[BamaFan121s]

As Alice had predicted, Charlie’s stay was brief. The reason for his visit, as she’d also predicted, was to drop off a package that had arrived for me. The postage on the rather large box indicated that it had been shipped from Jacksonville. With the box on the dining room table, I slid my finger easily under the seam of the brown wrapping paper. I couldn’t resist looking down at my finger, thankful that the simple task no longer yielded the danger of a paper cut….or the consequences.

I reached for the hand written letter from my mother that lie on top and read it before examining the contents of the box. As it turned out, Phil’s hard work had paid off—he had been signed to a major league baseball team. My mother’s excitement over this development was evident in her letter, as was her apology for having misplaced my address here at the Cullen household. I couldn’t help but smile in amusement of her typical, scatterbrained ways.

I folded her letter and put it back in the envelope and examined the contents of the box. She’d sent a collection of memorabilia from Phil’s new team. Shirts and baseball caps for every member of the family, plus Charlie, a stuffed bear holding a team pennant for Renesmee and vouchers to a home game—she’d even included enough for Sue, Billy and Jacob.

I walked back to the kitchen where Jacob had reappeared and been cornered by Edward who was incisively talking about cars again. He stopped when I walked in and looked at me hesitantly. "Alice is looking for you. She’s insisting on taking you shopping today." An apologetic grimace crossed his face. "And Jacob and I are going to look at cars."

"That’s fine, go with Jake." I couldn’t help but return his smile as he turned triumphantly to Jacob, obviously having cleared his last hurdle. Sadly, I was not looking forward to the day that lay ahead of me, but I knew that I couldn’t avoid another shopping spree with Alice for long. May as well go ahead and get it over with.

"Ready, Bella?" Alice chirped, having suddenly appeared by my side.

"As ready as I’ll ever be," I sighed in resignation reaching for my purse. "But we’re using your credit card!"

The day with Alice was not as horrible as I’d imagined it would be. I found I didn’t mind so much if I was shopping for someone else. The majority of our finds were items for Renesmee, who seemed to outgrow her clothes faster than even Alice could supply them…almost. It was at the first or many registers that Alice discovered she’d left her credit card at home, forcing me to use mine. It was a little too convenient of a mishap to be believable, not that Alice tried to hide that fact. It was with gritted teeth that I slid the card through the register’s terminal, trying not to pay too much attention to the obscenely high numbers that glared back at me.

I knew that Renesmee was going with Edward and Jacob, so I couldn’t even use her as an excuse to return home early, however, the day seemed to be dragging on without Edward. "Aren’t you having any fun at all, Bella?" Alice still could not fathom why I was not as enthusiastic about spending money as she was. It was only after I begrudgingly agreed to a new, full length blue dress that Alice finally decided it was time to go home.

Edward was not there when we arrived home. Neither were Jacob and Renesmee. After helping Alice bring in our bags from our day’s adventure, as she’d called it, I found myself sitting on the porch, anxiously awaiting their return. Mostly, I was anxiously awaiting Edward’s return. It was nonsensical, really. It was the longest time we’d spent apart since our wedding and the more the day had progressed, the more I ached to be by his side again. As luck would have it, I didn’t have to wait long.

I’d been on the porch a mere ten minutes when Edward emerged from the woods and stepped onto the gravel driveway, his hair windblown from running. He kept his eyes lowered to the ground and walked towards me at a pace that would have been slow even for a human and silently took a seat on the stair beside me. He leaned over to absentmindedly kiss my cheek. "Hi," he greeted me, still looking at the ground.

"I take it car shopping with Jake didn’t exactly go as planned?" I guessed.

"No." He confirmed my suspicions. I knew how stubborn Jacob could be and suspected that his pride would not let him give in so easily. Judging from Edward’s forlorn expression, I was not far off the mark.

"So he wouldn’t let you buy him the Mustang you had picked out?" I guessed again.

"Oh, he let me buy him a Mustang alright!" Edward exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation. "Bella…it was from a junkyard! A mid eighties model…not even from this millennia!" He dropped his head to his hands and looked completely dismayed. I pressed my lips into a tight line, trying with all my might to suppress the laughter that threatened to escape. "He insisted that he can fix it up," he continued, lowering his voice to imitate the words I could only too easily imagine Jacob saying. I fought harder to maintain my composure. "He even named it…Shelia."

"He named his car?" I had lost the battle with myself. I couldn’t help it as I burst into a fit of laughter.

"It’s not funny," Edward said, rounding on me, but he was laughing too at this point. "It’s not!"

"I’m sorry," I said, trying to regain my composure and stifle my giggles as he pulled me on to my lap. "You can’t always have your way, you know."