6 Expectations

"Alice," Edward moaned into his pillow. "It's Sunday. Surely even you sleep in on Sunday?"

Heedless of his misery, Alice continued barking.

She had slept with him again the night before. After the emotional ordeal at the funeral home, he hadn't even tried to get her to sleep on her own. She'd been cranky all night, and his own attitude had very nearly matched hers. He'd wanted to tear his hair out the whole time he was cooking one of the two new meals that had been left on the porch for him by considerate neighbors. By the time they'd gone to bed, much as he'd have liked to escape from her, he hadn't had the energy for another fight. He'd just taken her straight to his bed and tried to sleep while she whimpered beside him.

And now, apparently, she was a dog.

Edward sighed, resigning himself to yet another too-early morning.

"You need a diaper change?" he asked, though he already knew the answer.

Alice barked and nodded her head.

"All right. Come on, Fido."

On the agenda today was dinner with Ted's friends. Edward looked forward to it with some trepidation. He'd been somewhat unsociable with them the night before, which hadn't been entirely intentional. He'd expected to be something of a host at the viewing, welcoming people and accepting condolences. But he'd been in no shape for it, and Carlisle had taken on that role instead. Edward got the sense that Carlisle had a better handle on his grief than Edward did. The man was stupidly healthy and on top of his shit. Edward was more impressed with him every time he saw him.

He would be a really good father for Alice.

But aside from the trepidation, Edward was also eager to be in the company of grown-ups. A significant portion of his last couple of days had been fully focused on a barely intelligible toddler, and he wasn't at all used to that. He wanted to talk to people who could form whole sentences. He wanted an exchange of ideas that went beyond what movies to watch in the car and whether a diaper needed changing. He was crawling out of his skin in his need for adult interaction.

In the meantime, though, he was supposed to be helping Alice maintain her routine. So while she dawdled over breakfast, Edward logged into his father's laptop. That, fortunately, was a password he knew, and his father had saved most of his other passwords in his web browser profile. Getting into Ted's calendar turned out to be a simple task.

"Here we go," he muttered to himself. "Dinner with friends every Sunday, swimming lessons Monday mornings . . ." He stopped and frowned. Monday afternoons at four to six, the calendar simply said "Leah." A glance through the calendar showed the same on Wednesdays and Fridays.

The babysitter. That's who Carlisle had said she was. The Clearwaters' daughter and Alice's favorite babysitter. Apparently Ted had her coming to watch Alice all the time. And on top of that, she had daycare on the schedule from nine in the morning to three in the afternoon on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Well. That wasn't really so shocking. Ted had technically been retired, but clearly he'd still had several side projects going. That sort of business required time to conduct, and he couldn't tend Alice while he worked. Still, Edward wondered why he didn't just use the daycare more often instead of having the babysitter over three times a week.

Tuesdays and Thursdays were busy days on this calendar. While Alice was at daycare, Ted had scheduled obligations all over the place. Most of them only had names, and some, like "Leah," only had first names. There was the occasional doctor's appointment, but even those had only the name of the doctors with no contact information or indication of their specialties. Edward wasn't going to be able to cancel anything from this calendar.

Also? He wouldn't know where to take Alice for swimming lessons, nor for her Friday dance classes. Wednesday morning was library story time, though, and that at least he could Google. He'd have to get with Carlisle to see what information he could glean about the rest of the schedule.

He spent most of the rest of the day doing laundry. This should have been a simpler chore for him, but Alice wanted to "help," and that meant everything took forever. She insisted on throwing all of the clothes into the front-loading washing machine herself, which meant each article went in one at a time. And she expected him to praise her after every damn one. She wanted to put in the laundry pod, she wanted to push the buttons, and when the clothes came out of the dryer, she wanted to fold them. Edward ended up making a pile of his underwear for her to fold, which was a little uncomfortable, but he didn't mind having wrinkled, badly-folded boxer-briefs. At least she was enjoying herself.

He was in the guest room hanging up his shirts when Alice wandered in with Edward's phone held to her ear.

"No. Daddy don."

Edward thought she was just playing with it until he heard a faint electronic voice coming from the phone.

"Alice, what are you doing?" he demanded. "Did you call someone?"

"Daddy phone," Alice said, as though that were some kind of explanation.

"That's my phone. Give it here." He held out his hand, but Alice shook her head. "Yes, give it to me."

Alice turned and started to run away, but Edward grabbed her around the middle and lifted her up, plucking the phone out of her hands. Alice immediately started to scream.

"Hi," Edward said into the phone, putting Alice back down onto the floor. "Did the kid call you?"

"I called you," a woman's voice said, sounding amused, "and she answered."

Edward could hardly hear over the screaming. Alice threw herself at his leg and started trying to climb his jeans, crying and yelling "HABBIT!" while she tried to get to the phone.

"Who is this?" Edward asked, knowing he could be more tactful but not having the attention to do any better.

"Rosalie Hale. Your agent gave me your number."

"Right. The Christopher book." He sighed and looked down at Alice, whose face was turning red. "Can I call you back in a couple of minutes."

"No. I'll wait while you handle your business."

"Cool," he said drily. "Nothing like having an audience while you try to negotiate with a screaming child. Hang on." He set the phone on the bureau and leaned down to pick Alice up.

"Habbit!" she cried, stretching for the phone, but Edward held her away.

"Alice. Alice, listen." She didn't listen, but he talked anyway. "That's Rosalie Hale. I really want to make a book with her, but first we have to talk on the phone. Can you let me do that?"

"No! I hattoo! Habbit!"

He sighed and sat down on the bed, letting her squirm off of his lap. She ran to the bureau and stretched up on her toes, trying in vain to reach the phone.

"Please? Can I just have five minutes?"

"No!" She grunted as she tried to stretch higher. "Habbit, Uh-wud!"

"Why don't you read a book or something?"

"Habba phone! Wite now!"

"How about this? I'll put it on speaker and we can both talk to her."

"I do it."

"You want to put it on speaker?"

"Uh-huh."

Edward scooped her up and picked up the phone again. He ignored the laughter from the other end of the call as he pointed to the speaker button. "Tap this one right here."

Alice complied and immediately called out, "Hi! Diss Awiss!"

"Hi, there!" came the far-to-amused response. "Edward, Tanya didn't tell me you had a kid."

"I don't. I'm just babysitting."

"No! No!" Alice grabbed his face with both hands and turned it toward her with some urgency. "A-notta beebee. Diss yun yaidy."

"Excuse me. I'm young lady-sitting."

Rosalie let out another laugh before she got down to business. "Tanya said you were in Forks. Is that still true?"

"Yeah, for a few more days, I guess."

"That's perfect. I'm staying at my grandmother's cabin in Sekiu."

"Where, now?"

She huffed. "I'm a half hour away. Can you meet tomorrow?"

"Uh." He scratched the back of his head. He wanted to get Alice to her swimming lessons in the morning, if possible. Plus his mom would be in before lunch, and then the will reading was scheduled for the afternoon. And he was sure his mom was going to need all kinds of emotional wrangling after that.

"Hi," Alice said, reminding Rosalie that she was still there. "Habba pity jwess. See it?"

Rosalie's voice went all soft and sweet. "A pretty dress? What color is it?"

"Ween wun! Hassum yace!"

"I see. That sounds very pretty."

"Look," Edward said, interrupting their chatter and trying not to be annoyed that Rosalie seemed to understand Alice without any trouble, "Tomorrow's not great. How about Tuesday?"

"I can't on Tuesday. I'd really like to do this tomorrow."

"How about right now? I'm free for a few hours."

"How about tomorrow?"

"Jesus Christ," he muttered. "You're going to be a pain in the ass to work with, aren't you?"

"That's something you're going to want to get comfortable with."

"You habba pity jwess?" Alice asked.

"I do. I have a pretty red dress. Do you have a red dress?"

"Yes!" Alice said, getting excited. "Potoey wun!"

"Ooh, how nice!"

"Okay, look," Edward said, "I've got a lot going tomorrow, but we could maybe meet for dinner?"

There was a beat of silence, and when she answered, her voice had gone cold. "You get that this isn't a date, right?"

"Oh, for hell's sake. I'm not asking you out. I have roughly eleven free seconds tomorrow and I'm offering them to you. Take it or leave it."

"You're going to be a pain in the ass to work with, aren't you?"

"That's pretty much a given."

"Fine. Dinner. But I don't want it to be someplace public. I'll come to your house and you can cook."

That worked well enough. He still had a stack of donated dinners in the freezer. "Deal. Seven?"

"Fine. Do yourself a favor and see if you can get your lawyer to teleconference in."

"Wait, what?"

She let out an annoyed sigh. "Your lawyer. Which I know you have. Rich people always have lawyers on retainer. That's half the reason I picked you for the project."

A weird, excited shiver started in Edward's stomach. "You picked me . . . shit. We're going to get sued, aren't we?" His voice came out sounding way too eager, and he heard the grin in her hum of affirmation.

"We're definitely going to get sued."

"What exactly is in that stash of yours?"

"Masen, it's going to make you cream your jeans."

"A-jeans?" Alice asked.

Edward snickered. "Right. We should probably watch our language around the kid."

"Anyway, the lawyer doesn't have to be there tomorrow," she said, "but we should have a chat with your firm at some point. They'll want to gear up for this. Some well-connected people are going to come after us. Oh, and also, you'll be signing a non-disclosure agreement, so someone should probably look it over for you."

He couldn't stop grinning. Which was maybe a stupid response to an impending legal catastrophe, but there had always been a part of Edward that liked to stir shit up. And if anyone deserved to be exposed, it was Caius fucking Christopher.

"Cool. Can you email that to me? I'll see if I can get someone to look at it today."

"No problem. You'll have it in a few minutes. See you at dinner tomorrow?"

"A-dinnoo?" Alice asked. "Hassum appasoss?"

"See you then." Edward showed Alice how to disconnect the call, then locked the phone and handed it back to her. She wandered off, chatting happily to an imaginary caller, and Edward finished hanging up his clothes.

He couldn't fucking wait.


Edward was pleased to learn that he could get an Instacart delivery in Forks. He very much didn't want to haul Alice to the grocery store, but the dinner tonight was potluck. He considered pulling donated food out of the freezer, but that seemed tacky. Like regifting.

So when he discovered that he could get a dessert delivered from the grocery store bakery, he was pretty happy. Alice helped him choose what to get, meaning she kicked up a fuss until he agreed to order both the raspberry cheesecake and the caramel pecan brownies. He added a few incidentals to the cart to round out the order, but he didn't get much. He hoped to be out of this town in a few days, and he didn't want to end up throwing out a bunch of food. But Alice's stash of grapes was getting low and there wasn't a bottle of wine to be found in the entire house—which didn't make any damn sense—so he was glad to be able to get his hands on some necessities.

He was ready in plenty of time for the barbecue. He had Alice dressed in a lacy green dress and he'd managed to arrange her hair into a couple of pigtails which, after the third attempt, weren't even very crooked. He had his two desserts and his two diaper bags, and he made sure that Alice had her pendy puss over her shoulder. It was still about ten minutes before he was expected next door, and it seemed embarrassingly unfashionable to arrive early, but he was worried that if he waited any longer, Alice would end up spilling something on her dress or dumping out the contents of her purse. So he gathered up the baby paraphernalia and steered the kid out the door.

Carlisle answered his knock with a warm smile. He gave a curious little head tilt when he saw Edward's two diaper bags, but he showed Edward a coat rack where he could hang them and then turned to look down at Alice.

"Did you take any Benadryl?"

She shook her head vehemently.

Carlisle glanced up at Edward. "I don't suppose you gave her any."

"Uh. Was I supposed to?"

"No, it's fine, I have some. Alice, sweetheart, let's go get your medicine."

"No messin!" Alice said. She tried to dart away, but Carlisle caught her and swung her up into his arms.

"Is she allergic to something?" Edward asked, following him down a hall to the bathroom.

"Only mildly. Alice loves playing with Jacob's dog, but she gets itchy if she doesn't take Benadryl first."

"No!" Alice was protesting. "No messin!"

"If you don't take your medicine, you can't play with Circe."

"Noooo!" she wailed. "Hattoo!"

"We'll be so fast," Carlisle assured her. "One little swallow and you'll be all done, and then you can run around with Circe all you want."

"Nooo-oooo-oooo!" she cried, but Carlisle took it in stride. He set her on the counter while he filled a plastic spoon with pink liquid, and Edward watched in awe as he coaxed Alice into accepting it. Edward was damn sure she wouldn't have swallowed it if he'd been the one giving it to her.

"There we go," he said, rinsing the spoon. "All done. Now you're ready to play."

Now that the medicine was gone, Alice's protests were over. She perked up, looking past Carlisle. "Soo-see hee-o?"

"Not yet. Pretty soon." Carlisle picked her up again, but as he passed Edward he asked softly, "Did you happen to bring a change of clothes for her?"

"Yeah. Learned that lesson."

He nodded his approval and led the way back to the kitchen.

Edward offered his help, and Carlisle set him to work putting a stack of plates and bundles of flatware on the kitchen table. Alice wandered into the living room, and a couple of minutes later she started yelling, "Yee-ya! Yee-ya!"

"You okay?" Edward asked her, looking over at where she'd been waiting on the sofa, peering out the window. She was scrambling down from her perch, and the moment her feet hit the floor she ran for the door. "Yee-ya hee-o!" She grabbed for the doorknob, which she couldn't quite reach, and grunted as she stretched. "Tah-why, hope! Yee-ya hee-o!"

Carlisle strode out of the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel, and opened the door for Alice. She darted outside and ran down the long ramp to where a Native American family was approaching the house. A teenage girl hurried to meet her and swung the toddler up onto her hip. Alice hugged her enthusiastically, but by the time they made it to the door, Alice was wiggling out of the girl's arms and spinning to show off her dress. The girl smiled and told her how pretty it was, but when she looked up and saw Edward, her smile fell.

Edward had barely registered that there were tears forming in the girl's eyes before she had darted over to him and thrown her arms around his waist.

"Please don't stop the payments," she begged. "Please, I'll do anything. I can't grow hair—I couldn't stand it!"

"Um." Edward was not comfortable being hugged by a strange girl, and he offered an awkward pat on her back only because there didn't seem to be anything else to do with his hands. "I don't know what's happening right now."

Carlisle stepped in and guided her away from Edward. "I don't think he's gone through all of Ted's documents yet," he said, steering her toward the sofa. "He probably doesn't know what you mean."

The girl's family followed her inside, and Edward didn't miss that they all looked at him with expectation. His discomfort level rose a notch.

Carlisle urged everyone to sit and the girl pulled Alice into her lap.

"Edward, this is Harry and Sue Clearwater," Carlisle said.

"Diss Huh-wee, diss Sue, diss Uh-wud, diss Yee-yah, diss Awiss!"

"Thank you, Alice," Carlisle said warmly. "Leah and Seth are Harry and Sue's children," he added, completing the introductions for Edward.

"Leah . . . the babysitter, right?" And the Clearwaters, who had some sort of medical issue that Ted had been helping with. Edward felt like he was beginning to catch up.

Leah nodded.

"Do you mind if I tell him about the arrangement you had with Ted?" Carlisle asked.

"Go ahead," Leah said, wiping away a tear.

"Yee-ya sad?"

Leah hugged Alice but didn't answer.

"Leah has been receiving gender affirming care," Carlisle told Edward. "Her family's health insurance doesn't cover it, so Ted has been sending payments to the hospital to cover the costs. In return, Leah has been doing housekeeping for him and tending Alice as needed."

"Housekeeping," Edward said. "That's why you're on his calendar so often."

She nodded.

"Okay. This makes sense. And now, of course, you're concerned about continuing care."

"Yeah." She looked uncomfortable, but not, Edward noticed, as uncomfortable as her parents looked. Edward felt some mild concern for the foil-wrapped package in Sue's hands that seemed to be collapsing under the strength of her grip.

"This isn't your problem," Harry muttered. "We'll figure it out."

Edward dipped his head in a nod. He knew, of course, that he needed to keep making payments. He wasn't going to disrespect his father's memory by refusing aid to his friends. But he hadn't forgotten Carlisle's explanation of how difficult this kind of situation could be.

"It's possible," Edward said, "that this whole thing will have been decided already. It would be like Dad to put a codicil in the will requiring continued funding of the treatments." And if there wasn't one, Edward was fully prepared to lie and pretend there was. "The reading is tomorrow, and once that happens I'm sure I'll have a better understanding of what his intentions were. Are there any outstanding payments right now?"

Harry and Sue shook their heads.

"Okay. Give me a few days to figure this out. Dad's holdings are pretty complex, but I'll have lawyers and accountants available to help me tomorrow. I'll get back to you with info on this as soon as I can."

"Do you still want me to come over tomorrow?" Leah asked.

"I'd appreciate the help. Uh . . . I'll be at the reading. Do you have a guest code?"

She nodded.

"Great. Go ahead and let yourself in. I assume you know what to do?"

"I usually vacuum, dust, change sheets, do laundry, things like that."

"Perfect. You do your thing and I'll see what I can figure out."

Alice suddenly scrambled to her feet, standing on Leah's lap to look out the window behind her. A minivan was pulling up behind the Clearwaters' car. "Soo-see! Yee-ya, Soo-see! A-pay!"

"Yay!" Leah said. Her eyes were still watery, but she gave Alice what enthusiasm she could muster. "Let's go play with Circe!"

The two of them hurried out to the van as a side door opened and a golden retriever bounded out. Edward was on his feet, ready to run to Alice when the energetic dog bowled her over, but the dog stopped short and nuzzled her with much less force than Edward had expected. It was still enough to push Alice back a step, but she didn't fall over.

Alice was so excited to see the dog that she couldn't stand still. She danced in place, her rainbow-colored sandals clapping against the ground in her enthusiasm. She patted the dog's head none too gently, but the dog bore it with patience and licked her face, eliciting a manic squeal.

"Circe's great with the kids," Carlisle assured Edward, watching him waver indecisively over whether he should go rescue Alice from the overenthusiastic dog.

And it did seem that he wasn't needed. Leah had taken Alice's hand and was leading her into the house, with Circe dancing along beside them. They crossed through to the back door, and then Alice and the dog both darted outside, chasing each other across the large deck and onto the back lawn. Which wasn't fenced, Edward noted with dissatisfaction. Which meant there was a gorgeous view of the river in the distance, but Edward didn't love that there was nothing but a few hundred yards of grass and gravel between said river and Alice. He moved to the back door and watched them nervously.

"Leah's got her," Carlisle murmured.

"I'll help," Seth said, speaking for the first time. He jumped up and ran out the door.

It was surprisingly hard to trust them. Surely Alice must play outside with Circe and the Clearwater kids all the time. Carlisle was confident in their ability to look after her, and Edward was pretty sure Carlisle could be relied on to prioritize Alice's welfare. Still, Circe was a lot bigger than Alice, and there was that river . . .

"You don't have to pay our medical bills," Harry said from behind him.

Edward had almost forgotten what he was talking about. He turned and shrugged, trying to come off as casual even while his thoughts lingered on Alice. "I might, though. It depends on how Dad managed things. We'll see what happens with his will."

"It was really too generous of him to do as much as he's already done," Sue added.

Edward smiled softly. "That was Dad, though, wasn't it? He took care of people."

In another moment, a small child came tearing through the house on his way to the back yard, and Edward was surprised to realize that he recognized the boy. It was Colin, the little guy the Swan woman had given water to when Edward had picked up Alice at her house. He turned to see if she had arrived, but Grace and Jacob were the ones who walked through the door. Jacob held a fussing baby in his arms and was murmuring to it as he patted its back. Grace came bearing a large covered bowl.

"Isn't that Bella's kid?" he asked, jerking his thumb in Colin's direction.

Grace shook her head. "That one's all mine. Bella doesn't have kids."

"I swear I saw him over there."

"Thursday night," Jacob said, nudging Grace, and her eyes registered understanding. "Grace was in California visiting her mom," he explained to Edward. "Bella watched Colin and Phoebe for me when I was at work."

A high-pitched wail sounded from outside, and Jacob and Grace both hurried out to deal with it. It hadn't been Alice's voice, but Edward looked out the back door to check on her anyway. Leah and Alice were kneeling next to Circe, who had rolled onto her back to accept tummy rubs. They were looking over at a crying Colin, who had apparently fallen down and was clutching a skinned elbow. He ran to Grace, who showered him with kisses and sympathy.

The loud rattle of an engine distracted Edward, and he turned toward the front window again. An old red truck was pulling up in front of the house, and as he watched, Bella Swan hopped out from behind the wheel and moved to put down the tailgate.

Carlisle and Harry turned and headed for the door. Sue lingered behind, though, so Edward did too, watching as the two men strode down the ramp to the truck. Bella had climbed up into the truck bed, and Carlisle hopped in with her, helping her maneuver a wheelchair out the back where Harry was waiting to receive it.

Yeah. Edward should have gone to help.

Sue drifted close to Edward. He didn't look at her, but he could feel her just a couple of inches away from his arm.

"Harry won't say it, but there's no way we can keep up with Leah's treatments without help."

He glanced down at her. Her gaze was fixed on the activity out the front window, and he thought her cheeks looked a little flushed.

"She almost died," she added as though it were an afterthought. "She was so unhappy."

Edward swallowed hard, reading between the lines. "I hear you. I'll do what I can to keep that from happening again."

That was all the time they had to talk privately. Jacob strode back in, promising the baby that he'd have her bottle ready in just a few minutes, and Sue moved to help him.

Edward felt useless. He didn't really know what to do to help with the kids, and anyway, it looked like the others had that taken care of. Out in the front yard, Charlie and Billy had been helped out of the truck and into their wheelchairs, and they were now being pushed up the ramps by Harry and Carlisle. Bella was following with what looked like a vegetable tray in her hands. Edward stood there feeling awkward while the living room filled up with a lot of people who swapped hugs and greetings with each other but not with him.

Food. He could handle food. He started relieving people of the dishes they had brought and taking them to the kitchen. Carlisle joined him and they uncovered side dishes and set them out on the table to be collected buffet style. Edward was putting out a stack of napkins that Carlisle had handed him when Bella wandered over and propped one hip against the table. She was looking good, Edward noticed. The frizzy fly-away hairs from the other night had been tamed, and her long hair falling around her face made her look pretty nice. She still had dark smudges under her eyes, like she hadn't gotten enough sleep, but the make-up mostly hid them.

The jeans she was wearing did really excellent things for her ass.

"How are you doing?" she asked him.

"Better." He flashed her a half smile. "I've managed to stop bawling into a handkerchief, so you know. Progress."

"Good." She folded her arms over her chest. "So. Harpy, huh?"

Edward nearly choked. "What? Um." How the fuck did she know about that? "What?"

Jacob was standing just a few feet away and he started laughing. "I'm sorry, man. I couldn't resist."

"How did you . . . ?"

"How did I hear you when you called Bella a harpy?"

Edward looked back at Bella, feeling his face start to heat. "Listen. I was in a state of shock. I can't be held responsible for anything I said that night."

Bella's stern look broke and she grinned. "Sure, let's go with that."

Edward smiled back, feeling relieved. He'd exchanged enough unpleasant words in the last few days. He really didn't want to start another battle with Bella, harpy or not.

"Everything okay?" Carlisle appeared with a pair of barbecue tongs and glanced between the three of them.

"Fine," Bella said with a sweet smile. "Edward was just giving us nicknames."

He shot Edward a curious look, but when Edward kept his mouth shut, he gestured toward the table with his tongs. "The ribs are ready. Go ahead and start getting food.

Bella was standing next to the stack of plates, so she began. She took one and Edward followed after, glancing over the food on offer. It wasn't until Jacob came along behind him and took two plates that he realized that he should be dishing up food for both himself and Alice. And then he was really embarrassed to have forgotten, because what kind of person forgets to feed his kid? So instead of reaching back for a second plate, he just started putting small portions of food onto the one he had, as though he had meant all along to do Alice's first and then come back for his own.

Once he had collected a little bit of food for her, he stepped out onto the deck and took a single rib for her from the stack Carlisle was removing from the barbecue. He set the plate on one of the patio tables and cut the meat from the bone, chopping it into small pieces to make it manageable for Alice. Then he straightened and looked around, wondering where he should get her set up.

"The kids like to eat on the grass when it's not raining," Jacob said, answering his unasked question. He was already leading the way, calling Colin over, and Edward followed. He called to Alice, but he was pretty sure she only came because Circe also loped over to join them. Edward set her plate on the ground, following Jacob's lead, and handed her a spoon.

"Edward," Carlisle called from the deck.

He looked up and Carlisle threw a folded cloth to him. Edward caught it and shook it out. It was essentially a large hand towel with a hole in one end. It took Edward a minute to realize it was a bib. He shot Carlise a grateful look and turned back to Alice.

"Let's get this on you," he said. "Gotta keep your dress from getting dirty."

"Doody?" Alice asked in alarm, looking down at her dress.

"No, it's clean. And we want to keep it that way." He maneuvered the bib over her head and nudged her plate forward.

"O-boees!" she said excitedly, picking a chuck of strawberry out of the fruit salad.

"Yeah. Try to eat something other than fruit, though, huh? If you want to stay alive, you need to get some protein."

"Woteen?"

"This." Edward pointed to a chunk of rib meat.

Alice looked at it for a minute and then picked a chunk of pineapple out of her fruit salad and poked it into her mouth.

Edward shook his head and stood. Maybe she'd have some meat when she'd eaten all of the fruit.

He went back for his own food, and by the time he had filled a plate, the tables on the deck had been claimed. On one side, Harry, Sue, Billy, and Charlie sat together, with baby Phoebe perched on Billy's lap, gnawing on a cracker. On the other side, Jacob, Grace, Bella and Carlisle sat together. Leah and Seth were down on the grass, keeping an eye on the little kids.

Carlisle pulled out the empty chair between himself and Bella and invited Edward to sit.

"It's time, Bella," Jacob said, as Edward settled into the proffered chair. "Let's hear it."

Bella glared at him.

He threw back his head and laughed. "You had another one, didn't you?"

"Shut up," she muttered, glowering down at her plate.

"How many minutes did this one last?" Grace asked.

Bella heaved a sigh. "Zero. I didn't even make it into the restaurant."

Jacob hooted with laughter, and beside Edward, Carlisle chuckled. "Bella's been having some bad luck in the dating department," he explained to Edward.

"Ooh! Tell the whole story!" Grace said, clapping her hands in her eagerness.

Bella glared at her. "I hate you so much."

"Tell!" Jacob chanted, and Grace joined him. "Tell! Tell! Tell!"

Bella pursed her lips in defeat, turning to Edward. "So. I don't have a lot of time to go out. It's usually somewhere around once a month. But ideally I would someday like to not be pathetic and alone, so I try. And things were okay-ish. No magic, but I was having some decent dates with a few guys without too much awkwardness . . ."

"Until the hair jizzer!" Jacob burst out in a loud whisper.

"Until the hair jizzer," she agreed.

Edward grimaced. "That sounds grim."

"I went out with this guy, and it was fine. We went to dinner, and he wasn't a brilliant conversationalist, but . . . fine. We went dancing and he was actually pretty good at that. I'm a terrible dancer, but he was cool. He showed me some steps and kept me from falling down a lot, and we were having a pretty good time. And then we were taking a rest and having a drink, and he looked over at me all sexy and said, 'You have really pretty hair. I can't wait to come in it.' "

Edward made a face and the others burst out laughing.

"And for some reason," Bella continued when the racket died down, "I felt obligated to continue the date. I was one hundred percent turned off, I had no interest in seeing him again, but some absurd social rule in my head told me I had to stay with him until the evening came to its natural conclusion. Which I didn't think should necessarily involve him coming in my hair, but he apparently did, because shortly after that he started trying to get me to go home with him. And when I said no, he threw this huge fit in the dance hall, called me all kinds of ugly names, and though I didn't realize it at the time, he placed a curse on me."

"A curse?" Edward asked skeptically while the others laughed.

"It's true, dude," Jacob said. "She hasn't had a good date since."

"She hardly gives them a chance, though," Grace protested. "She walks out as soon as they do the littlest thing she doesn't like."

"Um, excuse me," Bella said defensively, "they are not little things. They're deal-breakers. And why would I stay when I know there's not the slightest chance of a future with them?"

"Tell him about the second one," Jacob said, way too excited to listen to a recitation of Bella's pain.

She sighed. "He spoke in movie quotes all night. Not one single original sentence. And he did voices."

"Voices?" Edward asked.

"Don Corleone. Yoda. Et cetera."

Edward snickered. He couldn't help it. "How many bad dates have there been?"

"Eleven and counting," Jacob supplied.

"Hang on," Bella said, throwing up a hand. "Does last night count? If I didn't even walk into the restaurant?"

"Yes," Jacob said automatically. "What happened?"

"I saw his truck coming down the street when I was getting out of my car," Bella said, sounding chagrined. "So I waited for him in the parking lot. And . . ." she sat back and crossed her arms over her chest, "he swerved to hit a squirrel."

The others groaned.

"And then he cheered," she said. "When he got out of the truck, he was all, 'Did you see that?' And he gave me a play-by-play of how he had very skillfully run down a tiny, helpless animal."

"A new record!" Jacob announced. "Beating out the previous record holder of fifteen minutes."

Edward arched an eyebrow at her. "What does a guy have to do to end a date in fifteen minutes?"

"I'm sure there are many, many things," she muttered.

"But in this case?"

"He claimed the Holocaust was a hoax."

Edward gaped at her. "Seriously? I thought people like that only really existed on Twitter."

"Yeah, well, this one was corporeal and I wasn't into it. I walked out."

"This is incredible." Edward shook his head. "And really entertaining. I have to know more."

"I feel like you don't. I feel like that's enough."

"Yeah, right," Jacob said. "Like we're going to just drop it. Who else was there?"

"The comedian," Carlisle contributed, prompting Bella to continue.

"Ugh—that asshole. He barely even said hi before he was launching into what I swear was a prepared comedy routine about how stupid and trashy women are."

"That seems . . . ill-advised for a date," Edward said.

"Tell him my favorite one," Grace said, practically bouncing in her chair.

Bella buried her head in her hands. "I don't want to. Haven't you had enough?"

"Nope. It gets funnier every time."

"Fine," Bella grumbled. "After I finished dinner with this one guy, he proposed."

"On the first date?" Edward asked.

She nodded into her hands. "He said God had given him a witness that we were meant to be together, and when I told him to slow his roll, he lectured me about obstructing God's will."

"Jesus Christ."

"His too."

Edward snorted.

"And my favorite," Carlisle prompted.

"I hate you guys so much."

"Tell!" Jacob crowed.

Bella dropped her hands and sat stiffly in her chair. "He brought an application," she said. "He expected me to submit—in writing—my qualifications to be his girlfriend. And he wanted references from my ex-boyfriends."

Edward's jaw dropped. "What. The fuck."

"Right?" she said, throwing up her hands.

"Tell the rest," Jacob said.

"No."

"Tell the rest!"

"No."

Jacob turned to Edward. "When he handed her the application, he told her that he'd usually disqualify her right away because she wasn't a blonde, but he already had a little chub from looking at her, so he'd give her a chance."

Bella pushed back her plate and buried her head in her arms. "I hate you guys so much."

"Hey, we're not the bad dates," Grace said.

"You're glorying in my pain."

"That's because your pain is hilarious," Jacob explained.

"That's, what, seven?" Edward asked. "I think I've got a few more stories coming. Please continue."

"The other ones aren't as bad," Grace said.

"They're not as funny," Bella corrected. "But they're just as bad. Like, I was out with this guy who I thought could be kinda great. He was getting a doctorate degree and he was interesting to talk to. But he needed to stop at a store for a minute, so we went in and he kept grabbing things off the shelf and handing them to me to carry. So pretty soon I'm loaded down and juggling all these things, and instead of letting him dump the next thing on me, I say, 'Do you think you could carry something?' And he looks at me and goes, 'Are you always such a precious bitch?' "

"Whoa."

"Yeah. So I dropped all his things on the floor and left."

"I gotta go with Bella on this one," Edward told Grace. "I think that was the right move."

"That's eight," Carlisle said. "Who have we missed? Oh—the one who was trying to recruit you to sell essential oils."

"And the one who spent the whole night talking about how stupid his son was," Bella added.

"Who was the other one?" Grace asked.

"The gentleman," Bella said with a glower.

Edward shot her a questioning look. "This is a bad thing?"

She shook her head. "I always drive. Always. I'm not about to put myself in a situation I can't get out of. So I went bowling with this guy who really, really wanted to pick me up, but I said no. I always drive. So I met him there, and . . . okay, I'm a bad bowler. It's not a skill I've cultivated. Which doesn't mean I can't enjoy it, it just means I'm going to have an abysmal score. I'm fine with it. But my date seemed to have a hard time understanding how a woman could lose a game and still have fun, so he started to lose on purpose."

"So patronizing," Grace murmured.

"Exactly. I told him that I was perfectly comfortable losing the game, and that he should just bowl the way he bowls instead of trying to spare my feelings, but he couldn't do it. We both knew that he was letting me win and he did it anyway. Which was super annoying, but maybe forgivable. Like, maybe I could eventually convince him not to treat me like a child. But then he wanted to go to dinner, so we headed out to our cars, and he grabbed my keys out of my hand."

"I'm surprised she didn't punch him right there," Jacob told Edward. "Bella does not mess around when it comes to her car."

"It's my car," she said in a hard voice, and Edward got the distinct impression that there was something ugly behind her possessiveness. "Lucky for him, he only used the keys to open my door for me and then he gave them back. I told him in no uncertain terms that he was never to grab anything out of my hands like that again, but he didn't hear me because he was too busy insisting that he was being polite. And seriously, I should have just gone home right then."

"Shit. What else did he do?"

"When we finished with dinner, he grabbed my purse before I could pick it up and started digging around in it to get my keys so he could open my door for me again."

"Wait." Edward sat back. "He went through your purse? Seriously? Has this guy heard of boundaries?"

"I yelled at him." Bella shrugged. "Right there in the restaurant, top volume, I told him exactly what I thought of his grabby bullshit and said he needed to keep his goddamn hands off my goddamn keys."

"Huh. So no second date?"

She laughed and shook her head. "No, he gave up on me then. He called me a feminist like it was some kind of insult and stomped out."

"Well, damn." Edward put down his fork. "This is the best dinner conversation I've had in a while. When's your next date? I'm going to want to hear about it."

"Shut up," she muttered.

Edward heard Alice giggle and turned to glance at her. Circe was licking her hand, and as Edward watched, she picked a chunk of meat off of her plate and offered it to the dog. Circe accepted the gift with enthusiasm.

"Alice, you're supposed to be eating that," he called to her.

She didn't even turn to look at him. The dog was far more interesting.

He decided it wasn't worth the fight and turned back to the table. It was a party, right? It probably wasn't the place to try to talk her into doing something she didn't want to do.

"They're good listeners, aren't they?" Jacob said. "I tell Colin not to jump on the bed at least once a week, but I've had to fix the slats on his bed frame four times."

"Does he sleep in his bed, though?" Edward asked. "Because I haven't slept alone once since I picked up the kid, and it's getting old fast."

"Colin never has a hard time going to bed," Grace said. "We read him a story and give him a glass of water, and he's down for the night."

Edward scowled at her. "And I thought I liked you."

"It's not my fault I'm an amazing parent."

Edward felt Bella's foot reach past his to nudge Carlisle's leg. "You're quiet tonight," she said.

He smiled sadly and glanced at Edward. "He's a lot like Ted, isn't he?"

Bella nodded, but her sympathetic gaze stayed on Carlisle. "You're missing him pretty badly?"

He nodded, his eyes dropping to his plate.

Edward watched Carlisle for a long moment. Maybe the man's grief wasn't as controlled as he had guessed. A jarring thought struck him and he sat up straighter.

"Was there . . . more than friendship between you and my dad?"

"No," Carlisle said quietly, not meeting Edward's eyes. "Ted wouldn't have been interested in anything like that."

"He wouldn't have."

Carlisle cleared his throat softly and took his time answering. "Our friendship meant the world to me. I didn't disrespect it by asking for more."

Edward sat back, still watching Carlisle, and the man pushed himself to his feet.

"Excuse me," he murmured and disappeared inside the house.

He left a brief silence in his wake, which Grace broke after a moment. "I mean, we were all half in love with Ted. But the two of them had something different. I can't even imagine how hard this is on Carlisle."

And once again, Edward found himself resenting the man. Edward was Ted's son. Edward had the right to be recognized as the grieving party, the one who had lost the most with Ted's death. And there was Carlisle, profoundly hurt by the loss, competing with him for pride of place.

Which was all entirely irrational. Of course his father had loved other people. He'd had a life entirely separate from Edward's, and it only stood to reason that he'd have made close friends. But Edward kept looking around and finding Carlisle standing in the place where he himself was supposed to be. Carlisle knew about Ted's business and philanthropic ventures, Carlisle was close to all of Ted's friends, and Carlisle had Alice's allergy medicine in his bathroom cabinet. There was nothing really wrong with any of that, but it irritated Edward anyway.

"Daddy!"

Edward turned automatically at the sound of Alice's voice.

"Daddy! A-dun! Da—" She caught his eye and corrected herself. "Uh-wud! A-dun!"

"You ate all your dinner?" he asked, rising from the table and heading down the steps to the grass.

"Yes!"

Edward looked at her plate. The only things missing were her fruit salad and the meat, and he knew who had eaten the meat.

"All you had was fruit," he said.

"Uh-huh."

"You didn't want to have any carrots? Or tomatoes?"

"Um. No."

"Right. Listen. Has anyone ever told you about malnutrition?"

"A-chwishun?"

"Yeah. That's what happens when all you eat is fruit. It's not great."

Alice started pulling her bib over her head, and when she struggled with it, Edward helped her. Between the bib and running around with the dog, her ponytails had gotten crooked and saggy. She didn't seem to mind, though, so Edward left them alone.

"Do you think you could try some of this garlic bread?" he prompted.

"No." Alice was apparently finished with their conversation because she got up and started to toddle away. She headed toward the deck and climbed the steps, leaving Edward behind.

"Okay. Cool." Which was probably the wrong response. He was pretty sure he was supposed to pretend the food was an airplane or something so that she would be willing to eat it. But how bad could a couple of days of poor diet really be? The following afternoon was the will reading, where she would be placed into the care of someone who was actually competent. She'd be fine.

Alice had sought out Harry Clearwater, and now she was twisting from side to side and smiling coquettishly up at him. "Huh-wee. Hassum tanny?"

"Why . . ." Harry patted his pockets and drew out a butterscotch. "Look at that! Would you like a candy?"

Alice giggled and, with his help, climbed into his lap.

Edward shook his head and headed back to the table. "It's like pulling teeth to get her to eat a decent meal," he said to the others.

"Been there," Grace replied. "Colin went through a phase where he didn't willingly eat anything but green beans for months."

"At least Alice eats more than one fruit," Jacob added.

Edward looked over at Alice again. She was sitting on his lap, her candy stuffed into one cheek as she talked to him.

"You Po-oat," she said, poking his chest.

"That's right," he agreed.

"Awiss Po-oat."

"That's right."

"Chawie Po-oat." This time she was scrunching up her face in a mischievous grin, as though she knew she was about to be contradicted.

"No," Harry scoffed. "Charlie isn't Po-oke."

"Jaytub Po-oat."

"Yes, Jacob is Po-oke."

Alice looked around. "Sue Po-oat."

"That's right."

"Uh-wud Po-oat?"

"No, Edward is not Po-oke."

"What's Po-oke?" Edward asked the others at the table. He didn't love the idea of Harry classifying him and Alice in two separate groups.

"Quileute," Jacob said.

"Oh." That should have been okay, but he still chafed at being categorically differentiated. They were family.

"Harry teaches the Quileute language at the reservation school three times a week."

"Dang. That's cool."

"Soo-see Po-oat?" Alice asked Harry.

"No," he said solemnly. "Circe is a dog."

"Soo-see!" Alice slid down from his lap and ran to the edge of the deck. "Soo-see!"

Circe loped over to her and Alice crawled backwards down the steps. Edward winced involuntarily when she grabbed handfuls of the dog's fur and clung to her, but Circe didn't act like she minded a bit. She turned and licked Alice's cheek until Alice squealed and released her. Then the dog ran off and Alice chased after her.

"That's a hell of a good dog," Edward murmured.

"Yeah, Circe's a sweetheart," Jacob agreed.

Carlisle reemerged from the house with dessert. He passed around plates of cheesecake and brownies, and when everyone had been served, he returned to his seat. Bella caught his hand and squeezed it as he walked past, and Jacob patted his back after he sat down. Carlisle smiled his gratitude to both of them.

"So listen," Edward said, casting around for a change of subject, "does anyone know where Alice is supposed to have swimming lessons tomorrow?"

The community center seemed to be the place for it. They helped him find the address online and assured him that Google Maps would actually get him there this time. It seemed that Alice's dance classes were in the same building, though Edward figured that this was information he probably wouldn't need. His days of being responsible for the kid were coming to a close. But he would do his part and get Alice to her swimming lessons in the morning. He skimmed idly through the community center's website, glancing through the amenities, and stopped when he saw an image of exercise equipment.

"They have a gym," he said, brightening. It had been too many days since he'd been to one.

"If you can call two treadmills and two exercise bikes a gym," Jacob said. "You've got better stuff in your basement."

He looked up from his phone. "Dad's house has a basement?"

Bella snickered.

"There's a staircase to it that leads underneath the back porch," Carlisle told him. "It was added after the house was built, so it's a little unconventional."

Colin let out a shriek and they all turned to look at him. "It's raining!" he yelled with more drama than Edward thought was warranted in a town that was perpetually in the shadow of storm. The boy ran for the house just as Edward felt the first drip of water on his arm.

Everyone started getting up from the tables, collecting plates and glasses and heading inside. Edward followed suit, glancing over his shoulder to where Alice was still running around the yard after Circe.

"Alice, let's go inside before it gets too wet."

"No! Payf Soo-see!"

"We have to put her in the garage," Seth told her. He whistled for Circe and led her through the back door.

"Nooooo!" Alice wailed, running after them.

Edward deposited his dishes in the kitchen and then leaned down to catch Alice before she could chase Circe into the garage. In the process, he also caught a whiff of what was happening in her diaper.

"Whoa, kid, let's get you changed, huh?"

"No!" She protested. "Yemmy doh! Payf Soo-see!"

"You can't play with Circe right now. Maybe in a little while."

Alice broke out into angry crying, stretching toward the door where Seth had taken Circe. Edward headed into the living room, in the opposite direction, and she howled her dissatisfaction with him. And then, of course, she wanted her Daddy.

"Here, let me," Carlisle murmured. "I'm sure you've done enough of this lately." He held out his hands for Alice and she threw her arms around him, crying into his shoulder. He went to the rack where the diaper bags had been left and glanced at Edward for guidance. "Do they both have diapers?"

"Ummm . . ." He dug through the tote, but there weren't any in there, so he grabbed the backpack. Yes, there were diapers in the backpack. He handed it off to Carlisle.

"Hammye pendy puuuuuuss," Alice wailed.

Edward lifted her purse off the rack and handed it to her, and she clutched it to her chest.

Bella and Grace were taking seats on the sofa as Carlisle disappeared down the hall, and an amused smile was forming on Bella's face. "You brought two diaper bags?" she asked. "To . . . go next door."

Edward narrowed his eyes at her. "Kids need a lot of stuff, okay?"

"How many diaper bags did you bring?" she asked Grace. "For your two kids?"

"Just the one," she said, failing to suppress a smile.

Edward sank into a nearby chair. "Give me a break. I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Let me help you." Grace retrieved the tote bag and took it back to her seat. She reached inside and pulled out a bottle. "Cool, well . . . Alice hasn't used bottles in a while, so you can get rid of this. And . . ." she rummaged around in the bag, "even if she were still using them, you probably wouldn't need six."

Bella snorted with laughter.

Grace put all the bottles on the sofa next to her and then pulled out a formula dispenser that Edward had thought was pretty clever. "And she doesn't use formula anymore, so you don't need this."

"Okay. I'll throw that out."

"No!" She gave an embarrassed smile. "Formula is actually kind of hard to come by right now. I'll buy it from you."

"Just take it," he said. "And, uh . . . the rest of the can is in there too."

She was gracious enough to try to hide her smile by ducking her head.

"Oh, a baby monitor. Um. Well, these are usually most useful at home. To listen for when she wakes up, you know?"

"No, I wouldn't know. She won't sleep in her room, so I haven't had any use for a monitor so far."

"Well. You probably don't need to carry this around." She pulled out a box of baby crackers and eyed it. "Go with Cheerios, raisins, or goldfish crackers. And you can put them in a much smaller container. This is taking up way too much room, and . . . yeah, she doesn't need these. These are meant for littler kids who haven't developed their digestive systems yet."

"Are those burp cloths?" Bella asked, peering into the bag.

"Do not take those out of there," Edward ordered, trying not to cringe at the memory of the public bathroom poop situation.

"I mean, cloths are useful," Grace said gently, "but do you need so many of them?"

"Maybe."

"Okay. Fair enough. I concede the cloths." She put them back in, clearly picking up on his urgency. "But let's talk about the teething rings."

"Give me your phone," Bella said, holding out her hand to Edward.

"What? Why?"

"Give."

He handed over his phone. They were helping, after all.

Bella started tapping at it and smiled. "Oh, good. You already have the Libby app. That makes this easier."

"Are you getting me a library book?" he asked.

"Yes. You're welcome."

"This particular toy," Grace said while Bella worked, "is for babies who have teeth coming in. Unless Alice just really loves them, I'd take them out and make room for things she likes better. Like her dinosaurs or her microphone."

"Those are in her pendy puss," Edward said.

"Oh, did you figure out what that was?" Bella asked.

He smirked. "Fendi purse."

Bella blinked and then let out a low laugh.

"Oh my god, that's hilarious," Grace murmured. She pulled a pacifier out of the bag and eyed it. "I don't think Alice uses these anymore." She turned to Bella for confirmation.

"Oh, yeah, I don't think she ever liked them. I remember Ted trying to use them to calm her down and they just made her mad."

"You can get rid of that," Grace said. "Are there any diapers in here?"

"They're in the other one," Edward said.

"Audiobook or text?" Bella asked.

"Uh. Audio, I guess. What are you doing?"

"What about wipes and Desitin?" Grace asked.

"What's Desitin?"

"Diaper rash cream."

"Oh. Um. Butt Paste? Is that the same?"

"Yeah, that works."

"It's in the other bag."

"Good. A change of clothes?"

"I put two dresses in the other one."

"You might consider bringing play clothes," Bella suggested. "Alice freaks out when her dresses get dirty. Here." She passed back his phone. "You don't have to listen to the whole thing. Alice is, what?" She tapped her thumb to her fingers in turn. "Twenty-seven months?"

"But she was premature," Grace said.

"Right. So maybe listen to, like, twenty months to . . . thirty? Thirty-three? That might give you an idea of where she's at."

Edward looked at the title of the book she had downloaded onto his phone: What to Expect: The Toddler Years. "You're giving me a parenting book?"

"It seems like you need one."

"I would if I were going to raise her."

Grace and Bella both fell silent.

"Aren't you?" Grace asked curiously.

"No. What do I know about raising kids?"

"What do any of us know?" Grace asked, looking uncomfortable behind her smile. "Parents just get thrown into the deep end."

"Yeah, but I'm not a parent." He glanced back and forth between the two of them. "Come on, I'm not cut out for this."

Grace looked confused and maybe . . . disappointed? But Bella was another matter altogether. Her eyes had gone hard and flat. "Who exactly do you expect to take her, then?"

"I mean . . ." He gestured toward the hallway to the bedrooms. "I figured Carlisle would probably be the one."

"Oh," Grace said.

"Are you or aren't you the next of kin?" Bella demanded.

"I'm not sure that's going to matter?"

"It's not going to matter that you're her family?"

"No. Not if Dad named Carlisle guardian instead of me."

"And why would he do that?"

Her tone was starting to piss him off. "I don't know. Maybe for the same reason that he didn't tell me she existed in the first place."

"Whose fault is that?" she snapped.

"Hang on, are you blaming me? You think I should have known something that nobody bothered to tell me?"

"It's pretty easy to keep secrets from someone who's never around."

The fact that she'd just voiced something that he'd been feeling insecure over himself sparked his temper. "I am not some absentee son!" He recognized that he was raising his voice, but under the circumstances it seemed entirely appropriate. "We talked all the time. He came to visit me every couple of months."

"While someone else watched his daughter for him so you wouldn't have to be inconvenienced."

"That wasn't my choice! I didn't even know about her!"

"Because you weren't here! He talked about getting you to come up here all the time, but you were always too busy with your precious cartoons and your very important life to bother with him!"

"I saw him all the time," Edward said, pushing himself to his feet. "In Olympia, where there's actually some semblance of civilization. What was I supposed to do, come out here and sit on a porch for a week?"

Bella got to her feet too. "Yes, God forbid you should visit a place he loved and meet people he cared about."

"He never asked me to!"

"Why should he have to ask?"

"Because I'm not a mind reader!"

"You don't have to read minds," she said acidly, "you just have to care enough to pay attention."

"You're accusing me of not caring about him?"

"That doesn't seem like a very big leap when you never even showed up to meet his daughter."

"I didn't know about her!"

"Because you couldn't be bothered! Just like you can't be bothered to take care of her now!"

"What the fuck is your problem?" he demanded. "If Dad didn't tell me about her, what makes you think he'd want me to look after her? He practically had the kid with Carlisle, so why wouldn't Carlisle be the one to be named her guardian?"

"This is very convenient for you, isn't it? It's so easy to dodge your responsibilities when you know there will be someone there to clean up after you."

"She's not my responsibility!"

"Let me ask you a question," she said coldly. "What happens when she's old enough to ask Carlisle why she's being raised by the neighbor instead of her family?"

"I don't know. Maybe he'll tell her that it's because he loves her and he was the person who was best suited for the job?"

"And how do you think that will measure up against the knowledge that her mom and her brother didn't want her?"

That stopped Edward cold. He swallowed hard. "I didn't ask for this," he said, sounding sulkier than he wanted to.

Bella looked at him with absolute disgust. "You know, with the way Ted talked about you, I expected you to be more than just a useless trust fund kid." She stalked to the coat rack and grabbed her purse. "I'm going for a drive. I'll be back in a while."

Edward wondered for a moment why she was bothering explaining herself to him, until he realized that it wasn't to him that she was speaking. Charlie and Billy had been just a few yards away, and they had watched the whole exchange. Along with everyone else. Including Carlisle, Edward realized, when he saw him standing at the end of the hall with a fussing Alice in his arms. He'd actually managed to forget about everyone else while he and Bella had been snapping at each other.

"Sorry," he muttered. Which was both untrue and not nearly enough. He glanced around and ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm going to go."

"Why don't I walk you home?" Carlisle said.

Edward sighed. "Yeah." He accepted one diaper bag from Carlisle and took the other from Grace, leaving behind the objects that she had pulled out. He tried to take Alice too, but she whined loudly and clung to Carlisle.

As though she were proving his fucking point.

He considered tossing off a nice-to-meet-you to the assembled group, but then he realized that nobody was going to be fooled by the pretense. He gave them an awkward wave instead and walked out the door.

Carlisle didn't say anything as they walked together across the grass to Ted's house. He also didn't say anything when he invited himself inside with Edward and moved to sit in the rocking chair with Alice. He cuddled her for a minute, murmuring softly until her fussing quieted. Then he raised his eyes to meet Edward's.

"I'm willing to take her."

"I figured." Edward sank down onto the couch. "It's not like I'm only thinking of myself here. I'm trying to figure out what's best for the kid."

"I don't doubt that." He sounded sincere, which was probably only surprising because Edward was feeling so defensive. Carlisle was always sincere.

"Do you think you're the best person to raise her?" Edward asked.

Carlisle leaned down and kissed the top of Alice's head. He breathed in the scent of her hair and then let his breath out long and slow. "No," he finally said quietly.

Also a surprise.

"No?"

He shook his head. "Family matters. It's not everything, and I'm sure she could be healthy and happy with me. But family matters."

"Yeah, but family members are usually familiar. Like, they've met before."

He nodded but said nothing.

"I mean, she knows you. You understand what she's saying. You're the one she wants to be with when she's upset."

"Those things come with time. She's still building a relationship with you."

"And you think she should be with me even though it means leaving the people she knows?"

He nodded and dipped his head to kiss her again. "I'm willing to take her," he said again, and then more softly, "I want to take her."

"But you still think I should."

Alice fussed again, her little fists rubbing at her eyes, and Carlisle frowned down at her. "You seem tired, sweetheart. Did you get your nap today?"

"Uh." Edward folded his hands in front of him. "Nap? Is she supposed to have that?"

Carlisle chuckled quietly. "Yes. After lunch it's usually a good idea to put her down for an hour or two."

"And how do you do that, exactly? This is what I'm talking about. I never even thought about naps—and I haven't the foggiest idea how to make her go to sleep. Because I've tried putting her in bed, and she's not into it."

Carlisle only smiled down at Alice. "You'll get there. If you decide to take her, you'll get there."

"This could all be moot, you know. I haven't unearthed a copy of the will yet. It's entirely possible that Dad named a guardian and there's no choice to be made."

"Does that sound like your father?" Carlisle asked.

Edward sighed. It didn't. His father had always given him choices. But then, the choices usually hadn't been about anything as important as another person's life. "He would have told me."

"He was always about to tell you."

They fell silent after that. Carlisle rocked Alice for a while, and when she eventually fell asleep, he carried her to her bedroom. He came back out and gave Edward a serene smile.

"I'll be happy with whatever decision you make."

Edward stood, but he couldn't find any response to that so he didn't say anything.

"I'm going to head back. I'll see you tomorrow at the reading."

"Right. See you tomorrow."

Carlisle gripped his shoulder in a gesture of support and then left.

Edward sat back down and stared into space for a long time. Eventually he decided he was too worn out to make any decisions, and he headed into the bathroom to brush his teeth.

That night, he actually managed to go to bed alone. He was by himself for a whole eighty-six minutes before Alice woke up and started to cry.