Same disclaimer applies-Twilight belongs to S.M., but the idea of this story is mine.

Many thanks to my awesome betas and friends - TeamAllTwilight and m0t0b33.

We're all caught up so now it will only be present time.

We finally meet Jasper this chapter! :)


Present time

Our honeymoon is the best time on Earth.

We actually leave the hotel and sunbathe, watch the turtles in the lobby, go snorkeling, try the jet skis—but at lunchtime when the sun is too harsh, we are always in our room exploring our bodies. After three years of being together, Edward still manages to surprise me in bed.

We try various sex toys until I'm a quivering mess and have to push him away because it's too much, but we always end the night with sweet lovemaking.

I think I fell in love with him a little more this past week.

We spend Christmas on Skype with the family, talking and joking. The hotel holds holiday festivities, and the special dinner is nothing less than awesome.

On our way to the airport, I actually feel sad we have to leave this place.

"Don't worry, now I know where to bring you next summer," Edward assures me.

"That sounds like a plan." I smile widely, squeezing his hand.

The trip back home seems shorter. Despite all the snow that greets us, the plane lands safely.

"I can't say I didn't miss this," I say lightly.

"Yeah, but it was nice to have sun in the winter."

"True, though nothing compares to snow. I love winter," I tell him as we make our way to baggage claim.

It's a good thing we drove my car here. This way we can get home without disturbing anyone, or spending money on a cab.

Snow is everywhere, and there's ice under it, but Edward drives slowly getting us home safely.

"I dare you to go inside the house on your own!" He shouts after me when I start making my way to the front door.

"Then get your old ass here and carry me over the threshold, hubby!"

He dumps our bags in the snow and sprints to me, throwing me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes all the while running to the front door. I give him the key and soon, he kicks the door open, swinging me around in his arms, kissing me deeply.

"I love you so fucking much, wifey. Home finally."

"Home." I beam at him, wrapping my arms around his neck. "I love you too, hubby."

Edward slowly lowers me on my feet, before going to retrieve our luggage.

I walk to the living room and catch myself on the doorframe, my jaw dropping.

"Edward!" I moan, feeling faint.

"Ready to have our first night in the bed...after the honeymoon?" he asks amused. "What's wrong, baby?"

I hear the front door closing then his large hand rests on my shoulder. His breath hitches as he sees what I'm seeing—mountains of presents crowding our living room.

"What's this?" I murmur, leaning back against his chest.

"Uh, I think these are our wedding presents..."

"Do you realize we have to write thank you notes to everyone?" I moan.

"Or...we can send them an email...like a group one. You know?"

I roll my eyes, turning around. "Take me upstairs and make me forget about this craziness."

Smirking, he lifts me up—I wrap my legs around his waist—his hands squeeze me close as he kisses my neck, while walking up the stairs.

The next days that lead to New Year's Eve, we spend them either in bed or other surfaces good for sexy times, and in between we open presents. They're actually quite useful.

There's an espresso machine with many capsules of different types of coffee and cappuccino. I am in coffee heaven.

As electronics, we also got a new vacuum cleaner—someone probably thought it was dirty around here, but the old vacuum cleaner has a suction problem. I got a curling iron which I'm grateful for because I usually used common curlers. We got an electronic photo frame—I'm going to add wedding pictures there.

We got three garden gnomes. They are so adorable I'm currently holding one between my legs while Edward opens a big box. When he manages to open it, I gasp and squeal.

"Now you don't have a reason to say no to have everyone over for a barbeque!"

"Were you part of this scheme?" he mumbles, staring disinterested at the grill.

"Me? No, but maybe Emmett bought it." I reach for the note attached to the cardboard. "Yep. From your ever famished brother in law." I laugh at how he signed himself.

Many of our guests gave us kitchen appliances, vouchers for me for shopping or spa, Edward even got voucher for a car service for the routine check-up, also we got a lot of bedroom related stuff—and not all decent. I bet I know who gave us toys, without even looking at the notes.

There is a box of fireworks which we're going to use later tonight. But before then, I pour us another glass of white wine and munch on the pastries we have on the plate. Ringing in the New Year dressed in comfy clothes, lazing on the soft carpet, opening presents is the best way to say goodbye to this past year, which has been horrible, but had its fine moments, too.

"More?" I ask, shaking the bottle to Edward.

"I still have. Why don't you help me open stuff, instead of molesting that garden gnome?"

I poke my tongue out at him. "I'm good here. Besides, you're doing a pretty damn good job for yourself."

Just then the doorbell rings loudly.

"GO AWAY! We're FUCKING!" Edward yells loudly making me double over in laughter, spilling wine on the floor.

"Then I got the right place for the threesome!" Our visitor yells back.

My eyes widen and I choke on my spit.

I don't know that voice.

Holy shit! We just scared a complete stranger…but then again they answered snidely too.

Edward seems to know the person at our door because he jumps up, almost skipping to the door. This must be good. I've never seen him skipping.

"Jasper, my man!" Edward greets the visitor.

Jasper… It sounds familiar.

Ah, his friend! From college!

Grinning, happy that he finally gets to see his friend after so many years, I get up wobbly and walk to the hallway. They're having their bro hug.

"Whoa, dude! You never told me what a pretty lady you had here!" This Jasper exclaims.

When Edward moves aside to turn to me, I see his friend for the first time. He's just about as tall as my husband, give or take a few inches, wavy blond curls chin length and blue eyes. I can see a duffle bag on the floor along with a guitar case and another big suitcase.

"This is Bella, my wife!" Edward presents me, keeping his arm around my shoulders.

"Hi!" I beam at him. "Edward never mentioned how good looking you were."

"Slightly tipsy wife," hubby mumbles under his breath.

"Why fool us, sweetie? I'm drunk fair and square. You didn't want to help me with the bottle of wine," I tell him on a whiny voice.

"I was looking through our presents!"

"Me too. The gnome is a win!" I nod, kissing his cheek.

"Ah, newlyweds!" Jasper sighs, getting my attention. I kind of forgot about him.

Drinking and being around Edward fog my brain.

"Exactly! Newlyweds. Why are you here?" Edward demands, narrowing his eyes at Jasper.

"You invited me, dude! Remember? I didn't make it for the wedding, which I'm terribly sorry for, but I stopped by home and…it's a long story."

"We have time," I tell him. "Come on. Leave your stuff in the guest room and come sit with us in the living room."

I take Edward's hand and drag him back to the plush carpet and my wine.

Ten minutes later, Jasper appears in the doorway dressed casually, with his guitar in tow. He plants himself on the couch, stretching his legs and linking his feet at the ankles. His socks are holey.

"So?" Edward asks distracted by the new present he's unwrapping.

"Can I crash here…for an undermined period of time? Big brother never returned from Europe and my folks…are sort of dead. The house is someone else's property now because no one appeared to take it a few years ago when it happened."

"Aw, man." Edward dumps the box and goes to his friend. "What happened?"

"Hmm, how about I start from when we last saw each other?" he muses. We both nod. I pour myself more wine. "Well, before heading to Cali where my dreams laid, I dropped by home. In a nutshell, big bro was visiting and I got in a huge argument with all of them for dropping college and a good education. I was wasting myself. An artist couldn't make a life out of his music or art or whatever. I said a lot of hurtful words and was on my way to Cali." He stops to scratch his jaw. "On the way there, I met Liam—a young boy in my predicament though it was tougher for him. He had studied the piano since he was four or five. He was awesome at it, but on his last day of high school, he came out to his parents… Anyway, we performed in a bar and got quite some money—enough to take us to LA."

"So you have a band?" Edward asks, sliding back to the floor to finish unwrapping the present he started on earlier.

"Yes, we found a tavern place and played there every night for about a month or two, living upstairs. It was living the American dream, you know? But then the lady with the tavern told us she couldn't keep it and that the IRS guys were going to visit and possibly she had to close up. That's when Liam and I decided to save her beloved place."

"That's so sweet of you," I tell him, grinning.

"It didn't hurt that Maria was very good in the sack, either." He chuckles. "We kept spreading flyers about our shows. Instead of sleeping after the closing hours, we stayed on the Internet to find good songs that could get us more people, until one day when I was at the bar while Maria was wiping the counter and soft country music was playing in the background."

"Nooo!" Edward moans. "Tell me you didn't start singing that!"

My man has an aversion to country music. Why, I have no idea.

"Nope." Jasper laughs. "I started composing."

"Whoa!" I gasp. "That's awesome!"

He winks. "And let me tell you that we started getting lots of patrons. Maria finally paid the taxes and everything. Eventually she joined us, singing a few songs with me, but nothing else. Until one night when two men approached us. I tried to tell them we didn't want other band members, but in truth, we needed more than vocal, guitar and piano. So eventually they joined us." He sighs. "We kept the name of the band."

"Which was?" Edward asks, raising an eyebrow. "You never mentioned it."

"Oh! The Dreamers."

"Nice." I give him a thumb up. "Whoa! What's that?" I frown at whatever Edward extracted from the box he just unpacked.

"Uh…" He flips the box around, scanning the contents written on the back. "Massage oil, scented candles and some sort of vibrating machine for an effective massage." He throws me a smirk.

I turn red, drunk or not, I'm still shy about opening up about our sexual life around others.

"Is there any point in continuing my story?" Jasper wonders amused.

"Sure, man. But this is very distracting." Edward points to the latest gift. "Holy fuck!" His eyes widen when he reads the note. "No, no, no. This is sooo wrong!"

"What? Who sent this? Don't tell me one of the parents," I beg him.

"Uh…" He clears his throat. "Use wisely, lots of love from your favorite little sister," he says on a high pitched voice, trying to imitate Victoria.

"Vic?" I shout in surprise. "I really don't want to know how she came in contact with these."

"Me either. I can't even…use them now…without thinking of her. Which is a mood killer." Edward pouts. "So, man? Distract us, please." He looks pleadingly at his friend.

"We worked perfectly for years, until a few months ago when one of the new guys, Sam, that kind of started dating Maria at some point… He got her pregnant and she turned into this total bitch. She has changed a lot from that sweet girl I once knew. Anyway, she's the reason our band fell apart. The first she kicked out was Liam, a year ago when he introduced us to his boyfriend. Then she made Paul leave—Paul used to be Sam's best friend since they were kids. Anyway, I left by myself before she could push me away. I have some dignity left."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but yeah…chicks tend to do that if they have a man wrapped around their little finger."

I clear my throat making Edward give me a sheepish smile.

"Not you, baby. Though, I'd do whatever you want without blinking." He reaches to squeeze my ankle.

I grin. "I'll never make you part from your friends," I promise.

"Maria did it because she became insecure. Our crowd had more females, of course and she rarely joined us on the stage once they became part of the band. So yeah, she tried to stake her claim or something. She did it with me too, in the beginning but I made myself clear. It was simply fucking—a good time for both of us." Jasper shrugs. "Anyway, now that I left and found no place to call home…I thought of you. I'm so glad you didn't move from here, Edward. I promise to try and find a job, but give me some time to get back on the right track."

"Anything, man. Even though I didn't envision our first newlywed days to be spent around anyone, you know I can't say no. Don't feel guilty."

The clock catches my eye—around eight in the evening.

"What if I call Alice? We'll even the numbers and have some fun ringing in the New Year with our friends," I suggest.

Edward throws me a warning look, probably realizing my matchmaking skills are in action. I smile back at him as I dial Alice's number.

It's going to be fun, because now when Jasper stretches on our couch I can definitely spy a tattoo or two.

I hope she makes me her bridesmaid, I think wistfully and amused.


More on Wednesday.