If I were lucky enough to sit by you, I would have talked to you.

Bella? Are you all right?

He’d been flinging questions at me with such speed that I felt like I was taking one of those psychiatric tests where you answer with the first word that comes to mind.

So where were we, before I behaved so rudely?

For an instant, I felt a thrill of genuine fear, raising the hair on my arms. The look only lasted a second, but it chilled me more than the freezing wind.

I was sure, though, in the instant our eyes met, that he didn’t look harsh or unfriendly as he had the last time I’d seen him. He looked merely curious again, unsatisfied in some way.

So what did Edward Cullen want yesterday?

Most of the time I tune it all out — it can be very distracting. And then it’s easier to seem normal when I’m not accidentally answering someone’s thoughts rather than their words.

Aren’t we past all the evasions now?

Well, you asked if the sun hurt me, and it doesn’t. But I can’t go out in the sunlight — at least, not where anyone can see.