Disclaimer: I am not Stephenie Meyer and do not own any of the Twilight Series characters; I'm just a fan having fun. No copywrite infringement intended.

Chapter 21

Jacob's POV

I woke up with my face buried in Nessie's curls. She had her back to me, completely wrapped in my arms. I took in a deep breath, soaking in her delicious scent; I was just about to whisper something in her ear when I smelled something awful… vampire.

I jumped out of bed with a start, my heart beating wildly from the rude awakening.

Pixie was sitting on top of Nessie's dresser; her legs crossed one on top of the other, her eyes wide with anticipation.

"What – the – hell?!!! Are you insane?!!! You almost gave me a heart attack!!!" – My yelling woke Nessie up, sitting up on the bed rubbing her eyes, not nearly as stunned as me.

"What's going on?"

"Your crazy aunt is what's going on!!! How long have you been sitting there?!!!" – The crazy leech just sat there, completely unmoved by my yelling.

"Well?" – I pressed on, completely freaked out about the idea of sleeping with a bloodsucker spying on me. She simply smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Oh, don't be such a stiff doggy!!! I was just waiting for you to wake up… do you know you talk in your sleep?"

"Alice." – Nessie gave her a warning look, shaking her head slightly.

"What? It's not like you were naked or anything." – Pixie was still smiling brightly.

"You're insane… do you have any concept of boundaries?"

"Nope." – She shook her head and smiled even wider.

I turned to look at Ness and found she was giggling. I took in a deep breath to relax myself, still a bit edgy from waking up in such a startling way.

"Would you mind telling us why you're here, aunty?"

"Well… I've been waiting impatiently for you two lovebirds to wake up, but jeez, you were out cold!!!" – She got down from the dresser in one swift move and began pacing around the room, almost dancing, with her voice ringing like a bell.

"We have so much to do!!! I spend the entire night thinking about the wedding… I have several choices for you, from the theme to the flowers to the food!!! It's all thought off, I just need you to choose from the options I have and presto!!!... How do you feel about a French theme?"

Nessie and I both turned to look at each other, more than a little stunned from Pixie's words. And then, almost in sink, we both yelled – "Get out!!!" – Pointing to the door.

"What? But… but I stayed up all night planning." – She pouted, the kind of pout I've seen her pull out with Bella when she won't go shopping.

"Alice… you don't sleep, you always stay up all night." – Nessie was trying to put on an angry face but I knew she was more amused than anything else.

"Fine, whatever… the point is, you need to get both your tushies up!!!"

"I don't think so Alice… we just got engaged yesterday… can't you let us enjoy it before you torture us?"

"Torture… torture? Is planning the most important day of your life torture? Excuse me for caring."

"Don't even start Pixie." – I warned, getting up from the bed and ignoring her snickering upon seeing my boxers. I walked to the corner and began putting on my clothes.

"Alice… I promise I'll let you help out but right now, we're just going to give it some time, at least a few days before we get into the whole "planning" business."

"Give it some time?!!! If you give it some time next thing you know you'll be having the reception in the middle of the forest with plastic fold up chairs and a hot dog stand instead of catering!!!"

"That's not a bad idea." – I shrugged smiling at Nessie. Next thing I know, one of Nessie's shoes was flying through the air directly at my face. I barely dodged it and turned to find Pixie, arms crossed and pissed.

"That's not even funny!!!"

"It's kinda funny." – I smiled back, making Nessie giggle; the best sound in the world.

"Oh come on Alice… can't you just let it go for once? I promise we'll have a beautiful wedding, but could you just lay off for a while?" – It was Ness' turn to work the charm, pouting and bating her eyelashes at Pixie.

"Fine… but once you're ready… I already have a scrapbook with tons of ideas… ok?"

Nessie nodded and Pixie finally walked out of the room, looking a bit defeated and a lot discouraged; I was just beginning to feel sorry for her when she stuck her tongue out at me just before disappearing… damn little ankle biter. Nessie and I exhaled in relief.

"That was good… for a moment there I thought she'd convince you."

"I know… but I'm not about to let her turn something happy and relaxed into some big production."

"You know she's going to anyway."

"Yeah, well at least I'm postponing it." – Nessie smiled and looked down at her ring, which surprisingly matched perfectly in style with the bracelet I gave her on her first Christmas, the one she wore for so long without knowing its meaning. – "On second thought, why postpone?"

She pulled me by my pants, the same dress one's I'd worn at the funeral, making me drop on top of her on the bed. She had her naughty smile on and I wasn't about to ruin the moment by going all Edward on her and saying we should wait. So I gave in, kissing her delicious lips and shivering upon feeling her tongue tracing mine. I wondered if I'd ever get tired of her taste… probably not. She was pulling me closer to her, changing from a seating position to lying back on the bed. I could feel her hands clumsily trying to unbutton my dress pants and couldn't help but chuckle a bit at how inexperienced we both were.

"So, getting a honeymoon advance?" – I jumped off the bed and turned, only to find Emmett standing by the door, his arms and legs crossed and his huge frame leaning against the wall, a malicious smile playing on his lips.

"Oh, please… don't let me stop you." – He raised his hands up in the air, palms extended, faking innocence. Nessie threw her pillow at him and when I turned to her I saw she was severely flushed.

"Oh come on, lighten up… it's not like I'm telling Edward on you." – Emmett winked at her but unlike all the times before; this time his charm didn't work on Ness.

"What the hell do you want?"- Emmett turned his attention to me, the malicious smile replaced by an eager grin.

"Well… I was thinking… more like hoping… if you would let me marry you, you know, be the minister at your wedding." – Ok, where the hell did that come from? I was starting to regret this already, not the marrying Nessie, but the going through the whole "tradition" and involving her wacky family.

I was surprised when Nessie started laughing.

"Uncle Em, are you serious?" – He looked taken aback and somewhat offended.

"Of course I am!!! Why wouldn't I be? I'm taking one of those internet courses, you just study some shit and take a test and you're good to go. I mean, how cool would that be?"

"Emmett man, you've banged your head if you think I'm letting you marry us."

"What? Why? Why not?"

"Uncle Em, you just referred to the minister studies as "some shit"… I mean, come on!!!" – Nessie was smiling lightly and amused, already warming up to him even after his intrusion.

"Oh come on you guys!!! Would you rather have some stranger who doesn't even know you do it? Plus, wedding ceremonies tend to be really boring… I would make it fun!!! I've always wanted some cool funny guy marry Rosalie and me, but every time she gets some famous minister to do it. Please don't spoil my fun!!!"

"Fun? Our wedding isn't about fun… it's serious and important and… romantic."

"Don't even think you're fooling us Emmett… when you say "fun" you mean "fun for you, not us". I don't even want to think about all the perverted things you'd plan on saying."

He started laughing, obviously caught. The damn leech actually thought he'd trick us into letting him stand up in front of all our friends and family in our wedding and make it into some one man stand-up comedy… the topic being our virginity or horny-ness or some shit like that.

"Just get out."

"Fine, fine. Maybe on your second wedding?"

"Get out!!!" – We yelled in unison, making him chuckle and raise his hands in the universal sign of "surrender"; turning on his heels and leaving the room, but not before turning back to take hold of the door knob.

"You want me to close the door… you know… so you can get on with it."

"Emmett… I swear…" – He disappeared before I could finish my threat, leaving the door hanging open.

I turned back to Nessie, who was still sitting on the bed.

"Anyone else?" – I called out, expecting it to be a joke… only to be surprised when someone cleared their throat. I turned, eyes wide and incredulous, when I saw Blondie standing by the door, twirling her hair with her fingers.

"You've got to be kidding me Blondie."

"Sorry pup, but I need to speak with Nessie."

"It's gonna have to wait." – She raised her eyebrows, a move that had nothing spontaneous about it, more like decades of acting, exaggerating and manipulating practice.

"Oh, so now that she's your fiancée you think you own her? That's so typical macho attitude."

I was about two seconds from snapping, so I opted for the high road and walked to the door.

"Fine she's all yours… I'm running home for clothes, be back in a sec." – Nessie nodded and gave me an apologetic smile, mouthing the word "hurry".

When I returned to the cottage I found Ness already dressed and waiting on the front door steps. She had on my favorite green dress, looking so damn beautiful that it became hard to breathe. I got out of the car and walked up to her, trying to compose my nerves. I felt so foolish, this girl was about to become my wife and just the sight of her turned me into a fumbling idiot; good thing she loves me enough not to notice.

"Hey… are you waiting for any other prying vamps or me?" – She giggled and got up.

"Nope, just you… finished with the last one a few minutes ago."

"Are you serious? You mean it didn't stop at Blondie? – She shook her head, smiling.

"Aunt Rosalie wanted to offer her help on the preparations and offered to pay for everything. It's been a while since she and uncle Em had a wedding and she always dreamed of doing the sixth one in Buckingham Palace, so she offered to take us all there."

I buried my face in my hands and groaned, more for show than anything else.

"Damn… how do you feel about driving to Vegas? Come on, I just filled up on gas." – I pretended to walk back to the car making her laugh out loud and come over to pretend to stop me.

"Come on Jake… we can handle it." – I sighed and stopped walking, taking her by the waist and pulling her toward me.

"You said no right? To Blondie?"

"Mmmm… I think Buckingham Palace would be wonderful." – She was messing with me, I could tell. So I started tickling her, making her squirm to get out of my grip.

"Ok… ok… I said no!!! I said no!!!" – She continued to laugh even after I stopped the tickling.

"So who came after Blondie?"

"Guess."

"Mmm… I don't know… Jasper wanting to be there for the consummation?"- She laughed even harder at my joke, which considering her family, wasn't so far off.

"Good guess… but no."

"Then who?"

"Dad… wanting to know what I plan to do with school."

"Oh… I hadn't thought of that."

"I don't think it's a big deal… I mean, I'm probably going to turn eighteen and stop growing, so I'm probably going to go through high school like ten thousand times in my life time… who cares if I don't finish this time around."

"Well, don't you want to graduate with your friends?"

"I don't care… besides, I can talk to the principal and maybe skip classes and just take a test. But let's not talk about that now… it's Sunday… we spend half the weekend fighting werewolves… what do you want to do?"

"Well… I have to go over to Emily's and help out with the packing… you wanna come? – I really didn't feel like spending an entire Sunday morning packing up someone else's things, specially the day after proposing to the love of my life, but it had to be done.

"Sure."

Nessie's POV

My heart was racing the entire ride over to Emily's. I don't think Jacob ever looked more sexy or handsome or gorgeous. This was idiotic; I've known him my entire life, we've been together for more than six months, and he still gives me butterflies in my stomach and still makes my hands sweat like a dork.

I started daydreaming about our honeymoon, or should I say, our honeymoon night. The butterflies went crazy at the thought; all the times we came close to something and now, hopefully very soon, we'd finally go through with it. As if he'd read my thoughts, he turned to look at me, catching the way I was looking at him and hitting the brakes on the car so abruptly that it swerved slightly before stopping.

"What…" – He leaned toward me before I could go on and began kissing me. I was thanking my lucky stars for giving me such an amazing man and for finally being away from the house and my crazy family to be able to do this, but then, out of the blue, he pulled back.

"Ness, can I ask you for a favor?"

"Anything." – My voice came out embarrassingly like a pant.

"Stop looking at me that way… you're making it too hard to do things the right way."

"That doesn't matter to me."

"It does to me." – I took a moment to deliberate, scanning his face just mere inches from mine, his eyes blazing and his lips begging to be kissed. But he was right, it did matter, not only to him but to me, to be able to look back and know we waited.

"Fine… "– I sat back on my seat, arms crossed, and saw him half smile as he hit the gas and continued driving. – "But you also need to not look so irresistible all the time, ok?"

He glanced at me and smiled wider. - "Fine."

When we got to Emily's and I saw the guys, it suddenly struck me that none of them know about our engagement.

"Are you going to tell them?"

"Sure… why? Are you nervous?"

"No." – I lied, because until now I hadn't realized just how much Jacob's pack's opinion means to me. They are his family after all and to be accepted into his world, knowing I'm not Quileute, means the world to me.

When we got out of the car Quil and Embry were walking out of the cabin with four boxes each, headed toward the moving van Emily must have rented.

"Hey man… hey Ness… we're already done with the living room… you should start with the bedroom, the boxes are over there." – Quil signaled with his chin toward a stack of empty cardboard boxes.

"Be sure to label them." – Embry said, smiling at me.

Jared and Paul were sitting outside on the ground wrapping plates and pots and glasses in bubble-wrap and placing them in boxes marked "fragile", while Brady and Collin came out carrying a dresser and a dinning cabinet each. I wasn't surprised by Leah's absence; going through a house full of pictures and memories and stories of Emily and Sam's love isn't exactly something she would want to do. I was however surprised to find Seth missing as well.

"Where's Seth?"

"He stuck around with Leah… she didn't want to be the only one not coming to help." – Answered Embry, even though I was asking Jacob.

"Should we start?" – Jacob signaled to the cabin and immediately I relaxed, knowing he didn't plan on announcing the good news right now.

It felt wrong to go into Emily and Sam's bedroom, like a complete intrusion of privacy, considering I practically knew every room in the house except for this one. I felt a pressure in my heart when I opened the door and was greeted by Sam's scent. I was unable to fake composure and stopped dead on the door frame, afraid to go in any further.

Jacob put his hands on my shoulders and whispered soothingly. –"It's ok Ness, I know it's hard, but we have to do it… for Emily's sake."

I took a deep breath through my mouth and walked in, unable to stop myself from taking in every detail in the room. The bed was still made, with a beautiful woven Quileute bedspread and matching pillow cases. There were over a dozen picture frames either hanging on the wall or on top of the antique dresser, all with pictures of Sam and Emily. There was one of Emily eating cereal in bed in her pajamas, her hair disheveled and her eyes fixed not on the camera but on the photographer, which by the glimmer in her eyes was sure to be Sam. There was one of them with Sam's entire pack, back when Jacob and the other's still belonged; they where all sitting in the cabin's dining room, a huge meal spread out in front of them on the table and Sam and Emily standing in the background, Emily wearing her favorite apron while Sam hugged her from behind. I lingered a little longer on that particular picture, because despite the fact that if appeared to be a happy occasion, and despite the fact that everyone had huge grins on, Jacob looked sad. It was an expression I'd yet to see in him, not even when we've fought or at Sam's funeral, this look was a look of complete despair and hopelessness. I took in his younger appearance and his shortly cropped hair and realized it was around the time he loved mom, around the time that dad had returned and claimed her. My irrational jealousy came back to me in a flash, seeing before me the proof that mom could actually cause the amount of pain visible in his eyes, readable in an old photograph.

I turned to look at him, finding him busy taking out Sam's clothes out of the closet, folding them and placing them inside a box he'd already labeled "Sam".

I swallowed hard and closed my eyes, wishing the image of Jacob would vanish from my mind, hoping I could just take down the old picture frame and stuff it inside a box and forget about it. So I did just that, began to abruptly pull down all the frames without looking at the pictures, tossing them inside an empty box.

"Hey, careful Ness… shouldn't you wrap them in newspaper or something first?" – Jacob was looking at me, confused by my carelessness and obvious disregard, if not animosity, toward the pictures. All I could do was shrug and murmur "fine", to which he frowned but continued his work.

I took a deep breath and continued with the frames, relieved when I found that the rest of the pictures were only of Sam and Emily and occasionally her mother, his mother and other close relatives. I made it to the dresser only to find another picture with Jacob in it, but this one was different, much different.

He had the most beautiful expression on his face, filled with warmth and fulfillment and joy. Emily and Sam were standing on either side of him smiling toward the camera, and in his arms, his huge protective arms, lay a tiny baby girl staring up at him with huge amazed brown eyes, her tiny head still bald only for the few curls beginning to show. Even as a tiny child, there was awe and love in my innocent eyes.

"You changed my world." – I jumped up at his voice and the feeling of his breath in the back of my neck; I'd been so entranced by the photograph that I hadn't noticed Jacob standing behind me. He surrounded my waist with his arms and rested his chin on my shoulder, peering at the picture in my hands. – "I was dead before you came along… only I didn't know it."

"You mean… when you were heartbroken over mom?" – I didn't think it would slip out, but it did. I knew it was stupid to not let it go, stupid to compare a normal teenage love to what we have, but the image of his sad face wouldn't leave me, so I needed him to say something, anything to make it go away.

"Where did that come from? – His voice was light and even somewhat amused. I shrugged, unsure if I should show him the photograph.

"Ness?"

"I just… I saw something… but it's nothing."

"It's not "nothing" if you brought it up." – He sighed and turned toward the box I was packing, rummaging through it.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking for whatever pissed you off."

"I'm not pissed off."

"Well, you wouldn't know it from the way you were tossing these things around."

"Jake… come on, I'm not angry… it's nothing." – He stopped looking through the frames and turned toward me, holding up a particular photograph. He was looking at it with a frown and I didn't have to see it to know it was the photo I'd seen. After a minute he looked up at me.

"Ness… what do you think this means?"

"It means you were heartbroken over mom… it's alright though, I just… I just didn't like to see you look like that… over her." – Jake smiled and looked down, shaking his head.

"Oh Ness… are you ever going to let this go? Are you ever going to understand?"

"Understand what?"

"Understand that I never actually loved her… it was you all along, I just didn't know, but it was you. Your genes were in her, that's why I was so drawn to her and that's why once you were actually present, actually alive and conceived inside her, I loved her even more… at least I thought it was her, only it was you. So to have her away from me, to have her prefer Edward, it was torture, because all along it was you that was away from me, you the one I couldn't be with. Do you get it baby… do you actually get it… this is me, sad over you." – He held the picture up and pointed at his sad destroyed face and I suddenly felt like a fool for going nuts.

"Sorry."

"Don't be." – He threw the frame back in the box and pulled me close to him, pressing his forehead to mine. – "I actually like it when you're jealous… what I don't like is you hurting yourself with stupid ideas."

"Hey you guys… are you helping or just making out in here?!!!" – Quil was standing in the doorway with his hands on his hips.

"Shut up Quil."

"Is that an order big alpha?" – Jacob laughed at this and pulled back to look at him. – "Would you quit calling me that?"

"Oh, sorry "your eminence", it slipped out." – Quil bowed at Jake, making us both laugh.

"Hey, need any help in here?" – Embry walked in the door, smiling upon seeing us all laughing.

"They need a lot of help, considering they've been in here smooching instead of packing."

Embry and Quil began pulling out Emily's clothes out of the dresser and packing them, while Jacob continued filling the "Sam" box. I took out some bubble-wrap and continued with the frames, properly protecting them this time.

"Ness… could you hand me another box?"

I reached for an empty box next to me and handed it to Quil, who instead of just taking it held on to it looking rather alarmingly at my hand. I wasn't sure what he was looking at until he yelled out –"No!!! No way!!! Did… did you get engaged?!!!"

I pulled my hand away but it was too late. A second later Jared, Paul, Collin and Brady were standing at the door, looking in with excitement. I glanced at Jacob, feeling my face flush.

"Did you?"

"Yeah, we did." – Jake had a huge grin on, which grew surprisingly wider once all the wolves toppled over him to hug him and shake his hand. Even Paul who's always trying to get on his bad side was acting like a decent human being; congratulating him and patting him on the back.

"Man, this is exactly what we need… something to celebrate!!!" – Jared playfully punched Jake in the arm and smiled encouragingly at me. Whatever fears I had of not being accepted where long gone after that.

"So when's the party?!!!"

"We haven't set a date yet… but soon." – Jake gave me a knowing look, aware of just how desperate we both were to get married.

"So… um… who's gonna be your best man?" – Quil was looking down at the floor, glancing slightly up at Jake and then returning. Jared and Paul started laughing and nodded to Collin and Brady to leave the room.

"Luck man." – Said Jared as he went past Jake. Embry was the first to speak.

"Don't sweat it man… I know Quil's your best friend…"

"You're both my best friends."

"All I'm saying is, if you want to pick Quil, I'm fine with it, really."

"Unless you want to pick Embry… cuz you have been hanging out with him more lately… then I would be fine with it."

Jacob turned to look at me but this was really his call, and a difficult one. Even I would have trouble picking between them, especially since I love them both like brothers; so I couldn't imagine how hard this might be for Jake.

"You guys… we haven't even set a date yet… we just got engaged yesterday… it's a bit soon to be thinking about those things; so once we've settled things and decided on a date, I'll let you know."

They both nodded and continued to pack up the bedroom, acting as casual as they could even though it was obvious they both wanted to know Jakes decision, or better yet, choice.

Once we were done in the bedroom and finished taking out the larger pieces of furniture, the truck was loaded and Jared and Paul got in, having offered to drive it all the way to Emily's parent's house, in a town just outside of Washington.

"Bye sis." – Quil said to me, as he hugged me for a longer time than I'm usually used to. –"Or should I say, "your highness"?" I punched him in the shoulder but he just continued to laugh, bowing ceremoniously at me and Jake, who came to stand beside me. He then sped off into the forest, in the direction of Clair's house.

Embry put on a clean shirt and fixed his hair, carefully examining his reflection on the cabin's outside windows. Jacob turned to look at me with suspicion, because since when does Embry fix his hair?

"What's gotten into you… and what's with that shirt?" – Embry just shrugged.

"Nothing."

"Come on Embry… spill it."

"Really, it's nothing… can't a guy try and look good?"

"Embry, in the five and a half almost six years that I've know you, you have never fixed your hair. Who is she?" – My question startled him, obviously hitting a nerve; even Jacob was surprised by my assumption.

"What? No one… it's no one, I just… I felt like combing it, alright?!!!"

"Fine… but if you don't tell us you won't get a "plus one" on the wedding invitation." – Jacob smiled at me, amused by my threat. Embry on the other hand looked smug, like he wasn't about to give in.

"I don't need a "plus one"… because there is no one!!!"

"Sure, sure." – Called out Jacob. – "Whatever man… it's your business."

Embry looked relieved at Jacob's words and just said "gotta go", before disappearing into the woods.

"You think he's seeing someone?" – I turned toward Jacob, excited by the prospect of Embry finally having someone.

"Definitely… but I have no idea who… I don't see him with girls, let alone a specific girl. If it's true, I don't know why he's keeping it quiet."

"But he hasn't imprinted right?"

"No, we would have felt that… it's pretty awesome." – Jacob's face lit up.

"Well, anyway, remind me to add a "plus one" on his invitation, just in case he changes his mind." – Jacob nodded and took my hand, leading me to his car.

"Let's get out of here."

We ended up at the beach, not swimming, but just laying around on the sand. I couldn't help but glance every now and then at my ring, making sure it was still in place and wasn't a dream, making Jacob smile every time he caught me doing it.

"I promise you Nessie… if anyone is dreaming, it's me."

I turned on my side as to be facing him and searched for his lips. We kissed for what seemed like forever, with absolutely no place to be and in no hurry to stop. The only moment his lips ever left mine was when they pulled back to kiss the rest of my face; each touch so exciting and electrifying that you would think it was the first time we were kissing.

"We should set a date." – I hated myself for breaking with the carefree bliss we were under, but it was getting dark and tomorrow was Monday, which meant work for him and school for me and not a lot of time to discuss things.

"How about tomorrow?" – I giggled at his joke but was determined to get down to business.

"I'm serious… do you have a date in mind?"

"How long would it take to prepare everything? That should be our timeline."

"Well, with Alice's help, everything would probably be done in less than two weeks."

"No way Ness… I'm not letting that wacko plan our wedding, who knows what she'd pull!"

"I've seen pictures of my parent's wedding and it was beautiful… you went right, did you like it?"

"I didn't actually go inside and I wasn't present for the ceremony… I more or less just crashed for a few minutes."

"Well, mom says it was amazing, and for mom to say it, means it was. I think we can trust her… we just have to tell her exactly what we want so there's no chance she'll slip in something out of place or…"

"Embarrassing."

"Right."

"Ok, let's start with the "theme" as Pixie calls it. What do you want?"

"Well, I was hoping to have a traditional Quileute ceremony." – Jacob looked surprised by my words and slowly a huge grin spread out over his face.

"Really?"

"Of course… I'm going to be Renesmee Black after all." – His smile grew even wider, if that were possible, pulling my face back toward his, continuing with our making out. After a few minutes I knew I needed to stop, no matter how delicious his tongue felt inside my mouth and no matter how tingly his breath and soft moans made my entire body feel.

"Ok… let's keep going." – He reluctantly let go of me and laid his head back down on the sand.

"Ok, ceremony: traditional Quileute. What about the party? I have enough money saved, but it shouldn't be too extravagant."

"Oh, I forgot to tell you… when dad talked to me this morning, he said he and mom would pay for everything… since it's tradition for the bride's parents to pay for the wedding."

"I don't know Ness… I don't want to come into this family not pulling my own weight."

"Jake, don't see it that way… I mean… a few days ago I found ten thousand dollars stashed in the old library sofa in the big house."

"I still don't feel like taking advantage of the fact that your family is ridiculously loaded."

"It's not "taking advantage" if they're offering… they're excited about this and I am their only daughter."

"Ok, fine… but on one condition."

"Ok."

"We will not under any circumstances accept a place to live, not as a present or anything, not even a small cottage like the one they gave your parents… agreed?" – I didn't think it was possible to love him more, but I was wrong. What guy turns down the benefits of free expensive goods? Jacob could probably ask dad for a Ferrari as a wedding present and he'd get it, but instead, he's setting conditions about not accepting gifts, about pulling his own weight, about earning our way instead of just taking from my family's huge unlimited bank account.

"Agreed."

"Ok, so party?"

"Elegant but casual, definitely not Buckingham Palace." – Jacob laughed and rolled his eyes at what my aunt Rose had suggested. –"I was thinking we could do it here, on the beach."

"I'd like that." – He nodded.

"So… best man?"

"Not yet… keep going."

"You're going to have to choose sometime."

"I know… but not today." – I knew not to keep pushing, so I continued.

"I'll probably plan a trip to New York to go pick out my dress, maybe next weekend, and get your suit as well. We should all go, the entire family, so we can buy our outfits. It could be sort of a pre-wedding vacation."

"Ok, good idea. What about school? What are you going to do, because if you like Ness, maybe we can set the date till after you finished the year?"

"No… I'll talk to the principal tomorrow and explain; with my grades he'll probably let me take a remedial test for all my courses, so I can pass them. And senior year… we'll see."

"Ok, as long as you're sure."

"I am."

"What about the honeymoon?" – I felt my heart skip a beat upon hearing the word "honeymoon". My nerves started acting up again and anxiety mixed with anticipation mixed with a tiny hint of apprehension. Jacob smiled at my reaction, but I could tell he was just as jumpy.

"We can talk about that later." – He said, dismissing the subject. Before either one of us could speak again, Jacob's pocket began to vibrate. He smiled apologetically and answered his phone.

"Yeah?"

"Hey Jake, I'm calling because the Elders want to have a tribal council… since… well since Sam's death and you becoming the only alpha, they want to discuss things." – I recognized Jared's voice through the speaker.

"When's the meeting?"

"Right now, in half an hour… I ran into Old Quil and he asked me to gather everyone. You should probably announce your engagement also, the way Sam did when he got engaged… you know, to get their blessing."

"Yeah, good idea, so why don't you inform Paul, Collin and Brady and I'll tell the others."

"Way ahead of you… everyone already knows, except for Embry and Leah, whom I can't seem to find; you should try calling them because neither one is answering my calls."

"Ok, thanks… I'll see you in a bit."

Jacob hung up the phone and got up; holding my hands to help me up; completely unnecessary but I still liked it.

"Jared seems helpful."

"I know… I think he's hoping I'll make him my "beta", since he was Sam's."

"But you're not."

"Course not, Leah's was there when all the others turned their backs… besides, can you imagine her wrath if I demote her?" – We both laughed. – "Speaking of Leah, I should go find her… and Embry as well. Are you ok heading home alone?"

"Yes, of course."

Jake pulled me for a tight and long embrace.

"Leave the window open for me?" – He whispered into my hair. I nodded, tilting my head up so he could kiss me.

"Don't take too long."

Thank you for always being patient, I try to write as fast and as often as I can but sometimes I just don't have the time; so it means a lot that you're still with me. I'm still waiting on your suggestions for honeymoon destinations, the ones you've already given me are great and have sparked up my imagination, so keep them coming!!! And yes, I am a review junkie jajajaja