I was scared. There was no other way to put it. Scared is not an emotion that a vampire feels often, so the emotion was foreign to me as I began to pack what little I would need to make the trip to Alaska. We hadn't discussed it yet, but I was beginning to think that we should leave a day early and run the whole way. It would give us less time to worry during a quiet car ride, not to mention that it was something we both loved to do anyway.
I sighed, deciding to give up on getting ready for the time being because I was almost becoming too anxious to function. I opened up my laptop to check my email, even though I had already checked it four times throughout the day and paused. My background hadn't changed since I was in college. Every time I bought a new computer or cell phone, setting my background was one of the first tasks I completed. It was a beautiful photo of Jasper and I standing at the beach just after sunset. We spent many of our days inside during that trip, but the nights spent there were incredible.
Jasper and I had just left our hotel in San Diego. He surprised me with plane tickets for this weekend, claiming that because I was a senior and it was going to be a relatively cloudy weekend, he couldn't resist giving me a spring break gift. There was enough cloud coverage that the light left from the sunset didn't give Jas anything but a subtle glow as we made our way toward the beach. He was indulging me with a few selfies that I had begged him to take when a kind woman offered to take our picture. It was immediately my favorite photo I'd ever seen. Jasper had playfully picked me up in a piggy back ride as I leaned down to kiss his cheek, my long hair almost covering my face.
That night I had been incredibly nervous because we had been together for almost three years and I wanted to ask him about changing me. I knew I would be heartbroken if he gave the same answer as Edward had, wanting me to stay human and becoming older and older until it looked like I was spending time with my grandson. On the other hand, I had decided it was worth the risk because I wanted to spend forever with him. One lifetime wasn't enough.
By the time I had worked up the courage to say something, we were at a lovely dinner that overlooked the water as I ate and he pretended to eat. My voice was shaking, and my hands were fidgeting as I rambled out thought after thought on the matter until Jasper leaned in and silenced me with a careful kiss on my lips. He actually got out of his seat and I began to panic, sure that he was going to lead me out so that I didn't make a scene when he rejected my request, when he kneeled down in front of me.
"I was going to wait until after dinner, because I didn't think you would love the idea of an audience, but I don't believe the timing could get better than this." Jasper started, and the tears that had welled up in my eyes from my panic moments before began to spill out as pure happiness took its place. He began to detail all of the reasons he loved me as I gripped onto his hands so tightly that I know a human man would be cringing at this point. Everything disappeared as he ended with, "I love you more than I can put into words and I would love nothing more than to spend forever with you. And I mean forever." He winked as I blubbered out something that was surely embarrassing but meant 'hell yes!' all the same. I vaguely remember hearing light applause and congratulations, but all I could focus on was Jasper and the fact that very soon I would not only be a married woman, but also a vampire. For the first time since my eighteenth birthday weekend, I was grateful that I had met Edward Cullen. Without him, I would have never gotten to this point, and that's something I could not even begin to imagine.
I realized I was sitting in front of my laptop, grinning like an idiot when I heard Jasper enter the room. I jumped up from my seat and threw myself at him, knowing he would catch me without a question. He smiled as I wrapped my arms and legs around him and planted a firm kiss on his lips.
"I love you," I said as I put my hands on either side of his face, looking into the eyes that made me weak in the knees no matter how often I saw them.
He answered by giving me slow, lingering kisses as he carried me up the stairs toward our room. For the millionth time in my life, I was reassured that this man was my soulmate. No matter what we faced, we would always be the constant for each other. My only worry in life, even though we were facing the Cullens and an insane group of royal vampires in less than a week, was losing Jasper. All I could do was hold on tight and hope that whatever this turned out to be didn't even bring us close to that fate.