Forget Me Not | ✓

33 | The Wedding

"I suppose you're right." He nodded unsurely. He lived Esme with all of his heart, he did, but he felt as though he was betraying his late wife and his daughter.

She huffed."Are you in love with Esme?"

"Of course."

"How much in love with her are you?"

"Deeply...endlessly." He stared into the mirror of the armoire. "I love her with all of my heart."

"Would you do anything to please and to protect her?"

"Yes."

"Will you live all of your days with her, loving her and protecting her?"

"Yes."

"Right there. That is marriage. That is love, promise and commitment." She placed her hands on his shoulders. "Mom would have wanted you to be happy. Hell, she would have killed you for waiting so damn long."

He laughed and smiled bittersweetly. "She would have, wouldn't she?"

"Yes." She adored Esme, but she wasn't ready to call her family just yet. "She would have approved of Esme. Wholeheartedly. And so do I."
 
  
   
Carlisle and the rest of the coven were putting the final touches on the wedding platform and after party gazebo as Adele, Alice, and Max watched Bella stumble in her new wedding heels. The clumsy human had tried to break them in for days now, but succeeded to no avail.

"Um," Alice began to reassure her with a weak smile as Bella stumbled over her own feet again, "You just have to break them in."

"I've been breaking them in for three days!" She huffed and stopped in he tracks. She really didn't want to break her ankles the day before her wedding. "Can I just go barefoot?"

"No, absolutely not." Alice shook her head profusely. She thought of it as a crime for a bride to not wear heels on her own wedding day.

"It would not help anyway." Adele joked.

"Mommy, can I wear your heels?" Max whispered as she signed. She was becoming more comfortable being vocal.

Adele slipped her matted black heels off and gave them to her little girl as Bella turned to her. Alice and Rose always wore heels, but Adele wore them even in fights. "How do you do it all of the time?!"

"I've had years of practice – many, many years." She grinned and shrugged as Alice helped Max stumble around in her heels. "I actually used to be quite clumsy."

"Yeah, right." Paul walked out of the woods, grinning when he saw the sight before him. "Hey look, Max walks better in those than you, Bella."

As Max giggled, Bella rolled her eyes and gave him a sarcastic smile. "Gee, thanks."

Bella sighed and looked around. She never found much appeal in a big extravagent wedding and Alice knew it. "I'm just thinking it's a little much. You know? The dress and the shoes and all of this."

The setup was nearly completed. Rows and rows of white wooden chairs formed a carpeted aisle on the grass which extended from the house all the way up to the altar, where the minister would stand under an archway of flowers. Strings of twinkly white lights would lead all the way to the other side of the house where everyone would gather for a light meal under a large gazebo-like structure for the after party. There would be white-clothed tables surrounding a fondu fountain and a small platform where people would go up to give speeches in honor of the  newly wedded couple.

"No it's exactly enough." Alice insisted. She and Jasper always got re-married every twenty years and she's always loved the thrill. "Tomorrow will be perfect."