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Chapter 8

Charlie looks at her shut bedroom door. He knows that guy is behind it. "What's going on, kid?"

"Edward's a friend."

"A friend that's living here?" He makes a face. "This isn't you, Bella. Are you pregnant? Is he the father?"

"Will you lower your voice" Bella hisses in complete horror. She's horrified because she doesn't want Edward to hear any of what her father just said.

"Well, are you?"

"No, I'm not, and that has nothing to do with him being here."

"Why is he here? Where did you meet? When? I was just down with Sue, and this Edward wasn't in the picture. I would have recognized him." Charlie widens his eyes. His comment a clear punch at his body covered in ink.

"We met and hit it off. You know, Dad, Sue would be happy for me."

"Don't even bring her into this. She's a hopeless romantic. I love her to pieces, but her influence is as bad as your mother's at this point"

Bella sighs. "It's late, I'm tired, and Edward knows we're out here talking about him."

"Good."

"Goodnight, Dad."

"Isabella Swan‒"

"Goodnight, Dad," Bella repeats in her lawyer voice.

Charlie watches her go into her bedroom with that tattoo-covered man he knows nothing about.

Smiling with his back against her headboard, he has his hands clasped over his stomach. His chest is bare. Boxers barely cover his legs.

Bella shuts the door and sinks against it.

"That bad, huh?"

"He hates your tattoos," Bella blurts out.

Edward laughs. "You love them, though."

"Yeah, I do," she admits after a moment or two. Her eyes run over him.

"I can sleep on the floor, Bella," he tells her as she is still stuck to the shut door.

"We've slept together before. Plenty," she reminds him.

"Yeah, but that was slightly different. This is more forced."

"You can if you want," she shrugs, watching him.

"It's your room, your house."

"Do you want to sleep on the floor?"

"No. Do you want to sleep with me tonight?"

"Yes."

"Then it's settled," he says simply.

He showered after her. Walking into the bedroom from the adjoining bath, he looks at her reading some files in bed. "Do you go out?"

"Out?" She pulls her glasses from her face to look at him in the towel. Goddamn.

"Out." He is not bashful about his body. Bodies are amazing creations. She's 35 and such a homebody from what he sees. 35 isn't old; it's older than him but not old.

Her eyes watch him dry off with a small towel as a larger one is around his lean hips. She knows those hips better than she knows him. "Where are you from?" She should know something like that. If she does get pregnant, she'd like to tell her child something more than how drop dead sexy his or her father is. That would be completely inappropriate.

"All over," he answers, his throat suddenly tight. He never answers questions about himself. Most people don't care to ask, and he's fine with that.

Bella studies him. "Will I ever get an answer out of you?"

Edward drops the towels and walks to the bed naked. He climbs in beside her and pulls her files away.

"I had a system going," she whispers. "And you need to pick up after yourself."

"I bet." The last paper floats down to join the rest on the floor. "I know."

Sighing, she scoots down and rolls into him. It's so simple and natural. Too natural. Suddenly, she doesn't care to find out any information about him to tell their child ‒ her child ‒ because his fingers are doing such wonderful things. She breathes raggedly against his neck. He smells good, clean. Warm. He smells warm. Her arms wrap around his shoulders.

Edward kisses her skin and tugs at her pyjamas.

No more questions are asked. Only groping and breathless kisses fill the room.

Edward lies awake in bed. He's spent but can't sleep. He can't sleep because of this woman by his side. Turning his head, he looks at her for a moment. He debates taking off and hitting the road again; doing what he always does. He doesn't owe her anything, and she doesn't owe him anything. It's simple, and yet it feels far from simple. He feels like he should stay. Things aren't done, but he knows he's been here too long. Almost three weeks. He didn't know three weeks would make him feel like this, for the first time in his life. Like home.

Bella rolls over and frowns at the empty space. She smiles remembering last night. "God," she whispers in the empty room. Sitting up, she grabs her robe and heads to find Edward and her father.

"You did good, kid," Charlie comments, looking at the finished cupboard doors. "Did you grow up doing work with your father?"

Edward looks at Bella's father. He looks like the kind of man that was a great dad to Bella. She's that kind of woman, not the kind he normally encounters. She's stable and comes from a solid home. She doesn't look for what's missing all over town. "No, I didn't."

"Morning." Bella makes herself known. Edward and Charlie are holding mugs. She smells the coffee and sees the scones. "Hi."

"Morning, Bells." Charlie smiles and kisses his daughter's head.

"Morning," Edward greets her. "I made scones. Coffee?"

"Sure." Her voice is a peep. She clears her throat and looks between the two as Edward kindly pours her a cup of coffee.

"Edward was just showing me his handiwork. It's really good."

"Thank you, Mr. Swan."

"Call me Charlie," he says, smiling. Edward seems like a nice guy. The tattoos are very daunting to his appearance, but his demeanor's nothing like the tattoos.

Edward smiles. His eyes shift to Bella, and her jaw is slack. He gives her a wink when she meets his eyes.

"I still want you to be safe. You can't trust anyone."

"Dad," Bella groans.

"I love you, kid."

"I love you, too." She hugs and kisses him. "Thanks for coming out here. Sorry I forgot."

"It looks like you have the house in good hands."

"Yeah." Bella smiles and nods. "Call me when you get to Forks."

"Always do." He smiles and heads to his cruiser.

Bella wipes down some counterspace as Edward is putting the cupboard doors back on in the kitchen. "Did your father teach you all this stuff?" she comments lightly.

"No."

"Oh." She was hoping for more than that. Shifting on her feet, she turns to look down at him. "Your mother, then?"

"No." His answers are short.

They sound bitter and angry. "I know… I know you're helping me, and other than the sex, I guess that's all it is, but…" Edward stops installing and looks up at her from his spot on the floor.

"Bella, we should stick to what this is."

"Which is what?" She knows what it is on her end. Her final outcome is totally different from his. He's just taking a break, and while she doesn't understand that, it worked in her favor. But she hasn't taken his life into consideration. His past, ghosts. Him being so unwilling to communicate with her makes her think about his life more.

"It's sex. It's me helping you here. Easy, simple."

"Right," Bella nods. "I just… If you wanted to ever talk about something other than the house or sex‒"

"I'm good, Bella. Really."

"Okay," she nods, ending it there. "I'll be in the garden." She rests the cloth on the counter and heads out. She's just as confused, if not more, than she was when they first started this three weeks ago.

He walks out carrying a sandwich cut in half. "I'm sorry. Peace offering?" He holds it out with a glass of ice tea.

Bella smiles up at him from her spot on the lounge. "Edward, it's fine. You're right."

"I don't know." He sinks to his knees before her, resting the sandwich on the small table there. "I don't stay around"

"It's okay."

"I can go if you want."

She doesn't say anything for a long time.

"I'll go." He nods.

"I don't want you to go. I like having you here."

Smiling, he kisses her.

"More than I should, because this is just business," Bella reminds him and herself.

"Business can be fun," he informs her.

Bella laughs when he pulls at her shirt and pulls his off, throwing it to the side.

"So much fun."

"No," she laughs, pushing him away. "Not out here, no."

He simply smirks at her.

She's done.

"Outside? Christ, Bella." Rosalie widens her eyes. "This is the what? 4th week now? And he met Charlie over the weekend?"

"I forgot Charlie was coming around." Bella walks back to the office. She rubs Rosalie's growing stomach. "How was the ultrasound this morning?"

"So amazing," Rose gushes.

Bella smiles. "Is Emmett pretty excited?"

"He's crazy. I think he's going to drive me insane."

Bella laughs. She won't have the father to share the excitement of the new arrival with. It actually makes her sad. She isn't even pregnant, but she feels sad at the thought now.

Edward takes the last door off of the bathroom cupboards. Getting up, he dusts his pants off.

"What are you doing?" Bella questions with wide eyes as he gets up from her bathroom floor.

"Taking these out to finish them." He makes a face at her. "How was your day?"

"Fine. You, um… This bathroom doesn't have to be done."

"Yes, it does. You need an update in here." He smiles at her silly face. Walking over holding two cupboards, he kisses the side of her head. "Relax, Just Bella. Your red notations will get done."

"It's not that." Her eyes dart to where the tests are hidden at the back of her cupboard. He makes another face at her and heads to take them out to her garage.

"Are you cooking?" Edward questions.

"Yeah." Bella looks over her shoulder and smiles. He comes around and holds her from behind.

She feels so damn good. His hands press into her stomach. "No one's ever cooked for me," he says, admitting something personal to her.

"Don't be silly. Your mother? Father?"

He says nothing.

"You cook for me almost every night," Bella states.

"It smells good," he compliments, his lips pressed against the smooth skin of her neck. She smells so perfect.

Bella laughs softly. "I hope it tastes good."

"It will." He watches her. "I don't have a family," he says suddenly.

She freezes. Her hand stops, her eyes widen, and maybe for a moment, her heart stops. "What?"

"It's okay. I just wanted to tell you something about myself." He knows she wants to know things, but he holds back. It's just the way it should be. This is merely business until he heads off again.

"Thank you," she says, leaning into his embrace.

Edward laughs. "It wasn't that bad."

"It was terrible," she tells him, eating a slice of the amazing pizza that just arrived. Dinner was awful, dreadful. She's never cooking again.

"I would have eaten it."

"You're too kind, but you wouldn't have survived through the night," she laughs, chewing the pizza.

He smiles and shakes his head. "So silly."

Bella chews slowly and smiles. "Tell me about you."

He clears his throat. "Bella, I think it best we‒"

"I don't." She puts her pizza down and moves closer to him on the floor of her living room. "I don't." Her lips kiss his neck, and her hands run up his chest. She pulls his shirt up and runs her hands over his tight tattoo-covered stomach. She needs to know more about him.

"What are you doing, Just Bella?" He stretches his legs out as she undoes his pants.

"You can't fake it if you're naked," she whispers, kissing his newly exposed skin.

"Do you use that in the courtroom?"

She laughs lightly before looking at him. His eyes are as heavy as hers feel. "No, but I should."

What do you think Edward's story is?