I stood waiting at the foot of the stairs, waiting for Edward. Suddenly, he was there, wrapping his hard, cold arms around me.

"Hey," I said, gasping with shock. I turned in his arms to face him. His beautiful golden eyes were excited. I scrutinized his expression.

"What?" he asked, nothing but innocence in his expression.

"You're not telling me something," I accused.

He smiled angelically. I glared at him.

"Edward…" I began. He grinned at me. "I really can't afford any kind of stress that you might be planning to put on me right now. I mean, I worried enough as it is with the wedding and all…"

"Bella," he interrupted me, picking me up and walking over to set me on the couch. "Do you really think that I would do anything to distress you further?" he said, sitting next to me and taking my hand.

"I know how anxious you've been since we started planning the wedding. Today is a day to relax. It's Saturday, you have all weekend before you have to help Alice plan. Of course, if you wanted, I'm sure she could do it herself…" he trailed off at the look of chagrin on my face.

"Yeah, and let her go completely overboard? The only reason I'm having a say at all in this is to stop Alice from making it into a big thing. If I let her have totally free-reign, we would be getting married in Fiji and all the guests would be required to wear pink or something." I felt dizzy at the thought.

Edward chuckled at my little rant. "Of course I can understand why you want to have a say in this, but please, don't stress yourself out so much. You should be focusing on enjoying your humanity," he said, a serious edge creeping into his voice.

I pulled him closer. It was true, if I wasn't lying to myself, that I was scared. I didn't want to leave Charlie behind… or Renee. Strangely, I felt a little sad that I wouldn't see Mike again. Or Jessica, for that matter. Or Angela, or Ben, or…

"Don't do that, Bella," Edward murmured.

I looked up into his topaz eyes and felt a rush of emotion. I loved Edward more than anything in the world. I knew I was ready to leave this world behind to be with him forever. I had already decided. I had to stop thinking about everyone though, it was just masochistic.

I felt tears leak out of my eyes. I buried my face in his chest. "I love you," I mumbled.

He stroked my hair seriously. Then, his arms tightened so that I wasn't able to move an inch. I could feel the stiffness of his body.

"What?" I asked, alarmed.

"It's Alice," he said blackly. "She's getting impatient."

I groaned. "Let's go then. I wouldn't want her to do anything drastic."

He kissed my hair and pulled me up. "You're unbelievably nice to her. You know, you could just tell her 'no' sometime. I wouldn't let her make you feel guilty."

"I want to make her happy. She is my future sister, you know," I paused, thinking. "Actually, I'll be a Hale, won't I? So I'll be Jasper's and Rosalie's little sister, I guess."

Edward smiled at my contemplation. He opened the door to the passenger seat of his Volvo for me. I rolled my eyes, but got in without whining. He flashed over to the driver's side and got in.

The Volvo was zooming down the highway when Edward interrupted my thoughts.

"Bella," he said.

I'd been thinking about our conversation before, and how, after all this time preparing to be a Cullen, I'd actually be a Hale. I didn't mind, really, I was getting along with Rosalie a lot better now, and Jasper was starting to get used to having a human around. It was just a little mentally-disorienting to realize that I wouldn't be a Cullen at all.

"Yes," I answered, still a little bemused.

"I was wondering… how you've been doing with the Jacob situation?" he asked me quietly.

I looked down at my hands. As much as I knew he didn't want to bring it up, it must have been driving him crazy for weeks.

"I'm doing a lot better now," I told him truthfully. And it was true. I had found that even though a small part of my heart loved Jacob, and wished I had picked him, I needed Edward more. Needed him like air, like oxygen. He was my source of life, we were one person.

As I looked again into his amazing eyes, I knew that he was happy.