DISCLAIMER: Twilight isn't mine. And everything that means...
A/N: This chapter was inspired by the scene in Eclipse that inspired this entire story. It can be found on page 276-277 in my book (I have the SE of it) in Chapter 12. I know it's kinda confusing that a chapter is inspired as the same scene as the entire story, but this scene in particular is indebted to that scene. As always, Bold type is Stephenie Meyer's original, but I don't think it's from Eclipse (at least, not that I can find).
Enjoy! As you can see, I have no will power.
I had quickly dressed in my light brown suit, which looked great with my bronze hair. I tied my emerald green tie, which Alice had picked out to play off my eyes, quickly and pulled a small box out from under my socks in my dresser, before heading down the stairs. I saw Mrs. Ryland, who gave me a reassuring smile, a knowing look in her eyes.
I headed for the flower district, buying a bouquet of wildflowers I was sure that Bella would love. I checked my reflection in a store window as I got closer to returning to the house. I looked at my father's watch. I had been gone almost 50 minutes. Maybe Alice had gotten her out already.
I rounded the corner and saw her sitting on Mrs. Ryland's porch swing, still in her long skirt and high collared blouse, her hair still in a bun on top of her head. The entire picture was a rather sepia color in the twilight of the evening. She was looking out at nothing in particular. I climbed the front porch steps and got down on one knee before her, holding the flowers out to her. She took them warily, eyeing me suspiciously.
"Isabella," I began, hoping I looked as sincere as I felt. "I realized tonight, with a little help from some wise women, that I made the wrong decision today. I choose the wrong future because I didn't realize over the last few weeks, I have fallen in love with you. I wasn't planning on it. But I did.
"Isabella Marie Swan Newton – I promise to love you forever. Every single day of forever. Will you marry me?"
I fumbled around in the inside breast pocket of my suit coat looking for the box I had put there before I left the house. I took it out and popped it open, displaying a diamond ring. I held it out to her.
"It was my mother's." I said, as she looked at it, and then to me, the tears forming in her eyes, which reflected the sparkles the diamonds were giving off in the setting sun. She reached a hand out to touch it and then pulled back.
"Edward," she breathed. "I've only been a widow for a month."
"Do you love me? Because I love you. I have never felt this way before, and I don't think I will ever feel this way about anyone else."
"Please get up and sit with me," she said, gesturing to the seat beside her. I didn't like the turn this conversation had taken. In the nickelodeons I had seen, the woman was just supposed to say yes and
throw her arms around you. She wasn't supposed to ask you to join you on the bench and offer an explanation for herself.
"I love you Edward. I have never felt this way before either." She seemed reluctant to say the next sentence to me. "Not even for Mike. He was my best friend growing up. I just figured I would marry before he went off to war because all my friends were getting married to their draftee sweethearts. I worry about what people will say."
"Where? You're not in Phoenix anymore. And no one in Chicago outside this house is going to care."
"I know that. But I feel like I would be disrespecting Mike's memory."
"Mike would want you to be happy, wouldn't he? Wouldn't you be disrespecting his memory even more if you died too? If you refused to continue living your life?"
She opened her mouth, but closed it again in defeat. Then she looked back down at the ring, still in the open box in my hand.
"So are you going to put that on me, or do I have to do it myself?" She grinned smugly at me and a smile spread across my face as I took my mother's ring out of the box and placed in on the third finger on her left hand. Then I took her face in my hands and pulled her forward, locking her lips in mine in our first kiss. My heart fluttered. I could not have imagined it being any better than that.
We were suddenly interrupted by Alice, who came bursting through the front door, squealing with excitement. She was followed my Mrs. Ryland and the major. They all offered us their congratulations. As Mrs. Ryland and Alice admired Bella's ring, Major Whitlock pulled me aside to the other side of the porch.
"I hope you two will be as happy as Rose and I were," he drawled. "However, I think you would have found the Germans more hospitable than women are on some days."
Sorry it's kind of short, but that's all I needed to happen in this chapter. I hope you all are enjoying it. I am enjoying writing it. I would really, really love to hear from you all. Without feedback I may stop writing this story...
