Chapter twenty one
Christmas day -25th December
I awoke to the smell of pancakes, wrapped up in Jasper's arms listening to people laughing on the floor below. I wish every morning was like this, this was truly special.
"Merry Christmas," I said brightly fixing my eyes on Jasper's face.
"And merry Christmas to you too," He said chuckling, "You're very cheerful this morning," I sprang out of bed and stretched.
"It's CHRISTMAS!" I squealed jumping up and down, turned around and leant over pressing my lips against his forehead before sprinting into my room to shower and get dressed before Jacob ate all the pancakes and Emmett stole my presents!
Jasper was waiting outside my door when i stepped out in a knee length red dress with a cute white ribbon which was tied in a bow at the back, on my feet where white flats and my hair was tied up with a white ribbon. Jasper smiled approvingly as i wrapped my arms around his neck and he snaked around my waist, he leaned down and pressed his ice cold lips against mine gently. I head a click and saw i flash, i pulled away and turned to glare at, surprisingly Carlisle and more importantly the camera he was pointing at us.
"Merry Christmas!" He said before walking casually down the stairs as if he had never taken the photo. I rolled my eyes and headed down to breakfast closely followed by Jasper.
I sat myself opposite Jacob who was stuffing his face and helped myself to some pancakes with syrup, i hated plain pancakes.
"Merry Christmas," I said smiling to him cheerfully. He had half a pancake hanging from his mouth which he proceeded to suck in and chew and swallow. I sort of just sat and watched in amazement, it was like being at the zoo.
"Merry Christmas," He said with a half smile. Jasper chuckled slightly.
"He's nervous and confused," He said with a grin. Jacob snorted and continued to eat.
"Let me guess you're nervous about being in Jasper's house with Peter and Charlotte because they're brand new on to the veggy diet and you fear for Nessie's safety. And you're confused about how i'm still alive after being alone in a house with Jasper for two weeks?" I said flatly, "You're worries are stupid...Peter and Charlotte would never hurt anyone close to Jasper and especially not Nessie...and Jasper is perfectly in control..." He kind of stared at me for a moment before continuing to eat.
"Stay out of my head leech," He mumbled just loud enough to hear.
"Edward said nothing to me or Jasper..." I said as i finished my pancakes and cleared my plate into the kitchen.
Esme was wrestling with the Turkey in the kitchen, not literally but she was covered pretty much from head to toe in stuffing. She had rigged up a small tv onto the cooking channel and was engrossed in learning how to stuff a turkey without having the meat dry out when roasted. I smiled fondly as she proceeded to stuff the turkey.
"Merry Christmas. Need a hand?" I asked whilst putting my plate in the sink and washing it. She turned to me and smiled.
"And Merry Christmas to you and no i have everything under control," She said proceeding to sew up the turkey with what looked suspiciously like something out of Carlisle's medical bag. Well at least it was sterile.
I found Emmett, Jasper, Edward and Peter playing XBOX in the living room. I had to chuckle as they were so into it. I heard light footsteps and turned just in time to see Nessie leap and hug my waist almost knocking me backwards.
"OOOFFFF! Nessie watch it, i'm fragile," I said with a grin.
"Aww but Aunty Lizzie i missed you!" She said with the most adorable pout, for a child that looked now about eleven she was still adorable. I laughed slightly and patted her head.
"I missed you too," I said softly.
"When do we get to open presents," She said bouncing up and down.
"When you're Uncle Jasper or Grandpa says we can," I said as she grabbed my hand and led me into the living room. She ran over and wedged herself between her dad and Jasper.
"Uncle Jasper..." She said looking at him with puppy dog eyes. Ah...i'd taught her well. I saw him look at her nervously.
"Yes Nessie..."He said as Edward chuckled.
"Can we open our presents now! PLEASE!" She said hugging his arm.
I watched as Nessie continued to beg and plead with Jasper to open presents, Edward was almost in hysterics as Jasper looked at her with a look of sheer panic.
"She really has grown so much since i last saw her," Charlotte said standing next to me looking at Nessie. I looked to her and nodded.
"The Volturi incident right?" I said with a smile, " I should probably go help him...children don't seem to be his forte..." Charlotte grinned and chuckled.
"I can't wait to see what he's like when you two have kids," She said and sniggered. I scoffed.
"If we do have kids thats not going to be for a while," I said and strolled over and perched on the arm of the sofa so i was next to Jasper.
"Nessie sweetie why don't you wait a little bit. Grandma Esme is just going to put the turkey in the oven in a minute, let her finish up with the lunch and THEN we can open presents. Right Uncle Jasper?" I said looking at him for reassurance. He smiled up to me and nodded. Nessie pounced and hugged him tight.
"YAY! I'm going to go help Grandma!" She said and scurried off, i smiled to her fondly as she went.
"You're good with kids," Edward said to me with a smile as he slammed Emmett's character into the ground and blew his brains out.
"I like children," I stated and then smiled, "Renesmee is an amazing kid...you and Bella are very lucky," Edward smiled proudly.
"I know," He said and then grinned, "So are you two planning on having kids," I rolled my eyes and slipped onto Jasper's lap, stealing his controller and snipped Emmett and Peter within seconds leaving them speechless.
"Eventually..." I said as Jasper's character twirled around and shot Edward's character, head shot. I win.
"But i'm only seventeen... and unmarried..." I pointed out, "And I haven't even graduated high school yet...so not for a couple of years at least...right?" I tilted my head back and smiled up at Jasper who just smiled and kissed my nose gently.
"You've thought about this a lot haven't you," Edward said smiling as he exited to the game menu.
"I'm not going to give up my humanity just yet...i've got a good two years left in me minimum...in two years it will be four months until my twentieth birthday. At that point i'll think about being ready or not," I said with a smile as Esme headed past the door, i assume to go up stairs and get changed.
Nessie wouldn't sit still. She'd been hopping about for the past ten minutes and nothing Bella or Edward said would make her keep still for longer than thirty seconds. Finally Esme headed into the room and Carlisle and Jasper started to hand out the presents. Jasper handed one to Carlisle which i recognised as the one from me, Bella and Rosalie. We had spent two months making a giant scrap book with tonnes of photo's of the family from the past almost 100 years. It had taken us ages to sneakily make copies of the entire collection of photo's we liked and we even put a few in of Alice, much to Rosalie's distaste. Rosalie had never scrapped booked before but she loved it and it had come out great. Carlisle pulled off the wrapping paper to reveal the cover that i had had Jasper, because he had the most beautiful hand writing, inscribe in silver permanent marker:
The Cullen Family, 1918 -2013
He flicked open the page to a picture of all of them that had been taken just after the volturi incident, before Alice left. Just below it was a picture we had had taken just before me and Jasper came to Texas, even Jacob was in it. I saw his lips curl into a smile as he flicked through the book.
"Thank you girls," He said kissing each of our foreheads in turn.
Next Jasper picked up and present and handed it to me.
"That's from me and Esme," Carlisle said showing Esme the scrap book. I carefully unwrapped it. Inside was a file, i opened that to find a photo of a woman who looked like an older version of myself, i gulped slightly.
"My mum..." I whispered seeing more documents with it. An address, a phone number and...two sets of plane tickets?
"Esme and i debated a long time on what to get you for Christmas. In the end we tracked down your mum for you. We rang her up and spoke to her for a long time and she really wants to meet you again," Carlisle said smiling. I touched the photo gently.
"Dad didn't want me to have any contact with her...i used to write to her a lot but when the letters she wrote came Dad would burn them before i could read them..." I muttered with a smile, a small tear rolling down my cheek, "Thank you so much," I said and hugged them both and smiled.
"Well you're almost eighteen, he legally cannot stop you after that," Esme said with a warm smile, "And anyway...i a trip to England would do you good," I did a double take of the address.
"London..." I whispered with a smile.
The presents kept being handed out. Rosalie and Emmett got me and $10,000 gift voucher for Gucci to which my eyes almost popped out of their sockets. Jacob had hand carved me a wooden Monty...my cat...it was so adorable! Renesmee had picked me out a new iphone, to which i almost died...i loved Apple. Peter and Charlotte had bought me a statue of an angel holding what looked like a real diamond in it's hands, as diamond was my birthstone i loved it. And Edward had said my present was outside, which made me worry slightly.
I had put a lot of time into making my presents to each of them special, there really wasn't much you could buy for rich people. Money meant nothing to them, but memories did and luckily i was pretty apt at craft. I had spent a long time making Renesmee quilt, i had done everything myself even down to cutting the material, it was all shades of pink and purple and i had made sure to make it grown up as she grew so fast. I had handmade Rosalie, Bella and Esme dresses. The material hadn't come cheap but they looked fantastic and they promised to wear them more than once. I had also handmade Jacob a jacket because i was fed up of seeing him without his shirt on...in Alaska...in December. Moron. I had to think long and hard about Edward, and out of reach of his powers too, so in the end i had made him a photo album with a note to capture every second of his daughter growing up and especially the embarrassing ones. And Emmett, he was the hardest one to make a present for so i had spent three nights painting a cartoon strip on separate canvas blocks of him and Rosalie, different funny scenes. Luckily everyone seemed pleased with their presents. Jasper had sorted a present from me and him for Peter and Charlotte, it was a bit hard buying for someone you've never met before.
The present i had spent the most time on was Jasper's. It had taken a lot of preparation to pull this one off as we were always together. A lot of metal, wire, glue, welding, sparkles, pictures, paper, material and time had made a intricate three foot metal tree housing pictures of us and friends and family as its leaves with blank frames for more photos. Little branches held memorable quotes or objects, like our party invitation, a piece of wood from the bed side table that had smashed when we were arguing, a small picture he had drawn of me when he called me an angel. On the branches sat little figures of the Cullens, him and me made from wire, material and gem stones. He sat and looked at it seeming shocked. I chewed my lip slightly as my stomach churned. What if he didn't like it or thought it was tacky? He looked to me for a second.
"You made this?" He whispered slowly, i nodded slightly, "It's amazing" He breathed and smiled hugging me close, i let out a sigh of relief and hugged him back.
Edward lead me outside blind folded. He stood me in the middle of the front lawn and i knew he was grinning.
"Now...it was a bit big to wrap and you can't return it ok," He said and removed my blind fold. I gaped. In the middle of the drive was a metallic black V8 range rover sport with a five foot santa toy sitting in the drivers seat holding the keys and a big red bow on top.
"Oh...my...god," I whispered wide eyed.
"I didn't think a porche or a jag would do much good in Alaska so i bought something practical...and anyway your car is a bit past it's sell by date," He said grinning.
"Don't hate my truck," I muttered and then ran over and hopped in the drivers seat, grabbing the keys and pushing Santa out the way and started the engine, whacked it into first and revved.
"I think i'm in love," I said rubbing my cheek against the steering wheel, "I know for a fact this cost a fortune Ed...but if i can't return it i'm just going to have to love it forever," Jasper was now sitting in the passenger seat frowning, santa had been stolen by Nessie.
"Along with you of course sweetie," I said winking at Jasper. Jasper chuckled as i switched off the engine and hopped out the car and hugged Bella and Edward.
"Thank you soooo much! But how on earth am i getting it home?" I said frowning.
"We're flying it back with us," They both said together.
After all the presents were done Jasper took me by the hand and led me out to the garden where he picked me up and whisked me off to our field.
"I still haven't given you my present," he said gently placing me on the blanket. I smiled and laughed.
"You didn't need to get me anything Jazz...having you in my life is all i need," I said holding his hand. He chuckled and pulled out a small box from his pocket. I eyed it slightly as he brought it forward. I could automatically tell it was a ring box.
"Do you promise to stay by my side forever?" He whispered touching my cheek with his free hand.
"Of course Jasper," I whispered leaning into his hand. He snapped the box open to reveal a ring. It was a band of alternating diamond and ruby held together by gold.
"This is an eternity ring, if you accept it you promise to be mine for eternity," He whispered gently taken my hand. I was shocked by its beauty, i loved it and i loved him. I nodded and leant over and kissed his lips softly.
"I promise for eternity," I whispered, he smiled brightly and gently took it from its box and slipped it onto my finger.
"It much have been expensive," I said with a lop sided smile.
"It was enough to quell my wish to buy you jewellery until i get your engagement ring," He said with a goofy grin. I laughed and through my arms around his neck and kissed his lips softly.
"I love you Jasper..." I breathed softly staring into his luscious golden eyes. He leant his forehead against mine and smiled.
"I have waited so long to hear you say that..." He whispered and softly kissed me, "I love you too Lizzie,"