"Hi Mrs. Cullen,"

"Oh. Hello," I smiled at the random teenage girl who showed up at my door step. I already had an idea of why she was there and her next words confirmed it.

"Is Matt home?"

My lips twisted into an involuntary smirk. At seventeen years old, Matt was definitely a looker. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Armed with his father's height and devastatingly good looks, all the girls at his high school really didn't stand a chance.

"Yes, but he's still asleep," I told her. "Would you like to wait for him to wake up inside?"

The girl blinked and looked at her watch before saying "Um…sure,"

I knew she must be thinking that it was weird for Matt to still be asleep at one in the afternoon but this was just the norm with my son. It's not that he's always out partying or anything. In fact, it's the complete opposite. He spent his nights and very early mornings in front of game consoles or pigging out in the kitchen. The boy was lucky he had my metabolism otherwise he'd probably be overweight.

"Oh and uh, I'm Bree, by the way," the girl hastened to introduce herself as I shut the door close behind us.

"Nice to meet you," I smiled and silently appraised her. Not unlike the past girls who have come over, Bree had a head of long blonde hair and had showy clothes. At least she was wearing flats instead of the sky high heels I've seen on some.

The times haven't really changed that much, have they.

I shook my head and was about to go back to the kitchen when I noticed that Bree was still standing awkwardly in the living room.

"Have a seat. I'm sure Matt won't be long," I glanced at the stairs. "Can I know what you're here for exactly?"

"Oh, he's my History partner," she offered as she sat on one of the sofas. "We…have a project to work on,"

"Ah," Uhuh. Sure you do.

"Mom?"

I turned around to see my ten year old boy Christian walk towards me with a book in his hands. He tugged on my shirt and pointed to a word on the page. "What does this mean?"

Despite his tender age, Chris was absolutely obsessed with books. His room was practically a library with the number of floor to ceiling shelves we had built to accommodate his growing collection. A habit I noticed when he read however was that he refused to learn new words through context clues. He always had to ask me, Edward or Matt what they meant.

"Not now, buddy. We have a visitor," I ruffled his hair and smiled at Bree who tentatively smiled back at the little boy by my side.

"Aw, great. There's another one?!" Chris groaned and shook his head. Bree's eyes widened as she blushed. She probably only realized then that she wasn't the first girl to pay Matt a home visit.

"Chris, be nice," I warned. "He's your brother's friend,"

"Friend?" he asked, his nose scrunching. "But I heard Matt say that he doesn't want any more ladies to come he-"

"Alright, Mr. Big Mouth. Why don't you go back to reading in the kitchen," I turned him around and began leading him back there when the guest of honor finally made his appearance.

"Morning ma," Matt greeted he walked down the stairs. In true man fashion, he managed to scratch his stomach and yawn hugely before even making it all the way down.

"Well good afternoon to you too," I smirked at him.

"Huh? Oh yeah. Afternoon. So what's for breakfast? Do we have any bacon left?"

"Lunch is already done and no we don't have any bacon left. You can thank your brother for that,"

"Well, what do we have to eat then? I'm starving, ma," he complained.

"Maybe you can stop thinking about your stomach for a moment, boy. You have a guest,"

Confusion colored Matt's green eyes before he turned his head and finally registered the presence of Bree, who was once again awkwardly standing up.

"Hi Matt," she greeted shyly.

"Uh…hey," he replied. "What're you doing here?"

"Oh. I was just, um, wondering about the History thing,"

"What History thing?"

"You know…the project we were supposed to work on? We're partners remember?"

Matt thought for a second before finally responding. "Ooooh. Uh, yeah, see about that Bree. I kinda told Mr. Baxter that I'm working individually,"

To say Bree was disappointed was an understatement; it was written all over her face. She blinked and forced a smile on her face. "Oh. But, um, he said that we were supposed to be paired up with our seatmates. And well, that's you for me,"

"We're an uneven number in class so someone's bound to work alone. I already talked to him about it and he said it's okay if I wanted to do it on my own. It's fine, really. Anyway you can pair up with Neil Pearson. He doesn't really have a partner since his seat at the back is kind of a loner,"

Bree's face fell a little more and I had to work hard to contain the laughter that was threatening to burst from my lips. Matt playing the heartbreaker was very entertaining though I do feel kinda bad for the girl.

"Okay," she said quietly. "I'll just…um…I'll go talk to…Neil, then,"

"Yeah that sounds like a good idea,"

"Okay," she said again, quieter this time. "I guess I'll get going. Thanks for…letting me in, Mrs. Cullen," she turned to me and forced another smile on her face.

"It's no problem," I grinned back at her.

"Bye Matt," she gazed longingly at my son who just gave an awkward wave in return. As soon as she left, I turned to him with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

"Nice, Matthew. Real smooth,"

"What? I wasn't lying," he held his hands up.

"Oh really,"

"Well…okay not exactly. I still need to talk to my teacher about the individual project thing but c'mon, ma, can you blame me?"

"I take it Bree isn't your type then,"

"Oho, Bree is far from my type. I know she seemed all polite and stuff just now but at school? She's pretty bitchy. Can't count the number of times I've seen or heard her picking on some innocent freshman," he shuddered and shook his head. "Did you ever have to deal with girls like that?"

I snorted. "Do you really have to ask that? I practically had to beat women like that away from your father with a stick on a daily basis,"

Matt grinned. "Oh yeah. Groupies,"

"Yeah. Groupies," I repeated dryly. "Hell, I still do that these days,"

Although New Moon hasn't played in a long while and Edward has been focusing more on writing and producing for other artists, he still had women stopping him whenever he went out. The moms at the kids' school were particularly flirty with him. Not that I blame them, I guess. At forty-five, he was still as handsome as when he was younger if not even more. His hair was still the same gorgeous shade of bronze and it never outgrew its tousled look.

"Playground moms getting to you, ma?" Matt teased.

"No," I stated matter-of-factly as I walked to the kitchen. "I find it disturbing that married women feel the need to flirt with your father despite the fact that he already has three children with his very hot wife, yes, but they're no competition,"

"Hot wife, huh," he snickered as he followed me.

"Well, your dad still seems to think so," I said. "And he reminds me. Every night," Repeatedly. While the headboard slams against the wall and I try to muffle my screams.

Smart idea to move the kids' rooms over at the other side of the house.

Matt was silent for a few moments before his face scrunched up in understanding. "Aw, gross! I don't need to know that you two still do…it. And every night?"

"What do you and dad do every night, mom?"

I honestly forgot that Chris was in the same room. Shooting Matt a look, I quickly dispelled any awkward conversations.

"Nothing, honey. Your brother's just being funny,"

"Did he mean you guys sleep every night?"

"Right. That's exactly what he meant,"

Chris giggled. "But mom, everybody goes to sleep at night. Matt, you're being silly,"

Matt just rolled his eyes and began to assemble his brunch.

A few moments later, the back door opened and the sounds of my two other favorite people in the world burst through the kitchen.

"Mommy!" Charlie squealed as she ran towards me.

"Hi baby," I crouched and gave her a hug. "How was the park?"

"It was so much fun! I got to play on the swing and the sandbox and Clifford left daddy another surprise in his car! His face was so funny when he saw it!"

I raised an eyebrow and stifled a laugh. 'Surprise' was the term my five year old daughter used to substitute dog poop, as in dog poop Clifford the Labrador-Collie mix loved to leave in the Volvo.

"Really? Well, that must've been fun for daddy then,"

"Yeah. Fun," Edward stated dryly as he came closer. Charlie went to sit next to Chris in the breakfast nook and decided to make another piece of refrigerator art as my husband wrapped an arm around my waist. He planted a kiss on my temple and whispered "Remind me again why we keep that dog?"

"Because you can't say no to your daughter?" I chuckled. "And because it forces you to exercise,"

My hand discreetly ran over his hard stomach where his abs were still very much in place thanks to daily jogs around the block with Clifford. Oh, and regular visits to the gym of course.

"Right," he placed a hand on my wrist to stop me from moving it elsewhere and lifted it to place a kiss on my palm.

"You know, speaking of exercise Matt, do you ever plan on doing any?" he turned to our son who was currently stuffing his face.

"Nope," Matt replied with a mouthful of bread. He swallowed and looked at his skinny arm. "I mean it's not like I'm fat or anything,"

"No you aren't but don't you want to pack in a bit of muscle? Score a couple of girls?"

"Actually, Edward, he already does," I informed my husband with a knowing smirk.

Edward understood immediately and raised an amused eyebrow at his son. "So another one came over, huh,"

"Dad," Matt groaned. "Can we not talk about this please?"

"Why not? This is the fourth girl that came over. Or is it the fifth,"

"I'm not having this discussion,"

"Oh come on," Edward chided playfully. "Who was she? Was she hot? Pretty?"

"Ma, make him stop," he moaned and I laughed.

"Sorry but I'm not interfering with your little father-son talk,"

Luckily, Chris decided to interrupt with a question then and spared his older brother further embarrassment.

"Mom, where'd our names come from?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Like, why'd you name me Chris? And why'd you name Matt, Matt and Charlie, Charlie,"

"Why do you ask, buddy?"

"It's for my homework," he lifted his school notebook. Apparently he already finished the book he was reading earlier.

"Well," Edward spoke from beside me. "Charlie's named after your great grandma Charlotte from my side but we call her Charlie like your grandpa,"

"Oh, okay," Chris nodded in understanding and began scribbling. He paused after a while and asked "What about me and Matt?"

"Chris, you were named Christian because you were conceived after mom read Fifty Shades of-"

"Matthew!"

Matt guffawed loudly before looking over at my flushed expression. "What? That's what I heard Aunt Alice say,"

My cheeks continued to burn but luckily, Chris didn't notice as his brows furrowed in confusion.

"Wait, I don't get it. Why did you name me Christian?"

"Because once we saw you after you were born, we just knew what to name you," Edward answered smoothly. "It was like you came with your own name tag,"

"And Matt?"

"The same thing happened to him too,"

"Okay, but what was Matt saying earlier about mom reading something? Can I read it too?"

"Your brother's just being funny again, Chris," I told him before giving my older boy a glare.

Later, when the children were dispersed to different parts of the house – Matt in the game room, Chris outside with Clifford and Charlie playing with her dolls in the living room – Edward sidled behind me and began nibbling on my ear.

"You know, Chris' homework got me thinking," he murmured.

"What?" I tilted my head to the side as his lips moved to my neck.

"We had a lot of fun making him, didn't we?"

The laugh that escaped my throat was breathy. "Yeah, we really did,"

"You'll have to remind me to thank Rosalie for giving you those books again," his hands were travelling higher up my body then. "What do you say to having a repeat performance of that?"

I turned in his arms and linked my hands around his neck.

"I'll race you upstairs,"

Fic rec: The Moonless Night by sanutaz ( www. /s/8908028/1/The-moonless-night)