Hey guys! So sorry about no update last week - I've been so busy! I'm actually still busy because I'm writing this chapter in DISNEY! (Which is unbelievably exciting.) And my summer just started (also unbelievably exciting.) Anyway, I really hope that you guys like this chapter! I'm on vacation, so I'm hoping to capture that vacation/honeymoon feel very well. (:
Sorry this is not as long as I thought it would be. Start hassling me to update more, by the way. (Either on here or twitter. Username below and on profile!)
BPOV
It felt nice waking up the next morning - no screaming baby, no dirty diaper, and nothing to worry about. I rolled over in bed at around ten o'clock with sunlight pouring in through the big windows. Normally, I would have cursed the sunlight, but today, I embraced it. In fact, I smiled and felt the sudden urge to walk over and pull the curtains back. I was desperate to see the gorgeous mountain views. But I was too comfortable to move.
I was laying on my back, and Edward's arm draped across my chest, just above my bulging belly. I breathed in deeply and watched as he fidgeted in his sleep. I didn't want to wake him up. He looked so peaceful. And after a long day yesterday, he deserved all the sleep that he could get. So rather than move and disturb my husband, I closed my eyes and snuggled closer to him.
I didn't fall asleep. I daydreamed instead, coming closer to falling asleep every time. I would feel myself drifting off into slumber when I would suddenly jump awake for no apparent reason. I think at one point I did drift off, because when I opened my eyes, the clock beside us was flashing 11:25. That was when I decided that their had to be a peaceful intervention. I was getting hungry just laying here.
"Edward." I whispered, and put my hands on either side of his face. I leaned in closer and kissed him on the cheek. "It's time to wake up."
He sighed in his sleep and tried to roll over. I smiled and kissed his tired lips. His eyes slowly opened, and he looked slightly confused when he saw me. But his confusion quickly turned into something else: happiness. He grinned and put his hand to my cheek. "Hey." He said in a sleepy voice. Edward cleared his throat.
"Hi." I said and kissed him again.
"Well, good morning to you too."
I laughed and slowly lay back down next to him. He turned on his side so that he was facing me before he began. "Dammit. Sorry for sleeping in so late. I didn't even know how tired I was." Edward apologized.
"I don't care." I told him truthfully. "We were up pretty late." And that was the truth. Once we got settled, we ended up watching movies late into the night. And when the movies began to bore us, we entertained ourselves else wise. Our 3:00am makeout session was perfect, and though it escalated quickly, moving to the bed shortly after it had began, there was no sex. I didn't want that now - not at seven months pregnant.
Edward shrugged. "I still feel bad."
"You can make it up to me with breakfast." I smiled as he looked down at me. I sat up and kissed him on the lips. He grinned for the second time this morning and nodded in agreement. I squealed a little, though I tried my best not to, and we started to get ready for the day. After eating, I figured we would head out and do something together. As much as I loved this fancy cabin, I couldn't wait to see what else there was to do in the mountains.
Officially being husband and wife made my morning routine so much happier. We took a long bath together, and while we did, I played with the rings on both mine and Edward's finger. It's still hard to believe that I'm actually married! And even harder to believe that we've only been married for fifteen hours. It feels like so much longer.
After an amazing, and long, bath, we both got dressed. Edward helped me pick something out from my bag. Since it was even colder here than in Seattle, we decided on a pair of jeans, fuzzy boots, and fuzzy socks, along with a creamy long sleeved white, and a big jacket over it. Even in all of the layers, my stomach popped. I was terrified to find out how much this little girl weighed. While I did my hair, and styled it with a dark gray beanie hat, Edward got dressed. He wore something similar to me. There's not much you can wear besides layers when it comes to this kind of weather, but I don't mind. It's so relaxing and beautiful up here.
By the time we had gotten ready, it was around 12:30, and a little late for breakfast, so we settled for a big lunch instead. Edward held the door open for me, and I stepped outside of the cabin. I wanted to see the mountain view so badly that I headed for the edge of the property, but Edward grabbed my arm.
"Just wait. There's a spot where it'll be even prettier, I promise. Let's just wait until we're up there."
I bit my lip. It would be difficult to wait. "I don't kn - "
"Trust me." His hand ran up and down my arm. "It'll be so much prettier."
I sighed. "Alright. If you're sure."
We walked down for quite some bit before we reached the little restaurant near where we were staying. It wasn't even a mile away, and it would have been nice had my feet not gotten sore halfway through. I didn't say anything to Edward. I didn't want to ruin the moment. Much to our luck, the restaurant was fairly empty, and we were seated within five minutes. They placed us in a booth, and we both sat on the same side... something we don't usually do.
My eyes scanned over the menu. I was absolutely starving. (Probably because I haven't eaten since nine last night. Over twelve hours now!) I ended up ordering a club sandwich with a side of fries and a salad. At the point, Edward didn't even question it, and he ordered himself a steak.
While we waited, we talked about what we were going to do today.
"There are a ton of trails that I thought we could check out." Edward suggested. "Some of them are really cool. Kind of, like, Indiana Jones, you know? Thick brush, lots of hills... or, that's what it looked like in the pictures at least. They looked freaking awesome."
"Edward, I... I - " I tried to smile, but my face was falling. "I can't do that kind of stuff right now... it's too much for me and the baby." I wanted to go out and adventure with Edward, but that just wasn't in the picture right now. It was physically impossible, and dangerous, for me to even try to walk the mountain trails.
"Oh, of course. I was actually going to take us on one of the mild ones. It's practically flat." He explained. In his eyes, I could tell that that wasn't what he wanted to do. At least he wasn't completely throwing the idea away - walking some trails sounded like a lot of fun.
I nodded my head. That sounded great. "Is that where the view is?"
Edward smiled. "You're too smart for me."
We were quiet for a moment. I looked over at him and sighed. "We can come back later and do the other trails." I said to him. "Maybe when the kids are old enough we can go on a big family adventure. Or ask Alice to stay back and watch them while we go together."
He nodded his head. "That sounds absolutely perfect."
Our food arrived shortly after, and, for once, I ate it slowly. I wanted to enjoy every moment of this short vacation. There was no point in rushing everything, even if I was anxious to hear from my baby Aveline. And after we ate, I did. I called Rosalie as we drove up to the mountain trail, since it was about fifteen minutes away. She answered on the third ring, and I was relived to hear that Aveline was being her usual self. Last night wads my first night away from her in over a year, and today is my first full day.
She told me that she'd been playing, and eating, and she'd even gone with Rosalie to the grocery store, which didn't surprise me. I'm sure Rose would love to have a baby sitting in the trolley as she pushed it around the store, catching the attention of every girl within a ten foot radius. And just the fact that she loves kids - she works at a preschool for god's sake. Nonetheless, I was happy that Aveline was doing alright without me. I told Edward what Rose had to say, and he was happy to hear the good news.
Just driving up to the trails gave me an idea of how gorgeous the view would be. As we got higher, the purple flowers and green grass slowly faded into a white, dusty sheet of snow. It slowly fell from the sky and onto the car. I smiled, and looked out the window behind us, watching as we got further and further away. Soon there was nothing but snow, the beautiful clear sky ahead of us. My ears started to pop as we got higher.
I reached over and put my hand on Edward's shoulder as he smoothly parked into the empty parking lot. Apparently we were the only one's who wanted to walk through the trail, which made it a million times more peaceful for us. We both pulled ourselves out of the car, and put a few extra layers on to stay warm. Once we were done with that, we were off. Edward took my hand in his, and we walked close together, our bodies touching with each stride.
We didn't say much. The serenity of the trees and the closeness of my lover beside me made talking seem so irrelevant. We didn't need to speak. The atmosphere spoke for itself. I held onto Edward's hand a little more tightly as we continued through the white path, our feet crunched as we walked, leaving our footprints in the untouched snow.
It didn't take us long to reach the end of the trail - half an hour tops. There was a break in the trees at the end of the path, and light was shining through. I bit my lip in excitement, and looked over at Edward, who was already smiling at my reaction to the view. He know how much I wanted to see it. So he squeezed my hand a little, and he followed as I quickened my pace. Had I not been pregnant, I would have ran.
When I made it to the top, I let go of Edward's hand and gasped. It was more breathtaking than I could have ever imagined.
Down below were the hundreds of thousands of trees blowing in the wind. Purple flowers danced in the green grass. Out in the distance, other mountain tops stared back at me, with fluffy white clouds, and an endless blue sky hiding behind. The sun crept in behind the snow covered mountains and shined brightly against my wind burnt skin. I put my hand out as though I could touch the picture in front of me. It was too beautiful to be real.
"Told you." Edward said from behind me, putting his hand on my shoulder.
I couldn't even turn to look at him. The view was too perfect. "Yes." I whispered. "This is so amazing." I finally turned to look at him. "Thank you."
"For what?"
"Taking me here." I shook my head in disbelief. "This is better than any Disney vacation or any trip out of the country."
"I'm glad you like it." He smiled and kissed me. I kissed him back for a short second, then turned my attention back to the beautiful view.
The two of us ended up spending most of our afternoon there. We sat down at the overlook and nestled in each others arms, talking about anything and everything. It was peaceful and calm, and after I had gotten over the initial shock of the beauty, I was able to hold a conversation with Edward. The words melted out of my mouth, pouring with each different conversation. Talking to him had never felt so easy.
I wanted to stay there all day and all night, and had it not nearly dropped into the negatives, I would have convinced Edward to stay with me. I kept reminded myself that one day we would come back together, and maybe we could camp out together. I kept that promise in the back of my mind as we made our way back to the car and turned the heater up as high as it would go.
"What was the name of that trail?" I asked Edward on the way back.
"Um..." He thought for a moment. "I think something like the 'light' trail."
And when we got back to the room, we looked up baby names that means light on Edward's phone while I soaked in the bathtub. We thought that it would be symbolic to do it like that, sine Aveline's name has some meaning behind it as well. I lathered soap down my arm while Edward read off the incredibly long list of names to me. There were a lot more than I had expected.
"Cindy..." I shook my head no. "Elaine... Ellen...?"
"They sound kind of like Esme to me." I said. "And you're name starts with an 'E' too."
"Alright, I guess it's a no to those too." He paused. "I didn't think Elaine was bad, though."
Elaine Cullen. Edward Cullen. Esme Cullen. "Keep reading." I said and rinsed off my legs. Edward sighed then continued.
"Karen... Karen Cullen." He laughed. "Too much alliteration... um... let's see. Well look at that." He announced. "Laina and Lucy."
I dropped the soap into the bath water. "You've got to be kidding me."
But he wasn't. Edward showed me the screen. The names were listed next to each other. Lucy - light. Laina - light. I laughed a little. It was almost ironic that I had suggested not one, but both of those names earlier in the pregnancy. Maybe even fate. I sunk down into the water, wetting my hair, then popped back up, looking at Edward.
"What does that mean?" I asked, water dripping from my head. "Should we one of them?"
"I like them for sure. They're pretty."
"Which one do you like better?" I crossed my fingers in the water hoping that he would pick the one I liked as well. That way there would be no headaches because of the name. I had no problem with either of them, but I preferred one over the other.
"I like Laina." Edward said.
I frowned. "I like Lucy."
We both looked at each other for a long moment. Obviously we were going to have to compromise on this. Maybe even ask some other people which they liked over the other. I was in love with Lucy. Over the past few weeks, it had grown on me more than I thought it would, and after today, it made the name a thousand times more perfect. Edward didn't see it quite like that. Hopefully I'd be able to get him to see my side. Honestly, I was happy that we were moving somewhere with the name process. Seven months in and only just today do we have two options - not even a decision. If we wait much longer then the baby might be here!
Aside from the baby naming, the rest of the night went by peacefully. I changed into pajamas, and sat on my phone, looking at all of the pictures from the wedding on Facebook. They looked absolutely stunning. The quality was perfect. I was convinced that the photography had used photoshop on all of my pictures, but I remembered that we asked him not to do that beforehand. Alice really did do a good job.
"What are you doing?" Edward asked, sitting down on the bed next to me with a cup in his hands. I took it and took a quick sip without a clue as to what it was.
I showed him. "Wedding pictures."
"Ah." He said, putting the drink down and cuddling up next to me. We looked at the pictures together for a good half hour, commenting on all of them. Emmett's dancing was ridiculous; Aveline was adorable; his mom didn't stop crying the entire night... things like that. By the time we were done, it was late, and I could feel the exhaustion creeping over me.
"Tired?"
"Yeah." I admitted. "A little."
He pulled the blankets back, and we both crawled in without another word. Edward reached over to turn the lights off, and we were side by side in the dark, ready to fall asleep. "Night, Bella." He said to me. "Night Laina."
I froze. Oh, this meant war.
Whoops! Maybe he shouldn't have done that! Haha. Sorry about the wait. I wrote this earlier, but fanfiction was blocked on the network (apparently Disney doesn't understand fanfiction...) but I got it through. Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day!
Oh, and sorry I've been behind on responding to reviews. I'm going back and trying to answer them all today while I'm chilling in a hotel room. (Follow me on twitter. Or tumblr. I'm bored! halleybrown13 / mystorymyrules.) I'll answer any questions about the story if you tweet me.
Xoxo,
Halley
