.
Chapter 178
Conspiracies
Bella
It was Saturday afternoon and the entire Cullen men ... oh no, they were called Stone ... so the entire Stone men were hunting together. Therefore, we ladies surrounded the only man who had been left here.
I had to scold Edward and Emmett very sternly to keep them from taking Ced, too!
Ced, on the other hand, thought it was great to be pampered and entertained by so many people at the same time.
"Ouch!", I uttered indignantly and pulled my hand away.
"Then hold still!", Rosalie reprimanded me without any pity.
I rolled my eyes in annoyance and held still until she finished.
"How do you always do it, Bella?" she shook her head afterwards.
"My sense of balance is sabotaging me!?", I tonelessly stated the proven and looked at my index finger, from which she had just removed a splinter. Yes, I had stumbled again. After all, absolutely nothing had happened for three days. So it was time again for the complete extent of my non-existent dexterity. A little splinter was really not worth mentioning, but I knew from experience what my senses were capable of. There I was really happy about this little thing.
I took my cappuccino from the coffee machine and went back with it into our living room. More precisely ... into Ced's play corner.
"Say, Alice. Wasn't there something else you wanted to show me in your studio?" I asked at one point.
She immediately raised her eyes questioningly, but I winked conspiratorially.
Alice, the vampiress. She understood me immediately.
"Yeah sure. If you feel like it, we can go over there," she said quickly.
I nodded, gave my little angel a kiss, admonished him to behave himself while I was gone, and walked over with Alice.
There we stood and Alice jittered in front of me like a little child.
"Go on. Say it. I know you well enough to know that you won't enter my study voluntarily!" she demanded impatiently.
"How good are you at keeping things secret from Edward?", I asked vaguely at first.
"It depends on how motivated I am!", Alice wanted to lay down the rules of the game here, but she was wrong.
She really knew me, but I knew her in return.
"I promise you, you will be very motivated!", I could therefore promise with a clear conscience.
I sauntered through Alice's studio, with no apparent destination in mind, and glanced at her current work.
Beautiful things were there. An enchanting dress for the star of the house - Becky. A pantsuit for Rosalie. A summery jumpsuit for Leah. One of those newfangled double vests, like Marcus had worn the other day, for Jake. The other day? How time passed. It had been four weeks now since the kids had spent the evening and night at that sinfully expensive hotel in Ocean Park.
"Bella! If you don't come out with the speech soon, I'll go crazy!", she said so dead serious that I had to chuckle.
I strolled on leisurely until I got to where I was going, pulled a large garment bag out of the closet and hung it on the door of the furniture. Behind me I heard nothing more.
I had already counted on it.
I carefully pulled the cover off the dress and walked backwards to look at it more fully until I was standing next to Alice.
A silently Alice.
We had completely lost track of this dress for several weeks, and with it the event itself, which is why Alice could be so remarkably quiet.
"How long will it take you before Edward and I can get married?", I asked in a casual chatty tone, as if I wanted to talk to her about the weather.
Alice was still silent.
"Alice?!", I snapped at her, because she was starting to make me nervous.
"Two weeks!" she said, very focused.
She looked me firmly in the eyes and I saw how it was working behind in her. How she imagined and planned everything already to the last detail.
Out of nowhere she began to babble so that I hardly understood anything. In her incredible bustle, she almost carried me to the unfinished dress and undressed me so quickly for the fitting, as only Edward did now and then. Certainly not a minute passed before I was standing there in the half dream of white and Alice was swirling around me examining.
I actually had to hold on, blink, and take a deep breath after Alice stopped holding me somehow or somewhere. But she was also a whirlwind when she wanted to.
You could see the age difference between us, I almost wanted to think, but chuckled about it. What difference then? Eighteen years or one hundred and twenty-three years? She was the same age as Edward, except that she had been turned two years later. Did that mean she was younger than him now because she was two years less vampire? Or was she older because she had been human two years longer? The two discussed this with pleasure and lively with each other.
I turned to the mirrored wall.
My wedding dress. It was not yet finished, but you could already see how it should be later. Just as we had thought about it together so many months ago. In the beginning we had taken our time with the making and the fitting, because some legal things still had to be clarified and therefore the date was not fixed for a long time. And then I had been pregnant. But all the swimming with our baby had done my figure a lot of good, as had the exercises Sonya had shown me on the Internet. Therefore, I already looked almost like before. In Carlisle's opinion, however, this was due in large part to the fact that my internal female organs had all healed within a few days due to Ced's venom. So I had had no problems with any and specific exercises because it might still have hurt too much. In the short term I would even dare to make use of the pretty underwear again, which Alice had brought me plenty of from Montreal. My dress was kept quite simple in terms of cut and also not particularly voluminous. A variant with a lot of tulle, hoop skirt and something like that I would find rather silly at my age.
Alice, by the way, was still babbling away. Without point and comma.
At least I did not hear anything like that.
"You do realize that I don't understand a word you're saying?", I asked in between.
"Was I going too fast again?" she asked sheepishly.
I nodded.
"So," she sighed theatrically, as if she was having a really hard time right now. "You won't say anything to Edward about this?"
"I want to surprise him ...", I answered, thinking for a moment how Edward had expressed it to me. "Edward doesn't give our wedding the highest priority anymore," I said, and that's as far as I got when Alice interrupted me with a shouted "WHAT?".
This was apparently too much for our Alice.
She started babbling again.
Again, I barely understood a word, but that she was ranting about her brother was all too clear. I chuckled, but then interrupted her.
"Alice. I know this is unbelievable for you ...", I began.
"Unbelievable? No! This is absolutely grotesque!" she rumbled between them.
"I already belong to him. Whether with a marriage certificate or without. No ceremony on this earth will change that. But do you think Edward could experience anything more beautiful than witnessing the birth of his own son?", I asked in contrast.
Alice looked undecided before she nodded in surrender.
Yes, she knew her brother. She had lived with Edward for so long that she knew his personality down to the smallest detail. But she also knew that there wasn't much left of this Edward. He had changed in the past months. Living with me, with our children, and especially with our baby together had left a huge mark on him. He had become more mature than he had been back in high school. He had exchanged the perspective of the eternal teenager for that of a loving and caring father. However, not without retaining his youthful charm. Even Edward Anthony Masen couldn't quite get out of his skin.
"The marriage will simply not change anything between Edward and me. It is merely the little icing on the cake that is missing from the overall situation. It merely legitimizes it. We haven't talked about this issue for quite a while now. He's not expecting it, and that's exactly why I'd like to surprise him with it."
"And what about Leah? She doesn't seem to like the overall situation very much at the moment. I don't even dare ask her how she's doing anymore," Alice remarked cautiously.
"Of course, it's not easy for Leah right now. She feels insecure in regard to her life. She lost Marcus and doesn't want to jeopardize Nanuk's engagement. However, she is like me in that regard. She hates it when everything revolves around her. When everyone worries about her. And she hates it even more when people want to be considerate of her and therefore don't do what they might actually want, just to avoid hurting her ... Every one of us misses Marcus. He was a part of our family. But that's why maybe it would be good for all of us to have a reason to celebrate as a family."
While Alice was working on my dress, we talked a little more about this topic.
She would consult Jazz. No one knew better than he did at the moment how Leah was actually doing emotionally. Not even Edward, as he had admitted. He felt helpless when it came to his daughter. He couldn't help her, which depressed him greatly. But he was far from alone with this helplessness. None of us really knew what we should do or say. I was sure, however, that Leah was striving for normality, whatever that might look like.
Alice also showed me the dresses that were intended for Becky and Leah for our wedding day. These were also not ready yet, but Alice assured me that it would all be no problem time-wise.
However, she withheld Edward's suit from me.
"I thought it was only bad luck to see the bride, or rather the dress beforehand!", I wanted to undermine her opinion.
"Forget it, Bella! You'll only see Edward and the suit when the time comes!" she determined, however.
We discussed a few more details.
The very manageable guest list, for example. Well, I didn't really reserve myself much more say in the matter anyway.
Alice promised, by all that was sacred to her, that Edward would not find out about our wedding.
Until the time came! So for now, she would also just bring in Jazz and Carlisle. To be on the safe side!
In a good mood we went back over, and my baby crawled enthusiastically towards me. With some powdered sugar that stuck on his mouth.
"Well, what have you been snacking on?", I inquired.
Even without his mental explanation, I knew. It smelled very pleasantly of waffles. For dessert – after waffles!? - he wanted a bottle of blood.
Therefore, I went to our special refrigerator with him in my arms. It was hidden under the stairs in a little chamber, in case David's children or any other guest went to our refrigerator.
"Oh ...! Empty," I wondered, and Ced looked at me bitterly disappointed. Actually, there should still be a bag in there.
"Is someone thirsty again?", I heard Rosalie ask teasingly behind me.
My son nodded heartbreakingly sad.
"Esmé gave him a bottle earlier when you went over with Alice. But don't worry. Carlisle still has plenty over there. I'll get the little vampire a refill," she pinched his cheeks affectionately, receiving an enchanting smile for that promise.
"You've been drinking quite a bit for a few days now," I stated. It was currently four to five bottles that he was consuming. Besides normal/human food and drink.
My son stretched an arm above him as if to demonstrate his greatness and babbled his explanation in fluent baby gibberish. Fortunately, he provided the translation directly through his gift.
If he ate and drank a lot, he would grow up very quickly and could then go into the forest with his daddy and his siblings. Because he was now apparently too small for everything. Was probably logical!
I took Ced up to his room to dry him off - with his beloved Kraken, of course - and goofed around with my baby for a bit. Nibbled his cute toes, tickled over his belly, stole his nose. I also tried once again to tame his thick brown hair, but it was a physical impossibility. It just stood off wildly jumbled in all directions.
Just like with his daddy.
We had just made ourselves comfortable together on the nest swing when Rosalie came with the bottle.
While he drank with relish, he showed me what he had been playing with the ladies down here for almost the past two hours. The little man managed to keep two vampires permanently on their toes.
When the bottle was empty, my little angel yawned and rubbed his eyes with his little fists. He snuggled a little more into my arms, holding onto mine with one hand while showing me all sorts of little memories until he fell asleep.
The big Christmas tree was there or how he had played hide and seek with Edward this morning.
I dozed off with my son.
Soft cool lips took me out of my intangible dream, and I was fascinated by the saturated golden eyes that looked lovingly towards me.
I sighed comfortably.
Edward climbed into the swing with us so that our baby lay between us, and he gave us a steady gentle swing. As soon as Ced felt his father's coldness, he looked for something to hold himself onto him without interrupting his sleep. Satisfied, we looked at our little angel.
"Thank you!" said Edward simply.
"Are you ever going to stop saying thank you?"
"I think not!" he stated with a charming smile.
I smiled.
Edward really hadn't skipped a single day so far to not thank me in some way for our son.
The vampires also stayed with us for the rest of the day. It was wonderfully cozy.
Since Carlisle was not allowed to get too close to our baby, he sat at the piano and played most of the time.
Again and again we tried to dissuade Ced from his reluctance, but his opinion stood firm.
Carlisle had hit him wantonly. Period!
At one point, seven and a half vampires - including half a baby - and one and a half humans - including half a baby - stood in the kitchen preparing dinner. For one and a half humans - among them half a baby.
That was definitely way too many hands for one meal! I would have settled for pasta or an omelet, but the vampires were mixing up a four-course meal.
So in the end, I just stood by and watched as Emmett and Ced stirred together some dough for our dessert in a large bowl. They were both generously dusted with flour. Among other things.
"Someone really needs to get into the bathtub urgently today!", I therefore stated.
My baby stretched up his arms quite excitedly and chuckled enthusiastically.
I took his fingers, and he underlined his enthusiasm with impressive impressions from the swimming pool. However, I mentally made it clear that I really only meant the bathtub. There the enthusiasm was already gone.
He didn't like doing that at all. After all, just washing was boring.
"Maybe Emmett will go in the tub with you," I looked invitingly at my brother-in-law-to-be. Since he didn't look any better than my son, it wouldn't harm him at all.
"Barum de ob?", Ced also grinned in his direction.
"If you ask me so kindly," Em replied, grabbing our nipper and walking him into his bathroom, already chuckling in anticipation.
Rose walked right behind.
I trusted Emmett, but he had a hard time with tricky things like dressing/undressing Ced or changing his diaper. It was all a bit too filigree for the big, bear-like Emmett, who had so far had two rompers and a mini-sweater on his conscience.
About ten minutes later, I walked behind with Edward.
I had become curious because of his laughter. He opened the bathroom door a crack.
There were two happy 'children' sitting in the bathtub, one still quite tiny, the other quite large, both with foam on their heads and putting the bathroom cheerfully under water. Rose was sitting next to the tub, obviously enjoying herself and making sure my son didn't get lost among all the childish liveliness. It was hard to tell who of the two was having more fun at any given moment.
The vampires also stayed with us while I now enjoyed the 'four course' meal.
It was incredible how good it tasted, considering that none of them had to eat and thus had no significant experience with cooking. A dip to go with the bread was nicely tangy. The salad was just delicious, although it was quite a bold combination of ingredients. The meat was tender, the cauliflower cooked to perfection. The dessert was a poem with a liquid chocolate center.
And then it happened.
No, the splinter in my finger this afternoon had probably not been enough. My balance still had to add something.
There seemed to be enough grease splatters on the floor in front of the stove that I slipped in my socks.
Okay, for my usual clumsiness, I guess it wasn't necessary, because Esmé always made sure the floor was clean even while the cooking was going on. If only because of Ced, who crawled everywhere.
In the heat of the moment, I threw my plate somewhere. I expected to hear the impact in the form of clattering, but instead I heard seven people shouting at me in fright and chair legs sliding across the floor. I also expected my own impact on the hard kitchen floor and was already clenching my eyes and teeth. With my arms I was still looking for support, but I was just caught on something and spinning in the air instead of being able to stop my fall. My pelvis banged on the tiles, but it was still bearable. My fingers next felt the cold subsoil, but they were too twisted to be able to catch me somehow.
Ahh ...! My shoulder blade. That would give at least one bruise. I also thought I heard the echo of a crack inside me.
Then I expected the worst. My head on the hard stone floor to feel clattering. But it didn't happen.
Cold hands slid to the back of my head in a flash, cushioning the impact.
For a moment I did not move. I made sure I was still falling or had already hit the floor completely and enjoyed the soothing black of my narrowed eyes. I was still startled by what had happened so quickly and unexpectedly and struggled to get my breathing steady.
I had no influence on my racing heart. And on my unrestrained roaring baby just not either. But I could notice that apparently nothing had really happened to me. Sure, some slight pain, rather dull throbbing from the impact itself, but nothing felt like real injuries. Lucky!
"Bella?", Edward addressed me gently.
I felt a hand that sought mine and I squeezed.
As a sign that I was fully present.
Carefully I opened my eyes and saw my angel kneeling next to me. A little relieved smile came to his lips.
But if he was sitting next to me and I still felt the cold hands on my head, who had rushed to my rescue to save me from worse?
Both Edward and the previously unknown hands behind me helped me to sit up.
I contorted my face as it cracked so loudly in my back that even the nearest neighbors must have heard it.
"Look, Ced," I heard Esmé say soothingly from somewhere near the kitchen counter, so Ced's yelling got a tiny bit bumpy, but far from stopped.
"Your mommy remains a little klutz, which she always likes to scare us all with!", Emmett just lectured my son that I rolled my eyes.
"Bella, dearest?" whispered Edward questioningly.
"Ma mi," Ced gave out in exasperation, without interrupting his crying significantly.
Esmé already brought our baby to us and handed him over to his father.
"Everything is okay. Just a fright," I explained to my two angels, which worked better for the bigger one than for the smaller one.
I pressed a kiss to Ced's forehead while Edward spoke comfortingly to him, but then looked over my shoulder to finally look at my rescuer.
"Thank you, Carlisle," I said sincerely. If he hadn't intercepted my head, I'm sure the lights really would have gone out for me completely.
"Sorry I wasn't faster," he smirked appeasingly, however. "Are you dizzy? Or do you have back or neck pain?" he immediately asked the medically important questions.
"That would be quite possible," I admitted.
Carlisle helped me stand up completely.
This was actually a little more torment than I would have guessed.
Controlling, I stretched myself in all directions, but slumped a tiny bit from the pain, so Carlisle immediately supported me.
"Mommy!", Ced thought he had to protest.
Immediately my head flew in his direction in surprise.
He had truly said mommy. As a coherent word and with the right intonation. Even though I was completely moved by this moment, I was unfortunately not able to enjoy it for very long. My neck ached from the jerky movement.
"The way you landed, you probably dislocated a few vertebrae," Carlisle immediately noted.
I nodded.
Unfortunately, I was familiar with such things. My orthopedist and I saw each other quite often.
Carlisle gently lifted me in his arms and carried me upstairs to the bedroom.
A hysterical outcry from my baby was the result, so Edward followed behind with him.
"Mommy!" my baby said immediately, in a tone that announced my noble savior.
Carlisle sighed in concern.
I felt so sorry for Carlisle that his grandson distrusted him so vehemently. Every attempt at rapprochement had failed so far. Every word we said was ignored by Ced.
"I'm sorry," I whispered apologetically as he gently set me down in front of the bed.
"It's okay, Bella. I've come to terms with it. I take comfort in knowing that one day he'll understand that I could never intentionally hurt him," he said, but it was obvious that it was taking a toll on him.
"Ced! Now, please stop clamoring like that. Carlisle is not going to hurt Mommy. He's just trying to help her," Edward tried to tell him.
Ced looked suspicious and was anything but convinced, but at least our son wasn't crying anymore.
"One day," Carlisle mused meanwhile, as he helped me pull my sweatshirt, including T-shirt, over my head so he could inspect my back.
If possible without me moving, which in itself was impossible.
I kept wincing somehow, which Ced followed with an equal wince each time. Wearing only my bra, I lay across the bed and Edward sat down on the floor in front of me, with Ced on his lap. Every move Carlisle made was suspiciously scrutinized, as was my reaction to it.
Very gently - as usual - Carlisle palpated my spine, ribs, neck, and shoulders.
"There are a lot of things messed up," Carlisle diagnosed, and began to straighten everything out with targeted pressure massages.
Edward crawled pleasantly through the back of my neck as long as Carlisle wasn't at work there.
I noticed Ced moving in front of me after a few minutes and lifted my head to see what he was up to now. He was now sitting on Edward's arm, holding a hand against his daddy's cheek as he pointed to my back. I grabbed my son's other hand and was a silent witness to how father and son talked silently.
Ced wanted to know why Carlisle was doing this and Edward answered. Showed him how I had slipped earlier and subsequently landed on the floor. That Carlisle had been closest to me and that his quick intervention had prevented more from happening to me. But that I had fallen so awkwardly on my shoulder that things had shifted in my back, which Carlisle was now setting right. So that I would have no more pain.
Ced tried to understand and looked intently at Carlisle's hand grips.
Edward mirrored the massage on Ced's back with the hand he had pulled from my neck. Let him feel the bones that were causing me pain right now. And then Ced asked why Carlisle, of all people, had to do it. Why his daddy couldn't make me whole again. Like he usually does.
"Because Carlisle has a lot more experience in this kind of thing than I do, and we only want the very best for Mommy!" he told his son sympathetically.
Then he sat him down next to me on the bed and I could no longer follow the conversation for lack of touch.
"Show him what you're doing. Let him feel what exactly is not right," Edward urged his father.
I turned my head. Saw that Carlisle smiled tentatively and placed one of Ced's hands on my back. Then he pushed the little fingers a little higher. I sucked in the air a little between my teeth and Ced instantly withdrew his hand.
He peeked quite startled. Then he looked up at Carlisle, put his fingers on his.
"That's exactly why I'm doing this. So that this pain is gone right away," the doctor explained.
Since Carlisle reset everything the gentle way, it took a little while, so Edward was soon sitting in front of me again.
Ced, on the other hand, remained sitting on the bed next to me and continued to watch.
"The last ones, Bella," Carlisle enlightened me in the meantime and had arrived at my nape.
I was very grateful for that and actually groaned in relief when I heard a relieving little crack.
"But you've never made noises like that with me before!" muttered Edward meanwhile, right by my ear, chuckling thereby.
"But you've never reset me either," I remarked in response.
"How many times have you had to be reset?" he asked tartly.
He certainly wouldn't believe me if I denied it or downplayed it.
"My orthopedist and I are on a first-name basis, and he took me out to dinner once as his best customer," I admitted.
Edward smirked.
"All right, Bella. Then sit up, but carefully please," Carlisle urged me.
He and Edward helped me with gentle hands on my sides and shoulders so that I was then sitting on the edge of the bed.
Ced crawled to my side, looking up at me questioningly, but I rose from the bed first. I stretched and sighed with relief.
"Mommy?", Ced addressed me, and I squatted down to him.
"All is well, my Little one. Thanks to Carlisle, it almost doesn't hurt anymore!", I said and gave my little protector a kiss on the forehead. I still felt it, but I wouldn't necessarily call it pain right now.
"Ka lei?" he muttered indecisively.
"Yes. Carlisle has taken away my pain many, many times. Your siblings, too. And he will also take great care of you if you ever hurt yourself," I explained.
Ced watched me very closely as I got fully dressed again. I barely flinched. Then Ced's gaze went to Carlisle. He looked very preoccupied, brooding like that. Tentatively, he stretched out his little arms to him.
For the very first time.
Carlisle responded immediately, taking his grandson in his arms and the two 'talked'.
"Our son wants to have every single moment explained by Carlisle that Ced thinks Carlisle hurt him or you," Edward whispered to me.
It turned into quite a long conversation, but in the end Ced hugged his grandfather and Carlisle's joy about it was all too evident.
He would certainly shed tears of emotion if he were able to do so.
We went back downstairs, but only Esmé was still there. She had also already tidied up the kitchen again, for which I thanked her warmly. She could hardly believe her eyes that Carlisle had our son in his arms and that he was apparently not upset about it.
"Then you finally know you can trust Carlisle?" asked Esmé of our sweetheart, who immediately nodded a little sheepishly and buried his head bashfully in the crook of Carlisle's neck.
Carlisle barely let go of his grandson for the rest of the evening and played with him extensively. He had almost four weeks of catching up to do with him. Carlisle also now swaddled his grandson for the first time and changed him for sleep. While he was giving the baby a bottle of blood, the two of them then teamed up against us as well.
"And if your parents ever annoy you by trying to send you to bed too early or something, you just come to Esmé and me," Carlisle murmured conspiratorially, who probably couldn't be thrown by anything tonight.
"Hey!" I rumbled in between.
"Just don't put a bee in the bonnet of our son!", Edward also opined.
But we were all smiles.
It was just nice that Carlisle was finally as much a part of our family for our sweetheart.
But Esmé and Carlisle did not stay too long.
The twins had announced that it would not be very late, and Carlisle and Esmé wanted to leave our family some time to themselves.
"And tomorrow I'll go swimming with you!" he still promised our angel, though.
Of course, Ced was totally thrilled by this and hugged him tightly.
Edward took our sweetheart from him at the front door and the grandparents each pressed a kiss to their grandson's forehead, involuntarily grabbing his little hands to emphasize the sincerity of the gesture.
Edward then winked at me, which I didn't really understand. It wasn't until Carlisle and Esmé turned to each other that I understood what Edward was trying to convey. Ced gave them his gift. He created a mental connection whereby they heard and experienced each other's thoughts and feelings. The love and affection they had held for so many years. Which until now they had only been able to convey through words and gestures, which may not always have been enough to make a feeling clear. Ced now laid those emotions and thoughts bare for both of them, and what had to happen happened. They looked at each other devotedly, lost in each other's gaze, and met in an all-consuming kiss that almost made them both lose their usual countenance.
We retired with Ced.
His little spell lasted longer than his touch. Especially the first time.
They left us silently, but as Edward said, arm in arm and exceedingly enraptured with each other.
The children were not long in coming and since Ced had slept for an hour this afternoon, he was still awake. He romped exuberantly with his wolf siblings and snuggled into their fur. Until he then fell asleep.
I didn't last very long either, but Edward would still stay with Leah.
We couldn't make out how she was actually doing, but he didn't want to leave her alone.
Whatever he had done, it seemed to have worked. Leah was in a really good mood the next morning. Well, let's say, by her standards of the last few days.
Breakfast was relaxed and afterwards, for a change, the whole family was really in the pool. It had been really fun, but the children left us already in the late morning.
They wanted to go to the Native American camp again. We would have liked to go there with them, I liked it there, but the sun was shining splendidly from the sky. There my glittering fiancé would probably have stood out a bit.
After swimming, I went with Edward to the sauna. Our son was in good hands and my nape was still a bit tense from yesterday.
Edward had already turned it on.
For purely medical reasons, of course. I was willing to believe him as I lay naked and sweating on my stomach and his gentle cooling hands massaged over my back.
"That feels so good," I mumbled to myself.
"That's the whole point," the vampire stated very matter-of-factly, but I noticed that his fingers were starting to become less matter-of-fact.
Moreover, for a professional, medically relevant massage certainly no lips were needed. But I did not complain. After all, I didn't know anything about such things ...
Due to the considerable physical satisfaction, emotional ecstasy, and the general heat of the sauna, I was so exhausted after the subsequent shower that I fell asleep in Edward's arms on a lounging area of the swimming pool.
When I opened my eyes again, it was completely silent.
"Hi ...", my angel smiled at me.
"Hi ...", I replied still slightly sleepy. "Where is everyone?"
"Jazz and Alice are at their house, Rose and Emmett are in the workshop, and the grandparents are baking cookies with their grandson."
"That means ...," I mused, perking up quite quickly, "... that no one would miss us at the moment?"
"No. No one," my angel purred promisingly.
No, the increased desire for sex had not diminished a bit in both of us. Rather the opposite, but who wanted to complain about it?
At least we managed to keep our fingers off each other to start cooking for dinner in time and catch our son beforehand.
Since we'd had practically nothing of Ced so far in the day because he'd been hogged by everyone else, Edward put him in the carrying shirt. He had been in action since breakfast and was apparently very grateful for this rest.
For the first time we set the big new dining table in the living room.
For eleven and a half people. And a dog.
Of course, I had also thought of Cookie yesterday while shopping.
Music was already playing, the rest of the menu was simmering away, Ced was slowly perking up, my angel was dancing with me through our glassily castle.
"Did you actually clean your rooms?", I asked the wolves as we opened the front door for them.
The wolves looked at each other briefly, swallowed noticeably, and charged up the stairs.
"You have ten minutes!" shouted Edward after them.
Right on time - about thirteen minutes later - David arrived with his family.
In our spacious entrance area, a little welcoming chaos broke out.
In the middle of it all, Ced lay on the floor with Cookie. Giggling, tail wagging, licking.
The Mitchell family got the same tour that we had gotten from Edward. The kids were already excited about Ced's room, but then they were at a loss for words when they came to Leah's room. It was dark and starry, so we lingered a bit in Leah's attic, admiring the beautiful view through the glass roof.
Leah herself, however, had retreated to the kitchen, but I very soon went after her while the others continued to roam our little palace.
I would like to ask her how she was doing, but I knew how much that question was getting on her nerves by now.
"How was it this afternoon?", I asked instead.
"Nice," she sighed and even smiled a little.
"With your pictorially detailed narratives, it's really easy to imagine!", I teased her as I sliced the baguette and placed it in a basket.
"Imagine, Shanti sewed me a dress," but then she did start to tell me while we were completing dinner.
Jake would have taken pictures of her dress. Some new people they would have met. They had knotted bracelets together and had a lot of fun doing it. They agreed that they wanted to go to the Native American village more often, but then they also wanted to find a task to do their part to contribute to the life there and to work off their many gifts.
Yes, that was clearly my daughter. She loved surprises - very different from me - but expensive and valuable things were as unpleasant for her as they were for me. My little daughter seemed cheerful, but still I noticed that she didn't say an explicit word to Nanuk. I wondered where this was going with Leah and him. Nanuk really was a very nice young man, but he just wasn't Marcus. I doubted that I could take him to my heart as much as Marcus. However, I had also liked Ben, but also not to that extent. Perhaps my own appreciation had a little to do with Edward? After his initial dislike of our daughter's boyfriend, he had given him an honest chance. So Edward had come to realize that Marcus' feelings for Leah were absolutely sincere, and Edward thus no longer had a chance to have anything against him. Moreover. He considered Marcus more and more as a family member and finally even as a son. Exactly this feeling I had taken over from Edward.
The meal was served, and the tour was over.
I had opened a bottle of red wine and already let it breathe.
"I do have to drive after all," David stated when he saw me come to the dinner table with it.
"Not necessarily!", however, Edward corrected. "How many sleeping arrangements were you counting earlier?" asked Edward, sounding casual.
I smiled and thought of how Edward had confessed this too.
Edward hadn't just thought about the twins' friends when he planned our children's attics with additional sleeping arrangements. He had also thought of our friends.
"Do you guys feel like sleeping under the stars tonight?" meanwhile, Becky asked the younger kids.
That had even been our twins' suggestion after we said the family would come in full.
The kids didn't say a word, just looked pleadingly at their parents as if it were a matter of life and death.
Alternating.
David looked at his wife, who had little choice because of the children's eyes staring at her. She nodded with a smile. And already the smaller children were jumping enthusiastically and jitterily from their chairs.
They probably wanted to go straight to bed.
The food tasted great to everyone, and they were amazed by our house. Everyone marveled at different things.
Emma also wanted a play corner like Ced's and the swing from his room. Daniel thought Leah and Jake's rooms were pretty cool, especially because they were a bit like little apartments of their own. Luces imagined our hi-fi corner in his room. Deacon, an avid reader, found the book nook very inviting. Sonya was now jealous of my kitchen - instead of me of hers. David was quite fascinated by the gallery. That it went the entire height of the building, that the roof was glazed, and that Edward had a view of the entire first floor from his grand piano.
That's exactly where the two men were sitting right now, talking shop about architecture, although David didn't know any more about such things than I did, for example.
We took a little digestive walk and also admired how our house looked in full lighting.
I had not seen that before either. It was beautiful.
When it started snowing, however, we hurried to get back inside.
We all played 'Charades' together, and all the kids had a battle of 'Twister'. Ced didn't quite follow the directions, but just sat on the colors given. Edward sat at the piano, and they danced. Emma tried to dance with Ced, but our baby couldn't stand yet.
Looked cute though.
At times Becky also sat at the piano and played.
I danced with Jake, as long as we both didn't act too stupid. He had definitely got my genes in this respect. With David it looked a little better, but with Edward I was just floating along.
The children played together in Ced's corner.
Not a trace of fatigue. Not in any of them.
The teenagers, of which Daniel was clearly one, were sitting at the dining room table, engrossed in a board game. The adults retreated to the sofa.
Edward first provided all the stations with new drinks and nibbles.
Otherwise, the wolves would soon starve to death!
"Daddy!", someone shouted quite upset in between and our baby was quite distressed.
Cookie had caught Ced's Kraken in an inattentive moment and sneakily carried him off. Ced demanded his father's immediate intervention, but the latter just stood there for a moment, looking at his son, overwhelmed.
"The first time?", Sonya asked me in a whisper, sitting next to me on the couch.
I nodded sentimentally.
Since Edward didn't react immediately, Ced crawled towards him in displeasure. As if dazed, Edward knelt down to him, picked up his son, squeezed him affectionately, but Ced just didn't have time for that at all.
His Kraken was in mortal danger after all!
Edward had to realize, somewhat disappointed, that there were more important things.
So they crawled together to the corner where Cookie was holding the stuffed animal captive.
I quickly fetched the camera from the study after the peaceful negotiations had failed and now degenerated into a heated argument in which Emma also got involved. The four of them had a wonderful squabble on the carpet in the middle of the living room, while the Kraken lay unnoticed next to them.
We went to bed relatively early, considering that tomorrow was a holiday. It was just eleven o'clock.
While Edward and David took the puppy out the door one more time, Sonya and I organized the kid chaos in Jake's attic. The bed surface up here was big enough, but we gathered the bedding in both rooms and on both floors so that everyone could get some blanket. Emma was asleep hardly lying down.
When our men were back, Cookie quickly looked for a place. And Ced also crawled purposefully between the twins.
"Do you want to sleep here too?", Edward asked his son a little incredulously.
Ced babbled his explanation of this, pointing at all the other kids.
Edward's gaze lingered on the twins for a moment before he nodded, barely noticeable.
I smirked.
The kids will probably have mentally reassured their dad.
So the eight kids snuggled together and listened to an episode of 'The Three Investigators' from Jake's phone to fall asleep.
The adults went back to the living room.
David and I shared the last sip of red wine and we put all the glasses together before we went to bed too.
Wistfully, Edward stood in front of Ced's cradle, which was still in our bedroom.
"It's unfair how fast our baby is growing up!" he said a little snottily.
"Now give me a break! Ced can't even talk or walk yet!", I brought him back down to earth. "Besides, I can think of a few things you could do without a kid in the bedroom," I purred as I slid my hands into the back of his neck.
The gaze of my angel made it more than clear that he had understood my hint.
So we went to bed, but until I slept, it took an intoxicating eternity ...
When I woke up the next morning, I was lying in bed all lonely and forlorn, but I felt wonderful. I went to the bathroom and then sneaked downstairs.
Why was I even still trying to do that? The sneaking, I mean. I didn't stand a chance anyway!
My angel already held my coffee out to me.
David was also already awake and the two had been very busy. The breakfast table was almost ready.
At 7:23 a.m., it was still pretty early for a holiday, but the twins were meeting their friends right away, and in the Mitchell house, the clocks always struck a little earlier anyway because of the children. Sonya also came into the kitchen already.
We fixed up a big tray of cocoa and coffee and went upstairs to our numerous children.
What a sight it was! People were lying wildly all over each other and on top of each other. Jake had one of Emma's feet stuck in his face, Ced was lying across Becky's stomach, Cookie had crawled under Daniel's T-shirt, the two boys Luces and Deacon were using each other as pillows, and Leah was snuggling up to Jake.
We screamed our children awake in unison.
"GOOD MORNING!" it resounded throughout the house, and everyone sat up jerkily, startled.
Except Jake. He was 'knocked out' by Emma's foot. And except Becky. She couldn't really get up with Ced on her belly.
"I feel pregnant!" she muttered as Luces and Deacon were already having a little race to the bathroom.
Ced first looked around in surprise and rubbed his eyes before he crawled off Becky.
"Life can be so easy!" respired Becky at that.
The kids sorted themselves out, we handed them the cups and one by one they disappeared briefly into the bathroom.
We arranged to meet at the breakfast table in twenty minutes, since the twins already had a nine o'clock appointment in Saco.
But we took Ced with us so that he could get his blood.
Breakfast passed very funny - with so many at the table.
"So what else is planned for you guys today?", I asked Sonya chatting.
"We want to go to Westbrook. I read in the paper that they have a cute little winter fair there," she told me.
"Yes, that one is there every year," I confirmed. "But it's not quite that small!"
"Don't you guys feel like coming along with us?" asked David.
"So ... we're about to go to Boston with our friends!", Jake first stated categorically.
"But we don't!", Edward reminded him. "We don't have anything specific in mind so far. Would you like to, dearest," Edward asked me.
I looked over at the little angel on David's lap, who looked kind of indecisive as he ate a pancake awkwardly. I smirked.
A fair would definitely please our little sweetheart.
So I nodded.
The twins set off first, but we soon followed after Sonya and David intentionally dawdled a bit. So the kids wouldn't get suspicious that Jake, Leah, and Becky were actually already gone when they only had a few minutes head start. The Mitchell family still had to wash and change properly, so we stopped briefly at Esmé and Carlisle's.
We needed a small supply of blood again for the house in Saco.
But by then we wereall standing together in a parking lot in Westbrook.
Edward and I both had our carry-sweatshirts on under our jackets. Currently, however, I was only carrying the baby backpack and Edward was carrying our son.
The day was wonderful, but went by way too fast.
We rode the carousel. Ate our way through the entire assortment that I was sick afterwards. Drank cocoa in an ancient hut. Watched the artisans.
David shot us ladies red plastic roses at a stand.
Ced tasted chocolate fruits, which his face absolutely could not deny.
Our husbands rode the Ferris wheel with the kids while Sonya and I waited in line at the restrooms.
We fished for ducks, knocked over pyramids of cans and bought raffle tickets. Everyone had won something when we drove home in the afternoon with cold feet in the beginning snowfall.
"How are you?", Edward asked me just before we reached our street.
"I feel queasy!", I grumbled. Maybe I should have saved myself the fried fish. Or rather the potato pancakes? The hot dog? Just the thought of food made me feel nauseous. All I wanted was a cup of tea, a hot water bottle, a blanket, and my couch.
But when we arrived home, Leah was there.
Not knowing what to make of the picture that presented itself, I forgot about my food-induced nausea ...
Thank you for reading!