A few days had passed since our anniversary and I was settling into our home nicely. I wanted to make sure everything was ready for when Renesmee arrived back home; Edward and I went to pick out a bed for our ever-growing daughter. We decided to leave the crib with Rose, she wanted something to remind her of Nessie, even thought we were less than a mile away and she was welcome anytime. I found a perfect day bed that would suit her well, but Edward had other ideas, and thought a day bed wasn't good enough for her, and opted for a queen size bed.
"Edward, what does she need with a queen bed? Its way too big for her," I gently sighed silently laughing.
"I don't want her to accidentally roll out of bed, so this way with a queen size, she has plenty of room on each side Bella," he tried to argue.
"Remember love, she is practically a teenager now, even though she looks no more than three, but a teenager still. Please don't over-react, just go with me on this, a day bed is just fine," I intently said, trying to get him back to reality.
Before Edward could reply, my phone rang and as I answered, I saw a look of concern on Edward's face.
"Hello?" I asked, not recognizing the number.
"Dear Bella, its good to hear your voice, how are you?" I heard the man reply.
I paused for a moment to only realize, that the man on the phone was Aro.
"I'm good, is there anything I can help you with today?" I said reluctantly, hoping he had mistakenly called me.
"Well actually not today, but I just wanted to call you and let you know I'll be coming to visit next week. I will be staying for a few days and thought it would be polite to call you ahead of time. You will be available, wont you?" he knew the answer before I could respond.
No one ever refused to see the Volturi when they called for you, and it would be suicide not to accept a visit from any of them as well.
"Of course Aro, you're welcome here anytime. Have you found out anything new about this pure-blood prophecy?" I got the feeling that's why he was calling.
"It's hard to explain and its complicated, too complicated to discuss over the phone, that's why I am coming to visit. I have sent you something, you should receive it tomorrow sometime. We will discuss more when I return to visit," he said quickly, as if he had other pressing issues to attend to.
"Well, thank you for the call, I guess we will see you in a week or so Aro," I questioned slightly.
"Yes dear Bella, soon, goodbye," he said, immediately hanging up before I had another chance to respond.
Edward had heard the conversation and didn't look too thrilled about the news, and I wasn't about to bring it up right away.
We finally settled on a full size bed, neither of us were in the mood to argue over which bed to get so we settled somewhere in the middle. We set it up so it would be delivered tomorrow, seeing the Volvo really wasn't meant for heavy hauling. We made our way home quietly, neither of us exactly knew why Aro was coming to visit, we had both figured it would have taken him at least a few months to discover anything about this so called prophecy.
"I refuse to loose you," Edward sighed as we walked into the house. "No prophecy is going to take you away from me, you hear that Bella?" his voice sounding more tense for the moment.
"Edward, I'm not going anywhere, I promise you that!" I almost yelled, trying to reassure him.
We silently found our way upstairs to the bedroom where we made ourselves comfortable on our patio retreat. Edward's arm fell snuggly across my shoulders if to secure my place beside him. We sat like that for hours in silence, just enjoying each other's company.
Meanwhile, Carlisle and Esme were still hosting Joshua and Ryan at their house. They were as familiar as Sam or Jacob, and in fact it had been decided that Ryan would stay with our family when Joshua left. He and Emmett became good friends always trying to out-do each other, like brothers normally would. Yeah, that sounded about right, they were like brothers now, and honestly Edward was completely jealous, but he would probably deny it. I know Edward all to well and he was easy to read, he was jealous of Ryan to begin with. The part I was confused about was what he was jealous of, was it of his relationship with Emmett, or was he jealous because Ryan could do what he couldn't so easily do, read my mind? He also could hear what Ryan was thinking about me, and every time Ryan would be near me, or even look at me, Edward made some excuse to get me away from him.
Personally, I enjoyed Ryan's company, we always found something to conversate about, and we were always laughing together. It was hard to find time to talk to him one on one without Edward being rude and interrupting us. There was no harm in our conversations, we talked about the "vegetarian" life we were living and how he was surprised how he found that it fit him so well. Ryan was always interested in how it was being human when Edward and I were first together, he didn't understand how a vampire could have resisted me he would always joke. From a distance it probably looked like we were flirting, always laughing and joking around, Jacob even found himself drawn to Ryan and they became friends as well, which made life a little bit easier knowing my furry friend was a bit safer.
When Edward and I finally decided to leave our comfy patio retreat, he headed to Carlisle's house to let him know about the visit Aro was planning. When we arrived Jacob was there with Seth, Esme was feeding Seth's empty stomach and Jacob was talking with Ryan and Emmett. Carlisle and Rose were preoccupied to even see us come in, it seemed like a normal night to us.
"Evening everyone," I announced as we came in.
"Good evening Edward, Bella. Are you enjoying your new house?" Ryan asked interested.
"Its good," Edward said quickly before heading towards Carlisle, pulling me hand in hand.
"Carlisle, we just got a call today from Aro…." I began before Carlisle cut me off.
"I know dear, Alice called me to make plans for their return with Renesmee, and told me about your Aro's plans to visit," he sighed.
"Well for the sake of everyone I want him to stay with us and you guys and keep Renesmee here while he is in now," I said knowing it would be fine.
"I think that would be best Bella," Carlisle said as he was on the computer booking tickets for Alice, Emmett, and Nessie. "They will be home Saturday night," he said as I was looking at the computer screen trying to find the arrival date.
"Good, I miss her more every day," I sighed in relief, Saturday was only three days away and I could hardly wait.
Edward motioned for us to go upstairs to his old room, and next thing I knew I was sitting on the black couch and Edward was at the window staring out into the dark.
"You never said anything to me about Aro staying with us Bella, you should have discussed it with me before you made any decisions!" I could hear the growl in his chest, he was in no way thrilled at my actions.
"Look Edward, it would be better if he was not in the same house as Renesmee, and I'm not going to let him stay here with the family, I'm not putting them in any kind of harm if he decided to bring Jane or whoever else with him, plus we have more room. Nessie will be safer here, is that so hard to understand, if it's a problem for you, then stay here with the family and Renesmee, and I'll stay at our house with Aro. Its not like I planned this, it just came out and it seems like the best idea for everyone!" I exclaimed, taking control over the situation. "There is no point to argue with me Edward, you know I am right, do I need to explain it again?"
I didn't even give him a chance to answer before I whipped out of his room and was downstairs.
"Is everything alright?" Jacob questioned.
"Every thing is just fine!" I snapped.
Jacob sat quiet for a moment, his usual grin was now gone, and I started to feel bad for snapping like that on Jacob.
"I'm sorry for snapping on you Jacob, I'm on edge knowing that Aro will be coming soon, I hope you understand," I apologized.
He just nodded in acceptance and nodded for Seth and him to leave. They both said their goodbyes and bolted out the door, before I could stop them. I just hung my head and preceded to go sit next to Ryan, I knew he could cheer me up. We started talking about the situation with Aro when he first came to us almost a year ago. He was intrigued by the situation and how quickly I learned to control my shield, but he mainly wanted to know more about Renesmee, he had heard so much about her, but had not met her yet. I told him how I was pregnant with a half human child and half vampire spawn, which was all the more fascinating to him, he wanted to know more, but Edward decided to come down the stairs, his eyes were glowing with anger.
"We are leaving Bella, lets go!" he demanded.
"No, I think I am fine right here, if you want to go home, I will just see you later then," I said without hesitation.
"I think we need to talk more about this, alone. So are you coming?" he now pleaded.
"Like I said Edward, I am staying here, I said my peace and what I thought, there isn't anything more I want to talk about. Its decided that Renesmee will stay here, Aro at our home, and well you are welcome to stay with me, but if you don't that is fine, your choice," I said calmly knowing it would make him more frustrated.
"Why are you so damn stubborn Bella? I'm not sure why you are doing this to me, but I don't like it, now lets go please," he pleaded.
"I am sure your family does not want to see this, so we will talk later when I get home, so if you are leaving, I will just see you at home Edward, now this conversation is over!" I said trying not to embarrass Edward or myself.
He stormed out the door, not even looking back, and at that moment I didn't care, he was always in control with me, I never had a second thought about it, but I needed to start putting my foot down somewhere, and today was the day. I loved Edward and he knew it but we were just too divided on the situation to come to a conclusion. I just needed to be away from him for a few hours to let him calm down and for me to try to figure this out. I didn't mean to hurt him, but I was not giving into him.