A DOD FUTURE PEEK

As seen by Dollybigmomma :)

I had always thought the term "Irish twins" sounded cute. However, I hadn't ever heard the term "Irish triplets." Some asshole had been holding out on me.

Edward had been adamant about waiting the full six weeks to have sex again, after my checkup and establishment of a birth control method. But a bad couple of days of colicky baby girl, post-partem hormone hell, and the realization that my belly now jiggled had me in hysterics a month after giving birth. The only thing that would calm me down was my husband's loving reassurance that he still found me sexy. I'd insisted he prove it, and against his better judgement, he had given in. Note to self: Nursing does not equal birth control. Also, lack of a period does not equal lack of ovulation. Damn it.

I about fainted dead away when, once again, Edward came flying into the bathroom a couple of weeks later to tell me he had gotten another one of those goddamn texts on his phone that I was pregnant. Had he not pulled the bathroom scale from my hands and held me back, his high-tech toilet would have been a pile of pulverized porcelain that day.

An ultrasound at six weeks revealed that Edward had hit a double-header, as two little flashing heartbeats pumped away on the screen. I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, until I saw Edward's face. His eyes were bright with tears, and even though he was smiling and looked happy, he also looked terrified. That made two of us.

After Jay had been born, my happy hole had not been quite as tight as before, so I had been okay with the planned C-Section of our twins. No need to be able to park a damn Buick in the four-car garage my hoo-hah would have become had I squeezed those two watermelon-sized crania out of it. Cullen kids tended to have big heads, likely to hold those huge super brains they were blessed with.

Estelle Rosanne Cullen and Carter Emerson Cullen were born slightly early, but they were perfectly healthy, beautiful and enough of a draw that Oregon no longer held any appeal for Grandma and Grandpa Cullen. Soon after the twins were born, Edward's parents had bought an estate a few miles from us and now lived close by, always at the ready for grandparent duty.

Alice and Jasper had also moved back stateside to the Seattle area, and they were busy trying to boost the population of Washington state themselves. After their third daughter was born, Jasper had been ready to hang up his saddle, and he'd had a vasectomy. Apparently, not fast enough, though, because Alice gave birth to baby number four, a little boy who was a carbon copy of his daddy. Poor kid had it rough, though, and I wouldn't be surprised if he developed either an aversion or an affinity for pink and ruffles, given how much of it his older sisters dressed him in for fun. Hey, variety being the spice of life and all that…

Rosalie and Emmett had decided that two kids were all they could handle, so they stopped at their two little boys. Wise choice, since those two boys were like having a houseful with how rowdy they were. Rose had to use harnesses and leads on them anywhere they went, because they tended to take off on her and cause chaos and destruction in stores. Hey, I didn't judge. Better safe than sued, I always believed.

One of the biggest surprises was what happened with Angela. Baby Ben's father, Benjamin Cheney, had ended up being from a wealthy family and was loaded. Angela never knew. Shortly after baby Ben had been kidnapped, his father had been killed in a motorcycle accident. Angela had been devastated. She confessed that she had always hoped he would come around and be a father to his son, but he had never shown any further interest in fulfilling his obligations and had even fought paying child support.

After Benjamin's death, his family found out about baby Ben and came to support Angela and her son, who was the spitting image of his father. Benjamin's older brother, Brian, was the attorney who processed Benjamin's estate, and he made sure the bulk of it went to baby Ben and Angela. The two struck up a friendship, which turned into a romance. That led to a wedding and a couple more siblings for baby Ben.

Angela still insisted on working for Edward, though, even after she had the means to stay home with her kids. She loved her job, and Edward could trust her to keep him organized without driving him nuts. Edward had me expand the inhouse daycare to include an afterschool program for older kids, and I would confess to using it occasionally, so I could visit Edward at lunchtime for some penthouse playtime. He was still more than willing to provide services anytime I needed him, and I never had another thought of buying any plastic substitutes. They could never compare to my hot husband, anyway.

Once our kids were all in school, I decided to complete my own education. Edward always assured me I was smart and more than capable of doing anything I wanted to, but damn, I had forgotten how hard school could be, and I had certainly gotten rusty. Once I got into the swing of it, though, it didn't take me long to complete my GED, and then I started small and enrolled in a few online courses in early childhood development. I wanted to be a good example for my kids, so between bedtime stories, PTA meetings, dance recitals, and little league ballgames, I studied. It took me a few years, but when I walked across the stage at UDub to accept my diploma, I held my head up and smiled proudly. I had an entire cheering section, and I could hear my husband louder than anyone, clapping and whistling, as I waved to them from the stage. His pride in me meant more than anything.

Our three kids ended up being chips off the old block, as they all took after their father in intelligence and ambition. Jay, Estelle and Carter were now in medical school, studying to become oncologists, each specializing in different areas. Once they heard the story of how close their father had come to finding a cure for cancer, they were determined to continue his work, without the deadly aspect, thank god. I had enough gray hairs coming in these days without my kids making me go totally silver due to worry. Edward planned to pass on his work to them, and they promised to be safe and responsible with it.

Edward and I were currently on a big boat, heading back to South America for our twenty-fifth anniversary. We were out on the deck, soaking up the warmth and fresh sea breeze underneath our sun canopy. Both of us were whiter than rice, being from the less-sunny northwest, so sunburn was not on our agenda.

Edward was lying on his stomach beside me on a double lounger, his perfect ass right where I could enjoy the view. The man was still an anal worrywart when it came to what he ate and exercising, so even though he was in his early fifties, he didn't look a damn day over thirty-nine.

I had begrudgingly relented and given up my junk food habit and avoidance of working out, because I didn't want to look like a fat, frumpy frog next to my handsome, hunky husband. Time, hormones and pregnancy had done a number on me, so I had to work at it now to keep up with Edward. He was a great trainer, though, and only he could join me in my favorite aerobic workout. If only the walls of his gym could talk…

"You're staring at my ass again, aren't you?" Edward mumbled, his eyes still closed.

"You know it," I smirked.

He raised up dragged me under him, plucking off my sunglasses. "Happy anniversary, Mrs. Cullen. We have a few more hours before we dock in Buenos Aires. Anything you'd like to do between now and then?"

"You," I hummed, pulling his lips to mine.

Edward reached up and unsnapped the straps that retained the rolled-up flaps of the canopy, letting them drop around us, blocking us from view of anyone else on the boat.

"I'll get right on that," he purred, and he did.

I couldn't get enough of this man, and I knew I never would. I was certainly looking forward to getting all of him, though, for the rest of our lives.

AN: For so long it took a lot for me to want to trust another person to edit my stories. I worried that a "beta" would try and change how I wrote or would be more of an inconvenience than help. I never thought I would trust one to write a whole chapter! I loved this story. I still think of it when I write and think of how much fun I had when I was writing it. When DOLLYBIGMOMMA took on the task of going through and editing the whole thing, I wondered what I did to deserve her. She has been a great partner to work with and I loved her dedication and ability to add onto this story using the same voice I did when I wrote it. Thank you DOLLYBIGMOMMA for all your hard work, time and dedication to Degrees of Deception.