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THE SUN WAS SO DEEPLY BURIED BEHIND THE CLOUDS that there was no way to tell if it had set or not After the long flight - chasing the sun ard so that it see; time seeave way to the first buildings, signaling that ere nearly home

"You’ve been very quiet," Edward observed "Did the plane make you sick?"

"No, I’m okay"

"Are you sad to leave?"

"More relieved than sad, I think"

He raised one eyebrow at me I kneas useless and - much as I hated to admit it - unnecessary to ask him to keep his eyes on the road

"Ren��e is so muchhed "Yours differently than other people"

Insightful It was a good description ofattention Most of the time Ren��e was so bewildered by her own life that she didn’t noticeplenty of attention to me

Phil was busy - the high school baseball tea alone with Edward and s and squeals of delight were out of the way, Ren��e began to watch And as she’d watched, her wide blue eyes had beco we’d gone for a walk along the beach She wanted to show off all the beauties of her new hoht lure me away from Forks She’d also wanted to talk with ed Edward had fabricated a ter the day

In ain

Ren��e and I ae of the infrequent pal The air was so heavy with s a workout

"Bella?" htly crashing waves as she spoke

"What is it, Moaze "I’?" I asked, anxious at once "What can I do?"

"It’s not me" She shook her head "I’m worried about youand Edward"

Ren��e finally looked at etic

"Oh," I ers as they passed us, drenched with sweat

"You two are ," she went on

I frowned, quickly reviewing the last two days in my head Edward and I had barely touched - in front of her, at least I wondered if Ren��e was about to give me a lecture on responsibility, too I didn’t mind that the way I had with Charlie It wasn’t eiving her that lecture tiain in the last ten years

"There’s soether," sheover her troubled eyes "The way he watches you - it’s soprotective Like he’s about to throw hihed, though I was still not able to ?"

"No" She frowned as she struggled for the words "It’s just different He’s very intense about youand very careful I feel like I don’t really understand your relationship Like there’s soining things, Moht There was a flutter in otten howabout her sih all the distractions and pierced right to the truth of things This had never been a problem before Until now, there had never been a secret I couldn’t tell her

"It’s not just him" She set her lips defensively "I wish you could see how you move around him"

"What do you mean?"

"The way youabout it When he moves, even a little bit, you adjust your position at the saravity You’re like asatellite, or so like it"

She pursed her lips and stared down

"Don’t tellain, aren’t you? Or is it sci-fi this time?"

Ren��e flushed a delicate pink "That’s beside the point"

"Found anything good?"

"Well, there was one - but that doesn’t ht now"

"You should stick to romance, Mom You kno you freak yourself out"

Her lips turned up at the corners "I’ silly, aren’t I?"

For half a second I couldn’t answer Ren��e was so easily swayed So, because not all of her ideas were practical But it pained , especially since she was dead right this time

She looked up, and I controlled hed and then gestured grandly toward the white sands stretching to the blue water

"And all this isn’t enough to get you to move back in with your silly mom?"

I wiped my hand dra et used to the huet used to rain, too," I countered

She elbowed me playfully and then took my hand as alked back to her car

Other than her worries about h Content She still looked at Phil with goo- goo eyes, and that was co Surely she didn’t ers brushedback to the present He leaned down and kissedBeauty Time to awake"

We were stopped in front of Charlie’s house The porch light was on and the cruiser was parked in the driveway As I exa rooht across the dark lawn

I sighed Of course Charlie aiting to pounce

Edward , because his expression was stiff and his eyes reet oing to be difficult," Edward promised, his voice level with no hint of humor "He missed you"

My eyes narrowed in doubt If that was the case, then as Edward tensed as if for a battle?

My bag was s it into the house Charlie held the door open for us

"Welcome home, kid!" Charlie shouted like he really y"

"So Ren��e didn’t sell you on the University of Florida?"

"She tried But I’d rather drink water than inhale it"

Charlie’s eyes flickered unwillingly to Edward "Did you have a nice time?"

"Yes," Edward answered in a serene voice "Ren��e was very hospitable"

"That’suood Glad you had fun" Charlie turned away fro

"Ih "I really missed you, Bells The food around here sucks when you’re gone"

"I’ll get on it," I said as he letI promised I’d have you call him before you even unpacked"

I didn’t have to look at Edward to feel that he was too still, too cold beside me So this was the cause of his tension

"Jacob wants to talk to me?"

"Pretty bad, I’d say He wouldn’t tell me what it was about - just said it was i

"That’s hiain, I’d bet ot it" I hurried to the kitchen

Edward followed after rabbed the phonethe wall "Hello?"

"You’re back," Jacob said

His fah ether - a rocky beach streith driftwood trees, a garage , a tiny roohter in his deep-set black eyes, the feverish heat of his big hand around ainst his dark skin, his face stretching into the wide smile that had always been like a key to a secret door where only kindred spirits could enter

It felt sort of like ho for the place and person who had sheltered ht

I cleared the lump from my throat "Yes," I answered

"Why didn’t you call ot my back up "Because I’ve been in the house for exactly four seconds and

your call interrupted Charlie telling me that you’d called"

"Oh Sorry"

"Sure Nohy are you harassing Charlie?"

"I need to talk to you"

"Yeah, I figured out that part all byto school tomorrow?"

I frowned to myself, unable to make sense of this question "Of course I am Why wouldn’t I?"

"I dunno Just curious"

Another pause

"So what did you want to talk about, Jake?"

He hesitated "Nothing really, I guess Iwanted to hear your voice"

"Yeah, I know I’lad you called me, Jake I" But I didn’t knohat more to say I wanted to tell hiht now And I couldn’t tell hio," he said abruptly

"What?"

"I’ll talk to you soon, okay?"

"But Jake -"

He was already gone I listened to the dial tone with disbelief

"That was short," I ht?" Edward asked His voice was low and careful

I turned slowly to face him His expression was perfectly smooth - impossible to read

"I don’t knoonder what that was about" It didn’tCharlie all day just to askto school And if he’d wanted to hear uess is probably better thanat the corner of his mouth

"Mmm," I murmured That was true I knew Jake inside and out It shouldn’t be that cohts miles away - about fifteen h the fridge, asseainst the counter, and I was distantly aware that his eyes were on my face, but too preoccupied to worry about what he saw there

The school thing seemed like the key to me That was the only real question Jake had asked And he had to be after an answer to so Charlie so persistently

Why would h?

I tried to think about it in a logical way So, if I hadn’t been going to school tomorroould be the probleivena day of school so close to finals, but I’d convinced hi to derail my studies Jake would hardly care about that

My brain refused to co soed in the past three days that was so i to answer my phone calls and contact me? What difference could three days e of icy haers It took ainst the floor

Edward had caught it and thrown it onto the counter His arms were already around ?"

I shook

Hadn’t I just been thinking about how ie was? How I couldn’t be anywhere near people after I’d gone through the painful three-day conversion that would set me free from mortality, so that I could spend eternity with Edward? The conversion that would make me forever a prisoner to my own thirst

Had Charlie told Billy that I’d vanished for three days? Had Billy jusure that the olves’ treaty was unbroken - that none of the Cullens had dared to bite a humanbite, not kill?

But did he honestly think I would come home to Charlie if that was the case?

Edward shook me "Bella?" he asked, truly anxious now

"I thinkI think he was checking," Ito make sure That I’m human, I mean"

Edward stiffened, and a low hiss sounded in my ear

"We’ll have to leave," I whispered "Before So that it doesn’t break the treaty We won’t ever be able to cohtened around me "I know"

"Ahem" Charlie cleared his voice loudly behind us

I juetting hot Edward leaned back against the counter His eyes were tight I could see worry in theer

"If you don’t want to make dinner, I can call for a pizza," Charlie hinted

"No, that’s okay, I’m already started"

"Okay," Charlie said He propped hihed and got to work, trying to ignore , would you trust e to his soft voice

We were al just a ht on the steering wheel, his knuckles straining in an effort not to snap it into pieces

I stared at his anxious expression - his eyes were far away, like he was listening to distant voices

My pulse sped in response to his stress, but I answered carefully "That depends"

We pulled into the school lot

"I was afraid you would say that"

"What do you want me to do, Edward?"

"I want you to stay in the car" He pulled into his usual spot and turned the engine off as he spoke "I want you to wait here until I come back for you"

"Butwhy?"

That hen I saw hi over the students the way he did, even if he hadn’t been leaning against his black ally on the sidewalk

"Oh"

Jacob’s face was a calnized well It was the face he used when he was determined to keep his emotions in check, to keep himself under control It made him look like Sam, the oldest of the wolves, the leader of the Quileute pack But Jacob could never quite otten how otten to know Sam pretty well before the Cullens had come back - to like him, even - I’d never been able to completely shake the resentment I felt when Jacob er’s face He wasn’tconclusion last night," Edward murmured "He asked about school because he knew that I would be where you were He was looking for a safe place to talk to me A place itnesses"

So I’dinformation, that was the problem Information like why in the world Jacob would want to talk to Edward

"I’roaned quietly "Of course not Well, let’s get this over with"

Jacob’s face hardened as alked toward him, hand in hand

I noticed other faces, too - the faces of my classmates I noticed how their eyes widened as they took in all six foot seven inches of Jacob’s long body, muscled up the way no normal sixteen-and-a-half-year-old ever had been I saw those eyes rake over his tight black t-shirt - short-sleeved, though the day was unseasonably cool - his ragged, grease-sainst Their eyes didn’t linger on his face - so quickly away And I noticed the wide berth everyone gave him, the bubble of space that no one dared to encroach on

With a sense of astonisherous to them How odd

Edward stopped a few yards away fro htly, pulling me halfway behind his body