"Will you have trouble with that deadline?" I asked.
"What?" He looked up, taken off guard by my question. "The deadline? Oh, no. No worries at all. I will certainly have your documents done on time."
It would have been nice to have Edward here, so that I would know what J's real worries were. I sighed. Keeping secrets from Edward was bad enough; having to be away from him was almost too much.
"Then HI see you in one week."
BOOK THREE: BELLA 34. DECLARED
I heard the music before I was out of the car. Edward hadn't touched his piano since the night Alice left. Now, as I shut the car door, I heard the song morph through a bridge and change into my lullaby. Edward was welcoming me home.
I moved slowly as I pulled Renesmee - fast asleep; we'd been gone all day - from the car. We'd left Jacob at Charlie's - he'd said he was going to catch a ride home with Sue. I wondered if he was trying to fill his head with enough trivia to crowd out the image of the way my face had looked when I'd walked through Charlie's door.
As I walked slowly to the Cullen house now, I recognized that the hope and uplift that seemed almost a visible aura around the big white house had been mine this morning, too. It felt alien to me now.
I wanted to cry again, hearing Edward play for me. But I pulled it together. I didn't want him to be suspicious. I would leave no clues in his mind for Aro if I could help it.
Edward turned his head and smiled when I came in the door, but kept playing.
"Welcome home," he said, as if this was just any normal day. As if there weren't twelve other vampires in the room involved in various pursuits, and a dozen more scattered around somewhere. "Did you have a good time with Charlie today?"
"Yes. Sorry I was gone so long. I stepped out to do a little Christmas shopping for Renesmee. I know it won't be much of an event, but..." I shrugged.
Edward's lips turned down. He quit playing and spun around on the bench so that his whole body was facing me. He put one hand on my waist and pulled me closer. "I hadn't thought much about it. If you want to make an event of it - "
"No," I interrupted him. I flinched internally at the idea of trying to fake more enthusiasm than the bare minimum. "I just didn't want to let it pass without giving her something."
"Do I get to see?"
"If you want. It's only a little thing."
Renesmee was completely unconscious, snoring delicately against my neck. I envied her. It would have been nice to escape reality, even for just a few hours.
Carefully, I fished the little velvet jewelry bag from my clutch without opening the purse enough for Edward to see the cash I was still carrying.
"It caught my eye from the window of an antique store while I was driving by."
I shook the little golden locket into his palm. It was round with a slender vine border carved around the outside edge of the circle. Edward popped the tiny catch and looked inside. There was space for a small picture and, on the opposite side, an inscription in French.
"Do you know what this says?" he asked in a different tone, more subdued than before.
"The shopkeeper told me it said something along the lines of 'more than my own life.' Is that right?"
"Yes, he had it right."
He looked up at me, his topaz eyes probing. I met his gaze for a moment, then pretended to be distracted by the television.
"I hope she likes it," I muttered.
"Of course she will," he said lightly, casually, and I was sure in that second that he knew I was keeping something from him. I was also sure that he had no idea of the specifics.
"Let's take her home," he suggested, standing and putting his arm around my shoulders.
I hesitated.
"What?" he demanded.
"I wanted to practice with Emmett a little___" I'd lost the whole day to my vital errand; it made me feel behind.
Emmett - on the sofa with Rose and holding the remote, of course - looked up and grinned in anticipation. "Excellent. The forest needs thinning."
Edward frowned at Emmett and then at me.
"There's plenty of time for that tomorrow," he said.
"Don't be ridiculous," I complained. "There's no such thing as plenty of time anymore. That concept does not