"I like these," Edward said, tapping the third cream-colored paper from the right. I looked over to the sample invitation that he'd indicated, and saw that it looked exactly like every other sheet of paper spread out on the table.

"Why?" I asked, half exasperated, half amused.

"It's the closest to white," he replied.

"So why don't we just choose white instead of—" I flipped the paper over and read the label printed on the bottom: "eggshell?"

"White would be too stark against black ink," Alice explained, setting aside the eggshell-colored paper and happily gathering the rest of the samples into a stack. For a brief, shining moment I thought we would be done for the day, but then Alice set a large leather-bound book in the invitations' place. I stared at its thickness apprehensively; I didn't think I could stand to look at any more cream-colored paper without threatening to call the whole wedding off, which might puncture Alice and Edward's ballooning enthusiasm.

"Colors!" said Alice happily, jiggling in excitement—or, rather, doing miniature pirouettes of excitement. I couldn't imagine Alice doing anything as ungraceful as jiggling.

"Colors? But I thought the invitations were supposed to be off-white?"

"They are," said Edward, leaning over my shoulder. His hair tickled my neck and I squirmed in my seat, momentarily distracted by his proximity. "I think these are for the linens, flowers, and bridesmaids' dresses?"

"Yes," Alice answered as she skipped past the first section of the book, which featured only various shades of cream.

"Alice, can't you just—figure out what I'd like now, so I don't have to look through all of these?" I said, trying very hard to keep the whine from my voice. I don't think I succeeded.

"I don't know what you'll decide until after you've seen the choices," Alice said, grinning at the disappointed look on my face. "Come on, Bella, this is the fun part!"

In response to the doubtful look on my face, Edward kissed the top of my head and then whispered, "We'll do something fun after this." His tone of voice was completely innocent, but the trace of his tongue against my ear indicated something else entirely. My heartbeat quickened, and I felt his lips curve into a smile before he turned his attention back towards the book and started turning pages.

"What do you think of red?" Alice asked, halting Edward's hand.

"Um, I don't think so," I said, staring at a sample swatch of material called "Blood Red." Edward turned to me and saw the direction of my gaze, but merely raised his eyebrows before continuing to the next section. I actually loved that shade of red, but with vampires comprising half the wedding party it seemed to call attention to itself.

"Pale yellow might be nice," Edward said thoughtfully, interrupting my thoughts.

"But for an August wedding?" Alice said doubtfully. "I don't know… what do you think, Bella?"

"Yellow does seem like more of a spring color," I answered, then shook my head in disgust; I was actually getting into this. The Cullens' enthusiasm must be catching.

"And I suppose it would clash with Rosalie's hair…" Alice murmured thoughtfully.

I couldn't imagine any color that wouldn't look stunning on Rosalie, but as she had only recently deigned to talk to me, I decided not to tempt fate by choosing a color for a bridesmaid dress that she could interpret as a slight. Privately, I knew it didn't matter what color I ended up choosing—Alice and Rosalie would always outshine me, even if they were dressed in old dishrags.

Alice turned the book to the blue section, and a sudden stillness swept across her face. She stared blankly ahead for a few moments, then turned to me and smiled. "Navy blue it is!" she chirped, pointing to a rich blue color. "Very elegant… perfect for a classic wedding… white and green-foliage accents would work very well…"

"Do you ever wonder if your visions are self-fulfilling prophecies?" I asked abruptly, thinking of Macbeth and the three witches. "I mean, what if you hadn't told me you'd 'seen' Edward and me choose blue, and I had continued looking through the book. Is it possible I would have chosen lavender instead?"

Edward gave me a mischievous smile. "Are you saying you'd like to look through the rest of the colors?"

Alice, though, smiled somewhat ruefully. "Trust me, most days I think all my visions are self-fulfilling, which really makes me question how useful they are."

"Oh no, Alice, I didn't mean to offend you," I said quickly, mentally kicking myself for my unintentional gaffe. "Your visions have saved my life so many times—it was stupid of me to say that."

"No, it wasn't," Edward said, then looked at Alice and nodded—presumably in answer to her unspoken thoughts. "It's a topic we've debated many times. Carlisle and I were proposing ways of testing the extent of her visions' independence—if, for example, her not telling us the outcome of an event would alter our decisions, but eventually Jasper and Esme made us see sense—either way, her predictions are a part of her, and we just accept them."

"Edward's being too nice, as usual," Alice said, giving her brother a small smile. "What he's not telling you is how crazy it was driving me not being able to voice my visions aloud, and the constant doubt I felt about my ability. The emotional strain was just too much, and I decided it didn't matter."

"That makes sense," I said. "And I'm glad you saw this—you've just saved me from actually looking through this huge book."

"I think we'll leave the flowers for another day," Edward said to Alice, but just then, to my embarrassment, my stomach let out a growl.

"Bella, we have some food in the kitchen for you!" Esme called from the living room—of course, with her heightened senses, she could hear the evidence of my hunger from two rooms away.

Edward made to get up and join me in the kitchen but I stopped him. "I know you like looking through this stuff—you can't fool me," I said, grinning. "You can keep looking through it with Alice while I eat—then you can make good on your promise." Edward kissed me on the cheek and gave me a wink before I turned to leave for the kitchen. Esme was already waiting for me, setting out bread and mustard.

"Carlisle remembered to pick some things up on his way home from the hospital yesterday," she said, pulling down a plate as she spoke. "Edward said you liked roast beef and turkey, so we got some cold cuts and sandwich fixings for you."

"Thank you," I said, once again amazed at their thoughtfulness. In spite of my earlier reluctance to marry Edward, I couldn't keep a thrill of happiness from going through me at the thought that I would soon be an official part of their family—Bella Cullen.

My heart rate must have picked up from my excitement; Esme was looking at me with concern. "Are you all right, Bella? Is there something wrong with the food? It's been so long since I've prepared anything…"

"Oh, no! Nothing's wrong—I was actually just thinking how nice it was for you to go through all this trouble for me…. You always make me feel so at home here."

Esme's kind face looked even lovelier as she gave me a huge smile. "I can't tell you how happy we are about the wedding, and that you've decided to hold it in our home… I know a big ceremony isn't exactly what you would have chosen, but we're all having so much fun. Alice and Edward especially, I think."

I grinned as I spread mustard over two slices of bread. "I know. It's funny—I have the feeling most brides would kill for their—fiancée— to be so interested in the details." I was proud of myself for saying the word aloud with only the slightest hesitancy, and none of the usual incredulousness.

"During Edward's time weddings were very important public events," Esme said thoughtfully. "I know he's said before that his mother always wanted to see him married."

"Did she?" I asked, looking down at the engagement ring on my left hand. It sparkled tremendously, even in the fluorescent kitchen lighting. Not for the first time I wondered about Edward's mother—what she was like, how she had felt when she'd accepted this ring from Edward's father, what she imagined life would be like for her son when he was born….

"Edward was her only child, and she wanted him to be happy," Esme said softly. "I know I can never take the place of her in Edward's heart, but I love Edward as if he was my own son, and I know that marrying you will ensure his happiness for eternity. And for that, I will be forever indebted to you."

I didn't quite know what to say; I knew that Edward could hear our entire conversation as clearly as if he was standing next to us, let alone the additional nuances he could pick up from Esme's thoughts, but holding intensely private conversations about him without his presence made me feel slightly uncomfortable.

"I'm just as indebted to you and your family for my happiness," I said finally, looking away from Esme's intense gaze under the pretense of putting together my sandwich.

Esme touched her cold hand to my shoulder and left me to my thoughts.

I sat down at the kitchen table, looking at their sprawling backyard through the plate of glass that comprised the back walls of the house. I ate my lunch distractedly, my thoughts as thick and swirling as the dark clouds overhead. My conversation with Esme made me realize that there was so much about Edward's past I didn't know—basic details about his human life, as well as his early years as a vampire, were complete mysteries to me. Somehow, in all our time together, I still hadn't asked so many important questions.

I was so engrossed in my thoughts that it took me a few moments to realize that I was no longer staring at the Cullens' backyard, but rather at the reflection of a certain Cullen in the glass. The amber eyes were staring back.

"Edward!" I said, jumping a little as I realized he had been sitting silently next to me at the kitchen table. "I'm sorry, I was lost in thought…."

Edward studied my face, as though by memorizing the curve of my lips or the slope of my nose he could suddenly decipher my thoughts. There was something protective in the way he considered me, as though he was bracing himself to step between me and an oncoming truck—which, of course, he already had.

Guiltily, I realized he thought I was brooding over Jacob; I hadn't seen Jake since news of the engagement went public. Jake refused to see me and Billy would not pass along any messages, and finally I had to consider that dropping out of Jake's life completely was the only way I could be both loyal to Edward and kind to Jake.

I hadn't cried again over the loss of my best friend, and the realization that I would survive losing Jake was a brutal confirmation of what I had known all along. There was never any choice; self-fulfilling or otherwise, Edward was my future.

Seeing Edward's worried face pulled me instantly back to the present. I got up from my chair and sat in his lap, putting my arms loosely around his neck and giving him a smile. He smiled back and tugged me closer, the coolness of his body making me shiver only very slightly. I felt my heart rate increase, a response to both Edward's attractiveness as well as my body's way of increasing my internal temperature.

"Had fun with Alice?" I asked, trying very hard to feel interested in anything other than his body's close proximity to mine.

"Yes," he admitted, the sly grin on his face daring me to make fun of him for enjoying the deliberations over roses versus lilies or whatever flowers Alice had proposed.

"Good," I murmured, deliberately shifting my weight so that my breasts were pushing against his body. My nipples hardened from the cold of his marble chest, and I felt myself blush; okay, so I was the world's least subtle seductress, but I didn't care. I was going to lose my virginity in less than one month—twenty-eight days, to be exact—and to say I was looking forward to the experience would be like saying vampires liked their meat undercooked. A gross distortion of the facts, or understatement to the point of slander.

Edward closed his eyes and leaned toward me, kissing my neck and tracing his fingertips along my collarbone. His touch left a sensation of pinpricks in its wake, as though snowflakes had fallen on my bare skin and were melting into pools of icy water. I shivered again, unconsciously grinding my hips into his lap. I had never so blatantly sought out the pressure from his erection, and the brazenness of my own actions momentarily stilled me; the thought that I was becoming seriously turned on in the Cullens' kitchen filtered through the haze of my arousal, causing me to pull away. Vaguely, I wondered if Jasper was near enough that he could decipher my emotional state.

"Would you like to go to my room?" Edward said, correctly interpreting the reason for my sudden halt in the proceedings. His lips once again pressed against my ear, his tongue pleasantly cool against my overheated skin. "I did promise you some fun later."

To Be Continued