I STARED AT HIM FOR A LONG MINUTE, SPEECHLESS. I could not think of one thing to say to him.

　　As he watched my dumbfounded expression, the seriousness left his face.

　　“Okay,” he said, grinning. “That’s all.”

　　“Jake —” It felt like there was something big sticking in my throat. I tried to clear the obstruction. “I can’t— I mean I don’t . . . I have to go.”

　　I turned, but he grabbed my shoulders and spun me around.

　　“No, wait. I know that, Bella. But, look, answer me this, all right? Do you want me to go away and neversee you again? Be honest.”

　　It was hard to concentrate on his question, so it took a minute to answer. “No, I don’t want that,” I finallyadmitted.

　　Jacob grinned again. “See.”

　　“But I don’t want you around for the same reason that you want me around,” I objected.

　　“Tell me exactly why you want me around, then.”

　　I thought carefully. “I miss you when you’re not there. When you’re happy,” I qualified carefully, “it makesme happy. But I could say the same thing about Charlie, Jacob. You’re family. I love you, but I’m not in lovewith you.”

　　He nodded, unruffled. “But you do want me around.”

　　“Yes.” I sighed. He was impossible to discourage.

　　“Then I’ll stick around.”

　　“You’re a glutton for punishment,” I grumbled.

　　“Yep.” He stroked the tips of his fingers across my right cheek. I slapped his hand away.

　　“Do you think you could behave yourself a little better, at least?” I asked, irritated.

　　“No, I don’t. You decide, Bella. You can have me the way I am — bad behavior included — or not atall.”

　　I stared at him, frustrated. “That’s mean.”

　　“So are you.”

　　That pulled me up short, and I took an involuntary step back. He was right. If I wasn’t mean — andgreedy, too — I would tell him I didn’t want to be friends and walk away. It was wrong to try to keep myfriend when that would hurt him. I didn’t know what I was doing here, but I was suddenly sure that it wasn’tgood.

　　“You’re right,” I whispered.

　　He laughed. “I forgive you. Just try not to get too mad at me. Because I recently decided that I’m notgiving up. There really is something irresistible about a lost cause.”

　　“Jacob.” I stared into his dark eyes, trying to make him take me seriously. “I love him, Jacob. He’s mywhole life.”

　　“You love me, too,” he reminded me. He held up his hand when I started to protest. “Not the same way, Iknow. But he’s not your whole life, either. Not anymore. Maybe he was once, but he left. And now he’s justgoing to have to deal with the consequence of that choice — me.”

　　I shook my head. “You’re impossible.”

　　Suddenly, he was serious. He took my chin in his hand, holding it firmly so that I couldn’t look away fromhis intent gaze.

　　“Until your heart stops beating, Bella,” he said. “I’ll be here — fighting. Don’t forget that you haveoptions.”

　　“I don’t want options,” I disagreed, trying to yank my chin free unsuccessfully. “And my heartbeats arenumbered, Jacob. The time is almost gone.”

　　His eyes narrowed. “All the more reason to fight — fight harder now, while I can,” he whispered.

　　He still had my chin — his fingers holding too tight, till it hurt — and I saw the resolve form abruptly in his eyes.

　　“N —” I started to object, but it was too late.

　　His lips crushed mine, stopping my protest. He kissed me angrily, roughly, his other hand gripping tightaround the back of my neck, making escape impossible. I shoved against his chest with all my strength, but hedidn’t even seem to notice. His mouth was soft, despite the anger, his lips molding to mine in a warm,unfamiliar way.

　　I grabbed at his face, trying to push it away, failing again. He seemed to notice this time, though, and itaggravated him. His lips forced mine open, and I could feel his hot breath in my mouth.

　　Acting on instinct, I let my hands drop to my side, and shut down. I opened my eyes and didn’t fight,didn’t feel . . . just waited for him to stop.

　　It worked. The anger seemed to evaporate, and he pulled back to look at me. He pressed his lips softly tomine again, once, twice . . . a third time. I pretended I was a statue and waited.

　　Finally, he let go of my face and leaned away.

　　“Are you done now?” I asked in an expressionless voice.

　　“Yes,” he sighed. He started to smile, closing his eyes.

　　I pulled my arm back and then let it snap forward, punching him in the mouth with as much power as Icould force out of my body.

　　There was a crunching sound.

　　“Ow! OW!” I screamed, frantically hopping up and down in agony while I clutched my hand to my chest.

　　It was broken, I could feel it.

　　Jacob stared at me in shock. “Are you all right?”

　　“No, dammit! You broke my hand!”

　　“Bella, you broke your hand. Now stop dancing around and let me look at it.”

　　“Don’t touch me! I’m going home right now!”

　　“I’ll get my car,” he said calmly. He wasn’t even rubbing his jaw like they did in the movies. How pathetic.

　　“No, thanks,” I hissed. “I’d rather walk.” I turned toward the road. It was only a few miles to the border.

　　As soon as I got away from him, Alice would see me. She’d send somebody to pick me up.

　　“Just let me drive you home,” Jacob insisted. Unbelievably, he had the nerve to wrap his arm around mywaist.

　　I jerked away from him.

　　“Fine!” I growled. “Do! I can’t wait to see what Edward does to you! I hope he snaps your neck, youpushy, obnoxious, moronic DOG!”

　　Jacob rolled his eyes. He walked me to the passenger side of his car and helped me in. When he got in thedriver’s side, he was whistling.

　　“Didn’t I hurt you at all?” I asked, furious and annoyed.

　　“Are you kidding? If you hadn’t started screaming, I might not have figured out that you were trying topunch me. I may not be made out of stone, but I’m not that soft.”

　　“I hate you, Jacob Black.”

　　“That’s good. Hate is a passionate emotion.”

　　“I’ll give you passionate,” I muttered under my breath. “Murder, the ultimate crime of passion.”

　　“Oh, c’mon,” he said, all cheery and looking like he was about to start whistling again. “That had to bebetter than kissing a rock.”

　　“Not even remotely close,” I told him coldly.

　　He pursed his lips. “You could just be saying that.”

　　“But I’m not.”

　　That seemed to bother him for a second, but then he perked up. “You’re just mad. I don’t have anyexperience with this kind of thing, but I thought it was pretty incredible myself.”

　　“Ugh,” I groaned.

　　“You’re going to think about it tonight. When he thinks you’re asleep, you’ll be thinking about youroptions.”

　　“If I think about you tonight, it will be because I’m having a nightmare.”

　　He slowed the car to a crawl, turning to stare at me with his dark eyes wide and earnest. “Just think about how it could be, Bella,” he urged in a soft, eager voice. “You wouldn’t have to change anything for me. Youknow Charlie would be happy if you picked me. I could protect you just as well as your vampire can —maybe better. And I would make you happy, Bella. There’s so much I could give you that he can’t. I’ll bet hecouldn’t even kiss you like that — because he would hurt you. I would never, never hurt you, Bella.”

　　I held up my injured hand.

　　He sighed. “That wasn’t my fault. You should have known better.”

　　“Jacob, I can’t be happy without him.”

　　“You’ve never tried,” he disagreed. “When he left, you spent all your energy holding on to him. You couldbe happy if you let go. You could be happy with me.”

　　“I don’t want to be happy with anyone but him,” I insisted.

　　“You’ll never be able to be as sure of him as you are of me. He left you once, he could do it again.”

　　“No, he will not,” I said through my teeth. The pain of the memory bit into me like the lash of a whip. Itmade me want to hurt him back. “You left me once,” I reminded him in a cold voice, thinking of the weekshe’d hidden from me, the words he’d said to me in the woods beside his home. . . .

　　“I never did,” he argued hotly. “They told me I couldn’t tell you — that it wasn’t safe for you if we weretogether. But I never left, never! I used to run around your house at night — like I do now. Just making sureyou were okay.”

　　I wasn’t about to let him make me feel bad for him now.

　　“Take me home. My hand hurts.”

　　He sighed, and started driving at a normal speed, watching the road.

　　“Just think about it, Bella.”

　　“No,” I said stubbornly.

　　“You will. Tonight. And I’ll be thinking about you while you’re thinking about me.”

　　“Like I said, a nightmare.”

　　He grinned over at me. “You kissed me back.”

　　I gasped, unthinkingly balling my hands up into fists again, hissing when my broken hand reacted.

　　“Are you okay?” he asked.

　　“I did not.”

　　“I think I can tell the difference.”

　　“Obviously you can’t — that was not kissing back, that was trying to get you the hell off of me, you idiot.”

　　He laughed a low, throaty laugh. “Touchy. Almost overly defensive, I would say.”

　　I took a deep breath. There was no point in arguing with him; he would twist anything I said. Iconcentrated on my hand, trying to stretch out my fingers, to ascertain where the broken parts were. Sharppains stabbed along my knuckles. I groaned.

　　“I’m really sorry about your hand,” Jacob said, sounding almost sincere. “Next time you want to hit me,use a baseball bat or a crowbar, okay?”

　　“Don’t think I’ll forget that,” I muttered.

　　I didn’t realize where we were going until we were on my road.

　　“Why are you taking me here?” I demanded.

　　He looked at me blankly. “I thought you said you were going home?”

　　“Ugh. I guess you can’t take me to Edward’s house, can you?” I ground my teeth in frustration.

　　Pain twisted across his face, and I could see that this affected him more than anything else I’d said.

　　“This is your home, Bella,” he said quietly.

　　“Yes, but do any doctors live here?” I asked, holding up my hand again.

　　“Oh.” He thought about that for a minute. “I’ll take you to the hospital. Or Charlie can.”

　　“I don’t want to go to the hospital. It’s embarrassing and unnecessary.”

　　He let the Rabbit idle in front of the house, deliberating with an unsure expression. Charlie’s cruiser was inthe driveway.

　　I sighed. “Go home, Jacob.”

　　I climbed out of the car awkwardly, heading for the house. The engine cut off behind me, and I was lesssurprised than annoyed to find Jacob beside me again.

　　“What are you going to do?” he asked.

　　 “I am going to get some ice on my hand, and then I am going to call Edward and tell him to come and getme and take me to Carlisle so that he can fix my hand. Then, if you’re still here, I am going to go hunt up acrowbar.”

　　He didn’t answer. He opened the front door and held it for me.

　　We walked silently past the front room where Charlie was lying on the sofa.

　　“Hey, kids,” he said, sitting forward. “Nice to see you here, Jake.”

　　“Hey, Charlie,” Jacob answered casually, pausing. I stalked on to the kitchen.

　　“What’s wrong with her?” Charlie wondered.

　　“She thinks she broke her hand,” I heard Jacob tell him. I went to the freezer and pulled out a tray of icecubes.

　　“How did she do that?” As my father, I thought Charlie ought to sound a bit less amused and a bit moreconcerned.

　　Jacob laughed. “She hit me.”

　　Charlie laughed, too, and I scowled while I beat the tray against the edge of the sink. The ice scatteredinside the basin, and I grabbed a handful with my good hand and wrapped the cubes in the dishcloth on thecounter.

　　“Why did she hit you?”

　　“Because I kissed her,” Jacob said, unashamed.

　　“Good for you, kid,............