Eclipse Page 0,66

smell bad to you, Jake."

He grinned. "See you around, Bells."

"Are you leaving?"

"He's waiting for me to go. I can hear him outside."

"Oh."

"I'll go out the back," he said, and then he paused. "Hold up a sec - hey, do you think you can come to La Push tonight? We're having a bonfire party. Emily will be there, and you could meet Kim . . . And I know Quil wants to see you, too. He's pretty peeved that you found out before he did."

I grinned at that. I could just imagine how that would have irked Quil - Jacob's little human gal pal down with the werewolves while he was still clueless. And then I sighed. "Yeah, Jake, I don't know about that. See, it's a little tense right now. . . ."

"C'mon, you think somebody's going to get past all - all six of us?"

There was a strange pause as he stuttered over the end of his question. I wondered if he had trouble saying the word werewolf aloud, the way I often had difficulty with vampire.

His big dark eyes were full of unashamed pleading.

"I'll ask," I said doubtfully.

He made a noise in the back of his throat. "Is he your warden, now, too? You know, I saw this story on the news last week about controlling, abusive teenage relationships and -"

"Okay!" I cut him off, and then shoved his arm. "Time for the werewolf to get out!"

He grinned. "Bye, Bells. Be sure you ask permission."

He ducked out the back door before I could find something to throw at him. I growled incoherently at the empty room.

Seconds after he was gone, Edward walked slowly into the kitchen, raindrops glistening like diamonds set into the bronze of his hair. His eyes were wary.

"Did you two get into a fight?" he asked.

"Edward!" I sang, throwing myself at him.

"Hi, there." He laughed and wrapped his arms around me. "Are you trying to distract me? It's working."

"No, I didn't fight with Jacob. Much. Why?"

"I was just wondering why you stabbed him. Not that I object." With his chin, he gestured to the knife on the counter.

"Dang! I thought I got everything."

I pulled away from him and ran to put the knife in the sink before I doused it with bleach.

"I didn't stab him," I explained as I worked. "He forgot he had a knife in his hand."

Edward chuckled. "That's not nearly as fun as the way I imagined it."

"Be nice."

He took a big envelope from his jacket pocket and tossed it on the counter. "I got your mail."

"Anything good?"

"I think so."

My eyes narrowed suspiciously at his tone. I went to investigate.

He'd folded the legal-sized envelope in half. I smoothed it open, surprised at the weight of the expensive paper, and read the return address.

"Dartmouth? Is this a joke?"

"I'm sure it's an acceptance. It looks exactly like mine."

"Good grief, Edward - what did you do?"

"I sent in your application, that's all."

"I may not be Dartmouth material, but I'm not stupid enough to believe that."

"Dartmouth seems to think that you're Dartmouth material."

I took a deep breath and counted slowly to ten. "That's very generous of them," I finally said. "However, accepted or not, there is still the minor matter of tuition. I can't afford it, and I'm not letting you throw away enough money to buy yourself another sports car just so that I can pretend to go to Dartmouth next year."

"I don't need another sports car. And you don't have to pretend anything," he murmured. "One year of college wouldn't kill you. Maybe you'd even like it. Just think about it, Bella. Imagine how excited Charlie and Renée would be. . . ."

His velvet voice painted the picture in my head before I could block it. Of course Charlie would explode with pride - no one in the town of Forks would be able to escape the fallout from his excitement. And Renée would be hysterical with joy at my triumph - though she'd swear she wasn't at all surprised. . . .

I tried to shake the image out of my head. "Edward. I'm worried about living through graduation, let alone this summer or next fall."

His arms wrapped around me again. "No one is going to hurt you. You have all the time in the world."

I sighed. "I'm mailing the contents of my bank account to Alaska tomorrow. It's all the alibi I need. It's far enough away that Charlie won't expect a visit until Christmas at the earliest. And I'm sure I'll think