Beneath The Surface

by MyBella

One summer, an internship in Africa, bloodlust, sharp teeth, and a boatload of fear are all that stand in the way of Bella Cullen landing a job at the Atlanta Aquarium - As long as she doesn't count cocky shark expert Edward Masen on her list.

48. 48 The Iceman Cometh

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. Stephenie Meyer owns anything and everything relating to Twilight. I am in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended and in order to keep it that way, No reproduction, copying, reposting, downloading, or any kind of redistribution of this story is allowed. This is to cover my arse as much as yours! And finally, the Original characters, plot, names, nicknames, songs, poems—anything I created from my very own brain—are all the property of the author of this fanfic, My-Bella. Unauthorized use of the material is plagiarism so please be kind and don't steal my creations.

"~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^"

Chapter 48 – The Iceman Cometh

Friday, August 15th

Masen reached behind the file cabinet, searching with his fingers for the little magnetic case that held the cabinet's key. As soon as he unlocked the cabinet, he put the key back in its hiding spot.

Sitting on the floor beside the open bottom drawer, he removed the battered converse shoe box that took up most of the drawer's space. He flipped the lid off and his eyes went to the beautiful wooden music box that Elizabeth had loved and he'd accidentally destroyed. He had always wanted to fix it for her but he hadn't been able to figure out how in time. Without her, it had never made sense to fix it.

Beside the music box was a much smaller box—velvet green where it hadn't been rubbed raw from being held. He set his fingertips over the indentations, already knowing it would be the same as last time; his fingers were now larger than his father's had been we'd he'd purchased this box.

The lid creaked loudly in the stillness of his project room. Nestled in the cushiony fabric sat his mother's ring—her final gift to him. Masen pulled the ring out, snorting at the way it hardly fit on his finger. And then he drew in and let out a deep breath, allowing memories of his mother to wash over him, times when she'd been happy and smiling and laughing with him. Times that he missed to the very core of his being.

"Kid, I know today's photos are exciting but dinner is—Oh! Oh wow!"

Masen winced before looking at Esme. "Do not freak out," he pleaded.

"No. No freaking out. No freaking out. No freaking at all." If he listened only to his mom's words and ignored her squeaky pitch and wide eyes, then he would be able to believe she was not freaking out.

"I'm only looking," he said as he palmed the ring. He hoped removing it from her line of sight might calm her.

Esme covered her mouth with one hand. Then uncovered it. Then covered it again. When she uncovered it this time, she also figured out the words she wanted to say. "You don't look. You never look. You carry it everywhere we go, but you don't look. I'm not freaking out. I'm truly not. I'm just shocked. Because you're looking. And you never—"

"I never look. I know." His eyes met hers and with his stare he willed her to both completely understand him and explain it to him. He'd been gripped with the need to look for weeks now and had finally caved to the urge.

Esme came into the room and sat down beside him. "May I?"

He set the ring gently into the palm of her hand.

Esme held it between two fingers, bouncing the overhead light off of the three square cut diamonds on top. "Your father did good when he picked this ring out."

Masen nodded, unsure of what else to do in response.

"Did Elizabeth ever tell you how he proposed?"

He sifted through all of his memories but he couldn't find any that were specifically about the proposal. "Just that he gave it to her and couldn't wait to marry her."

Esme smiled and bumped his shoulder with hers. "Your father was smooth. He knew how to talk to a lady and make her feel like she was the only woman who mattered in the world. But that was when he was being playful and flirty. Not unlike you, Kid.

"When it was time to be serious, though, he often struggled to find the words, especially when he was talking to Elizabeth. He was so worried about screwing up the proposal that he wrote it all down and practiced it and planned to read it to your mother.

"Unfortunately, he forgot the paper in his hotel room and didn't realize until he was patting his shirt and pants pockets and looking like he was slapping invisible bugs off himself. Elizabeth had such a giggling fit over that."

"How do you know about it?"

Esme blushed. "I may have been watching from the stairs and having my own laughing fit."

Masen snorted.

"But I swear most of what I know your mom told me later on."

He grinned, picturing Esme clutching the stair railings and peeking over the top at his parents. "What else happened, Sneaky Pete?"

"Your father was so upset that he didn't have his paper and he couldn't remember everything he'd written even though he swore he'd practiced at least ten times. Elizabeth took his hands into hers and asked him to try."

Masen rolled his eyes. "And he remembered it all and it was perfect and they kissed happily ever after until—"

Esme shut him up with a slap to his shoulder. "Your flippancy has always been the defense mechanism I despise the most. I get that you have very mixed feelings when it comes to hearing about your parents but that doesn't excuse your behavior. If you don't want to hear about it, just say that. Don't be a jackass to me."

"I'm sorry. I really am. I just—It's frustrating as hell to finally know what I want but not how to get it. She deserves something amazing and I want to give it to her. I just don't know how."

"Maybe hearing how your father did it might help," Esme suggested.

He couldn't argue with that logic, especially when he had nothing else to go on. "Would you please tell me?"

"I don't remember it word for word but I think it went something like this …" She pointed at the smaller stone on the left. "This is the past. Behind us. We're gonna make the best peace with it we can and leave it there."

Now she pointed to the stone on the right. "The present. Borrowing your phrase, 'it won't all be sunshine and roses'. But every second I get to love you and have you love me will be worth it."

Finally she pointed to the large stone in the middle. "The future. Our future will be this big and bright with room for every dream, even the ones we haven't dreamt yet.

"Then he made a joke about how she had to kiss him a lot because that was why he really wanted to marry her. 'Except for your laugh, and the way your eyes light up, and your kindness, and everything that makes me fall a little more in love with you every moment of every day'. I remember that part clearly because it seemed like something from a book and not real life, and I thought he should be a writer instead of working for our father."

Esme paused to hand the ring back to Masen. "Personally, I think whatever he had written wouldn't have sounded half as good."

Masen inspected the ring while dissecting this new information about his parents.

"You know, it's because of your parents that I've always believed real-life romance is possible. He was ready to move continents for her and she fought our parents for the right to follow her heart and be in love."

"I've hated this ring," Masen admitted. "I've hated the broken promise it's represented all this time—the only promise I would have ever broken to Elizabeth."

"It was never hate you felt about it, Kid, or else you would have gotten rid of it. Supreme dislike for sure. But there was hope too and Elizabeth's love. I know this because I have the same love-dislike relationship with the pearl earrings she gave me. They make me sad because they're the last birthday gift she'll ever give me. I love them for the same reason. You've been similarly conflicted about the ring."

"Conflicted implies I felt something other than hate," he pointed out.

Esme tugged a lock of his hair. "Nice try, Kid, but as your mom I know for a fact that you've never actually hated anything. Not even Brussel sprouts like any reasonable kid."

Masen couldn't help snorting at that.

"Besides, no matter how much you disagree it doesn't change one very big fact."

"Yeah? What's that?"

"You referred to your feelings about the ring in the past tense, ergo your feelings have changed, ergo you have found the right person to put up with your stubborn ass, ergo you are in love and loved in return. And I am so proud of you."

"Why'd you use 'and' that time and not 'ergo'?"

She bumped her shoulder into his and gave him the same loving smile Elizabeth used to give him. "Because I'm always proud of you."

"Mom, I'm—"

"I know, I know," she said, her smile not losing any of its size. "You're just looking. I've said my peace and I'll leave you alone now."

"Actually, I was going to ask if you thought this might be outdated," he said as he lifted the ring for her to see it clearly.

Esme smiled reassuringly. "No, sweetheart. It's classy and classic. That never goes out of style."

"Do you think she'll …" He swallowed hard, not wanting to speak his doubt out loud.

"That's not for me to answer, Kid. Only your kapu can answer that particular question. Do you have any idea when you might ask?"

"No."

"What about how? Did you get any ideas from hearing about your parents?"

He shrugged his shoulders.

"You better figure this out. You can't just thrust the ring at her and say 'here'."

"Why not? That actually sounds like a good plan," he replied, smiling so she'd know for sure that he was teasing.

Esme was not amused and gave him the full frown with angry eyebrows. "Contrary to what you would have others believe, I know there is a romantic inside of you. Untie him and let him help you make it an amazing moment and lifetime memory."

"I will," he promised as he tucked the ring into the box and snapped the lid closed.

She reached over to run her finger over the floral design on the top of the wooden music box. "It's such a shame it stays in this box where no one ever sees it."

"I see it."

She only grinned.

"But I was thinking maybe I might try to fix it."

Esme gave him that soft smile that always made him want to hug her tight. "I think that would be lovely."

He set the ring box into the shoe box, put the lid on, and locked it up in his cabinet. He got to his feet and helped Esme to hers, and then he grabbed hold of her and hugged her as tightly as he dared. "I love you, Mom."

"I love you too, Kid." She patted his back twice and then stepped out of his arms. "We better get upstairs before there's no dinner left. I'm sure they stopped waiting for us once I didn't return right away."

"If Carlisle didn't set a plate aside for you, then you know Gopher did," Masen assured her.

"Being awesome has great perks," she teased, brushing her arm against his as they climbed the stairs together.

"Esme Masen! Making men fall at her feet since 19—" He tried to keep talking with her hand over his mouth but the urge to laugh was too great. When she finally let go, he told her, "You are so easy to get sometimes."

"And you are so lucky I don't kick your ass," she replied, pinching his side for good measure.

He stopped her at the top of the stairs and gave her another hug. "I'm lucky because I have you. Thanks for the talk and all the ones before it and all the ones that we both know are coming."

"I've got my fingers crossed that the next talk we have is you telling me all about a 'yes' answer to a beautiful question."

"Mine too, Mom. Mine too."

"~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^"

"Look at this one, Lee. Tell me this tooth doesn't look four foot tall?" Gopher demanded, proudly holding the photograph for her inspection.

Bella averted her eyes and focused on the desktop printer's screen progress bar. While she had done well in the dive and saved her freak-out for the boat, she had yet to completely calm her nerves from the experience. She hoped she'd eventually be able to improve that aspect of her reactions in time but for today she was just going to have to work through it.

Lee snorted. "Babe, that Great White was barely six foot so unless Guppy discovered a new sabretooth shark species, I'd say your estimate is way off."

Bella grimaced as she pulled the last of the photos from the printer. "How is it that of all the pictures of Cranky, the only perfectly clear ones are of his teeth?"

"Does anyone else find it ridiculously fitting that she named him 'Cranky'?" Alice asked, letting out a nervous giggle.

"Should she have been more subtle and gone for 'Norman'?" Whit teased.

"It wasn't funny earlier and it's not funny now," Alice warned him.

Bella kept her thoughts on the subject to herself, not wanting her sister to get anymore riled up than she already was about all of this. Alice had actually been pretty understanding all day but after hours of trying her best to be a-okay, she was close to breaking.

"Okay," Edward called from his spot in front of the whiteboard. "We have that Cranky is most definitely male. Estimated length of five-foot-ten-inches long with an approximate weight of a hundred pounds due to his slim profile. He has a few teeth missing on his lower jaw so it's likely he lost them while biting into a seal's hide sometime within the past week. Although we can't rule out him biting a boat or a cage after the behavior we saw. Anything else we can tell from Bella's photos?"

"Yeah, that she forgot to turn off her camera," Gopher joked while clicking through photos on the laptop. "Here's the bars of the cage … the bottom of Galeos … Masen's flipper."

"Just you wait until you're face-to-face with a pissy shark and see what you do and don't remember," Bella told him. She was trying not to feel too defensive but she wasn't having much luck.

"Time to move on to Mona Lisa," Whit declared. "Cranky's had enough of our attention for one day. And Gopher."

Bella looked up in time to see Edward smiling big while taping a photo of the smiling shark to the white board—her photo that she'd taken under while facing a giant great white. She still wasn't quite clear on why Lee, Whit, and Masen had been adamant about naming her after the famous painting since there wasn't a smile in it, but their excitement over it more than made up for her confusion.

"This beautiful lady was sixteen feet long, our biggest on record for this season," Edward proudly announced.

The room filled with whistles and clapping at the announcement, with the loudest display coming from Esme and Carlisle even though they'd sworn to be silent observers.

"According to the scale, she should weigh around one-point-eight tons," Lee shared.

"Dude, that's a car," Gopher exclaimed. "That tonnage translates to thirty-six hundred pounds. That's basically Lee's car back home."

Alice raised her hand like a student waiting to be called on—or excused to go puke from the paleness of her face. "Um … What's the stress-strength of the cage again?"

Edward grinned. "Trust me, Thumper, our cage was built to withstand being rammed at high velocities."

Carlisle jumped in wanting clarification. "Velocity changes with the size of the missile. Are you sure this cage meets the requirements for this level of shark?"

"We're sure," Edward and Jasper answered together.

Jasper pointed across the room at his best friend. "Brainiac over there only made the seller triple check it before ordering, during ordering, and at pickup."

"And unlike the DC Brainiac, Mase only uses his superpowers for good," Gopher added.

"That's debatable," Alice murmured.

Bella nudged her with her elbow to let her know she'd been heard.

"Well," Alice replied, waving a hand toward the whiteboard. "I'm still not sold it was good that he got you to go shark cage diving with three sharks."

"Am I not perfectly fine?" Bella asked even as she felt the tremor in her hands from her overload of adrenaline.

"Physically, yes. Mentally?" Alice's eyebrows lifted up toward her hairline. "The jury's so, so out."

"Bella, anything you want to see added to the board?" Edward asked.

She quickly scanned the list of observations he'd written under the shark's Mona Lisa moniker just to make sure he hadn't already asked the question himself. "I'd like to note her decision to leave rather than get into a fight with another shark. Nothing in the materials you've given me to read would have ever led me to guess we'd see that in a shark her size. All the experts say she's supposed to stand her ground."

"Yeah, I was surprised by that too," Jasper said. "Do you think there was a chance she's pregnant and just didn't want the hassle of a fight?"

"That's a good theory," Edward responded. "Any other theories?"

"It could be just as simple as she sensed something was wrong," Lee offered. "We have that feeling towards other people. Why can't sharks have it among themselves?"

"What about a scent?" Gopher suggested. "Like that dude literally gave off a crazy scent?"

"These are all good," Edward said as he finished writing Gopher's idea on the board. "Anything else you guys can think of?"

"Lee's idea about sensing …" Bella began hesitantly. "Can the shark's ampullae pick up pressure changes? Because if so, then that could be a reason. Cranky's speed was displacing the water at such a rate that pressure changes could have been measured by human technology. Wouldn't that lead us to believe it's possible Mona Lisa's built-in warning system picked it up too?"

Gopher didn't even wait for Edward's answer before offering his fist to Bella for a bump, which she happily accepted.

"Another great theory," Edward congratulated while noting it on the board.

"You know," Lee said as she smiled at Bella. "This may be something we can research by reaching out to other teams. I know one in San Francisco was specifically looking deeper into the functions of the ampullae. We can write to them and request their opinion."

"I think that's a great idea," Edward responded. "I'll leave it to you two ladies to run that project and report back to us when you have a response."

"Sweet," Lee said as she smiled at Bella.

"As far as sensing a problem, picking up a scent, or protecting a pregnancy, they're all worthy theories but they're also unprovable for us," Edward declared. "We don't have a blood sample from Mona Lisa and there's not enough behavioral research yet to compare against. But we will definitely keep it in our records for comparison against future encounters."

"On to the next shark so we can be on our way to bed before this day ends," Esme encouraged.

"Dusty the dusky, so named for the scar that looks like a smear of dirt," Gopher called out. "Also known as the shark Masen was busted petting."

"I was seen petting him," Edward corrected. "Busted implies I was doing something out of line with team guidelines, which I was not."

Lee rolled her eyes at their need to tease each other and then moved the conversation along. "Based on the photos from Masen and Guppy, we know Dusty was a male."

Jasper chimed in to say, "And thanks to Masen's audio we also know the shark was over six foot long and in near mint condition except for the scar was on his lower caudal fin."

"He was inquisitive without being apprehensive," Edward added. "He was the type of shark that allows us to be relatively safe while being hands-on in our research."

"Last shark for the board," Bella said as she brought the photo to Edward. Whit had captured a great profile shot of the large male Great White that Edward had tagged on the last dive of the day.

"Names?" Edward asked, tacking the photo to the board.

"Bruce," Whit shouted. "He looks like a Bruce."

"He's big enough to be a Bruce," Gopher agreed.

"Ugh," Lee groaned with a shake of her head. "You guys have been wanting a Bruce for so long it's pitiful."

"What's the big deal with Bruce?" Alice asked.

"Bruce was the name of the animatronic shark that was the star of the film Jaws," Esme explained. "My misfits have been waiting years to christen a shark with this most special nickname."

"Had to be a Great White," Jasper said.

"And a male," Gopher added.

"He also had to be formidable," Edward said. "And this shark fits the criteria."

"A fourteen footer is far from Jaws' colossal size," Lee pointed out.

"If you subtract movie exaggeration and add real-life possibilities, then it's exactly right," Edward countered.

"He told you," Whit exclaimed, smiling and playfully shaking a finger at Lee. "With Math."

Alice didn't look any less confused. "Still not sure what the fuss is all about, but okay. Big guy shark named Bruce. Next?"

Bella had been studying a photo of the shark's head during all the name talk so she shared what had caught her attention. "Bruce had some discoloration on the top of his head. Nothing that appears serious or large enough to make his natural camouflage ineffective. Maybe he scraped himself against a reef?"

"Could also be concrete debris that they use to rebuild shorelines in places like Louisiana and New York," Esme suggested. "There was an article on it a couple weeks ago and they are actually seeing some success with the process."

"Seal Island itself is also a possibility since it's made out of granite," Whit remarked.

"What else can we tell about Bruce?" Edward questioned.

"He's a deep swimmer," Gopher said. "He never really came higher than the bottom of the cage."

"Defensive mechanism?" Lee asked.

Edward shrugged. "Maybe. It's been suggested that sharks can remember incidents for up to a year. He could have recently come across another shark cage and was staying low to avoid ours."

"Why would a shark be worried about a cage?" Alice asked.

"We likely aren't the first to have poked him with a tag," Lee pointed out. "Researchers have been coming here for years to study these sharks."

"Maybe we'll even tag him again the next time we're out here," Whit said.

"Next time?" Alice's face had paled considerably.

"Yeah, in like a few years from now," Gopher said. "This whole summer is our baseline and every time we come back, we'll have new research to compare and contrast against it. How else are we ever gonna decode sharks?"

"I just figured since there are a whole bunch of teams all over that you'd just put all the data together and figure it out on paper," Alice answered.

"Maybe one day but right now the gaps in our data are still too wide," Edward explained. "Our team has been studying behavior. The one before us might have been looking at conditions. The one after us might focus on migration patterns. These are all worthy puzzle pieces but until we know for sure the overall shape, none of us know exactly where our pieces fit."

"Just look at how much longer we've been studying the human body and how much we still don't know about ourselves," Whit said. "This is why studies like this are still referred to as 'a life's work'."

"But all of that is in the future," Bella said as she grasped Alice's hand to comfort her. "Right now, we're just focused on finishing out this summer."

"And this team meeting," Esme piped up. "Do we have anything more we feel we should notate about Bruce? 'Cause if not, I say we call this meeting done and get out of here so Masen and Guppy can write up the daily report."

"I think we're good," Lee stated.

"Yep," Whit agreed.

"Ditto," Gopher said.

Edward gave a nod. "Thank you for all your input tonight. Now get out of my office."

They laughed and then filed out the room one by one with Esme bringing up the rear. Bella caught her giving yet another wink to Edward, still completely oblivious to the fact that she was not being covert with it at all.

As soon as Bella was alone with Edward she questioned the winking. "What's going on with your mom? What are you two scheming about?"

Edward snorted. "My mom's an ass."

Bella yelled his name out in shock. "Edward!"

"I call like I see it, kapu," he said with a laugh.

Bella studied him for a moment, noting his crooked grin and crinkled eyes. "I know what's going on here."

"You think?" he questioned as he pulled her flush against him.

"I know."

"Tell me."

She struggled not to be distracted by the closeness of his lips. "She's conspiring with you without your consent. You're worried she's going to blow whatever surprise you've got up your sleeve."

"Nice theory but incorrect."

"Then enlighten me. What's going on with you two?"

"You'll know when it's time," he promised. "For now, I want you to get out of here and get into the shower."

Her brows creased with her confusion. "I can't go shower. We have to write the daily first."

"I will take care of the daily."

"That's not fair though. I promised you I'd help."

"Kapu, that was this morning before we ever got into the water."

"Edward—"

He cut her off just by narrowing his eyes. "You're not arguing with your mentor, are you?"

She had to laugh at that. "It's not so easy to tell anymore. You sound like my mentor but you look like my boyfriend. And you're definitely holding me like my boyfriend does."

"So then it's both," he replied with a smile. "You need to be done with today as a work day. You need time to decompress and sort through your feelings about today."

"It's that obvious?" she asked, unable to stop her blush from spreading across her cheeks.

"Only to me. But then no one else is watching you the way I do."

She hugged him tightly in thanks and appreciation. "You really don't mind writing the report by yourself?"

"With all the notes on the board, this thing will practically write itself," he promised. He kissed her cheek and then released his hold on her. "Go enjoy a long hot shower, kapu."

She did just as he asked, but not until after she'd given him a long, sweet kiss full of love and thanks.

"~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^"

Saturday, August 16th

Masen lifted Bella's hand and inspected her fingers. She didn't have long ones like Elizabeth—piano hands his mother had called them. He'd always wondered about that since the only times he'd ever seen Elizabeth in front of a piano were those times when his grandparents would go out for dinner and he and his mom would play Chopsticks together as loud as they could, filling the big house with the sounds. He started to chuckle but then quickly stopped himself, worried he'd wake Bella.

Surprisingly, she didn't move a muscle. He was used to her twitching at sounds and moving each time he did, but tonight she hadn't moved a muscle since she'd dozed off. He liked the idea of taking full credit after the amazing celebratory sex they'd shared, but he knew logically that adrenaline factored in to her hard sleep much more. It had to after all that had happened today—technically yesterday now. She'd had her own dive in the morning with him and then she'd been lookout for his dives that afternoon with Whit and then Gopher. She'd even been excited when he'd gotten their third tag. The data from that tag would start rolling in within a few hours and then they could compare it to the other two tags.

As exciting as the possibilities were, they still took a backseat in his brain. The ring and where he wanted it to be was the priority in his mind. It was strange but that good kind of strange, the kind that made his head spin with all the ways his life could be different in the best ways. This had never been in his thoughts, the ability to share a tiny cot with a beautiful woman, skin to skin, and have no interest in getting back to work. Well, that wasn't completely true. He had plenty of interest but he understood it could wait a few hours, that this moment was as vital and important in its own way. He wanted more of this. He wanted as much of her as he could be lucky enough to have and he wanted to make sure she never questioned his feelings for her again.

But how? That was the question he had no answer for yet.

"The fuck is wrong with you," he muttered angrily to himself. "You make intricate and multiple plans to go diving with sharks but you can't figure out how to propose to your kapu."

Bella shifted against him, her fingers coiling around his as she snuggled into his chest. His annoyance with himself melted and left him marveling over how lucky he was to be with her.

"Inspiration," he whispered as he gently kissed her forehead. "That's what I need."

He carefully slipped out of bed, covering her with the cot's worn fleece blanket. He waited beside her for a minute just to make sure she didn't wake.

He went to the file cabinet and grabbed the key to unlock the cabinet, and then took the box out and set it on his desk. With the lid off, he ran his fingers over the top of the wooden music box as he always did. He could still recall the melody it had played and he definitely remembered the way Elizabeth had always smiled when she'd lifted the lid to hear it.

He took out the small velvet green box, opening it slowly to keep it from squawking and waking Bella. He just wanted to see how it would look for a second and then he'd put it right back in the box. He was confident that once he had the image in his head inspiration would hit and he'd plan the perfect proposal for his kapu.

While he'd been getting the ring out, Bella had curled herself up under the blanket and the only part of her visible now was a foot.

"This woman," he whispered while chuckling. He straightened out her legs to give him room to stretch out beside her again beneath the blanket. He brought her hand out from under the blanket and carefully slid the ring onto her finger. It was a little loose but not enough to be in danger of falling off.

Inspirational was too small a word for what seeing the ring on her finger felt like to him. He knew a lot of adjectives and nearly all crossed his mind but nothing fit so well as the word "right" did. Elizabeth had been right. Esme was right. Bella being his kapu and wearing his ring was right.

He moved her hair away from her face and asked, "How do I get you to accept this wide awake and wanting what I want?"

He chuckled, knowing she would completely hate this idea. "How about in the cage with a shark circling us? What would you think of that?

"No. No, you'd hate that and think it was a stupid joke of mine.

"How about a big bash on the beach with the whole family?

"No, that would be too big, too much attention. We need something smaller, something more your taste.

"What do you like? Sunsets. Music. Food—you are definitely a fan of good food. But food is too cliché.

"You love Lizzy. Maybe I should slip this onto her collar," he murmured as he slid his finger over the ring.

Bella's brown eyes flew wide open, scaring Masen into complete silence. "Gotta go," she hurriedly told him while crawling over him and out of bed.

"Go where?"

Her hand was already on the doorknob. "Gotta go."

"Naked," he blurted out, hoping it would be enough to stop her. "You're only in my lucky shirt and it's not even buttoned."

Her head dipped down as she verified her lack of clothes and then she went completely still.

"You'll need these," he said as he walked toward her with her pajama shorts in his hand.

She turned to face him and her eyes were as wild as her hair. "There's a ring on my finger." She said it so softly and calmly that he wasn't sure how to respond. Her next words came out the complete opposite and loud enough to make him wince since he was standing right in front of her. "Edward, there's a ring on my finger. On this finger."

"Let's trade." He slipped the ring from her finger and then knelt in front of her to help get her shorts on. Her hands rested against his shoulders and he could feel them trembling against his skin. He'd scared her.

"We have to talk," she said, her voice shaking.

"We will," he assured her while buttoning up her shirt. "After you're done in the bathroom."

"You'll be here? Right here? And you'll talk?" she asked as she tracked his every move with those wide, scared eyes.

"I'll tell you anything you want to know," he promised.

She kept those eyes on him until she was standing in the hall and then she hurried off toward the stairs.

Masen grabbed his hair with both hands and muttered a few choice curse words at himself. "Of all the things to fuck up," he said, nearly laughing at his new level of stupidity. He'd been so sure she wouldn't wake up and just before he'd taken off the ring, she'd woken completely and seen the ring and now she was scared and freaked out and would probably never—No. No, he wasn't going to think that way. He could salvage this. He would fix it. First step was to put away the ring, second step was to get dressed, and third was to say something to put her at ease so she could listen to him and not the thoughts swirling in her head.

"~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^"

Bella broke out into a sweat as she approached the door to Edward's project room. She knew what she wanted things to mean, just like she knew all the completely opposite things it could mean. She didn't want to let her mind spin with ideas and that would be so easy to do, but if she was doing that than she'd have trouble focusing on whatever he said and he was definitely going to talk this time. She was owed an explanation and he would not leave until she had one. And hopefully not then either.

She quickly entered the room and closed the door, leaning her back against it to support her shaking legs. "Talk."

Edward jumped to his feet and shoved his hands into the pockets of his cargo shorts; his eyes were wide and either scared or excited. Maybe both. She couldn't tell for sure. "Ask me anything," he encouraged.

"You put a ring on my finger. You put it on a very distinct and important finger."

His lips twitched. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

"It's not a bad thing but if you think you can just put a ring on my finger with no explanation, then you are out of your shark loving mind."

He walked over to her and took her hands into his. "Ask me anything."

"Where did you get a ring like that out here?"

He blinked a couple times and then his lips curled up and he laughed. "All the things you could ask me and you go with that?"

"It's the only thing I can't figure out."

He put his arms around her and pulled her into his personal space like what was going on was nothing and he was super fine—she was far from super fine right now because she didn't understand any of this.

"You are so beautiful and this mind of yours," he told her. "You make me lucky in ways I never thought would be possible, kapu."

She couldn't help melting at his words, especially not with him looking at her in the way he had—like she was the most important person in his world. But she also needed answers. "So where did you get it?"

"It was Elizabeth's, given to her by my father."

Bella gasped involuntarily, her eyes widening as she realized how big this whole thing might be. It was one thing to wake up to a ring on her finger. It was something entirely different for that ring to have belonged to Elizabeth.

"Look, I—" He took a deep breath before continuing. "She gave me the ring and told me I'd know when I met the right person to wear it. I always thought she was a hopeless romantic for believing something so crazy, that there would be someone who chose to put up with my late nights, my need to work, my drive for perfection—because even as a kid I knew I wasn't normal."

"Why do you do that?" Bella asked, running a hand through his hair in hopes of calming him some. She could feel his entire body humming against hers. "Why do you list what you see as flaws in yourself without ever countering it with the best things about you? Your love for your family, your loyalty to your friends, your talented mind and hands, and your sense of humor. Those are just as much a part of your daily life and yet you never list them."

He grinned in that shy way that was rarely ever seen. "I'm humble."

She had to laugh at that. "That is so not true and you know it."

"I guess to make it clear I know I come with some hard traits to deal with."

"You do," she agreed. "But who you are overall is worth working through those parts."

His vibrating intensified and his eyes took on that electric blue shade that came with his pure excitement. "Come on," he said as he reached behind her and grabbed the doorknob.

"Where do you want to go?"

"Someplace special." The look in his eyes—he was absolutely excited, the same kind of excited he'd been this morning before their dive together and tonight when he'd been talking about the tags.

He led her up all the flights of stairs, out onto the deck, and then to the ladder that led to the crow's nest. Their climb was made easy by the calm night wind and the bright light of the full moon hanging high above them.

Early morning, Bella corrected herself. We are insane to be up here in the wee hours of the morning and yet I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be. I have to know why he's bringing me up here. She was pretty sure it wasn't just to talk about their day like he often had them do.

"We usually have chocolate milk when we're up here," she mentioned as she waited for him to clear the ladder.

He walked right up to her and took her hands into his. "There are different types of relationships and commitments. I know what I think this is but I also know it could be more of an 'I'm in this for as long as it lasts' commitment. I know that happens. But that's not me. Because if I commit to you with all that I am, I can't ever take it back. And I want to commit to you, Bella. But I don't want you to feel like you have to want what I want. I always want you to be yourself because that's who I love. So if you just want to see where this goes, then that's fine. I'd rather have you for as long as I can than not at all. And if you don't know now, then that's fine too because I can wait. I will wait. But if this is more for you …"

He released her hands and then got down on his knees before her. He reached into his pocket and when she could see his hand again, he was holding the ring pinched between two fingers, reflecting the moonlight against his face. "You love me. That is a truth I believe in with everything in me. Not because it's logical, but because you tell me and show me, and I feel it in every ounce of my being. What I feel for you—I can't give you anything less than forever. It's what I want and what you deserve. I want forever with you and I hope you want the same. Kapu, will you marry me?"

Bella wrapped her hands around his and got down on her knees to be face-to-face with him. His eyes were still excited but his body was tense—he really didn't know how she would answer.

She took a breath to steady her voice since calming her body was out of the question. "By your own admission, I am not what you expected. I know that what we have was not in your plans. I think that's why you're so eager to make sure it doesn't have an end." She noticed the way his shoulders slumped at the word 'eager' so she quickly tried to reassure him. "But don't think eager is a bad thing because it's not. Sometimes being impulsive is so much better than planning out every little detail. Filling out the intern application was impulsive and it got me here. It brought us together.

"Now that we are … Edward, when I said I wanted a life spent living and working with you, that's exactly what I meant because I know, I know there will never be any moving on from you, from what we are when we're together, which is the absolute best of ourselves. With you, I am brave and adventurous. I'm sexy and lovely. I'm even funny and I can make you laugh. So the answer to your question is yes. Always yes."

"You—you said yes." It was the first time she'd ever seen him look utterly shocked.

"I did. Want me to say it again?"

"Yes," he answered, his face morphing from shocked to ridiculously excited, complete with a big, goofy grin.

She smiled and cupped his face in her hands. "Yes. Yes, I will marry you, Edward. Forever. Always yes." She let go of him and leaned back a little, holding her left hand out to him. "But only if you'll allow me the honor of wearing Elizabeth's ring."

He swallowed hard and she noticed his eyes welling up before he looked down. He took her hand into his and with shaking fingers slid the ring onto her finger. "Kapu—" He lifted his eyes to hers, letting her see his tears. "Elizabeth and Esme, they've always told me it's okay to cry. It's okay to feel so much that you can't keep it inside. This—I miss her and I wish she could know you. And I love you. I love you in ways I didn't know two people could love each other. And you just said 'yes' and that's—Kapu …"

Bella dried his cheeks with her thumbs. "I wish she could know me too, but we'll just have to settle for me knowing her."

"I'd like that."

"Me too. Know what else I would like?" she asked, smiling as she scratched his scruff. "I'd love it if you kissed me. As symbolic as this beautiful ring is, I still feel like it's not official until you kiss me."

He dove for her lips and locked his arms against her back, the only thing keeping her from falling over from their feverish kiss. Normally his passion would be the key piece she needed to know his true feelings but tonight it was only a beautiful added bonus. He'd completely opened his heart, and hers had melted in response, leaving her trusting in their love and in her gut instinct that none of the other possible paths in front of her would make her a tenth as happy as this one.

"~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^"

"Stop trying to get dressed," Edward murmured against the side of Bella's neck.

She laughed and pushed him backward until he had to sit on their bed. "Stop trying to make me late for breakfast duty."

"Gopher can handle it on his own."

"That's not the point and you know it." She finally decided on a light gray t-shirt and yanked it off the hanger. She quickly pulled it over her head before Edward could take it away like he'd done with her jean shorts earlier. "Besides, don't you have some data to check on?"

He pushed his lower lip out in a pout. "I'm not supposed to look until after breakfast to ensure I don't hold up breakfast the way I held up dinner last night."

"You've been promising to teach Alice how to tie a real rope knot. Maybe it's time you come through on that," she suggested while slipping her bracelet onto her wrist.

"Come here," he said, reaching for her hand.

She looked at his hand and then his face. "You swear you're not going to try to convince me to stay?"

"I swear."

She took his hand and let him pull her close. He immediately reached for her other hand, the hand adorned with his mother's ring, and gave it a kiss while looking into her eyes. "I love you, kapu."

She grinned and leaned down to kiss his lips. "I love you too. But I'm still not skipping breakfast duty."

He laughed and let her go as he'd promised. "Get out of here and get to work. And make sure there's plenty of food. I'm starving from all the celebrating you made me do with you."

"What was that?" she challenged, staring him down.

He gave her that smile he used when he was trying to sweet talk his way out of trouble. "So maybe 'made' was the wrong word. How about if I'd said all the celebrating we enjoyed together?"

She shrugged. "Better."

He grabbed her by the hips and pulled her to stand between his legs. "And if I said it was from being allowed to worship you and your body the way you deserve?"

"That's even better."

He brought her forearms to rest on his shoulders, putting her lips right in front of his. "What if I told you it was from making love to my kapu, my fiancée, my love forever."

How could she not kiss him after hearing something like that? And of course it couldn't be some little peck. She had to make it a good one. Gopher would understand.

She ended up being fifteen minutes late because of that kiss and she didn't regret it a bit. In fact, she was still smiling over it as she walked into the kitchen.

"Nice of you to join me, Guppy," Gopher teased when he noticed her. "Let me guess—Masen was talking your ear off about yesterday's dive?"

"Something like that," she said as she fought the urge to blush from her intimate memories of her time with Edward. "What can I help with?"

"Would you grab the butter and coat the baking pan right there for me?"

"I can do that." She took a stick of butter from the refrigerator and joined Gopher at the island, pulling the pan closer to her.

Gopher's hand shot out and grabbed hers from the edge of the pan. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!"

"What is it? A fire? A burn?" Whit yelled while running down the hall from the helm. He skidded to a stop in front of the island, took one look at Bella's hand, and then sat down. Just folded his legs under him and sat down right there on the floor.

"So our Guppy's been seeing Iceman on the side and he left an arctic ice shelf on her finger," Gopher teased. "Masen's gonna feed his ass to the sharks when he finds out dude's been moving in on his girl. Right, Whit?"

Whit pointed a shaking finger at Bella's hand. "That's—" He couldn't seem to finish but Bella knew what he meant all the same and she nodded to confirm his suspicion.

"What? What am I missing?" Gopher questioned. "I know I'm missing something so somebody tell me."

"It's Elizabeth's," Lee announced, standing at the edge of the hall. She must have been at the helm with Whit when Gopher had yelled.

Gopher's eyes widened and he let go of Bella's hand as if it would bite him.

At that moment Edward came up the stairs carrying Lizzy and cooing to her. He came to a stop behind Lee and surveyed his silent friends. "What happened? Something wrong?"

"The opposite," Lee said as she turned to face him. She smiled and threw her arms around him in a big hug. "It's right. Very, very right. I'm so happy for you, Mase."

Whit got to his feet and joined the hug, and as soon as Gopher saw that, he piled on too.

Whit freed his head and an arm and waved Bella over. "Get in here, Guppy. Soak up some of this love."

She squeezed in between Whit and Edward and found herself face-to-face with Lee and her mega-watt smile. Edward let the hug go on for a few seconds and then used Lizzy as his reason for breaking away.

Lee and Whit followed him to his puppy's bowls, their voices joining together to ask, "Why didn't you tell me?"

They didn't give him a chance to answer before firing more questions at him, speaking so fast that it was hard to tell which of them asked each question.

"How long have you been planning this?"
"Does Esme know?"

"When did this happen?"
"How did you ask?"

"Does Carlisle know?"

"Did you get his blessing first?"

"What about Alice?"

"When were you going to tell us?"

"Did you really think we wouldn't notice?"

The last question shot out of both of their mouths, "How does this change things?"

"Misfits," Esme called out, causing everyone to turn toward her. She stood with Carlisle and Alice at the end of the kitchen island. "Whatever Edward is proposing certainly can't require all of this yelling first thing in the morning."

Bella and Gopher locked eyes, both of them turning red from fighting not to laugh at Esme's use of "proposing" out of all the possible words in the world.

Bella had asked if she should take the ring off until they had the whole family together to tell them but Edward had been insistent that the only time she should ever take it off was when they were working in the water.

"Esme, you've always had a knack for being scarily on point," Lee said as she set her arm on Edward's shoulder. "Wouldn't you agree, Mase?"

Whit doubled over with laughter and ended up sitting on the floor all over again, this time with Lizzy jumping all over him.

Alice looked increasingly confused the longer she watched Whit. "Why is my boyfriend acting like he's been breathing laughing gas?"

"Is it just me or might we be missing something important?" Carlisle asked Esme.

Esme crossed her arms and focused her eyes on Edward and Lee. "My misfits are definitely up to something. Who wants to share with the rest of the class? Edward? Lee?"

"No idea," Edward replied, wearing his shitty grin proudly. "Lee?"

"Haven't the foggiest," she replied.

Whit opened his mouth but then he snorted and started laughing all over again.

"Gopher," Esme called, turning to face him.

Gopher glanced at Bella and smiled wide. "Bella can shine the light."

"Bug?" Carlisle questioned. "What's going on here?"

"Seriously, you guys?" Bella asked while looking to each of her friends and Edward. None of them responded.

She huffed and said, "This is the most massive case of passing the buck I've ever seen. And to think you're all brave enough to swim with sharks but not to answer Esme's question."

"Oh we're brave enough," Edward assured her. "But it's so much more fun to watch you do it."

She met his devious smile with one of her own. "This isn't just about me, though, so get your sneaky ass over here so we can answer together."

"Crack that whip!" Whit encouraged.

"Love it," Lee said as she leaned over and high-fived him.

"You are damn lucky I love you," Edward whispered as he slipped an arm around Bella's back.

"As lucky as you," she countered, planting a quick kiss on his jaw.

"Hi, remember me?" Esme asked with her hand raised. "I'm the one with the question still unanswered."

Edward smiled at Bella and then lifted her left hand up for everyone to see as he met his mom's curious gaze. "You were right from the start, Mom. I proposed."

"And I said 'yes'," Bella added, squeezing his fingers tight.

Esme squealed so loud that Lizzy barked at her. She ran over to hug Edward and Bella and after squeezing them hard for a second, she let them go and slapped Edward on the shoulder. "You said you were just looking."

"I was just looking," he said, laughing while rubbing his shoulder. "It looked right on her finger."

"Uncle Carl?" Bella called, noticing he had yet to move from his spot on the other end of the island.

He looked around, meeting everyone's eyes but hers. "I hope you all won't mind but I need a moment alone with Bella."

"Let's go in the TV room." She was surprised she had spoken at all much less coherently with as anxious as she suddenly felt. She'd never considered her uncle being anything less than completely supportive. Not that it would change anything, but it would hurt for him to be against this.

As soon as she closed the door, she fired off the biggest questions in her head. "Do you think it's too soon to be engaged? Has Edward done something you don't like? Is this because you're with Esme?"

Carlisle smiled kindly and gently set his big hands on her shoulders, instantly calming some of her agitation. "Bella, it's not any of those things. I only need to make sure of something. I owe that to my brother and to you. I thought perhaps it would be easier for you to answer honestly without an audience."

"Oh. That makes sense. That makes a lot of sense especially since I start channeling Alice when I'm nervous and talk too much and too fast and—"

Carlisle chuckled as he gently squeezed her shoulders. "Breathe, Bug."

She nodded and did as he said.

"Now about Masen … How does he make you feel? Not about him. I know you love him. That has never been in doubt. What I need to know is how does he make you feel about yourself?"

She immediately thought of the proposal last night and the feelings she'd shared with Edward. She then thought of all the ways she'd changed and grown this summer. She also thought of her dad and her nightmares and how the two weren't synonymous anymore. Finally, she thought of the progress in her personal relationship with Edward, as well as the backtracks, and how they had worked together to straighten out the bumps they'd come across.

"He makes me feel loved in a way no one else ever has, and I strongly suspect no one else ever could. I feel valued, supported, and important. But my favorite has got to be how he makes me feel like I can accomplish anything with the right amount of training and help," she answered, surprised by the tears that accompanied her admission. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm crying."

Carlisle wrapped her up in his arms just the way her dad used to hold her when she was upset. "Bug, I love you so very much and I want the best for you in all things. Hearing that unsteady waiver leave your voice, seeing with my own eyes the return of your confidence and bravery—Just promise me that you won't stop reaching and dreaming. Promise you won't take his goals as your own and lay yours by the side."

"I promise. And besides, he would never let me."

"He's a good man, isn't he?"

"Very good. Far from the perfect he tries to be, but very good."

"Then I am happy for you and fully support the both of you. That being said, I'd also like to ruffle his feathers a bit. Charles would never forgive me if I didn't."

Bella giggled and hugged her uncle tighter. "Want some help?"

"I think I have things well in hand, but thank you for offering to be my partner in crime. Though, I would appreciate it if you held your smile for just a moment or two while I chat with Masen."

"I can do that," she assured him.

Carlisle leaned back to see her face clearly. "How did you grow into an adult so quickly? Seems only yesterday I was giving you your first driving lesson and now here you are engaged."

"Stupid shiny Volvo," Bella muttered, picturing the near perfect car with the dented back bumper courtesy of the extremely battered garage door.

He grinned. "Still holding on to it being the car's fault, I see."

"That car never ran right for me," she insisted. "Not like your Nissan GT-R."

"Should that be my wedding gift to you both?"

Bella studied her uncle's face closely. "Don't toy with me, Uncle Carl. Not about that car. And does it have to be at the time of the wedding?"

"I suppose it could be in celebration of a successful internship. Of course, you'll need to finish with no harm, no foul."

Bella squealed and threw her arms around her uncle's neck, hugging him hard. "You really are the best, you know."

"You and your sister make it easy for me."

"Dad would be proud of you, of the way you've raised us."

"Thank you, sweetheart. That means a great deal to know you feel that way."

"Of course I do. I love you, Uncle Carl."

"I love you too, Bug." He gave her a tight squeeze and then released her. "We better rejoin everyone. I suspect both Esme and Masen are rather antsy to know how our talk has gone."

"Alice too. She'll probably be vibrating with anticipation," Bella guessed.

"Only one way to find out," Carlisle replied as he opened the door and waved Bella ahead of him.

"~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^"

"What do you think is taking so long?" Masen asked, peering down the hall at the closed door of the TV room.

Whit responded with a question of his own. "Have you ever thought about how time is way more relative than solid?"

He turned his attention back to his two best friends. "What the fuck am I gonna do if he doesn't want her to marry me?"

"Then you'll change his mind," Lee said smoothly, as if it should have been obvious to him. "It's not like you were planning on tying the knot tomorrow so if it takes a couple months to get him on board, then that's no biggie."

"He's not going to tell her what to do," Whit assured him. "He's just going to do his fatherly duty and make sure she really wants to be married."

"Is it really about marriage, though? Or is it about me? Is it because of how I've screwed things up sometimes? I know he knows all about the incident at the Ocean Center and my behavior when I cut my hand. Hell, she's probably told him every big and little thing—the same as I've done with Esme."

"What about me?" Esme asked as she and Alice joined the trio at the table.

"Masen's worried Carlisle might be saying something to change Bella's answer," Whit shared.

Masen groaned. "Bro, really?"

"What? It's not like she doesn't already know you're overthinking the situation. She only has to look at that head of yours," Whit countered.

Masen immediately took his hands out of his hair and set them on the table.

Esme took one of his hands into both of hers and gave it a tight squeeze. "Just because you can imagine every possible scenario doesn't always mean you should."

The sound of the door opening had Masen jumping to his feet. Bella came into view first but he couldn't read her face like usual. She wasn't smiling or frowning so he had no idea how she might be feeling.

Carlisle and Bella came to a stop just a couple feet away with his hands resting on her shoulders. "You've asked my niece to marry you," he stated.

Masen looked to his mom, unsure of what to do and she mouthed 'be honest' to him. Good advice but it still didn't explain to him what this was. He met Carlisle's gaze and answered to the best of his ability. "I love her and would love to spend my life with her."

"I have a few questions for you."

"Ask me anything."

Carlisle's eyebrows lifted toward his hairline. "Anything infers no limit. Are you sure?"

Masen suddenly felt flushed and he could feel sweat trying to form on the back of his neck. No limits could lead to potential problems, but then again placing a limit could lead to suspicion. Carlisle had never seemed the type to pry but that was before Masen had put a ring on his niece's finger. And before the man had spent a large amount of uninterrupted time with Esme, the absolute queen of prying.

"Bella, you may want to take a seat," Carlisle suggested. "This may take some time."

Masen looked up to try to gauge her mood again but she didn't even look at him as she walked past and took his vacated seat.

"Masen, have you come to a decision?" Carlisle asked.

He shifted his gaze to Carlisle and said, "Anything works for me if it works for you."

"Are you aware that loving someone is only a small part of a marriage?"

"Yes, but it's the same for a relationship beforehand too. If you love them but don't say it or show it, then you might as well feel nothing because that's what they'll believe of you. Loving them isn't enough even if we wish it was. There has to be support and sometimes sacrifice and sometimes the really hard part where you have to say 'no' and hope like hell it's the right call and they'll see that someday."

Carlisle nodded in what Masen took as approval. "So then you feel you understand the meaning of marriage?"

A bead of sweat rolled its way down the middle of Masen's back as he licked his dry lips. "I—I don't think I can answer that. Marriage can be all kinds of things but it's mostly what you make of it with your partner. Bella and I are still learning what kind of couple we are together so there's not enough for me to make an informed guess on what marriage might be like."

Carlisle studied him, standing with one arm resting against his chest and the other sitting on top while he tapped his chin with the pad of his thumb. "If you're still learning, what makes you believe you're ready for the huge commitment of marriage?"

Masen scratched at his head, wondering that for himself for a moment. He thought back to when he'd first seen the ring on Bella's finger and the way he'd felt about it. "I don't believe commitment and marriage are one in the same. Commitment is the lengths you will go to, to protect the person you love and the connection you have together. It's personal and permanent. Marriage is the public action of letting the world know that these two people have teamed up to go through life together."

"Are you prepared for the work it takes to keep a marriage strong and happy for both partners?"

"It would be pretty arrogant of me to say 'yes' when I've already admitted to not knowing what kind of marriage we'll have. So instead I'll say that I'm prepared to do the work."

"Have you considered both the positive and negative impacts your marriage could have on your working relationship?"

"Yes and no," Masen admitted. He could feel the eyes of everyone at the table on him now and he swallowed thickly, wishing he'd asked for this conversation to be in private. He also wanted to wipe the sweat from his forehead but he felt like this was one of those times where showing he was sweating would be a bad move. "I could consider it. I could do it right now and come up with a variety of scenarios. But if I do that, I risk overthinking and that's when I tend to screw things up personally between us. So rather than letting my mind play out all the ways it could go, I'm trusting in how I know it can go. I've met a married research couple and they functioned just as smoothly on and off the boat. If they can, why can't we?"

"And if you can't, what do you choose? Should you be faced with choosing between your marriage and your career, which will you give your full focus?"

Masen gave in to the urge to clear the sweat from his forehead and then rubbed his hand against the side of his shorts. How the hell could he be expected to answer a question like that? And how did Carlisle know to ask the one question, the one scenario that had worried Masen so much when he'd first realized he was falling in love with Bella?

How the hell did he answer this time? He'd only recently come to believe he was capable of a relationship and that it could be just as important as his work. He didn't have enough data to answer logically.

What if he answered based on his feelings? If he said it would be his career, then he'd be a dick—and most likely lying based on how important Bella had become to him in such a short time. Spending years with her would only intensify his desire to never let her go. So then he should say it would be his marriage but what if it wasn't such a cut and dry decision and that became the lie?

Masen wiped more sweat from his forehead while continuing to wrack his brain for an honest answer.

"Carlisle, don't you think you're being—" Esme began.

"Let him answer. If he's truly serious about committing to and marrying my Bella, then I would like to hear his answer," Carlisle told her.

Masen felt something brush against his fingers and when he looked down he found Bella tangling her fingers with his. He lifted his eyes to her face and was greeted with her sweet smile and loving eyes. "I wouldn't," he whispered.

"What's that?" Carlisle questioned.

Masen tugged Bella up out of her seat and put an arm around her, anchoring her to his side—where he needed her and she belonged. He then faced Carlisle and gave his answer. "I wouldn't choose and not because I can't but because I won't. Because I would never make her choose. I would put my career on hold to fix my marriage and then when I was sure it was solid again that's when I would resume my work because it's part of who I am and I need it as much as I need her. It's the same for Bella."

Carlisle smiled at Bella and then offered his hand to Masen. "You have my blessing, son," he said as they shook. "I have every confidence you will be a dedicated partner to my Bella." He used his grip on Masen's hand to pull him forward, putting them face to face. "Hurt her in any way and you'll find I'm more dangerous than any shark. Do we have an understanding?"

"Yes, Sir."

Carlisle gripped Masen's shoulder with enough force to make him wince. "Glad to hear it."

Bella looked between the two men and giggled. "I so do love this family."

"Breakfast!" Gopher announced, walking over with a large tray in each hand.

"Perfect timing," Carlisle said as he stepped aside to let Gopher get to the table.

Masen leaned in to Bella and whispered, "He was right to ask those questions and look out for you, but he got one thing wrong."

"What's that?"

"You were his Bella but now you're my kapu."

Bella turned her head and gave his lips a quick kiss. "And don't you dare forget it." She then reclaimed her spot at the table and reached for one of Gopher's scratch biscuits, leaving Masen to wonder once again how the hell he'd gotten so lucky.

"~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^"

As soon as the daily report was finished for the day, and Bella and Gopher had left the office to make dinner, Lee and Whit closed the door and blocked it with their chairs.

Masen smirked. "You know I can still leave if I want, right?"

Lee and Whit smiled at each other while she said, "He's so cute when he doesn't want to admit he's cornered."

"Cute as a button," Whit joked.

They turned their heads in Masen's direction. "You owe us answers," they demanded.

He remembered their litany of questions from early this morning with perfect clarity. "I know I usually run any major life decisions by you guys first but this time it just didn't work out that way."

"Oh, please," Lee said with a snort.

"You believe this clown?" Whit asked her, jerking his thumb in Masen's direction. "He really thinks we didn't notice all the ways he was making permanent room for her in his life."

"Right!" Lee exclaimed. "Like that official, romantic, officially romantic date where he cooked and everything."

"Splitting his closet with her at the house, and his dresser and closet on the boat, despite all his bitching about her disorganization."

"Oh! Asking me to help him figure out the best way to schedule couple time for future trips."

"Sharing his realization that she doesn't have to like sharks to be as dedicated to the team as we are."

Masen rolled his eyes at them. "Are you two finished declaring how much attention you pay to my life?"

They shrugged. "We're good. For now."

He couldn't help laughing at their foolishness. "Fucking nudgers."

"Get busy answering our questions," Lee demanded.

"I seem to recall your next question being how long I'd been planning to ask her. There wasn't a plan for the asking, just a feeling that it needed to happen, that it was the right next step for us. And I didn't have that feeling all at once. It was more like we'd do something together and I'd have the thought that I could do this one thing forever with her because she made it so easy to be myself and be with her at the same time."

Whit sighed and looked to Lee. "Damn, he's prepared for us. I like it better when he has to think on his feet."

She snorted and shook her head at him. To Masen she said, "We can skip a couple of the questions. We know Esme didn't know and you didn't ask Carlisle ahead of time."

Whit sat up straighter in his chair. "Dude! Can we talk about how fucking smooth he was with Carlisle?"

"Right! I kept wanting to pinch myself because no way was this smooth talker our beautifully befuddled Masen."

"What I want to know is since you were so well prepared, why didn't you address the family as a whole?" Whit asked. "Why did you just wait to see if we would notice?"

"Bella and I had talked about how to tell everyone. We'd really thought Esme and Carlisle would be sleeping in since today was just a data day and we didn't want to wake them just to tell them. She suggested taking the ring off until we were all together but I vetoed that idea. After what I went through to get it on her finger, I wasn't about to let her take it off."

"What did happen?" Whit asked.

"Yeah, and you better have done more than just hand her the ring and say 'here'," Lee warned.

Masen busted out laughing, hardly surprised that Lee would echo Esme's sentiments. Those two were a lot alike, probably why he'd taken to Lee so damn fast in the first place.

"Esme?" Whit asked, looking amused.

Masen nodded.

"Get to the good stuff," Lee begged. "Tell us how you asked her."

"Don't you want to ask Bella?" Masen inquired. "I'm sure her telling will be flowery and romantic and whatever it is you're looking for."

"I'm looking to hear about my best friend committing himself to his kapu," Lee replied.

"So talk already," Whit prodded.

"Honestly," Masen said, his eyes darting between Whit and Lee. "It all started with another of my colossal fuck ups. I was having trouble coming up with ideas on how to ask her and I figured I needed some inspiration to get the ideas flowing. Bella was knocked out from everything that had happened yesterday so I thought I could put the ring on her finger for a moment and then put it away again without her ever knowing.

Whit interrupted with a snort. "I hear the dun-dun-dun of impending doom approaching this story."

Masen ignored him. "I was getting ready to take it off when she suddenly jerked awake, needing to go to the bathroom. Naturally, she was shocked and confused by having a ring on her finger but she still had to go to the bathroom so I took the ring off and she went, giving me a few minutes to try to come up with a plan to keep my fuck up from spiraling out of control."

Lee chuckled behind her hands for a moment before saying, "Masen, I love you with all my heart, but sweetie, you are just so spastic with your personal life that I wouldn't believe it was real if I hadn't witnessed it first-hand."

Whit came to Masen's defense. "He is getting better, though. He's figuring out he fucked up on his own without us having to explain where he went wrong."

"This is true," Lee agreed. "I guess Bella's ire is a hell of a lot scarier than any of us getting annoyed with him."

"You two are making jokes but when that woman is pissed, she is absolutely scary," Masen confided. "She has this way of being calm and truthful that makes your wrongs glaringly obvious to you and leaves you feeling guilty as hell."

"Did she make you feel that way about the ring?" Lee questioned.

"No, not at all," he assured her. "When she came back down, she was stressed but not angry. She just wanted to know why there had been a ring on her finger. I ended up taking her into the nest since that's kind of become our place to talk things over. I told her I wanted to give her forever but that I'd understand if that wasn't what she wanted. Lucky for me, she said that's exactly what she wanted, that she loves me the same deep way I love her and that we're better people together."

Whit and Lee looked at each other and nodded. "We can't argue with that," he said to Masen.

"And we honestly really love it," Lee added. "Masen, seeing you truly happy and watching you grow with her—It stung at first. It did. But not for a second did we ever want anything less than your complete happiness and for you to experience love in the way we've been blessed to know."

"No matter what the rest of the world saw when they looked at you, we've always seen who you are at your core, in your heart," Whit shared. "That's why we're so damn loyal to you and why we love you and consider you our family. Bella feels the same with the added bonus of truly, deeply loving you and she wants to build an entire life with you. Bro, that's so fucking cool and amazing. We support you guys completely and we're always right here to help in any way we can."

Lee nodded in agreement. "We're still your best friends. The only change this engagement brings to our family is drawing us all in closer. And honestly, we would have kicked your ass had you even tried to let Bella go at the end of the summer. We love her too."

"It's weird, right?" Masen asked, looking between his two friends. "We met this stranger at the end of May and here we are not quite three months later and we all love her. Hell, I'm engaged to her. I'm going to spend forever with this woman and I'm fucking excited about it! As excited as I've been for every new shark encounter since we started our company."

"There it is," Lee said through her sniffles while wiping at her eyes. "That's how things change."

"For the better," Whit continued with a nod of agreement. "You finally have a satisfying personal life to go with your fulfilling professional career."

Masen stood and waved his friends over. As the three of them stood hugging in the small office, he was reminded of a similar hug on a wide stretch of beach under a hot summer sun—the day they'd chosen MMR as their shared future. Now they were all starting to walk new paths on that same road and they were still walking it together. That not only made Masen a lucky man, that made him a man with help always a word away. And it was the same for Whit and Lee; all they had to do was say the word and he'd be there for them.

"~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^"

"How long do you think he'll make them wait before he cracks and talks?" Bella asked Gopher as she watched him slide the casserole dish into the oven.

Gopher chuckled. "Depends on how patient Lee is feeling."

"If he was my best friend, I'd want to know right away," Alice confided. "Hey, now that dinner prep is over, can I steal Bella away?"

"I don't know," Gopher said he as he put his arm around Bella's shoulders. "Depends on if Guppy wants to be stolen."

"Yeah, what's in it for me to allow my capture?" Bella teased.

Alice nervously fidgeted with her fingers. "A family meeting with Uncle Carl." She cut her eyes to Bella's left hand resting on the counter. "We've got some big things to discuss."

"Sorry, Guppy. No saves allowed from family stuff," Gopher said as he took his arm away.

Bella sighed. "Okay, fine. But the meeting can only last the twenty minutes until dinner is ready."

"These are important life decisions, Bella," Alice argued.

"Twenty minutes," Bella urged, linking her arm with Alice's.

They headed downstairs to collect Carlisle and then went back upstairs to have their family meeting in the TV room.

"We haven't had a family meeting since just before Bella left for the internship," Carlisle mentioned as he settled into the recliner, leaving the loveseat for his nieces.

"That was a whole other life ago, Uncle Carl," Alice replied.

"You say that like you have something against our new one," Bella pointed out.

Alice shook her head. "No, I just mean that so much has happened since then. Uncle Carl is dating Esme. You're engaged to Masen. I'm in a relationship with Whit. Things are really different."

"Except for how much we love and support each other," Carlisle reminded her.

"And that's why I need to talk to you guys," Alice segued. "Supporting each other has always been something we're really good at and it's something I hope never changes between us."

Bella rubbed Alice's shoulder to comfort her. "I know it's been a whirlwind summer with lots of changes, but I promise we're still just as close of a family as we've always been."

"Bella's right, Alice. Our new bonds with Esme, Masen, Whit, Gopher, and Lee have given us a new family dynamic but our old one is still there too."

"Good. That's good," Alice replied.

When she didn't say anything else, Carlisle gently prodded her. "Please tell us what's on your mind."

"Whatever it is, we want to know," Bella assured her.

Alice smiled gratefully. "You probably think it's about Masen and the engagement but it's not. I know that surprises you because it surprises me too. But seeing how happy he was this morning when you guys told us about the engagement—Bella, he loves you beyond logic and that's permanent for a guy like him. And since you're a permanent kind of gal yourself, I think it's right for you guys."

"Thank you, Ali."

"That was very sweet of you, Alice. Surprising and wonderfully sweet."

Alice blushed and then dove right in to her reason for calling a meeting. "And now to the actual matter of the hour. My fall semester is set in stone so of course I'm going home in just a few days to move into my room at the sorority house and to handle my sister duties and to start my classes. It's going to be a busy semester but that's good because it means it'll pass quickly. But first I have to go home. Whit's offered to come with me to see me settled in but I don't want to take him away from the team. I mean, technically I leave after the last work day but I know the team needs to pack up and then sail home. Is sailing the right word for this boat? Sailing seems like it needs sails. Cruising? Is that it?"

"It's sailing, sweetheart," Carlisle answered. "Now get back to your schooling please."

"Right. School. So fall semester is set. But spring? I could stay where I am in Florida. I'd be surrounded by sorority sisters and I could fly out to Hawaii to visit everyone on every break. But! I could also transfer to a school in Hawaii. My major is business so that's easily transferable. Minus a few cores maybe but all the same not that big of a transition. I could live on campus so I wouldn't be in anyone's hair."

Bella had been trying not to laugh from the sailing bit but she couldn't hold it in after listening to Alice's innocent housing suggestion. "You could live on campus but you'll be found wherever Whit is hanging."

"Not always," Alice argued. "Sometimes he'll be doing guy stuff with Masen and I won't be around for that. And I will have homework too. School isn't any less important just because I've finally gotten to meet my soulmate."

"Soulmate?" Carlisle choked out. "When did you reach this conclusion?"

Alice blushed. "Pretty much from the moment I laid eyes on him."

"Alice, I don't—"

She cut him off quickly and with a rapid fire response. "I'm not a little kid anymore and if you didn't give Bella a hard time for being engaged after only knowing Masen for a few months then you can't say anything about me dating Whit just because I called him my soulmate which he totally is no matter what but you can't hold that against him or me. You can't decide who you fall for or who falls for you because if so then I would've been dating Liam Hemsworth and how awkward would that have been to date him and dream of Whit and then meet Whit and have Liam waiting back home or—"

Bella cut her off by calling her name loudly, knowing her sister would go on and on if not stopped. "Focus!"

Alice took a few seconds to just breathe and calm down. "I love Whit and he's my soulmate and that's that."

"Had you not cut me off or tried to fill the air with nearly all the words in the English language, you'd know I wasn't about to say anything against your relationship with Whit," Carlisle admonished. "I was going to say that your schooling is for you and I don't think you should base it on anyone else's preferences. While Bella and I would certainly want you to be near us, we also want to see you fulfill all of your dreams. If that requires you to remain in Florida, then so be it. It's not as if our home there is going anywhere. From what I know of Whit so far, I believe he would tell you the same, that he supports your dreams."

"He does, Uncle Carlisle," Alice promised. "It was his idea to fly home with me. And don't be afraid of me calling him my soulmate. We're not anywhere near where Bella and Masen are in their relationship so there won't be a proposal popping up anytime soon."

"I'm not afraid of your use of soulmate, nor of Bella's engagement," Carlisle assured his nieces. "You two have always run on your own schedules, always different and always just right for yourselves. I will ask questions to help you be sure of your choices but I will never attempt to decide for you."

Alice fidgeted as she looked between her uncle and sister. "I guess I'm just nervous that I'll go away for this semester and you guys will be in Hawaii without me, having these lives that won't include me."

"Alice, don't be silly," Bella said as she wrapped her arms around her little sister. "Whether it's a few months separation or the next few years, you will still be a huge part of our lives. You're my sister. That doesn't change with distance."

"But I can't plan your wedding from Florida," Alice whined.

"Good because you're not going to plan my wedding. You can help me select some small things but that's it and it's not happening right now. There's no timeline on our engagement. When Edward and I decide we're ready to seriously discuss the details of a marriage, I'll make sure you're the first person I call. Until then, put it out of your mind."

"Bella is right, sweetheart. School should be your main focus for now," Carlisle encouraged.

Alice twisted to look directly at Bella. "You promise, promise, promise you won't get married while I'm away at school?"

Bella chuckled and hugged her little sister tightly. "I promise, you bubbly nut."

"I love you with all my heart, Bella."

"Love you too, Ali."

Alice pulled away from the hug and smiled. "So it's decided then. I'm gonna head home soon for school. Once I'm settled, I'll look at all the colleges in Hawaii and then I'll weigh all my options. When I know for sure what I want to do for the spring semester, I'll let you both know."

"That sounds like a very mature and responsible plan, Alice," Carlisle commended.

She shrugged. "I made commitments to my school and my sorority sisters. I have to see those through no matter what."

"It won't be that bad, Alice," Bella promised. "You'll have phone calls and video chats with all of us. And the fall semester has the Thanksgiving break and the long Christmas break."

"Whit's welcome to accompany Esme and me when we return to Florida in a few weeks for the next round of interviews. It will only be a few days but I'm confident you'll make the most of it."

Alice hopped up and went to Carlisle, giving him a huge hug and loud kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. You are absolutely totally the best uncle ever and I'd say that even if you hadn't just offered to bring Whit to see me."

"Certainly," Carlisle replied, laughing and patting her arm.

Alice released him and launched herself at Bella, tackling her sister into the cushions and making them both giggle. "I love you and I love having you as my big sister."

"How do you feel about having Edward as a brother-in-law?"

Alice gave her lemon-sucking expression. "It could work."

Bella cracked up laughing at her sister.

"Sweetheart, that is not a convincing tone," Carlisle said as he let out a laugh of his own. "You're going to need to work on that."

Alice sighed and climbed off of her sister. "Are you guys sure you're going to be okay without me?"

"Ali, we're not really going to be without you," Bella assured her. "And really, could you pick anyone better than Esme to watch over us for you?"

"She does have that take-charge way about her," Alice allowed. "And honestly if she can keep Masen in line then you two will be a piece of cake."

Carlisle and Bella looked to each other and then started laughing at Alice's comment.

Bella threw her arms around Alice and hugged her tight. "You're a fun girl, Ali. Don't ever let anyone tell you different."

"Why would they?"

Carlisle stood and Bella could tell from the creases around his eyes that he was fighting not to laugh again. "I am officially calling this family meeting a success and ending it in favor of the mouth-watering dinner I've been smelling for the past few minutes."

"Wait! One more thing!" Alice called out as she hopped off the loveseat. "When can we go see Mom? We usually do it over the summer but for obvious reasons we didn't. She'll be expecting us. And we have so much to tell her this year, especially about Bella and Masen."

Bella instantly felt miserable. Telling your mother about the man you loved should be something wonderful. Talking to your mother at all should be—but it wasn't. In fact, no one was sure anymore how much Renee Cullen actually understood. And yet Alice's belief that things would get better never seemed to waiver. For her part, Bella liked the idea that her mother could have a good reaction to hearing her daughter's name but she didn't expect it to happen. Too many years had passed without any sign of improvement from Renee.

Carlisle set his hands on Alice's shoulders, looking her directly in the eyes. "Sweetheart, if you want me to take you to see your mom, I will gladly schedule that with you around your classes."

"Maybe for the first part of my Thanksgiving break," Alice suggested. "I'm sure you want to be with Esme on the actual holiday so maybe that weekend before."

"I'll contact my cousins and make the arrangements," Carlisle promised.

"Bella? You'll come too, right?" Alice questioned.

Bella honestly considered it for a moment but her gut instinct was that it was a bad idea. "Not this time, Ali. I'm going to be swamped with so many things. But Uncle Carl will be there with you and I bet Whit would go if you asked him."

"She does love you." Alice had been insisting that from many years now and Bella never attempted to dissuade her from believing it.

Bella was saved from responding by a knock on the door. It swung open and Gopher filled the doorway. "Come on, Cullen Clan. It's a snooze you lose kind of night so you better get out here and fix your dinner plate."

Alice immediately followed Gopher out of the room but Carlisle made sure that Bella hung back.

"Alice is the eternal optimist in our family," Carlisle told her.

"I know."

"You have no reason to feel guilty, Bug. Your relationship with Renee—you didn't choose for it to be fractured."

In the past it had been guilt Bella felt—guilt for taking her father away from everyone. But now that she knew she'd done her best to save her father, it wasn't guilt she felt about her mother. It was anger that she would take the easy and selfish way out of the pain, leaving her two young daughters alone in their grief. If Carlisle hadn't stepped in—but he had and that was the bright side Bella held in her heart.

"Bella?"

"It's not guilt I'm feeling," she confided. "It's anger. For the first time I'm feeling angry at her. She pushed me away. She pushed us all away. She went inside herself and she stayed there. She's still there. And I know in my head that I should pity her and wish the best for her but right now I'm just really pissed off. I should be able to gush to her about Edward and show her my beautiful ring and tell her about the future he and I are going to build together. Losing Daddy wasn't our choice but losing us was hers."

"I understand your anger. To be perfectly honest, I've shared in your anger many times. The thing to remember is that the anger does us no good. What we have to do instead is throw our full focus into what's right in front of us. Charlie and Renee are not here and that, to borrow one of your phrases, suck's major ass. But, sweetheart, I am here for you and Esme is here. I know we're not the same and we're probably poor substitutes at times, but we are here."

Bella's heart rate kicked up as she heard the underlying message in her uncle's words. "You two are really permanent. You're committed."

"We are," he admitted. "I've finally found the woman who makes me want for nothing more than her company. Well that's not entirely true. I would very much like to gift her a ring and marry her, make it an officially permanent partnership between us."

Bella smiled with complete happiness for her uncle as she threw her arms around him in a hug. "That would be lovely."

"Keep this between us for now, Bug?" Carlisle questioned.

"I know nothing," she answered with a grin.

"That's my girl." He placed a tender kiss on her forehead and then they headed off to join their 'ohana for dinner.

"~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^"

Freshly showered and feeling wide awake, Bella's book didn't hold the appeal it had earlier when she'd been tired and ready to crawl under the covers. She headed instead to the office to check on Edward and his progress in deciphering the tag data from the male great white they'd tagged yesterday afternoon.

Edward was still hunched over his desk just as he'd been when she'd checked on him before her shower. There was one difference, though. Instead of the two books he'd been poring over earlier, he now had four stretched open across the desk. He had one pen clamped between his teeth, another peeking out of his hair from behind his ear, and a third in his hands scratching furiously across the legal yellow notepad he preferred for his note taking.

He suddenly stopped writing and dropped the pens from his lips and hand to the desk. He leaned back in his chair as far as it would go, stretching his arms out in front of him and linking his fingers together to crack his knuckles. She bit back a giggle when the pen behind his ear tumbled out of his hair and onto the floor. He didn't hear it land because of the huge yawn he let out.

"You look like a man in need of a break," she told him.

He grinned and turned his head toward her. "That your professional opinion?"

"Personal too," she answered, smiling right back. "Let's go up and get some fresh air."

"A quick break," he said as he got to his feet.

They stopped off in the kitchen to grab a snack and then headed to the viewing deck, squeezing in together on the love seat.

"Cheese sticks in the moonlight. We do taking a break right, kapu."

She laughed at his comment. "Oh, hey! How did the interrogation with Whit and Lee go?"

Edward snorted. "Interrogation. What an interesting word choice."

"Well we both know how it went down. They asked questions, you pretended for a moment as though you weren't going to answer, and then you spilled your guts to your two best friends."

He looked absolutely incredulous. "Wow."

"Oh come on," she said, nudging his knee with her own. "It's not like I said something that wasn't true."

"Why don't we talk about you instead? How did your talk with your sister go?"

"Deflection is a weird response."

"Ain't it though?" he countered with a sly smile.

She waited for him to focus on his cheese stick and then she made her move. She quickly twisted her body and tossed her leg over his hips while pushing herself up so that she was sitting on him with her knees pushed into the cushions to lock him down. Of course she realized he could easily move her but she had a feeling he wouldn't.

"If you ever want to get back to your research, you're going to have to answer my questions," she told him.

He chuckled as his hands gripped her hips. "Pretty sure you promised not to derail me from my research."

"And you promised to communicate with me. I believe we've reached our first quandary as an engaged couple."

That comment had him belly laughing.

She leaned in close enough to kiss him but kept her lips from his. "Tell me."

"Kiss me."

She wanted too—badly—which she was sure he already knew based on the hungry look in his green eyes. She tried to sit up but his arm resting on her back kept her in place. "No because we'll get lost in the kissing and then it'll be time for you to get back to work and I still won't know how your talk with your friends went."

"One kiss," he coaxed, holding her tighter against his chest. "You know you want to."

"One," she managed to get out before he claimed her lips and tongue. She didn't want to get lost in the kiss but at the same time she didn't want it to end. There was just something about being able to feel how much he wanted her from just his kisses that she found wholly addictive.

His lips finally left hers but it obviously wasn't to let her breathe since they zeroed in on one of those spots on her neck that seemed to exist for the sole purpose of letting him cause her heart to try to jump up out of her chest.

His warm breath caressing her ear caused her to shiver. "I shouldn't be kissing you."

Her fingers wrapped around his unruly locks, holding his lips against her skin. "Yeah … questions … soon."

He chuckled and then brushed his lips against another of those invisible spots. "That's not why. It's because you were mean to me."

She frowned, having no idea what he was talking about. "Mean how?"

He hummed against her collar bone. "I almost believe you're innocent." His lips disappeared and she opened her eyes to find him grinning at her. "Almost. In fact, you probably would have gotten away with it if you hadn't been so quiet."

"What do you mean?" she asked, honestly not knowing.

"You would never have sat back and silently condoned the grilling Carlisle gave me if you hadn't known it was coming. You would have stepped in and took up for me, just like you did all those times Alice tore into me."

Her face flamed with guilt and she dropped her eyes from his. "I uh … Okay, I did but, Edward, he said he owed it to my dad. What was I supposed to do?"

He gently lifted her chin until she was looking at him. "I'm not mad. Hell, I would have done the same if it had been Esme asking me to keep quiet. I just wanted you to know that I know so you don't get it into your head that you can fool me."

She rolled her eyes at his bravado. "Your modesty knows no bounds."

He let loose a loud snort. "Neither does your sarcasm."

She shrugged. "Like I said, we make a hell of a team."

"And there's your answer to my talk with Whit and Lee. I told them you and I are a team on and off the boat, and that we want it to stay that way permanently. They're happy for us, just like they told you this morning."

"They can be happy for us and still be concerned for you that you're rushing into this."

"Not those two," he assured her. "The nudgers were quick to point out all the things I'd done lately that they'd taken as signs I was making permanent room for you in my life. According to them, the only surprise was my coherent answers to your uncle's questions."

"How did you do that? How did you answer so smoothly?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe because I didn't stop to think before I answered him. I just said what I was feeling, especially when he asked me to choose between you and my career."

"That was a great answer, by the way. I wouldn't want to be faced with having to let go of you or my dreams. And honestly, the two are so tied now that I don't think it's possible."

"It would be hard, but you would manage it. You have enough bravery to overcome any shake in your confidence, whether I'm there to encourage you or not."

"I know but it means more when you're there. It feels like a shared accomplishment. I'm all for making a name for myself and achieving all my individual goals, but it's also really nice to be able to share with someone. I think that's another area where we're similar. We can be just fine on our own but sometimes we do need company."

His lips curled into a sly grin. "So when are you going to keep me company in the cage again?"

"That is an interesting question. And one that I don't currently have an answer for. Overall it was a good dive, and I definitely captured the best picture of the day, but the idea of being face to face with another angry shark so soon—I'm not ready."

He lifted her hands and slipped his fingers between hers. "It's amazing how far you've come this summer. You went from not being able to say 'shark' to finally saying exactly how you feel without apology. With your fear under control, your potential for growth has no boundaries."

She chuckled at that. "My potential might not but I sure do. And right now, my boundary is the sides of this boat."

"Then that's what it is for now. You'll let me know when you change your mind." He glanced at his watch and then released her hands. "I need to get back to work so I can finish before I take over at the helm."

"Okay but I need to let you know about one more thing first. Alice wants to plan our wedding."

It took him a moment to react and she figured he was probably hoping he hadn't heard those words in that order. "No. In fact, hell no. Not happening."

"Hang on—"

"You've seen what she did to her shirt and my puppy's collar. She's not getting her bubbly, bedazzling self anywhere near our wedding. The planning part. Of course she'll be at the wedding."

"If you stop freaking out for a second, I could tell you I agree she shouldn't plan the wedding all on her own. But I think it could be good for her is she's allowed to offer up suggestions here and there on some of the small stuff, if there is small stuff."

"Do you want a big wedding with lots of 'small stuff'?"

"Not really. I would compromise on that if it was something you wanted."

He took her left hand into his and ran his thumb over her ring. "I just want you and our family there. And of course anyone you want there."

"Jacob and Leah for sure."

"Maybe send an invite to Angela and Ben too?"

"I love that idea but we'd have to have a solid date set before asking them so they'll know if they'll be able to attend or if they'll be at sea. Since picking a date is pretty important, I think we should wait until we're at least a little settled. Maybe figure out our living arrangements first."

"Do you think you'll need to spend a lot of time back home getting ready to move?"

"Not really. I'm not planning to pack my entire room. I want to leave my stuff for when I'm home visiting friends. Or even visiting Carlisle and Esme when he needs to be home for his work." She brightened up as she imagined Jacob and Edward meeting for the first time. "I can't wait for you to meet Jacob. He still doesn't completely believe you're real. Or at least that your career is real."

Edward snorted. "I'm happy to prove its realness to him."

"Down, mano," Bella chuckled, patting his pile of hair. "Besides, I'm pretty sure the only thing Jacob's going to be interested in is hearing about the waves at your home."

"As much as I enjoy our expeditions, it's going to be nice to get back to a regular surfing schedule."

"Are you guys going to try to get some surfing in before we leave the area?"

"Probably. We'll have three days off to pack everything up for the trip home so we can hopefully work some in during that time period. And hopefully I can be the one to get you on a board this time."

"We'll see." She moved off of him and said, "Now it's time for you to get back to work."

He got to his feet and then held his hand out to her. "It's time for you to sleep too. We have a big day tomorrow and you need to be alert since you'll be a lookout for the cage dives."

"It's not that late," she countered as she let him pull her to her feet. "I could help with your research for a bit first."

"I appreciate the offer but I'll work faster on my own since I'm not completely sure what I'm looking for yet."

"You know where to find me if you change your mind," she said as they approached the kitchen island. "Good luck with your work. I'm going to make myself some tea before I head to bed."

He turned to face her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "One quick question before we say goodnight."

She grinned as she set her arms on his shoulders and locked her hands together behind his neck. "Sure thing. We'll have BLTs for lunch tomorrow."

"What?"

"Weren't you going to ask me when I could bake bacon for you again?"

He laughed and leaned down to kiss her lips. "I love you, you ridiculous woman."

"I love you, too, you ridiculous man." She kissed him again and then forced herself to let go of him. "Get to work."

"Just a second." He quickly pulled her to him before she could resist and laid a kiss on her that had her knees weak and her heart thumping. "Night, kapu."

She could only nod in response, a reaction he found so amusing that he chuckled all the way out of sight. "Ass," she murmured to herself, knowing full well she wouldn't want him to be any other way.

"~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^"

A/N: Edward came to South Africa in search of sharks. He's leaving with a future with Bella. He's right – he is a very lucky man :)

There's a photo of the ring and music box over at masenmarineresearch -dot- blogspot -dot- com

We hope you all enjoyed Edward's unconventional proposal as much as we did!