Bella gathered the rest of the paint swatches to take to the guest room, where Anna Lee stood staring at a handful of samples taped by the window. Setting the swatches down, she thumbed through the pile on the desk. "I take it these didn't make the cut?"

Anna Lee taped another swatch to the wall. "Why did you even pick up pink ones?"

"I might have gotten carried away." Bella shot her cousin a sheepish smile as she found three similar shades of Barbie pink.

"Might have? You picked up eleventy billion more than we needed."

"You're exaggerating." She taped up a soft blue sample.

"I'm really not."

Bella glanced at the sorted piles of swatches covering the desk. "Yeah, that might be eleventy billion more than we need. Are you leaning toward a color yet?"

"Not yet. Something soft, though."

"So nothing bright then." The younger Swan flicked through the samples and began discarding the fluorescent pinks and greens, Anna Lee tossing over a few reds and oranges from her own pile.

Bella watched her cousin work for a moment, methodically sorting and taping swatches. "Are you going to ask?"

She paused to look at Bella. "Ask what?"

"What Jasper and I talked about."

"Nope." Anna Lee continued on with her task.

"You're not?"

"None of my business."

"Seriously?"

She shrugged. "Provided nobody makes you cry."

"Are you going to ask anything?"

"Nope."

"None of your business?"

"None of my business."

"You're not curious at all?"

Anna Lee turned to her with an incredulous stare. "Of course I'm curious; I'm a Swan."

"But you're still not going to ask?"

"Nope." She turned away to tape another sample to the wall.

"Why not?"

"'Cause it ain't your secret to tell. I can respect that."

Bella frowned in confusion. "So you're going to ask Jasper?"

"Nope." At her cousin's look, she continued, "Don't figure I'd get much of an answer, what with it bein' a secret and all."

"Jasper thinks you'll figure it out like I did."

"I appreciate his faith in my intelligence."

Bella just stared at Anna Lee. "How can you stand it, the not knowing?"

"Every time I start to wonder about it, I shove it all back in the "not my business" box."

"It's kind of your business though," she pointed out. "You know them now. And you'll have classes with Jasper, Emmett, and Rosalie."

"Do you want me to figure it out?"

She shrugged and ducked her head under her cousin's scrutiny. "I wouldn't mind having someone to talk to about it."

"Someone normal, you mean?" Her cousin had always been quick to cut through to the heart of the matter.

"Yeah. I know it's selfish, though. I mean, it's not exactly the safest secret to keep. But if you're just going to figure it out on your own eventually, why wait?"

Anna Lee frowned. "I didn't think the secret had much to do with rainbows and unicorns, but it's that dangerous?"

"Well..."

The dots suddenly connected. "That bullshit about you trippin' and takin' out half a hotel? I knew that won't on the level."

"How did you—"

Anna Lee just raised an eyebrow. "I've seen the death grip you keep on a handrail. No way in hell you let go long enough to fall down a flight of stairs." Her face darkened at the thought that followed.

"What's wrong?"

"Who do I need to kill?"

"Why do you need to kill anyone?"

"If you weren't hurt on accident, then you were hurt on purpose. Which means I have someone to kill—namely, the person who did the hurtin'." She explained.

"Oh." Now following her cousin's uncompromising logic, Bella was quick to reassure her. "You don't have to kill anyone."

"Someone damn near killed you and you think this is negotiable? Human or not, they die. I don't even have to bother establishin' an alibi if they aren't. It's not murder if they don't exist."

Bella winced, realizing for the first time how it all must sound. Especially to someone as protective as Anna Lee. "Um, Jasper took care of it, actually."

Her cousin looked less than satisfied. "Permanently?" She prodded.

"Yeah."

"Huh." Anna Lee immediately discarded her half-baked plans of retribution. "How do you show your appreciation in a situation like this? I don't think a fruit basket is goin' to cut it."

"You're insane," Bella giggled.

Anna Lee pointed to herself. "Swan."

"Good point. We're all insane. Me, most of all."

"And why are you the most insane Swan?" She asked, amused. "Not that I'm arguin' the point."

Bella slumped onto the neatly made bed. "I miss them. The Cullens, I mean. When Edward broke up with me, I lost all of them too. Sometimes I think I miss them more than I miss Edward."

Anna Lee sat down, one arm going around her cousin. "They were your friends, right? Why would you lose them just because you broke up with their brother?

"I think Edward told them to stay away from me." Her nose scrunched. "Told them it was for my own good. That I would be better off living a normal life."

"Who died and made him the authority on normal? Newsflash: there's no such thing."

"I tried to tell him that the whole time we were dating. But Edward always knows best."

"Knew I should've hit him harder," Anna Lee muttered.

Bella snorted. "Maybe."

"Definitely." She paused. "You don't have to miss them, you know."

"What?"

"You'll see them at school. And without Edward around to know best," Anna Lee rolled her eyes, what she thought of Edward's attitude clear in her tone, "There's no reason you can't still be friends if you want to."

The younger Swan was quiet. "I want to. But we haven't spoken in months. I can't just go up to them like nothing happened."

"You don't have to ignore what happened. No one expects you to be over it. Not after yesterday, anyway."

"It's different now."

"Doesn't seem to be a bad different. You just spent a good half hour with Jasper, remember?"

"That's true. You know, I think that's the first time I've ever been alone with Jasper."

"You're kiddin'."

"Edward didn't like me to be around him."

"Of course he didn't. If you hung around Jasper, you'd realize Edward was an asshole and leave him. You're smart like that."

Bella fought a smile. Anna Lee had always had a talent for simplifying the overly complicated.

"What?"

"Nothing. But, speaking of Jasper, he told me something today."

"Somethin' I'm allowed to hear?"

"This part, yes." She took a deep breath to steady her nerves. "We've been invited to dinner."

Anna Lee blinked, not entirely sure what her younger cousin expected her to do with the information. "Okay?"

"Are you going to say anything about any of this?"

"It's entirely up to you. If you want to go, we'll go. I'll ignore my social awkwardness and be your buffer if you feel uncomfortable or put my foot down and bring us home if they upset you. And if you don't want to go, we don't go. I'll even tell 'em if you don't want to be the one that says no."

Bella bit her lip. She really did miss the Cullens—even if she doubted that they missed her. Emmett had been the boisterous older brother she'd never had. He'd reminded her a lot of days spent playing with the rez boys when she was younger. While Bella was sure that Rosalie didn't care for the human among them, she could always be counted on for speaking the—usually blunt—truth. It was impossible not to miss Carlisle and Esme; Carlisle for his welcoming nature and Esme for her motherly hugs. While she hadn't known Jasper as well as the rest, she had always appreciated his silent strength. She and Alice had been really close. The tiny vampire had made Anna Lee's physical absence easier to bear. Bella certainly understood now why her cousin had to forgo her yearly visits to Forks. But phone calls were a poor substitute when she was used to spending every minute of summer vacation with Anna Lee. "I think I want to go."

"Then we'll go."

"And we can come home if I change my mind?" She asked in a small voice.

"That very second," her cousin promised.

Bella laid her head on her cousin's shoulder. "I'm glad you're here."

Anna Lee laid her head on top of Bella's and pulled her closer. "Me too."