The next day was the wedding, so I called all of the girls to make sure they were ready for their spa appointments. We all met at the spa entrance, then walked in together. We were ushered into a changing area, given keys to lockers, robes and comfortable bath shoes. Once we all changed and locked up our things, we went into the little waiting area until we were called. Kim and Angela were called in first, leaving Leah and I alone. I noticed she was being unusually quiet, so I decided to see if there was anything wrong.
"Leah, is everything ok? You look like you have something on your mind." I said, looking at her pretty face. Her eyes met mine, and I saw guilt and shame reflected in their dark depths.
"Bella, ugh I am so disgusted with myself. Remember how Quil was badgering me on the flight here?" she quietly said. I nodded my head, and motioned for her to go on.
"You know that I am completely devoted to your brother, and Quil is to Claire, but it's been so long since either of us have been with anyone….sexually…..and we both gave in to lust" she said, covering her face with her hands. I understood exactly what she meant, because I had always found it difficult to keep my hands off of Jacob. We were in a different boat though, because we were in love and Imprinted. I never understood casual sex, but I tried hard to push my prejudices aside so I could be there for Leah. Technically, neither one of them had cheated on their Imprints, and it would be many years before a sexual relationship would come into play, so I felt a little less uncomfortable with the situation.
"It's ok, Leah. If this is what you and Quil need to do until Elliot and Claire are older, then I see no problem with it at all. You both just have to be careful not to get emotionally attached and please make sure you both are protected. It would complicate things really bad if you both had a child together." I said, gripping her shoulder and comforting her.
"You don't hate me for what I've done?" she asked, tears in her eyes.
"Of course not! I know you love my brother, and I know you two will eventually progress into a romantic relationship when he gets older. But like I said, be aware of your feelings, and if things get too emotionally involved between you and Quil, you both need to end the sex" I said. She smiled at me, then gave me a hug.
"Thank you so much Bella. It was killing me to keep it hidden from you. Believe me, there is no way in hell that I will get emotionally tangled with that little asshole, but he is pretty good in bed" she said, laughing as my face turned bright red. We were called in for our appointments just then, so I gave her a smile as we were led into different rooms.
My massage therapist decided to give me a pregnancy massage, and by the time he was done, I felt like I didn't have a bone left in my body because it was so relaxed. He helped me to my feet, then led me to the facial room.
"You have such beautiful skin!" the tech told me as she applied different masks. I was done an hour later, my skin even softer and my pregnancy glow even brighter. The other girls were done with their massages and facials, so we were all brought into the pedicure room together. We chatted and sipped water that had cucumbers and cantaloupe floating in it, and it was the most refreshing water I had ever tasted. I decided to make it for Emily's baby shower because it tasted so good.
After our feet and nails were done, we were taken to get our hair done in fancy updo's. The girl who did mine seemed to know what I liked, so she put cork screw curls throughout my whole head, then pinned most of the front up and let the hair in back cascade down in pretty ringlets. She left a few strands out to frame my face, and I loved the final effect. It actually looked like Rose's hair from Titanic, and I knew it would enhance the dress perfectly.
For my makeup, the artist decided to go a little more dramatic, because it was an evening wedding and my dress colors were so dark. She dusted some powder all over my face, then used several different shades of shimmering grey on my lids. She used black liquid eyeliner on my top lid only, and the effect it had on my eyes was amazing. They looked sexy and smokey, and the liner gave them a cat-like appearance. She dusted some rose colored blush on my cheeks, then added some sheer burgundy gloss to my lips. I wasn't used to having on so much makeup, but I really liked the all over effect it had on my features.
Once everyone else was ready, we checked out each others looks. Everyone looked so beautiful, and I knew the guys would be drooling over us. We went up to our rooms, and I was glad to see that Jacob was almost ready. He helped me into my dress, and when I turned around, he sucked in a quick breath as he looked at me.
"You look so unbelievably beautiful, Bella. My God I cant believe you are my wife and that I have such a stunning woman who loves me" he said, kissing my lips softly, careful not to smudge my makeup.
"You're looking pretty damn sexy yourself, Jake" I said, looking over his body. He had on black dress slacks and a dark red silk shirt that matched the red that was in my dress. He left the top few buttons open, and I drooled at his exposed skin.
"You should be a model. You are way hotter than any guys I have seen in magazine ads" I said as my eyes roamed over him. I noticed his pants starting to bulge, and I giggled.
"You are way to easy to turn on" I said, walking into the bathroom to check my appearance.
"Well, when such a stunning creature like you gives me looks like that, it's hard not to…get hard" he smirked. I laughed at him and shook my head. By that time, it was time to head down to the wedding area so we could make sure the bride and groom didn't need any help before the ceremony began. They had everything all set, so we took our seats and waited for the wedding to begin.
During the beautiful ceremony, Jacob held my hand the whole time, and we would steal little adoring glances every now and then. By the time the ceremony was over, I was crying my eyes out. Now I knew why Rosalie and Emmett liked to get married every decade or so. Weddings were so nice, and the emotional magic that was in the air always moved me. The wedding party made their way to the reception room, where we enjoyed a delicious meal of prime rib, four cheese risotto, vegetable medley, and a dinner salad with mixed greens.
After we were done eating, the wedding party made their way to the night club located in the TI for dancing and lots of drinks. At the end of the evening, Jacob and I helped a very drunk Kim and Jared to their suite, then went to our room so we could change and get some sleep. It was such a long day, but it was absolutely wonderful. After I removed all of my makeup and took my hair down from the updo, I put on my PJ's and crawled into bed. Jacob and I spent the next several hours making love and talking about how mice the wedding was. We finally fell asleep well after 2am, both of us exhausted from the long day and the countless times we made love during the night.
The rest of the Vegas trip was so much fun, and we made plans to come back during the summer so we could enjoy the gigantic pool at the hotel. During the flight home, Quil and Leah were back to their old selves, bickering and fighting the whole way. It was a little different though, as if they found a new understanding of each other. Only I knew what had transpired between them, and I would let them be the ones to tell anyone, should they ever decide to.
The limo dropped us all off at our house, and once everyone had their things loaded into their cars, we stood around talking for a few minutes.
"You know what guys, I am totally hooked on that Texas Hold'em. Why don't we have a weekly poker night?" Embry said.
"That sounds like a great idea! Is everyone in? Bella, honey, would you mind if I had the guys over once a week to play?" Jacob asked.
"That's fine with me, but on one condition…." I said.
"Anything you want" the guys eagerly replied.
"You have to teach me and the girls how to play. Do you really think we want to sit around watching you guys get drunk and have fun without us?" I smirked. Everyone agreed, and we set the poker night down for each Friday night, starting at 7pm. We then said goodbye to everyone, and watched them drive away.
Jacob brought our suit cases to the laundry room, and while I began separating everything, I called Renee to let her know we would pick up the dogs later. She said that they would have dinner ready for when we got there, so I thanked her and got back to work. I threw in a load of laundry, then went to relax on the couch and watch TV. I knew from here on out that things were going to be really hectic, with Emily's shower fast approaching, my own shower and birth of the babies, and Angela and Embry's wedding coming up in June.
Once I had folded two loads of laundry, I threw the last load into the dryer and called out to Jacob that we had to leave to go get the dogs. He was fixing something on the deck, but dropped what he was doing to go with me. When we got to my parents house, it was complete mayhem. Billy and Sue were over, Leah had come by to see Elliot, who was chasing the dogs around the house, and Charlie was running after them before the dogs could break anything. Renee was in the kitchen, looking frazzled, so I jumped in to help her finish up dinner. When Maya and Bruno saw us come in, they ran up to us, yipping and howling, begging for attention. Both dogs came up to me, lifted my shirt with their snouts, then licked my stomach and whined. I felt several kicks from inside of me, and I knew that the babies could sense the dog's excitement.
"Hi my babies! Did you miss us?" I said, scratching them behind their ears. They made a sound between a chuff and a howl, and I laughed at their attempts to speak. It was really strange, because it was like they understood each word we said to them, and always seemed to try and respond.
As we all sat down for dinner, Jacob and I told them all about our trip to Las Vegas. We told them how great the staff had treated us, and how nice the wedding had been. My mom was the only one who had ever been to Vegas, so we talked about taking a group trip there in the summer. I was concerned about who would take care of the babies, but we decided to cross that bridge when we got to it.
We left an hour later, loading the dogs into the Toyota and heading home. I was glad that they were so well behaved in the car, and once they made themselves comfortable, they fell asleep. When we got home, I let them out into the run for awhile, and gave a little jump when I saw Seth bounding over. Maya and Bruno loved Seth, and whenever he patrolled the house, I would let the dogs run with him. I walked down to the end of the run, opening the gate and letting them run free. I knew Seth would take care of them, and they never gave him any trouble because they were submissive to him.
"Seth is patrolling the house, so I let the dogs out to play with him" I said to Jacob when I walked back into the house. He was sitting on the couch, looking at the paper and turned to me.
"There's a house right down the block that's for sale, Bells. It's a 3 bedroom and it's right in the price range that Embry and Angela set. I have an idea, but I wanted to run it by you first." he said, showing me the picture of the house. We decided to take a walk down and check it out, and the dogs met up with us as we walked down the street.
The house was a ranch style and looked to be in excellent shape. We saw the lights on inside, and because it was still early, we decided to knock on the door. The owners took us on a little tour, and the inside was just as immaculate as the outside. The bedrooms were all decent size, and the master bedroom had it's own bathroom with a two person whirlpool tub. There were 2 other bathrooms in the house, and the kitchen was all in oak and fully updated with black appliances. We sat down with the owners and talked about the price, and once we reached an acceptable number, we asked for a moment alone to talk about it.
"Jake, this house will be perfect as a starter home for them! All they would have to do is move right in, because everything is so updated. I can't believe they came down so much in price!" I whispered to him.
"I know! Let's buy it for them as a wedding gift! What do you think?" he asked me. We had planned on giving Angela and Embry at least $100,000 as a wedding gift, and the house was only $20,000 over that, so I agreed. We called the owners back in, and told them we wanted the house. Jacob ran to our house and grabbed our check book, and we wrote the check out and handed it to them. They almost fell out of their seats when they saw we paid it in full, but they still had to find a new house to live in. We explained that our friends wouldn't be moving in until the end of May, and they sighed in relief. We were going to call our lawyers on Monday to get the paperwork ready, and we made arrangements to come by with them on Wednesday so they could sign the papers. I just hoped I could keep the secret until then.
When we walked back home, we talked excitedly about the house. I was so glad that it was close to ours, and it had a yard which led down to the beach. They had already put in a nice sized deck, so all Embry would need to do it build a fire pit and a walkway down to the beach.
When we got back home, I finished up the laundry and Jacob carried the bushels upstairs and put everything away. We went to bed early, because we would be returning to work the next day and I wanted to get there earlier than usual so I could catch up on things. I had a hard time falling asleep because I was so excited to see their faces on Wednesday, but I finally dozed off at 10:30pm.
A/N: I am going to be posting a stand alone story to go along with this chapter and the one prior. It's what went down between Leah and Quil. MUAHAHAHA!