Does My Ass Look Too Big in these Jeans?

Chapter 20: A Mother's Love

Esme's Point of View

I loved my boys, I really did. But when they got to the ages of 30, 28, and 26 respectively, without showing any signs of leaving the nest, I knew I had to take action—desperate action. First, I tried hinting. That didn't work. I then started charging them rent. They paid without a whimper. I then paraded every eligible girl I could find in front of them, but not one of them took the bait.

After a disastrous trip to the ice-skating rink, Carlisle finally told me to calm down and let nature take its course. He was sure the boys would find their own girls sooner or later. I gave up trying to force the issue with them. That hadn't panned out anyway and I was driving everyone crazy, especially myself, but I never stopped hoping it would happen.

It was when I was talking to an old friend from my Catholic School days that I remembered something that might work, without me having to strong-arm my boys into compliance. I went to church and prayed.

Funny thing was, within a few days of my new approach, all three of my boys were matched. Just shows you that God is good, right? All three of the girls make my boys very happy, which is all that I could ask for (besides the leaving the nest thing, that is.)

I wasn't surprised that Jasper and Alice eloped. Jasper doesn't have much patience with traditions and the like. Besides, his residency was taking up a lot of his time. So, he and Alice decided not to wait. I don't blame them. I remember what it was like waiting for Carlisle to finish his internship until we were able to marry and even then, we didn't have a big wedding.

What did surprise me was how fast Edward and Bella tied the knot. My Eddie used to take forever to make up his mind about everything down to, and including, what cereal he wanted for breakfast, so I was expecting a long courtship and engagement and a lot of dithering and dallying. But when he started dating Bella, I'd never seen him move so fast. He had married her within four months. I wasn't surprised that their wedding was exquisite and personal.

Edward and Bella had spent the week after their wedding in a little cottage just up the street from the Inn where their ceremony was held. They had a lovely time getting used to being married there, I'm sure. But there was a problem when they got back to their cozy love nest in Bellingham. It seemed that Emmett had somehow gotten an extra key to their apartment and while the happy couple was away, he had gone inside and filled it completely with balloons. I don't know how the lad did it, but that little place was nothing but floor to ceiling latex inflatables—in the living room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. Chock filled. Bella said she was finding remains of balloons for months afterwards, in the strangest places. I must admit, Emmett put a lot of effort into his prank.

Edward wasn't impressed. He simply said to Emmett in a dire voice, "You. Just. Wait." Payback was going to be a bitch, we all feared.

Some surprising things happened because of Bella and Edward's wedding, though. For one, my mother and Carlisle's father became an item. For years, they had been like night and day and cheerfully needled each other whenever they had been thrown together. By the time Edward got married, they both had been widowers for several years, but I never imagined them as a couple. A few months after Edward and Bella's nuptials, they announced that they were following suit—actually, Sam had to convince my mother to get married as she just wanted to "shack" up, but he wouldn't consider it. And now, they were spending their winters in Arizona and their summers in Chicago. They agreed not to discuss politics, and Mom goes to church with Sam every Sunday. Funny what love can do.

Emmett and Rosalie had their huge, no holds barred, Princess-zilla wedding after more than a year-long engagement. Rosalie had an "event" at least each month leading up to the ceremony, either a shower, a girl's outing, a dinner, or whatever else you could think of. Rose's dress was a lace confection and her veil was so long, she needed page boys to hold the train. They had ten attendants each and got married in one of the most elaborate churches in town. Their reception was in the grandest ballroom I had ever seen, with a live band for dancing. There was a seven-tiered wedding cake that followed a seven-course meal. The wedding and all the activities leading up to it lasted a week. Afterwards, they honeymooned in Vegas.

The whole time leading up to, during, and after the wedding, Emmett was living in trepidation of Edward's promised payback. I heard him one time, just a day before the ceremony, pleading with Edward to, "Just get it over with. Come on. I can't stand it." Edward just smiled his Cheshire-cat-grin and didn't say anything. I imagine Emmett was looking over his shoulder, under his bed, and behind doors for months. The best part of the whole thing was that Edward never did anything to prank his brother, he just let Emmett anticipate that something was going to happen and let him squirm. I know that I'm their mother, and I shouldn't take sides, but I have to say, Emmett deserved all this tribulation.

Another change that happened was that Bella left GoNet and opened her own studio just around the corner from my design company. Her murals were a big hit and I was able to line up several commissions for her, to the point she could make more than a comfortable living with her art. After some encouragement from Edward, she also sold watercolors and paintings in her studio. Surprisingly, she had a pretty lucrative side-business in personalized wedding invitations, birth announcements, and the like. She was busier than she ever expected to be.

Soon, she and Edward had moved out of their little bridal apartment and into a neat little house downtown. Her only condition was that both her studio and their house had to have a room with good light where she could do her art. I was very proud of her, and she was very happy, though I was surprised she never got rid of that grody old sofa she had had in her apartment. It followed her from her apartment living room to her studio. I offered to get her a new one, but Bella said the old sofa suited her. We all have our caprices, don't we?

I couldn't have predicted how wonderfully everything turned out. All my boys were happily married to fabulous girls. Life was better than good.

Tonight, we were celebrating again. It was Carlisle's birthday and all the kids were coming over for dinner and a little party. I was fixing Carlisle's favorite meal and we were going to finish with ice cream, cake and presents. We sat around the dining room table and the kids passed their presents to Carlisle to open. He picked up the gift from Emmett and Rosalie first. Carlisle always made a production out of opening presents.

"Now, what could this be?" my husband asked, as he looked at the colorfully wrapped box.

He shook it and guessed, "A tie?"

Emmett and Rosalie giggled and said, "No."

"A pair of socks?"

"Nope!"

"Handkerchiefs?"

Emmett was eager and pleaded, "Pa, open it!"

So, Carlisle opened the present and found a little card inside. "Happy Birthday, Grandpa?" he gasped.

"What?!" I said. My heart started pounding so hard I could feel it in my ears!

Carlisle's smile could have lit the room, and he looked at Rosalie and asked, "You're going to have a baby?"

She nodded, as I jumped from my seat and hugged her. "When?"

"We just found out, so I'm guessing in seven months or so!"

I was soaring! Me, a Grandma! I couldn't believe it. I was so excited that I didn't notice the reaction of my other kids. They all looked stunned.

After a few moments of celebration, Edward smiled and said, "Congratulations, Emmett and Rose."

He pushed another small box over to Carlisle and added. "We may have a little something that will go with their present, Dad. Open this one, next."

Carlisle was surprised but, unresisting, picked up Edward and Bella's gift without preamble, opened it, and gaped at the Sonogram picture that was inside. In shock, he looked up, and said, "You, too?"

Both Bella and Edward nodded bashfully. "Bella's just finished her first trimester. We're expecting in about five months."

My legs gave out and I had to sit down. "I'm going to be grandma to two babies?"

Jasper and Alice looked wryly at each other, then Jasper shoved an envelope in Carlisle's direction, "No, Grandma, to three! Alice is half-way through her pregnancy. We just found out we're going to have a little boy. We're going to name him Carlisle, but we're calling him Carl."

I put my hand over my heart and said, "Oh, my good God. I'm going to have a heart attack!"

Everyone laughed except, I wasn't surprised to see, Rosalie. Seems she hated to have to share attention, and unintentionally, both of her husband's brothers were able to do that both on the night she and Emmett had announced their engagement and, now, the night they announced their impending parenthood. Oh, dear. Maybe the good Lord was trying to teach her something? We all have things to learn, that's for sure.

Looking around the table with enormous pride and happiness, Carlisle stood up and said, "I would offer to get out the champagne, but since almost half of us can't drink it now, I guess water will have to do. 'I'd like to propose a toast! Here's to our wonderful, amazing, and growing family. The Cullens!'"

AN: The Prompt for this one was A Mother's Love. Esme was full to overflowing, don't you think?

The last line was sort of a throwback to Bear Valley Ranch, except that Carlisle said, "To the Colorado Cullens" in that one.

Now, I think this PTB Prompt contest was supposed to last a year with a prompt given every two weeks or so, if I remember correctly, but I could only find these 20, so I shall end the story here. Thank you for reading.

Also, I was just informed that "A Southern Gentleman" was voted number one in the Twifanfictionrecs dot com for Completed October Stories vote! That's so very nice. I am truly honored. Thank you!

And, as always, thank you to my lovely and wonderful Beta, Vecha. I couldn't have done this without you.