She drew in a sudden breath, and I looked for the reason. She was just staring at me.
“I did mention that you looked very nice, didn’t I?” she asked.
I thought her earlier wow had probably conveyed that.
“Yes.”
She frowned again, returning to her petulance. “I’m not coming over anymore if Alice is going to treat me like Guinea Pig Barbie when I do.”
Before I could either defend or condemn Alice, my phone rang in my pocket. I pulled it out quickly, wondering whether Alice had more instructions for me, but it was Charlie.
As a general rule, Bella’s father didn’t call me. So it was with some trepidation that I answered. “Hello, Charlie?”
“Charlie?” Bella whispered, anxious, too.
Charlie cleared his throat, and I could feel his awkwardness through the line.
“Uh, hey, Edward. I’m sorry to disturb your, um, evening, but I wasn’t quite sure.… See, Tyler Crowley just showed up here in a tux and he seems to think he’s taking Bella to prom?”
“You’re kidding!” I laughed.
It was rare that someone other than Bella took me by surprise.
I hadn’t noticed Tyler thinking anything about this stunt while at school, but then, I’d been so caught up in embracing every second I had with Bella, there were probably many inconsequential things I’d missed.
“What is it?” Bella hissed.
“I’m out to sea on this one,” Charlie continued, uncomfortable.
“Why don’t you let me talk to him?” I offered.
I could hear the relief in Charlie’s voice when he answered. “Can do.” Then he spoke away from the phone. “Here, Tyler, it’s for you.”
Bella was staring at my face, worried about what was happening between her father and me. She didn’t notice the bright red car that suddenly swerved around us. I ignored Rosalie’s pleasure at passing me—I always ignored Rosalie now—and concentrated on the call.
The boy’s voice broke as he said, “Yeah?”
“Hello, Tyler, this is Edward Cullen.” My tone was perfectly polite, though it took a little work to keep it that way. As entertained as I’d been just a moment ago, a sudden flare of territorial feelings now swamped me. It was an immature reaction, but I couldn’t deny I felt it.
Bella sucked in a sharp breath. I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye and then looked back to the road. If she had—somehow—been in earnest before, she was no longer in the dark.
“I’m sorry if there’s been some kind of miscommunication, but Bella is unavailable tonight,” I said to Tyler.
“Oh,” he responded.
The jealous, protective instinct persisted and my response was stronger than it should have been.
“To be perfectly honest, she’ll be unavailable every night, as far as anyone besides myself is concerned. No offense. And I’m sorry about your evening.”
Though I knew the words were wrong to say, I couldn’t help smiling at the thought of how Tyler was receiving them. And what he would feel when I saw him at school on Monday. I hung up the call and turned to assess Bella’s reaction.
Bella’s face was bright red and her expression was furious.
“Was that last part a bit too much?” I worried. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”
It had been a very domineering kind of thing to say, and while I was fairly positive that Bella had no interest in Tyler, it wasn’t really my place to make that decision for her.
What I’d said was wrong in other ways, too, but not in a way that I thought would upset her.
Though she’d never demanded another promise from me since the hospital, there was always the undercurrent of her doubt. I’d been forced to find a way to balance her need for assurance against my inability to deceive her.
I was taking our relationship one day at a time, one hour at a time. I didn’t look into the future. It was enough that I could feel it coming. When I promised her forever now, I meant as far as I could see. And I wasn’t looking.
“You’re taking me to the prom!” she shouted.
She really hadn’t known. I didn’t know what to do with that. What else could we be doing in formal attire in Forks tonight?
And now there were actual tears brimming in her eyes and she had one hand clenched around the door handle as though she wanted to throw herself from the car rather than face the horror of a high school dance.
Unobtrusively, I locked the doors.
I didn’t know what to say; I hadn’t imagined that she could misunderstand. So I said probably the stupidest thing possible under the circumstances.
“Don’t be difficult, Bella.”
She stared out the window like she was still thinking of jumping.
“Why are you doing this to me?” she moaned.
I pointed at my tuxedo. “Honestly, Bella, what did you think we were doing?”
She scrubbed at the tears falling down her cheeks, her face horrified. She looked like I’d just told her I’d murdered all her friends and she was next.
“This is completely ridiculous,” I pointed out. “Why are you crying?”
“Because I’m mad!” she shouted.
I considered turning around. The dance was meaningless, really, and I hated to upset her like this. But I thought of that faraway conversation in her future and held my ground.
“Bella,” I said softly.
She met my gaze and seemed to lose her grip on her fury. I still had the power to dazzle her, if nothing else.
“What?” she asked, totally distracted.
“Humor me?” I pleaded.
She stared at me for a second longer, with what looked more like adoration than ire, and then shook her head in surrender.
“Fine, I’ll go quietly,” she said, resigned to her fate. “But you’ll see. I’m way overdue for more bad luck. I’ll probably break my other leg. Look at this shoe! It’s a death trap!”
She pointed her toes in my direction.
The contrast between the thick satin ribbons laced up her narrow calf, ballet-style, and her ivory skin was beautiful in a way that transcended fashion. In this place of endless winter wardrobes, it was fascinating to see parts of her I’d never seen before. This was where my ten percent of selfishness came into play.
“Hmm,” I breathed. “Remind me to thank Alice for that tonight.”
“Alice is going to be there?”
From her tone, this was more comforting than my presence.
I knew I needed to give her full disclosure. “With Jasper, and Emmett… and Rosalie.”
The worried v formed between her eyebrows.
Emmett had tried, they all had—everyone except me. I’d not spoken to Rosalie since the night she’d refused to help save Bella’s life. Now she was living up to her reputation for supernatural stubbornness. She was never openly hostile toward Bella during the rare times they were in the same room together, unless aggressively ignoring someone’s existence equaled hostility.
Bella shook her head again, obviously deciding not to think about Rosalie.
“Is Charlie in on this?”
“Of course,” I said, leaving out that the entire town of Forks and probably most of the county was in on the secret of prom being held tonight. They’d even put up top secret posters and banners all over the school. Then I laughed. “Apparently, Tyler wasn’t, though.”
Her teeth audibly clenched, but I guessed this angry reaction was more about Tyler than it was about me.
We pulled into the school parking lot, and this time Bella noticed Rosalie’s car, parked front and center. She eyed it nervously while I parked a lane over, then got out and walked to her side at human speed. I opened her door and held out my hand.
Her arms were folded across her chest. She pursed her lips. It had clearly occurred to her that, with human witnesses around, I couldn’t just throw her over my shoulder and force her into that terrifying place of horror and dread, our high school cafeteria.
I sighed heavily, but she didn’t move.
“When someone wants to kill you, you’re as brave as a lion,” I complained. “And then when someone mentions dancing…” I shook my head in disappointment.
But she looked genuinely frightened of the word dancing.
“Bella, I won’t let anything hurt you,” I promised. “Not even yourself. I won’t let go of you once, I promise.”
She considered that, and it did seem to calm some of her terror.
“There, now,” I coaxed, “it won’t be so bad.”
I leaned into the car and put my arm around her waist. Her throat was at my lips, her fragrance as strong as a forest fire, but more delicate than the flowers in her hair. She didn’t resist as I drew her from the car.
Wanting to make it clear that I was serious about my promise, I kept my arm wrapped tightly around her as I half carried her toward the school. It was frustrating not to be able to just lift her.
Soon enough we were at the cafeteria. They had the doors propped open wide. All the tables had been removed from the long room. The overhead lights were all off, replaced with miles of borrowed Christmas tree lights that were stapled to the walls in an uneven scallop pattern. It was quite dim, but not enough to disguise the outdated décor. The crepe paper garlands appeared to have been used before, faded and creased as they were. The balloon arches were new, though.
Bella giggled.
I smiled with her.
“This looks like a horror movie waiting to happen,” she observed.
“Well, there are more than enough vampires present,” I agreed.
I continued to move her to the ticket line, but her attention was on the dance floor now.
My siblings were showing off.
It was a kind of release, I supposed. We were always very… contained. We couldn’t escape some notice, our inhuman faces assured that, but we did everything possible to give no one another reason to stare.
Tonight Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper, and Alice were really dancing. They melded a hundred styles from other decades into new creations that could belong to any time at all. Of course they were graceful beyond human ability. Bella wasn’t the only one staring.
Some brave humans also danced, but they kept their distance from the showboating vampires.
“Do you want me to bolt the doors so you can massacre the unsuspecting townsfolk?” she whispered. The idea of a mass murder sounded more appealing to her than the reality of prom.
“And where do you fit into that scheme?” I wondered.
“Oh, I’m with the vampires, of course.”
I had to smile. “Anything to get out of dancing.”
“Anything.”
She turned to watch my siblings again while I bought two tickets. As soon as that was accomplished, I started moving toward the dance floor. Better to get the part she feared most out of the way. She wouldn’t be able to relax until it was over.
She limped slower than before, resisting.
“I’ve got all night,” I reminded her.
“Edward,” she whispered, horror in her voice. She looked up at me with panic-stricken eyes. “I honestly can’t dance!”
Did she think I was going to abandon her in the middle of the floor, and then stand back to watch, expecting a solo performance?
“Don’t worry, silly,” I said gently. “I can.”
I lifted her arms and placed them around my neck. I put my hands around her waist and lifted her a few inches from the floor. Pulling her body against mine, I lowered her so that her satin-clad toes and her plaster-clad toes rested on top of my shoes.
She grinned.
Holding almost all of her weight in my hands, I spun us into the middle of the floor, where my siblings held court. I didn’t try to keep up with them, I just held her close and whirled in a loose waltz to the music.
Her arms tightened around my neck, pulling us even closer.
“I feel like I’m five years old,” she laughed.
I caught her up so her feet were a foot in the air and whispered, “You don’t look five,” into her ear.
She laughed again as I set her feet down on my toes. Her eyes sparkled with the glimmer of the Christmas lights.
The song changed. I shifted the tempo of our waltz. The music was slower now, dreamier. Her body was melted to mine. I wished I could freeze us here, stop time forever and stay in this dance.
“Okay,” she murmured. “This isn’t half-bad.”
These were close to the words I’d hoped she would say to her children. It was encouraging that it hadn’t taken twenty years for her to come to this conclusion.
Nope, I’m not going to do it. I’ll give the money back. Ugh, this is so embarrassing. Why doesmy dad have to be the insane one? Why couldn’t it be Quil’s?
The clear thoughts hesitating in the doorway were very familiar. Even in his angst and self-consciousness, his mind radiated a kind of purity. He was more honest with himself than most.
“What is it?” Bella had noticed my sudden abstraction.