20 Agreements
Edward swept Alice off her feet, tucked his hand behind her, and then pretended to throw her down on the floor while making sure she didn't actually hit it very hard. He pinned her down with a hand on her belly and started counting. "One! Two! Three!"
She wriggled and struggled under his hand, and he let her escape him after four. She darted around behind him and slammed herself into his back. Edward pitched forward onto his stomach with an exaggerated grunt, and Alice crawled onto his back and straddled him.
"Wun! Too! Wun! Too!"
She was never going to get to ten that way, but he wriggled and pretended to struggle underneath her. He managed to tilt to one side, enough that she slid off of his back, laughing and squealing. Then he rolled over on top of her, careful to keep his full weight from crushing her.
"No! Hope! Yemmy doh!"
He gave her just enough leeway that she could squirm out from under him, but he winced when she turned back to him and leapt at him, intending to body slam him with her full weight. Edward threw up his hands just before she landed on him and raised her into the air.
"Oh, hey, this is great," he said, bench pressing her a couple of times. "Who needs weights when I can just lift Alice?"
Alice squealed in delight while, nearby, Hercules pranced around anxiously. Edward was keeping half an eye on him in case he decided that his darling Alice was really in trouble and rushed in to help her. The last thing Edward wanted was a tiny guard-puppy attacking his face. But, so far, Hercules had only watched and whined.
The doorbell rang and Alice's head snapped up.
"Owizzit?"
She squirmed until Edward put her down, and then she and Hercules ran toward the door.
Edward hauled himself off the office floor and followed them, leaving Esme and Rose inside and sliding the door closed behind him.
He glanced at the camera and smiled when he saw Leah out on the porch. He pulled the door open, and she pointed at Alice, completely ignoring Edward.
"We them boujee Natives!"
Alice must have understood her cue, because she started doing a bouncy squat dance and called back, "We-a boozhee Naydiz!"
"I got turquoise on my wrist," Leah rapped as she danced past Edward and started leading Alice toward the bedrooms.
"We-a boozhee Naydiz!"
"Five rings up on my fist."
"We-a boozhee Naydiz!"
Edward chuckled and headed back toward the office. Now that Leah was around to entertain Alice, his break time was over. He slid the door closed most of the way and settled at his desk.
"I don't know how you ever thought you could do without Leah," Esme said from where she sat at her computer.
"For real. It would take at least two people to replace her, and that's if I could find someone Alice liked as much."
"What's that they're singing?" Rose asked.
Edward shrugged, watching as Leah and Alice danced toward the laundry room with a hamper in tow.
"We-a boozhee Naydiz!"
"New cedar, new sweetgrass, new sage."
"We-a boozhee Naydiz!"
"Hold my knowledge in my braids."
"I don't know," Edward said, "but I love it. Leah's over there modeling Native pride while giving Alice an introduction to Marxist theory."
Rose snorted. "Who's going to tell Alice that the bourgeois lifestyle is a step down for her?"
He smirked down at his Bristol board. A bourgeois lifestyle was probably as much as her money could buy her if she was going to grow up in a town like this. Which she was. The decision was made, and weirdly, Edward found himself smiling whenever he thought of it.
They worked quietly for a while, occasionally chuckling at the fun that Leah and Alice were having together, but after a half hour or so, Rose shoved herself back from her desk.
"What—the fuck?" she said in a hard voice.
Edward glanced over his shoulder at her as he uncapped a correcting pen. "What's wrong?"
"Who did you tell?" she demanded, turning her glare on him.
He felt his eyebrows pull together. "About what? The graphic novel?"
"Of course about the graphic novel!" This time her gaze included Esme. "Which one of you leaked it?"
"Shit," Esme muttered. She rolled her chair over to Rose's computer and looked at her screen. "What happened?"
"The publisher just forwarded a cease-and-desist from the Christopher estate," Rose spat.
Esme scanned her screen.
Rose's glare was a formidable thing, and Edward did not like having it aimed at him. "I swear," he said, holding up his hands defensively. "I didn't tell anyone about it." Of course, he had worked on the images in public . . . but, no, he was sure that nothing he'd drawn in public would have given away any information about the graphic novel.
"Hang on," he said. "The publisher got the cease-and-desist? Not you?"
Esme rolled back to her own computer. "They didn't put out any promotional announcements, did they?" She opened a search engine and started typing.
"They better not have. The contract says they don't start promoting until the graphic novel goes on sale."
"You got them to agree to that?" Edward asked.
"I insisted. Because if they promote it beforehand, this happens." She gestured angrily to her computer.
"They did, though," Esme murmured. "Look." She scooted away from her screen so the others could see.
On the screen was . . . well it was a really bad promo. There was a "coming soon" banner and an image of a blank cover with the words "The Confessions of Caius Christopher" printed at the top—which was only a working title and definitely had not been finalized. There was no cover art and only a sloppy summary about found documents. But despite the fact that they weren't even halfway through the book, there was a release date printed at the bottom of the page, and it was only three weeks away.
"I'm going to kill them," Rosalie hissed. She snatched up her phone and started to dial.
"Hang on," Edward said.
She didn't hang on. She raised the phone to her ear, and Edward plucked it out of her hand and disconnected the call.
And then he legitimately feared for his life, because she rounded on him with the ferocity of a jungle cat.
"Rosalie," he said, pushing her phone back into her hands, partly to distract her. "Give me a second. Argue this out with me, and if I lose you can make that call."
"What?" she hissed.
Edward took a breath, relieved she was letting him speak. "Once lawyers get involved, we don't speak for ourselves."
"I'm a lawyer."
"This isn't your field." She started to turn away from him, so he caught her elbow, very gently, because he didn't want to end up with a black eye. "This is why you brought me on, right? We've got Perkins and Mansour on retainer. Let's put them to work."
She ground her teeth, but she met his eye and he could see he was making progress.
"You don't want to go up against the Christopher estate on your own. Let's bring in a whole team and let them develop a strategy."
She tossed her phone on the desk, looking resigned. "Fine."
Esme rolled over to Rose and took her hands. "Hey," she murmured. "We're with you. Edward and I are on your side. We want to put this book out too."
She sighed and sank down into her chair. "It's not going to happen. The one chance we had was to get the book out there before they knew it was coming. They're going to kill it."
"Don't count us out quite yet," Edward said, giving her a smile. "The Christophers aren't the only ones with badass lawyers working for them."
She just shook her head, resigned.
Edward pulled out his own phone and dialed. A friendly feminine voice answered.
"Perkins and Mansour."
"Hi, this is Edward Masen."
"Oh, hello, Mr. Masen! Ms. Mansour is in a meeting with the partners, but I'll let her know you're calling for her. Would you prefer to wait on hold or have her call you back in a couple of minutes?"
Edward nearly told her that she didn't have to interrupt the meeting, but a glance at Rose's dejected face made him decide to just go ahead and embrace his privilege. "I'll hold, thank you."
A few minutes later, the hold music cut off and Kebi Mansour's voice came over the line. "Hello, Edward, how have you been?"
He smiled when he heard the familiar low timbre, just touched with an Egyptian accent. He put the phone on speaker so Rose and Esme could hear the conversation. "Hello, Kebi. Not bad."
"We didn't think we'd hear from you this early. Has someone already caught wind of that project of yours?"
Edward explained the situation with the cease-and-desist letter, and she hummed.
"That's not exactly what we expected, is it? Do you have a copy of your contract with the publisher?"
"I can email it," Rose said with a nod.
"Please do. Let me think. The team I've been putting together has more experience with libel and defamation of character. There is someone I might be able to add to the lineup, though . . . I'll need to chat with him. Can I call you back in a few minutes?"
"Sure."
"In the meantime, don't respond to that letter. We want to make sure we have all the available information before we open communications."
"What excellent advice," he said, widening his eyes at Rose in a childish I-told-you-so.
She flipped him off.
They said goodbye and Edward hung up.
"I'm sorry," Rose said. She scrubbed her hands over her face. "I shouldn't have blamed you two. I just . . . I want this so bad."
"No blood, no foul," Edward said with a shrug. "But Esme's right. We're in this with you. I really want you to feel like we're behind you."
She sighed. "I do. This just hurts."
"We're not done yet," Esme said firmly. "Let's just wait and hear what the lawyers say."
"You want some coffee?" Edward offered. "Wine?"
"Wine," she said, letting out a breath. "Yes, please."
Edward headed out the back door and down to the basement to retrieve a bottle of wine. He took his time, examining the labels and trying to find something nice to share with Rose. When he made it back upstairs, Rose was holding his phone in front of her and speaking into it.
"Here he is now," she said.
Edward took the phone when she held it out to him. "That was fast."
"We don't waste time when it comes to our top clients," Kebi told him.
"She was just telling us that she's adding a new guy to the team," Rose said.
"Yes, his name is Emmett McCarty," she confirmed. "He specializes in entertainment law, which means he spends a lot of time with contracts. For as long as we're dealing with this issue, I'd like to have him head up your team."
Edward caught the hesitation in her voice. "But?"
"He's . . . well, I just want you to be prepared. He has quite a big personality."
"Oh, yeah?"
"If he's half as dramatic as Edward and Alice, he'll fit right in," Esme said cheerfully.
"He also prefers to work in person," Kebi said. "He's getting ready to drive up to Forks. Is that okay with you?"
"Sure. Shall I book him into a hotel for a couple of days?"
"If you wouldn't mind. It will save him some time if he doesn't have to find lodgings."
"No problem. We'll email his reservation."
"And send that contract too, if you would. He'll want to review it."
Edward took Emmett's email address and then disconnected.
"Okay," Esme said, "this is what we're going to do. We're going to trust McCarty and his team. We're going to assume that he'll get everything back on track for us. So Edward and I are going to get back to work, because this book is going to get published." She leveled a gaze at Rose. "Okay?"
She drew in a slow breath and let it out. "Okay." She shot Esme a grateful smile.
"Okay."
Edward passed the bottle of wine to Rose. "You'd better pour. I've got work to do."
They passed the next couple of hours in diligent silence, excepting the noise from Leah, Alice, and Hercules. The situation had given all of them a sense of urgency. Edward and Esme were able to channel that into their work, but Rose didn't have a productive outlet. Edward had her make the reservation at the Willow Tree Inn, but mostly she just paced and fretted. It was a relief when she volunteered to take Leah home at the end of her shift. Edward was making good progress, so he strapped Alice into her high chair and let her scribble at the desk next to him while he continued to work. Hercules sat with her, and he panted and snuffled along with her while she sang, "We-a boozhee Naydiz! We-a boozhee Naydiz!"
The sense of urgency was good for them. Edward and Esme had a highly productive afternoon.
Edward was thinking about stopping to make dinner when Rose got back from taking Leah home. This was usually when she would be heading back to Sekiu herself, but with the lawyer
on the way, she wanted to stick around for a while longer. Maybe she could go on a diner run? The woman badly needed something to keep her hands busy.
He was about to suggest it when the doorbell rang again.
"Owizzit?" Alice asked, perking up.
"Maybe that's him," Edward said. He plucked Alice out of her seat so she and Hercules could run to the door. He followed them, checking out the camera's display screen, and frowned. On the porch, in the dusky evening light, stood a very large black man who looked oddly familiar . . .
"No way," Edward muttered. He pulled open the door to get a better look, and yes, that was him. The braids might have been new, and he definitely hadn't been wearing a designer suit before, but it was the same man. "No way."
The man looked at him, looked closer, and his face broke out into a wide smile.
"Well, what do you know? It's Poop Dad!"
"Oh, Jesus," Edward muttered. He was standing face to face with the man who had discovered him in a public bathroom trying to deal with Alice's blown-out diaper. The man who had laughed out loud at his predicament and then had saved his ass by buying him the diapers and supplies that he hadn't realized he was supposed to be carrying with him. He shook his head at the coincidence. "Around here they just call me Edward."
"That's because they didn't catch you elbow-deep in baby doody." He grinned at Edward as he stepped inside.
"This sounds like a story I need to hear," Esme said from behind him.
Edward pressed his lips together. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Maybe we'll save that story for just the right moment." The man held out a hand to Edward. "Emmett McCarty."
"Nice to officially meet you," he said. This is Esme Platt, and back there having a tiny internal meltdown is Rose Hale. She's the ringleader of this circus."
"Diss Muzzmay, diss Awiss, diss Oochooweez," Alice added, making sure she wasn't overlooked.
Emmett stooped down and shook her hand. "Pleased to meet you, young lady. Are you helping with the graphic novel too?"
"Yep."
"She's the landlady," Edward said. He closed the door behind Emmett and invited him to take a seat. "I was just thinking about ordering some food. You hungry?"
"I could eat."
Edward found a menu from the diner in the kitchen and passed it around. Everyone put in their orders, and then Emmett turned to Rose.
"Do you have some time to go over this contract right now?"
She nodded and led the way into the office. While Edward called in the order, Emmett set up his laptop on the desk beside Rosalie's, and the two of them got to work.
"Do you mind watching Alice while I pick up the food?" Edward asked Esme.
"Not at all."
"Thanks." He glanced into the office and shook his head.
"So you two have met before?"
He snorted. "Briefly. It was a very bad day."
"Involving poop, apparently."
"Hence the bad day." He grinned. "I'll be back in a little while."
Edward headed to the diner to pick up their order. He'd gone too early for the size of the order, so it wasn't ready when he got there. At the request of the hostess, he took a seat on a bench near the entrance to wait.
He sighed and leaned back, rolling his shoulders to relieve the ache. He should be hating this. He never liked having to work on anyone else's schedule, and any pressure to rush normally irritated the hell out of him. There was something about this situation that felt invigorating, though. Maybe it was because they were ruffling feathers. Edward was gearing up to go to battle, and it was strangely exciting.
His good mood soured in a hurry, though, when he glanced around the diner and saw Bella tucked away in a corner booth with the man she'd had lunch with at the historical society auction. Flannel Shirt guy was wearing another flannel shirt, and he was laughing at something Bella had just said. Edward scowled at the man. He had blond hair, and his beard didn't entirely mask the boyishness of the face beneath. He picked a paper up from the table and handed it to Bella, and she scanned it before nodding and saying something else to him.
Edward felt too many feelings all at once. He wanted to stomp over there and interrupt their date so they couldn't keep laughing together. He wanted to go home and doctor his rejected, wounded heart with another bottle of wine. He wanted to call Lauren, the nail technician, and get her down here right away so he could make Bella as wildly jealous as he was—which he wasn't proud of at all, but he still really wanted to do it. He just—he didn't like this. He liked Bella, and dammit, she liked him too. She shouldn't be here with someone else. She should be sitting at home waiting for him to get his shit together and be the person she needed.
God, he was a douchebag.
While he was sitting there sulking, Bella glanced up and caught his eye. He saw surprise on her face, then concern, and then she glanced at her date and smiled just a little. The smile nearly undid him. Was that smugness? It didn't seem like it. It seemed soft. Softness for her date?
The date must have noticed her noticing Edward because he turned and looked. He perked up and turned back to Bella, looking . . . eager?
Edward didn't care. He fucking hated that prick. Whoever he was.
Bella stood then, and she made her way through the tables to where Edward sat. She lowered herself on the bench next to him and smiled.
"It's not a date," she said quietly.
The hope Edward suddenly felt was wholly irrational.
"That's Mike Newton. We went to high school together."
Shared history. Fuck. Edward hated this.
"I'm telling you this because you look like you're about to burn down the diner, and I don't really want you to do that."
Edward gave her a sheepish look and shrugged, but he couldn't quite bring himself to say anything. What would he even say? That she had no right to be with someone else when he wanted her? He could be clueless sometimes, but he fucking knew better than that.
"We're here because Mike is trying to get me to introduce him to you."
Edward's eyebrows shot up. "To me."
"Yep."
"I mean. I'm like ninety percent straight, though."
She smirked. "Tell me that other ten percent doesn't think he's just the most adorable thing."
He couldn't help but chuckle. "Maybe it would if I weren't a hundred percent hung up on someone else."
Bella gave him a sad smile. "Do you have a minute?"
There was no sign of his food, so he nodded.
"Come meet him. He's not going to ask you out, I promise."
Edward nodded. This was an opportunity, if only to disrupt whatever vibe was happening between them. He followed Bella back to her table and slid into the booth beside her.
"Edward, this is Mike," she said. "His parents own Newton's Outfitters, and he runs it for them."
"That's the sporting goods place, right?" Edward asked.
Mike nodded. "Right."
"Seems like it would do pretty well around here. Lots of hunting, fishing, all that."
"Yeah, it's good. We don't do so well with swimming stuff, though."
That seemed like an odd thing to point out, but Edward dipped his chin. "Sure. It rains too much for boating, and the community pool is awful."
"Right!" Mike leaned forward, excited. "We should have a really good pool here! I think a lot of people would go!"
"Alice and I would."
Mike turned a triumphant look on Bella. "See?"
She laughed. "Show him your plan."
"Oh! Right!" Mike shoved the papers at Edward.
Edward took them and glanced down. "And this is . . ."
Mike ran his hands through his hair. "I'm screwing this up. Crap." He took the pages back and then launched into an obviously memorized spiel about the community's need for a quality pool and the potential revenue streams from swim meets, physical therapy, water aerobics, and several other common pool uses. Edward took a page that held an artist's rendering and smiled. There was a giant slide and a children's playset not unlike the one at the park, though this one sprayed water everywhere. At the opposite end of the pool were lap-swimming lanes.
He nodded. "This looks pretty cool. Do you have a business plan?"
Mike gave him a deer-in-the-headlights look, but then he snapped out of it. "Yes! Right here . . ." He shuffled through the papers until he found the ones he was looking for.
Edward gave it a cursory glance. It looked solid. The man obviously had some experience with small business—which made sense if he was running his parents' store.
"So you're looking for investors?"
He looked delighted that Edward had brought it up. "Yeah. I mean, I'll apply for loans too, but you know . . . any source of revenue is useful when you're just starting up."
"Have you talked to Carlisle?"
Mike suddenly looked uncertain. "Um. No. I was hoping maybe Bella could help me set up a meeting."
"He'd probably be interested," Edward said. "At least, I think so, based on the kinds of projects he and Dad used to invest in. Plus, I'm pretty sure he'll have some resources for low-interest loans. Do yourself a favor and talk to him before you apply for anything else."
"Sure. Yeah. That will really help."
Did he look . . . disappointed? Maybe? That could very well be because, as Edward suddenly realized, he hadn't actually committed himself to the project.
"And count me in," he added to clarify. "I'll have Carlisle give you a call so you can give him your spiel, and if he likes it, the three of us can get together and talk numbers."
Mike's disappointment turned very quickly to delight. "Really?"
"Really. The community center pool sucks."
He laughed in response.
With that dispensed with, Edward figured he could tackle the unfinished discussion between himself and Bella. "Can I be really rude for a minute?" he asked Mike.
"Um. Sure?"
"Thanks." He turned to face Bella, shutting Mike out of the conversation. "The thing is, it's not just me anymore."
She raised her eyebrows.
"As you very well know, I've committed to raising a tiny person, so I don't get to make life decisions based solely on my preferences. I have to do what's right for the kid."
"Sure . . ." she said, sounding unsure.
"So when I'm thinking about where we're going to live, I have to take into account how it's going to affect her. And believe me, I haven't forgotten what Harry and Jacob said. They think it's important for her to be near her tribe."
"As I recall, you had some arguments against that position."
"Well, yes, but maybe I wasn't actually right."
The corners of her lips quirked upward. "Edward Masen, are you admitting to being wrong about something?"
"Yeah, right, like that surprises anybody. I'm wrong all the time. I can own it."
"Okay," she said with a cautious nod. "So what were you wrong about?"
"The school, for one. The faculty-to-student ratio on the reservation is mind-blowing. Alice is going to get so much personal attention there. If I do a little supplementing and micromanaging, she'll get an excellent education. And apparently there's literally nowhere else in the world where she can learn the Quileute language, so that tips the scales in favor of staying here."
"Mm-hm," she murmured. "Until you get sick of living in a small town and desert the place in frustration."
"Except, if I do that, I lose a whole cadre of people who Dad trusted to look after Alice. And you have no idea what that means to me. Trying to find a new babysitter in Olympia would drive me into paranoid catatonia. I don't even know where to begin—and god, what if they weren't trustworthy? Bella . . . she's so small." He swallowed hard, horrified even by the thought of someone using his vulnerable sister as leverage to get at their money.
Bella winced.
"Plus, she's got folks here. She's been going out to La Push to see her grandma, and I don't want that to stop. She's only got so much family. I want her to feel connected to people."
"And what about you? You're just going to give up everything in Olympia?"
He shrugged. "I mean . . . yeah. I moved there because I was working campaigns. If you want to do state politics, it makes sense to go to the capital city. But I haven't done that in a while, and having Alice with me makes it a lot harder to work a campaign kind of schedule. I'm pretty happy drawing cartoons full time, and I can do that from anywhere."
"But none of that means you won't be miserable here."
He licked his lips and conceded her point with a nod. "Look, it's not ideal. I don't understand what kind of heathen town doesn't have a theater or even one single Thai restaurant, but there are ways to survive even this."
"Really?" she said, though it sounded like she didn't believe him.
"Yeah, look." He pulled out his phone and started pulling up a website he'd bookmarked a few days before.
"Masen!" the hostess called, setting a collection of bags on the counter near the door.
"Yeah, one sec," he called over his shoulder, and then he pushed his phone at Bella. "There's this ESL program for immigrants in Port Angeles. They provide language courses, and when you're ready to try for a certificate, they have you teach a cooking class. If you can teach people to cook something, you graduate."
Bella took his phone and started scrolling through it with interest.
"So, here are some people who have brought interesting food traditions with them, and they're likely to pick relatively accessible recipes so they don't have to struggle too hard to communicate the instructions."
She arched an eyebrow at him. "You're going to take cooking classes?"
He grinned. "They just happen to be held on the night that Alice spends with her grandmother."
"Wow," she said. "Okay. There's still no theater, though."
"Yeah, but I've got this very convenient apartment in Olympia. When I need to see a show, we'll just make a weekend of it."
"We?" she asked with an arched eyebrow.
"Sure. You'd want to come with me, wouldn't you?"
"I kinda have a lot going on. Maybe you've noticed?"
Edward took her hand. "We're fixing that. Once that addition is built, Billy and Charlie will be able to do more for themselves. And for the rest, we can ask Jacob and Grace to step in. It shouldn't be too much for them to handle now that they're not trying to put in so much overtime." He squeezed her hand. "You'll be able to have a weekend away every now and then."
Edward was surprised to see Bella's eyes start watering. She wiped irritably at them and looked around. Edward followed suit, and he realized that Mike, the hostess, and people at the nearby tables were all watching them, most of them grinning. Which didn't bother him at all, but it seemed to bother Bella. Whatever she had to say, she didn't want to say to them.
"Walk me to my car," he said.
She nodded, looking relieved by the excuse to leave.
Edward nodded to Mike. "We'll be in touch." He stood and settled up with the hostess, and then he and Bella headed outside. They put the food bags in the back of the car, and then Edward closed the hatch and leaned his shoulder against it. "What's holding you back? Because if you just don't want to be with me, I'll leave it alone."
She shook her head, her eyes still wet. "That's not it at all. I've—I've admired you for so long, and it feels a little bit unlikely to actually be thinking about you and me, for real, when I've been claiming you as my celebrity crush for years."
Edward grinned. "Celebrity crush?"
She let out a reluctant laugh. "Minor celebrity."
"I'll take it."
She leaned against his car, mirroring him. "I'm worried that I'm taking all of this more seriously than you are, and I'm worried that I'm putting too much pressure on this right from the outset, and I'm worried that I'm just too damn difficult to make anything work with you."
He snorted. "Everybody's difficult."
"Yeah, well, some people are nicer about it."
"True, but those are the ones who poison your food."
She laughed again and shook her head.
"Look, I don't know if we're going to be able to make a relationship work. We'll have to try it and find out. But I know I'm not just messing around, and I know that when I picture a future here in Forks, you're in it."
She looked up at him, and her eyes looked softer than he'd ever seen them. He loved it. He wanted her to look at him like that all the time.
"Also, if I'm being honest . . . God help me, I think I love it here."
She rocked back on her heels, her eyebrows raised practically to her hairline. "I'm sorry, what was that?"
"I'd probably deny it under oath," he said. "But this place is legitimately great. You were right when you said that people are willing to help each other out, but it's even better than that. When you need help, people . . . like . . . notice. They check up on you. Like, when I didn't take Alice to daycare this week, Shelly Cope called. I don't even pay her for watching Alice, so she wasn't trying to maintain her income. She just wanted to make sure we were okay."
Bella's smile was so goddamn smug, and it was beautiful.
"You can say it," he said, rolling his eyes.
"I told you!"
He gave a grudging nod. "You did. It's pretty annoying how often you're right."
She laughed, but sobered again quickly. "So we're really doing this?"
"If you're willing."
She nodded. "Okay, then." She took a deep breath. "Would you and Alice like to go to the River Festival with me?"
"The River Festival? This is a thing?"
"Yeah, and it's fun. The whole town goes out to the park by the river and we do games and fish races and musical performances. And a salmon cookoff."
Edward perked up. "A salmon cookoff?"
Bella laughed. "I thought you might like that part. Harry Clearwater has won so many times that they gave him an all-time winner award and they won't let him compete anymore. Now he's one of the judges."
"Damn. We should be making Harry cook for us."
"One of these days you'll have to get him to give you some of his fish fry. It's phenomenal."
Edward huffed. "I can't believe that asshole's been holding out on me."
"So you're in?"
"Definitely. But is there a reason you want Alice to come along on our first date?"
She shrugged. "Like you said, your life isn't just about you anymore. I want you to know that I recognize that building a relationship with you means building one with Alice too."
He nodded. "Cool. I mean, my kid has known you longer than she's known me, but yeah. I can see the benefit of including her in some of this stuff. When is the festival?"
"July ninth."
Edward nearly swallowed his tongue. "July ninth? Bella, that's like a month away."
She shrugged. "That's what I've got. Roughly one day a month to go out."
"What do you do the rest of the month? Like next week?"
"Every other week I take Colin and Phoebe so Grace and Jacob can have a night to themselves. And Jacob stays with Charlie and Billy on the alternating weeks so I can go out."
"And then book club," Edward said, nodding.
"Right. So one week in four is date night."
"What if I got a sitter for the kids so we could go out next week? Just you and me. I'd have to get Leah to stay with Alice anyway. She might like to earn triple wages for the night."
Bella thought for a moment, her brows pulling together. "I guess if I got the bathing and cooking out of the way early, I could make it work."
"That's what I like to hear," he said, smiling broadly. "So next week? Assuming Leah is available."
She smiled softly. "Okay. Next week. What should I plan for?"
"I don't know yet. I'll come up with something great, though."
"It doesn't have to be a whole big thing," she protested, but Edward shook his head.
"Are you kidding? Of course it does. If we're going to break the curse of the hair jizzer, it's going to have to be something special."
"Dinner and a movie would be fine."
Edward tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "You deserve better than fine." He grinned and pushed off of the back door, heading for the driver's seat. "I've got to get home. The food's getting cold."
Bella shook her head as she moved away from the car, but she was laughing. Edward took it as a win.
Now he just had to think of a kick-ass date that would impress the socks off of her.
When he got back with the food, Carlisle was there. He had been expecting Esme to go to his place, and he'd stopped by to see what was holding her up. Edward felt bad passing food to everyone else, but Carlisle waved off his concern and told him he'd already eaten. The rest of them started in on their food, all of them eating at their desks so they could continue to work over mealtime. Carlisle helped by sitting with Alice and making sure that some of her food made it into her stomach. After she'd had her fill, he bathed her and helped her get her teeth brushed. Edward heard Carlisle take her to her room and read her a story, but when they started singing the bedtime song, he felt like he was shirking too many of his responsibilities. He should say goodnight to his kid at the very least.
He tossed down his pen and headed down the hall, stopping in the doorway as Carlisle leaned into the opening of Alice's castle to give her a goodnight kiss.
"I love you to the moon and back, and round and round the ocean," Carlisle murmured.
"Woun a-woun a-oshun," Alice agreed.
"Good night, my heart."
"Nye-nye."
Carlisle stood up and Edward gave him a smile as he moved past him. He leaned in through the opening.
"Are you all set?" he asked her as he adjusted the puppy pad at the foot of the bed. "Got Hercules?"
Alice pulled back the blanket so he could see Hercules curled up in a ball at her side. "Oochooweez he-o!"
"Good." He kissed her little round baby cheeks. "Good night, Alice."
"Nye-nye, Uh-wud."
Edward left her and put a hand on Carlisle's shoulder as they walked out of the room together.
"Can I ask you a question?" Edward asked.
"Sure."
"Are you getting enough time with Alice?"
He seemed surprised to be asked. "Have I been coming over too much? I don't want to be overbearing, but I do enjoy visiting with her."
"I'm not trying to imply that you're coming over too often. You've been a pretty big part of her life, and I don't want that to change. I mean, I know you're not coming over to see me like you did with Dad, but I don't want you to feel like you can't stop in and see Alice."
He gave a self-conscious smile. "It's hard to find the boundaries sometimes. I haven't wanted to presume too much. But, yes, I'd like to spend more time with her."
"Well. This is probably a pretty good time for it. There are some things going on with the graphic novel, and Esme and I could end up being pretty busy for the next couple of weeks. Any time that you feel like spending with Alice is time that I can devote to work, so you've got an open invitation."
He hesitated. "I'm not sure you want to say things like that. I may end up coming over a lot more than you intended."
"I promise to be honest about feeling crowded if you promise to be honest about feeling exploited for free childcare."
Carlisle laughed quietly. They had stopped in the darkened hallway, and Edward was sure he was trying to keep the sound low so as not to disturb Alice. "It's a deal. But can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Esme says . . . that you're staying in Forks?"
He smiled to himself. "She's right. I've been thinking a lot about it, and I've decided that this is the right place for us."
Carlisle swallowed, then swallowed again, then gave up on talking and pulled Edward into a hard hug. Edward clapped him on the back and smiled. It felt pretty damn nice to be wanted by the people he'd met in Forks. His dad had been right about this place. It was something special.
"Team meeting!" he heard Emmet call from the other room. "Poop Dad, get in here."
"Oh, good lord. That nickname needs to go."
Carlisle laughed and stepped away. They moved into the living room, where Rose and Emmett both shot Carlisle a cautious look.
He didn't miss it. "Look at the time. Must be going." He smiled at them and headed for the door.
Esme smiled back, all soft and fond. "I'll be over in a little while," she told him.
"I'll be waiting with bated breath."
"Oh, hey, Carlisle," Edward said, "call Mike Newton."
He cocked a querying eyebrow.
"He's got a business idea to pitch. I'd like to hear what you think of it."
He dipped his chin in agreement. "Will do. Did you get a phone number?"
"Um . . . nope. I'll have Bella text it to you."
Carlisle smiled and disappeared out the door. The rest of the group gathered in the living room.
"Here's what we know," Emmett said, leaning forward on his knees. "The promo was an accident. Some intern at the publisher put a paper in the wrong pile, and now they're in breach of contract. Sucks for them. We might sue.
"But first we've got to figure out how we're going to move forward, and that means evaluating our priorities. Now, I reckon you all started writing this book with two goals in mind: you tell a story and you make money. The publisher's actions have seriously hindered our ability to do both of those things at the same time. We do have some recourse, but the decisions we make now will be determined by which of those goals is more important to you. Do you want to tell the story or do you want to make money?"
Edward and Esme both sat back, considering. Emmett must have already discussed this with Rose, though, because she didn't look surprised by what he'd said.
"I'm not sure I should get a say, here," Edward said. "Money isn't really a motivating force for me. I'd choose to get the story out, but not everybody can be quite so quick to dismiss the paycheck."
"I'm not sure I should get a say," Esme countered. "I'm the only one of us taking a salary for the work."
Emmett raised his eyebrows. Apparently he didn't know that Edward had been paying Esme.
"Private agreement," Edward said. "I hire Esme to do background work sometimes. I wanted her on the team."
"This is your project, Rose," Esme said. "You make the call and we'll stand behind you."
Rose shot them both a grateful smile and then turned back to Emmett. "I want to take those crooked motherfuckers down."
Emmett grinned. "You just made my night. Okay, here's what we're going to do. You're dropping your publisher, and I'll get the contract boys to look into whether they think it will be worth suing for lost revenue. Meanwhile, I'm going to talk to a contact at Eclipse Comics and see if they can work with us on something new."
"Hang on," Edward said. "Doesn't Eclipse only do the serialized magazine-style comics? I don't think they'll even print a graphic novel."
"Correct. You'll have to organize your book into short issues and get the first one ready to put out as soon as possible. You think you can do that?"
Rose was shaking her head. "We'll never be able to tell the story that way. The Christopher estate will sue as soon as the first issue comes out."
"Yeah," Emmett said, "which is why it's crucial that the first issue be released without any of your names on them."
Rose cocked her head, confused.
"The publisher will get targeted by the lawsuit," Emmett said, "and they'll have our full permission to wave the white flag and stop printing the comic. Because by then, we'll have gotten what we want out of them."
"And that is?"
Emmett held up a finger. "Curious readers." He raised a second finger. "Media attention." He raised a third finger. "Distribution of a link to a website containing supplementary information."
Edward grinned.
"Now. What do you all know about building websites?"
Esme let out a dry laugh. "Literally everything."
"Good," Emmett said with a wide grin. "Because as soon as the publisher hears from the Christopher lawyers, we're going to post everything online. Unpublished issues, thumbnails, and most importantly, copies of the documents that Rose found."
"Can we do that?" Esme said. "After they've already told us to stop?"
"They won't have told you to stop," Emmett said. "Why would they? They don't even know who you are."
"That's why you want us to be anonymous," she murmured.
"Mm-hm. And you can come out of the closet at that point. Someone will figure it out anyway, and you'll eventually get sued directly by every single person that you name in the comics. At which time you'll simply say that you only published these papers that you found in Caius Christopher's trunk, written in Caius Christopher's handwriting, and talking about Caius Christopher's colleagues, and you never once made any claims about the truth of the contents."
"Disclaimers on the comics?" Rose asked.
"Naturally."
"Shit," Edward muttered. "This is going to work."
"We need to talk about the book, though," Rose said. "If we're going to get people hooked right from the start, we need the first issue to be really strong. We need people to be so desperate for more that they'll actually look at the website we make."
"What hooked you?" Emmett asked Edward. "What made you decide to work with Rose?"
"She handed me a list of well-known politicians and the crimes they committed. I started salivating."
Emmett and Rose exchanged glances.
"We need that," Rose said. "Right up front. Um…"
"We could add a frame narrative," Esme said. "A condensed version of the truth. You come to Edward and me with these papers you found. You've made a summary, and we'll do a splash page of the names and crimes. We'll ask right in the story, is any of it true? And you'll say you don't know. We'll have to read it and decide for ourselves what to think."
Emmett tapped his nose and pointed at Esme. "Perfect. Just make sure your characters don't actually look like you."
"We could . . . depict it as a group chat," Edward said. "With avatars and initials."
"Not your own initials," Emmett said. "Please don't leave bread crumbs."
Edward glanced down the hall to where Alice was sleeping—or, more likely, playing with her dog. "U for Uh-wud," he said. "M for Muzzmay. W for Wose."
Esme and Rose laughed.
"I love it," Rose said.
"We got a plan?" Emmett asked.
They all agreed.
"I'm going to go home and start writing," Rose said, rising.
Emmett caught her hand. "For what it's worth, I think you shouldn't. Get some rest, sleep on it, and start fresh tomorrow."
She looked down at him for a long moment and then nodded. "Okay. That's probably a good idea."
They all stood and started saying goodbye.
"Masen, you mind if I work here at your house for the next few days?" Emmett asked. "The inn doesn't have much of a desk."
"Sure, we've got plenty of room. You've already been to the inn, then?"
"Yeah, I dropped my suitcase there earlier."
"Did you use GPS to direct you there?"
"Yeah." He looked curious.
"It sent you to the right place?"
"Yeah. Why?"
Esme laughed and knocked on her cast. "It's good to know that my pain and suffering wasn't all for nothing."
"Oh, hey," Rose said to Emmett, "since you're staying at the inn, you can bring breakfast tomorrow. Just ask Emily to add an extra serving to our usual order and put it on Edward's tab."
"Okay?" He raised his eyebrows at Edward.
Edward nodded. "Emily makes the best breakfast in town."
"And if Edward doesn't start the day with decent food," Esme added, "he's a whiny asshole all day."
"It's true," he agreed with no hint of shame.
"Okay," Emmett said. "I'll pick up breakfast and see you all here tomorrow morning."