Tenebrous ↠ Volturi Kings {1} ✓

035

"Just another moment," Rose said. She was doing my hair, the last thing that had to be done short of putting on my bridesmaid dress.

"I can't believe today's the day," I said.

"Neither can I. I wasn't sure we'd ever see the day that Edward would get married," Rose said.

I giggled. "You're awful. I'm happy for them."

"So am I. Someday, this will be you," Rose said.

"Getting married? Yeah, I guess it will," I said. With all that had happened to me before Edward and Bella's wedding, I hadn't had much time to entertain the ideas about what my wedding would be like.

"The kings are very traditional, so you know what that means, don't you?" Rose asked.

I stared at her suspiciously through our reflection in the mirror. "You're not talking about sex, are you?"

"No! Get your mind out of the gutter," Rose scolded. "They'll have to ask Emmett for your hand."

"I didn't even think about that. I'll need a recording of that for sure so that I can literally watch it forever," I said, laughing.

"Hold still!" Rose said, though she too was smiling.

"Sorry," I apologized, biting back my laugher.

A couple more minutes passed before Rose stepped back and handed me a mirror. "Done. You look stunning."

"You think so?" I asked, swiveling around in the chair to get a good look from every angle.

"Of course. Let's go check on Bella, shall we?" Rose asked, motioning towards the hall.

I agreed, and we walked to where Alice was doing Bella's makeup in another room just down the hall. "Rowan, you look amazing!" Alice said, beaming when she saw me.

"Thanks, Alice. Bella, you look great," I said. Truthfully, Bella looked a little tired and slightly queasy, but I wasn't going to mention that. Once Alice finished her makeup, I was sure that no one would ever be able to tell.

"I can do your hair," Rose offered Bella. I was vaguely surprised, but Bella and Rosalie had been on continually better terms for quite some time now.

"Really?" Bella asked. She seemed more surprised at the offer than me, even though Bella had been the one to ask Rose to be another one of her bridesmaids.

"Please. I'm not offended by your choice of groom," Rosalie said, moving to stand in front of Bella's hair.

"Just my blatant lack of respect for mortality," Bella finished.

I giggled and Rose smiled. "Essentially."

"Weddings. They bring everyone together," Alice said fondly, hugging Rose. "How about we go take a look at your dress while she does Bella's hair, Rowan? I want to get an idea of the best way to get it on."

"That sounds good," I agreed. Due to the severely restricted movement of my shoulder, we had been forced to come up with creative ways for me to get into my dress. I didn't want to sacrifice the dress straps and leave my bandaged arm on display, which left us attempting to get me into the dress without causing debilitating pain in my shoulder.

"Here's the plan for when you get dressed," Alice said, her hands propped on her hips as we stared at the dress. "You'll get in like normal, but when we get to your arms, you'll have your arm hanging at your side so we can slide the strap up and around it as normal. There's no way we can get it on while you're wearing the sling, so you'll have to take it off. I think that's the smallest amount of movement I can get you to."