-26-

BPOV

"How was your day?" Edward smiled and it astounded me. I just looked into his eyes and was mesmerized by the golden tone they now carried. Edward had told me that he was going to spend time with Emmett but just smiled when I asked what they would be doing. I assume he was hunting, but I did not want to think of that right now.

"It was…nice…I guess." I looked out of the corner of my eye at Alice and she had a pout on her face.

"It's not going to work on my either." I spouted at Alice then followed it with a giggle. I did not want her to know that I was feeling bad for not liking the trip as much as she had hoped I would.

"Did she torture you too much?" I returned my glance to Edward and found his perfect face seemingly happy to just look back at me. I put on a little act to hopefully gain some sympathy.

"Yes, it was horrible. She made me try on clothes for hours and forced me to eat horrible granola bars, and then she made me…" I stopped before I revealed what was the most embarrassing moment of the day, the wedding dress. I pulled in my bottom lip and slightly bit down on it to prevent myself from spilling the information.

"What?" He looked at me concerned for a moment then quickly turned towards Alice in hopes of finding out what she had put me through. His eye squinted as he stared at her face. Alice was off in her own world humming something unrecognizable.

"What is she doing?" I was curious what the Cullen's did to Edward to prevent him from hearing secrets they did not want revealed.

"She is singing some nonsense song while converting the prices of shoes into different currency. She can really be frustrating sometimes." I took a sigh of relief knowing that Alice knew I did not want our little adventure to be mentioned to Edward. He probably would have laughed anyways about the whole wedding thing. Well, I am pretty sure anyways.

"Since Alice starved you all day, you must be famished. Shall we go out to eat tonight? I know of a great little place I would love to take you too. It's a little fancy so I hope you two bought something a little more presentable than the ripped jeans." My face turned a slight shade of pink as I looked down at my comfortable jeans. I forced Alice to let me change back in to them and out of the sundress she had gotten me into before we got home.

"There will be no need for that Edward. Esme is going to be making dinner tonight." We both stared at Alice as she got the last of the bags out of the car. Esme was making dinner?

"Does she know how to cook…well…human food?" I did not want to be rude but I was not an idiot either. The Cullen's have not eaten people food in hundreds of years. I shuddered at the thought of eating something raw with blood pouring out of it. Alice burst out laughing and rushed to my side. She must have seen the color leave my face as the thoughts of raw meat swirled in my head and made me start to black out. My legs started to shake uncontrollably but I couldn't get my mind to focus on anything else other than the sight and smell of blood.

"Hold her Edward. This crazy girl thinks Esme is going to serve her a cow that is still mooing or something." Alice continued to giggle and I could see through foggy eyes that Edward was trying to hold back a smile. I gently leaned my body towards Edwards as he wrapped his arms around me and instantly, my legs were no longer stationary on the ground. I was in his arms in record time and was being carried deep into the house.

I could smell a familiar scent coming from the kitchen.

"Pizza?" Esme was making pizza? It was one of my favorite food items, as long as it was covered in vegetables. I had become a vegetarian after a very horrible encounter with a hamburger back home. We did not agree and for days, I was sick, my body trying to remove the vial substance from my body. From that point on, meat, any meat, did not appeal to me. As we entered the beautiful marble kitchen, I could see that all of Edward's family was happily assisting Esme with the one, very large, vegetarian pizza. Carlisle was chopping onions, Alice was working on the mushrooms and Emmett…well, Emmett was throwing large tomatoes up in the air and trying to slice it up before it hit the cutting board. Surprisingly, he did not even make a mess. Edward placed me down and the scent of the food filled my mind with happiness, but my stomach ruined the moment with a loud snarl.

"Sounds like you could eat a horse." Rosalie was smirking in the corner. Edward's eyes were like daggers, only hoping to pierce the attitude that flew from Rosalie. I knew she did not like me, but I had not done anything to hurt her in any way. Maybe I was too tempting for her and she used her rudeness to keep her distance from me and not be tempted to, well, bite me. I visibly shuddered as I looked at her and Edward quickly looked at me concerned.

"Just a chill" I told him reassuringly hoping he would avoid the uncomfortable conversation I didn't want to have about how his sister wanted to eat me alive and if given the chance, would probably enjoy doing so. He disappeared instantly but was back before I could turn to look at where he was going. In his hand, he held a sweater. I guess I was better at convincing him than I thought. I graciously put the sweater on and sat at the enormous dining table. Obviously, the room was only for show but all of the Cullen's minus Rosalie of course, came and sat with me. Esme had brought in the pizza and sat the whole pan in front of me. There was enough to feed our football team back home and knowing that the Cullen's would not be eating with me, I became a little nervous about how much they were expecting me to eat.

"Esme, this looks just wonderful. Thank you so much for going out of your way to do this for me."

"Oh dear, it was so nice to be able to use all of those kitchen things for once. It is nice to have someone to cook for. I hope I did everything ok for you."

All of the Cullen's watched as I picked up the first piece. It was still hot that I burned my tongue at the first bite but I was so hungry that I did not stop eating. After a few moments, I was becoming very self-conscious about eating and put down my food.

"Is everything alright Bella?" Esme looked at the pizza as though she had done something wrong. I quickly wanted to reassure her and the rest of the family that their efforts were wonderful.

"Oh of course. This is so good. Better than anything I have ever had. It's just…well…everyone is just staring at me and…I mean do you normally stare at each other while you are eating? Is it a vampire thing?" All of their eyes shot back and forth to each other. Then a loud roar of laughter erupted from the table.

"Bella, my dear! We are so sorry!" Carlisle was trying to speak through laughter. "We must be just carried away by the fact that a human is eating something we made. This is very unusual for us and we are so sorry that we made you uncomfortable." I couldn't help but smile at their slight hint of embarrassment I saw on all of their faces.

"Human food just doesn't appeal to us so I guess we were just too interested in how it actually turned out." Esme's heart was so pure and gentle. I had never met anyone like that before.

"It is perfect Esme. You have a natural motherly instinct to cook comfort food. Thank you." At that moment, I saw a hint wetness appear in Esme's eyes. They were like tears that would not fall. I was concerned I had upset her with my words.

"That was the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me Bella. Not having my own biological children, I never knew if what I was doing was enough for the precious ones I have now."

Emmett chimed in to the conversation. "Well, I guess its not every day that a human gives a compliment to a vampire"

"What was the last compliment you gave to a human?" I was rather curious

"Oh come on Bella, you should know that? 'You sure do smell good!'" With that, the table again erupted in laughter. Edward smiled but then looked at me concerned.

"Are you ok?" He whispered down towards my ear. I turned to him and laid my hand on his cheek.

"Perfect" was all I could reply.