyebrow.
"You know I used to like Bella," he finally fucking admitted it. "From when she…developed 'til about when she was pregnant with Mackenzie."
"You never said anything," I grumbled, he had balls.
"And have you kick my ass?" he laughed wryly.
"So all the fake proposals and promises?"
"I would be lyin' if I said I wasn't hopeful that she might actually think that I could be the one."
"You never tried?" I said glaring.
"Are you really that slack? That girl has been in love with you since you rescued her from me and Emmett's shenanigans," he said shaking his head.
"You don't still like her?" I questioned.
"Bella will always be Bella, I want Alice and only Alice," he said simply.
"Good answer," I smiled. "She's not here so where did she go?"
"Bella's not here either?"
"She took Mackenzie and went to her dad's," I smiled at how happy she was to drive by herself.
"Then Alice is probably with Black," he groaned.
"Jacob's not interested," I said smugly. I knew and he didn't.
"He seems plenty interested."
"In your cock maybe," I scoffed as his eyebrows furrowed. "Dude likes dudes."
"That's impossible."
"Is it?" I challenged.
"He gropes and makes out with her…"
"He's groped Bella, but I put a stop to that a couple weeks ago, telling him to find a tranny."
"Bella let him?" he asked incredulously.
"She smacks the shit out of him, she said he was deprived. I'm the only one allowed to grope," I said confidently. The girls were mine.
"So he isn't interested in either of our girls?"
"I met his guy last week, he looks at him like I look at Bella."
There was a silence again until Jasper had to get sappy.
"We're talkin' again," he said with his stupid lazy smile.
"Let's not dwell on this. I'm talking to you so deal with it."
"So Bella told me about Mackenzie's reaction to the baby," he supplied, now turning into a shrink.
"She doesn't like the idea of it, no," I explained.
"Maybe you both should do special one-on-one things with her, she will see there won't be any change."
"The end product is an eight pound change," I said dryly, running my fingers through my hair.
"Just think about it."
"Um…" Alice spoke from the hallway.
"Why don't you guys talk while I go for my run?" I suggested.
Alice nodded quietly when I gave her shoulder a squeeze. I would make sure she was okay later.
On my run I was able to reflect on the past couple of weeks and how Bella was making my life complete. I watched her everyday work on her recovery and be a mom to Mackenzie, it just amazed me how strong my girl was.
When I arrived back at the house, I carefully looked for any signs of Jasper and Alice, hoping I wasn't disturbing their time. I felt two arms come around my waist.
"Mmm, you're all sweaty," she murmured.
I turned and looked at my beautiful, loveable, wife. Her hair was in a French twist today, which didn't go with her whole hoodie and sweats look, but to me she was fucking gorgeous.
"You're back?" I asked tilting my head.
"About that," she said with a frown. "When we got there James had a visitor."
"A visitor?"
"A cougar, that he called Vickie. It was weird, she was sucking him off and I had to make sure Kenz wasn't behind me… Luckily, Hendrix had her distracted in the yard so I didn't need to explain what she was doing. It was awful and mortifying and I wished you were there to deal with it with me," she rambled with a pout.
I leaned down, kissing her panicked lips tenderly as I started rubbing circles on her belly. "Where was your dad?"
"With Billy, he came back when Vickie pulled away. She's from Phoenix and came to see him I guess she was an old teacher. It was bad and dad yelled like I've never seen him yell," she said biting her lip.
"You came home because of this?"
"They were fighting, I didn't want Kenzie around it so we came back home."
"Today's been filled with a lot of drama," I sighed.
"What do you mean?" she asked scratching her fingers against my scalp. It felt wonderful.
"Jazz knocked Alice up," I moaned and she stopped.
"What?"
"Yup, he is her baby daddy."
"But Maria has been staying with him," she frowned.
"You knew about that?"
"Your brother loves to gossip with me," she giggled giving me a chaste kiss.
"Maria pulled expected shit when Alice showed up."
"So what are they going to do?"
"I left for my run while they talked, they'll tell us if they want us to know," I shrugged.
"I love that you respect others need for privacy," she smiled.
We stood there for I don't know how long. She just let me hold her, eventually I noticed her making a face and questioned her on it.
"It's nothing, the standing is getting to me," she mumbled.
"Does Carl want to lie on the couch?"
"I think Carl does," she sighed in defeat as I guided her to the couch. "I also think Carl wants an omelet."
"Can I get a quick shower and then make Carl an omelet," I stroked her stomach and lifted her shirt up to place a kiss where our child laid. "Daddy will make you an omelet."
"We can wait," she grinned playing with my hair again.
Once I was done with my shower, I rushed to the kitchen to make us all omelets. I knew Mackenzie was sick of the eggs because she insisted eggs were for breakfast only. She didn't get the whole what Mommy craves Mommy gets. So I made her chicken nuggets and noodles.
Speaking of my picky girl, she skipped into the kitchen wrapping her arms around my leg. "Hi Daddy," she smiled up at me. Her hair was done the same way as Bella's making me chuckle.
"Hi Monkey," I picked her up throwing her up and catching her a few times. She was still small and really light so I had no problems.
I had her sitting on my hip as I finished making dinner. "What did you make me?" she asked carefully glancing at the omelets.
"Nuggets and noodles," I replied and she let out a breath, hugging me tightly.
"What is Mommy doing?"
"Alice was sad, she was giving her hugs."
"Was Uncle Jazz in there too?"
"No," she said and then frowned. "Mommy was making faces."
"She was?"
"Like this," she said making a pained expression.
"Carl's getting cozy," I explained.
"I think Carl's not nice," she whispered, resting her head on my shoulder.
"Why do you think that?"
"Mommy makes those faces and her hand's on her tummy." She was so smart it was kind of scary. She associated those things to Bella's discomfort and was completely right.
"The baby is getting bigger."
"Like me?"
"Yeah."
"The baby should be out," she said furrowing her brow like Bella did when she was confused.
"The baby needs to grow in Mommy's tummy first," I explained sitting down on the barstool at the kitchen island. "The baby is this big," I said making a fist.
"That's tiny."
"Yeah Mommy is protecting Carl so nothing can hurt it."
"I was in Mommy's tummy?" she asked.
"You were," I nodded slowly.
"I was that big?" I nodded. "That's silly," she giggled as I hoped to be done with this conversation. I didn't need her asking how she got in there because how the hell do you explain that to a child.
"You're going to be a great big sister Kenzers," I said kissing her head.
"Carl has to listen to me."
"You have to be nice," I reasoned with her. This was definitely going to be a learning experience.
I piled the food on a tray carrying it and Kenzie into Bella. Being a waiter in high school paid off. I wasn't surprised to see Bella and Alice huddled on the couch together. Alice appeared to be asleep, clinging to her. Bella looked tired and pained. I sat everything down including Mackenzie who was wearing a worried expression looking at Alice. I moved to get Bella so she wasn't hurting but she shook her head.
"You're hurting lying like that," I argued.
"I'm helping my friend," she insisted.
"I'm going to move you to the loveseat," I said moving toward her again.
"I'm not going anywhere," she hissed.
"I'm not asking," I replied not backing down. I was quick to lift her and she was not happy with me. Surprisingly she didn't hit me, which seemed to be her new thing. I think I lucked out with that because Mackenzie was watching and we were trying to teach her hitting was a bad thing.
I placed her omelet in front of her and had Kenzie eating at the coffee table. I heard Alice begin to whimper and moved to sit with her. There was no way Bella was moving back to the couch to have herself in pain. Alice's eyes fluttered open and she gave me a sad smile. I hugged her because I really felt bad for her. She came to Seattle so I could be with Bella and ended up becoming a permanent fixture in our already extended family.
"Want an omelet?" I offered her my food.
"It's really good," Bella, said munching away. She looked less pissy and more into her food. She loved my cooking.
"I'm hungry," Alice whispered.
"We can't have a hungry, mama," I told her seriously.
"Thank you," she said giving me a tight hug.
"That's what brothers do, right? They help their little sisters out," I said pinching her side.
"You're a good big brother," she nodded inhaling her omelet.
I wasn't going to get into the Jasper stuff, she would tell me or he would. Bella demanded more and I complied going back into the kitchen.
Mackenzie hovered around me sticking close. Something was up with her since we talked about the baby. Later that night once we were in bed she padded into our room climbing into bed with us, but instead of her getting in the middle like she usually did she cuddled into me staying on my side. Bella was half-asleep, but felt the change because she tried pulling her in between us. Mackenzie wasn't budging and the frown grew on her sleepy face.
"What's wrong?" she muttered.
"Your guess is as good as mine." Because it really was.
Hmm… Something's up with that child. Here's a challenge send some baby names my way, I know what she's having. Thank you to Dolphin62598 for putting up with my grammar mistakes; she's really the best!