We both climbed into the car. Once I'd started it I snagged Bella's hand, clasping it in mine. She gave me a shy smile.

"I've been wondering something," I said as I began the drive home.

"Oh?"

"Well..." I glanced at her. "Several members of my family would be very happy to meet you."

Bella grew still. "Really?"

I nodded. "Alice, of course, can barely wait to start the friendship she saw in her vision. Esme wants to meet you because you've made me happy. Carlisle wants to ask you questions about yourself; he's curious about shifters and what they are. Emmett is looking forward to teasing you." I left out Jasper, who wasn't sure how he felt, and Rosalie, who was still being... well, Rosalie.

"Are you saying... you want to bring me over to your house?"

"Yes, if you'd be comfortable with that."

Bella considered for a moment. "When?"

"Tomorrow?"

She was biting her lip. I chuckled and brought our clasped hands up so I could tap her with my finger.

She released her lip with a sigh. "Are you just going to keep doing that forever?"

"It's a bad habit," I said. "I've seen you chew your lip until it's swollen."

"Fine," Bella muttered. "And, fine. Okay. I'll come see your family tomorrow. I'll just... I'll have to tell Charlie I'm hanging out with friends again."

"You don't have to sound so excited about it," I said, trying to tease to hide that I was disappointed in her lackluster response.

Bella's shoulders hunched. "I'm worried! They all seem to have expectations of me already."

Ah, so that's what was bothering her. "Yes, they all expect to like you."

"Well... if you say so."

We were both quiet for a while. Bella began stroking my hand again, as she had done the two times we'd held hands in biology. Even after all the touching we'd done today, that simple caress was still incredibly enthralling. I almost jumped when Bella asked a question. "What powers do the rest of your family have?"

"Hmm." I took a moment to gather my scattered thoughts. "Well. You know that Alice can see the future."

"Mm-hm."

"Carlisle, my father, can see people's weaknesses," I continued. "Where they're hurting, that sort of thing. He's a doctor at the hospital, and his power helps him diagnose people who come in and figure out how to help them."

Bella nodded. "That's cool."

"Esme works with her hands, starting with drawing out her design ideas and working all the way through to making the finished product. She built almost every non-electronic item we have in the house: tables, chairs, desks, even the decorative items like pottery and paintings. She also sells items through various front companies, which is where we get most of our money."

Bella's eyes had lit up during this explanation, but she simply nodded again, encouraging me to continue.

"Emmett is perhaps the most simple; he's incredibly strong and nearly indestructible - even more so than a regular vampire.

"Jasper, on the other hand, is the most subtle. He's very charismatic, and able to influence feelings in other people. He can calm down a situation, or incite a fight."

"Charismatic," Bella repeated to herself, as if to cement the word in her mind. "Okay. You didn't mention him when you were talking about your family earlier."

I hesitated, but she trusted me. I shouldn't hide things from her if she asked, even if I was worried how she'd take it. "He's... not against meeting you. He can't be, since Alice is his mate and she's over the moon about meeting you. But..." was there a more delicate way to put this? Probably not.

"Most of us in the family have been non-human drinkers for as long as we've been vampires." No need to mention my little hiccup, not right now. "But Jasper... he had a different life, for many years. It wasn't until Alice found him that he switched to animals, and since he had that long habit... it's hard for him, harder than the rest of us."

"Oh," Bella said quietly. Despite my vagueness, she seemed to understand.

"And there's Rosalie." I had deliberately saved her for last. Bella was too bright to not realize that Rosalie's power would directly affect her. "She can sort of see... auras, I suppose we can call them. She can tell when people are lying, or hiding secrets, and it's her life's goal to ferret them all out."

"So because she doesn't know my secrets - that's why she hates me."

I flinched. I hadn't realized Bella was that perceptive - or had Rosalie been too obvious around her? "It's me she hates right now. She's stubborn, and she can't get over the fact that I actively kept things from her."

"But she still doesn't like me." It wasn't said as if it were a question.

"Not really," I admitted. "But you leave her to me. Even Emmett is starting to get tired of her anger."

"And Emmett is her mate?" Bella asked.

I nodded. Eager to change the subject, I started talking about Emmett again, and from there the other acceptable members of the family. I told her stories about each of them, times when each of their powers had shone, until we reached Bella's house.

I happily followed her inside, and watched as she prepared and ate her lunch. Then, as promised, we got back to her homework. She was needing my help less and less now, but made it clear she still wanted me there - for motivation if nothing else.

And, of course, for reading. After about an hour, it was time, and we headed to the couch. Bella paused to grab the blanket again, and I sat while she did. When she turned my direction, I opened my arms toward her. She tilted her head to the side with a puzzled expression, and I had to smile. "Come here," I said.

She approached still looking a little confused. I snagged her arm and pulled her down on my lap, quickly shaking out and smoothing the quilt so it covered both of us. She sat down on my lap easily enough, but still, when we were settled, looked up at me quizzically. "Why are we sitting like this?"

I had to laugh. "Because I want to be close to you," I said. "And we'll both see the book even more easily this way."

Finally, she was smiling. "If you say so." Despite her initial confusion, she cuddled into my chest easily enough, her head on my shoulder as she opened the book. I wrapped my arms around her, holding her and the quilt in place, and we got to reading.

It was much too early for there to have been much improvement in Bella's reading, so we still labored through sentences and paragraphs, but I found my patience to be nearly infinite. I could do anything, I felt, as long as she was near me. We got through several pages when Bella suddenly yawned violently. "Nap time?" I asked.

She scoffed a little. "It was just a yawn! I'm fine."

"You're sure?"

"I mean, you did get me up awfully early..." Bella tipped her head back to look accusingly up at me.

"And I paid for it," I said.

Her eyes went wide. "What, you didn't like seeing me right after I woke up?"

"It's not that I didn't like seeing you..." I said, backpedaling, but then I caught the smirk creeping onto Bella's face. "You have got to quit teasing me like that."

"Mmmm... nope." Bella giggled to herself as she cuddled back into my chest. "After all, you tease me all the time."

We were both quiet a moment, but Bella didn't seem to be about to return to reading. "What's up?" I asked.

"Just thinking about what happened last time we were on the couch," she said. "There's no way Charlie is going to come home from fishing this early, but if Jacob's around, then Leah might be too, and she might want to stop by as well..."

"Leah? Another shifter?"

She nodded. "She and Jacob are partners. Friends, too, somehow. Leah can be... difficult."

"Difficult?"

"She and Rosalie would get along like... like a house on fire. Or is it oil and water? I get those mixed up."

I laughed. "Either way, that's almost something I'd like to see."

Eventually we got back to reading, but Bella didn't let me stay as late as she normally did. She couldn't be sure when Chief Swan would be back, and she'd talked herself into being nervous about the possibility of someone else stumbling upon us. She promised that, to make up for it, I could come over early again tomorrow morning. Still, I parted from her with reluctance, but for the first time, I thought I saw matching reluctance in her eyes.

Bella's 'not yet' had changed. I didn't know if it was quite a 'yes' yet, but it was something close to that... perhaps a 'soon.' She had let me kiss her, after all. Let me and participated eagerly. I felt warm all over just remembering it and couldn't keep a smile off my face as I drove.

The cars parked outside and the thoughts in the house prepared me for the fact that, for once, everyone was home. I tried to enter as quietly as possible, but everyone seemed to have been waiting for me.

Alice was the first to reach me, bounding over and hugging me. Her mind sang her joy - she already knew that I was bringing Bella over tomorrow. "I can't wait!" she squealed aloud.

Jasper was with her, and his face and mind easily spoke his concern. You're sure about bringing her here? What if... he didn't need to put words to his worries for me to understand them.

Alice looked up to see me looking past her to Jasper. She sighed. I keep telling him it will be all right!

But I ignored her and acknowledged Jasper's concerns. "If you're that worried about it, you can simply keep your distance until you know how you're going to react to her."

"How do you manage it?" Jasper spoke aloud now, for Alice's benefit. He knew she smelled good, and that she'd smelled particularly good to me when I first met her. "How can you stand being so close to her all the time?"

I shrugged. "It's not even an issue any more. Her blood always had a more spicy note to it that, now that I know, marks her as non-human. I focus on that aspect of her blood and I don't have a problem."

Jasper was still wary, but he and Alice were no longer the only ones in the room. Esme and Carlisle had come down the stairs, and Alice had to back off me so Esme could swoop in with a motherly hug. "I assume your day with Bella went well," she said, noting the smile on my face, my relaxed posture. "And I understand we will meet her tomorrow?"

I nodded to her, also looking behind her to meet my father's eyes. "She's coming, and she knows there may be questions."

She is a brave girl. Carlisle was proud of me, and happy for her. He had still retained some doubts all this week, but now they were relaxing. "I look forward to meeting her."

I was glad, but there were still two in the house who I hadn't heard from. A door slammed, and Emmett was coming down the stairs, while Rosalie stayed behind in their room. I guessed that was going to be her answer. Disappointing, but honestly, I hadn't expected anything more from her. Though I had to wonder, again, how long this tantrum of hers was going to last.

"So she's really coming over?" Emmett asked. That little girl is going to just wander into a house full of vampires?

I nodded. "I think she's looking forward to meeting everyone."

Emmett looked around, as if taking the emotional temperature of the room. Rose isn't happy, but I'll work on that.

I shrugged. Was Rosalie ever going to be happy again?

"Is there anything we can do to make sure she's comfortable?" Esme asked.

I smiled at my family - well, the parts of my family I wasn't feuding with. "Just be yourselves, and be patient. Bella is very shy."

"I'm still going to give her a hug," Alice said, very seriously.