A/N: It's time for a relaxing, family-fun chapter before things get tense again. Enjoy!

BPOV

I flew out the door as soon as Edward's car pulled up. By the too-slow speed with which he walked around the car, I knew some neighbor or other must be watching, but I didn't care. I crashed right into him, peppering his face with kisses.

He grinned and spun me around in his arms. "Bella! I missed you so much!" he cried. He was too loud- there was definitely someone watching. I looked around, and I could see Mrs. Gallagher down the street, walking her dog. I gave her a wave, which she returned, shaking her head and smiling.

I ducked into the car, and when Edward got in, he was chuckling.

"Okay, what was she thinking?" I asked, smiling back at him.

"She's thinking that I'm too boyishly innocent to hurt anyone. And that I look smoking hot in gray," he added mischievously.

I gasped. "She did not! Mrs. Gallagher's like ninety years old!"

He considered that for a moment. "Hmm, perhaps you're right… she is a bit young for me."

I shook my head, propping my feet up on his dashboard. "Ah, it's nice to be legal again, isn't it?"

"It sure is. As much as I love stalking you in your room, I was getting a little sick of it."

"Let's do something in public this week, so everyone can see how boyishly innocent you are, okay?"

"We'll have to check the Alice-cast. I could wear gray…" he winked at me, and the wink combined with the gray sweater made me sigh. It really wasn't fair how gorgeous he was. There ought to be a law against that. "So," he continued, "Esme has been cooking up a storm today, and Alice has had Emmett and I rearrange the picnic tables and decorations fifteen times so far."

"Decorations? Tables, plural?" I was the only one who was going to eat.

"Call it a family reunion. I'm not the only one who misses you when you're gone, you know."

I blushed. "I'm sure Rosalie's thrilled."

He sighed. "Ah, Rosalie… she might be suddenly occupied in the garage during dinner."

"Just as well. She hates me."

"She doesn't hate you, Bella."

"Whatever. I refuse to think about anything sad today." I wanted to ask him what he and Carlisle had decided about contacting the elders in La Push, but that definitely fell in the sad category.

"I want to help Esme cook when I get there, by the way. I need some serious girl time that doesn't involve makeup."

He burst out laughing. "How did you know?"

"Know what?"

"Alice was going to ambush you as soon as we pulled up. Something about a 'Hawaiian-themed makeover'."

"Yep, I'm definitely cooking with Esme."

.

.

.

When we pulled up to the house, I shrank down in my seat, cautiously peeking out the window... but there was no Alice in sight.

I blew out a breath of relief and headed up the porch, hand in hand with Edward, but then I stopped.

"The front door looks weird."

"It's new. Somebody accidentally broke the old one."

"Gotcha."

"Bella!" Esme cried, suddenly appearing next to me. Edward kissed my cheek and headed over to the living room, where Emmett had a video game already booming. I gave Esme a big hug and we headed into the kitchen together. I was greeted by the delicious smell of baked beans, simmering away in a crockpot, as well as a colorful array of fruit on a huge tray, a tiny pile of raw hamburgers and hot dogs, cookies cooling on a rack, and a huge bowl of ice next to a snow cone machine.

I groaned. "Esme, what is all this?"

"Your welcome-home dinner! I hope you don't mind if we eat early… Emmett has a little surprise for you later," she answered with a twinkle in her golden eyes. "And I think it's sweet that you want to help. You can slice the onions- that's the one job I can't stand."

I washed my hands and started slicing, squinting as the tears started to come. "The smell must be awful in here for you, huh?"

She laughed- I had missed the sound of her laugh. While Alice sounded like tinkling bells, Esme sounded like wind chimes. "Well, I won't say it's pleasant, but I've gotten used to it over the years."

"Years? I thought you had never cooked until I came along."

"No, sweetheart, I've been cooking for… let's see, seventy-seven years, not counting human years, of course. I started out making cookies for the children's ward at Carlisle's hospital- we were in Montana at the time. Over the years, I occasionally added new recipes, mostly for potlucks at either the hospitals or the kids' schools. And I do occasionally send Carlisle and the others off with a homemade lunch, just for appearances."

"Wow."

"But I've never had this much fun in the kitchen," she said warmly. "It's so much fun having a human daughter!" Her smile faltered for just a second. "One who eats, I mean. I love cooking for you."

I thought about that for a moment. I knew Edward was probably listening from the other room, but I decided to go for it anyway. "Esme, does Edward ever… talk about that? About changing me, I mean?"

There was loud curse from Emmett from the living room. "Edward, lighten up! It's no fun beating you when you're not paying attention!" he yelled. I rolled my eyes.

Esme was frozen next to me. After a moment, she relaxed and smiled sadly. "It's not a topic that comes up too often," she said carefully, glancing over toward the living room. Then she looked back at me, eyes gleaming. "But for what it's worth, I want you to spend eternity with us."

Now there was a loud crash from the living room. "Boys!" Esme called. "Take it outside!"

I flinched when I saw Edward fly through the air backwards, crashing into the wall next to the glass patio door and spraying a cloud of drywall bits into the hallway. Esme huffed and shook her head.

"What?" asked Emmett as he appeared in the hall. "You said to take it outside." Would you rather have me throw him at the patio door? Oh, hi, Bella," he grinned, turning to me. "Have I ever mentioned how much more fun Edward is when you come over?" Suddenly he was gone, and I heard the patio door slam shut. I wasn't too alarmed- in the past few weeks, I had spent a lot of time in the Cullen's house and backyard, watching the brothers wrestle. This was definitely the first time I had ever seen Edward get thrown, though. It was my fault, of course, but I refused to feel guilty.

A few minutes later, I heard the front door shut and Carlisle came in as well. "Hello, Bella. It's good to have you back again," he said kindly, hugging me with one hand while he picked up the hot dogs-and-hamburgers plate with the other. "Things just aren't the same around here without you."

"I've missed all of you, too. But you know I can't eat all that."

"Actually, most of it is for practice. I've never actually grilled before," he said with a wink.

My eyes widened. Carlisle didn't know how to do something? "Wait," I said suddenly. "Aren't you… you know, flammable?"

He chuckled. "It doesn't work like that."

"Well, here's the onions. Where are Alice and Jasper?"

He frowned slightly, looking at Esme.

"Jasper needed to hunt," she said quietly, looking him in the eye. "Just a quick stop, and he promised to be back in time for dinner. Alice had stayed to do makeup with Bella, but when she saw that Bella wanted to cook instead, she went to go meet Jasper on his way home."

Esme and I carried the food outside, and she went back in to make me a snow cone. I could see now what Alice had been up to all day- there were two picnic tables, end to end, decorated with a grass skirt tablecloth, and at least a dozen citronella candles lining the center of the tables. There were streamers in the trees, and a full stereo system was set up on the deck.

Edward and Emmett were standing calmly next to the charcoal grill, watching Carlisle as he lit it for the first time ever. The three of them looked like a Norman Rockwell painting- the all-American Dad, flipping burgers as he chatted with his well-dressed, well-behaved sons. I knew better, though. There was a huge patch of grass missing right in the middle of the backyard, and a fresh crater right in the middle of the patch. Both brothers had changed their clothes, and Edward's hair was wet. When Emmett saw me eyeing his new shirt, he grinned, the fire from the grill reflecting off his teeth.

"So, who won?" I asked unnecessarily. Since Edward had been the one to get a shower, he was obviously the one who been pounded into the dirt.

Edward just scowled at his brother, who was cracking his knuckles modestly.

"Hey, Bella, what do you get when you cross a werewolf with a flamethrower?" Emmett asked cheerfully. I just stared at him, and Edward stepped on his foot angrily. "Uh… never mind."

I ignored him and pulled Edward over to the picnic table to sit by me. "So, why did Jasper have to go hunt all of a sudden?"

"He's had a tough week."

"Yeah, it's been hard."

He smiled gently. "It's different for Jasper. He was already anxious about getting Charlie straightened out, and now he's even more anxious about the werewolves. He sees their ability to obscure Alice's visions as a personal threat to her safety. And when Jasper gets anxious, we all get anxious, and that makes Jasper even more anxious… see what I mean?"

I nodded, biting my lip. I knew about Jasper's ability to influence emotions, but I had never thought about how other people's emotions might affect him – he was like an emotional amplifier.

"Anyway, when he gets anxious he gets thirsty. He just wanted to take precautions since you were coming over."

I made a mental note to thank Jasper later. I still didn't feel quite at ease around him, but it was clear he had finally accepted me. A large part of our success in throwing Charlie off the track the other day was because of his willingness to use his gift to help. It was… sweet.

Edward nodded over toward the edge of the yard – they were already back. When Jasper saw me, he stiffened, but smiled kindly. Alice bounded over to me and hugged my shoulders as she bounced.

"Ooh, welcome back, Bella!"

"Thanks, Alice. And sorry about the makeover…"

"It's all right. We still have plenty of summer left for that," she threatened happily.

"Dinner!" called Carlisle. Everyone came and sat down, and even Rosalie sauntered into the yard, looking incongruous in her pink sundress and motor oil smeared on her hands and forearms. I felt a pang as I thought of Jacob for a moment. He and Rosalie would probably get along, if it wasn't for all this hating-each-other's-species nonsense. They actually had something in common. As it was, they would probably never even meet.

The dinner was great, and even Rosalie was making an effort to be sociable, if not friendly. I had gotten over the awkwardness of being the only one eating, and Edward watched me proudly as I stuffed myself.

"So, Jasper, I just wanted to say thank you," I said shyly as I took another cookie. "I know you did a lot to help with the Charlie thing last week, and I really appreciate it."

"It was my pleasure, Bella," he said politely as he inclined his head. "You and Edward have something special, you know. Something worth protecting." Alice pulled him down by the hair to her level and gave him a peck on the cheek. He smiled and I felt a warm cloud of happiness surround me.

"I've been wondering, though," I continued, my courage building, "do you really play the banjo?"

It was suddenly quiet at the table, and everyone was staring at Jasper, who was glaring at Edward.

"Jasper, I didn't know you could play any instruments!" Esme gushed.

Alice, especially, was staring at her husband in awe- she had probably figured she already knew everything there was to know about him. But the past wasn't her game, and I felt rather smug that I had known something that she didn't, for once.

"It was back when I first joined the Confederate army," he muttered. "Banjos were cool back then. I was just trying to fit in..."

Emmett fell off his side of the bench laughing, and even Rosalie cracked a genuine smile, holding up her phone to take a picture of Alice's astounded expression. I was just sitting still, trying not to faint. Did he just say Confederate?

"It's too bad we can't have MySpace accounts," Emmett gasped out between guffaws. "Because I bet Forks High would love to see that one!"

Rosalie passed her phone around the table, and laughter erupted around the circle of family members as they saw it. It was quite a picture- Alice's eyebrows were so high they were almost off her head, and her mouth was frozen in a little "o" shape. Even Jasper was laughing now, and for the first time ever, I saw him smile- really smile. It was like someone had taken a ray of sunshine and put it right on his face. He was beautiful. And I had never seen Esme so carefree, either, leaning into Carlisle's shoulder and laughing so hard I almost expected tears to come out of her eyes. He had his arm around her, pressing a kiss to her forehead as he watched his "children" with sparkling eyes.

I looked around the table at my family – for this was how I was letting myself think of them lately – and I felt a surge of both hope and fear. Two hundred years from now, these same people would be sitting around in a circle, laughing just like this- unchanged. Would I be there to see it? What would it take for Edward to understand what I wanted? What would it take for him to understand that this was the way it had to be? How long would it take for him to understand?

After dinner, Emmett announced that it was time for my surprise. He disappeared behind the shed, and came out with two poles and a huge net. Edward touched my shoulder and whispered, "Try not to be offended, okay? He wanted to do something special for you."

I nodded, watching as Emmett assembled the volleyball net. "How would I be offended by volleyball?" I whispered back. Edward just smirked back at me.

We all took our positions – Edward, Esme and Carlisle were on my team- and Emmett got ready to serve to us. "Look out, Bella!" he yelled, and flashed me an evil grin as he suddenly jumped ten feet in the air and smashed the ball with his open hand. I screamed and held my arms up to protect my face, but I only felt a light thump against my arms, and everyone was laughing at me. I opened my eyes – arms still up over my face- and saw a nerf volleyball at my feet.

My face grew hot with embarrassment at first. I knew I was a lousy athlete, but did they really need to make fun of me? For just a second I was afraid I might have some tears coming, but then I remembered that the Cullens would never do anything to really hurt my feelings. Even though Emmett did like to tease me, I understood that he was trying to find something fun that we could do together without me bleeding or getting squished. I smiled and soon I was laughing along with them, and I picked up the ball, impressing myself when I managed to get it back over the net.

It sailed over toward Alice, but she didn't reach up to meet it. She was staring straight ahead, and her eyes suddenly closed, a look of defeat on her face. Edward cursed quietly at my side, and everyone flew over to stand around Alice, waiting for whatever bad news was coming.

"It's The Phone," she sighed. "It's going to ring in…" her eyes flew back open in panic. "Two minutes! Jasper!"

Jasper disappeared in a flash, and less than a second later, Edward and I were the only ones standing under the volleyball net.

"Okay, I'm really confused," I admitted as he began pulling me toward the house. "What's so bad about Alice's cell phone ringing?"

"Not her phone," he answered miserably. "The Phone."

A/N: Anyone want to take a guess what The Phone is? *ominous music*