NOTE: This is Part 2 of a double post for today. Make sure you've read the chapter before prior to reading this one. Thank you all for being so supportive of our little sequel. We love it, and you, so much!
Chapter 24: Lights Will Guide You Home
Edward
Saturday, December 23, 2023
Forks, Washington
"Everything's fine," I tell Bella when I step back onto the football field we had made out of snow. I swallow back the bundle of nerves that threaten to choke me where I stand and put a smile on my face for her. "Everything's fine."
"Was that Sue from the chapel?" She asks, pointing at my phone that remains frozen in my hand. "I saw chapel come up on your phone before you walked away."
"Yes, it was Sue," I admit, sighing in worry. I take the hat off my head and run my hands through my hair. "But at least it wasn't the venue, am I right?"
"Edward."
It's not a question. It's a statement. She isn't in the mood for my jokes right now. And just by her tone I can tell she demands answers like yesterday.
"Well," I pause for a moment, briefly wondering if she'll throw the football she's holding at my head. "There is a slight problem with the chapel. Slight."
"How slight?" Rose asks, and now I'm wondering if she'll take the football from Bella's hands and throw it at my head, as well.
"It's under water."
"Under what now?" It's Jasper this time.
"Water. Flooded." I glance at him before turning back to Bella. "The pipes burst from the cold overnight and -"
"Stop," Bella interrupts, her palms held in front of us. The football drops to the snow-covered ground. "Just stop. Please."
I purse my lips, frozen in place, afraid to make any sudden movements. Bella paces for a few moments, gathering her thoughts, before letting out the loudest, most feral scream I've heard from her in the two years I've known her.
And that's saying something since I hear her scream quite often. Heh.
As if she has let out the song of her people, her battle cry if you will, Rose and Alice are immediately at her side, and I've never been more grateful for them. Sure, I know what I'd do and say to make her feel better, but her girls are the ones with the logistical questions and details right now, the ones Bella needs to hear.
"Tell me what the back of the chapel looks like," Alice asks, shifting into planning mode right in front of our eyes. Though Alice may have gotten a little off track these last few months, I can see the real her brimming under the surface, unable to take a seat on the sideline when her friend needs her the most.
"Full of roots and on a downward slope," Rose answers for Bella, images of the chapel and its grounds already pulled up on her phone for all of them to see. They hover over the phone in their own impenetrable huddle, so focused on creating a new gameplan that they tune the rest of the world out for now.
"Now I told you to get a back up plan for The Boat," Emmett says nervously as he slides next to me. "Tell me you also have a back up plan for the chapel."
"He does, actually," Jasper says, his phone wedged between his ear and his shoulder. He looks over at me. "I'm on it."
"The day we went to lunch," I tell Emmett. "Bella was so worried earlier that morning about the venue falling through for the third time. She's been more nervous about it then she has let on, but I could tell how much it was bothering her. When Jasper called and said he was on his way to meet with the mayor to sign some things for his toy drive, I asked him to find out what it would take to reserve a different place in case something happened to the chapel or the venue."
"And?" Emmett asks. "Did your back up plan work?"
I eye Jasper from across the field as he hangs up his call only to make another one. "I guess we'll find out."
…
It takes another half hour before Jasper has assured me, and reassured me several times after that, before I'm finally convinced I can tell Bella with one thousand percent certainty that today will still be everything we planned for.
We're gathered in the lobby of the inn, sitting by the fire to warm us from the cold, when Jasper gives me one last final nod. Squeezing Bella's hand in mine as we sit on the couch, I nudge her forward slightly. "Come take a walk with me."
Sighing, she nods slowly, reaching for her scarf and wrapping it around her neck twice while Rose and Alice pause their plans of finding solutions. For now. I had told Emmett and Jasper to tell the two of them of my back up plan while I tell Bella, and I send a quick prayer that all conversations with the ladies in our lives go well enough that we all emerge unscathed from this whole thing.
"I knew something was going to happen today," Bella says with a solemn shake of her head as we walk along the edge of trees in the back of the inn. "I just had a feeling about it the whole time."
"I know," I reply. "But what if I told you I may have a solution?"
"Well, I'd first ask you why you didn't tell me a fucking hour ago."
Laughing, I pull her into my side as we continue walking, leaning on each other for warmth as our breath puffs out in front of us. "I couldn't until I knew for sure everything was handled. I didn't want to get your hopes up for nothing."
"Just tell me, Edward. Please, before I lose whatever is left of my mind."
I stop walking, holding her hands in mine before I place them on my chest. "I can't give you your chapel, Bella, and I'm truly so sorry for that. I know your grandparents were married there and it means a lot to you, and I promise one day we'll have a ceremony there. Maybe at our fifty year vow renewal or something," I joke, and I'm gifted with a soft giggle and an even softer gaze. "But what I can offer you today is us. We can still get married today, even though it won't be in the chapel, but we can still -"
"Yes," Bella interrupts. She swallows as tears fill her eyes just before standing on the tips of her toes to press her lips to mine. I miss her when she pulls away. "I don't care where as long as I can marry you today."
Laughing in our excitement, I hold her face in my hands. "I'll text the girls and tell them where to take you. Just be there at 5:00."
…
5:00 finds us all in the center of town, just like we do every year, waiting for the impressive Grand Fir to be lit in front of the crowd that returns every year. The tree lighting has been a tradition in the Cullen family long before Bella and I came along, but the tree lighting has our own special role in the story of us.
These lights, the way they spark joy and hope in even the coldest of hearts, is where we shared our first kiss on our first date, and I immediately thought of marrying Bella in front of this tree the minute I asked her to marry me. When a back up plan was needed, I had Jasper and the mayor draw up all necessary paperwork to make sure this was an available option should we need it today.
There are certain things I'll always remember about this day for obvious reasons. Our vows to each other, the way we promised ourselves to one another in front of our family and friends beneath the snow-dipped trees. The way she looked as she walked down the aisle towards me, her arms covered in a delicate lace that looked like a thousand snowflakes dancing on her skin like confetti.
The lights from the tree around us are nowhere near as bright as her; she is the light that has guided me home.
To her.
To us.
To forever.
