His Angel (A Baby Bella Story)

3. Uninvited Company

Edward's P.O.V.

I sit in a rocking chair in the corner of Bella's room waiting for her to wake up. Alice said Bella would be waking up soon. Normally Bella wakes up around Eight-Thirty, but today it looks like she'll be waking up a full hour earlier than normal. Her soft snore fills the room and her mind is still silent to me. After almost a year of her being with us, I still cannot read her mind. It frustrates me sometimes how someone so tiny and innocent as Bella can irritate me just from me not being able to read her mind.

Bella's soft snore stops and I watch as she slowly sits up in her crib and rubs her eyes. Every morning, it takes her a few minutes to fully wake up before she calls for me to pick her up out of the crib. She yawns and rubs her eyes again, then sleepily looks around.

"Ed." She says when she looks over at me. I dart over to her and have her out of the crib and in my arms before she has time to lift her arms up.

"Good morning, birthday girl." I say and she giggles then yawns again.

"You look sleepy still. Do you want to go back to sleep?" I ask.

Bella looks off into the distance almost as though she is thinking about her answer. She looks back at me after a minute and shakes her head. I dart out of her room and downstairs to the living room, where the rest of the family waits for us.

"There's the birthday Munchkin." Emmett says once Bella and I are downstairs.

"Time to get her dressed." Alice and Rosalie both say smiling, then run up to us.

Rosalie reaches for Bella, and I try to hold her out, but Bella grasps on to me with all her might, and starts to whine.

"Come on, Bella. You know you have to get dressed." Alice says smiling. The last few weeks have been a bit stressful for Alice and Rosalie, because Bella refuses to get dressed after she wakes up, so they have been forcibly dressing her.

"No." Bella says loudly.

"Bella, that's not birthday girl behavior. You have to get dressed." Rosalie says calmly.

"No, no, no." Bella says shaking her head, her ringlets hit her face and graze across my neck, the dry burning sensation acts up in my throat, but I ignore it.

"Let her stay in her pajama's for breakfast, then maybe after, she'll let you two dress her up." Esme says trying to compromise with Alice and Rosalie.

"Mama." Bella calls to Esme who comes over and takes Bella, then darts into the kitchen with her. I follow behind and instantly get hit with the rotting smell that can only be Bella's morning breakfast, Oatmeal and milk. None of us can understand how Bella can eat half of the things she does, since everything smells like rotting eggs to us vampires.

Esme sits Bella in her high chair and places the Oatmeal and Sippy cup of milk in front of her. Bella begins to eat her breakfast, then Esme comes and stands near me.

"Do you think she knows what today is?" Esme mentally asks.

"Every time she hears the word birthday from me she laughs. So I'd think that would be a yes." I say and watch as Bella takes a handful of Oatmeal and tries to stuff it in her mouth. Oatmeal gets all over Bella's face, and some falls from her mouth and onto her pajama's.

"Uh-oh." Bella says as she looks down at herself and then looks at me and Esme.

"It's okay, Sweetie. Just finish eating, then we'll get you cleaned up." Esme says sincerely, then Bella goes back to eating.

"How has it already been a year, since she's been with us?" Esme asks in her mind, smiling at Bella.

"Technically it'll be a year in Three days. Did you ever think you'd actually get another chance to raise a child?" I ask meaningfully.