Girl Talk

AN: Hi. I'm back, with a short (for me, at least) filler-chapter. YAY for filler chapters! But, for once, I know what I want to happen next chapter, so maybe I can get it written faster? Maybe? I will TRY. By the end of the month (fingers crossed!)

Thanks to everyone for their well-wishes and encouragment! It's meant so much to me! I hope this chapter is enjoyable to you... I tried to make it amusing in parts, at least. And, I did try to respond to everyone who reviewed, but somehow, I got half-way through and didn't finish? I think? I can't remember... that's how bad my brain is! But, if I DIDN'T respond to you, please know that I really did appreciate and love you taking the time to drop me a line. I WILL BE BETTER AT RESPONDING TO REVIEWS THIS TIME.

Please forgive any grammatical/spelling errors. I don't do betas, but I do try to proofread. Thanks again and please review!


I was kissing Embry Call.

I panicked. Completely panicked. What the hell was I doing?! My lord, was I trying to screw up everything between us beyond repair? This was all wrong, regardless of how good it felt. And da-amn, but it felt good!

I think he sensed my panic, because he let go of me at the exact same moment that I tore my lips off of his and jumped back like he was a red-hot coal. I could feel my entire blood supply draining into my toes- or maybe it was somehow draining into his face. I'd never seen someone turn so red in my entire life! Both of us struggled to catch our breath for several seconds before we started talking at once.

"That wasn't what I-"

"What the hell just-"

We stopped and stared at each other, and I licked my lips nervously.

"Uh... that wasn't supposed to happen," I mumbled. Embry shook his head to get the water out of his eyes- or maybe to clear his head. I wasn't too sure.

"No. I mean, yeah. I mean..." he stopped and looked like he was thinking very hard. I pushed myself another foot away from him in the water and took a deep breath.

"We shouldn't have done that. I- we're just... just friends."

"Uh..." He looked completely dumbfounded, and I stammered on hastily.

"Not that it wasn't good or anything. 'Cause it was. Good."

"Yeah. Really good," he agreed fervently, but strangely absentmindedly.

I chewed on my lip. "But it was a mistake. And we're just gonna pretend like it never happened. Right?"

He shook his head again and focused his deep chocolate eyes on me. I swallowed hard in the silence, hoping and praying that he'd say yes and everything would go back to normal between us. He'd be my safe, strong, friendly, perfect Tank again, and I could still be the B-Wolf. B for Broken. Because that's what I was- a broken, bitter girl who would never fall in love again. Especially not with a Wolf. His eyes slid away from mine, and he rubbed a hand over his wet, short-cropped hair.

"Yeah. It was... just the stress. Or something. We'll just forget it ever happened," he agreed softly, and I breathed out a silent sigh of relief.

Struggling my way through the muck attempting to suck my haute couture shoes off my feet, I told myself firmly that forgetting this little episode was exactly what I was going to do. I merely had to ignore the fact that I was already physically aching to jump back into his arms and kiss the living hell out of him.

It was totally unfair that Embry didn't seem to be having the same kind of problem. If anything, he acted exactly like he'd always done as he helped pull me out of the muck and drained the water in his shoes over my head, dripping mud on me in the process. It made me want to hug him and kick him in the shins at the same time.

"You do realize that Alice is going to kill me. Really, really painfully, too," Embry pouted as he gave him me his best wounded puppy expression. I tried not to look too closely at it, since it would probably make me want to hug him even more.

"For the damage you did to this dress, you deserve it, Tank," I replied matter-of-factly.

"You're not going to help me out at all, are you?" he asked in mock despair. I grinned at him.

"Nope."

We walked to the party tent in silence after that. I felt like a jangling bundle of nerves, even though he didn't seem to feel the same. Plus, I wasn't looking forward to walking back into the crowd dripping wet, with my mud-splattered dress sticking to me like a second skin. Mike Newton and Eric Yorkie were in there, after all. Thank god my La Push fan club wasn't there as well.

Sometimes, I realized, having a mind-reader around wasn't always a bad thing. Standing silhouetted outside the tent was Edward, holding out a suit coat for me- though I could've done without his slightly smug, amused smirk.

"Don't say anything," I hissed as I grabbed the coat from him and shoved my arms through the sleeves. His grin merely grew, and he put up his hands innocently.

"I was only going agree that Alice is definitely going to kill you both."

Embry and I heaved an identical sigh of resignation and headed into the glittering reception with Edward trailing after us. It didn't take long for people to start giving the two of us second glances, and I sent a fervent thank you to Edward for the coat. Tall as I was, it was still long enough to come partway down my thighs and cover my hands. It wasn't, however, long enough to cover all the damage. It took less than a millisecond for Alice to zero in on my destroyed make-over, and the look on her face was honestly terrifying.

"Aaaah, shit..." Embry groaned as she made a beeline through the crowd on the dance floor toward us. I slipped my hand into his and gave it a comforting squeeze, although whether it was more for myself or him, I wasn't sure.

"There you are, Embry. Where did you disappear to?"

Both of us jumped as Embry's mom came up from behind us and tucked her arm into his. Surprisingly, Alice hesitated and stopped in the middle of her rampage towards us when she caught sight of her and abruptly headed off in another direction . I decided right there that I dearly loved Malea Call.

Embry looked less thrilled than I was to see her. "Mom... have you been at the champagne?"

"No! Well, one or two glasses. Can't I have a little fun?"

I giggled, more at the red creeping up Embry's neck than his slightly tipsy mother. She grinned at me and raised her eyebrows.

"Looks like the two of you had a little fun yourselves. Huh? Huh?" She nudged Embry, absolutely beaming, and I became suddenly aware that our hands were still intertwined. I pulled my fingers out of his and tucked them into my coat sleeve self-consciously.

"Mom..." Embry groaned.

"Don't let me interrupt anything," she said, letting go of her son's arm, still grinning like the Cheshire cat at the two of us. "Oooh, this is a great song! Why don't you two go have a dance."

"Uh, no... that's, I mean-"

She gave both of us a little shove towards the dance floor, laughing. "Go on, go on. Make your mother happy."

Well, how can anyone argue with something like that? Embry's face was puckered up into the perfect picture of utter and complete embarrassment, but he still went with me to the dance floor. We bumbled awkwardly for a moment to get our hands in the right positions before we settled into a semi-comfortable rhythm. Neither one of us said a word as we slowly swayed to the music, and I found myself having a hard time concentrating on anything but the feel of the heat radiating off of his body into mine through the scant inches separating us. I couldn't stop remembering how it had felt to be pressed up against him, kissing him... In desperation, I focused on the song we were dancing to.

I'd go hungry, I'd go black and blue
I'd go crawling down the avenue
There ain't nothing that I wouldn't do
To make you feel my love...

"Wait... is this Garth Brooks?" I suddenly demanded, breaking the tense silence. Embry's blush was so extreme it looked physically painful.

"Yeah... God, I'm sorry about this," he replied, scrunching up his face in a 'somebody please shoot me' kind of way.

"Hey, you're not the DJ- no need to apologize."

"No- for my mom, not for the song," he paused and grimaced. "Okay, maybe for the song, too. I wouldn't have picked this one to ask you to dance."

"Aw, it's not that bad," I giggled, and he raised a disbelieving eyebrow at me. "Okay, then, what song would you have asked me to dance to?" I demanded.

The blush that had been slowly draining out of his cheeks came back full force. "Um..."

Unfortunately for me, I didn't get to find out what he was going to say, because I suddenly found myself staring at a seriously pissed off Alice standing directly behind his shoulder. Embry caught the terrified expression fleeting across my face and froze in place.

"Alice is right behind me, isn't she?" he asked in a voice that managed to convey amusement and fear at the same time. I swallowed hard and nodded, my eyes still glued to the the frightening scowl on Alice's pixie face.

"Yes, I'm right behind you, Embry Call," she said in a low, deceptively sweet tone. "And the two of you are so very, very dead."

She grabbed our arms and all but dragged us over to a dark corner of the party tent. Once there, she planted her fists on her hips and glared at us until we both started to squirm guiltily.

"So... care to explain exactly how this happened?" she hissed, waving a hand accusingly towards me. I gulped and pointed surreptitiously at Embry.

He swatted my hand down and gave me a mock-glare. "Hey! It wasn't my fault!"

"You pulled me in!"

"You started it!"

"Forget it. I don't care how it happened," Alice broke in loudly. She pinched the bridge of her nose with one hand, looking like she was fighting a massive headache. "Good god, you two are worse than toddlers. I let you out of my sight for ten minutes, and you manage to destroy three hours of work, not to mention a $5,000 outfit!"

Embry's jaw fell open. "Five thousand-? What the hell? Is it coated in diamond dust or something?"

"You do realize how much trouble you're in, right? Shut it," Alice commanded, shooting him a venomous glare. He snapped his mouth shut and gulped audibly.

"My god, Alice. You can be so overly dramatic sometimes," Rosalie sighed, doing that freaky vampire thing of popping up out of nowhere. Alice turned to glare at her instead of us.

"Overly dramatic? Look at them. Just how the hell am I supposed to fix that?"

Rose glanced at Embry and I, dripping muddy pond water from our haute couture, and pressed her twitching lips together to keep from grinning. "Easy. Sue and Charlie are leaving, so Leah and I can just head back to the house. Then Embry here can just focus on getting his mom home safely."

All of us looked out to the dance floor where Malea Call had dragged Billy, wheelchair and all, and was trying to get him to dance the 'Macarena' with her. Embry looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him whole, and I stifled a giggle.

"Yeah, okay," he muttered, embarrassed. "But what about-"

"Oh, didn't Leah tell you about our girl's night?" Rose interrupted him airily. Alice, Embry, and I stared at her in blank confusion.

"Girl's night?"

"Yeah. You know- giggling, gossiping, girly stuff. Right, Leah?" She gave me a significant look, obviously expecting me to agree with her even though I had no idea where this 'girl's night' thing had come from. I blinked and tried to wipe the flustered look off my face.

"Right. Yeah. Girl's night," I agreed quickly. I must have sounded passably convincing, because Rose's grin widened. She hooked her arm through mine and started to pull me away, but I resisted to glance back at Embry.

"So... see you tomorrow?" I asked hesitantly. I hated the slight awkwardness between us- that stupid, but oh so perfect, kiss!- and I didn't want him to think I was running away. Although, I kind of was. I wasn't so sure I could stop myself from kissing him again if I stayed the night at his place, and I just couldn't risk that.

He gave me a little, lopsided grin that made my insides twist up in the strangest, most delicious way. "Yeah. I'll... be around."

I couldn't give anything beyond a wave in reply, because Rose was dragging me through the crowd towards the exit. I stumbled to keep up with her, envying her perfect, easy balance in her towering heels as she headed toward her gleaming convertible. Once inside and safely buckled, I turned to look questioningly at her.

"So... what's with the impromptu sleep over?"

"It's not a sleep over," she replied. "After all, you're the only one who can do any sleeping."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, then. Girl's night."

"You looked like you wanted to escape. And not just from Alice," Rose explained, then quirked an eyebrow at me. "So... wanna tell me why?"

"Escape? I- I didn't want to escape. I... I just, um," I trailed off, searching vainly for a plausible answer.

Rose gave me a silent, skeptical look for several long seconds. "Uh huh. Would you rather go back there?"

I twisted my hands in my lap and tried very hard not to remember how Embry's hot, rippling muscles had felt. It didn't work. At all. And there wasn't much in the entire universe that could take my mind off that one very wrong- but very perfect- kiss, either. So... maybe telling someone about it, specifically a female somebody, might help me figure out just what the hell had happened. I mean, that's what girls have been doing since the dawn of time, right?

"No... No, a girl's night would be good," I finally replied to a surprisingly patient Rose. "As long as you're not going to make me watch 'Titanic' or some other sappy chick-flick."

"'Titanic'? God, no!" she exclaimed, shuddering. "I might pull out 'Pretty in Pink' later, though."

"If you do, I'll be forced to smother myself to death with one of your pillows."

Rose flashed me a wicked grin as she parked the gleaming car smoothly in the garage. The two of us wasted no time hopping out and heading inside, Rose anxious to check on Nessie, and me anxious to rinse the grimy pond water off of my skin. We followed the sound of Jake's snoring, which was nearly loud enough to make the walls vibrate, into the living room to find him sprawled out unceremoniously on the floor. Nessie was completely conked out on the couch above him, but the tender way her blankets were tucked around her were at least evidence that Jake hadn't fallen asleep before she had.

Silently, Rose stole swiftly to the sleeping child, tucked a stray curl behind one small ear, and planted a quick kiss on her temple. Though she made no sound, Jake woke suddenly, sitting bolt upright as his eyes immediately sought out Nessie and whatever had disturbed them.

"Oh. Hey, Blondie," he muttered groggily, sinking back down to the ground. "Party over already?"

"Not likely, Mutt. Alice planned it, remember?" Rose retorted with one of her insanely feminine snorts. "Leah and I just ducked out early."

He popped an eye open and swiveled his head in my direction, and I gave him a half-hearted wave. Both of his eyes opened wide with amusement, and I scowled at the laughing smirk growing on his face.

"What the hell happened to you?" he chuckled, once more propping himself up on an elbow.

"Oh, you know. Just checking to see if I could walk on water, being as how I'm actually a goddess and all," I snapped back sarcastically, which only made him laugh harder.

Rose gave him a quick smack upside the head and glared at him. "Are you trying to wake Nessie up?"

That sobered him up immediately. He took one glance at her peacefully sleeping form and all but shooed us out of the room.

"Like he wasn't the one being loud. Honestly," Rose muttered from the depths of her closet once we'd reached her room. I didn't bother to answer her; I was too busy looking around at the moment. Somehow, the large suite she shared with Emmett wasn't quite what I was expecting. Sure, there was an impressive display of gaming systems- everything from an ancient Atari to a Playstation 3- but it was a whole lot less fancy than I'd expected. Understated elegance, I suppose it could be called.

"Will these work?" Rose asked as she emerged from the closet holding up a pair of pink, fuzzy pajama bottoms with the word 'princess' emblazoned across the butt and matching camisole top. When I nodded, she tossed them to me and pointed to the private bathroom adjoining the room. "Towels in the side cupboard."

"I'm not going to find anything kinky in there, am I?" I asked, half-serious, half-joking.

"No. Wait... No. You should be fine."

I rolled my eyes, laughing, as I headed into the bathroom. "You're so reassuring."

I took my time rinsing the grime out of my hair and skin, seriously grateful that Edward was no where near the house yet. He really didn't need to hear the confused thoughts pouring through my head at the moment, mainly since they all revolved around Embry, his revelation, and The Kiss. Nothing was making an ounce of sense, because my brain was stubbornly insisting that Embry was just a friend, and absolutely nothing more. That I didn't and couldn't and shouldn't want anything more than that, because I was permanently broken by Sam, and Embry, no matter how perfect he may be, was still an unimprinted Wolf. End of story.

My body, on the other hand, seemed to have decided that logic and common sense were optional accessories, because da-amn! That kiss was amazing. And Embry, lord help me, was more than just plain hot. No, Embry was some kind of god. A tall, muscled, bronze god.

My brain really hated my body at the moment.

"Why do you even have these?" I asked Rose, tugging on the waistband of the pink pajama pants as I finally emerged from the bathroom.

"Because they're comfy," she retorted, grinning. Sitting cross-legged on the floor in green and white polka dot pajama pants with a white tanktop, her hair in a ponytail, and surrounded by mounds of junk food, magazines, and pillows, she looked like the poster-girl for teenage sleepovers.

"You're really getting into this, aren't you?" I giggled as I plopped myself down beside her and reached for a big bag of Twizzlers.

"Yeah, well..." she shrugged and looked a little sheepish. "I haven't done this in almost a century, so..."

Whoa. I chewed silently, mulling that little tidbit over. No sleepovers in almost a century... no real friends outside your own family. Sure, she had Emmett, but still. How lonely.

"I haven't done this in a long time myself," I told her quietly, and it was the truth. Nowhere near a century, or even a decade, but it had been a few years. And relatively speaking for my short life, that was a long time. We sat there silently for a few minutes until an absurd thought randomly struck me.

"What do Vampires consider 'junk food'?"

Rose stared at me, one eyebrow slowly rising, and I gave her a half-apologetic look before turning my attention back to my bag of Twizzlers.

"Squirrels," she suddenly replied, and I looked back at her to catch her grinning. Both of us started laughing, and just like that, we were two girls having a genuine, girly sleepover.

"Did you really believe Sam tonight? That he supports Sue and Charlie?" Rose asked unexpectedly once we'd both calmed down a little. I picked at the fuzz on my pink pants for a few silent moments before answering.

"Yeah, I believe him. He meant what he said. Sam is... well, he's really a good guy, you know. Underneath the crap bits."

Rose snorted incredulously. "I still need a hell of a lot of convincing about that."

"No, really. His whole thing with me... Imprinting does things to you. To your brain, the entire way you see the world," I stopped and shuddered a little. "Trust me, I've seen inside their heads, the guys who've imprinted. And in a way, it's great, because it's perfect and pure and all that crap. But still, it sucks how the rest of the world becomes so... unimportant."

"That doesn't sound so far off from just plain falling in love," Rose mused quietly.

I shrugged. "Maybe not, if it's real love. I know I've never felt the way they feel about their imprints, though. Not even for Sam."

"Maybe you've never really been in love."

I was silent a long time, those words sinking deeply into my heart. What if Rose was right? What if, despite how much I thought I'd loved Sam, it hadn't really been the deep and true kind? It hurt to admit it, even to myself.

"You know... Even if he'd never imprinted, Sam and I would've broken up," I stated dully, then blew out a huge, sad sigh. "I've never admitted that out loud to anyone before. I guess I didn't want people to know things had already fallen apart, before Emily even came into the picture."

"I understand. Doesn't really make it any easier, though, huh?" Rose asked sympathetically.

I sniffed and bit my lip. "Not at all. Because I did love him, even if it wasn't enough. Maybe I still do, I don't even know anymore. And it hurts like hell to see Emily getting the life I'd planned out for us- for me."

"Yeah...life's not fair," Rose agreed, and sighed. "No one knows that better than us, huh? I used to hate Bella for the same reason."

"But not anymore?"

"No, not really. Sometimes it still hurts, though. I'm working on it."

I gave her a small, half-hearted grin. "Yeah. Me, too."

Suddenly, her face morphed into an impish grin. "Mm hm. With Embry, right?"

"What? No! No no no no! We're just friends!" I squeaked, a guilty, embarrassed blush spreading a scarlet stain across my cheekbones.

"Uh huh. Then how do you explain the pond bit?"

Oh, god! She knew about that? I hated Edward and his big, fat, mind-reading mouth! This wasn't exactly how I planned on bringing the subject up.

"That- it just happened! It didn't mean anything!" I burst out, my face painfully scarlet. Rose stared at me, a completely blank, surprised look on her face. I stared back at her, slowly coming to the mortifying conclusion that she hadn't actually known about The Kiss. Dammit.

"Uh... what just happened?" Rose finally asked, breaking the long silence. Her eyes started twinkling like a mall rat with a brand new credit card, and I swallowed hard.

"I- I... um, nothing?"

"Ooooh, no, girl. You can't just say 'nothing' and expect me to believe you! Spill!"

I grabbed a random bag of chips and ripped it open in a pathetic attempt at distraction before I remembered that I was seated next to a Vampire. Rose's tawny eyes were pinned on me with rabid curiousity, and I found myself wishing, for the first and probably the only time in my life, for a handy squirrel.

"It was nothing!" I burst out after squirming uncomfortably for several more seconds. "We just, you know... fell into the pond."

Rose raised an impatient eyebrow. "Yeah, I know. And then?"

"And then... then we just... wrestled a little. Trying to dunk each other."

"Uh huh. And then what happened?"

"And then..." I paused, totally mortified. "Then we, you know... we just... kissed?"

"You just WHAT?"

I flapped my hands, shushing her frantically. "Geez, Rose! I don't need Jacob hearing this!"

"Sorry," she replied quickly, not looking sorry in the least, and dropped her voice down to an exaggerated whisper. "You just WHAT?"

"I told you. It was nothing! It was just a thing... that happened. For no reason. I mean, one minute we're trying to dunk each other and then the next, we're, you know..."

Rose nodded understandingly. "Licking tonsils? God, no wonder you two looked so awkward!"

"We weren't awkward! There was nothing to be awkward about. It was just a kiss!" I vehemently insisted, then shrunk under her amused grin. "Okay, so there might have been a little awkwardness. But just a tiny little bit... Was it that obvious?"

"As a Vamp in sunlight, babe."

"Oh," I sighed, disgruntled. "Well... shit."

I flopped onto my back, chips forgotten somewhere by my side. Great. Just great. Who else had noticed if we were so obvious, then? Edward most likely knew far too many intimate details as it was- stupid, stinking mind-reader- and that meant Bella would know before the end of the party. Carlisle noticed everything, and if he didn't see it, Esme surely would have, Mother Hen that she was. Thank god Seth and Quil were too busy stuffing their faces at the buffet table, and Alice was too hell bent on killing us to see anything but the muddy pond water dripping out of my hair, but I was willing to bet my next meal Jasper was more than aware something was up. Emmett wasn't the most observant of people, except when it came to anything embarrassing, or anything that had the potential for him to make embarrassing, so it was safe to bet he'd noticed something. He'd probably managed to weasel the whole, stupid Kiss thing out of Embry within five minutes of Rose's convertible pealing out of the parking lot, too. On the off chance that he hadn't, somebody was bound to fill him in before the night was over. I was fairly sure I could count on Rose to keep it a secret, but Bella? Fat chance. Everybody in the Cullen household, including Jake, would find out about it as soon as she accidentally blurted it out. Oh, lord. I could only imagine the teasing from the rest of my Pack, not to mention most of the Cullens. Damn Embry and his irresistable lips to the seven levels of hell and back! I was too busy wallowing in my self-misery to notice the pronounced twinkle in Rose's eyes.

"So. Was it good?"

"Mm, baby. On a zero to ten scale, ten to the tenth power! I'm telling you, it was amaz..." Oh, shit monkeys. Caught again! I trailed off, blazing scarlet, and glared at Rose's innocent face.

"What? A kiss between friends can be good," she said, grinning. "Just because it 'meant nothing'-" she made quotation marks with her fingers and rolled her eyes- "doesn't take away from a guy's tongue skills."

I pouted. "That's true, I guess. But, honestly, he could stand to have something detract a little bit from his 'skills', because damn. It's not fair for someone to be that incredible. How the hell did he get that good, anyway?"

"A lot of practice with his pillow?" Rose suggested with a laugh.

"Naw, he mostly just drools on it when he's sleeping," I replied absently, still pondering exactly how Embry had acquired his kissing talents, since I knew he'd only had about 2 girlfriends in his entire life. I was so absorbed that it took me a while to register the eagerly suspicious look Rose had pinned on me. It took me even longer to realize why.

"Uh, not that I would know that personally. Like from personal experience. From seeing him sleep. In a bed," I stuttered out frantically, digging myself deeper and deeper into unsafe share zone. "Because I wouldn't know that. From sleeping with him. Not with him. Just with him. Like friends."

"You've been sleeping with Embry?" Rose shrieked. I tackled her and pressed a pillow into her face.

"Shut up! Oh my god!" I hissed at her, practically hysterical. "I do not need Jacob thinking I'm having sex with Embry! Because I'm not! We're not! It's just sleep! Snoring, drooling, cover-stealing sleeping!"

Rose was laughing so hard, if she needed air, she would've been passed out and blue. I kept the pillow over her face until I was sure she was in control enough not to shriek out some other embarrassing sounding thing within earshot of my oh-so-mighty Alpha.

"You know, if I were human, you would've killed me," Rose giggled when I finally let her up. I scowled and chucked the pillow at her.

"Yeah, well, then I wouldn't have to worry about you screaming random things anymore."

"You tell me that you've been sleeping with Embry and you expect me not to scream?"

I smacked her with the pillow again. "What's the big deal? It's just totally platonic, boring, sleep!"

"Mm hm. In a cosy, single bed, all snuggled up together?" She waggled her eyebrows at me. "And just how long has this 'sleeping' been going on?"

"You know what? I'm done talking about this."

She pouted. "Aw, c'mon! I'll behave, I promise! It's just that it's so hilarious!"

"You're not being very helpful," I grumbled, glaring at her. To her credit, she made an effort to stifle her giggles.

"Okay, okay! I'm sorry! But Leah, do you honestly believe there's nothing romantic going on between the two of you?"

I pursed my lips and blew out a frustrated breath. "There is nothing going on. I swear."

"But... the whole kissing thing-?"

"An accident," I stated firmly. "A hormone-driven, spur of the moment accident. I probably would've kissed any guy in that pond tonight."

"Really. Mike Newton included?" Rose asked, and I could hear the skeptical tone in her voice.

"Well... maybe not any guy. But, c'mon. I haven't kissed anybody in years. I think it's a perfectly ligitimate reason for one accidental time!"

Rose arched an eyebrow at me. "If you say so..."

"I do," I said quickly. And I did believe it. I mean, a girl can only go so long without some lovin' before snapping once in a while, right? And Embry was definitely snap-worthy, so the whole thing made perfect, innocent sense. Hallelujah, I wasn't going insane!

"Here," Rose interrupted my thoughts by flinging a stack of high fashion magazines at me. "I still need some more ideas on what you like before I leave for Paris this week if you want me to bring you back some goods."

Grinning, although I didn't know whether it was more from the change in topic or the prospect of brand new haute couture in my future, I flipped open the first of the mags and settled in. We'd gotten through half of the stack before Rose had to go open her big mouth again.

"So... are you gonna be able to sleep tonight without your snuggly Embry-Bear, or should I give him a call?"