I wasn't able to keep up the playful tone of our banter, though.
"Won't you want to tell your father that you're spending the day with me?" I asked, darkness seeping into my voice.
I shoved at the visions again, trying to push them farther away, to keep them from flickering through my head.
"With Charlie, less is always more," Bella said, certain of this fact. "Where are we going, anyway?"
"You should tell him at least," Jacob said.
Alice was wrong. Dead wrong. There was no chance of that. And it was just an old vision, invalid now. Things had changed.
"Right," Jacob said again, in his non-believing hopeful tone, and then added stiffly, "but that doesn't mean you should take her to this meadow of yours."
"The weather will be nice," I told her slowly, fighting the panic and indecision.
Alice was wrong. I would continue as if I hadn't heard or seen anything. "So I'll be staying out of the public eye...and you can stay with me, if you'd like to."
Bella caught the significance at once; her eyes were bright and eager. "And you'll show me what you meant, about the sun?"
Maybe, like so many times before, her reaction would be the opposite of what I expected. I smiled at that possibility, struggling to return to the lighter moment. "Yes. But..." She hadn't said yes. "If you don't want to be...alone with me, I'd still rather you didn't go to Seattle by yourself. I shudder to think of the trouble you could find in a city that size."
Her lips pressed together; she was offended.
The Bella who was reading the book wasn't offended by this... she was too busy worrying about what was going to happen next to be offended.
"Phoenix is three times bigger than Seattle - just in population. In physical size - "
"But apparently your number wasn't up in Phoenix," I said, cutting off her justifications. "So I'd rather you stayed with me."
She could stay forever and it would not be long enough.
I shouldn't think that way. We didn't have forever. The passing seconds counted more than they ever had before; each second changed her while I remained untouched.
Bella grimaced... that sounded so sad, the way that he described her changing every second...
Jacob grimaced, it sounded liked Edward wanted her to be a vampire... or at least part of him wanted that so that she would always be by his side.
"As it happens, I don't mind being alone with you," she said.
No - because her instincts were backwards.
"I know." I sighed. "You should tell Charlie, though."
"Why in the world would I do that?" she asked, sounding horrified.
"Because it's the right thing to do," Jacob said.
"So you always tell Billy where you go?" Bella questioned.
"Um..." Jacob said.
"That's what I thought," Bella said.
"I don't..." Jacob started, but Bella had started reading again.
I glared at her, the visions I couldn't quite manage to repress swirling sickeningly through my head.
"To give me some small incentive to bring you back," I hissed. She should give me that much - one witness to compel me to be cautious.
Why had Alice forced this knowledge on me now?
"Oh," Bella said and then looked thoughtful. "Maybe she did it so that you would be on guard... that you wouldn't be careless there."
"You think?" Jacob asked.
"It's a possibility," Bella shrugged.
Bella swallowed loudly, and stared at me for a long moment. What did she see?
"I think I'll take my chances," she said.
Ugh! Did she get some thrill out of risking her life? Some shot of adrenaline she craved?
"I'm not some kind of adrenaline junky," Bella rolled her eyes.
I scowled at Alice, who met my glare with a warning glance. Beside her, Rosalie was glowering furiously, but I couldn't have cared less. Let her destroy the car. It was just a toy.
"Let's talk about something else," Bella suggested suddenly.
I looked back at her, wondering how she could be so oblivious to what really mattered. Why wouldn't she see me for the monster I was?
Because it's better to see you as the good man that you are, Bella thought to herself, not sure if Jacob would want to hear something like that, with the attitude he had right now.
"What do you want to talk about?"
Her eyes darted to the left and then the right, as if checking to make sure there were no eavesdroppers. She must be planning to introduce another myth-related topic.
Her eyes froze for a second and her body stiffened, and then she looked back to me.
"Why did you go to that Goat Rocks place last weekend...to hunt? Charlie said it wasn't a good place to hike, because of bears."
So oblivious. I stared at her, raising one eyebrow.
"How did you miss that one?" Jacob tried to chuckle.
"Because it's bears... how could something that looks so human hunt bears?" Bella said.
"Bears?" she gasped.
I smiled wryly, watching that sink in. Would this make her take me seriously?
Would anything?
She pulled her expression together. "You know, bears are not in season," she said severely, narrowing her eyes.
"If you read carefully, the laws only cover hunting with weapons."
She lost control over her face again for a moment. Her lips fell open.
"Bears?" she said again, a tentative question this time rather than a gasp of shock.
"Grizzly is Emmett's favorite."
I watched her eyes, seeing this settle in.
"Hmm," she murmured. She took a bite of the pizza, looking down. She chewed thoughtfully, and then took a drink.