"Yes, I really think that," she said without looking up. There was a faint undertone of sadness in her voice. She blushed again, and her teeth moved unconsciously to worry her lip.
Abruptly, I realized that this was very hard for her to admit, because she truly believed it. And I was no better than that coward, Mike, asking for her to confirm her feelings before I'd confirmed my own. It didn't matter that I felt I'd make my side abundantly clear. It hadn't gotten through to her, and so I had no excuse.
"You're so right, man, how could you be so hypocritical?" Jacob stated. "And I thought you were a gentleman."
"You're wrong," I promised. She must hear the tenderness in my voice.
Bella looked up to me, her eyes opaque, giving nothing away. "You can't know that," she whispered.
She thought that I was underestimating her feelings because I couldn't hear her thoughts. But, in truth, the problem was that she was underestimating mine.
"Hmph," Bella said. Yes, she was underestimating his feelings, that was clear to her, but him thinking that he wasn't doing the same thing... he didn't know how much she cared about him. She didn't know how much her book self cared about him, but it had to be more than she did right now reading this book, and she knew that she already cared about him a lot.
"What makes you think so?" I wondered.
She stared back at me, the furrow between her brows, biting her lips. For the millionth time, I wished desperately that I could just hear her.
I was about to beg her to tell me what thought she was struggling with, but she held up a finger to keep me from speaking.
"Let me think," she requested.
As long as she was simply organizing her thoughts, I could be patient.
"I don't believe you," Jacob chuckled.
Or I could pretend to be.
And he laughed smugly at that.
She pressed her hands together, twining and untwining her slender fingers. She was watching her hands as if they belonged to someone else while she spoke.
"Well, aside from the obvious," she murmured. "Sometimes... I can't be sure - I don't know how to read minds - but sometimes it seems like you're trying to say goodbye when you're saying something else." She didn't look up.
"No way... never does anything like that," Jacob said sarcastically.
She'd caught that, had she? Did she realize that it was only weakness and selfishness that kept me here? Did she think less of me for that?
"Perceptive," I breathed, and then watched in horror as pain twisted her expression. I hurried to contradict her assumption. "That's exactly why you're wrong, though - " I began, and then I paused, remembering the first words of her explanation.
They bothered me, though I wasn't sure I understood exactly. "What do you mean, 'the obvious'?"
"Well, look at me," she said.
"There is nothing wrong with the way you look," Jacob said to her, there was no joking in his voice as he said this.
Bella blushed a little with the sincerity of his voice.
I was looking. All I ever did was look at her. What did she mean?
"I'm absolutely ordinary," she explained. "Well, except for the bad things like all the near death experiences and being so clumsy that I'm almost disabled. And look at you." She fanned the air toward me, like she was making some point so obvious it wasn't worth spelling out.
She thought she was ordinary? She thought that I was somehow preferable to her? In whose estimation? Silly, narrow-minded, blind humans like Jessica or Ms. Cope? How could she not realize that she was the most beautiful...most exquisite...
Bella blushed, but she knew that was too much to say... he was only thinking that because he liked her... still it wasn't so bad that he was thinking that.
"Looks aren't everything, Bells," Jacob said, "and you have both looks and a good heart..."
"Stop, Jake," Bella said, he was starting to make her feel uncomfortable.
Those words weren't even enough.
And she had no idea.
"You don't see yourself very clearly, you know," I told her. "I'll admit you're dead-on about the bad things..." I laughed humorlessly. I did not find the evil fate who haunted her comical. The clumsiness, however, was sort of funny. Endearing.
Bella rolled her eyes; of course he would think that.
Would she believe me if I told her she was beautiful, inside and out? Perhaps she would find corroboration more persuasive. "But you didn't hear what every human male was thinking on your first day."
Bella shivered, she didn't want to hear that either.
Ah, the hope, the thrill, the eagerness of those thoughts. The speed with which they'd turned to impossible fantasies. Impossible, because she wanted none of them.
I was the one she said yes to.
My smile must have been smug.
Her face was blank with surprise. "I don't believe it," she mumbled.
"Trust me just this once - you are the opposite of ordinary."
Her existence alone was excuse enough to justify the creation of the entire world.
She wasn't used to compliments, I could see that. Another thing she would just have to get used to. She flushed, and changed the subject.
"Well, that one is going to be more difficult," Bella mumbled.