LL Chapter 23

LL Chapter 23

Slow go

We rode to school in a comfortable silence. It didn’t hurt that Bella only lived about two minutes from the school. I didn’t want to let on to Alice that I was interested in Bella just yet. This was one of the rare things that I did not want to share with her, when we would normally tell each other everything that happened in our lives. When I pulled into the parking lot we found Rose, Jasper, and Emmett lounging on some picnic tables.



Alice and I started off towards them and Bella started off towards the school but I grabbed her hand dragged her along with us. “Hey, Emmett,” Rose started as we approached them; “Edward and I got together and made some plans for your birthday.”



“No party, please tell me there’s no party,” Emmett was muttering under his breath.



“How bad was this party last year?” Bella asked.



“BAD!” we all answered her. We had told her about the garden bonfire, but not about all the broken windows or the new artwork that appeared on the side of Mr. Hale’s garage. It took us three weekends of painting to finally get it all covered up. All of which we became financially responsible for.



“Edward and I decided it would be best to keep it simple; just dinner and bowling.”



“Thank God! That sounds great. You’re coming too, aren’t you Bells?”



“Uh, yeah I am.”



“And the munchkin too, right?”



“No. Dad’s babysitting.”



“Too bad. She’s an angel.”



“Yeah, you’ve never had to change one of her stink bombs,” I blurted out.



“HEY!,” Bella smacked my chest



“I’m just being honest.”



“I know. I’ve changed plenty of those stink bombs myself. But still, that’s my daughter you’re talking about.”



“I didn’t mean to upset you,” I apologized.



“It’s f—“



“Hey guys, what’s up?” I almost groaned aloud when Angela approached us.



“We’re just talking about poopy diapers,” Emmett told her.



“What?”



“Never mind him. He’s an idiot. We’re planning for Emmett’s birthday. You want to go to dinner with us?” I was going to kill Alice for that one. I politely excused myself citing the need to use the bathroom before class before I ended up strangling my sister. It unfortunately made me the first person to make it to class. Alice and Angela were going to screw this up for me if I didn’t do something about Angela’s crush because she was bordering on stalking me now.



“I don’t think that girl can take a hint. Why can’t I just tell her to back the fuck off?” Rose chuckled at me as she sat down and took out her copy of “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, that we were reading for English Class.



“Because that will hurt her and make her cry and make YOU look bad to the girl you do want. Anyway, I’m inviting Ben Cheney to the dinner. He likes Angela and maybe that will get her off your back.”



“I hope so, because I can’t take much more of her, she’s going to screw this up for me.”



“Don’t worry. If it comes down to it, I’ll talk to her for you. That way, I’ll be the bad guy.”



“You’re the best Rose.”



“I know I am.”



When the last bell rang, to end the day, I rushed off to meet Bella at her locker. My sister was going over to the Hale’s to study with Jasper so I had Bella all to myself for the ride back to her house, and I loved it. When we got there we found the house empty. According to her note, Sue had to run to the store but would be back soon. We set ourselves up at the table in the kitchen and got to work on the project.



I could not help but laugh at Bella when she shot out of her chair and ran for the door the second that we heard Sue’s car pull into the driveway. “Shut up!” she admonished my laughter when she returned carrying a smiling Tanya in her good arm and returned to her seat in the chair across the table from me, “It’s hard to be away from her for so long. I can’t believe how much she’s grown since she was born.”



“Really?”



“Yeah, she was so teeny tiny that I could practically hold her in one hand, now look at her. The doctors say that she’s only about a month behind in physical development but mentally she’s right on par. She laughed for the first time the other day. Right on the day that she turned three months old. I’m sorry, you probably don’t want to hear me go on and on about her.”



“On the contrary, I love hearing you talk about her. She’s your life, and you light up and smile when you talk about her.”



“I do?”



“You really do.” At that moment, I heard Seth and Leah come home and realized that it was getting close to dinner time, “I have to get home, but I think if we get together on Saturday we should have it done.”



“I’m free all day. In fact, everyone else is going to be gone all day and Tanya and I are going to have the whole house to ourselves.”



“The hospital called me; there are two new babies in the NICU, so I am back on duty for a couple hours Saturday. Hey, I have an idea, why don’t I pick up you and Tanya and take you to my house to work and Mom can help us watch Tanya while we’re working?”



“Are you sure that your mom won’t mind? You didn’t even ask her if she would.”



“Bella, how hard is it for you to get Mom to hand your daughter over to you when she babysit? How many times have you had to practically wrestle your daughter out of her arms to get her back?”



“Point taken. Ok. Call me when you leave Port Angeles and we will be ready to go when you get here.”



“Great, I’ll pick you up for school at the same time tomorrow,” I yelled as I ran out the door.



Thank God Friday flew by and the weekend was here. It had been a long week and I needed the down time. Plus Bella was coming over this afternoon and I was going to get to spend the afternoon with the two people that were quickly becoming my two favorite girls.



The baby that I held this after noon was a girl named Antonia. She and her twin, Antonio, brother were both born prematurely due to a car accident. Unfortunately, the parents did not survive the accident. Their aunt and uncle were coming in from Italy on Monday to care for them and would take custody of them.



Bella did not have much to bring over with her as Mom had taken to stocking up on diapers, formula, baby cereal; she even had new baby furniture. I think she might be trying to talk Dad into letting her turn the guest room into a nursery. She loved babies and I never understood why they never had anymore after Alice and me. As soon as Bella let me into the house, I presented her with something that I found in the hospital gift shop when I ducked in for a soda and candy bar on my way out and I just could not pass up buying. It was a little pink puppy that was wearing a T-shirt that said, “I love my mama”. I not only got a brilliant smile out of Bella, I even got a laugh out of Tanya when I put it in her carrier with her.





A/N: Ok. I wrote this chapter more times than I want to remember. It just wouldn’t come out right. Leah’s revenge is coming, she just needs to wait for the right time plus she is not working alone on this, ducks need to be in a row before they strike. I don’t know if I’ll get another chapter out by the weekend but I’ll try. As always, thanks to all my reviewers, you make my day!