I took the red helmet, weighing it in my hands. “I’ll look stupid.”

“No, you’ll look smart. Smart enough not to get yourself hurt.” He threw the black thing, whatever it was, over his arm and then took my face in his hands. “There are things between my hands right now that I can’t live without. You could take care of them.”

“Okay, fine. What’s that other thing?” I asked suspiciously.

He laughed and shook out some kind of padded jacket. “It’s a riding jacket. I hear road rash is quite uncomfortable, not that I would know myself.”

He held it out for me. With a deep sigh, I flipped my hair back and stuffed the helmet on my head. Then I shoved my arms through the sleeves of the jacket. He zipped me in, a smile playing around the corners of his lips, and took a step back.

I felt bulky.

“Be honest, how hideous do I look?”

He took another step back and pursed his lips.

“That bad, huh?” I muttered.

“No, no, Bella. Actually . . .” he seemed to be struggling for the right word. “You look . . . sexy.”

I laughed out loud. “Right.”

“Very sexy, really.”

“You are just saying that so that I’ll wear it,” I said. “But that’s okay. You’re right, it’s smarter.”

He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against his chest. “You’re silly. I suppose that’s part of your charm. Though, I’ll admit it, this helmet does have its drawbacks.”

And then he pulled the helmet off so that he could kiss me.

As Edward drove me toward La Push a little while later, I realized that this unprecedented situation felt oddly familiar. It took me a moment of thought to pinpoint the source of the dйjа vu.

“You know what this reminds me of?” I asked. “It’s just like when I was a kid and Renйe would pass me off to Charlie for the summer. I feel like a seven-year-old.”

Edward laughed.

I didn’t mention it out loud, but the biggest difference between the two circumstances was that Renйe and Charlie had been on better terms.

About halfway to La Push, we rounded the corner and found Jacob leaning against the side of the red Volkswagen he’d built for himself out of scraps. Jacob’s carefully neutral expression dissolved into a smile when I waved from the front seat.

Edward parked the Volvo thirty yards away.

“Call me whenever you’re ready to come home,” he said. “And I’ll be here.”

“I won’t be out late,” I promised.

Edward pulled the bike and my new gear out of the trunk of his car — I’d been quite impressed that it had all fit. But it wasn’t so hard to manage when you were strong enough to juggle full-sized vans, let alone small motorcycles.

Jacob watched, making no move to approach, his smile gone and his dark eyes indecipherable.

I tucked the helmet under my arm and threw the jacket across the seat.

“Do you have it all?” Edward asked.

“No problem,” I assured him.

He sighed and leaned toward me. I turned my face up for a goodbye peck, but Edward took me by surprise, fastening his arms tightly around me and kissing me with as much enthusiasm as he had in the garage — before long, I was gasping for air.

Edward laughed quietly at something, and then let me go.

“Goodbye,” he said. “I really do like the jacket.”

As I turned away from him, I thought I saw a flash of something in his eyes that I wasn’t supposed to see. I couldn’t tell for sure what it was exactly. Worry, maybe. For a second I thought it was panic. But I was probably just making something out of nothing, as usual.

I could feel his eyes on my back as I pushed my bike toward the invisible vampire-werewolf treaty line to meet Jacob.

“What’s all that?” Jacob called to me, his voice wary, scrutinizing the motorcycle with an enigmatic expression.

“I thought I should put this back where it belongs,” I told him.

He pondered that for one short second, and then his wide smile stretched across his face.

I knew the exact point that I was in werewolf territory because Jacob shoved away from his car and loped quickly over to me, closing the distance in three long strides. He took the bike from me, balanced it on the kickstand, and grabbed me up in another vice-tight hug.

I heard the Volvo’s engine growl, and I struggled to get free.

“Cut it out, Jake!” I gasped breathlessly.

He laughed and set me down. I turned to wave goodbye, but the silver car was already disappearing around the curve in the road.

“Nice,” I commented, allowing some acid to leak into my voice.

His eyes widened in false innocence. “What?”

“He’s being pretty dang pleasant about this; you don’t need to push your luck.”

He laughed again, louder than before — he found what I’d said very funny indeed. I tried to see the joke as he walked around the Rabbit to hold my door open for me.

“Bella,” he finally said — still chuckling — as he shut the door behind me, “you can’t push what you don’t have.”

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