Chapter 15- Breaking the News.

As soon as I told Alice that Edward had officially proposed a week ago, she began planning. This is what I had been dreading about telling her, but also what I knew I would need. Lots of shopping with my best friend. Rosalie and Emmet were in town to visit Charlie so we would break the news to the family tonight.

"Are you nervous about telling them?" Alice asked, she had already managed to drag me into a stationary store to look at paper for invitations. I shrugged, my father liked Edward, and would except him; I hoped.

"A little, I'm more worried about Emmet to be honest. Rose will have a fit, and I cant wait to see Lilly in pretty white dress being the flower girl. Emmet is just so overprotective sometimes, I know he does it to keep me from getting hurt, but I wish he would back off sometimes." my cell phone rang, it was Edward. Alice quieted as I explained to Edward where I currently was, and when I would be home. He had something for me.

"Maybe it's a ring?" Alice whispered as she listened to what I was saying. Since Edward had so suddenly asked me to marry him, he didn't have a ring. I didn't care, I knew he was serious, and I didn't need a ring to marked as his. Besides, what would I do with the one I already had? I shrugged at her again. I told Edward that we wouldn't be much longer, and hung up after telling him that I loved him.

"Hey, you forgot that we were going to get our hair done." Alice reminded me, I did have a set appointment. I dialed him again, and told him. He was ok with that, more time to plan he said. Plan what? The house was not ready for company, I had not cleaned since we came back from Florida, I blushed wildly at the thought of mine and Edwards clothes on the floor from last night. Alice smiled at me, she knew that look. We headed for the salon, and my long time colorist greeted me happily.

"What are we going to do today?" he asked, in his Irish accent. I told him the usual, but maybe a little lighter with the highlights. He went to work. Alice chatted with me the whole time, leafing through a wedding magazine. I knew already that she would drive me crazy. An hour and a half later we were finally on our way home, I was enjoying driving my CTS. I always let Edward man the wheel, so it was a treat when I did drive.

"Hey I'm going to catch Jazz at the gym, see you later." Alice abruptly said as I pulled the car into the garage, she was already heading for her own car. I was perplexed at her rush to leave. I grabbed my bags from shopping, and hauled them inside. Edward was sitting on the arm of the couch, and I heard rustling in the kitchen.

"What's going on?" I asked him, he smiled his crooked smile at me and closed the distance between us. His lips gently kissed mine, and he snaked his arms around me. I kissed him again, so easy to get lost in him. He gently pushed me away, and pulled something from his pocket. He did have a ring, I blushed again.

"Since I didn't have this last week when I asked you. Please consider this my official proposal. Will you marry me Bella?" he asked, like I would say no.

"Edward, you don't have to ask again. I already said yes." I teased him. He smiled, and slipped the ring on my finger after removing the band. I peered down at the diamond. It was very simple, white gold band with a diamond solitaire and baguettes surrounding it. He had good taste. I kissed him deeply again, and he pushed me away after several minutes. Grabbing my hand he led me into the kitchen.

"Finally, I didn't know if I could stay hidden in here any longer." Esme chastised as she launched herself at me. I hugged her tightly, and found myself getting teary as I hugged Carlisle.

"Welcome to the family young lady." Esme whispered as she hugged me again. I did start crying then, and Esme soothed me. These were happy tears though.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked as we sat and caught up. Esme seemed to be bouncing, her only child had finally settled down. I was glad that we had made her so happy.

"well, Edward called and told us that he had proposed, and we thought that maybe it would be a good idea to come out and see you two." Esme giddily said. I smiled at her, and was snuggling into Carlisle's side; they looked so happy. I hoped that Edward and I were like that when we had been married for twenty years.

"And since we see that grandkids are in the future here, we want to find a house and move out here." Carlisle stated. Edward lit up, his whole face was excited. I was too, this meant that we wouldn't have move. I knew it was a selfish though, but this was my home. "

You really would do that?" I asked them, Esme smiled again. She came over to us, and hugged me, and then kissed Edwards cheek.

"Of course, we would love to have our kids, and then our grandkids at arms reach. Since we knew that Edward would never make you move, we chose to do this. Well, I made Carlisle do this, I didn't want to be away from him during this time of his life." she finished, she was crying. Carlisle was beaming at his son.

"So, I hear there is a family dinner tonight. Is there any good restaurant around here?" Esme continued. I was confused again. Edward shook his head no.

"No, you're eating with us. Charlie has a big meal planned. You're more than welcome." Edward explained, I looked at him he obviously had planned all this out.

"Alice and Jasper are coming too." he told me. I excused myself to take a shower, my heart was flying. Edward must have liked what he saw when I was finished getting ready because he couldn't keep his hands off of me. I had found a great pair of blue jeans this morning, that managed to show off my curves, which were steadily growing because I hadn't been to the gym in months. My top was a black hooded knit sweater, that tightly hugged my frame.

"You are beautiful love." he whispered as we headed out to the car. I blushed again.

"Hi daddy." I greeted as we walked into the house. A very hyper Lilly launched herself into Edwards arms, I pouted as she loved on him. Emmet and Rose hugged us, and shook hands with Carlisle and Esme when we introduced them.

"She couldn't stop talking about Edward. Edwards hair, Edwards eyes. Nonstop." Rose laughed when Lilly had officially latched onto him for the night. The men headed for the game room of course to have a brandy before dinner. All us girl rolled our eyes at the male bonding.

"To much testosterone in this house." Rose muttered. Lilly had slowly began to warm up to me again, I was perched on the couch with her playing with my necklace. I heard Roses gasp, and instantly knew she had seen the ring. I held a finger to my lips, telling her to keep quiet.

"When?"

"A week ago." I beamed. Lilly had found the shiny diamonds and was studying them now. Rose studied them too.

"Oh Bella, I'm so happy for you. He loves you." She whispered.

"Emmet is going to flip. You know, he's your big brother. I'm just saying be ready." she told me. They came out of the game room at that moment, and we headed to the dining room. We all fit comfortably around the great table. Edward at my side, his hand on my leg. We ate with comfortable chatter, and finished with a great cheesecake.

"I have something to tell you." Edward said out of the blue. The paranoia slowly crept in. he took my hand as he stood, all eyes on him. My eyes flashed to Rose who was grinning at me like a Cheshire cat. Alice was practically bouncing in her chair.

"I've asked Bella to marry me." short and sweet, and to the point. I smiled, I was so proud to be his.

"Whoa. That blindsided me." Emmet said breaking the silence. I was very scared at this point, no one had said anything. I looked up expectantly at my father. He was smiling, his eyes watering.

"I'm speechless. Well, welcome to the family Edward." my father stood, and came to Edward and hugged him. I looked over at Emmet, and studied his face for a moment. I was still waiting for his reaction, it was delayed for some reason.

"I am…very happy for two. I love you sis." he said, dragging out the sentence. He came to me, and hugged me tightly picking me up as he did. We stayed for a few more hours, the men having their usual nightcap, and us girls excitedly talking about he wedding. Esme wanted to start planning immediately.

"Have you set a date?' She asked out of the blue. I started laughing, we hadn't even thought about that important detail. The other looked at me, probably wondering if I was having a meltdown.

"We haven't thought about it. Fall maybe?" I answered through giggles. We left soon after that, Esme and Carlisle following us out the door. I turned when I got to the car, and looked up at the mountain of this house. A warm fuzzy feeling washed over me. This was what a real family was like, I was finally getting to experience it. Better late than never right?

I had been coaching the youth league for a few months now, and they were pretty good I thought. I had struggled those few weeks after nationals, pulling away from them for a few weeks. But I think overall they have helped me heal more then anything else has. I guess you could say that I was living vicariously through the little girls on my squad. Edward had finally relented and let me start showing them some more completed stunts, with his help of course. They loved to watch us stunt. Since I was so out of shape it took me a few weeks to be able to nail the moves again. He supervised all the stunting during practice, and all the tumbling. I did a few here and there, but fear of completely blowing out my arm held me back in that part of practice.

"Ladies, I have something to tell you." I brought them in after practice one night, there parents had already heard what I was going to tell them at the meeting a few nights ago. Their little eyes looked up at me expectantly. So much responsibility sitting on my shoulders with these girls, and so much trust.

"I have entered us into a competition." I told them, they looked scared. Not the reaction I had been expecting. Edward came to my side. And took over from there.

"See, to get you guys some good experience for when your older you need to compete. You girls are good enough, I promise." he told them. They listened to him when he spoke, I knew for a fact that some, if not all of them wanted to marry him. I watched their little faces as they swooned over Edward, I almost laughed out loud. I had a few papers that I needed them to give their parents, so I began to pass them out to the girls. I was very glad this practice was over, my feet were killing me from all the jumping, and running we had done. Edward got everything loaded into the car, and we proceeded home. Neither of us spoke the whole drive home, but it was a comfortable silence.

"Hey, we have to talk about a date, Sue and Rose were already asking me about it the other night." I suddenly told him, we were just pulling into the drive when I asked. He seemed to think about it for a minute, and then gave a small shrug.

"Well, the youth competition is in August, so how about October?" He suggested. It was perfect, we could even have the ceremony here in the backyard, and then the reception here too.

"Perfect."

"So, October 11, it is?" he confirmed, looking at his phone to check dates. I nodded my agreement, and leaned over to kiss him. It was a sweet, loving kiss that made my toes curl. Oh, I was so in love with this man.