Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm just an uninvited guest swimming in her pool.

Warning: This chapter lives up to it's name so if a little fluffy mush isn't your thing, you may want to bring a pickle with you!

Please be sure to read the author's note at the bottom…

This chapter is dedicated to Liz, my muse in the flesh and the reason I took a deep breath and published the first chapter, and EmpireClover, my additional, more recent muse. :)

I do appreciate every last one of my readers, even the quiet ones.

PS. This is not the end...yet.


The Path We Chose

CHAPTER 23: A Tale Of Love and Romance

On prom night, while other high school girls were awaiting their dates, corsages, pictures and dancing, I waited for my date to cross the hall. I answered his knock at my bedroom door. He was wearing a black suit and jacket, a white shirt and a black tie that hung a little loose, and I'm pretty sure my jaw dropped. I wanted to touch him, he looked so unbelievable; I wanted to make sure he was real. He raised his brows looking me up and down. And up again. "You're beautiful," he said. "Do you feel well?" He grabbed my silk-covered hips with both of his hands and pulled me closer.

I answered by standing on tiptoe to lick his neck.

"What was that?"

"You look so good I had to taste you."

He licked my neck, too. "You look tasty, as well, and as usual, you are. Also, as much as I love these," he kissed one shoulder and then the other, "you need a sweater." I yanked a white knitted thing out of my closet that would hardly keep me warm once the sun went down, and I tucked the manila envelope under my arm.

Hand-in-hand we strode out into the cool, Spring evening. I was surprised that it wasn't raining and surprised further when we walked right past his car. Through the woods we went, trees towering over our heads while specks, way over here and way over there, of golden buttercups and blue bell flowers and pink ones that Edward called monkey flowers sprouted from the forest floor. The further we walked, the necessity of my flats became clear. I took each step carefully so I wouldn't trip over my dress. Finally, I saw it in the clearing. A blanket, a bottle, a covered bowl, a bouquet of flowers. They were wild flowers of every color. He picked them up and put them in my hand. "These are for you. They remind me of you."

"Bright?"

"Yes."

"Colorful?"

"Yes."

I brought them to my nose. "Fragrant?"

He brought his nose to my neck and sniffed. "Perfectly fragrant."

"Wild?"

"All you."

"Thank you, they're beautiful."

"Now you've got it." He corked the tall bottle, both of us lowering ourselves onto the blanket.

"Champagne?" I was enjoying my single-word communication.

"Sparkling Cider." He poured two plastic cups and handed me mine.

"You always manage to make school dances so much better. There should be more school dances."

"Does that mean you'll dance with me?"

"There's no music."

He nodded, reached for the bowl, uncovered it and pulled out a purple grape. I laughed.

"Are you going to throw grapes at me while I'm wearing a prom dress?"

"No. I'm going to feed them to you." He brought one to my lips and I took it into my mouth along with his finger.

"Yummy."

"The grape or the finger?"

"Both. Give me some more."

"Nope, it's my turn." He tilted my head with his hand, placed a grape in the crook of my neck and ate it off me. "Do you want another one now?"

"No, thank you. I want it to be your turn again." I kept my head tilted.

His lips were at my ear. "Should I bother with the grape or just kiss you?"

"Just kiss me."

He kissed my ear and then up and down my neck, then turned my head the other way and kissed around that side. His kisses traveled down along my chest to my cleavage, because, yes I now had cleavage. My breathing grew heavier with each kiss. "Should I stop?"

"No." I pulled his lips back to my throat. He gave me a few more kisses but then did stop. "Walk with me." He stood up and held a hand out to me.

"What about me? I didn't get to kiss all over you. How can you turn it off just like that?"

"It's not easy, Bella, but I want to show you something before it gets dark." He lifted me up and linked my hand around his elbow like he was my Mr. Knightley and I was his Emma, and he led me across the field, back to the woods and over the footbridge toward the creek. We stopped when we reached the rocky edge. "Do you hear that?" he asked, facing me and slowly bringing both my arms up around his neck.

"The water trickling?"

One hand came around my back holding me snug while the other came to my head guiding me to rest on his shoulder. "It sounds like music," he said and started slowly moving, guiding me along with him. We were dancing.

"Natural music," I said.

He stopped moving and just held me close. "I love you so much," he said.

"I love you, too, Edward."

He pulled away to look into my eyes, then he lifted one arm leading me in a spin. I awkwardly spun around, trying not to lose my balance. When I faced him again, he was lowering himself to one knee in the dirt. I watched him go down, but almost couldn't see him through my dampening eyes. He reached into a pocket and when he pulled out his hand, a ring sparkled in white from the tip of his pinky. He held it out to me. "This is for you, my only love." he said. "I want you to be my wife, someday, when you're ready…when we're both ready. I know that won't be for a while, but I want it to be official. I want you to wear this ring. I want you to be mine."

"I'm yours," I said nodding.

His own eyes glistened tears when he said. "Marry me?"

I bent down along with Edward and wrapped myself around him, landing in his lap as he fell back. "Yes. Yes, I will. I will."

We welcomed our engagement in kisses and repetitive I love yous. I don't know how many of either took place. I lost count. He was the one who paused, taking my left hand from around his neck and placing the ring on my finger. It was slightly big. "We'll get it sized," he said, closing my fingers over my hand, and kissing my fingernails.

"I've never worn jewelry," I said and spun his mother's bracelet around on my wrist, "and you have me wearing two pieces."

He laughed and held me against him in the forest dirt, playing with my hand and sharing with me the story of the ring just as he had once heard it:

"It was my great-grandmother's ring. My great-grandfather told her he wanted to give her the world but since the world wasn't for sale or he couldn't afford it, even if it was, he had this ring made just for her." Edward lifted my hand and pointed to the round diamond in the middle. "This one represents the earth. The two smaller ones on each side are the sun and the moon. The tiny ones that go all the way around," he turned my hand over to show me that tiny diamonds did indeed circle the ring, "represent all the stars in the sky.

"Upon my great-grandmother's death, she left this ring to her daughter who in turn passed it on, along with her memories, to her own daughter, my mother. My great-grandmother was Elizabeth Masen and had long brown hair and green eyes. Her family struggled bad during the Great Depression. They were on the verge of losing their home--our home.

"She brought my grandmother, seven years old at the time, to the pawn shop with her. She didn't have a choice; there was nobody to babysit her. She told her daughter to close her eyes and cover her ears, and she obeyed. But you know, when you cover your ears and you listen, you can still hear--and seven-year-olds are pros at peeking through their squinting eyes. She heard my great-grandmother cry as she handed over the ring, shiny and bright, replacing it with dirty green paper. Elizabeth took her daughter by the hand and told her she could uncover herself now. When she did, she saw no trace of sadness left in her mother's face.

"Elizabeth didn't tell her husband what she'd done. She gave him the money, just mentioning she sold some things from up in the attic. Her ring-less hand was hidden well behind her back or in her apron pocket. Great-grandfather, he beamed and lifted her in a twirl because now they could keep their house.

"What Elizabeth couldn't have guessed was that her daughter would tattle on her. So her husband, Great-grandfather Masen, bought the ring back. He replaced it on the finger where it belonged and they lived for the next five years without a car."

"Edward."

"Bella, this is your ring now."

"I can't. It's too much."

He shook his head. "My great-grandfather gave this to his wife twice because she was his world. You are my world, now, so it is yours. Whether or not you wear it, it's yours."

"I'll wear it," I said, and I brought my left hand to his heart. "I'll take the best care of it I can."

"I know you will."

We may have glided back to our clearing and our blanket. I couldn't feel the ground beneath my feet. We sat down for some more fake champagne before I removed his jacket for him and unbuttoned his shirt. He let me take off his shirt and then his shoes and pants without a word. I kissed along his shoulders, his chest, and down his torso without a word. I tasted him and it was sweet and it was salty and it was Edward on my lips and in my mouth and my taste buds wanted more. Then he sat naked on the blanket watching me shimmy my body out of my sweater and my dress without a word. And when I was as naked as him I joined him on the blanket, nudged against him with my body, and he caught me with his arms, following my lead to lie down without a word. I was on top of him and kissing him and satisfying my tongue with his taste. I gave to him what I thought he needed with my hands and my mouth--my tongue and my teeth, and my skin. His breathing grew deep and so did mine and our moans blended with the forest wind, and I just gave to my fiancé while the sun set and twilight neared. And when I put him inside me, he covered me with his jacket like a blanket even though no one else was around. Maybe it was the birds in the trees he wanted to hide my nakedness from, or maybe he simply wanted to keep me warm. I didn't care.


My dress was on the ground. I was wearing Edward's shirt while he, of course, sat shirtless, wearing just his pants, holding me on his lap, both his arms around my middle, his chin on my shoulder.

I reached back and felt his face. "Since I'm wearing your shirt, you should wear my dress."

His answer came interspersed with laughter. "Bella, it is impossible to predict what might come out of your mouth next. But I think your dress is a little small for me."

I turned to look at him. "If it fit you would you wear it?"

"I would if you really wanted me to, only for you. But you look infinitely better in my shirt than I would look in a dress."

"My maternity dresses might fit you."

"Damn! I forgot about those. Don't ask me to wear those."

"I'm just kidding. I wouldn't make you wear a dress, although it would be a funny sight. You in a maternity dress covered in an ugly yellow floral print. I might have to get you in one just for the laugh."

"If you dress me in that thing you would probably never get that image out of your head."

"Then I would have a constant smile on my face."

"Well, in that case, I would do it. I would wear your maternity dress just to keep you smil--"

I kissed him before he could even finish his sentence. "And I would never make you wear one because you just said that."

"I have something for you," I said, and tried to get up but he held me fast and close.

"I already had to let go of you when you put my shirt on. I don't want to do it again."

"Don't let go," I said, "just loosen up. What I have for you is right here." I reached forward for the manila envelope but he wouldn't let go even to take it from me. So I pulled the papers out for him and held them up. The one on top had a bold, hard-to-miss, "Stanford" printed across the top.

"What is that?" He let go with just one hand and his other arm seemed to tighten around me as he took hold of the top paper. "Why do you have this?" I turned around, twisting from his grasp so he could let it all seep in. I kept one hand on his bicep because it was naked and right there. I kissed it, too.

"Emmett's dad helped us. He found this alumni group who want to help the less-to-do but still deserving students attend Stanford. We met with the founder of the scholarship, Aro. He seems to think you have quite a chance of being granted their full scholarship. $50,000 for the year. You would have to reapply every year, though, probably submitting your student status. And once you graduate you will be required to contribute to future scholarship funds."

"Bella…" His hand was in his hair raking through the top, an action I'd only seen him do on very few occasions, out of nervousness or anger. I looked closely at him trying to read his expression. I had anticipated the fact that he might be angry at me for going behind his back.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think you would let me do it if I told you. You've been so adamant about giving up on Stanford like it is something I want or need you to do. "

"Y-you…You're sorry?! You.." He looked at me, shaking his head over and over, but as soon as I saw the brightness of his green eyes, I knew that anger was not the emotion he was projecting. He dropped the papers and grabbed for my hands, squeezing my fingers. "Th-This is--nobody has ever done anything like this for me before." He rarely had trouble with words and I had just heard him stutter and stumble at least twice. He was overwhelmed.

"I love you. I would do anything for you. Emmett loves you, too."

He straightened my arm and brought his hand to my shoulder, watching as it drifted all the way down my arm to my wrist. And then he did it again and then a third time. "This is what love feels like. Bella, you are love. You are fucking love."

He pulled me roughly onto his lap as if I would resist, as if I wouldn't have willingly just crawled right into him and happily stayed there, becoming one with him.

"You're happy."

"Yes. Yes, I am."

"I knew it! I knew you wanted Stanford. You acted like it didn't matter, but I knew it."

He took my face into both of his hands and looked into my eyes. "Bella, I do want Stanford. If I'm being honest, I want Stanford, bad. But not near as much as I want you,. There is nothing I want more than to be with you and baby. I won't go without you."

"I'll go with you. It has to be possible right? I mean…right?" I looked down at my new ring. It had twisted around backward so I adjusted it. I had always just assumed I would go with him, but the reality of it just hit me. How could we afford it? I had thought only about being with Edward, not about us being on our own with baby. Maybe that was a fairytale. Maybe that wasn't happening. My eyes were filling fast, like the creek, but I held back--wouldn't let them leak.

His hands came back to my face until I looked up at him, his eyes intense on mine and he didn't move--he just stared and blinked a few times. "Bella," he finally said. "$50,000 is enough for my tuition, but nothing else. Not living expenses. And California. Palo Alto is expensive--probably three times what it costs to live here."

My strength, my will, was no longer enough to stop my tears. They left my eyes in a flow over my cheeks and Edward caught them and pushed them aside with his thumbs. "You're going, Edward. If you get this opportunity, you're going. If I can't go, I'll be here…waiting. I will wait for you. But you are going."

"Bella, don't..." He wiped my tears again, kissed just under each eye and then my lips.

"Edward, you have to go."

"We can't be apart." Just hearing him say the word apart made me cry harder. His arms encircled me and I rested my head on his shoulder letting my tears wet his bare skin. The skin I needed. Apart? I shook my head.

"You're not passing this up. You're not. I love you too much to watch you let this go. I mean it."

"I know you do. But I can't go without you. I physically can't. I'm telling you. I would be immobile--I would flunk out and waste the entire opportunity."

"Okay," I sat up and moved from his lap. I wiped away the rest of my tears and sniffled. "Okay, we can figure this out. Let's think about this for a minute. So, it's expensive. I can get a job. If the cost of living is higher, so would the rate of pay be right? We can both get jobs and I have my college fund, so--"

"No! No way, Bella. We are not touching your college fund to cover rent. That is not happening. And if you get a job, who will watch our baby? We would have to pay someone. I'll get two jobs if I have to."

"How is that possible? Stanford is not Forks High. You won't be able to get by without study time and then on top of that baby and me, too?"

"Hold on, let me think." He took my hand and brought it to his lips and every so often gave it a kiss like that helped him think. "I'll get one job and we'll just... we'll have a roommate or rent a room or something. We'll work it out, even if we have to rent a room from Emmett. Hell, his dad will be paying his expenses anyway, so it would just be extra money in Emmett's pocket if we rented a room."

"Live with Emmett?"

"We'd be together, Bella. We can take him on together." He laughed.

"That's a good idea, Edward. He wants you there so badly that he would do it. He would. You didn't see him the day we had that meeting. He was as excited as I was."

He kissed me, both of us allowing the desperation of having just considered the possibility of living apart to exit our bodies through our lips and tongue.

"Bella," he said, kissing me again. "Bella," he kissed me again. "How did you guys pull this off? " He kissed me again. "How did you get them to offer me an opportunity without my being there?"

"Emmett's dad set up the meeting and he and my dad both wrote a letter of recommendation for you. Aro already has those."

"Your dad?"

"Well, his secretary wrote it. It's very eloquent. But my dad did read it and signed it."

"He won't mind if you move to California?"

"He must have known that was a possibility when he agreed to help. Besides, he knows as well as I do how many more doors will open for you with a college education."

"What about you? What about college?"

"Edward, I've already decided and before you say anything, you are not asking this of me. This was my decision. I'm going to wait until you're finished. I'll go to college after you. I will go, but after you. It makes more sense anyway, since I'll have our baby to take care of. It will be easier for me when baby is a little bit older and maybe you will have a real job and we can afford daycare. But if you get this scholarship, you are going to Stanford."

"Come back here," he said and this time I put myself in his lap. "How is this possible? I do not deserve you. You're like," he brushed my hair away from my face and down to my waist, "from another world."

"We deserve each other," I said kissing his cheek. "So, are you going to tell Emmett that he'll have three imposing roommates, one possibly very loud one, or am I?"

"Nothing's set in stone yet. We have to wait and see if they even offer this scholarship to me."

"You can still apply for Stanford's regular scholarship and student loans as back up."

I remained in Edward's lap, my head on his shoulder while he stroked and stroked my hair down my back. It was so relaxing I almost fell asleep. But then I shivered. Edward pulled his jacket around me but even then, I couldn't pretend I wasn't cold, and with Edward shirtless it was inevitable that we would have to leave our clearing.

"We should go back," he said, "but I want you in my bed tonight. I want to sleep with you all night and wake up with you."

"How can we?"

"I'll talk to my dad. I'll tell him we're engaged." We smiled at each other and kissed because how couldn't we? He'd just said the word "engaged". "And when I tell him about the Stanford possibility, I'm positive he'll say yes to anything."

We put our own clothes back on and gathered up our things. Edward took the blanket, the envelope, the bottle and my hip. I took the bowl of grapes and the wildflowers that reminded him of me.


A/N

(My great-grandmother had to sell her wedding ring during the great depression and that story has always rested softly in my heart. Sadly, she didn't get hers back.)

Oh no! We're nearing the end. If nothing changes in the next few days, there are only two chapters left. I had also planned an epilogue, BUT, the epilogue kept expanding because these two are insisting they have more story to tell. So, I've begun working on a sequel. Are you even interested in reading a sequel? Here's another question. If you are, in fact interested in a sequel, I have to (for my own sanity) have the majority of my story completed before I start publishing it. So it may take a couple of weeks before you can begin reading it. Are you willing to wait? Click the review button to review and answer my questions. Thank you!