A/N: So sorry this is late. I meant to post this on Saturday, but RL was a bit hectic. I'm posting it now, and will post chapter 17 later on this evening. Chapter 18 will post tomorrow.
After we finished working on my kitchen, Mom and Dad suggested we all go out to dinner.
Once we got to the restaurant and were seated, Mom didn't waste a second.
"So Edward, how long have you had a thing for Bella, and what do you plan on doing about it?" she asked me.
"Wh-What?" I sputtered out as I choked on my water. Emmett laughed, but my glare shut him up.
"You heard me perfectly well Edward," Mom told me. "And don't play it off as if I'm imagining things. Your house may have given me a concussion at one point, but it didn't make me blind or stupid. I saw how you looked at her…how you were hanging on her every word as she told us about herself. So…when are you going to ask the girl out?"
"I…I uh…" I began. I looked pleadingly at my father to see if he would save me from this one. I knew not to bother to seek help from Emmett…he saw my initial reaction to Bella the first day I met her, he would just toss me to the wolves on this one.
"Well…" my mother asked expectantly.
"I…I can't stop thinking about her. She's beautiful, she's funny, she's kind and smart. I just…I don't think she'd be interested in someone like me."
"What do you mean someone like you?" Emmett asked.
"I mean…well…you heard her. She knows the psychology behind hoarding. Do you really think she wants to be with someone who she knows is fucked in the head?"
"Son," Dad began. "You are not as you so eloquently put it 'fucked in the head'. You had some traumatic things happen to you. You reacted in a certain way, and now you are getting help to cope with them in a healthy manner. You are a successful, smart young man, and I think she's more interested in you than you know. You didn't see the way she looks at you when she thinks you're not paying attention."
"It would never work Dad. I'm a client of hers. It's a clear conflict of interest," I explained away.
"Edward…" Mom started to say.
"No Mom…please…just...yes I like her a lot, but I know there isn't a possibility and I am dealing with enough emotional stuff as it is. I'm better off not getting my hopes up over something that can never be," I told her.
"Fine Edward," Mom said with a sigh. "Just…just promise me that you shut yourself off to possibilities. I want you to be happy son, and she's been good for you. Every time you've seen her you smile for days afterward. I think you two could be happy together if you just gave it a chance…and I'm not talking marriage and grandbabies here, just think about asking her out on a date."
Just then the waitress came to take our orders, saving me from having to respond to what my mother said.
The rest of dinner was fun, and I had a good time just spending the evening with my family.
I crawled into bed that night excited, knowing that the next day I'd be off the damn crutches and fitted with a walking cast, but as I drifted off to sleep Dad's words about how Bella would look at me floated into my mind and I fell asleep only to dream of a future with a certain brunette.