Once Bella had accepted that she was not going to be granted more clues as to my surprise trip until I was good and ready, we moved forward with planning the accident that would lead to our human demise. As a family we had decided that Thanksgiving break would be a good time for Bella and I to travel to Forks and Jacksonville to see her parents one last time and the accident would occur shortly after. We had a few weeks until that time.
"Bella!" Alice yelled from the second floor.
Bella and I were in our room after having arrived home from our classes. She was already seated at the desk working on a paper that was due the following week. Given that this was her first time attending college, she was much more studious than me, especially considering we wouldn't even be finishing the semester.
"Yeah Alice. I'll be there in just a minute." Bella responded in a normal volume. There was no need to yell with our acute hearing, but Alice liked being loud.
"What's our pixie-like troublemaker up to now?" I asked while sprawled on my back across our bed. My head turned to stare at my wife.
Bella turned slightly in her seat to look at me, "I don't know," with a dainty shrug of her shoulders. I noticed that her eyes, unusually, didn't connect with mine.
I paused, decided whether I should call her out on it. "Really, you sure about that?" I asked with a suspicious grin.
"Yes Edward. I have no idea what she wants. Now let me finish this so I can go find out. You know how impatient she can be." She said a little snappy while turning back to her work.
"Okay love," attempting to keep my voice nonchalant, but certain there was something going on, "I just find it very interesting that everyone in this house is either blocking their thoughts or thinking about completely random things. Emmett has been singing the new Keith Urban song all morning." I cringed having to listen to him internally sing country.
I heard Alice coming up the stairs to retrieve Bella. "Bella! Come on, we have stuff to do." She said while quickly glancing in my direction.
"Hi Alice." I said with a smile while my mind was attempting to infiltrate hers. "Why are you blocking me?" I said casually.
Her eyes reflected that she registered my inquiry, but was not going to release any information as her face remained smooth and composed. Her mind was now racing with clothing that she had seen online and intended to purchase. It was as if we were side by side storming the mall like a herd of migrating wildebeests.
I let out a little chuckle at her attempted diversion. Did my family seriously think they could keep something from me? I had a century of experience honing my gift. A little blocking and random thoughts weren't going to stop me. Something was going on and I was quickly growing annoyed. "Are you planning on taking Bella shopping again Alice?" I said commenting on her choice of thoughts.
"No, we just went. But I do need to order a bunch of things from the winter lines." She replied, not missing a beat while tapping her foot in impatience. Bella rose from the chair, came over to the side of the bed, and bent down to give me a chaste kiss, or so she thought. I swiftly wove my fingers in her silky tresses and locked my mouth firmly on hers causing her to become unstable on her feet. I felt her start to loose the fight and lean into our connection. I responded by kissing her deeper, letting my tongue sensually explore her mouth.
"Ah, hem," Alice cleared her throat, reminding us of her presence.
She planted her hands on the bed on either side of my head and firmly pushed up. She sighed as she released herself from our connection. I gently exhaled into her mouth as she pulled away. My lips curved up in satisfaction - Bella's head was spinning and I was certain she wasn't thinking clearly. Now I would get my answers.
"Where are you two off to?" I asked offhandedly while rolling onto my stomach to better eye the scheming ladies of my life.
"Err…um" Bella released gutturally. Her eyes slightly glazed over. Alice had lost her patience at my playing, let out a big huff, grabbed Bella's hand and dragged her out of the room.
"Bye love." I called out the door. If I couldn't get my answers from Bella or Alice, I knew just who to turn to. I pulled myself up from the bed and sought out the thoughts of my most vulnerable family member. I quickly located him, now singing some God awful pop song that I didn't recognize. I made my way across the hall to his room and knocked.
"Yeah, come in!" He quickly replied. I entered the room to find Emmett sitting, torso half twisted, one leg on the couch and the other on the floor. His laptop was resting on his oversized thigh. My eyes scanned the room and I noticed a duffle bag sitting on their bed.
"Hey Edward. What's up?"
"Not much. Are you and Rose going somewhere?" Again, keeping my request light and casual. Emmett's eyes swiftly moved from my face, to my left to the bed, and then back. If I were human, it would have been too fast for me to notice, but I was not, and I did.
He quickly recomposed his thoughts. I could tell he had to work very hard to keep me blocked. "No…that was just in the closet…and I was cleaning some things out and haven't put it back." He said shrugging his massive shoulders.
"Ah, okay." I paused, deciding my next plan of attack. "Do you know what the girls are up to? Alice just came to get Bella and they didn't tell me where they were going. I hope that Alice isn't planning on dressing Bella up again. She has a lot of work to do for her classes. I know she isn't finishing the semester, but she still wants to do well while she is taking classes, you know how Bella is." I said while planting myself on the couch next to him. Hopefully my ramblings would distract him enough for a slip.
"No, they aren't primping Bella, they're loading the…" He stopped mid-thought.
I raised an eyebrow in suspicion. Ah, sweet success!
"Loading the what Emmett, please go on." I smirked.
"Err, loading the…" He stopped, unable to come up with a convincing lie. My grin only grew at my approaching triumph. He threw his hands over his face pushing his fingers through his ringlet-filled hair, "Ah come on Edward! Can't you just let Bella surprise you for once?" His voice was pleading.
"Surprise me?" My eyebrows rose in shock. That is not at all what I had suspected. I thought I had caught my siblings mid-prank planning. I can't remember my wife ever surprising me. Well I had…but it never included our family and always involved some sort of clothing, or lack there of. My long-stilled heart suddenly warmed at the idea of Bella planning something for me. I let out a big huff of air in defeat.
"Bella is planning something?" I asked, still slightly suspicious that he was using her to cover for someone else. My siblings had stooped pretty low over the last few years to pull one over on one another.
"Yes, Edward. So just stop asking questions. You will find out soon enough." He said while he turned back to his computer but then added, "Oh and don't tell anyone I slipped a little, they'll kill me," with pleading eyes.
I nodded in confirmation. I would do my best to restrain myself from any further fact-finding. I didn't want to ruin her fun. I let myself settle back into the soft leather couch, uncertain what to do next since I hadn't a clue what lay ahead. It was an unusual feeling, I had so rarely been taken off guard in the last few years, other than by Bella's seemingly random thoughts.
Then I remembered I actually wanted to speak with Emmett about something. "Since you are the bear expert, do you think if we have our faked death be an accident involving a bear that would be realistic?"
He paused with his hand hovering over the keyboard. The wheels were churning – I could almost hear the gears grinding. I waited patiently for I knew he wanted to answer me honestly considering the importance of the situation. "Well, it could work. It is certainly reasonable to think that a bear attack would leave no body parts. The problem is that they are hibernating now. So, we would need to show some sort of motivation for it to wake up, like a lot of food. We would really need to piss it off to make the evident realistic, look like there was a good fight." He said with a gleam in his eye. No doubt excited about the idea of aggravating a hibernating bear. I thought on what he said. I still thought it was a feasible route. Everything else, including a car accident, there would be a body left.
"Can you think of any other accident that would work?" I inquired.
"No, I can't. This will work. We will just have to be very thorough with the evidence." He said with confidence.
Edward! Where are you? I reluctantly rose from the couch and opened the bedroom door to enter the hall. I peered over the banister to find the culprit of the mental inquisition flitting around at the base of the stairs.
"Yes, Alice?" I replied with a slight sneer.
"Can you go find Bella please?" She said with a wicked little grin and then danced her way out the front door before I could even reply. I turned on my heel, annoyance starting to overtake me, and headed up to our bedroom. The door was half open and I peered in to see Bella busily packing a bag. I watched her for a moment, caught up in her grace and beauty as she moved around the room, to the closet, where she pulled out a few of my shirts, removed them from the hangers and lovingly folded them on the bed. Flattening and pressing the fabric with her thin fingers. She then went into the bathroom where I heard her rustling through the drawers.
I gently pushed the door open and entered the room, careful to not alert her to my presence. Maybe if I caught her off guard I could finally get some answers. Within a minute she came out of the bathroom, toiletry kit in hand.
"Hi love." I said casually from the edge of the bed. She startled at my voice and then a big grin spread across her glorious face, but she just as quickly, she recomposed her face and continued on her way back to the closet.
"Hi." She responded sweetly with her back to me. I grinned at her attempted slyness.
"You going somewhere?" Again, my voice expressed indifference as I leaned back on my elbows and let my leg drape over the edge of the bed.
"Well, yes, we are going somewhere and we are leaving in ten minutes." She said matter-of-factly.
I had said I would leave it alone, but now that I saw the opportunity to weasel some answers, the competitive spirit in me reneged on my vow. "Where are we going?" I asked while pushing myself up from the bed and sauntering over to her. She didn't respond while she continued selecting clothes from our closet. I noticed she was choosing casual, winter clothes. My black wool sweater and jeans, her cashmere turtleneck in the beautiful periwinkle color that I loved on her.
"You seem to be packing a lot of clothes. How long are we going for?" I said as I came up behind her and wrapped my arms around her delicate waist, pulling her hair over to expose her shoulder, and behind her ear, so that I would have full access to her most vulnerable spot. I then bent down and slowly released a cool breath onto her porcelain skin as I buried my lips just below her ear. I felt her shutter in my embrace and my lips pulled up slightly in delight. I continued my oral exploration down her neck to the shallow at her collarbone. She released an involuntary groan and leaned her back into my chest.
Without pulling away from her skin, I murmured, "Where are we going love?" She leaned even further into my stance, and then released a gust of air. I thought - sweet victory would be mine! Then in the same instant that I thought my tried and true seduction tactics had triumphed, she gathered her thoughts with a very slight shake of her head, as if to release the lusty haze that I hoped to envelope her with, and then pulled away from my embrace.
Without looking at me, obviously recomposed, she said in her sweet melodic voice, "Be ready to go in ten minutes." I was stunned! I felt my shoulders slump as I gave into the reality that I was not going to break anyone in this family to find out the truth of our destination. In reality, the idea of being surprised made me a little giddy, but I did not concede easily to my family thinking they could pull one over on me.
I slowly made my way down the stairs to the living room. No one else was in the house. I dropped myself dramatically into one of the armchairs surrounding the fireplace, feeling the air swoosh out from the weight of my body and attempted my hand at patience, never one of my strong suits. As I sat there I wracked my brain for any clues as to where we could be going. I searched through every conversation that Bella and I had recently and came up empty handed. Within just a few minutes I was rewarded for my patience as I heard my wife making her way downstairs. I pushed myself up from the chair and sauntered over to the stairs to meet her as she descended, taking the bag from her hands in the process.
"Thanks." She said while rewarding me with her warm, brilliant smile then reaching up and kissing my cheek as we made our way out the front door to where the rest of our family was convened.
All six of my family members' thoughts were racing with random ideas as they loaded into Emmett's Escalade. I smirked at their planned deviousness. Once we were all in the truck, Carlisle at the wheel, I piped up from the back, "So, to what do I owe this pleasure? My entire family taking a trip together hasn't happened in a long time"
Esme was the first to answer, "Your wife planned it. She thought it would be good for all of us to spend some time together before all of the big plans unfold," with her motherly, loving voice. Turning around in the passenger seat to look back at Bella who now had her head bowed as examined her hands resting in her lap.
"She asked all of us what we thought you would like to do for fun." Jasper added.
"Yeah, Bella planned all of this. We just had to work at blocking you." Emmett chipped in.
"Well, I had some help from Alice of course." Bella responded shyly. I reached through the short distance between us and placed my index finger under her chin to lift her golden orbs to meet my loving gaze. My eyes held hers for a long moment.
"Don't you want to know where we are going?" She asked softly. I shook my head, letting my forever-mussed tresses flop all over. "No, I don't."