A/N: Wow, I love you guys. I basically disappeared and then dropped a bomb and no one was even mad. Thank you so so so much for reading my story, and no, this is not the end, I'm just feeling grateful. Please enjoy this piece of Edward and Bella's special day(s).
Disclaimer: Owning Twilight is for suckers and millionares, and I'm neither.
*
They were sitting in Emmett's office, stacks of paperwork in front of each of them, and Emmett seated across from them, looking furious. Edward had a bag of peas held up to his eye, and Bella herself wasn't exceptionally happy about it.
"Do you feel better about yourself now?" she asked Emmett, her tone dripping sarcasm and poorly-concealed vitriol.
Emmett didn't even bother to look the slightest bit ashamed. "Yes." He was direct and to the point, and Bella had never seen him be so cold to her.
Edward shifted in his seat. "We knew he was going to be angry," he said softly to Bella. To Emmett, he added, "But he has nothing to be angry with you over, Bella. This was all me."
While Bella knew the idea had been his, this kind of thing definitely required two to tango. "Edward, you don't have to-"
"No, I think he does," Emmett said, glaring at his cousin where he sat across from him. "Because he's the one with the authority and therefore the responsibility."
"We didn't even do anything wrong!" Bella shouted, exasperated.
Emmett's eyebrows shot up as he turned to Bella. "Oh really?" he asked. "Then start at the beginning, at that very morning, and you leave anything out and I'm going to know it."
"Why are you being so harsh?" Bella was pleading, but she didn't care. She wanted Big Brother Emmett back; Angry Disappointed Emmett was really making her feel terrible. "You love us, so why are you being such a dick about this? Can't you just be happy for us?"
"Because I love you." He turned to Edward. "I love you both. Too much to let you make stupid decisions like the one you made, because you're both too smart for this."
"Emmett…" Edward's tone was a warning. "Don't talk to her like that."
"I'll talk to her like that when she acts like this. She especially should have known better."
Bella's cheeks were red hot. "Both of you stop talking about me when I'm sitting right here."
Edward's hand drifted over and clasped Bella's. He squeezed, and Bella sighed.
Emmett scowled. "Start at that morning. I've already been informed of everything leading up to it. So don't tell me you didn't break the rules. I know that you did." He sighed deeply. "But I don't care right now. Tell me about this past weekend, and spare no details."
"No details?"
"You can leave out anything that will make me hurl."
"Good to know." Bella stifled a giggle at Edward's clarification.
"Shut up and tell the story."
"That's an oxymoron," Edward mumbled.
Emmett closed his eyes. "You're an oxymoron."
"Okay, I'm just gonna start, then," Bella said, cutting off what was sure to be a spectacular cousin bitch-fight.
*
Edward was patting Bella's back. Unlike Emmett, he checked on her after a few good whacks.
"So that's a no, I presume?" he said, his tone amused, but when Bella looked up his green eyes were sad. He was disappointed.
But to be honest, what the hell was he thinking? They'd literally told each other they loved each other, really and truly were in love with each other, less than twelve hours ago. And now he wanted to get married?
"What?!" she asked, her shocked tone and wide eyes betraying exactly how much his question had freaked her out. She hoped it concealed her ridiculous excitement. Her heart needed to calm the hell down, because brain was in charge now.
"I'm asking you to marry me," he said, his smile dulled by his sad eyes.
"Why?!" Seriously, the thought of him wanting to marry her was confusing the hell out of her.
Edward's smile widened. "Well," he started, holding up a hand to tick off his reasons, "our employee contract's non-fraternization clause does not apply to married couples. There are tax breaks involved. You could move in here. You'd be a legally official part of my family. My mother loves you, but my father loves you more. And, oh yeah," he held up his other hand and put up his thumb, "I'm in love with you, you're in love with me, I want to spend the rest of my life with you, I want you to be my wife, I want to grow old and have babies with you, it would make me happier than anything in the world if I could spend my life making you happy."
Bella drifted lightly out of the kitchen and sank down onto the giant couch in his living room. Last night was the best night of her life, but this was… this was too fast. It had to be. Her heart was beating in overtime, and her cheeks were flushed, and she- good God she wanted to say yes. Hadn't she been wishing for a guarantee? This was that guarantee. A vow to love and honor and cherish, till death do they part. But… they'd only just begun. What if they got married and then got divorced just as quickly?
"How?" she asked. She was wondering exactly how well he'd thought this out.
Edward rushed out to his coffee table and knelt beside Bella, reaching out to snatch his laptop and show her the screen. "These are two round trip tickets to Las Vegas, leaving today. Say the word and they're ours. I've called my mother and father, and they'll meet us there if you say yes. I, uh," he scratched the back of his neck and Bella noticed the tips of his ears go pink, "I also called Charlie, and your mom and Phil." He smiled brightly. "He gave me his blessing after a lot of explanation. I believe his exact words were: 'If you wanna marry my daughter and she wants to marry you, I ain't got nothin' to say but congratulations'. They'll all meet us if we ask."
"When?"
"Tonight, tomorrow, Sunday, as long as it happens before we go back to work, I don't care. I just really want to marry you." He seemed so earnest, his green eyes boring into hers.
"Where?" she asked. She needed to know what happened next, in as much detail as possible. She needed to slap herself, or pinch herself, or count her fingers or something to be sure she wasn't dreaming. She was pretty sure she wasn't, because Edward was never this prepared when she dreamed about this.
Edward pulled out his phone, bringing up a note to show Bella. "I've called a bunch of hotels. The weekend before Christmas is busy, but not impossible. They've all got openings in small locations for small ceremonies."
Bella sat still for a minute, sipping her coffee.
"Edward, I-"
"Before you say anything," Edward said, cutting her off, "I know it's fast, but I dated someone for years who turned out to be awful, and I've dated you for one night and I already love you more than I've ever loved anyone. And haven't we really just been dating without the added benefit of everything we benefitted from last night?" He waggled his eyebrows, causing Bella to snort into her mug. "Bella, this is what I want. I want to be your husband, I want to make you happy. If you say no, I'm just going to keep trying. I'll quit CFG, I'll find a new way to support you, I'll take you out every night, I'll get punched out by Emmett, and I'll ask you to marry me once a week at least."
"That's unfair." Bella let out a shuddering breath.
"I'm sorry, its just how I feel, Bella. I need to be with you, now and always, and I'll do whatever I have to do to make that happen." He squeezed her hands. "Because I love you."
"That's not what's unfair," Bella said, shaking her head.
Edward lifted one eyebrow. "What is, then?"
Bella's breath stuttered as her eyes clouded over with tears. "You're making me say yes. You've got all the answers, and I… I can't say no."
"Yes you can, Bella," Edward said. His tone was serious. "You're allowed to say no as many times as you need to. Just as long as you say yes one day."
"No I couldn't. Because you thought of everything, you planned an entire wedding, you have a bunch of plane tickets on hold, you called my dad, you're sweet and kind and lovely and perfect and wonderful and good lord last night will be burned into my brain until the day I die, and because I love you so much." Bella felt her tears track down her cheeks. "Because now I don't want to say no." She wiped under her eyes. "I'll… I need Alice," Bella said.
"What?" Edward said, his smile fading as his eyes widened in shock. It was comical, and Bella gurgled out a giggle.
"I need Alice. I need her to come with us. And you should probably call the hotels and the airline and our parents." She looked down at his kneeling posture. "And you are kind of in the perfect spot to try this again."
"Bella, I-"
"Yes Edward?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You're sure?"
"Don't try to talk me out of it right after you talked me into it." Bella smirked, and Edward's whole face lit up. He raised himself up to his knees and kissed her soundly, causing Bella's mind to cloud over a bit. She was about to tackle him from her higher position when Edward pulled away.
"No," he said, "you have to stay right there for this." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring pop. "My mother has your actual ring for when we get there, but I wanted to make sure you had something, and I know blue raspberry is your favorite." Bella giggled as he unwrapped the package. "Bella Swan, you are my best friend. I know everything about you, and yet I know that I know nothing. Will you allow me to spend my life discovering all of your quirks, sharing all of your burdens, and supporting all of your endeavors? Will you be my wife?"
He was holding the candy up as though it were a twenty carat diamond. His face looked so hopeful, so joyful, that Bella's brain threw up its hands in exasperation as her heart whooped wildly.
"Yeah," she said. "Yeah, I will."
*
"And then some things that would make you hurl happened," Edward interjected, shifting the peas so he was getting maximum cold to his sore eye.
"Skip it." Emmett grimaced and refused to meet Bella's eye.
Bella sighed before continuing.
*
"Hey, how are you affording all of this?" Bella asked as they sat in the first class lounge at SeaTac. "I mean, the managers make good money, but not 'last-minute-first-class-trip-to-Vegas-for-eight-right-before-Christmas' money."
Edward's ears went pink, but he didn't hesitate. "I dipped into my trust fund from Grandpa Masen."
"Edward!" Bella hadn't even known he had a trust fund, let alone that he was using it for their wedding.
Jesus H. Christ, my wedding. To Edward. I'm marrying Edward. I had sex with Edward. I had a lot of sex with Edward, and now I am marrying Edward.
She was having a lot of trouble coming to grips with this. Bella always did well once her decisions were made, and she'd definitively made this insane decision, so she was going to follow through, because that was always what she did. And she wanted to do this, miraculously enough. She was only having trouble with the fact that it was so easy for her to say yes. Bella always had reservations about marriage, having seen her parents' marriage dissolve, but then there was Carlisle and Esme, and her mom and Phil there to give her some hope. She knew it was possible, but she'd never expected it to be so easy. It was like the entire world fell into place the second she said yes, and she didn't even recognize it anymore. She barely even recognized herself, all giddy and excited and ready to be a wife. The actual wedding part was what freaked Bella out. Center of attention stuff was always her weakness.
Alice had been ecstatic. She'd called her own team lead and told her she was taking a few personal days, given her instructions, told Carlisle, Esme, Emmett, and Rose that she was locking herself up to design away, and was now getting a Cinnabun as they waited for their flight. She felt absolutely no remorse for lying to her family, and was instead sketching dress ideas on a sketchpad she'd pulled out of her carry on. When Bella rolled her eyes at this, Alice had shrugged and said, "Whatever, I can totally alter an existing dress to look like my vision."
She was pulled back from her reminiscence by Edward's voice, explanatory but unrepentant. "We're going to be married by this time tomorrow. You should know about it."
Bella shuddered at the reminder of their impending nuptials. Think of the marriage, not the wedding, she scolded herself. What's important over what's frightening.
"We're going to be married by this time tomorrow; we should pay for it together."
Edward snorted. "We did. I took it from your half of the trust fund." He winked at her, but Bella's heart suddenly stared beating overtime.
They really hadn't thought this through. Hell, she didn't even know what his finances looked like, his medical records, his social security number, or where he wanted to live, or what he expected of her after this wedding.
"Edward…"
"Oh dear," Edward said, "I think I just watched you talk yourself out of this in the span of a few seconds." He reached out and tugged on a lock of her hair, and Bella smiled involuntarily because she loved that gesture. "Was it something I said?"
"What the hell are we doing?!" She couldn't help smiling at him as she asked it, because she loved him, and he was so understanding, and he'd already talked her down four times since she'd said yes. "I know I'm being difficult here, but if I die I want you to know where the coupons are."
"They're in the drawer next to the fridge above the trash bags."
"You know what I mean," Bella said, dropping her smile to give Edward an exasperated look.
"Considering we've watched that season of Gilmore Girls four times in as many months, yes I suppose I do." He nodded gravely as he said it, and then sighed. "What do you want to know?"
"Well… I have student loans. Technically when we get married, they're your problem too."
"I've been very fortunate, Bella," Edward said, taking her hand. "I can afford to take that hit to our credit, and while I know you well enough to know you'll want to take care of them yourself, you should know you'll never have to default on payments." Bella opened her mouth to object, but Edward put a finger over her lips. "No buts. You can pay for your student loans with all that crazy lawyer money, but don't worry if it isn't coming in soon enough. I love you, and I'll help you."
Bella's eyes narrowed. "How fortunate is fortunate?"
"Well," he said, scrunching up his face to think, "there's my trust fund from Grandpa Masen, and Grandma Platt paid for college, and my CFG salary is nothing to sneeze at… so, fortunate enough."
"That isn't an answer," Bella said, raising her brow.
Edward sighed, and leaned over to Bella, whispering a number into her ear.
"Holy shit!"
"Bella, shhh!" Edward said, glancing around and smiling at the strangers looking concerned at Bella's outburst.
"And you never mentioned this because?" Bella's eyes were wide. What in the actual fuck did he think he was doing hiding that kind of money? He didn't even really need to work at CFG, to be perfectly honest.
Edward rolled his eyes. "Because you don't care about money, and I don't care about anything that you don't care about."
Bella's shock dissipated as her expression softened. Was he cute or what?
"What's your Social Security number?"
Edward shot her a bemused look. "Forty-two," he deadpanned. "Can we get married now?"
"Where are we going to live?" Bella countered, ignoring his question.
"I'd strongly vote against living with Alice."
"Do you want to keep your apartment?"
"For now, sure." Edward shrugged. "Until we decide together where to live, I don't see why not."
"Because I signed a lease with Alice?" Bella was worried about this most of all. Well, that wasn't actually true; she was worried about getting married to a man she'd dated for a day and it wasn't actually even dating so much as crazy awesome sex and beautiful love making most of all. The logistics of her apartment were up there though.
"What about our lease?" Alice asked, dropping down into the seat on Bella's opposite side and holding out her fork for Bella to take a bite of her gooey cinnamon mess of calories.
"I'm getting married tomorrow?" Bella said once she finished the deliciousness.
"Oh yeah," Alice said, taking a bite for herself. "Bummer."
"Love the enthusiasm, cous." Edward gave Alice a thumbs up.
"Shut up," she said, rolling her eyes and passing Bella the fork to hand to Edward. "I just meant cause we won't live together anymore," Alice said, turning to pout at Bella. "It's like the end of an era."
Bella felt her eyes get glassy, and her voice broke a little when she spoke. "Y-yeah," she said. "The end of an era." She took a deep breath, managing to hold it together. "You're okay with that? I'll have to cut out on the lease."
Alice nodded slowly, but her words were opposite. "No, I'm not okay. I'm…" and her own voice broke now as she glared at Bella, clearly pissed that she had started the emotion-fest. "I'm really going to miss you, but you have to live with your husband, you know?"
"Yeah," Bella said, a single tear escaping and sliding down her cheek.
"Don't you start," Alice warned, her own tears beginning to fall. "Don't you do this to me."
"I'm- I'm sorry," Bella said, her voice strained.
No more Alice in the morning, singing in the shower. No more Chinese food at lunchtime at their kitchen table. No more talking until they fell asleep in each other's beds. No more best friend on call at all hours. No more study break dance parties. No more getting pins stuck all over her as Alice designed something new. No more "Let's head to Alice and Bella's place." No more rosé and Dance Moms.
"No you aren't," Alice wailed, before engulfing Bella in a hug as both girls dissolved into sobbing, incoherent messes, trying to tell each other they loved each other and were going to miss each other but only managing to make squeaks and gurgles.
Edward's deep sigh cut through the noise of their emotion. "It's one floor away," he said softly.
"Continents, oceans!" Alice cried.
"Eons and lifetimes!" Bella said.
The intercom crackled to life and announced that first class was now boarding for Flight 357 to Las Vegas. "Thank God," Edward said, standing and reaching his hand out to pull Bella up with him. Bella gripped Alice's hand and pulled her up too, linking their arms together. "Seriously?" he asked, one brow raised.
"Hey," Bella said, "you're getting me the rest of your life; I only have one day left with Ali." Alice nodded alongside Bella and Edward just chuckled and gestured them forward.
As they passed him into the tunnel, Edward whispered. "The rest of your life, too," in her ear.
Bella shivered, before smiling back at him and sashaying her way onto the plane.
*
"So you flew all the way to Vegas, and you got Alice to lie to us?" Emmett's eyebrow was high and judging her.
"Alice does whatever she wants," Bella said. "You know that."
Edward just scoffed. "He doesn't care, Bella," he said. "He's just trying to figure out all the ways we screwed up."
Emmett glared at him. "That's not true. I just need the full picture."
"Minus the parts that'll make you puke," Bella pointed out.
"Also known as my favorite parts," Edward said. "The story is so much less fun without them."
"Do you want me to hit you again?" Emmett asked.
"I gave you one, man, cause I deserved it. Try it again and it's going to go exactly like it did when we were kids."
"Girls, girls, you're both pretty!" Bella said, effectively distracting them both from their ridiculous machismo. "Let's get back to the story, please?"
*
Bella's parents, all three, had finally arrived at the Venetian. How did she know this? Because she could hear them from her spot in the café.
"Wow! You know, we got married like three blocks from here," she heard Renee say, then heard Phil's laughter.
"Like mother, like daughter," Phil said. "Hey, should we be concerned that we've never met this Edward dude?"
"No, you should not Philip. I've met him. Good kid. Already asked for my blessing, and I gave it, so long as Bellsy said yes." He paused. "Crazy kid actually does take after you a little, Renee. She agreed to this, which I did not expect."
Bella rolled her eyes and stood, indicating with a head nod that she was going to go get them. Alice just grinned over her cup, shooting Bella a wink. She stepped out of the café into the lobby, and strode quickly over to the loudest group she could hear. "Hello, parentals," she said, alerting them to her presence. "Thank you for discussing my life extremely loudly in a public place," she added, giving hugs all around.
"Hi, baby!" Renee said, beaming at her. Bella looked like her mother, but had her father's coloring. If you aged Bella twenty years, colored her hair a lighter brown and her eyes blue, they'd be twins. Well, to the untrained eye, anyway. Their eye shape was slightly different, more Charlie than Renee on Bella's face.
"Hi, Mom," Bella said, smiling back. "I missed you."
"Ahw, Bella Baby!" Renee crushed her into another hug, squeezing her tightly, and Bella felt ten years old again, getting comforted by her mother when she needed it most. She breathed in, engulfing her senses in the familiar scent of her mother's perfume, and felt a significant amount of her anxiety melt away. Mom was here, Dad was here, Phil was here, they supported her. So it couldn't be too wrong to get married tomorrow, right? Right.
She felt a tapping on her shoulder, and reluctantly released her mom to face her dads, but when she turned she was greeted with another familiar face instead.
"Mrs. Masen!"
"Oh, for God's sake, you're going to be my daughter! Can we please stop the Mrs. Masen, crap?" she said, reaching out to embrace Bella as her own mother giggled.
"Okay, okay, fine!" Bella said, hugging her back. "It's good to see you, Elizabeth," she said when she pulled back to look at her.
"We really are going to work on the Lizzie thing," she said, giving Bella an eye roll to rival Bella's own.
Charlie and Edward Sr. were chatting about something or other behind Elizabeth, and she was flanked by both moms. Phil was just kind of existing, but thank God, Alice strode up and gathered them all to pass out their room keys.
"You look happy," Renee commented.
"She's luminous," Elizabeth added.
"Okay, okay, thank you, but knock it off."
They laughed at Bella's discomfort. "Elizabeth Masen, future mother-in-law," Elizabeth said, reaching out to take Renee's hand. "And that one over there is my husband Edward." She pointed him out.
"Renee Dwyer," Bella's mother said, smiling, and shaking Elizabeth's hand. "My husband Phil is currently giving my ex-husband Charlie over there a noogie." She waved her hand in the direction of Bella's dads. "Don't ask me why."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
"Your kid is insane," Renee commented offhandedly. "He must really like my kid, to do all this."
"Your kid is insane to say yes to all this," Elizabeth countered. "It's a good thing I really love her, or I'd be questioning my son's sanity."
"You love my Bella?" Renee asked, grinning. "You've got good taste."
"As does Edward," Elizabeth said, shooting Renee a wink, causing her to burst out laughing.
"Oh, I like your in-laws, Babe," Renee said, pinching Bella's beet red cheek. "They've got hutzpah."
"Are we done embarrassing me now?" Bella asked.
A pair of arms appeared on her waist, pulling her back against a familiar frame. "Yeah, you guys are taking the term 'blushing bride' a little too literally." Bella turned her head to smile up at Edward, who grinned and kissed her forehead.
"Wow, look at them."
"I know; I've got a cavity."
Bella ignored Renee and Elizabeth and snuggled herself further into Edward's arms. He took the hint and tightened them, and Bella sighed.
"Hey, kid, I gave my blessing to marry my daughter, not grope her in public," Charlie's voice rang out across the lobby, and Edward immediately took two steps back, causing Bella to pout. "Get over here and give your new father-in-law a hug. Mind you, definitely not the same caliber of hug you gave her, though."
Edward just chuckled and strode over to embrace Charlie, who patted his back only slightly too aggressively. He then shook Phil's hand, introducing himself to Bella's stepfather.
"Alright, your instagram doesn't do that man justice," Renee commented, her eyes trailing after Edward.
"Mom!" Bella said, as Elizabeth burst out laughing.
"Well, honey," Renee said, clearly unapologetic, "you're marrying a hottie, you should be proud!"
"I am proud," she said, grinning slyly as she watched Phil describing something or other emphatically to Edward, "I'm just not loud." She shot her mother a significant look, and Renee had the good sense to look fake ashamed. Bella knew this was the best she was going to get. "Alright, everyone get settled, we'll all go to lunch in an hour or two."
They were having a late lunch here at the hotel before they went to do a quick rehearsal at the venue. Alice had tipped a concierge a hundred bucks to bring a sewing machine to her room along with several yards of white fabrics and lace. The entire place looked ridiculous. Once they finished checking out the venue, Bella and Alice would be taking the moms around to the shops to find something that Alice could suitably transform. Edward was in charge of entertaining the dads, a fact that amused Bella to no end. Too bad there weren't any places to fish on the strip. That was the only way Edward was going to please Charlie.
*
"Ironically enough, I did find him a fishing simulator at an arcade," Edward said, smiling over at Bella.
"Really?"
"Yeah, he loved it," Edward said. "We had a really good time that day, your dad and my dad got along so well."
Bella grinned. "Do I ever get to know what was discussed that day?" she asked.
"At my bachelor party?" Edward scoffed. "No way."
"Does it count as a bachelor party if you were with two middle aged men?" Bella gave Edward a side eye, her lips turned down disapprovingly.
"Did you guys forget I was here?" Emmett interjected.
Well damn. She actually had.
That was embarrassing.
Bella and Edward exchanged a contrite look.
"Never mind, don't answer that," Emmett said, shaking his head. "Just continue."
*
The girls were all out at dinner, buzzing over the venue and the dress purchase.
"It's not going to look anything like this when I'm through," Alice was saying, "We're just keeping the shape."
"The shape's my favorite part," Elizabeth said. "As I'm sure it's my son's too."
Bella choked on her water. "Oh my God," she whispered, as Alice and Renee guffawed loudly.
"Listen, as long as we're on the subject, what did you pack for tomorrow night?" Renee asked, completely ignoring the disgusted look on her daughter's face.
"Oh, don't worry, I got it." Alice giggled as she punched Bella's arm. "I knew she would be deficient so I snuck some things out of her room."
"Alice!"
"What?" she shrugged. "I know what's up."
"Your cousin!" Bella reiterated. "We're talking about your cousin!"
"Yeah, but I'm not thinking about him, I'm thinking about how hot you are in the navy silk twinset I got you last Christmas."
"Oh my God, you packed that? Where did you even find it?!"
"In a box labelled, 'No Sex in Three Years'," Alice said, grinning.
Renee and Elizabeth were both laughing now, and Renee actually wiped away a few tears.
"No sex in twenty-four hours, now," Bella grumbled. This only caused the women to laugh harder. "Yeah, yeah, yuk it up, you sickos. He's related to two of you."
"Please," Elizabeth said, "I birthed him, I nursed him, I raised him. Him having sex cannot disgust me because I've seen him do far worse."
"Same, but at you," Renee said simply.
"I already told you, I'm thinking of you," Alice said.
"This does not comfort me."
They paid the check and headed back to their hotel, dress and accessories in tow. They piled into Alice's room, where Alice promptly shoved the dress over Bella's head and propped her up on a stool, attacking her with pins. The moms were raiding the mini bar and gossiping together. The room was full of the sounds of laughter and Bella's pained squeaks as Alice poked her with pins.
"Alice, did you try to schedule me for acupuncture or something?" Bella asked. She glanced down at her small friend, and was shocked to find her sniffling, eyes filled with tears. "Ali, what's wrong?" she asked, dropping down from the stool, ignoring the stabbing of the pins in the dress. She kneeled beside her bestie, rubbing her back.
"N-nothing's wr-wrong," she said, her voice thick with emotion. "It's just… You deserve to be so happy, Bells." Tears flowed freely down her cheeks. "You're going to be a wife, and you'll have love in your life, and," she sniffed loudly, "God I'm just so happy for you. You work so hard, and you make sure I stay alive, and you love with your whole soul…" She grasped Bella's hands in both of hers. Bella felt the warm trail of tears flow down her cheeks and she took a shaky breath. "You deserve this."
"Ali," Bella croaked out.
"Are you two being buzzkills?!"
"Yeah, no crying!"
Bella giggled, and Alice laughed through a bubble of tears.
They spent the rest of the evening like a giant sleepover; Alice sewing the gown and watching cheesy movies, drinking the minibar dry and giggling so loudly Bella was sure that the boys could hear it back in their rooms. They fell asleep before Alice finished, and the sounds of the sewing machine lulled Bella into sweet oblivion.
*
"Will you swiftly be reaching the point, here?" Emmett asked, annoyance apparent in every line of his face. He looked older when he was angry, Bella noticed.
"You said leave nothing out," Bella reminded him.
Edward leaned his elbows on his knees. "And I said not to talk to her like that."
"And I said," Emmett started, but Bella threw her hands up in exasperation, cutting him off.
"Oh my God, fine!" she shouted. "We got married! That's it, that's the point, that's the punchline! We got married, and no one even died or objected. I know this seems like the Iran Contra situation to you, Em, but that's all that happened. We got up in front of a dude in a funny hat and collar who said, 'Do you?' and I said 'Yes'," she pointed to Edward, "and he said 'Yes' and now I've got this very nice ring and a husband!" She crossed her arms and sat back in the chair, leaving both men stunned silent. "Get over it," she grumbled.
"Love, maybe a bit more detail than that?" Edward suggested quietly.
Bella huffed. "Okay fine, but I'm tired of his pestering. You tell it."
Edward grinned at her and leaned his elbows on his knees. "Gladly."
"Christ, this is going to take all day, isn't it?" Emmett asked.
Bella didn't respond, just sat back in her chair and waited for Edward to speak. She was actually looking forward to hearing Edward's account of their wedding day.
"Probably," Edward said. "Ready?"
"Come on then," Emmett said.
Emmett was not going to believe the wedding story. Even Bella had trouble convincing herself it was real. But she woke up with Edward this morning, in their bed, so she knew it was
Time for the hubby to tell all.
*
So, what's the verdict? Who wants to hear from Edward? And what's up with Emmett?