p class="p1"At the top of the mountain, Lilah and Jasper sat side-by-side on a large, flat rock that poked out of the dirt. Lilah had her legs criss-crossed beneath her. Her backpack was at her side and she sat her water bottle beside it after taking another long swig. It had quelled her thirst. It had not at all quelled her nerves./p
p class="p1"She didn't know what to say to the vampire who sat to her right. What could she say, in such a situation? None of the things she came up with in her head felt quite right. Surely such a situation would warrant conversation above small talk. What was above small talk, though?/p
p class="p1"And, although her brain was telling her to say something, anything, the rest of her was telling her something different. Her body, strangely, was completely at ease. She was totally comfortable sitting there on the top of some mountain she'd never visited before with a vampire she barely knew. There wasn't an ounce of tension anywhere in her body. It was bizarre, seeing as she'd been overwhelmed with tension for so long now./p
p class="p1"Yet, as she sat there with Jasper, she just felt…ease. The cool October air. The smell of evergreens lingering in the breeze. The chattering of squirrels somewhere off in the distance. She was existing in the moment, for once, appreciating it. Savoring it. Knowing that the ease she felt might've had something to do with Jasper, but it was not because of his gift. She remembered what it had felt like when her emotions had been manipulated by him. And now, it didn't feel like that. Her feelings were her own. In reaction to him, probably, but her own nonetheless./p
p class="p1"He remembered just how much Lilah had hated it when he had used his gift on her. It had been for good intentions, sure, but Lilah hated the way it felt. So he'd remembered that and hadn't tried to use his gift on her again. Something she appreciated immensely./p
p class="p1"Finally, Jasper spoke. And as he did, Lilah felt nervous, but not in a bad way. In a giddy, excited kind of way. Terrifying, because it was new and unfamiliar to her, but not because it was scary./p
p class="p1""You were an English teacher before, I hear?" he asked./p
p class="p1"Lilah smiled and nodded. Briefly recalled a few highlights from her time in the classroom, the faces of her favorite students./p
p class="p1""Yes," she said. "I don't remember telling anyone that…is that something Edward picked out of my brain?"/p
p class="p1"Jasper chuckled at Lilah's choice of words. "He probably did. He doesn't even realize he does it half the time…though that doesn't make it any less aggravating."/p
p class="p1""How long has it been aggravating?" Lilah asked. Her curiosity was dying to know more about Jasper, about all of the Cullens, though she didn't want to come out and ask the big questions right away and so explicitly./p
p class="p1""About fifty years," Jasper said. His golden eyes scanned the horizon, and then came back to meet Lilah's hazel eyes, his lips curling into a hint of a smile, one that made Lilah's stomach do a little flip. "But I was a vampire for over eighty years by the time I met Edward."/p
p class="p1"Lilah nodded. She tried to do some fast math in her mind. She had never been great at math. That was always more of a Morgan thing. She had been an English major and an English teacher after all./p
p class="p1""What's your favorite book?" Jasper asked, turning the conversation back./p
p class="p1"Lilah laughed. And Jasper had to smile. There was a warm human liveliness in her as she laughed. One that he hadn't realized he'd missed so dearly. Paired with the honest, genuine ease that rolled off of her, it was a lovely, alluring combination, one that drew him in even more./p
p class="p1""We're going to make small talk?" she asked./p
p class="p1""How else would you propose getting to know one another?" he retorted./p
p class="p1"Well, it was partially a retort, partially a genuine question. He hadn't put an effort into getting to know anyone since first meeting his other family members half a century ago. And none of them had been human. Getting to know a human was something he hadn't done in, well, a century and a half. Things had changed a lot since then. Maybe social conventions had radically changed too./p
p class="p1"He should've taken Alice up on her offer. She'd wanted to give him 'people lessons,' as she'd called it. Because she knew he was out of practice with such things, and he didn't want to be. Not when it came to Lilah./p
p class="p1""I don't know if I have a single emfavorite /embook," she said finally./p
p class="p1"She adjusted her position, pulling her chest, looking over at him with a gentleness that made him feel breathless for the first time in his immortal life. He was not worthy of such softness. Not now. Not ever. Not from someone who gave it so purely like Lilah did./p
p class="p1"Her freckled cheeks went a bit pink. She glanced out over the mountain again./p
p class="p1""I've liked most things I've read," she continued. "Parts, at least. Even if I hated the book, I learned something from reading it. That's why I got into reading in the first place…when Phoebe, my mother, took me in, I could barely read more than a kindergarten level. Once I learned how, I never stopped. Books opened up everything…I could go anywhere, be anyone, learn anything from a book."/p
p class="p1"Jasper watched her with a kind of awe. There was a serene smile on her face now, a wave of gratefulness washing over her. Her emotions were always particularly potent, but her good emotions were a different kind of strong because she allowed herself to revel in them./p
p class="p1"Most people, as far as Jasper could tell, were never so conscious about feeling happy or grateful or whatever other good emotion they felt. They simply felt it and moved on. Lilah, though, made an effort to recognize when she felt happy or something similar, and really bask in it. Because she knew what a gift it was to feel such a way. So she felt grateful for each of those good emotions./p
p class="p1"And Jasper felt every bit of it. New, exciting, wonderful. So completely, diametrically opposite to what he'd felt most of his existence. He had become used to absorbing pain and fear from other people on account of his gift. Even now, though he didn't kill humans most of the time, he felt their wariness in his presence, their discomfort. It was all his gift was good for, he'd thought. Feeling all of the agony that his vampirism caused./p
p class="p1"Sure, Alice had changed a lot of that. So had his family. But they all understood him and shared in his condition enough to provide him sympathy. They were all bound together by what they were./p
p class="p1"Lilah owed him nothing. She could've said no to coming with him in the first place. She could've felt their bond and rejected it. Instead, she was giving him a chance, and all of the kindness he'd never imagine feeling from someone he was so close to./p
p class="p1"It was wonderful. Beautiful. She was wonderful and beautiful./p
p class="p1"It had only been a couple of hours, and he didn't want to lose her./p
p class="p1""If I had to pick one book, I guess I'd pick emJane Eyre,/em" Lilah said. "Probably a cliché for an English teacher to say, I guess. But I've always been a sucker for the gothic genre, and I miss my old copy I left behind at home with all of my other books…what about you, Jasper? You've been around long enough to read a lot of books."/p
p class="p1"He grinned. Realized just how much he liked hearing her say his name./p
p class="p1""I hate to disappoint, but I haven't used my immortality to do very much reading," Jasper admitted. "I, uh…I only really found the time for it once I came to be a part of the Cullen family, but I haven't been much of a novel reader. Mostly just religion and philosophy texts."/p
p class="p1"He'd expected Lilah to be disappointed that he couldn't talk the finer points of gothic novels with her. Instead, a jolt of excitement emanated from her./p
p class="p1""It must've been your copy of emMeditations/em on the table the first time I came to your family's house, then, right?"/p
p class="p1"Again, he was surprised. Surprised she'd remembered./p
p class="p1""Yes," he said, unable to stop the smile forming on his face. "Like you, I was raised to be a good Southern Christian, but after becoming a vampire, I lost my faith…or, maybe, I just couldn't find the answers I was looking for in it anymore. I don't know how Carlisle and Edward have kept their faiths for so long, being what we are…I've started trying to find answers elsewhere in the past couple of decades, about being a vampire, about the ethics of my old lifestyle, before becoming a vegetarian. Some code of morality to build for myself beyond just taking Carlisle's morality without question. Mostly in philosophy, since I guess I'd call myself an atheist now."/p
p class="p1"For the third time in a row, Lilah surprised him. She snorted out a laugh through her nose, and said, "I doubt you've found anything you're looking for in stoicism."/p
p class="p1"He raised a brow. "What do you mean by that?"/p
p class="p1"She raised a single shoulder into a half shrug, and said, "Well, I'm out of practice with my philosophy, but aren't the stoics all about living in accordance with nature? Being indifferent to pain? I would think that reading Marcus Aurelius, or any stoic, would lead you to think you emshould /emdrink human blood because that's what your nature demands of you."/p
p class="p1"They were both silent for a moment. Until Jasper said, "I can't say you're all that wrong."/p
p class="p1""So you're just a vegetarian because of Carlisle?"/p
p class="p1""No," Jasper said, without missing a beat. "He's helped me develop my control, and he and the entire family have encouraged me, but I think I always wanted to stop feeding on humans, I just never knew there was another way until Alice and I met them. With my gift, I felt all of the fear and pain of the people I had to kill…having to feel that so often was…too much. I still struggle with the thirst…like I said, I didn't trust myself to be around you, that first night you came over. Everyone else in the family started out on a vegetarian diet since they were turned. I'd been feeding for humans for nearly a century by the time I made the decision to try to stop…it's much harder for me to resist human blood than the others. I probably would've gone to college and studied philosophy if I trusted myself more, if I thought I could be around humans."/p
p class="p1"He didn't turn to face Lilah again. emEmpathy. /emShe was emfeeling bad for him. /emFeeling bad that he, clearly, still carried so much guilt and anguish about what he'd done. She didn't even know the half of it. She didn't even know the half of it, she didn't know the worst of him, but what she did know was surely enough for her to think he was a monster. To emknow /emhe was a monster./p
p class="p1"She didn't. Not at all./p
p class="p1"He swallowed a mouthful of his venom and forced himself to look over at her, into her warm, sparkling hazel eyes./p
p class="p1""You should be terrified to hear me tell you that," Jasper said, almost laughing. "But you're being empathetic."/p
p class="p1"Lilah smiled. Jasper's cold, dead heart was smacked with a brief burst of warmth./p
p class="p1""Vampires feed off of humans. I can't really be upset with you for that," she said. She paused, and then said, "I mean, it's nature. It's brutal, but it is what it is. And, if it makes you feel any better, I'm not at all scared of you."/p
p class="p1""No," he said, smiling at her as warmly as he could. "I know you're not."/p
p class="p1""But it's probably just my witch blood," she said. "Not that I'll complain about it."/p
p class="p1"They shared a laugh. Both looked back out at the scene of serene nature before them, deep evergreens contrasting the bright reds, oranges, and golds of fall. The sky was gray with clouds, backlit by the sun hidden deep behind them, the smell of rain lingering somewhere close by./p
p class="p1"Between them, atop the cold stone, their hands crept together, as if compelled to do so by the same mysterious strings that had drawn them together in the first place. Jasper's cool fingers brushed against Lilah's warm fingers. In that moment, he was overwhelmed with an instinct. A new one, though it was just as strong and primal as his urge to drink blood./p
p class="p1"The urge to reach out, close whatever minuscule distance was left, and hold her hand./p
p class="p1"emHold her hand. /em/p
p class="p1"He wanted to laugh. He imagined himself a hundred years ago or so: a brutal murderer, second-in-command of the most feared vampire army in the south, so deep in a hole of bloodshed and pain that he didn't know how to dig himself out. Feeling that he was already so far gone that it didn't matter if he took one more life./p
p class="p1"He wondered what he would've thought then, if he'd somehow gotten a glimpse of his future. If Alice had told him, when they'd first met, that they'd both become vegetarians and find a loving adopted family, and then he'd be sitting on top of a mountain in Washington state pining over the idea of holding a witch's a hand, a witch who showed him all of the tenderness that someone like him should've been deprived of for all of eternity./p
p class="p1"But he couldn't think much about himself, not for long. Because he felt what Lilah felt. emHope, expectancy, excitement. Desire. /em/p
p class="p1"She emwanted /emhim to hold her hand. She was trying to work up the courage to do it herself./p
p class="p1"Neither of them got the chance./p
p class="p1"Jasper's cellphone buzzed loudly. Both of them jumped, and Lilah's cheeks flashed that adorable, deep shade of pink that he'd come to like so much, and they both withdrew their hands. Jasper took his phone out of the pocket of his jacket to see a text from Alice: emHow's it going?! /em/p
p class="p1"He laughed and shook his head. He couldn't even be annoyed. Not with Alice./p
p class="p1""Just Alice," Jasper told Lilah. He tucked his phone back into his pocket, focused completely on her once again. "I'll talk to her later. Right now I'd much rather talk to you."/p
p class="p1"Lilah went even more red. She checked her watch, coughed, and said, "Well, I think we should head back. If we want to get back to the car before dark."/p
p class="p1"He sighed. She was right. As much as he wanted to sit there and talk to her, be with her, bask in her presence, for a thousand hours, she was right. It was getting late. And though the darkness wouldn't impede him very much, it would make her hike more difficult. Not that he would mind—he'd carry her if he had to./p
p class="p1"He promptly stopped himself. That was getting way too far ahead./p
p class="p1"So, he nodded, stood up, and offered her a hand to help her up./p
p class="p1""Ma'am," he said, hand extended./p
p class="p1""Why, thank you sir," she said, laughing, taking him up on the offer. For once, too, she'd let her old Arkansas accent slip out after years of covering it up, trying to forget she'd ever had it in the first place./p
p class="p1"The warmth from her hand, the strings of their bond, everything about her, lavender and honey, overwhelmed Jasper and his newfound instincts to be with her, around her, touching her. Lilah felt it too, he felt, and, not wanting to get too far ahead of herself, promptly let go./p
p class="p1"For a moment, they both stood there, wondering if they should throw out all of the 'getting to know each other' thing and give into what they were feeling. Jasper wouldn't have minded. But it was up to her. He'd never do anything she didn't want. So he stood still and waited./p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /p
p class="p1""C'mon," she said finally. Her face broke out into a grin, bright as the sun. "I want to see if I can beat a vampire down to the head of the trail."/p
p class="p1"She didn't know what to say to the vampire who sat to her right. What could she say, in such a situation? None of the things she came up with in her head felt quite right. Surely such a situation would warrant conversation above small talk. What was above small talk, though?/p
p class="p1"And, although her brain was telling her to say something, anything, the rest of her was telling her something different. Her body, strangely, was completely at ease. She was totally comfortable sitting there on the top of some mountain she'd never visited before with a vampire she barely knew. There wasn't an ounce of tension anywhere in her body. It was bizarre, seeing as she'd been overwhelmed with tension for so long now./p
p class="p1"Yet, as she sat there with Jasper, she just felt…ease. The cool October air. The smell of evergreens lingering in the breeze. The chattering of squirrels somewhere off in the distance. She was existing in the moment, for once, appreciating it. Savoring it. Knowing that the ease she felt might've had something to do with Jasper, but it was not because of his gift. She remembered what it had felt like when her emotions had been manipulated by him. And now, it didn't feel like that. Her feelings were her own. In reaction to him, probably, but her own nonetheless./p
p class="p1"He remembered just how much Lilah had hated it when he had used his gift on her. It had been for good intentions, sure, but Lilah hated the way it felt. So he'd remembered that and hadn't tried to use his gift on her again. Something she appreciated immensely./p
p class="p1"Finally, Jasper spoke. And as he did, Lilah felt nervous, but not in a bad way. In a giddy, excited kind of way. Terrifying, because it was new and unfamiliar to her, but not because it was scary./p
p class="p1""You were an English teacher before, I hear?" he asked./p
p class="p1"Lilah smiled and nodded. Briefly recalled a few highlights from her time in the classroom, the faces of her favorite students./p
p class="p1""Yes," she said. "I don't remember telling anyone that…is that something Edward picked out of my brain?"/p
p class="p1"Jasper chuckled at Lilah's choice of words. "He probably did. He doesn't even realize he does it half the time…though that doesn't make it any less aggravating."/p
p class="p1""How long has it been aggravating?" Lilah asked. Her curiosity was dying to know more about Jasper, about all of the Cullens, though she didn't want to come out and ask the big questions right away and so explicitly./p
p class="p1""About fifty years," Jasper said. His golden eyes scanned the horizon, and then came back to meet Lilah's hazel eyes, his lips curling into a hint of a smile, one that made Lilah's stomach do a little flip. "But I was a vampire for over eighty years by the time I met Edward."/p
p class="p1"Lilah nodded. She tried to do some fast math in her mind. She had never been great at math. That was always more of a Morgan thing. She had been an English major and an English teacher after all./p
p class="p1""What's your favorite book?" Jasper asked, turning the conversation back./p
p class="p1"Lilah laughed. And Jasper had to smile. There was a warm human liveliness in her as she laughed. One that he hadn't realized he'd missed so dearly. Paired with the honest, genuine ease that rolled off of her, it was a lovely, alluring combination, one that drew him in even more./p
p class="p1""We're going to make small talk?" she asked./p
p class="p1""How else would you propose getting to know one another?" he retorted./p
p class="p1"Well, it was partially a retort, partially a genuine question. He hadn't put an effort into getting to know anyone since first meeting his other family members half a century ago. And none of them had been human. Getting to know a human was something he hadn't done in, well, a century and a half. Things had changed a lot since then. Maybe social conventions had radically changed too./p
p class="p1"He should've taken Alice up on her offer. She'd wanted to give him 'people lessons,' as she'd called it. Because she knew he was out of practice with such things, and he didn't want to be. Not when it came to Lilah./p
p class="p1""I don't know if I have a single emfavorite /embook," she said finally./p
p class="p1"She adjusted her position, pulling her chest, looking over at him with a gentleness that made him feel breathless for the first time in his immortal life. He was not worthy of such softness. Not now. Not ever. Not from someone who gave it so purely like Lilah did./p
p class="p1"Her freckled cheeks went a bit pink. She glanced out over the mountain again./p
p class="p1""I've liked most things I've read," she continued. "Parts, at least. Even if I hated the book, I learned something from reading it. That's why I got into reading in the first place…when Phoebe, my mother, took me in, I could barely read more than a kindergarten level. Once I learned how, I never stopped. Books opened up everything…I could go anywhere, be anyone, learn anything from a book."/p
p class="p1"Jasper watched her with a kind of awe. There was a serene smile on her face now, a wave of gratefulness washing over her. Her emotions were always particularly potent, but her good emotions were a different kind of strong because she allowed herself to revel in them./p
p class="p1"Most people, as far as Jasper could tell, were never so conscious about feeling happy or grateful or whatever other good emotion they felt. They simply felt it and moved on. Lilah, though, made an effort to recognize when she felt happy or something similar, and really bask in it. Because she knew what a gift it was to feel such a way. So she felt grateful for each of those good emotions./p
p class="p1"And Jasper felt every bit of it. New, exciting, wonderful. So completely, diametrically opposite to what he'd felt most of his existence. He had become used to absorbing pain and fear from other people on account of his gift. Even now, though he didn't kill humans most of the time, he felt their wariness in his presence, their discomfort. It was all his gift was good for, he'd thought. Feeling all of the agony that his vampirism caused./p
p class="p1"Sure, Alice had changed a lot of that. So had his family. But they all understood him and shared in his condition enough to provide him sympathy. They were all bound together by what they were./p
p class="p1"Lilah owed him nothing. She could've said no to coming with him in the first place. She could've felt their bond and rejected it. Instead, she was giving him a chance, and all of the kindness he'd never imagine feeling from someone he was so close to./p
p class="p1"It was wonderful. Beautiful. She was wonderful and beautiful./p
p class="p1"It had only been a couple of hours, and he didn't want to lose her./p
p class="p1""If I had to pick one book, I guess I'd pick emJane Eyre,/em" Lilah said. "Probably a cliché for an English teacher to say, I guess. But I've always been a sucker for the gothic genre, and I miss my old copy I left behind at home with all of my other books…what about you, Jasper? You've been around long enough to read a lot of books."/p
p class="p1"He grinned. Realized just how much he liked hearing her say his name./p
p class="p1""I hate to disappoint, but I haven't used my immortality to do very much reading," Jasper admitted. "I, uh…I only really found the time for it once I came to be a part of the Cullen family, but I haven't been much of a novel reader. Mostly just religion and philosophy texts."/p
p class="p1"He'd expected Lilah to be disappointed that he couldn't talk the finer points of gothic novels with her. Instead, a jolt of excitement emanated from her./p
p class="p1""It must've been your copy of emMeditations/em on the table the first time I came to your family's house, then, right?"/p
p class="p1"Again, he was surprised. Surprised she'd remembered./p
p class="p1""Yes," he said, unable to stop the smile forming on his face. "Like you, I was raised to be a good Southern Christian, but after becoming a vampire, I lost my faith…or, maybe, I just couldn't find the answers I was looking for in it anymore. I don't know how Carlisle and Edward have kept their faiths for so long, being what we are…I've started trying to find answers elsewhere in the past couple of decades, about being a vampire, about the ethics of my old lifestyle, before becoming a vegetarian. Some code of morality to build for myself beyond just taking Carlisle's morality without question. Mostly in philosophy, since I guess I'd call myself an atheist now."/p
p class="p1"For the third time in a row, Lilah surprised him. She snorted out a laugh through her nose, and said, "I doubt you've found anything you're looking for in stoicism."/p
p class="p1"He raised a brow. "What do you mean by that?"/p
p class="p1"She raised a single shoulder into a half shrug, and said, "Well, I'm out of practice with my philosophy, but aren't the stoics all about living in accordance with nature? Being indifferent to pain? I would think that reading Marcus Aurelius, or any stoic, would lead you to think you emshould /emdrink human blood because that's what your nature demands of you."/p
p class="p1"They were both silent for a moment. Until Jasper said, "I can't say you're all that wrong."/p
p class="p1""So you're just a vegetarian because of Carlisle?"/p
p class="p1""No," Jasper said, without missing a beat. "He's helped me develop my control, and he and the entire family have encouraged me, but I think I always wanted to stop feeding on humans, I just never knew there was another way until Alice and I met them. With my gift, I felt all of the fear and pain of the people I had to kill…having to feel that so often was…too much. I still struggle with the thirst…like I said, I didn't trust myself to be around you, that first night you came over. Everyone else in the family started out on a vegetarian diet since they were turned. I'd been feeding for humans for nearly a century by the time I made the decision to try to stop…it's much harder for me to resist human blood than the others. I probably would've gone to college and studied philosophy if I trusted myself more, if I thought I could be around humans."/p
p class="p1"He didn't turn to face Lilah again. emEmpathy. /emShe was emfeeling bad for him. /emFeeling bad that he, clearly, still carried so much guilt and anguish about what he'd done. She didn't even know the half of it. She didn't even know the half of it, she didn't know the worst of him, but what she did know was surely enough for her to think he was a monster. To emknow /emhe was a monster./p
p class="p1"She didn't. Not at all./p
p class="p1"He swallowed a mouthful of his venom and forced himself to look over at her, into her warm, sparkling hazel eyes./p
p class="p1""You should be terrified to hear me tell you that," Jasper said, almost laughing. "But you're being empathetic."/p
p class="p1"Lilah smiled. Jasper's cold, dead heart was smacked with a brief burst of warmth./p
p class="p1""Vampires feed off of humans. I can't really be upset with you for that," she said. She paused, and then said, "I mean, it's nature. It's brutal, but it is what it is. And, if it makes you feel any better, I'm not at all scared of you."/p
p class="p1""No," he said, smiling at her as warmly as he could. "I know you're not."/p
p class="p1""But it's probably just my witch blood," she said. "Not that I'll complain about it."/p
p class="p1"They shared a laugh. Both looked back out at the scene of serene nature before them, deep evergreens contrasting the bright reds, oranges, and golds of fall. The sky was gray with clouds, backlit by the sun hidden deep behind them, the smell of rain lingering somewhere close by./p
p class="p1"Between them, atop the cold stone, their hands crept together, as if compelled to do so by the same mysterious strings that had drawn them together in the first place. Jasper's cool fingers brushed against Lilah's warm fingers. In that moment, he was overwhelmed with an instinct. A new one, though it was just as strong and primal as his urge to drink blood./p
p class="p1"The urge to reach out, close whatever minuscule distance was left, and hold her hand./p
p class="p1"emHold her hand. /em/p
p class="p1"He wanted to laugh. He imagined himself a hundred years ago or so: a brutal murderer, second-in-command of the most feared vampire army in the south, so deep in a hole of bloodshed and pain that he didn't know how to dig himself out. Feeling that he was already so far gone that it didn't matter if he took one more life./p
p class="p1"He wondered what he would've thought then, if he'd somehow gotten a glimpse of his future. If Alice had told him, when they'd first met, that they'd both become vegetarians and find a loving adopted family, and then he'd be sitting on top of a mountain in Washington state pining over the idea of holding a witch's a hand, a witch who showed him all of the tenderness that someone like him should've been deprived of for all of eternity./p
p class="p1"But he couldn't think much about himself, not for long. Because he felt what Lilah felt. emHope, expectancy, excitement. Desire. /em/p
p class="p1"She emwanted /emhim to hold her hand. She was trying to work up the courage to do it herself./p
p class="p1"Neither of them got the chance./p
p class="p1"Jasper's cellphone buzzed loudly. Both of them jumped, and Lilah's cheeks flashed that adorable, deep shade of pink that he'd come to like so much, and they both withdrew their hands. Jasper took his phone out of the pocket of his jacket to see a text from Alice: emHow's it going?! /em/p
p class="p1"He laughed and shook his head. He couldn't even be annoyed. Not with Alice./p
p class="p1""Just Alice," Jasper told Lilah. He tucked his phone back into his pocket, focused completely on her once again. "I'll talk to her later. Right now I'd much rather talk to you."/p
p class="p1"Lilah went even more red. She checked her watch, coughed, and said, "Well, I think we should head back. If we want to get back to the car before dark."/p
p class="p1"He sighed. She was right. As much as he wanted to sit there and talk to her, be with her, bask in her presence, for a thousand hours, she was right. It was getting late. And though the darkness wouldn't impede him very much, it would make her hike more difficult. Not that he would mind—he'd carry her if he had to./p
p class="p1"He promptly stopped himself. That was getting way too far ahead./p
p class="p1"So, he nodded, stood up, and offered her a hand to help her up./p
p class="p1""Ma'am," he said, hand extended./p
p class="p1""Why, thank you sir," she said, laughing, taking him up on the offer. For once, too, she'd let her old Arkansas accent slip out after years of covering it up, trying to forget she'd ever had it in the first place./p
p class="p1"The warmth from her hand, the strings of their bond, everything about her, lavender and honey, overwhelmed Jasper and his newfound instincts to be with her, around her, touching her. Lilah felt it too, he felt, and, not wanting to get too far ahead of herself, promptly let go./p
p class="p1"For a moment, they both stood there, wondering if they should throw out all of the 'getting to know each other' thing and give into what they were feeling. Jasper wouldn't have minded. But it was up to her. He'd never do anything she didn't want. So he stood still and waited./p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /p
p class="p1""C'mon," she said finally. Her face broke out into a grin, bright as the sun. "I want to see if I can beat a vampire down to the head of the trail."/p