The next few months passed quickly and before I knew it Nessie was graduating high school. It was her first graduation and we planned on celebrating by going to a party at her friend Ashley's house. Her parents were throwing her a big bash since she had been accepted to Drexel.
Ness looked amazing that night. Alice and Rosalie spent hours with her upstairs in the bathroom doing God knows what to her. Blondie called it a practice run for the wedding. The thought of Ness in a wedding dress walking down the aisle to meet me gave me butterflies as I sunk into the living room sofa to wait for her. We set the date for the wedding to be November 17th in Port Angeles. We couldn't risk all of us going back to Forks for the wedding and it made sense not to host our kind of guests in Mountain Home either. Alice found a great reception hall by the water in Port Angeles and everyone was happy with the location. Six months felt like a very long ways away. We wanted to wait until after Ness' next birthday which was September, and having it take place in November meant the wedding would be about a year after we supposedly started dating, as far as the town folk knew. Hiding our relationship from everyone in Idaho when we were dating was horrible. I refused to hide our marriage. I discussed several different ideas with Carlisle and Edward. The plan was to tell anyone who asked that Nessie and I eloped to Port Angeles and married on the one year anniversary of becoming a couple. It seemed plausible and romantic to me. Everyone agreed it was the best story.
I was flipping channels when Edward walked into the room. He offered me a glass of soda.
"Thanks" I said.
"I thought I might take this opportunity to talk with you, Jacob. The girls are bound to be a few more minutes up there" he said casually. Uh oh. His face was calm, expressionless as he stared at me.
There was only one subject Edward ever wanted to discuss with me privately. All the time that had passed since Ness and I started… expressing our love a bit more physically Edward had never said a word about it, at least to me. If he said anything to Nessie she acted like he hadn't. At this point I kind of figured he'd tried to bring it up but decided it was too awkward a conversation to have. The farthest we'd pushed the rules was on our trip to Forks and we were engaged by then so maybe he was giving me a break. He looked at me sternly. Ok, maybe not.
"Look Edward, I know I promised you a 'PG' relationship until I married her. And I really am sorry that I haven't kept that promise flawlessly. You know I love her, and respect her, and am not pushing her at all." I raised my hands defensively, drink still in hand.
"Jacob, we agreed on these terms for a specific purpose. I understand you both have grown up in a different world than me; you share the same world as Bella. I faced similar challenges with her that you are now facing in trying to keep your word. The difference between the two has always been the unknown factors in Nessie's development."
He was talking about her being such a unique creature. When Nahuel had saved our butts a few years back he stayed with the Cullen's for a while discussing with Carlisle and Edward everything he knew about his kind. We were extremely relieved to hear that Ness would stop aging after 6 or 7 years having the appearance of a young adult. And that since Nahuel was still kicking we could assume Nessie would have an extended life if not an eternal one as well. He did mention repeatedly how certain aspects of his growth differed from his sisters and he didn't know the cause. Edward was of course troubled by this uncertainty.
So, basically Edward and Bella were worried about how to gauge Nessie's emotional maturity. Would it maintain the same pace as her intellectual and physical growth? Nahuel couldn't say. Seeing how he eyed her up even as a toddler I was more than comfortable agreeing to Edwards terms back then. The longer Nahuel would have to wait before making a play for her love the better. Over the years, it was obvious Nessie's affection lay with me and Nahuel had backed off honorably.
