Chapter 39

BPOV

"Alright, I'm definitely going to need some explanations," Edward declared as he dropped the journal in his lap.

"Okay, I guess that's to be expected, proceed." I started chewing on my lip, something else I had brought into this afterlife.

"The first one?"

"It's a little fuzzy, I wrote it when I was human, but I wrote it after you asked me to promise that I would come back to you," I explained.

"I knew you were trying, I didn't mean to insinuate-,"

"You didn't, I was beating myself up because I wanted to try harder, but I couldn't. You know, looking back I don't think I ever realized just how physically tired I was."

"You're strong."

"Yeah, I made you say 'ow'," I teased. I knew that wasn't what he was talking about but I didn't want to dwell on what was a very difficult time for the both of us.

"You know that's not what I meant."

"I know," I shrugged. "Next?"

"It was a cruel summer?"

"That entire summer was perfect, but the fear hiding beneath the surface, made it a cruel summer. It was absolute perfection, then I almost lost you."

Edward nodded solemnly like he knew exactly what I was feeling and he probably did, "And this one?"

"Ah, you helped me write those next two."

He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, so I clarified.

"The first one I wrote to the piece you composed when I was changing, which was the first time I had even written to music by the way, and the first one influenced the second, so by extension...," I trailed off.

He smiled. "Alright, continue. This one is very poetic, but I guess I don't understand," he flipped to My Tears Ricochet.

"It's both literal and figurative. Forks literally gathered at my wake, I guess it's about the death of the latest small town fixation. They cursed my name when I died, but they didn't really claim to care about me until I was gone."

"Death by a thousand cuts?"

"I told you I could hear you when you were talking to me, you said death by a thousand cuts would be more tolerable than saying goodbye," I said, recalling the sadness in his voice. "I'm sorry my words upset you so much."

"It's not quite that, it's the idea of you leaving me."

"I'll never leave you."

"Yes, but we weren't sure if you'd even wake, it was agonizing," he whispered as his finger traced my cheekbone and trailed down my neck. I couldn't help but shiver at his touch, Edward seemed to like that response. "And I showed that particular song to your mother, she didn't see it in the same painful way I did, she saw it as a tribute to all of your favorite things about me."

"I think it's a little of both," I whispered. From what I remembered I did work in some of my favorite things about Edward into Last Kiss how he walked with his hand in his pockets, how he'd kiss me when I was in the middle of saying something, there were so many things that I adored about him, but you had to look close enough to see them. My mind kept wandering back to my parents, all I could do was hope that they were okay.

We were sitting on the couch, so I swung my legs over his lap just to be closer to him.

"You've been writing a lot," Edward pointed out, after a while of silence.

"You've inspired me a lot," I leaned over and kissed him gently. "I've seen you fall into the sadness of everything we had been through, but just look around, I made it through, we made it through. No more endless midnights. The storm is over."

"And the last one?"

"The last one is about us, being here, you're mine now, I'm never letting you go," I laughed.

"Bring on the shackles - I'm your prisoner." He offered up both of his wrists to me. I took them and pulled him into a deep kiss.

We remained on Isle Esme for another week.

Once again, Edward wouldn't tell me where we were going.

As much as I loved Isle Esme, I could deny that it was exciting getting to see somewhere new with Edward, I had so many restrictions as a human I felt like I hadn't seen anything. The journey passed quickly. The flight announcements let me know that we were flying to London, but Edward refused to give me any details past that, he wouldn't even tell me if London was our final destination.

"You actually enjoyed your last surprise, remember?" Edward teased.

I playfully pouted. Edward laughed at my childish expression and pulled me into him.

When we landed at the Manchester International Airport, Edward had a car waiting for us. The whole way I asked a dozen times if I could have one tiny hint about where we were going, each time Edward chuckled and refused.

The closer we were, the better an idea I had. As we drove it became less metropolitan and more open air. It was a gloomy day, which made it easier for us to travel without being completely covered up.

"Welcome to the Lake District, Bella."

He took the hand that was intertwined with mine, and kissed it. I looked at him in awe.

"Has anyone told you how amazing you are?"

"You're the only person whose opinion really matters to me," Edward confessed.

There were no words to describe how I felt being with him, how easy it was between the two of us, how each second I spent with him I fell for him more and more.

I was marveling at the scenery when Edward pulled onto a dirt road, and drove up to a cabin. It was beautiful, wisteria grew all around, surrounding the stone cabin. Ivy was covering the bricks which added to its beauty. It was something out of a storybook.

Inside it had the same kind of cozy warm feeling to it that the cottage did. I notice that like the cottage, there was another beautiful piano and a bookshelf filled with books. I noticed that there were a lot of my favorites lining the wall. Another similarity to our first home, it had a beautiful stone fireplace, unlike our cottage, the mantle was still empty. The rest of the furniture matched the warm essence of the house.

"What do you think?" Edward asked as he led me around the house. It was a small, quaint house, but I loved the antique feeling of it.

"Of?"

"Our new home."

"You bought us a house here?" The shock seeped into my voice.

He nodded proudly, "Do you like it?"

"I love it, Edward. It's perfect," I said while my eyes kept wandering around the house.

"Second surprise, a complete success," he declared, with his head raised in pride.

"Please don't keep buying houses," I pleaded.

"Oh, I don't know. I'd do just about anything to see that look on your face again," he smugly admitted.

I scoffed, and he snaked an arm around my waist to pull me closer. I had noticed that he did that quite frequently now, and it was quickly becoming one of my favorite things about Edward.

We spent the day around the house, trying not to destroy our brand new home. A full day had already passed when we finally stopped.

"It's twilight again, another truly perfect day, but there's a few places I'd like to show you," Edward said as we laid on the floor.

We got dressed quickly. Edward said we didn't need the car, that we could make it to our destination without it.

It was completely exhilarating running, it was even better when Edward was running with me. As we approached our first destination, I could smell the sweet, floral scent of the wildflowers. Edward took my hand and led me to a meadow that's beauty rivaled the one in Forks. It was incredible, we didn't have a chance to go to the meadow back in Forks after my change so it wasn't exactly a fair comparison.

"If I didn't know any better I'd think you were growing to like surprises," Edward lightly teased.

"Only because my husband is evidently very adept at them," I countered.

"I like when you call me your husband." Edward's boyish grin was back. It had been a long while since I'd seen it.

"Husband," I repeated.

"Wife," Edward said in agreement. We sat in the meadow for a while before Edward got up out of nowhere.

"Catch me," he laughed as he took off into the woods. I loved seeing the playful side of Edward, it was a side of him very few people got to see, and those select few rarely saw it, but it was becoming more frequent.

I laughed as I started to run after him. He was incredibly fast, even for a vampire, so I used all of my newborn strength to try to catch him. All of the sudden we were on an incline, it didn't take very long before we were at the peak. Edward finally stopped in front of me.

"Where are we?" I asked looking out at the incredible view. Although it was nighttime, I could still make out the lakes and other mountain peaks in the area. It was absolutely stunning.

"We are standing on the Windermere Peaks, Bella."

I turned to face him, I swear I could feel my heart swell with love.

"Perfect doesn't even begin to describe you right now," I said in awe of Edward's thoughtfulness.

"Everything truly is perfect at this moment," Edward agreed in a whisper.

We stayed there and watched the auroras in the night sky. It probably wouldn't have been visible to a human, but we could see them perfectly.

In this moment everything was right.