Yay! Make sure to read the note at the bottom—its important.

Disclaimer: I don't own twilight. Really. I don't.

Chapter 26

"What do you think of this place for our wedding?" he asked. I closed my eyes and tried to picture it. Me, wearing a white wedding dress. Edward, looking perfect as always, in a tuxedo. The clearing adorned with flowers. Edward and my family, together, watching Edward and I take our vows.

"It's perfect," I finally said. Edward smiled.

"I think so too."

Edward and I sat on the stone bench for another immeasurable moment. A while later, I heard someone approach us. Edward and I both opened our eyes and looked up. It was Alice, and she was in awe. She looked around at the clearing, and then ran over to us.

"This place is perfect," she breathed, still trying to take in the beauty of the clearing.

"Bella and I think so too," Edward said. Alice walked over to the gazebo and closed her eyes. Then she turned around so her back was to the gazebo, and closed her eyes once more. After doing this in each direction, she walked back over to us.

"What were you just doing, Alice?" I asked.

"I was picturing how this place would look for your wedding. I was thinking that you could put the chairs here," she walked over to the middle of the clearing and gestured around her, "and then the aisle could be here," she made a line down the center of the clearing to the gazebo. "You could say your vows in the gazebo," she said as she walked over to it. "What do you think?"

Edward and I looked at each other, and both nodded.

"Sounds good," I said. Alice walked back over to the middle of the clearing and started talking to herself. She was pointing at random places in the grass and kept closing her eyes like she was deep in thought.

"Alice, I don't think we're going to need that many chairs," Edward said. I realized that he must have known what Alice was doing all along.

"What?" Alice said, looking surprised.

"Well, Bella and I were talking about it, and we both agree that a smaller wedding would be better," he said. I nodded, remembering the conversation we had on Wednesday on the way to school in the morning.

Alice looked shocked. "A...small...wedding...?" she stammered. Edward and I nodded simultaneously. Alice looked like her world had been turned upside down. "Um...if that's...really what you...want..." she said. She still looked very shocked, and I laughed.

"Sorry to ruin all your fun, Alice," I said, "but it's what we both want. Maybe just your family, my family, and some people from school," I said. "And then whoever else Edward wants to invite."

"I was thinking that maybe we would want to invite the Denali coven. We haven't seen them in a long time," Edward said.

"Um...alright..." Alice said. She composed herself, then said, "Well, should we go back home and we can make the guest list?"

"Sure," I said. Edward gestured for me to climb on his back, and I did. I wrapped my arms tightly around him again, and he began running.

Edward's POV

We arrived back at my house a few minutes later. I loosened Bella's grip around me and set her down on the ground. As much as I enjoyed her touch, it was very difficult to have her that close to me. Yes, it was always difficult, but this was one of the times when it was more difficult than usual. You would think that her scent wouldn't be as powerful because of the wind rushing by, but the wind didn't seem to affect it at all. Whenever she rode on my back as I ran, I had to remember to think very hard about something else, or just to not breathe. Usually the second option worked better than the first.

Bella and I followed Alice up to her room. I kept a firm grip on Bella's hand the whole time. It was amazing that when I touched her, I still felt sparks between us. I don't know if she felt it any more, but I always did. As we were walking upstairs, I couldn't help but stare at Bella. There was something about her today that was exceptionally beautiful. Maybe it was just the fact we were planning our wedding, and that just made me happy. I'm not really sure. All I know is that I stared at her the whole time we were walking up to Alice's room.

"What?" Bella said as she saw me staring at her.

"It's just...you look very beautiful today," I said. Bella smiled and looked like she was glowing.

Suck up. Alice thought to me. I laughed.

"Alice, why would I suck up to my fiancée?" I asked her.

Because you're a stupid, romantic, lovesick vampire.

"Well, I should be lovesick, shouldn't I? I am getting married in a few weeks."

Yes, well, that doesn't mean you have to go and woo your fiancée every chance you get.

"I don't!"

Are you kidding me, Edward? Do you not realize that Bella practically faints whenever you look at her? Or do you think that all girls do that when they talk to men?

"Bella said something similar to that to me once..." I said, remembering.

"What is going on?" Bella asked. Alice and I looked at her, and burst out laughing. Bella looked very confused.

"Nothing," I said as reached for her hand. I kissed the back of it and then set it back next to her side. "Now, let's go plan our wedding," I said.

Alice was right, Bella did look like she was going to faint. I chuckled, and then we all continued to walk to Alice's room.

Bella's POV

We didn't finish the guest list until 6:30. At that time, the people invited were:

Charlie

Renee

Phil

Carlisle

Esme

Alice

Jasper

Emmett

Rosalie

Tanya

Kate

Irina

Carmen

Eleazar

Angela

Ben

Mike

Jessica

Edward and I had thought very long and hard about who in our grade we should invite. I knew that I had to invite Angela; she was the only one of my non-vampire friends that was actually nice. But we did talk for a long time about which of our other lunch friends we should invite. Should we invite Jessica? Or Mike, who was bound to mess something up? In the end we decided to only invite Jessica, Mike, Angela, and Ben (Ben because he was going out with Angela.) We also talked about inviting the Blacks, but we decided against it. We knew that having a werewolf and 7 vampires together at our wedding may cause a few problems or start a conflict. Especially since the werewolf was Jacob, and we all knew that he was very easily upset.

After we finished the guest list, Renee called my cell phone. She told me that she had gotten a plane ticket, and that she was planning on leaving to go back to Jacksonville on Sunday afternoon. When I told Alice and Edward this, Alice insisted that we go dress shopping tomorrow.

"We want to find perfect bridesmaids dresses that fit the bridesmaids perfectly, so it would be best if your mother was there when we picked them out," she said.

"Fine," I groaned. Alice laughed her tinkling, musical laugh.

"We don't have to find your dress, we can just find the bridesmaids dresses," she said to soothe me. "Speaking of bridesmaids, have you figured out who yours are going to be?" Alice continued.

"Well, Edward and I thought that I should only have one: my maid of honor, and that he should only have a best man. Since we're having a small wedding, you know," I said. This was another thing we had talked about Wednesday morning on the way to school.

"Well, who is going to be your maid of honor?" Alice asked impatiently.

I hadn't given much thought to this because I knew my answer without even having to think about it. There was only one person who I would even consider to be the maid of honor.

"Renee," I answered promptly. Alice looked a little hurt. "Oh, Alice," I said, "I'm sorry. But, she's my mother. I've known her all my life; she was my best and only friend until I moved to Forks."

Alice nodded, understanding. "It's fine. She is your mother. She should be your maid of honor. Well, Edward, while we're on the subject, who is going to be your best man?"

Edward looked thoughtful for a moment, and then sighed. "I'm not sure," he said. "We were thinking that Carlisle could be the preacher, since he is a pastor's son. And he is who I would have had for my best man. But since he is out of the question..." Edward trailed off, thinking.

"Well, there will be plenty of time to think about that later," Alice said. "Now, Bella," she turned to me, "we should leave to go to Seattle bright and early tomorrow morning. I was thinking I could pick up you and your mother at about 8:00—"

"8:00!" I interrupted her. "You have got to be kidding me, Alice. If you are going to pick us up at 8, then I'll have to get up by 7:30, at the latest. Probably more like 7 because I know that you won't let me go to the mall without being beautiful, and it will take a very long time to make that happen..."

"Bella, you are very beautiful, and—" Edward said, interrupting me. "I am not a suck up, Alice!" He said, obviously responding to Alice's thoughts again. I laughed, even thought I hadn't heard the whole conversation.

"Anyway..." I continued, "I refuse to get up at 7:00 am, and I think my mother will probably agree with me."

Alice looked crestfallen, but then sighed. "I guess your right. How does 8:30 sound?"

I glared at her. "Alice..." I warned.

"Alright, alright. 9."

"Alice!"

"Ok, ok, 10. Ugh. I hate late starts," she groaned in exasperation.

"10 isn't late! It's perfectly average time to start the day on weekends. Not for vampires, I guess, since you are up all night anyway..."

So we agreed that Alice would pick us up at 10:00. After all that was decided, Edward offered to take me out to dinner. I quickly called Charlie to tell him I would be home around 8, and then Edward and I set out to get dinner.

Surprise, surprise, he took me to the restaurant in Port Angeles.

"Edward," I said on the way there, "I think we should call this restaurant 'our restaurant'" He eyed me questioningly and I continued. "Well, we have 'our meadow,' and 'our clearing' now...so I think that this should be 'our restaurant.'"

Edward smiled the crooked grin I love, and nodded in agreement.

When we reached the restaurant, everyone inside stared at me. Stupid scars I thought. Edward chuckled, and I knew he could tell what I was thinking by my expression. We were seated by a hostess who eyed Edward with a bit too much kindness for my likes, but whenever any woman gave him any special treatment, he would kiss me or make some comment about my ring. I didn't' mind—the more kisses I got, the better.

Luckily, we had a waiter and not a waitress. After dinner, though, Edward told me that the waiter, whose name was Timothy, was gay. I think I laughed for 5 minutes when I heard that. Not because "haha, he's gay!" but because it was just our luck that we finally thought we would have peace and quiet, but then our waiter turns out to be gay.

"What was he thinking?" I asked Edward on the ride home.

"Oh, the usual stuff. Oh, he is so gorgeous! That girl is so lucky, she is going out with him! Oh my gosh, she is wearing a ring. They're engaged! Not fair!" He said in a shrill, high pitched voice. He grinned, and I began laughing again.

"Well, I am pretty lucky," I said. "I am engaged to the most handsome, sweet, caring gentleman I have ever met, who also has the most...interesting...family."

"Yes, but he is a vampire, along with his 'interesting' family. A monster, an evil demon with no soul. Someone who is doomed to a life of darkness," he said. His light, happy mood was gone now. Even though we had both accepted that I was going to be a vampire, he still did everything he could to make me change my mind.

"You are not a monster. You're an angel," I replied, also completely serious now. "As and far as the 'soul' matter, well, we'll never know about that until we actually die, when and if that happens."

Edward sighed. Not in defeat, but in exasperation. "Isabella," he pronounced my name slowly and clearly, "will you ever believe me when I say that, yes, I am a monster?"

I shook my head. "No matter what you say or do, you will always be an angel to me," I said.

Now he sighed in defeat. He reached across me to open my car door, and I noticed we had arrived back at my house. I unbuckled my seatbelt and got out of the car. In a moment, Edward was sitting next to me.

"Good night, my love," he said. "I'll be back in your room, well, your living room, at about 9:30."

"Good night, my angel," I said as I stood on my tip toes to give him a kiss. He grinned as we broke apart and then motioned me to the door. I walked into the house to see Charlie and Renee watching TV, both in awkward silence.

"Hey Mom, Dad," I said. They turned around and stood up to meet me. I told my mother about our plans to go shopping tomorrow, and then we all went off to bed.

I was sitting on the couch, reading, when I heard a tap on the window. I looked at the clock and saw that it said 9:15. He was early! I ran over to the window excitedly and opened it to let Edward in.

But the person looking at me through the window was not Edward.

Oooooo. Cliffy. If you think you know who it is...then leave it in a review. If you guess it right then you will win...uh...a free... bamboo stick!! (inside joke...)

Please review!!!

----By the way, I'm not going to be able to update again until Monday of next week, if not later. I'm going to globals for DI and we leave on the 23rd, and we won't get back till the 27th. Then I have to write a chapter and everything, and my parents hate it when im on the computer for long periods of time. So it might be a while...Sorry!!----

Till next week—

-danielle-