Did everyone have a good Christmas?

Chapter Thirteen: "Sinterklaas Morning" Bella's POV

"Bella," a soft voice said, warm fingers stroking my face. "Baby, wake up."

I opened one eye and saw Edward sitting on the side of the bed, an amused expression on his face. My first thought was that it was way too early to be waking up, but then I remembered that I was a guest in his parents' home. I tried to fight my sleepy eyes. "Yeah, sweetie?"

"We're going to have breakfast soon," he said, handing me a steaming mug. "If you're as tired as I am, you'll need this."

I suddenly remembered the night we had spent together in his mother's stables. It had been absolutely perfect, from the sweet whispers to the passionate kissing and touching to the admissions that we were falling for each other. The fresh memories made me smile and sit up in bed. "Thank you," I murmured, kissing his cheek as I took the mug from him. It was some kind of foamy latte, with lots of whipped cream. "Wow, this is incredible."

He smiled at me. "I'll let you and your little man get ready for breakfast," he said. "Oh, and Santa was quite generous this year."

I raised my eyebrows. "Our shoes…?"

"Yeah. Check it out, sweet girl." He patted my leg that was covered by the blanket. "I have to go wake Emmy up. See you downstairs in about…thirty minutes."

"Okay."

Edward left the guest room, closing the door behind him. I rolled over to face Emerson, who was sound asleep and snuggled into my side.

"Hey, Clark Kent," I sang happily as I gently shook him awake. "Time to wake up, Superman."

He let out a little groan and snuggled in deeper.

I chuckled and lay down beside him, wrapping my arms around his warm little body. "I know, I don't want to wake up, either," I admitted. "But we have to go eat breakfast with Emmy and Edward."
A little smile lit his face. I kissed him before running my fingers through his baby-fine hair. "Emerson, sweet love, wake up."

After some more shaking and prodding, he finally yawned and opened his dark eyes to stare at me. "What, Mommy?"

"We have to eat breakfast and see what Grandma Esme left in your shoes," I told him. "Emmy is probably waiting for you."

Blood suddenly stained his cheeks. "Oh…yeah…"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said quickly. Too quickly. "When are we leaving?"

"Later today. Why? Are you not having fun?"

"No, I'm having lots of fun," he corrected me. "I just need to talk to Emmett. Fast."

"Well, you can wait," I told him, kissing his nose. "Come on, let's get you dressed. I have to get a shower." Because I definitely smell like horses.

I dressed Emerson in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt and made sure he brushed his teeth with his Spiderman toothbrush. We looked in our shoes and I was amazed to find that there was very little candy actually in my shoes, but instead there were a lot of boxes of fine chocolates and cookies around my shoes. Emerson nearly had a fit over the Marvel superhero candies, gummy bears, chocolate dinosaurs, and kid-friendly snacks like Laffy Taffy and flavored candy canes. I'm sure he had never had so much candy in his life.

"This is so cool, Mom!" he shouted.

I laughed. "It is, isn't it? Why don't you go the kitchen thank Grandma Esme and Grandpa Carlisle? I'm going to get ready."

"Okay!" He grabbed a handful of Laffy Taffy.

"Whoa," I said. "We're about to eat breakfast. You can have candy after breakfast."

"Mom…"

"I know, I'm no fun," I told him, playfully swatting at him. "I promise, I'll let you indulge after you eat. Go find Edward."

He sighed and started to trudge down the stairs. I went to the bathroom and took a hot shower, washing my body free of any stable stench. After my shower, the coffee Edward had brought me had finally cooled off, so I sipped that as I dressed in a nice sweater and jeans.

I was just finishing my makeup when Emmy suddenly ran into the bathroom with me, a little disposable camera hanging around her neck. "Bella!" she said excitedly. "Bella, come eat!"

"I'm coming," I assured her, being caught off guard as she snapped a picture of me. She was so much like her daddy. "Did you get a lot of candy?"

"Yeah, Grandpa found chocolate dinosaurs!"

I grinned at her. "Yeah, Emerson has chocolate dinosaurs, too. Just a second, sweetie." I carefully applied some sheer lip gloss, studying the mirror so I would do it correctly.

"Can I have some lip gloss?" she asked hopefully, reaching for me. "It's so pretty on you."

I was surprised at how much that meant to me. I wasn't a very girly girl, and honestly, I only wore makeup around Edward. But I liked the fact that a little girl was interested in imitating me. Especially Edward's little girl. I had always wondered what life what have been like if I had been given a baby girl instead of a baby boy. Not that I would trade Emerson for the most adorable little girl in the world, but still, I wondered. Besides, I was thoroughly convinced that Emmy was the most adorable little girl in the world.

"Uh, sure," I said, picking her up and sitting her on the counter. "Here, let me show you how. Open your mouth."

She was very obedient, and held very still as I put little dots of gloss on her tiny lips. "Now smack your lips together," I told her.

She made a loud popping noise as she followed my instructions. I giggled as I saw the little bit of shine on her lips. She looked so pretty, with messy curls being tamed by a pink bow.

"Hey, let's take a picture," I suggested.

"Good idea! Daddy will love it!"

I let her stand on the counter so we were almost level in height, and I turned the disposable camera on us so we could be in the picture together. I had an arm around Emmy's waist, and she looked unbelievably happy. I knew it would be a cute picture that I would want a copy of.

"Let's go eat," I suggested, helping her down to the floor. I grabbed my almost-empty mug and followed her down the stairs.

Breakfast was an incredible affair, with waffles, omelets, biscuits, a lot of different kinds of meats, eggs, pastries…basically any breakfast food you can imagine! I was a little sad that Sinterklaas was almost over.

Carlisle had to go to work after lunch, so that broke up the little party. Emerson and I had to go home, anyway. I had a million errands to run before bills were overdue.

"Come back soon," Carlisle begged me, hugging me tightly and kissing my cheek.
"Yes, please do," Esme gushed, tears in her eyes. "You don't know how much we love you."

"Mom," Edward rolled his eyes. "She lives across town, not across the country. Don't cry."

I laughed. "I'll be sure to come again."

Alice and Jasper gave me similar goodbyes, and then of course everyone had to fuss over Emerson. Edward, Emmy, and I left the house with our duffel bags and huge bags of candy and other confections.

Edward dropped us off at the apartment, and even gave me a kiss at the door. Emerson glared at him about that, but I knew that our children would have to get used to the fact that Edward and I were a couple. Might as well start adjusting my jealous little boy now.

As soon as Emmy and Edward had pulled away from our apartment complex and I was turning the heat on in the apartment, Emerson stared at me seriously. "Mom, I have to talk to Emmett."

"Uh, sweetie, next time we see Aunt Rosalie and Emmett, we'll talk to him."

"No!" he exclaimed seriously. "Mom, it's important!"

"Well, can't you talk to me about whatever it is?"

He looked horrified. "Mom, you're a girl. I need to talk to Emmett. He's a boy. He understands."

I snorted, bending down to help him out of his coat. "Let me call Aunt Rosalie and I'll get his number."

"No, I have to talk to him in person!" my son sighed impatiently.

"You're being dramatic," I rolled my eyes. "Baby, Emmett probably isn't even with Aunt Rosalie."

He huffed and tossed his coat on the floor. I watched him as he stomped away angrily.

"Emerson," I said in a warning tone. "Come back here."

He sighed and walked back to me. "What?"

"I don't understand what the problem is," I tried to say gently, even though he was irritating me. "You can tell me everything."

"Mom, this is about girl problems," he admitted, blushing. "I can't tell you about this. You're a mom."

"Of course you can talk to me about it."
"No, because you're boyfriend-and-girlfriend with Emmy's dad," he said sadly. "You're too close to the situation."

I tried to fight the smile that was threatening to explode across my face. "Too close to the situation, huh? Where did you hear that?"

"Mommy, you're not being funny."

"Ha, okay," I attempted to reply seriously. "Um, well honestly, I think the situation is: you're five years old and you're worried about girl problems. That's not much of a situation, sweet boy. You're just being dramatic."

He stomped his foot. "I am not being dramatic! I have feelings, too! You like Edward, and I like…someone…"

I had never seen Emerson be so defiant. I wasn't quite sure what to do. "Uh…okay," I sighed. "I'm really trying to figure this out, baby. Be patient with me. So you're…lovesick?"

"Does that mean that my heart pounds and I get sweaty every time I see her?" he whispered.

I suddenly wanted to pull my baby into a hug. "Uh…yeah, sure," I said.

"Then, yeah. I'm lovesick," he diagnosed himself. "That's why I need to talk to Emmett. Because he knows what it feels like to be a man in love."

I sighed. This could get complicated. My five-year-old was professing his love for my boyfriend's daughter. "Okay. Let me talk to Aunt Rosalie and see when we can come over so you can talk to Emmett. But don't be so rude to me again. Even if you've found another girl, I'm still your mommy."

"Thank you," he said, sounding relieved. "I need to talk to him as soon as possible."

"Yeah, yeah, I figured that," I said a bit weakly. "How did you grow up so fast?"

He rolled his eyes and walked away from me.

I chuckled and hung our coats up before finding my phone. I gave Rosalie a brief synopsis of the entire conversation. She thought it was the funniest and cutest thing she had ever heard, and told me that Emmett would be having dinner at her house. She invited us over.

"Six o'clock," I called to Emerson, taking his bags of candy to the kitchen.

"Okay, Mom!" was his reply from his bedroom.

I worked on rationing the candy into tiny Ziploc bags he could take in his lunchbox to school. This kid had more candy than he did on Halloween. While I packed the candy away, I snuck a few pieces of my own more grown-up candy. The European rum-filled chocolates were divine. I was going to have to put those on the top shelf.

I tried not to giggle as Edward's name lit up my phone. "Hey, handsome," I answered the phone brightly.

"You're not going to believe this," he said quietly.

"What?"

"My daughter is in love with your son," he practically whimpered. "What am I supposed to do about this?"

I laughed. "I've been dealing with the same situation. Calm down, Papa Bear. It's not really love, and you know it. It's a schoolyard crush."

"I know," he said pitifully, "but it's awful! She's torn between her affection or Emerson and her affection for Jasper. Where does that leave Daddy?"

"Edward, you're so unbelievably cute."

"Apparently your son is, too."

"Oh, hush," I rolled my eyes. "She's five. Save your jealousy for when she's fourteen and has her first real date."

"Fourteen? Try twenty!"

I giggled. "She's going to hate you if you keep that up."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

He sounded so terrified. "Well…maybe we need to let them know that you and I are going to get serious."

"Yeah," he sighed. "I feel like such a cottonheaded ninnymuggins."

"You watched Elf!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, I meant to tell you that. Emmy and I loved it." He sighed again. "So…about the getting serious thing…"

"We'll take it as it comes," I decided. "There's no need to rush anything. Just…don't think about the fact that Emmy is growing up…and go take some pictures of her or something."

He snorted. "Good advice. Come have dinner with us tomorrow night. My place."

"Alright," I smiled. "Sounds good. Can I bring anything?"

"Nah, I think we're just going to make our own pizzas, if that's okay," he said. "Five thirty?"

"Sounds great." Emerson loved pizza, but he only got to eat it once in a blue moon. I knew he would be excited.

"Alright. Well, I have to go," he said sadly. "Text me."

"I will," I snickered. "'Bye, sweetie."

"'Bye, honey."

I hung up, that feeling creeping over me again. I never could quite figure out what it was…

I suddenly remembered Emerson's words from earlier: my heart pounds and I get sweaty every time I see her.

Yup, I was lovesick.

So, what did Santa leave you? And what did you think of this chapter? Let me know in a review!