For Elle, who I hope ISN'T (sweet lord, I'm full of typos & blunders lately!) sick of these two & their drama yet. Love to Chele681 & MsKathy, my little rays of sunshine.

I made a boo-boo in my editing of the previous chapter. If you read it when I first posted, it was simply a mislabeling of dialogue. It's fixed now (after my epic facepalm). Forgive my #authorfail.

Previously:

My muscles twitched from inactivity, so I extended my legs, stretching them away from the couch. Jasper unwound his arms from around me and began pushing himself up to stand. I looked up, waiting for an explanation.

"Umm, it's getting late. I think I'm gonna go to bed," he finally said.

"That's fine, I understand." We had more to talk about, and I knew there were other apologies that needed to be made. But it didn't have to be right then, especially if he was tired.

As Jasper hugged me goodbye, he placed a warm kiss on top of my head. It was the first gesture of its kind since I had come back to Washington.

There was so much on my mind…Demetri and the conversation I was putting off having with him…and everything Jasper and I had discussed. Sleep didn't come easily that night.

.

.

.

The sound of my door opening made me bolt upright in bed, still half asleep and disoriented. As I blinked at the figure in the entrance, I realized the person was too tall and narrow to be my dad.

"Jasper? What are you doing?"

In two long strides, he was at my bedside, dropping down to his knees beside me.

"I need to talk to you."

"At…seven o'clock in the morning?" I asked incredulously, glancing toward my alarm clock. "Are you all right? What's going on?" I turned toward him, kicking my legs over the side of the bed and pulling my bed head hair back into a ponytail. He seemed jittery and anxious, perched on the floor waiting for me to wake up and listen to him.

He surprised me by parting my legs and moving between them, still kneeling in front of me. His hands slid up my outer thighs until he had grasped my hands, holding them together in my lap. Confused and concerned, I didn't try to move away, instead bracing myself for whatever it was he so urgently needed to tell me.

"I'm sorry I kicked you out last night," he began. "I was a little overwhelmed, and I just needed some time to think."

"It's fine," I promised, but he cut me off.

"Don't talk. I just need you to listen. Okay?"

I nodded, so he continued.

"I know you have to go back to Florida eventually, but you can't go to Miami." His words were stern, almost demanding, and the tone made me feel tense. I stiffened, but he didn't stop. "You can't marry Demetri, B."

Regardless of all my recent confusion and doubts about Demetri, that put me over the edge. Not again! I tugged my hands out of his and flipped my legs back over the bed to get away from him. I stood on the opposite side, staring him down as he got up on his feet.

"Don't. Don't you dare do this again, Jasper. You do not know Demetri, no matter what you think, and you have no business telling me what I can and can't do!"

I was beginning to panic. This was going to blow up just like it had at Lauren's wedding, and we would go straight back to how things were before. Just considering that after we'd slowly been regaining our friendship infuriated me. Why did he have to ruin this?

Jasper tried to come around the bed toward me, but I held my hand out to tell him to stop. I needed space.

"Would you just listen to me?" he said, obviously frustrated. "You have no idea what I'm trying to say. This is important."

"What then?" I knew he wouldn't give up. Jasper had his moments when he could be a stubborn ass, and we were clearly in the middle of one of them. Even if I didn't want to hear it, he was going there, and he wouldn't leave until he'd said his piece.

"He's not right for you, Bella. He thinks you should follow him to Miami because it's what he wants to do. Getting married was his idea, right? Did he even discuss any of it with you before telling you all his plans? And what about your mom? Your job? Did he take your life into consideration, or is it all about that 'ambition' of his you seem to love so much? Is his career more important than what you would want? And is he really worth that?"

My gut reaction was to defend myself, and in turn, Demetri as well, even if I was, admittedly, unsure of the future of that relationship. I wasn't even sure where my words came from. "You don't know me anymore, Jasper! How can you say whether or not he's right for me if you don't know who I am? Maybe I'm not what you think. Maybe I would want to go. You never even gave him a chance, and you have no clue what our relationship has been like, so don't judge, and dammit, don't tell me what's best for me!"

Even though I was still trying to hold him at bay, Jasper rounded the end of the bed and stood a few feet away from me.

"I do know you, B. I know exactly who you are because I've spent practically every minute with you for the past week. You might have a different job and live somewhere else, but you're still the girl I can just fall into when everything else sucks, and I immediately feel better. You're still the girl who cares about me or you wouldn't have come home after the accident. You wouldn't have stayed. Even when we haven't talked, we've just been us. Don't tell me you've changed. How can you not see what I see?"

He was breathing heavily, shoulders rising and falling with his rapid breaths, and I realized that it was the same for me. My hands shook at my sides as his words sank in. He was wrong...he was right...I had no fucking clue.

"Where did this come from, J?" I asked meekly. "Why are you doing this? I told you things are complicated. That I need to figure them out when I go back."

"What's to figure out?" he asked in barely a whisper. "Your words don't match your actions."

Slowly, he moved closer, until we were practically touching, and he looked down at me. As I met his eyes, I became locked in his gaze, unable to see anything but him. I tried desperately to understand him, to hear the meaning behind his words, and I searched those familiar green eyes for answers.

As his forehead tipped to rest against mine, I tried to step back, but he put his casted arm around my waist and placed his other hand on my neck.

"Why can't you just understand, Bella? Why do you refuse to see this?" The desperation in his voice shook me, but I was frozen, waiting, at his mercy.

"See what?" I asked shakily.

"God," he groaned, "what have I been doing wrong? Bella…how the hell can you still want him when I'm right here."

He punctuated his last three words, and then his lips were on mine, hard and hungry, forcing all his unspoken thoughts and feelings upon me.

I gasped for a breath when he released me, my hand flying up to touch my abandoned lips.

"I need to go," he said quickly, turning away and heading for the door. "Just fucking think, B. Open your eyes."

He disappeared, and I collapsed onto my bed, staring at the rumpled comforter and still touching my lips.