Chapter 31

After I purposefully walked around hugging and acknowledging everyone, Edward put his phone in my face and I could see my brothers, his sisters and parents all on the phone. I smiled and said, "Hi everyone."

"Bella, we are so happy for you," Esme said and I saw her wipe a tear from her eye.

"Thank you, Esme. My eyes are tired but I'm doing fairly well. I'm ready for a nap though because they are getting tired."

"Then we'll let you go and see you tomorrow. Our son wants to keep you at home resting tonight," Carlisle said.

"Thanks," I said.

The next thing I knew Emmett was front and center on the phone and asked, "Bella, what color shirt am I wearing?"

"Emmett, smart ass, you're way to close for me to see the color of your shirt?"

"Fine, what color is my shirt?" he asked as he backed up.

"Emmett, it's pink. You don't wear pink."

"Bella, Alice dared me to wear it for you."

"Of course, I love you all and I'll see you all tomorrow."

Jasper said, "Bella I love you and can't wait to see you tomorrow."

I hung up and gave Edward back his phone. Jake said, "I hate to depress this happy moment but the press is downstairs. Are you ready to go and walk by them so we can go back to the jet?"

"Yes and no. What about the bruise on my face?"

Edward said, "I'll stand on that side of you and we'll put Seth and Jake in front of us. Your parents will be behind us and we'll let Robert release a statement."

"Jake, can I borrow your ball cap?"

"Yes." Jake handed me his hat and we got it settled onto my head trying to hide my face as much as possible to hide the bruise.

"Is the limo outside?" Edward asked.

"Yes." Seth stepped forward and asked.

Jake stepped in front of me and said, "Then let's go, everyone. Please everyone stay close."

Edward took my arm and I said, "Edward, I can do this by myself."

"I know, but," Edward started.

"No, I'm okay."

Edward relented and said, "Alright." As we stepped outside, I dropped my head into Edward's chest holding the hat against my face. Edward immediately pulled me tightly into him. The flashes were flying and so were the questions. One photographer pushed too hard against another and all came crashing towards us. Jake instinctively slipped to my mom and I's side. Edward grabbed me and Jake got my mom. Seth cleared the rest of the sidewalk to get us to the limo. Edward and Jake almost shoved my mother and I into the car. Jake, Edward, and my dad all finished getting in as my mom and I tried to get out of their way. Seth slipped up front with the driver.

I rested against Edward and asked, "Do you think they got any shots of my face?"

"No Bella, there was such a mess of people. Jake had you covered as well as me. Trust me on this one; if anyone tried to leak a picture claiming it was of you, I would sue and be able to tell it was photo shopped." I then settled down and just stared out the window looking at the world again. At the airport, the copilot opened up the plane door so all we had to do was run onboard so that we could avoid the press at the fence line.

As soon as I was on the plane I looked at my dad and asked, "Can I?"

"No," Edward said. "The doctor said, "Let your eyes rest and no eye strain."

"Fine."

So I got back in my seat and Edward again sat next to me. I slept all the way back to Vegas because my eyes needed the rest. The press was waiting there, too; but this time, Edward stated, "We'll have a celebration dinner tomorrow at my place. Charlie and Renee please let your sons know and I'm sure my family will soon know. I'm thinking around 6pm."

Renee said, "Of course, we will. Edward though your cooking is amazing and I enjoy it immensely. Please let your mother and I handle the meal for you. You just enjoy your time with your fiancé, my beautiful daughter."

"Thank you, Renee that would be great."

"Mom, please plan for Seth, Jake and Leah to join us as well. They helped me get through all this craziness too."

"Of course, they have kept you safe; I want them there too. Now the four of you get out of here."

Edward, Seth, Jake and I all exited the plane. I went down the steps backwards to hide my face. Edward was last down the steps and he turned me around so that I was hidden behind Seth and Jake. We got to the fence line and heard my questions and flashes going off. Seth went and got the car and the police allowed it on the tarmac. I easily slipped into the car and this time no one got close to me. Seth raced us away; I stayed tucked into Edward's arm even with the tinted windows. Forty-five long minutes later we made it back to his house and we were sealed in the garage.

Once we were safely into the house, Seth and Jake excused themselves. I heard, "My Principessa, come here," and he pulled me into his arms and really kissed me.

I touched his face and pulled away as I touched and saw his face. "Edward, do you mind if I go call Mr. Volturi?"

"No, I don't mind; but why are you calling him?"

"To delay my start date by two weeks, so that I can let my eyes rest some more."

"Okay."

So I went and called Mr. Volturi and explained my predicament.

He then said, "So the tabloids were correct about the accident."

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Why don't you wait and start after the Fourth of July weekend?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, you didn't enjoy the last two weeks. The next two weeks you'll be doing more; but then you can enjoy the rest of June."

"Thank you that is very generous of you."

"If you have free time and want to be my guest for lunch, call the office. I would love to have lunch with you and share my plans for you."

"Okay."

So I came out of the den and went to the bathroom, Edward found me staring at the mirror crying and touching the glass. He leaned on the counter next to me and said, "Well, what did Mr. Volturi say?"

Through the tears, I said, "Thank you for taking great care of me this last week and insisting on using the scar cream."

"You're welcome. Now," and he took my wrist and pulled me down in front of him. "Are you glad I didn't let you cut your hair?"

"Yes," and I leaned into him and kissed him. "Edward," I whispered at his lips and I started unbuttoning his shirt.

He reciprocated my actions of removing each other's clothes. Then in broad daylight on his king size bed, we made love. I rolled him as he was about to enter me. Now I was on top and with my eyes wide open watching everything I did while we made love together. As we started climaxing together, he pulled me down into his arms. Then I layed there and fell asleep. A few hours later, I woke up. I slipped out of bed and put on shorts and a tee. I walked around the house and found Edward in the kitchen, put my arms around him and said, "I love you. I'm famished."

"Sit down and I'll make you a sandwich."

"Thanks and we never talked about Mr. Volturi's call."

"We didn't; we got a little distracted. What did he say?"

"That I could start after the July 4th weekend. Though he did ask for me to arrange a working lunch with him so that we could talk about my projects."

"Wow that was nice of him."

"He just thinks I should get to enjoy some time after the last two weeks."

"What do you want to do today?"

"Go fly!"

"Well, you can't for a little while."

"Fine," and I took another bite of my sandwich.

"What else?"

"I know what I want to do tonight!"

"Bella," Edward said with a smirk on his face.

"Not that; plus I know I get that whenever I want it."

"Really."

"Yes, really."

"We'll see."

"Okay, but what do you want to do?"

"Can we take a limo and go cruise the strip and see the lights?"

"Okay."

"Do you want to see a show?"

"Is that safe for us? Particularly, right now."

"I can make it safe for us."

"Alright."

"Now, if you'll excuse me I'm going to go make the arrangements."

"I'm going to take my own shower, wash my own hair, and shave my own legs, if I remember how."

"Enjoy. Our bags are in our room."

"Edward, what did you just say?"

"Our room."

"It's your room."

"No, Bella, it's our room. I don't plan on letting you sleep anywhere else for a while."

"Really?"

"Yes, really, now go."

Edward found me while I was sitting at the vanity blow drying my hair; I was just about to start curling it. "We're seeing a show at 8 pm and then we're cruising the strip. So put on one of your pretty dresses and we'll have dinner at 6 in town and then go to the concert at 8."

"Are you sure we'll be safe?"

"Yes, we'll be fine."

"Okay, I trust you."

When Edward returned in his suit, I had finished curling my hair, done my makeup except for eye makeup. I was wearing a blue floral dress with white strappy sandals. I added the aquamarine jewelry that was my graduation present from Edward. He kissed my neck and said, "The limousine is outside waiting for us, are you ready?"

"Yes," and then he took my arm as we headed outside.

Once we slipped into the limousine, he leaned over and whispered, "You even hid the last of your bruise."

"Yes, I did."

We ended up at Caesar's Palace at a private entrance. We were escorted to a private dining room with one way glass. We had fun laughing at people trying to figure out who was inside our room. I ordered surf and turf for dinner so that I could use a steak knife again. Edward chose a delicious red wine and toasted me, "To your beautiful chocolate eyes seeing the world again."

"Thank you for being a pain in the ass to me in the beginning."

"No problem, I promised to help you get through this. I did finally learn to let you take the lead."

Half way through dinner, I looked up and saw Edward looking at me a little differently than he ever had before. There was just something in his eye that wasn't quite right; yet there was excitement in his eyes too. So I asked, "What are you thinking? Your eyes are a little odd right now. More worry but a lot of excitement, too."

"I just came up with an idea."

"What's that? It must be some idea to have you looking like that."

"Next weekend is Memorial Day weekend."

"Yes, it is."

"Would you consider marrying me that weekend? Then we could spend June on our honeymoon."

"You want to marry me in 9 days."

"Yes."

"Edward, you are crazy."

"No, actually it's brilliant," and he explained why. All of his reasons made since and I really couldn't argue with him.

"Call your parents."

"I'll call my mom and Adam. We can do the wedding and reception on Sunday. Then I'll personally put everyone on the planes to go home on Monday. Then we leave for a month long honeymoon."

"You want to go on a month long honeymoon with me?"

"Yes, because I don't want to share you with anyone until we get back. So what do you say?"

"Let me guess for any other objections I come up with, you'll have an answer."

"You're right."

Edward then scooted his chair around the table and took my hand and said, "Marry me."

"Yes, I will though I think we are just a little nuts."

So we each pilled out our phones and made calls for everyone to clear Memorial Day weekend schedule. Plus Edward called the charter service and ordered 2 more charter jets, 6 pilots and 2 copilots."

As Edward hung up with the service, I said, "Yes mom. Hey, I have to go now; we can all talk about it tomorrow night at dinner I promise."

By then it was 7:30 and there was a knock at our door, the manager escorted us through some underground tunnels and we came up in Caesar auditorium. "Maryellen is dark on Tuesdays," I said.

"Yes, but she is a close friend of mine; she agreed to come in and sing for you. You really wanted to meet you with everything that has been in the news."

"Really."

"Yes, really," Edward helped me to our two seats in the front row.

As soon as I was comfortable, Maryellen suddenly appeared on the stage. She sang six of her most beautiful love songs for us. After she was done, the three of us plus her husband went to her dressing and lounge room for a couple glasses of wine. She asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Great, now that I'm allowed to see the world again."

"Did Edward take good care of you?"

"Yes, he fought me all the way and eventually he learned to let me be the lead in our activities while hiding out. Now he is crazy enough to want to marry me over Memorial Day weekend?"

"Really, like in nine days."

"Yes."

"Where at?"

"We're not sure," Edward said. "But hopefully, by doing it this quickly; we can keep it private from the paparazzi."

I interjected, "Edward just thought this up," and I looked at his watch and continued, "about ninety minutes ago."

"Well, I'm dark that weekend. Name the time and place and I'll be there for you."

Edward said, "Maryellen, we can't ask you to do something like that."

'You didn't; I offered. Now just a minute, I know what we need to do."

She left and returned with a bottle of champagne and four glasses. Her husband opened the bottle and she proposed a toast, "To a private wedding." About thirty minutes later, we called the hotel manager. He escorted us back out to our waiting limousine. The driver then did one full lap around the strip so that I could just look one way at all the lights. Edward just sat there and held me or my hand and we both talked and kissed once in a while, too. The whole trip took more than two hours. Once we finally got back to his place and we were safely inside with the door closed, Edward scooped me up and took me to bed. Once we were relaxing in our lovemaking aftermath, I looked at Edward and said, "Where are we going to get married at?"

"I'm thinking on an island in the Caribbean, a private island that once we finish the wedding we can send everyone away or we can find a different island and then go to that one for our honeymoon."

Then I said, "I'll need a dress," and that started us working on a very long list that night of what we needed to do or wanted for the wedding. We finally went to sleep around 4 am. At 8 am the phone rang. Edward rolled over and answered it and said, "Hello," very groggily.

"No mom, you just woke me up."

"Edward!" Esme gasped.

"Stop mom, we stayed up until 4 am talking about wedding details. Well mom, I'll have her call you in a few hours."

"Bye, son."

Edward rolled back to me and said, "Call my mom when we get up. I'm sure it has to do with a dress for you."

"Okay," and we fell back to sleep for another couple hours. Then we got up and had breakfast. As we finished, Jake and Seth came in. They smiled and each kissed one of my cheeks and Jake said, "I guess we are going to a wedding."

"Yes, but after the wedding, you both are leaving," Edward and I said together.

Seth then asked, "Well. Where are we going for this wedding?"

Edward said, "We're working on that. Now please excuse me, I'm going to my den to work on some of those details. Bella, you go call my mom and start talking dresses. Then come up with your 'small' guest list."

Edward went to his office and I went to my old guest room and called his mom. We started talking dress, style design and trim.