Breaking Dawn | Page 5

him. For the length of one heartbeat, this news made perfect sense.
And then I caught sight of the expression on Charlie�s face, his eyes now locked on the
ring.
I held my breath while his skin changed colors�fair to red, red to purple, purple to
blue. I started to get up�I�m not sure what I planned to do; maybe use the Heimlich
maneuver to make sure he wasn�t choking�but Edward squeezed my hand and
murmured �Give him a minute� so low that only I could hear.
The silence was much longer this time. Then, gradually, shade by shade, Charlie�s color
returned to normal. His lips pursed, and his eyebrows furrowed; I recognized his �deep
in thought� expression. He studied the two of us for a long moment, and I felt Edward
relax at my side.
�Guess I�m not that surprised,� Charlie grumbled. �Knew I�d have to deal with
something like this soon enough.�
I exhaled.
�You sure about this?� Charlie demanded, glaring at me.
�I�m one hundred percent sure about Edward,� I told him without missing a beat.
�Getting married, though? What�s the rush?� He eyed me suspiciously again.
The rush was due to the fact that I was getting closer to nineteen every stinking day,
while Edward stayed frozen in all his seventeen-year-old perfection, as he had for over
ninety years. Not that this fact necessitated marriage in my book, but the wedding was
required due to the delicate and tangled compromise Edward and I had made to finally
get to this point, the brink of my transformation from mortal to immortal.
These weren�t things I could explain to Charlie.
�We�re going away to Dartmouth together in the fall, Charlie,� Edward reminded him.
�I�d like to do that, well, the right way. It�s how I was raised.� He shrugged.
He wasn�t exaggerating; they�d been big on old-fashioned morals during World War I.
Charlie�s mouth twisted to the side. Looking for an angle to argue from. But what could
he say? I�d prefer you live in sin first? He was a dad; his hands were tied.
�Knew this was coming,� he muttered to himself, frowning. Then, suddenly, his face
went perfectly smooth and blank.
�Dad?� I asked anxiously. I glanced at Edward, but I couldn�t read his face, either, as he
watched Charlie.
�Ha!� Charlie exploded. I jumped in my seat. �Ha, ha, ha!�
I stared incredulously as Charlie doubled over in laughter; his whole body shook with it.
I looked at Edward for a translation, but Edward had his lips pressed tightly together,
like he was trying to hold back laughter himself.
�Okay, fine,� Charlie choked out. �Get married.� Another roll of laughter shook through
him. �But . . .�
�But what?� I demanded.
�But you have to tell your mom! I�m not saying one word to Ren�e! That�s all yours!�
He busted into loud guffaws.
I paused with my hand on the doorknob, smiling. Sure, at the time, Charlie�s words had
terrified me. The ultimate doom: telling Ren�e. Early marriage was higher up on her
blacklist than boiling live puppies.
Who could have foreseen her response? Not me. Certainly not Charlie. Maybe Alice,
but I hadn�t thought to ask her.
�Well, Bella,� Ren�e had said after I�d choked and stuttered out the impossible words:
Mom, I�m marrying Edward. �I�m a little miffed that you waited so long to tell me.
Plane tickets only get more expensive. Oooh,� she�d fretted. �Do you think Phil�s cast
will be off by then? It will spoil the pictures if he�s not in a tux��
�Back up a second, Mom.� I�d gasped. �What do you mean, waited so long? I just got
en-en . . .��I�d been unable to force out the word engaged��things settled, you know,
today.�
�Today? Really? That is a surprise. I assumed . . .�
�What did you assume? When did you assume?�
�Well, when you came to visit me in April, it looked like things were pretty much sewn
up, if you know what I mean. You�re not very hard to read, sweetie. But I didn�t say
anything because I knew it wouldn�t do any good. You�re exactly like Charlie.� She�d
sighed, resigned. �Once you make up your mind, there is no reasoning with you. Of
course, exactly like Charlie, you stick by your decisions, too.�
And then she�d said the last thing that I�d ever expected to hear from my mother.
�You�re not making my mistakes, Bella. You sound like you�re scared silly, and I�m
guessing it�s because you�re afraid of me.� She�d giggled. �Of what I�m going to think.
And I know I�ve said a lot of things about marriage and stupidity�and I�m not taking
them back�but you need to realize that those things specifically applied to me. You�re
a completely different person than I am. You make your own kinds of mistakes, and I�m
sure you�ll have your share of regrets in life. But commitment was never your problem,
sweetie. You have a better chance of making this work than most forty-year-olds I
know.� Ren�e had laughed again. �My little middle-aged child. Luckily, you seem to
have found another old soul.�
�You�re not� mad? You don�t think I�m making a humongous mistake?�
�Well, sure, I