“Hmm,” Billy grunted, suddenly detached, spinning his chair around to face his son. “I guess I left it at home.”
Jacob rolled his eyes dramatically. “Great.”
“Well, Bella, tell Charlie”—Billy paused before continuing—“that we stopped by, I mean.”
“I will,” I muttered.
Jacob was surprised. “Are we leaving already?”
“Charlie’s gonna be out late,” Billy explained as he rolled himself past Jacob.
“Oh.” Jacob looked disappointed. “Well, I guess I’ll see you later, then, Bella.”
“Sure,” I agreed.
“Take care,” Billy warned me. I didn’t answer.
Jacob helped his father out the door. I waved briefly, glancing swiftly toward my now-empty truck, and then shut the door before they were gone.
I stood in the hallway for a minute, listening to the sound of their car as it backed out and drove away. I stayed where I was, waiting for the irritation and anxiety to subside. When the tension eventually faded a bit, I headed upstairs to change out of my dressy clothes.
I tried on a couple of different tops, not sure what to expect tonight. As I concentrated on what was coming, what had just passed became insignificant. Now that I was removed from Jasper’s and Edward’s influence, I began to make up for not being terrified before. I gave up quickly on choosing an outfit—throwing on an old flannel shirt and jeans—knowing I would be in my raincoat all night anyway.
The phone rang and I sprinted downstairs to get it. There was only one voice I wanted to hear; anything else would be a disappointment. But I knew that if he wanted to talk to me, he’d probably just materialize in my room.
“Hello?” I asked, breathless.
“Bella? It’s me,” Jessica said.
“Oh, hey, Jess.” I scrambled for a moment to come back down to reality. It felt like months rather than days since I’d spoken to Jess. “How was the dance?”
“It was so much fun!” Jessica gushed. Needing no more invitation than that, she launched into a minute-by-minute account of the previous night. I mmm’d and ahh’d at the right places, but it wasn’t easy to concentrate. Jessica, Mike, the dance, the school—they all seemed strangely irrelevant at the moment. My eyes kept flashing to the window, trying to judge the degree of light behind the heavy clouds.
“Did you hear what I said, Bella?” Jess asked, irritated.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“I said, Mike kissed me! Can you believe it?”
“That’s wonderful, Jess,” I said.
“So what did you do yesterday?” Jessica challenged, still sounding bothered by my lack of attention. Or maybe she was upset because I hadn’t asked for details.
“Nothing, really. I just hung around outside to enjoy the sun.”
I heard Charlie’s car in the garage.
“Did you ever hear anything more from Edward Cullen?”
The front door slammed and I could hear Charlie banging around under the stairs, putting his tackle away.
“Um.” I hesitated, not sure what my story was anymore.
“Hi there, kiddo!” Charlie called as he walked into the kitchen. I waved at him.
Jess heard his voice. “Oh, your dad’s there. Never mind—we’ll talk tomorrow. See you in Trig.”
“See ya, Jess.” I hung up the phone.
“Hey, Dad,” I said. He was scrubbing his hands in the sink. “Where’s the fish?”
“I put it out in the freezer.”
“I’ll go grab a few pieces before they freeze—Billy dropped off some of Harry Clearwater’s fish fry this afternoon.” I worked to sound enthusiastic.
“He did?” Charlie’s eyes lit up. “That’s my favorite.”
Charlie cleaned up while I got dinner ready. It didn’t take long till we were sitting at the table, eating in silence. Charlie was enjoying his food. I was wondering desperately how to fulfill my assignment, struggling to think of a way to broach the subject.
“What did you do with yourself today?” he asked, snapping me out of my reverie.
“Well, this afternoon I just hung out around the house.…” Only the very recent part of this afternoon, actually. I tried to keep my voice upbeat, but my stomach was hollow. “And this morning I was over at the Cullens’.”
Charlie dropped his fork.
“Dr. Cullen’s place?” he asked in astonishment.
I pretended not to notice his reaction. “Yeah.”
“What were you doing there?” He hadn’t picked his fork back up.
“Well, I sort of have a date with Edward Cullen tonight, and he wanted to introduce me to his parents… Dad?”
It appeared that Charlie was having an aneurysm.
“Dad, are you all right?”
“You are going out with Edward Cullen?” he thundered.
Uh-oh. “I thought you liked the Cullens.”
“He’s too old for you,” he ranted.
“We’re both juniors,” I corrected, though he was more right than he dreamed.
“Wait…” He paused. “Which one is Edwin?”
“Edward is the youngest, the one with the reddish brown hair.” The beautiful one, the godlike one…
“Oh, well, that’s”—he struggled—“better, I guess. I don’t like the look of that big one. I’m sure he’s a nice boy and all, but he looks too… mature for you. Is this Edwin your boyfriend?”
“It’s Edward, Dad.”
“Is he?”
“Sort of, I guess.”
“You said last night that you weren’t interested in any of the boys in town.” But he picked up his fork again, so I could see the worst was over.
“Well, Edward doesn’t live in town, Dad.”
He gave me a disparaging look as he chewed.
“And, anyways,” I continued, “it’s kind of at an early stage, you know. Don’t embarrass me with all the boyfriend talk, okay?”
“When is he coming over?”
“He’ll be here in a few minutes.”
“Where is he taking you?”
I groaned loudly. “I hope you’re getting the Spanish Inquisition out of your system now. We’re going to play baseball with his family.”
His face puckered, and then he finally chuckled. “You’re playing baseball?”
“Well, I’ll probably watch most of the time.”
“You must really like this guy,” he observed suspiciously.
I sighed and rolled my eyes for his benefit.
I heard the roar of an engine pull up in front of the house. I jumped up and started cleaning my dishes.
“Leave the dishes, I can do them tonight. You baby me too much.”
The doorbell rang, and Charlie stalked off to answer it. I was half a step behind him.
I hadn’t realized how hard it was pouring outside. Edward stood in the halo of the porch light, looking like a male model in an advertisement for raincoats.
“Come on in, Edward.”
I breathed a sigh of relief when Charlie got his name right.
“Thanks, Chief Swan,” Edward said in a respectful voice.
“Go ahead and call me Charlie. Here, I’ll take your jacket.”
“Thanks, sir.”
“Have a seat there, Edward.”
I grimaced.
Edward sat down fluidly in the only chair, forcing me to sit next to Chief Swan on the sofa. I quickly shot him a dirty look. He winked behind Charlie’s back.
“So I hear you’re getting my girl to watch baseball.” Only in Washington would the fact that it was raining buckets have no bearing at all on the playing of outdoor sports.
“Yes, sir, that’s the plan.” He didn’t look surprised that I’d told my father the truth. He might have been listening, though.
“Well, more power to you, I guess.”
Charlie laughed, and Edward joined in.
“Okay.” I stood up. “Enough humor at my expense. Let’s go.” I walked back to the hall and
pulled on my jacket. They followed.
“Not too late, Bell.”
“Don’t worry, Charlie, I’ll have her home early,” Edward promised.
“You take care of my girl, all right?”
I groaned, but they ignored me.
“She’ll be safe with me, I promise, sir.”
Charlie couldn’t doubt Edward’s sincerity, it rang in every word.
I stalked out. They both laughed, and Edward followed me.
I stopped dead on the porch. There, behind my truck, was a monster Jeep. Its tires were higher than my waist. There were metal guards over the headlights and taillights, and four large spotlights attached to the crash bar. The hardtop was shiny red.
Charlie let out a low whistle.
“Wear your seat belts,” he choked out.
Edward followed me around to my side and opened the door. I gauged the distance to the seat and prepared to jump for it. He sighed, and then lifted me in with one hand. I hoped Charlie didn’t notice.
As he went around to the driver’s side, at a normal, human pace, I tried to put on my seat belt. But there were too many buckles.
“What’s all this?” I asked when he opened the door.
“It’s an off-roading harness.”
“Uh-oh.”
I tried to find the right places for all the buckles to fit, but it wasn’t going too quickly. He sighed again and reached over to help me. I was glad that the rain was too heavy to see Charlie clearly on the porch. That meant he couldn’t see how Edward’s hands lingered at my neck, brushed along my collarbones. I gave up trying to help him and focused on not hyperventilating.
Edward turned the key and the engine roared to life. We pulled away from the house.
“This is a… um… big Jeep you have.”
“It’s Emmett’s. I didn’t think you’d want to run the whole way.”
“Where do you keep this thing?”
“We remodeled one of the outbuildings into a garage.”
“Aren’t you going to put on your seat belt?”
He threw me a disbelieving look.
Then something sunk in.
“Run the whole way? As in, we’re still going to run part of the way?” My voice edged up a few octaves.
He grinned tightly. “You’re not going to run.”
“I’m going to be sick.”
“Keep your eyes closed, you’ll be fine.”
I bit my lip, fighting the panic.
He leaned over to kiss the top of my head, and then groaned. I looked at him, puzzled.
“You smell so good in the rain,” he explained.
“In a good way, or in a bad way?” I asked cautiously.
He sighed. “Both, always both.”
I don’t know how he found his way in the gloom and downpour, but he somehow found a side road that was less of a road and more of a mountain path. For a long while conversation was impossible, because I was bouncing up and down on the seat like a jackhammer. He seemed to enjoy the ride, though, smiling hugely the whole way.
And then we came to the end of the road; the trees formed green walls on three sides of the Jeep. The rain was a mere drizzle, slowing every second, the sky brighter through the clouds.
“Sorry, Bella, we have to go on foot from here.”
“You know what? I’ll just wait here.”
“What happened to all your courage? You were extraordinary this morning.”
“I haven’t forgotten the last time yet.” Could it have been only yesterday?
He was around to my side of the car in a blur. He started unbuckling me.
“I’ll get those, you go on ahead,” I protested.
“Hmmm…,” he mused as he quickly finished. “It seems I’m going to have to tamper with your memory.”
Before I could react, he pulled me from the Jeep and set my feet on the ground. It was barely misting now; Alice was going to be right.
“Tamper with my memory?” I asked nervously.
“Something like that.” He was watching me intently, carefully, but there was humor deep in his eyes. He placed his hands against the Jeep on either side of my head and leaned forward, forcing me to press back against the door. He leaned in even closer, his face inches from mine. I had no room to escape.
“Now,” he breathed, and just his smell disturbed my thought processes, “what exactly are you worrying about?”
“Well, um, hitting a tree—” I gulped “—and dying. And then getting sick.”
He fought back a smile. Then he bent his head down and touched his cold lips softly to the hollow at the base of my throat.
“Are you still worried now?” he murmured against my skin.
“Yes.” I struggled to concentrate. “About hitting trees and getting sick.”
His nose drew a line up the skin of my throat to the point of my chin. His cold breath tickled my skin.
“And now?” His lips whispered against my jaw.
“Trees,” I gasped. “Motion sickness.”
He lifted his face to kiss my eyelids. “Bella, you don’t really think I would hit a tree, do you?”
“No, but I might.” There was no confidence in my voice. He smelled an easy victory.
He kissed slowly down my cheek, stopping just at the corner of my mouth.
“Would I let a tree hurt you?” His lips barely brushed against my trembling lower lip.
“No,” I breathed. I knew there was a second part to my brilliant defense, but I couldn’t quite call it back.
“You see,” he said, his lips moving against mine. “There’s nothing to be afraid of, is there?”
“No,” I sighed, giving up.
Then he took my face in his hands almost roughly, and kissed me in earnest, his unyielding lips moving against mine.
There really was no excuse for my behavior. Obviously I knew better by now. And yet I couldn’t seem to stop from reacting exactly as I had the first time. Instead of keeping safely motionless, my arms reached up to twine tightly around his neck, and I was suddenly welded to his stone figure. I sighed, and my lips parted.
He staggered back, breaking my grip effortlessly.
“Damn it, Bella!” he broke off, gasping. “You’ll be the death of me, I swear you will.”
I leaned over, bracing my hands against my knees for support.
“You’re indestructible,” I mumbled, trying to catch my breath.
“I might have believed that before I met you. Now let’s get out of here before I do something really stupid,” he growled.
He threw me across his back as he had before, and I could see the extra effort it took for him to be as gentle as he was. I locked my legs around his waist and secured my arms in a choke hold around his neck.
“Don’t forget to close your eyes,” he warned severely.
I quickly tucked my face into his shoulder blade, under my own arm, and squeezed my eyes shut.
And I could hardly tell we were moving. I could feel him gliding along beneath me, but he could have been strolling down the sidewalk, the movement was so smooth. I was tempted to peek, just to see if he was really flying through the forest like before, but I resisted. It wasn’t worth that awful dizziness. I contented myself with listening to his breath come and go evenly.
I wasn’t quite sure we had stopped until he reached back and touched my hair.
“It’s over, Bella.”
I dared to open my eyes, and, sure enough, we were at a standstill. I stiffly unlocked my stranglehold on his body and slipped to the ground, landing on my backside.
“Oh!” I huffed as I hit the wet ground.
He stared at me incredulously, evidently not sure whether he was still too mad to find me funny. But my bewildered expression pushed him over the edge, and he broke into a roar of laughter.
I picked myself up, ignoring him as I brushed the mud and bracken off the back of my jacket. That only made him laugh harder. Annoyed, I began to stride off into the forest.
I felt hi
s arm around my waist.
“Where are you going, Bella?”
“To watch a baseball game. You don’t seem to be interested in playing anymore, but I’m sure the others will have fun without you.”
“You’re going the wrong way.”
I turned around without looking at him, and stalked off in the opposite direction. He caught me again.
“Don’t be mad, I couldn’t help myself. You should have seen your face.” He chuckled before he could stop himself.
“Oh, you’re the only one who’s allowed to get mad?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
“I wasn’t mad at you.”
“‘Bella, you’ll be the death of me’?” I quoted sourly.
“That was simply a statement of fact.”
I tried to turn away from him again, but he held me fast.
“You were mad,” I insisted.
“Yes.”
“But you just said—”
“That I wasn’t mad at you. Can’t you see that, Bella?” He was suddenly intense, all trace of teasing gone. “Don’t you understand?”
“See what?” I demanded, confused by his sudden mood swing as much as his words.
“I’m never angry with you—how could I be? Brave, trusting… warm as you are.”
“Then why?” I whispered, remembering the black moods that pulled him away from me, that I’d always interpreted as well-justified frustration—frustration at my weakness, my slowness, my unruly human reactions.…
He put his hands carefully on both sides of my face. “I infuriate myself,” he said gently. “The way I can’t seem to keep from putting you in danger. My very existence puts you at risk. Sometimes I truly hate myself. I should be stronger, I should be able to—”
I placed my hand over his mouth. “Don’t.”
He took my hand, moving it from his lips, but holding it to his face.
“I love you,” he said. “It’s a poor excuse for what I’m doing, but it’s still true.”
It was the first time he’d said he loved me—in so many words. He might not realize it, but I certainly did.
“Now, please try to behave yourself,” he continued, and he bent to softly brush his lips against mine.
I held properly still. Then I sighed.
“You promised Chief Swan that you would have me home early, remember? We’d better get going.”
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