A/N: Sorry for the late update. I fell asleep as soon as I got home from work and slept all day. I still feel like I could sleep another 12 hours, but let's see what these two are up to.

No copyright infringement is intended. All recognizable characters are owned by Stephenie Meyer. I own the plot and the mistakes.

ENJOY!

7/08/2023

Cherry Pies and Backwards Baseball Hats

Chapter TWENTY-TWO

BPOV

6 Months Later

I watched Ben as he grabbed a hold of the front of his diaper. We had tried him on pull-ups, but he wasn't quite ready for them yet. Emmett said if we rushed his potty training, it may result in more wet beds than we wanted to deal with, so we introduced him to the potty.

Edward was working late due to the fact that they got a little behind with the holiday's and all. He's been getting home close to 11pm for the last few weeks. I knew he wasn't going back to the way he used to work when we first met. I knew he was only helping his uncle out. Or so I thought.

I was getting restless, though, each night when I crawled into bed on my own. Ben was asleep by eight, most nights. I couldn't keep him up because I was lonely. I could always recruit Jake and Jose to keep me company, but they had been extra busy lately catering to their surrogate. They moved her into their house to financially care for her. She'd been between residents when Jose met her. She wasn't part of a registry for surrogates, but when Jake and Jose made the propitiation to her, she jumped at the chance. When all was said and done, she was walking away $20,000 richer.

I didn't agree with how they were handling the situation and made my feelings well known. You see, Jake was actually having sex with her to get her pregnant. Surprisingly, Jose was okay with it. He knows that Jake is bisexual and could perform what he had to do to get the girl pregnant. According to Jose, he's never had an erection from the touch of a female, therefore resulting in the reason why it was left up to Jake.

The girl is beautiful, don't get me wrong, but she gave me the wrong vibe. I had a feeling she'd end up being a load of trouble for them. I feel that way because Jake is still having sex with her, but as long Jose knows about their fornication, then there was nothing I could do about it; my opinion didn't matter.

As far as another baby for me and Edward? We were still trying. I swore I'd end up pregnant as soon as my shot ran out, but to no avail, no such luck, yet. It would happen when it's meant to happen. I was currently in a depressed funk again because another period just passed unfortunately.

I tried to keep a smile on my face each day and keep myself busy so I wouldn't think about it so much and truthfully, I think that me not getting pregnant is the reason Edwards been working so late. I just pretend I'm okay with his late nights and nod as if I understood the holiday season reasoning.

Ben had fallen asleep as I rocked with him as we watched Thomas the train. It was one of his favorites next to Despicable Me.

When I put him to bed, I decided to take a hot bath with some of my essential oils. The more relaxed I became, the more stuff started running through my mind. I ended up crying until I couldn't breathe. I was afraid that Edward was pulling away from me, honestly, because I wasn't getting pregnant. He was so excited when I agreed and every chance we got, we were going at it like rabbits.

I had even went back to the doctor and had tests ran, and I was perfectly healthy. Edward even went as far as having himself checked out. We just couldn't figure out why nothing was happening.

Trying to have another baby was interfering with our happiness. It had become our only focus, as of late, and unfortunately, it was pushing me and Edward apart. We were too afraid to admit it, though. I had no clue where to begin to fix us.

A few hours later, I heard when Edward entered the house. The fridge opened leading to the hiss of a bottle of beer being opened. I looked up at my clock and saw that it was 12:34am. It was getting later and later and it broke my heart.

I decided it was time for us to talk about what was going on, so I made my way towards the kitchen where I heard the beep of the microwave. Edward was warming up his plate of food I had saved for him.

He was completely covered in grease, so I knew he wasn't up to something he shouldn't be doing except smoking. I had smelled it on his clothes just about every night he came home. Smoking was something he knew I didn't care for one bit.

"You're home really late, again." I leaned against the entryway to the kitchen and watched as he moved around.

I saw his head nod. "Yeah, we got three more trucks in with tranny issues." He turned and made his way to the small table in the kitchen. "Why are you still up?"

My heart was aching because he didn't look at me nor did he kiss me hello like he always used to do when he came home from work. "I heard you come in, and I wanted to see my husband."

He nodded again, and started shoveling food into his mouth. "I'll be to bed after I shower."

"Can we talk?" I walked over to the table and sat across from him. "I never know when you're going to be home, and you're gone before I wake up."

"We're busy. I can't help it." He picked up his beer and took a large gulp.

I was trying to hold back my tears. "So, can we talk?"

"About what?" He really was trying his hardest to avoid looking at me.

"Ben misses his daddy, and I miss you, too." I rapidly blinked my eyes and tried to swallow away the lump in my throat.

He shrugged his shoulders. "We're just about caught up."

That confused me. "You just said the only reason you're home late tonight is because three trucks came in . That sounds like you've been caught up."

He took a deep breath. "What do you want me to do? Leave it? That's my job."

"Yes, leave it. You have a son and a wife at home that need your attention, too." I couldn't help the tears anymore. "I think you're avoiding us or better yet, me."

He closed his eyes. "Just leave it alone. I've got a lot of shit on my mind, lately."

"I can't leave this alone, and why can't you talk to me about what's on your mind? I'm your wife and you should be able to talk to me."

"Bella," he took another deep breath then stood from the table to take his plate to the sink. "I'm gonna shower."

"Edward," I warned. "Don't walk away from this."

"I'm not talking to you, right now. I'm dirty and tired; I have to be back at the shop at six."

"We need to talk now or don't come home tomorrow." I had to make him listen to me.

He turned to face me. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. It's already like you've moved out, so we talk now or take a bag with you in the morning. If all you're going to do is ignore us, then I don't want you here."

"You really want me out?"

"Edward, as much as I love you, I can't have you treating me and Ben this way. I deserve more than this. Do you not want to be here anymore? Be married to me and be a dad?"

"Don't spout shit you know nothing about." He leaned against the wall.

I raised my brows at him. "I'd know if you'd talk to me. Why can't you talk to me? What did I do to make you not want to be around me?"

He stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked down at the floor.

We stood there in silence for what felt like hours before he looked up at me. "You don't want to know what's going through my head. It's just some shit that'll pass."

"Tell me," I demanded. The tears were free flowing and I couldn't stop them. "Don't hold back."

He jerked a hand from his pocket and roughly shoved it through his hair making his hat fall to the floor. "Are you cheating on me?" I had to ask him.

His face contorted in anger. "What the fuck?! No!"

"Then why? Why are you avoiding me?" I got up to grab the box of tissues from the top of the fridge.

"Because I think you're still getting your birth control shot and that's why you're not getting pregnant," he said, nearly raising his voice at me.

My heart completely bottomed out through my stomach, and I couldn't help the loud sob that escaped me.

"I think you only said yes to another baby so I'd stop asking, so why should I rush home to have sex with you when you really don't want another baby?"

I completely shattered and dropped to my knees on the floor. My hands covered my face as I cried my eyes out. "It's not true, and why can't we have sex like we used to? It's become a chore that's tearing us apart."

"I feel like that's the only reason we have sex lately, so why aren't you pregnant, yet?"

"I don't know. You know I've been to the doctor. She said I was fine." More sobs ripped through my chest. "I would never lie to you."

Edward was quiet for a minute before he announced he was going out back to smoke a cigarette.

I followed behind him and watched at he lit his smoke for the very first time. "Do you honestly not believe in me so much that you would resort to calling me a liar?"

"I don't know what else to say." He pulled on his smoke and released the stench into the air.

"Do you still love me?" I sat down on the bench swing that he had built for me.

"Of course I do," he confirmed.

"You have a very strange way of showing it. When you love someone you're supposed to have complete trust and respect for them. Isn't that what you told Eric before he married Tanya?"

He nodded and blew more smoke into the air. "Yeah, it is."

"What made you doubt me? What did I do to make you distrust me?" My tears had calmed but still slowly flowed.

He was quiet, again, for a few minutes as he thought about his next answer. "I don't know. I guess it was when Mike told me about his wife and her secretly getting the shot when he wanted another baby. When I told him you still weren't pregnant and we've been trying for all these months, that's when he asked if you'd do something like that."

"All you had to do was ask me. I've never lied to you and I never will. Yes, I was skeptical at first, but now I want another baby just as bad as you do." I got up from the table and walked towards the door to go inside. "You were wrong; you should've talked to me. You've really hurt my feelings and broke my heart." I was done talking.

I made my way inside and to our bedroom. After using the restroom and climbing into bed, I made sure I was as close to my side of the bed as possible.

An hour or so later, after Edward had finally showered, I felt as he climbed into bed. I heard him sigh a few times before I felt him move over behind me. His arm slid under mine and pulled me into him, so we were spooning.

I felt his hot breath on the side of my neck as he spoke. "I'm sorry." He pressed his face further into my neck. "I screwed up." My mouth stayed shut. "I do trust you and believe in you. I love you so much and when Mike told me about his wife, my mind got away from me. I was wrong."

"Yes you were," I finally said. "You really hurt me."

"I'm sorry." He squeezed me against him. "I promise that I'll never doubt you again. I just hope that you'll forgive me."

I rolled over to face him. I could see his face from the glow of the night light in the bathroom, so I reached up and placed my hand on his cheek. "I love you, Edward, more than anything in the world aside from Ben. Husband's and wives are supposed to forgive each other for their stupid mistakes, so I forgive you."

He sighed heavily. "You shouldn't."

"I do." I pressed my lips to his and said, "I love you; you just have to believe in it."

He pulled me closer as he wrapped his arms around me. My face was pressed against his chest. "I love you, and I'm sincerely sorry for being a dick."

When Ben's cry woke me up the next morning, I got up and did my bathroom business before heading into his room to get him, but my husband beat me to it. "Thank you." I looked at him all confused. "Why are you still home?"

"I decided to take the day off and spend it with my wife and son." He leaned over and kissed me. "Are you working today?"

"No. It's Friday." I started pulling Ben's clothes out that he'd wear for the day.

"That's right." He blew a raspberry on Ben's cheek. "How do you feel about going to the zoo?"

I smiled up at him. "I think it's a great idea then we can head over to Mills Mall and have lunch at the Rain-forest Cafe."

Edward scrunched up his nose. "No mall, please?"

"Okay. How about Red Robbin?"

He leaned over and pressed his lips to mine only to linger a bit longer than a little peck to the lips. "Or we could stay home?"

"Nice try," I say and smack his butt. "Later."

The zoo was actually pretty busy as we made our way through. Luckily, most of the animals were out so Ben could see them. Edward had him perched up on his shoulders most of the time so he could see.

I think the hippo's were his favorite because he kept pointing and yelling out, "Hip, Hip."

"Hip-po," I pronounced.

"Hip! Hip!" He yelled and pointed.

Edward bounced him on his shoulders as he suggested, "Let's stop by the souvenir shop and get him a stuffed hippo."

"Hip! Hip!" Ben yelled, again.

"Great idea," I agreed.

And we did. We ended up getting Ben a stuffed hippo and a couple of t-shirts with is favorite animal on the front. He squealed and grabbed them as soon as he saw them.

Ben fell asleep after we left the zoo and headed to Red Robin. I didn't want to wake him up because I knew he would throw a temper tantrum if he was woken up too soon.

Thankfully, when we got to the restaurant, Ben only whined a little bit until we got seated. When I handed him his Hip Hip he was completely content for the entire meal.

That night, Edward and I made love for the first time in weeks. Thankfully, the days and weeks that followed, we were finally back to being our happy selves, again.

About nine weeks after we had our huge break down, I found myself hovering over the toilet puking my guts up while I stared at the stick in my hand. There were finally two pink lines. After nine, nearly ten months of trying, I was finally pregnant. I wanted to surprise Edward, but I couldn't figure out how because I couldn't keep my head out of the toilet.

If I were guessing correctly, I was eight to ten weeks along. I knew I'd missed my period, but I ignored it because I didn't want to get my hopes up. Although now that I was 99% sure I was pregnant, I wanted to jump up and down with excitement. I couldn't, though, because even thinking about it, I felt like I needed to throw up. I already had a feeling how this pregnancy was going to go. I couldn't be lucky enough to go without morning sickness like I did with Ben.

Once I had most of the day to think about it, I came up with the perfect way to tell Edward. First, I needed to confirm it with a doctor, so as soon as I made it to work, I asked Esme for a quick check-up and a test. She didn't have a problem with it and once she confirmed I was pregnant, she wouldn't stop hugging me. "Sweetheart, I'm so happy for you."

"Thank you, Esme. I can't wait to tell Edward. I have it all planned out for Saturday morning."

I went on to tell her what I had planned and she was just as excited.

For the rest of the day, I felt like crap, but I was happy about it. I know that sounds weird to say, but it's true.

On Friday, I made a trip to the mall with Ben. I was having something made at one of the kiosks along the center of the mall. It was the perfect way to tell Edward that we're expecting, finally.

Saturday morning couldn't come fast enough.

Thank you!

RTB