Midnight Sun (The Twilight Saga #5) - Stephenie Meyer Page 0,103

Jessica handed her the jacket wordlessly.

I would be polite to Bella’s friends, whether or not they were good friends. “Good morning, Jessica.”

Whoa…

Jessica’s eyes popped even wider, but she did not flinch or take a step back as I expected. Though she’d often found me alluring in the past, she’d always kept a safe distance before, the way all our admirers unconsciously did. It was strange and amusing… and, honestly, a bit embarrassing… to realize how much being near Bella had softened me. It seemed as though no one was afraid of me anymore. If Emmett found out about this, he would be laughing for the next century.

“Er… hi,” Jessica mumbled, and her eyes flashed to Bella’s face, full of significance. “I guess I’ll see you in Trig.”

You are so going to spill. Details. I have to have details! Edward freaking CULLEN!!

Bella’s mouth twitched. “Yeah, I’ll see you then.”

Jessica’s thoughts ran wild as she hurried to her first class, peeking back at us now and then.

The whole story. I’m not accepting anything less. Did they plan to meet up last night? Are they dating? How long? How could she keep this a secret? Why would she want to? It can’t be a casual thing—she has to be seriously into him. I will find out. I wonder if she’s made out with him? Oh, swoon.… Jessica’s thoughts were suddenly disjointed, and she let wordless fantasies swirl through her head. I winced at her speculations, and not just because she’d replaced Bella with herself in the mental pictures.

It couldn’t be like that. And yet I… I wanted…

I resisted making the admission, even to myself. In how many wrong ways would I want Bella? Which one would end up killing her?

I shook my head and tried to lighten up.

“What are you going to tell her?” I asked Bella.

“Hey!” she whispered fiercely. “I thought you couldn’t read my mind!”

“I can’t.” I stared at her, surprised, trying to make sense of her words. Ah—we must have been thinking the same thing at the same time. “However,” I told her, “I can read hers—she’ll be waiting to ambush you in class.”

Bella groaned, and then let the jacket slide off her shoulders. I didn’t realize that she was giving it back at first—I wouldn’t have asked for it; I would rather she kept it… a token—so I was too slow to offer her my help. She handed me the jacket and put her arms through her own.

“So, what are you going to tell her?” I pressed.

“A little help? What does she want to know?”

I smiled, and shook my head. I wanted to hear what she was thinking without a prompt. “That’s not fair.”

Her eyes tightened. “No, you not sharing what you know—now that’s not fair.”

Right—she didn’t like double standards.

“She wants to know if we’re secretly dating,” I said slowly. “And she wants to know how you feel about me.”

Her eyebrows shot up—not startled, but ingenuous now. Playing innocent.

“Yikes,” she murmured. “What should I say?”

“Hmmm.” She always tried to make me give away more than she did. I pondered how to respond.

A wayward lock of her hair, slightly damp from the fog, draped across her shoulder and curled around the place where her collarbone was hidden by the ridiculous sweater. It drew my eyes, pulled them across the other hidden lines.…

I reached for it carefully, not touching her skin—the morning was chill enough without my touch—and twisted it back into place in her untidy bun so that it wouldn’t distract me again. I remembered when Mike Newton had touched her hair, and my jaw flexed at the memory. She had flinched away from him then. Her reaction now was nothing the same; instead, there was a rush of blood under her skin, and a sudden, uneven thumping of her heart.

I tried to hide my smile as I answered her question.

“I suppose you could say yes to the first… if you don’t mind.” Her choice, always her choice. “It’s easier than any other explanation.”

“I don’t mind,” she whispered. Her heart had not found its normal rhythm yet.

“And as for her other question…” I couldn’t hide my smile now. “Well, I’ll be listening to hear the answer to that one myself.”

Let Bella consider that. I held back my laugh as shock crossed her face.

I turned quickly, before she could ask any more questions. I had a difficult time not giving her whatever she asked for. And I wanted to hear her thoughts, not mine.

“I’ll see you at lunch,” I called back