Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer [24]
Dad? I asked, my eyes searching.
Over here, Edward murmured. He pulled me through the guests; they made a pathway for us. We found Charlie leaning awkwardly against the wall behind everyone else, looking a little like he was hiding. The red rims around his eyes explained why.
Oh, Dad!
I hugged him around the waist, tears streaming again-I was crying so much tonight. He patted my back.
There, now. You dont want to miss your plane.
It was hard to talk about love with Charlie- we were so much alike, always reverting to trivial things to avoid embarrassing emotional displays. But this was no time for being self- conscious.
I love you forever, Dad, I told him. Dont forget that.
You, too, Bells. Always have, always will.
I kissed his cheek at the same time that he kissed mine.
Call me, he said.
Soon, I promised, knowing this was all I could promise. Just a phone call. My father and my mother could not be allowed to see me again; I would be too different, and much, much too dangerous.
Go on, then, he said gruffly. Dont want to be late.
The guests made another aisle for us. Edward pulled me close to his side as we made our escape.
Are you ready? he asked.
I am, I said, and I knew that it was true.
Everyone applauded when Edward kissed me on the doorstep. Then he rushed me to the car as the rice storm began. Most of it went wide, but someone, probably Emmett, threw with uncanny precision, and I caught a lot of the ricochets off Edwards back.
The car was decorated with more flowers that trailed in streamers along its length, and long gossamer ribbons that were tied to a dozen shoes-designer shoes that looked brand-new- dangling behind the bumper.
Edward shielded me from the rice while I climbed in, and then he was in and we were speeding away as I waved out the window and called I love you to the porch, where my families waved back.
The last image I registered was one of my parents. Phil had both arms wrapped tenderly around Renée. She had one arm tight around his waist but had her free hand reached out to hold Charlies. So many different kinds of love, harmonious in this one moment. It seemed a very hopeful picture to me.
Edward squeezed my hand.
I love you, he said.
I leaned my head against his arm. Thats why were here, I quoted him.
He kissed my hair.
As we turned onto the black highway and Edward really hit the accelerator, I heard a noise over the purr of the engine, coming from the forest behind us. If I could hear it, then he certainly could. But he said nothing as the sound slowly faded in the distance. I said nothing, either.
The piercing, heartbroken howling grew fainter and then disappeared entirely.
* * *
5. ISLE ESME
Houston? I asked, raising my eyebrows when we reached the gate in Seattle.
Just a stop along the way, Edward assured me with a grin.
It felt like Id barely fallen asleep when he woke me. I was groggy as he pulled me through the terminals, struggling to remember how to open my eyes after every blink. It took me a few minutes to catch up with what was going on when we stopped at the international counter to check in for our next flight.
Rio de Janeiro? I asked with slightly more trepidation.
Another stop, he told me.
The flight to South America was long but comfortable in the wide first-class seat, with Edwards arms cradled around me. I slept myself out and awoke unusually alert as we circled toward the airport with the light of the setting sun slanting through the planes windows.
We didnt stay in the airport to connect with another flight as Id expected. Instead we took a taxi through the dark, teeming, living streets of Rio. Unable to understand a word of Edwards Portuguese instructions to the driver, I guessed that we were off to find a hotel before the next leg of our journey. A sharp twinge of something very close to stage fright twisted in the pit of my stomach as I considered that. The taxi continued through the swarming crowds until they thinned somewhat, and we appeared to be nearing the extreme western edge of