A/N: Seriously, the outpouring of support over the last twelve hours has been overwhelming! Thank you for everyone who's commented, favourited and started following along so far! If you'd like to see teasers and more, feel free to join us on my group .com [slash] groups [slash] fictionspot. Also, huge thank you to my beta, kneon, for everything she did during the creation of this story! As a reminder, it's completely pre-written. Enjoy this brand new chapter, and see you all next Saturday!
"Oh, my God! Dad, could you take the turns any faster?" Nessa grumbled from the passenger seat. "I don't want to spill the soup."
"Isn't that why you put it in a mason jar?" I challenged, looking at the huge jar in her hands. "Where did you get that, anyway?"
"From Bella," she shrugged with a shy smile. "Jake borrowed it for me."
Right, Jacob Black. He's been haunting my doorstep for the last five weeks since that first class. I hadn't been ready for my daughter to date, especially in the form of a seventeen-year-old with a Volkswagen the same age as her. "Well, that was thoughtful," I muttered.
"Speaking of which, Jake asked me to go to prom with him." She looked at me nervously with her big blue eyes. "Can I go?"
"Do online schools have proms?" I asked, trying to avoid the subject. The first time Jacob picked up Nessa, I gave him the standard dad grilling, and he explained he had switched to an online schooling system for flexibility. His father had an accident that left him in a wheelchair, and both his sisters had moved out, so Jacob wanted to help take care of the house and work while still getting an education. Little fucker won some points with that one.
"The Insight School's connected to the regular high school in Forks," she explained. "So, can I go?"
"To the prom in Forks? I don't know, Ness…" I sighed. "That's four hours away. Where would you stay?"
"I could stay with Jake and his dad!" I gave her a look that let her know that wasn't happening. "Or, Jake said Bella's dad still lives in Forks. Maybe he could ask Bella if I could stay there?"
"I'd still feel more comfortable knowing you're staying with someone I know…" I huffed out.
"Bella's dad's the former police chief! Do you really think I wouldn't be okay there?"
She had a point, but I still didn't know Charlie that well, despite any feelings I might have towards his daughter. Still, I couldn't say no to my Nessa when she thought everything through this clearly. "I don't want to impose on Charlie, but if her dad agrees, then yes, you can go to prom with Jacob. As long as you let me drive you to Forks and pick you up. I don't trust his car to make the trip."
"Thanks, Daddy!" She squealed and clapped. "I'll let Jake know right away."
"The soup, Ness!" I warned. "Wait until you're not holding a gallon of soup."
"Oops!" she giggled. "I'll text him when we get to Nana's place."
"As long as you're not texting him through dinner." I shook my head at her excitement.
"What about a dress?" She asked. "I'll need to get one."
I groaned. I knew there had to be more. "Well, since it's not your prom and you're just a guest, I'm not giving you the same limit as I will in a few years, so let's say… $200, but that's for everything. I'm sure Aunt Alice or Aunt Rose can do wonders with that." If there was anyone who could make miracles happen in fashion, it was those two.
"I'll ask them tonight." The smile on Nessa's face grew, and I knew I'd made the right decision at that moment. "Hey Dad, why don't we live on Mercer Island?" She suddenly asked, staring out the window as we climbed uphill on my parents' street.
"When your mom and I got married, she insisted on living in the city," I replied automatically. This had been an early argument between Tanya and me. She wanted to live the city life in a condo. I had wanted to build out on Mercer Island. We compromised, and I bought an older home in Briarcliff to renovate before we got married.
"But what about after you and mom split?" She added. "You could have moved then."
"We'd already enrolled you at Emerald City Academy. Why? Do you want to move?" I quirked an eyebrow at her, wondering where this was coming from.
She shrugged. "I don't know. I love my school, but it's so pretty out here. Look at the view." She gestured to Lake Washington, hiding behind the houses. "Besides, I have classmates who live on Mercer Island; ECA has a bus for the area. And I'll get my license next year, so I can drive myself."
"We're not in the market to move anytime soon, Ness. And we're not moving just so you can get a car," I laughed. I had already discussed getting Nessa a car for her sixteenth birthday with Tanya, who was on board but wanted to leave the details up to me. "I'm not saying never, but it's not a discussion for right now."
With the discussion on hold for now, I pulled my Volvo XC90 into my parents' driveway directly behind Emmett's Grand Cherokee and Jasper's Durango. "Here, Dad." Nessa passed me the large soup jar and pulled out her phone to send Jacob a message.
"Done?" I asked and got a nod in return. "Good, phone away."
"I know, Dad. It's family time." She gave me a good-natured eye roll before opening the front door of my parents' home. "Hi, we're here!"
"Finally!" My mom, Esme, greeted us, sweeping into the entryway from the kitchen. "We were wondering when you would get here."
"Sorry, mom. There was traffic near the cruise port," I explained contritely.
"But we brought you something!" Nessa added enthusiastically, grabbing the jar from my hands. "We made chicken soup from scratch."
"Really?" Esme asked in shock, taking the jar from Nessa. While there was a smile on her face, I could see the cogs working behind her eyes. If I had to describe Esme Platt-Cullen, she would be a talented designer, a loving mother, and a control freak. I'm sure she was now questioning how this new dish would fit into her already-planned menu. "I didn't know you two could cook."
"We just started taking lessons," I explained.
"And we learned to make chicken soup from scratch this week! It's great, Nana!" The look of joy on my daughter's face was infectious, and I knew there was no way my mother could resist.
"Well, I can't wait to try it," Esme chuckled. "You know what? I haven't started on the salad yet. Why don't we start the meal with soup instead?"
"Great! Thanks, Nana!" Nessa wrapped her grandmother in a hug.
"Thank you for bringing it, dear," my Mom replied, kissing Nessa on the head. "Why don't you head down to the basement while I warm this up? Your cousins are already down there on the Switch. Emily has that new Just Dance game."
"Cool," Nessa said with a shrug. "I'll make sure they don't win too much." With a laugh, she bounded over to the basement. Despite being older than all her cousins, Nessa was always a good sport about spending time with them.
"It's a good thing I'm making pot roast for dinner. We wouldn't want two chicken dishes," mom chuckled once Ness was out of earshot. "Why don't you join everyone else on the deck while I get this on the stove? They've already opened a bottle of wine. We'll be eating in half an hour."
"I can heat that up for you," I offered, holding my hands out for the jar.
"Nonsense!" she insisted. "You know I'm particular about my kitchen. Just relax, sweetheart."
I knew there was no use arguing with her, so I made my way through the kitchen and onto the deck where my siblings were spread out on the L-shaped sofa. "Look who finally made it!" Emmett cheered as I stepped outside. "We were wondering if you were gonna show up."
"You know how traffic is in the city," I laughed and grabbed a wine glass and the bottle from the table. Once I had my drink poured, I took a perch on the end of the couch. "We miss anything?"
"I'm sure Emily's thrilled you're here now. She's been asking all day about seeing Nessa." Rosalie sighed. "Which reminds me - we wanted to talk to you about Emerald City. We were thinking about enrolling Emily there next year for middle school."
We spent the next half hour discussing Nessa's school, as well as chatting about the weekend until my mother called us all in for dinner. The table was already expanded and set to fit all twelve of us, with my mom's pot roast, potatoes and vegetables in the center, and a bowl of soup at each place setting. "Take a seat!" Esme waved her hands around the table in emphasis as we all took a chair that had unofficially become our own, with her and my Dad, Carlisle, each at the head. "Okay, everyone! Dig in!"
"Mmm mom, this soup tastes great!" Alice said. "What did you do to it?"
"I just heated it up," she replied, taking her own sip. "Edward and Nessa made it."
"Really?" Emmett's eyes bugged out in shock. "So, those cooking classes are working?"
"What cooking classes?" My dad asked curiously.
"We started taking classes at this restaurant in Kirkland," I explained. "I'm glad it's sticking." Thankfully, the soup tasted just as good when Nessa and I made it without the watchful eye of Bella.
"It's really quite good, dear. However, I didn't see any celery. It's such a traditional ingredient in chicken noodle soup." My mom gave us a curious pout.
"Bella substituted it with fennel," Nessa explained. "She said the anise flavor adds an extra punch to the soup."
"Bella? Who's Bella?" Alice looked at us excitedly.
"She's the chef teaching the class," I answered nonchalantly, taking a sip of my broth.
"You know, if you wanted to learn to cook, I'd be more than happy to teach you a few family recipes." My mom looked at me hopefully. Thankfully, Emmett and Alice kept their snickering at bay.
"I appreciate that, mom. Maybe once these classes are over. We've already paid for twelve weeks, and the focus is on the basics. I'm sure I'll be able to get some advice from you once I've got those under my belt," I offered, knowing that trying to learn from my mom would be a catastrophe for all of us.
"Besides, I think Dad has a crush on Bella," Nessa added in a singsong voice.
A quick glance around the table showed me Alice and Rose vibrating with excitement, Jasper and Emmett ready to tease me, and my mom and dad full of questions while the children looked around in wonder. I put up my hand before anyone could jump in. "I don't have a crush. Yes, she's pretty and I'm enjoying the class."
"Good," Emmett and Rosalie's eight-year-old son Royce piped up. "Girls are gross."
"Not as gross as boys!" nine-year-old Cynthia retorted.
"Speaking of boys," Nessa jumped in, trying to stop the ensuing argument of her cousins. "Jake asked me to his prom at the end of the month. Aunt Ali, Aunt Rose, can you take me shopping?"
"You said the magic words!" Alice trilled, and the three of them were off in their own world, discussing patterns and colors, with my mom, Cynthia, and Emily jumping in.
hey dad im going to kays after school
My honors English daughter always forgets grammar exists with texting. I chuckled as I typed out my response.
That's fine. Will you be home for dinner?
I barely had time to finish replying to the email in front of me when she replied.
ya can we make that stir fry again? with steak this time?
There was a time she'd just say she was eating with the Newtons while I would fend for myself. To have her want to come home made me smile.
Sounds good. I'll pick up the ingredients on the way home.
Ness replied with a single thumbs-up emoji, which is par for the course when dealing with a teenager, so I put my phone in my drawer and grabbed my laptop for a team meeting with my architects.
We spent the next hour going over ongoing projects, wrapping up completed ones, and assigning teams to upcoming ones before we broke and left the conference room to Alice's design team for their similar weekly meeting. Back in my office, there was a notification of a missed call and a voicemail with Tanya's name. Assuming she wanted to discuss Nessa's travel details this summer, I called back but regretted it immediately.
"Edward, what the hell?!" she yelled into my ear as soon as the call connected.
"Tanya, good to hear from you. I'm fine. How are you doing?" I replied in a sarcastically calm tone.
"Don't be cute with me! I'm so pissed off, I could rip off your head and throw it in a campfire!"
"Do I get to know why you're pissed at me?" I sighed. Communication had never been one of her strong points.
"Prom! You told Vanessa she could go to prom!" she shrieked, making me pull the phone from my ear. "How could you?"
"Jacob asked her to his prom in Forks, and I agreed as long as she follows a few rules," I stated clearly, assuming she was upset that I would let Nessa travel four hours away with her boyfriend. "I figured you'd be okay with it as long as I made sure the circumstances were safe. You were the one who convinced me she was old enough to have a boyfriend."
"Yeah, I'm sure it's all safe," she scoffed. "But that's not the issue! Her prom dress!"
"I'm fine with covering that cost-" I started, but she quickly jumped on top of me.
"It's not about the fucking cost!" Her voice was shrill at this point. If my office door was open, I'm sure the entire bullpen would hear her. "My daughter is buying her first prom dress without me! It's a mother's right to go prom dress shopping with her daughter, and you took that from me! Alice and Rosalie will have their own daughters' proms, and now they get my daughter's as well!"
This is all over buying a simple dress? "Seriously? You called to yell at me over this? I didn't blow up when Ness came back with the homecoming dress you two had picked out in Anchorage."
"That's because you don't get dresses!" She insisted. "Homecoming dresses, prom dresses, wedding dress - those are my right!"
"It's not even her prom!" I groaned. "It's Jacob's junior prom in Forks, Washington. You still have hers in a few years."
"They're all mine!" Tanya exclaimed. "You have to tell her she can't go."
"I'm not doing that, Tanya. You don't realize how excited she is."
"Then she had to come up to Anchorage to go dress shopping," she refutes.
I let out an annoyed laugh. "Seriously? The prom's in a few weeks and she has exams coming up. I'm not pulling her out because you're petty. You work remotely and have a fuckton of miles. You can make the trip down here if it means that much to you."
I didn't give her a chance to respond before I hung up on her. How dare she try guilt-tripping me over making our daughter happy? Has she always been that selfish? I paced the confines of my office like a lion on the prowl until I couldn't take it anymore and picked up my desk phone. "Zafrina?"
"I heard you on the phone, and pushed back your call later today," she answered with no explanation. "Get out of here and get some fresh air."
I let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Zaf. I shouldn't be gone longer than an hour."
"I know." I didn't miss the smug tone in her voice as she hung up, but she deserved to be smug. Jasper and I need to discuss getting that woman a raise…
I wasn't sure how I got there, but fifteen minutes after I had left the office, I stood near the entrance of Pike Place. Even though I had just been planning a stop at Whole Foods on the way home, I made my way into the bustling marketplace in search of a meat vendor. I easily found one close to the entrance, but the options of meat overwhelmed me. I'd been ordering steak for years, and yet when it came raw, I was unprepared.
"Are you looking for something specific?" The man behind the counter asked in a bored tone.
"Yeah… I guess those?" I questioned, pointing at the filet mignons. Those were good steaks, right?
"Feeling ready for steak?" A familiar female voice called from behind me, making me turn in shock.
"Bella! What are you doing here?" I'm so used to only seeing her in the restaurant that I'm not sure how to react in the real world.
"I'm placing an order for root veggies for tomorrow, and picking up a few things for myself," she explained, gesturing to the canvas tote on her shoulder. "I usually come once a week. What are you doing here?"
"Oh, Nessa wanted to try making your shrimp stir-fry with steak." I shrugged.
"Then the filet would be a horrible choice," she chuckled and sidled up beside me at the counter. After a quick look at the meats, she looked up at the man behind the counter confidently. "He'll take half a pound of the flank steak." She turned to me with a smile on her face. "Trust me, the filet's too lean for this. You need something with some marbling. Just slice against the grain." She demonstrated with her hands on the package in explanation.
"I didn't even think about slicing," I mumbled. "Thanks."
"My pleasure. I'm always happy to talk about food," she giggled. "What kind of sauce were you thinking?"
I shrugged, confused. "I figured we'd just stick with the lemon garlic one you taught us. It tasted great."
She started emphatically shaking her head. "It was great with shrimp or chicken, but not for steak. You need something richer. Like teriyaki or a hoisin." She looked around behind her until she had an ah-ha moment. "Here, come with me!" She grabbed my arm and pulled me across the street. "If we were in class, I'd show you how to make one from scratch, but this will have to do."
"Oriental Mart?" My eyebrow raised in question.
Bella nodded her head. "Normally, I wouldn't go the pre-made sauce route, but in this case, I'll allow it. Now, are you and Nessa good with spicy things?"
"We are," I replied, looking over the bottle of sauces with Bella, not sure where to start. "We actually added some cayenne when we remade your chicken and rice pilaf."
"I'm glad. You should experiment!" Bella enthused. "Cooking is all about adventure. It's one of the reasons I love it so much." She pulled a bottle off the shelf. "Here, this will work with your steak."
I took the bottle from her and read the label. "General Tso's? Isn't that for chicken?"
"It goes well with beef, too. Trust me." Taking her word for it, we made our way to the checkout to pay before standing awkwardly outside the small shop. "So, protein, sauce… anything else you need?"
"I have rice at home, but I need to get some veggies," I answered, hoping to extend our time.
"I'm actually headed to my produce guy now. Shall we?"
"Let's go." I gestured in front of me, signaling for her to lead the way.
"So, Jake said you're planning to drive Nessa to Forks for the prom and pick her up from my dad's place the next day?" Bella asked as we weaved through the crowd. "You know it's a four-hour trip each way, right? You'll be doing sixteen hours of driving."
"I know, but I just don't like the idea of her and Jacob driving all that way by themselves. Not that I don't trust Jacob," I added in a rush. "I don't trust anyone else on the road, and Jacob's still fairly inexperienced as a driver."
"I'll let you in on a secret." She waved me down closer to her and placed a hand around her mouth conspiratorially. "He's not as inexperienced as his age suggests." I back up from her with a confused look, but she just shrugs. "He grew up on the La Push rez. They let the kids drive around there early. Especially once Billy had his accident and Jake's sisters left town. He needed someone to help. Dad could only go down there so often."
"Well, while I love to hear about my daughter's boyfriend's history of illegal driving, I'd feel safer knowing an adult was doing the long trek," I chuckled.
"Not that illegal…" Bella elaborated. "He just did more solo trips than someone with their learner's permit should. And what if I helped?"
"I couldn't ask you to do that."
She shook her head. "You're not asking, I'm offering. I'm heading down on Friday anyway to do some catering for the prom. She can come down with me, and I can bring her back the next day. I was planning to stay with my dad that night, too."
"Are you sure?" I wasn't used to anyone else jumping in like this. "You'd have to let me pay you for gas or something."
She waved me off. "I'd be paying for the gas, anyway."
"Well, I'll need to thank you some way," I insisted. I had visions of various ways I could thank her but shook those from my head.
"It's really nothing. Here we are!" She pulled me over to a large stall full of fresh produce. Once she placed her delivery order with the man behind the counter, we started wandering through the rows of vegetables.
"Did you go to your prom?" I asked suddenly.
"In junior year," she confirmed. "Tyler Crowley almost ran me over with his van earlier in the year and insisted he had to make it up to me." She rolled her eyes dramatically, making me snort. "I agreed to go to prom with him just to shut him up. Why?"
"Did you go dress shopping with your mom?" The conversation with Tanya was still looming, and I really wanted another female perspective. I wasn't sure I could get an unbiased opinion from Alice and Rosalie - they'd either side with Tanya as mothers or against her, so they could still go shopping. But Bella seemed like an unbiased neutral third party, and I couldn't help myself.
"Um, no," she muttered. "My mom's really not involved in my life."
Shit! Way to fuck things up, Cullen! "I am so sorry. I just had a stupid fight with my ex-wife about this whole prom thing, and it's been bothering me, which is why I ended up here in the first place-" Bella graciously put up her hand to stop my mouth vomit.
"It's fine. I figured it was something to do with Nessa," she chuckled. "And I went shopping with Leah and Sue. You know the family that runs the coffee shop right beside Bites?" I nodded in confirmation. "Sue was the closest thing to a mother figure I had growing up. Leah had her senior prom the same year, so Sue took us both dress shopping together. It took less time for the two of us than some girls take on their own," she laughed.
"I know how long it can take," I chuckled. "My sister took two months and way too many stores. It had to be like no other dress. It was bright purple with a feather skirt." Bella gave me a horrified look at the description, and I shrugged. "What can I say? The early aughts were a weird time."
"Well, Leah and I had zero feathers between us," Bella laughed. I don't think I'd heard her laugh before. It was a beautiful sight to behold. "We were in and out within an hour. She got a black jumpsuit, and I had this greeny-blueish flowy dress. I don't even remember the name of the fabric."
"I'm sure you looked beautiful in it," I blurted out, causing her to blush. She truly had the cutest blush I'd ever seen.
"Thanks," she whispered, looking intently at the asparagus.
We finished selecting the proper produce, with a few alterations suggested by Bella and checked out with the cashier at the front. "Thanks for everything, Bella. And I don't just mean shopping." I gave her a soft smile.
"It was my pleasure, Edward. See you tomorrow?"
"Wouldn't miss it for the world."