Carlisle decided that the vampire posed no threat to the city, and I had decided that I wasn’t going to tell anyone that I had made direct eye contact with him. I didn’t even know why he had made such exact contact with my eyes, so it seemed illogical to jump to conclusions. Besides, Alice had noticed that his eyes were not red, and that at least told us that I would not be in any kind of danger. The vampire’s glare made me uneasy, but Alice had had no ominous visions so I tried to put it in the back of my mind.

Edward gave me a long, meaningful kiss when we arrived home, and I guessed that he had momentarily been worried about me. I kissed him back as passionately as I could—I could never match the passion of his kiss, but I could give him everything I could—and then he pulled away as I was getting to the peak of my enjoyment.

Smiling my favorite crooked smile, he asked me with his hand caressing my cheek, “What kind of dress did you find?”

I smiled back. “Is Alice blocking you?”

He chuckled. “According to her, your dress is deeply involved with the quantum theory of gravity.”

I broke into a smile and said, “It’s bad luck for you to see the dress before the wedding, anyway.”

“Are you staying here for a few hours? Do you need to call Charlie?”

I smiled again at his subtle attempt to ask me to stay. “I’ll call Charlie.”

“Actually, speaking of Charlie…” Edward seemed to be remembering something but I wasn’t fooled. He never forgot anything. This was some sort of strategic timing on his part.

I lifted an eyebrow. “Yes?”

“You know we need to tell him about the wedding soon.”

“Edward…” I groaned.

“You do want him at your wedding, don’t you?”

He had a point. As much as I dreaded telling Charlie, there was no way we could send him a wedding invitation if I hadn’t even told him we were getting married in the first place. I couldn’t bring myself to surprise him like that. “When do you want us to tell him?”

He chuckled. “Tonight would be nice.”

“Edward, I’m not prepared for that right now…”