It took us quite a bit longer than an hour to get to the Space Needle, stand in line for the elevator, get up to admire the sight – which, I have to admit, was fantastic – and get back to my car. With the ten o'clock deadline looming over our heads and my unwillingness to give Chief Swan any reason to be angry with either of us, I didn't exactly stay within the speed limit on our way back. I was used to driving fast and I enjoyed it, but Bella was shocked when she noticed the first time how fast I really was going. Only when I pointed out to her that if, should she be home after curfew, she might end up being grounded did she concede, though I could tell she wasn't exactly happy about it. I wondered how she would react if she would ever end up driving with one of my family. Compared to them my driving was downright tame.

We reached Bella's home with a few minutes to spare. Once again I was in the situation that I needed to leave Bella, which obviously was something I didn't want to do, but I didn't really have a choice in that matter. With a sigh I got out of the car and opened the door for her. I took her shopping bags out and together we walked up to her porch. There I hesitated, trying to drag out the moment a little longer.

"Bella, what are your plans for tomorrow?"

"Why are you asking?"

"I was wondering, if you'd have some time, maybe I could come over. Or maybe we could go somewhere. Just the two of us. Nothing special really. But only if you don't mind."

A smile was playing around her lips. "I don't mind at all," she said. "But I need to do laundry. And I have homework to do."

"Maybe I could bring my homework over and we could do it together," I offered, hopeful, eager.

"I think I would like that," she said bashfully, looking down at her feet, though she couldn't hide her smile.

When she looked up again, she bit her lower lip, and I couldn't resist her anymore. I placed her bags down, put my hand against the back of her head and pulled her into a deep kiss. I felt her response eagerly and for a moment I forgot that on the other side of the door was Bella's father, who must have heard us arriving and probably was waiting for her to finally come in. Bella, however, seemed to remember and after much too short a time, she pulled away from me. With an apologetic smile she picked up the shopping bags and dug her keys out of her hand bag.

"Charlie's waiting," she whispered in ways of an explanation, as she unlocked the door.

My lips still tingled from the kiss and I pressed them together to stop me from reaching for her again for another one, Charlie's presence being damned. I heaved a deep sigh.

"Thanks for today, Edward."

"I have to thank you. It was great." That was a huge understatement, but what else was I to say?

"I see you tomorrow then?"

"What time?"

"How about two?"

"Sounds good to me," I confirmed. I would have come at six in the morning, if she'd ask me, but maybe she had other things to do in the morning so I didn't push.

I waited for her to step inside and heard her wishing her father a good evening. After the door had closed behind her, I waited a moment longer before I slowly dragged myself back to the car. I was only halfway there when I noticed the light in one of the upper floor windows being switched on. I stopped, turned around and saw how Bella opened the window to that room, leaning outside.

"Edward," she called after me.

Like a flash I was underneath the window, looking up. I hadn't known so far which room was hers, but now that I knew I instantly evaluated the chances for me to climb up to it. It didn't look too difficult. There was a plant covered trellis at the corner of the house left of Bella's window and it looked sturdy enough to hold my weight.

"Did you forget something?" I asked. I was pretty sure she hadn't left anything in the car, but maybe I had overlooked something.

"No, I just wanted to tell you a good night."

I grinned, then decided I would chance it. I took a few steps back, then ran and jumped until I got a good grip on the trellis. My cracked ribs complained a little bit, but not so much as to cause me to let go again.

"Edward, what are you doing?" I heard Bella gasp.

I reached and climbed further and before Bella could say anything else, I arrived at her window. I pulled myself over and found myself face to face with Bella's face.

"Edward, are you crazy? My dad will hear you," she hissed frantically, but she looked more stunned than angry.

Yes I was crazy – crazy about her.

"I just want to give you a good night kiss," I said, grinning like an idiot. As I was holding myself up on the window sill with both arms I couldn't reach for her and all I could do was to offer her my lips.

She hesitated for a moment, undoubtedly waiting still for Charlie to thunder up the stairs, but when there was no sound coming from inside the house her lips curved also into a grin.

"You are crazy," she confirmed once again and then leaned forward to plant her lips on mine.

"Absolutely crazy about you," I mumbled once our lips parted again, though our heads stayed close together, her forehead leaning against mine. My arms began to shake with the strain, and my ribs now let me know that it really hadn't been such a good idea to climb up the wall of her house, but I wasn't ready to climb back down just yet.

"You need to go," she whispered, though I could sense she didn't really want me to.

"Sweet dreams," I whished her.

"I will dream of you," she said.

"So will I," I promised.

It was half past eleven by the time I arrived home. As my family didn't exactly sleep I was not surprised to see them all still up and about. Jasper and Emmett were involved in a game on the Playstation, virtually beating each other into a pulp, while Alice and Rosalie were cheering them on. Carlisle was reading some medical journal while Esme was knitting, the needled flying faster than the eye could see. My guess was it was for one of the new fashion designs Alice had been working on lately – she had developed a certain fascination with knitwear claiming it to be the newest 'in thing', but professed not to have the patience to knit it herself. Esme was only too happy to do the actual knitting for her, for she enjoyed all kinds of needlework.

When I came in everyone looked up and Alice jumped up from her seat and danced over to me.

"Edward, how was your day?" she asked wrapping her arms around me in a quick hug, then pulled me over to the large sofa and the rest of my family.

There was no resisting her, so I sat down between her and Jasper and told the others a little of what Bella and I had been doing in Seattle, though I left out most of the details. Alice squealed when I gave her the book I had found for her and Jasper and Rosalie both claimed to love the ones I got for them.

"You've got any plans to spend time with Bella tomorrow?" Emmett then asked.

Instantly suspicious, I looked at my father, wondering why he was asking me. It was true, my family usually treated me like an adult and gave me a lot more freedom than one would expect for a seventeen year old, but when push came to shove they could very well decide to restrict my activities and how I spent my time.

"Why do you want to know?" I asked carefully.

"Alice says we will get a real storm tomorrow evening and we were thinking about playing ball. Maybe you could invite Bella," he offered.

I looked at him wide eyed and a grin spread over my face. We all loved to play baseball, but for my family to be able to do so certain weather conditions needed to be met. First of all, there had to be thunder. Vampire baseball was quite different than normal baseball, their strength and speed adding a level to the game that no human could ever achieve. When a ball, thrown by a vampire and batted by a vampire connected, the sound it made was very much like thunder and very loud indeed. In order not to draw attention to the noise, they always waited for a thunderstorm where the sound would get lost in the general thunder and lightning. I, of course, couldn't match their play. I was a decent enough pitcher by human standards, but when I pitched on one of our family games it was just too easy for them to hit the ball, because it was in no way fast enough. And when I batted I had no realistic chance to hit a ball pitched at vampire speed – that was if I saw it coming at all. So usually I ended up being referee. I didn't mind though, because just being there, when they let go of their inhibitions, just had some innocent fun - which they did rarely enough - was pretty damn cool.

What surprised me though was their invitation for Bella. I thought the general idea was still for her to stay away from my family, unless something bad was about to take place.

My heart skipped a beat.

I turned to face Alice. "Did you see something happening to Bella?" I asked, not quite accusingly.

The smile on her face disappeared like a light that had been switched off and she lowered her eyes. This only made me feel more apprehensive.

"Alice?"

"No, nothing to her, really. Don't worry."

"But there's something going on," I stated now, looking at everyone of my family in turn. Something was going on and I hated that they were trying to hide it from me.

Rosalie sighed, placing her hand on my arm. "Edward, it's really just a precaution. Alice has seen some nomadic vampires moving through the area tomorrow, and we want to make sure you two are safe with us. It's not even likely we're going to meet them at all."

I looked into her eyes, trying to see if this really was the full truth. Nomadic vampires usually meant normal vampires – as in vampires who drank human blood. I had encountered some of them before, not many though, and always from within the protective circle of my family. Once it had been made clear to them I was not to be touched, the other vamps usually left quickly, as they didn't want to bother with a group as large and as strong as my family was. I suspected more than half of them thought of me as a sort of pet or a handy meal for my family, as they couldn't understand how anyone of their kind was willing to give up human blood.

Finally, I nodded. If there really were other vampires around, I also felt better knowing Bella protected by my family. Knowing her and her talent to get into trouble, she would end up right in front of them and I preferred that this happened with my family there to protect her.

"I'll ask her and I'm sure she'll be interested."

Instantly I noticed my family relaxing.

Jasper offered me the controls for the game console. "You wanna give it a try?"

I accepted the controls and actually managed to win one of the fights. Though I suspected this had more to do with my mother distracting Emmett just when he was about to kick my butt for the gazillionth time.