Okay, I am VERY sorry that I haven't been updating, but now that I have basically read EVERY fanfiction that there is-which was the cause of my absence-I will hopefully be able to type more. I now have 344 pages currently written, but only the first 18 typed. So, read and review. Oh and a shout-out to my friend, ErraticMarauder!!!!

Oh and I am now holding a trivia contest, so look for the questions at the bottoms of chapters!

I nodded as she pulled me away from Edward. We walked to the front door, and she stepped onto the porch.

There was an awkward silence as she dug her hands into the pockets of her blue-jeans and I twisted the diamond ring around my finger.

"Uh, so, what did you want to talk to me about?" I asked. The finger with my ring on it was starting to get irritated.

"I know I shouldn't be ruining your night like this, but-" she patted my shoulder maternally-"How do you plan on breaking this to your parents? I mean, you were hesitant last time because of Renee, weren't you? I know this was more… intriguing, but have you considered that your mother may still stand the same?"

Uh-oh. "I didn't think about it. I was just so overwhelmed tonight-so eager-I didn't even think about not accepting. I suppose that was my problem last time." I really did trust Esme more than I thought I did. Out of all of the Cullens, Rosalie was the only one I knew less than my second mother, soon to be mother-in-law, my brain reminded me, making my stomach flip. "I guess my mom will just have to live with it. But Charlie…" I sighed.

No matter what Charlie said this afternoon about it being my choice, I didn't think he really expected me to go and get engaged two hours later.

"He's been taken care of." Even though it had only been a minute or two since I had heard it last, Edward's voice melted my heart as he spoke. The voice of my fiancé. Whoa, that would take some getting used to. He closed the door behind himself as he walked out to meet us.

"Wha-" I asked, slightly dazed.

"All that talk, before you left… that was a setup. O asked his permission yesterday. He seemed reluctant at first, but eventually he saw that I was serious about loving you, and was convinced. That and Alice helped him understand that I would never do you wrong again." Oh, Charlie had always had a soft spot where Alice was concerned. What man wouldn't, and Charlie was only human. "Of course," Edward took my hand in his, letting my fingers fall through his, "I never expected the whole Jacob-" he snarled subconsciously-"thing to occur, but Charlie seemed to recover nicely."

Jacob? Oh no, I hadn't thought about Jacob, yet, either. What was this going to do to him? That's when I realized just how many little obstacles stood in our way. We had known the big things, like mortality and predator/prey relations, but how many people frowned upon this? More than I had realized, apparently.

"Well, you two had better get going. I will see you later." Esme winked at me and retreated into the house.

"That was an oddly pointless conversation." I willed myself not to look confused.

Edward said nothing as we went to the car. Nor did he look me in the eye. Every now and then, he would squeeze my hand, but he never pulled me closer than two feet away. So different was this treatment from the one on the way in that it scarred me. Had I done something wrong?

We made it to the car in silence. He opened my door and when I fumbled over the belt-buckle, he grinned and leaned over to help. For a second, I thought we were past whatever was bothering him, but the smile didn't reach his eyes, it didn't even reach close to trying to. Still, he said nothing.

As we drove down the twisting lane, I turned my new ring around and around my finger, admiring it from every angle. Was this a mistake? I thought he wanted to get married to make us closer, but it didn't seem to be. Maybe he had only shown so much affection to me because he wanted to be able to keep me, now that I had agreed to be his forever, it didn't matter so much. No! This was Edward, I was thinking about. But this explained a lot. Like why he loved me in the first place.

A single tear ran down my left cheek, the cheek closest to Edward.

"Having second thoughts?" His tone was light, but his eyes didn't match. They were dark, protective, and stationary. Still, his tone of voice convinced me for at least the moment that he loved me.

I didn't answer. I just sighed. I didn't want him to see the doubt in my eyes.

"So," He let go of my hand, making my heart fall to my navel, before realizing that he let it go to play with my hair. I forgot all about the fear of doing something to cause the silence. "You never really answered my question about the sudden change of heart." Finally, he looked into my eyes.

Did I really have to breathe?

"Was it the ring?" I may not have been able to read his mind, but I was pretty sure that he was thinking that if the answer to that question was yes, then he was now aloud to buy m expensive gifts, something I had and would never let him do.

"In your dreams," I teased. "I am pretty sure that it was just the officiality of this time. Last time, you didn't get down on one knee, or-" I paused to wipe away a fresh wave of tears.

He leaned into me to wipe one out of the corner of my eye the corner of my eye that I had missed. Then with the other he patted my leg. Why had I ever doubted his love? How stupid could I be?

Still, I hated it when he wasn't paying any attention to the road.

The hand in my leg moved to the seat-belt lock and clicked it. He slid the belt back into the slot above my right shoulder.

"What are you doing?" I asked, voice coated with pure terror. Bad luck tended to pick on me, but who was to say that I didn't welcome it by being in a car, going at speeds of one-hundred miles an hour, no seat-belt on. It was a disaster in the making.

"Bella," My name in his velvet voice sounded like song. "Would I ever let anything happen to you?" His breath overtook the part of me that had witnessed all of the destruction in the past year.

He slid his icy arm behind my back and turned my waist.

"AAHH!" He laughed at my panic. My shoes hit the window, as he pulled my head to rest on his lap.

I waited for more panic to set in, but I was entirely too comfortable laying in Edward's lap. I knew he would never let me get hurt.

I tried to remember how to get my breath to back to a normal pace, as he traced random lines over my face.

I gasped inwardly as I recognized three symbols: an 'I,' an unmistakable heart, and a definite 'U.'

I sat up as straight as I could through the arm-rest. I reached out my hand to his face, pulled him closer, and leaned in so that our lips touched for a few seconds that went far too quickly.

"Goodness, Bella, sometimes I really don't know you." He laughed his loud, resonating, bark of a beautiful laugh. "One minute, you tell me not to go above speeds of thirty, and keep both hands on the wheel and eyes on the road, then the next, you kiss me while I am doing over a hundred!"

I grimaced. "Sorry, I will make sure that doesn't happen again."

He stuck his tongue out at me. Even at this my heart jumped.

Of course he heard it; that was lady luck slapping me across the face. "What are we going to do with you Bella?" He chuckled lightheartedly.

I was so distracted that I only realized that I wasn't at my house when we parked and I saw that we were surrounded by two sides of woods, one of a trail, and one of road.

"Huh?" I asked. It was a moment before I realized where we were. I recognized the trail, yet never knew where it had led. We were going through the thick forest. "But you already asked me…" This was the forest that led to our meadow.

"And so that means that we can't celebrate it?" He grinned and beckoned me towards him.

I climbed on his back, and he ran.

Exhilarating wasn't enough to described the feeling of the wind in my hair, billowing in my clothing, cold amidst the hot days. I screamed with non-exhilaration or whatever it was, laughing as I did so.

I stroked his bronze-tinted hair, kissing behind his ear, taking in the aroma of his neck. I was no vampire, not wanting to bite into him, but I felt like kissing just wasn't enough.

Before I knew it, we were there. In the meadow. He hadn't been lying about the hundreds of tiny Christmas-lights.

He let me down near a table, on which was a battery powered CD player. Edward walked over to the table and hit the 'play' button.

My lullaby started playing. I wrinkled my nose. The CD player didn't do Edward's piano playing any justice whatsoever.

"Sorry." He apologized.

He took my hand and waist.

"Edward, we've been through this before, I can't dance." I complained childishly as I realized what he was doing. But even as I protested, my hips subconsciously started to sway to the music.

"Yes, and we also went through the fact that I can." He smiled my favorite crooked smile. How could I argue?

Hope you enjoyed it!!!

Well, here is the question: What is Phil and Renee's last name?

The first person to guess gets a shout-out and a pat on the head! But seriously, PLEASE try!