AN: so this is the last chapter...tell me what you think!

"We're going swimming," Esme announced. I was sitting at the kitchen table with Jasper and Emmett who were arm wrestling (Emmett, as usual, was barely winning) and Rosalie who was wearing her heavily disinterested look again. She was becoming exceptionally good at ignoring me even when I was right next to her.

"Swimming," Rosalie said flatly.

"Carlisle's packing," she said. "There's just a little stretch of the beach we're allowed on and we haven't been in forever."

I looked out the window, which took up the entire wall. For vampires, the Cullens didn't seem to have privacy as a high priority. Above the thick, dark mass of trees I could see a strip of sky that was cut small and ragged. If I was correct, it'd be raining within thirty minutes.

"It has to be twenty degrees out," Jasper said. "Bella can't swim."

"No," I said, immediately.

"Jasper's right," Esme said. "Maybe we shouldn't go. It is awfully cold."

Suddenly, I wanted nothing more than to go in the water with them. If Edward were here, this would be the moment where he got furious and dragged me upstairs to wrap me up in blankets and make me hot tea.

And you know what? That had been really, really annoying. My ex boyfriend was nothing if not overprotective.

"I'll just get out if I feel cold," I said. "I'm fine, honestly."

The rest of the table was silent for a while and then Emmett said, "What the hell. Let her do it if she wants to."

"Emmett," Esme said under her breath.

"What? I'm not going to tell her not to do something just because it isn't technically safe. A good ninety percent of the things we do aren't safe."

"Edward wouldn't want--"

"Edward isn't here. And even if he was, Bella gets to choose." After Emmett was finished, it seemed like a general agreement that I could go.

That didn't stop Esme from packing a heap of blankets, towels, and warm thermoses of coffee into the trunk of the sleek, black car three of us would be taking. I sat in the backseat of the car, the leather cool and sticky when I left my hands there. When I squinted, I could almost make out the outlines of people moving outside the tinted glass windows in the dark garage.

Carlisle and Emmett sat down in the front seats and we took off. I could only guess at how fast we were going; my back was pressed against my seat constantly but the Carlisle drove so smoothly it was impossible to tell exactly.

And then we were there, unloading at a flat expanse of beach surrounded by trees. It didn't look like anything special. The water was low and dark, occasionally moving up higher on the beach and sliding down again, erasing our footprints. All six of us laid camp up on top of a large rock and began removing their clothes to reveal the sleek, dark wetsuits that only I really needed.

"Race you!" Emmett yelled, running headfirst into the water while Jasper struggled to catch up with his shirt still around his arms. The rest of us rushed after them, laughing and letting out small screams as the water rose up above our shoulders. I dimly registered a prickly cold seeping through my bones.

It was so cold for the first five minutes that I kept thinking I was going to run back and wrap myself in blankets inside the car. But it was so easy to forget I was human when I was with the Cullens. They obviously didn't get the opportunity to swim much and were all giddy with excitement. Even Rosalie joined in on the water fight, her flawless blonde hair turning darker and sticking to her neck with dampness. I hadn't thought she could be any prettier, but she was absolutely radient now because this was the first time I'd seen Rosalie happy.

Finally, after it had started to rain and the drops sounded like slaps as they hit the ground, Jasper looked over at me and said, "You should get out of the water."

"I'm fine," I said, though the cold was starting to come back.

"Your lips are blue," he said, eyes narrowed. "Unless you want someone to carry you out..." I sighed. He was right, but I hated the idea of leaving. Still, with some difficulty I made my way back to land. The water fight had mostly ended and now Rosalie and Emmett were already on land, talking animatedly.

Jasper, Esme, and Carlisle followed me back to land and I half walked, was half dragged, into the car where a stack of blankets were placed on my lap and a deliciously warm thermos of coffee in my wetsuit covered hands.

The others left to stretch out on the beach, but Jasper stayed and sat next to me. He was so much taller than me that it was funny. I had to tilt my head up just to see his face.

"You're happy," he said, finally. "A lot happier than when you first got here."

"I am," I said, staring down at the stainless steel thermos gripped in my hands.

He cleared his throat awkwardly. "I'm glad. You're...nice to be around when you're happy. Not that you're not nice to be around otherwise. It's just that when you're happy then so am I." He'd been staring ahead and now he tilted his head to meet my eyes.

"It's that simple?" I asked. Inexplicably, I was blushing. Anyone else would be too cold for that, but not me, apparently. "I'm happy so you are? But isn't that hard to feel everything all the people around you feel?"

"Just the strongest emotions. Besides, it's not that exactly."

"What?"

"It's me being happy, not the aftereffects of you being happy. What I mean is, um. I'm happy because I wanted you to be happy and now you are."
"Oh," I said, surprised. "That's nice." I realized that my fingers were itching to trace along his angular jawline, along the small white scar. Pressing my hands together, I reminded myself who this was. Not Edward. Jasper.

"You know what's hard?" He said abruptly. His eyes had that same speculative look to them, but with something else I couldn't identify. I was about to say no, when he continued. "Knowing when to use my powers."

I'd never known the specifics of Jasper's powers, only that he could change peoples emotions, sense what they were feeling just by being near them.

"Like now," he said, moving a little closer to me until for some reason my heart was beating too fast, and I couldn't see anything but him even at the edges of my vision.

Jasper? But no, that was stupid. I'd never thought of Jasper as anything but another member of the Cullen family which I someday hoped to belong to. It was just that he and all the others were so unnaturally handsome; how could anyone not be attracted to them? Did it mean anything, except that they had eyes?

I couldn't help taking him in, from the wet tangles of blonde hair that hung in his face to the ghost of a smile on his lips. He smelled briny from the ocean and the scent stung my nose even as I wanted to keep smelling it.

"You see," he said, smile fading and then he was moving in until we were nose to nose, "Supposing that I kiss you now and you kiss me back, how will I know that I haven't gotten ahead of myself and made you want to kiss me?"

Then, before I even knew what I was doing, my hands had moved to my shoulders and I was pulling myself to him, his lips soft and cold on mine. For a moment, he didn't react--I must have surprised him, considering I'd surprised myself.

But he rallied quickly and was pressing large hands to the small of my back and into my hair. I fell back against the closed car door and felt his smooth, sharp cheek, along with the indent of the scar. I couldn't think anything except Jasper. He was everywhere, pressing his lips desperately to mine.

And somehow, even though he was the freezing one and I was warm, I could feel myself burning from the inside out. Of course, I thought, smiling against his mouth. Of course Jasper was the one I was supposed to be with. How had I never guessed?

THE END