Once Nessie was dressed and rushed out the door by Jacob, Edward pulled me back into his arms.
"Well, what would you like to do now?" he asked me.
"Oh, I don't know," I said, sliding my hands down his chest. "We could… play chess. I still have a problem with you beating me all the time."
"Sure, if you want, but I had something a little different in mind."
"Oh, really? And, what would that be?"
He grinned and pressed his lips to mine. I kissed him back enthusiastically. Our bodies pressed together with inhuman strength. My hand went to the buttons of his shirt and started popping them off.
"Hey, this is a good shirt; Alice isn't going to be happy about the missing buttons." He said between kisses.
"She'll get over it." I grumbled. I finished with his buttons and started on mine. His hand stopped me.
"What?"
"Not right now."
"But—"
"No."
"Dammit, Edward."
He smirked.
"Kissing? Kissing is what you had in mind? You really made me think otherwise."
"Sorry, but we have things to do."
"Exactly." I said popping another button on my shirt. He stopped me again.
"Not those kinds of things, we can continue that later tonight… I am truly sorry for making you think otherwise."
I sighed.
"I really don't want to spend another day making moving preparations with Alice. You know that I don't want to go."
"I don't either, Bella, but we have been here another year now and Nessie is getting too big. And think of Carlisle! He's supposed to be ten tears older than he looks. Also, Charlie is considering repealing his 'need-to-know' act and we all know you want to protect him."
"Can we not talk about this right now?"
I wanted to punch something.
Charlie was obviously getting suspicious at Nessie's "growth spurts".
"Um, Bells? I swear Nessie was two inches shorter yesterday and she looks more like you every day. What… the… hell?"
"Dad, she is just going through a growth spurt and you know what they say: you turn into the ones you love."
"Well, if I was deaf and blind, I still could make out the resemblance. Do you want to tell me why?"
"No."
"Good, because I'm not sure if I want to know. I've had enough over load with the whole…w-werewolf thing." He stumbled over the word. "I cannot believe you knew about that and didn't tell me."
It had scarred me that he related the Nessie scenario with something magical like werewolves. He had already come to that conclusion… I had wondered what else he had come into conclusion about . . .
"Because, I didn't want to be responsible for your heart attack."
"Thanks."
"No problem."
Yeah, I didn't think Charlie would be able to deal with the fact that his daughter was a vampire, along with her vampire husband and half vampire daughter. Not to mention her large vampire family in law. The werewolf best friend thing was more than enough. I was surprised that Charlie could still keep from going into cardiac arrest every time Jacob entered the room. That alone should make one's brain implode. If he ever found out how Renesme was born or worst of all… conceived, god forbid! I mentally rolled my eyes at that last one. He needed to stay in the dark if he wanted to stay sane. My family all knew that we would have to leave for Alaska very soon. Someplace different than the last place they had stayed before they came to Forks. I had to leave Charlie. And that hurt. At least he had Sue. She could take care of him and for that I was grateful to the human woman. But, taking Nessie away from her grandfather and vice versa was wrong. It was the only way to keep him safe…
And it was hard to think of all the other things we would leave behind. Our cottage, the big white house only a few miles away, our meadow… that one hurt a lot. Edward promised me that we'd sneak back to visit it. But the thing that scared me the most were the memories we would be leaving behind. Forks would always be sort of a home for me, an original home that brought me the most important things in my life. Of course, wherever Edward was would be home no matter where we were. I could be in the middle of bum-freaking-Egypt and feel like I was in a house that I lived all my life in as long as Edward and Nessie were there.
"Bella, Alice is on her way to come drag you out of here…"
"Give it a rest, Alice…" I grumbled to myself, listening to the whoosh of her running feet.
"Hmm, she has something else planned for today, love." He grinned at me.
"What is it?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"You'll see." He said, pulling a new shirt on. He walked over to me and re-buttoned mine.
I scowled at his long fingers.
I waited impatiently as Alice made her way to the cottage. The impatience grew to the point where I pulled Edward with me to meet her half way. Her small frame emerged from the trees and halted in front of us. She wore especially dressy clothes today. This made me suspicious.
"Hey, Alice, what's up?" I said eyeing the red sweater dress she wore with black tights to the long black nit coat she wore over all of it. A black scarf was wrapped around her neck.
"I was coming to get you. I am going to get you something to wear out of that closet of yours that is actually appropriate."
"Why?" I said, glancing at Edward. He chuckled through his nose.
"Well Emmet wanted a fighting partner today that doesn't cheat but I needed you more. Though, it is fun watching Emmet get the crap beat out of him."
"Yes, that never gets old." Edward agreed.
"But, why am I dressing up?" I pressed.
"Because jeans and a Tee shirt just don't cut it with me."
"I get that part, Alice, but why am I dressing up now?"
"Oh, we are having a girls' day out. You, me, and Rose are going into town."
"Why?"
"I'm giving you a break."
"Can't I spend my break here?"
"Stop being a kill joy, Bella."
I sighed and glared at her, defeated; I couldn't disappoint Alice despite my efforts.
"Come on; let's go get you something to wear!" She blew past us towards the cottage.
Edward looked at me warily. There was a bit of amusement that touched his eyes as I reluctantly took off after the tiny vampire. When we entered the house, Alice was already in our bedroom rummaging through the closet she had stocked for me. Every couple of weeks, she would get rid of the clothes that I wore the most and replace them with scarier things than before. I could see the desire in her eyes to literally burn the sweatshirts and jeans I preferred over the extravagant silk and velvet that was meant for a princess. But, I made her promise that she wouldn't.
"Ah, this is perfect." She said as I walked through the doorway, towing Edward behind me. She held a long sleeved blue cotton shirt. I could see that it was slim fitting and low cut.
"Alice…"
"Shush, let me have my fun."
"You look overwhelmingly beautiful in anything, love." Edward murmured into my ear. I mentally blushed and pushed the rubber band shield away from my mind without difficulty.
"What about nothing at all? I must admit that is what I prefer on you…"
The thought that was only meant for him caused his eyes to widen. A grin crept across his face. I snapped the rubber band back into place.
"Yes, but why not play up her beauty?" Alice said, pretending not to notice the exchange.
"Alice, sometimes you scare me." I sighed.
"Ha, I scare you all the time and you know it. But, that's what sisters are for."
"Um, I'm pretty sure you're wrong about everything you just said."
"That's your opinion."
She disappeared into the closet again and returned in a nano-second with a pair of the tightest jeans in my collection.
"I'll let you wear jeans today, Bella, so that you can be comfortable and not spoil everyone's fun."
"Those shouldn't be categorized under 'jeans'."
"Don't push it."
I sighed, exasperated.
"Here, throw these on." She tossed me a white tank top with the blue shirt and jeans. She continued searching through the forest of cotton and silk. A black pee coat flew through the air towards me and I caught it reflexively. Its gold buttons gleamed brightly and I wondered if was real gold. I touched one of them. Yup, definitely real. She came out of the closet with two pairs of boots; one pair was the same blue as my shirt and the other black.
"I like the black ones." I said honestly.
"Me too." She flung them at me.
I began to unbutton my shirt.
"I'll just go." Edward murmured as he turned for the door.
"No, stay!" I insisted.
"And ruin Alice's dress up game? I don't think so…"
"Alice can deal."
"No I can't."
"Shut up, Alice."
She glared at me.
"I'll be back to see the final product." He said teasingly as he leaned in to kiss my forehead.
"Okay." I sighed into him.
Alice flitted to my side as Edward breezed out of the room. She literally tore my shirt of and flung the blue one over my head.
"Whoops." She said tossing the ruined faded button-up shirt into the garbage bin.
"Dammit, Alice, I liked that one."
"Exactly."
"It never even had a chance." I said, shaking my head sadly at its remains.
"It's in a better place now."
"Not really."
She squatted to unbutton my old jeans and replace them with the new ones.
"I can dress myself, Alice."
"No you can't actually, that's why I buy all of your clothes."
"That's not what I meant."
"Just go with it for a second."
And that's all it took; a second. I was dressed and ready to go in my new dressy clothing.
"Okay, let's go!" Alice said excitedly.
"You'll pay for this, pixie."
"I know. Now let's go show Edward how hot you are."
I rolled my eyes but followed Alice into whatever she was getting me into.