Chapter Eight: Nothing Like A Marriage Proposal To Turn The Women Into Hens And The Men Into Protective Bears.
We were all at the house now and it was 3:00. In eight minutes, Edward would start playing a song he wrote for Nessie. He was already at the piano playing Bella's lullaby. I stayed close to Nessie so I could do it as soon as the song changed. We had already eaten the cake- well, Nessie and I ate the cake. Now, we were listening to Edward play and talking quietly. I was waiting. Every once in a while, Jasper would look over at me. I guess he could feel my nervousness but I didn't pay him any attention.
Finally, the song changed. It was very soft so that I could speak. I cleared my throat.
"I have an announcement. Nessie, are you ready for your birthday present?" I announced, looking at Nessie. She nodded excitedly. I walked her up onto the platform where the piano and Edward was on. Everyone could see us now.
"My beautiful, sweet Nessie. I have loved you since this minute, this hour of this day for twenty years. It was at this time, 3:08 pm, the day you were born that I imprinted on you. I think that it is only appropriate that I do this now." I said and got down on my knee, taking her hands in mine. "Renesmee Carlie Cullen, you are the love of my existence. For you I give my heart. It was yours since the day you were born. Please, make me the happiest man alive and agree to be my wife. Will you marry me?" I asked her, smiling. She was both smiling and crying as we looked into each other's eyes.
"Yes. Yes, I will. I love you, Jacob Black." Nessie squealed. I jumped up and spun her around in my arms. I kissed her passionately. I set her down and pulled the ring box from my pocket saying, "good, because now you can have this." I opened the box and showed it to her.
"Oh, Jacob. It's beautiful. I love it." Nessie chirped.
As I slid the ring onto her finger, I explained, "Ephraim Black had this ring fashioned for the woman he imprinted on. It has been kept in my family since then. The last woman to wear it was my mom. Every woman who has worn it has had long, successful marriages and was blessed with healthy children. I hope we are as lucky." I kissed her hand. Nessie placed her hand on my cheek and showed me my proposal through her eyes. I felt her being overwhelmed with love and happiness. Wrapped my arm around her waist and let her lean against me as everyone swarmed to congratulate us.
"Oh, Oh, OH. Please let me plan your wedding. I have some awesome ideas." Alice was excitedly bouncing up and down in front of us. She probably would have bounced through the roof if Jasper didn't have a restraining hand on her shoulder.
"You can help. I'm sure that Bella and my sister want some input in this. And every decision will be discussed with us." I laid down my conditions. Bella smiled at me, thankful that I had the situation in hand.
"Hey, I did an excellent job planning Edward and Bella's wedding. Thank you very much." Alice yelled at me in mock irritation.
"That's what I heard but I was only at the reception for like twenty minutes, remember? I'm not saying that I doubt your ability to do this. Because I think you can. I'm just saying that you can't have free rein. We want the other women in the family to be in on the planning, too. Is that so much to ask?" I asked in a teasing, pleading voice. I grinned at her then pouted a little which earned a laugh from some people.
"No, I guess not. We have to run the plans by the two of you?" Alice asked, defeated.
"Yep. Every decision goes through us." I told her, giving Nessie a squeeze.
"Wow. This is some birthday present. It's the best I've ever gotten. I don't think I've ever been happier than right now." Nessie chimed. I bent down to kiss her again and she giggled.
"Ok. All of this emotion is giving me a headache. I'm very happy for you both, just like everyone else, but can we please play another game? Before my head explodes?!" Jasper hollered as he rubbed his head.
"Let's see the ring!" Esme shouted as she reached for Nessie's hand. All the females in the room went into a titter over that. They yanked Nessie from the platform and surrounded her.
"You sure know how to get the hens clucking, Jacob." Garrett whispered to me, chuckling.
"Then let's leave, guys. Seriously, I can't take it." Jasper begged. Edward gave him a pointed look and nodded. The seven of us guys went out to the backyard.
"So, you guys gonna throw me a bachelor party?" I joked, wondering what vampires did for their bachelor parties. Human men usually went to strip clubs and drank all night. Or at least that's what Paul did for his. I don't really want to do that. It doesn't sound appealing to me, really. Why would I want cubic zirconium when I already have a diamond? I stopped laughing when no one joined in. I looked at them to see what was going on. They were in a loose line in front of me with their arms folded across their chests. They all looked really serious and it made me uneasy.
"We would like to talk to you, Jacob. Just us men." Edward explained. He gestured to the others. Edward was at the center of the line with Carlisle, Emmett, and Garrett on one side and Jasper and Eleazar on the other. This was a line of the father, grandfather, uncles, and cousins of my fiancée and I was the guy trying to steal her.
"Sure, sure. I probably should have seen this coming." I said as evenly as I could. I tried to look at ease as I slumped against a tree.
"I know that we are all really happy for you and my daughter. We all love her very much and-" Edward said before he was interrupted.
"Don't screw up and break her heart or we will break you." Emmett threatened me. I saw the muscles of his arms flex as he started toward me menacingly, but Edward caught him. He shook his head and Emmett took his place in the line again, scowling.
"There is no chance that I could ever hurt Nessie. You all know that." I told them.
"We do know that. We are all married men." Carlisle said, gesturing to himself and the others in the line. "We have all had wives for at least nineteen years so we have experience."
That was true. The most recent of them to be married was Garrett. He had married Kate after living with her and the other Denali's for a year. I had gone with the Cullens to the wedding. Garrett was now a member of the family and had given up human blood for Kate and settled down with her.
"Thanks. I'll ask if I want advice." I told them. I wanted to be done with this uncomfortable talk.
"There's one more thing, Jacob." Edward told me. "We want to impress upon you what you have. I'm sure you know that Nessie is very special. She's the only daughter I will ever have. We can all agree that we all love her and want to protect her. Everyone here is willing to die for her. Please, take care of her." His face was so serious and I knew that he was thinking of Nessie as he made the subtle threat. All the men were completely serious about my fiancée's safety.
"I know how you all feel about her. I feel the same way. I love her with everything I have. For my love, I would give my own life. She is everything to me and I would kill anything that tried to harm her. No one is going to hurt her as long as I'm around. I promise you that. Even if I didn't love her as much as I do, I would protect her because she is my best friend's daughter." I didn't really know how they would react to that but Edward and Carlisle smiled and Jasper nodded his head. Then someone who I never thought would spoke up.
"Edward, let me talk to the boy in private please." Garrett requested as he looked at Edward then looked back at me. That surprised me because he had never even been willing to have a decent conversation with me in public. I think I make him nervous because even though I wouldn't, Garrett knows that I could kill both him and Kate if I wanted to.
Edward looked at me so I nodded. I was curious about what Garrett wanted to talk about. This should be interesting.