Bella The Babysitter: Chapter 19

Bella the Babysitter

Chapter nineteen

Edward Cullen POV

The weeks following the attempted kidnapping of Lucas was uneventful to say the least. Bella was able to acclimate to doing most of the things she usually did but with one hand while her bones healed.

Officers Dearing and Murphy called us only once, but the drama and panic was quickly swallowed down. Laurel had decided to freak out when she was informed that Newton had basically sold her out immediately and fought tooth and nail literally to get out of the room to find him. She wouldn't have been serving any time for the attempted kidnapping just probation or something lenient, but after attacking three police officers she would now be serving time for three counts of assaulting a police officer. By the time she got out of the woman's correctional facility for the mentally incompetent, Lucas would be old enough to drive a car.

Of course there was a day or two after I got the call that I felt extremely guilty for taking Lucas's only living relative away from him. Bella tried to comfort me, telling me that Vicky and James would be far angrier if I kept Laurel around for that simple excuse, that they would be angry if I endangered Lucas for the sake of having a blood relative present in his life. It took a few days for me to realize that it wasn't my fault, it was Laurel's.

My family had started coming by the house more often than they already had to spend time with all of us and dote on Lucas. Unfortunately Rose and Emmett weren't around often and I knew it affected Bella. She had admitted to me that she was afraid they were going to leave her like everyone else in her life had already so she was happy to hang out with them when they did mosey over even if it wasn't often. Rose and Alice took her out for a girl's day one weekend and when she returned, the smile on her face lasted for days.

I could tell that they were pretty much ditching Bella but didn't want to say it out load. Emmett had even informed me that he was planning on proposing to Rose and I felt guilty because he should have told Bella.

"Edward what drawer do you use for underwear?" Bella asked bringing me out of my thoughts.

"Oh the top right. But if you want that one, you can have it." I stammered.

"No the left is fine since I sleep on that side of the bed." Bella shrugged opening the drawer and dumping the basket full of unmentionables inside.

Lucas was sitting on the bed playing with a box of giant legos my mother brought over for him a few days ago. He like to stack them up high and knock them over before yelling 'uh oh'. I was currently in the massive walk in closet moving everything over to one side so that Bella would have room for her stuff.

I was right when I informed Bella that I wouldn't want to sleep away from her after the night we returned from the hospital. To make things fair she didn't either. After almost a month of sleeping in either her bed or mine Lucas decided to act like a baby Houdini and found out how to climb out of his crib. After talking with my mom we realized that maybe it was time to get him a toddler bed.

Flashback:

"Okay I pulled up a few websites that have cool toddler beds." Bella said walking into the living room carrying her laptop with Lucas stumbling behind her as he tried to keep up.

"Actually I had another idea." I interjected shutting the laptop as soon as she placed it in my lap.

"Edward! That thing is ancient you know, you can't close it." Bella fumed pulling it back to her. "Now I'm going to have to reboot everything."

"Dad." Lucas scolded as he climbed onto the couch and onto my lap.

"Bella, I already told you that you can have my extra laptop." I pressed. Ben and Angela had sent me a brand new laptop when my first article was published. We were all surprised when it was received so well so the computer was a token of their appreciation. I offered Bella the one that I had currently been using, it was only a few months old but she said no.

"And I already told you that this one is sentimental to me." she said sadly holding it close to her. "It's the first thing I bought with my own money."

"What about your truck?" I argued.

"That was bought using the money my dad left me when he died. I worked hard to pay for this and I'm not ready to let it go just yet. Thanks for your offer though. When this one finally kicks the bucket I might take you up on it."

"Okay. But as I was saying why don't we give Lucas your old bed?"

"My old bed is at Rose and Emmett's apartment and I don't think I want Lucas sleeping on that." Bella made a face. "God knows what those two have been doing in my absence."

"No not your old bed. I'm talking about the one that's in your bedroom."

"Umm, that's fine Edward. But where will I sleep?" Bella asked still completely oblivious to the underlining question I was trying to ask her.

"You can crash in my room like you do every night anyways? Why buy a new bed when that one isn't going to be used?" I grabbed her hand and pulled it towards me. Lucas decided he wanted in on our conversation and grabbed our joined hands swinging them back and forth. "Move into my bedroom baby?"

"Oh, Edward. I don't know." Bella stammered pulling her hand back.

"How come? You're only using your bedroom as a storage place now anyways so what's the difference?"

"I'm not ready for that Edward." she said softly turning a soft pink in the cheeks.

It was then that I realized what she was talking about.

"No Bella. I'm not asking you to move into my bedroom because of that. We both aren't ready for that." I assured her. "I just want to sleep with you by my side every night."

"Oh." Bella face palmed groaning in embarrassment. "I'm such a loser."

"My loser." I leaned over and kissed her cheek. "So how bout it?"

"Okay."

And now here we were, hours after springing that question on her we were moving her completely into my bedroom. It wasn't until she had asked me about the underwear drawer that I realized I would be living with a woman and sharing a room with her. To say I was nervous that she would catch me in an awkward situation would be an understatement.

As I moved my sneakers to the other side of the closet I made a mental note to make sure I didn't toss my boxers into the corner of the bathroom like I did every morning before showering. Having my live in girlfriend pick up my dirty underwear was just embarrassing.

"All you have to do is grab the stuff that's hanging in the closet." Bella said wrapping her arms around my middle and kissing the spot between my shoulder blades. "Unless you've changed your mind. Then you better get to work moving all my stuff back to my room."

"Like I would change my mind." I chuckled turning around in her arms. "I'm excited."

"Your face says otherwise." Bella giggled running a finger down the worry crease in my forehead.

"Okay, to tell you the truth I'm a little nervous. What if you find something that I do completely disgusting? I have to warn you that I no matter how hard I try I cannot remember to place the cap back on the toothpaste. I always forget." I gulped nervously.

"Well sometimes I'm too lazy to shave my legs so they feel like prickly cactuses." Bella shrugged. "I hope you won't think less of me if you happen to rub up against them one night. We're going to have to go a little trial by error Edward. No one is perfect so we'll just take it in stride. Deal?"

"Deal." I kissed her forehead.

"Now go and get my clothes so that I can color coordinate the t-shirts." she instructed smacking my ass as I walked out of the closet.

"Yes ma'am." I laughed.

Lucas was starting to get whiny so I knew we would have to stop and eat at some point in the near future. His block tower was now at the foot of the bed long forgotten while he snuggled into the pillow on the left side of the bed. Bella's pillow. He always wanted to cuddle with her when he started getting whiny and I found it cute that he found her pillow in his hour of need.

After arguing with Bella that not one person should own fifty pairs of jeans, Lucas decided that the pillow wasn't a suitable substitute. One shrill cry for his Momma and we stopped arguing and decided to go out to eat for dinner. Lucas fell asleep in the car and was cranky the entire time we sat in the restaurant, until Bella pulled him into her lap and fed him some of her potato soup. How she was able to manage holding a toddler and feeding him with one arm in a cast was beyond me. It just made me realize that Bella was sort of born to be a mom.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Bella asked bringing me out of my thoughts for what felt like the hundredth time today. "Do I have cheese on my chin or something?"

"No. It's nothing."

"Uh huh. You were staring at me with this blank expression." she laughed. "For a second I thought you were having a stroke or something but you kept feeding yourself so I sort of ruled that out. What is it?"

"Nothing baby. I'm just really happy." I answered truthfully. "Seeing you with him like that just makes me realize how lucky I am."

"Likewise." Bella smiled blowing me a kiss before turning her attention to Lucas who was trying to feed himself but ended up splattering his face with the soup. Instead of crying he started laughing and made a move to do it again, but Bella stopped him. "What is with you and smacking yourself in the face with things little boy?"

"Babellwwwooo." he cooed still giggling.

After returning home and giving Lucas an intense bath to remove the remnants of potato soup out of his ear and armpit surprisingly, I put him to bed in his crib for the last time. Tomorrow we were planning on going and buying guardrails for the side of the bed we were moving into the nursery. He fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow so I turned on the baby monitor and softly exited the room.

Bella was standing in the bathroom brushing her teeth with some weird looking green gunk covering her entire face. As soon as I caught her eye, she spit in the sink and rinsed her mouth out before turning to me.

"Can you deal with my alien face for a little while? Its only avocado mask to keep my face clear of acne but if it's too weird for you I can go sit downstairs while it dries. I know we talked about taking everything in stride but this might put you over the edge." she joked motioning to her face.

"I think you look cute. You should wear that all the time." I jested playfully walking into the bathroom to take care of my nightly routine. As soon as I was finished brushing my teeth Bella pulled me down to her and kissed the hell out of me. It wasn't until she pulled away gasping for air and laughing her ass off that I realized she had an ulterior motive.

Looking in the mirror the entire bottom half of my face was covered with avocado mask. Bella was practically on the floor gasping for air and holding her stomach as she tried to contain her laughter. "Your face. Priceless."

I picked up the baby powder off of the shelf and opened it dousing her head with it while she shrieked in surprise.

"Your face. Priceless." I pointed to her now white green face, baby powder dusted her hair and eyelashes.

"I cannot believe you just did that Cullen." Bella growled.

"Well, if we're going to be sharing a bedroom and bathroom you should know not to fuck with me. Payback is a bitch." I shrugged grabbing a towel to clean my face off. "Do you want to call a truce?"

"Yes. I need to take another shower so hurry up." Bella giggled fluffing her hair out and sending baby powder all over the room. "Oh yeah and you get to clean all of this up as well."

"That's not how payback goes." I argued.

"No but that's how love goes. You love me and there's no way I can clean the bathroom with one arm."

"You can't use your cast as an excuse now Bella. It's been three weeks and it hasn't stopped you from doing anything."

"Yeah but you love me sooo." Bella trailed off.

"I'll clean the bathroom after you shower." I muttered.

"Because?" she sang.

"I love you." I kissed her mouth getting some of her mask on my face again. "I love you even though you're pretty volatile."

"Still wanna share a room with me?"

"Yep."

"Good, I do too. Oh yeah I love you too. Now vamoose so that I can clean this shit out of my hair."

Of all of the things that could have happened the first night in our bedroom, cleaning the bathroom wasn't even on the list of romantic things. And I wouldn't have changed a thing about it.