While lying down, dazed, I opened my eyes. Everything flashed before my eyes and hit me all of a sudden. I was lying beside the most beautiful person in the world. We were married. We were happy. And we had the most amazing child anyone has ever seen in their life.
It felt as what we went through in the past weeks was one big blur. All the tension and pain my family and I had to go through seems like nothing now. I can almost laugh about it. In fact I think I just did.
"What's so funny, Mrs. Cullen?"
I rolled over in bed to find Edward staring at me with his honey-golden eyes. His face was so calm. There was no trace of tension. We were both at ease right now with not even one worry in the world. I was about to answer him and tell him what I was thinking, since he couldn't read my mind, but I heard the familiar noise that I loved hearing every single morning.
"Momma, I can hear you but I can't see you!"
Renesmee was awake and looking for me. I gave Edward a passionate, but quick kiss on the lips. He tried pulling me back down but I was too eager to hold Renesmee in my arms.
I jumped from our bed gracefully, laughing and in one breath I was by her crib's side.
"Momma!" She was almost dancing with excitement when she saw me. She jumped right into my arms and dug her face into my hair. I hugged her tight as we ran back to my room to realize Edward was no longer in bed.
Renesmee touched my face. "Where is Papa?"
Before I could react to that thought and answer her, someone caught me off guard and knocked my legs out right from under me. Renesmee and I were in the air about to land on the bed. It was Edward. He picked us up and now we were all jumping on the bed together. We were one big happy family.
After about five minutes, we decided it was time to stop since we almost broke the bed.
I sat down on top of the down pillows. Renesmee jumped right onto my lap. I looked directly into her beautiful brown eyes. "Okay, it is time to go see grandma and grandpa," I told her.
"I will go pick out something for her to wear," Edward suggested as he walked into her oversized closet.
I reached over and grabbed a brush from my lamp stand beside the bed and started combing Renesmee's shinny bronze hair. I was being careful not to disturb her perfectly round ringlets. I always let Edward pick out what Renesmee should wear. I was never good at picking out clothes for Renesmee. Apparently I didn't know how to match shirts with pants. Last time I let Renesmee wear the same outfit twice and Alice almost ripped my head off.
"From the thousands of outfits you have, you dress her in the same one in one week? You are unbelievable Bella!"
I can remember it like it was yesterday. Wait, I think it really was yesterday. The rest of my life is just one big day so I can't really tell the difference anymore.
I got dressed quickly. I grabbed some random salmon coloured day dress. I didn't really bother looking at it as I put it on. As much as would like to wear my infamous old grey sweater, Alice banned had me. She came into my house one day and hid them all from me. She hid them somewhere far where I couldn't find them. Knowing Alice, she probably burned them all in a huge bon fire while she danced around it with a big grin on her face.
We were all dressed at this point. Renesmee in her cute little ballerina outfit and Edward – as soon as I saw him my mind lost track – he was beautiful. I went to go touch his perfect sculpted chest through his shirt but he grabbed my hand and before I knew it we were all running in the forest. I pouted at him.
"Bella do you really think this is the best time? And I thought your emotions were strong when you were a human. They have doubled since we turned you. I love it though. Shh."
It was a gorgeous day outside. There was a fresh layer of snow on the ground. I think this would be the last snow fall of the year. Alice predicted sun in the forecast. I never doubted her. Winter was quickly coming to an end. I watched Renesmee leap quickly from branch to branch. She would then back-track her jump and run back through the snow that had fallen from the branch.
Edward had Renesmee locked in his gaze. She looked at him and stopped running. "Come here lovely Renesmee. I want to show you something." Edward turned to me and gestured to follow him.
I did not ask any questions. I just followed. We ran for about 5 minutes before we stopped abruptly.
"Come here Renesmee." Edward had his arms out for her as she jumped automatically in them. He whispered in her ear while staring at me the whole time. "Close your eyes."
Renesmee started giggling but closed her eyes as she was told. She even put her little hands on top of her eyes to prove she wasn't peeking. Edward grabbed my hand as we walked the rest of the way. We were in a huge open field. We weren't alone though. There were so many other families there. They were human of course. It was an ice festival. How did Edward find out about this?
"Okay Renesmee you can open your eyes now," Edward said softly into her ear. One of his arms was holding her while his other hand was still holding onto mine.
Renesmee opened her eyes and inhaled in surprise! Her eyes lit up. She turned to us with such excitement radiating her face.
She touched both our faces, "Wow! This is so cool! Can I go play?" Renesmee was squirming in Edward's arms. She was impatient to go and play.
"Yes go, go." Edward put her down as she started running though the snow.
Edward walked up to me and put his hand on my cheek and gave me a kiss on my forehead.
"Look at how much fun she is having." Both Edward and I looked to see her making a snow man with the other children. She was laughing and having a good time with all the kids. This was good for her because we knew we could not put her into day care or school. She was growing too fast and the teachers would get very suspicious as to why that is happening.
Edward and I just stood there hand in hand watching our daughter – yes our daughter – play.
After about half an hour we left and started running again. Edward and I were still holding hands. I was staring at him. He was looking at Renesmee. Edward was looking at her and I would catch him smile - a pure loving smile. I could tell that Renesmee's happiness radiated off him. For Edward to see his family this happy was a great accomplishment for him. It's all he wanted. It felt like we could just keep running and nothing could interfere.
Something stopped us mid run though. It was a wolf howl. Not just any wolf though. It was Jacobs howl. It sounded like he was in pain.
Renesmee jumped into my arms. She looked so worried. She touched my face. "Momma was that Jacob? What's wrong with him? Why does he sound sad?"
I turned to look at Edward but he just rolled his eyes as we ran faster. He obviously read what she said to my mind. I was confused.
We got to the front of the house to see Jacob in his human form standing by the porch waiting for Renesmee. I guessed he must have changed back into his human form while we were on our way.
"Jacob what's wrong?" Renesmee asked as she jumped into his arms. She spoke out loud to him.
"Finally!" Jacob said to me and Edward. He then turned to Renesmee. "Nothing is wrong. I got here a little early and found out you weren't here yet and I was sad."
"Oh please," Edward grunted.
We all turned to walk into the house. Laughter roared from us. I caught sight of something in the corner of my eye. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Something eerie filled the pit of my stomach. I froze with shock covering my face.
Edward was at my side in less than a second, gently grabbing my arm. "Bella, Bella what is it?" Edward was terrified.
Had he not seen what I saw? "It's nothing." I lied. "My mind is just playing games with me again. It is nothing new."
Edward did not believe me. "Bella, if there is something wrong I want to know since I can't read your mind. You know this. You can tell me anything."
"I know. It's nothing though. I thought I saw someone but I guess I was wrong," I shrugged it off.
Edward stared deeply into my eyes as if he were trying really hard right now to read my mind. He sighed and looked away. He grabbed my hand and we walked into the house holding hands.
Did I really see what I thought I saw? Had I gone crazy? Or was my mind really playing games on me?