I looked only at her as I answered. My voice was just slightly louder than a whisper. "I could help."

Edward's body was suddenly rigid, his arm too tight around me. He exhaled, and the sound was a hiss.

"Argh," Edward groaned. "Does she constantly have to think of that?"

"Don't worry, Edward, I won't let it happen this time," Alice shook her head.

But it was Alice, still calm, who answered. "That really wouldn't be helpful."

"Why not?" I argued; I could hear the desperation in my voice. "Eight is better than seven. There's more than enough time."

"There's not enough time to make you helpful, Bella," she disagreed coolly. "Do you remember how Jasper described the young ones? You'd be no good in a fight. You wouldn't be able to control your instincts, and that would make you an easy target. And then Edward would get hurt trying to protect you." She folded her arms across her chest, pleased with her unassailable logic.

"And because you mentioned Edward like that, she can't even fight you on this," Emmett chuckled. "I could picture him fluttering all about her, trying to protect her from everything..."

Edward rolled his eyes at the image in Emmett's mind.

And I knew she was right, when she put it like that. I slumped in my seat, my sudden hope defeated. Beside me, Edward relaxed.

He whispered the reminder in my ear. "Not because you're afraid."

"That wasn't fear... she was trying to protect her family," Emmett said.

"It's still fear," Edward countered in his annoyingly smug voice that he hadn't used much these last few days. "She just wasn't afraid for herself."

"Whatever," Emmett grumbled, hating the tone almost as much as the fact that Edward was always right.

"Oh," Alice said, and a blank look crossed her face. Then her expression became surly. "I hate last-minute cancellations. So that puts the party attendance list down to sixty-five. . . ."

"So, I can see that it's just going to be a small get together," Alice frowned.

"I don't think that's what Bella is going to think," Emmett and Edward began laughing.

"Sixty-five!"My eyes bulged again. I didn't have that many friends. Did I even know that many people?

"Who canceled?" Edward wondered, ignoring me.

"Renée."

"Oh, that's too bad," Esme sighed, "I sure she wanted to be there for Bella's graduation."

"What?" I gasped.

"She was going to surprise you for your graduation, but something went wrong. You'll have a message when you get home."

For a moment, I just let myself enjoy the relief. Whatever it was that went wrong for my mother, I was eternally grateful to it. If she had come to Forks now . . . I didn't want to think about it. My head would explode.

"I suppose she has a point there," Esme said, still looking a little saddened by the news.

The message light was flashing when I got home. My feeling of relief flared again as I listened to my mother describe Phil's accident on the ball field - while demonstrating a slide, he'd tangled up with the catcher and broken his thigh bone; he was entirely dependent on her, and there was no way she could leave him. My mom was still apologizing when the message cut off.

"I'm surprised she didn't call again just to continue apologizing," Emmett chuckled.

"Well, that's one," I sighed.

"One what?" Edward asked.

"One person I don't have to worry about getting killed this week."

He rolled his eyes.

"Why won't you and Alice take this seriously?" I demanded. "This is serious. "

He smiled. "Confidence."

"Wonderful," I grumbled. I picked up the phone and dialed Renée's number. I knew it would be a long conversation, but I also knew that I wouldn't have to contribute much.

I just listened, and reassured her every time I could get a word in: I wasn't disappointed, I wasn't mad, I wasn't hurt. She should concentrate on helping Phil get better.

"In other words, you were just like you always are," Emmett laughed.

I passed on my "get well soon" to Phil, and promised to call her with every single detail from Forks High's generic graduation. Finally, I had to use my desperate need to study for finals to get off the phone.

Edward's patience was endless. He waited politely through the whole conversation, just playing with my hair and smiling whenever I looked up. It was probably superficial to notice such things while I had so many more important things to think about, but his smile still knocked the breath out of me.

"No, that's not superficial," Edward smiled. He seemed to really enjoy hearing that. Esme seemed to be thinking the same thing.

He was so beautiful that it made it hard sometimes to think about anything else, hard to concentrate on Phil's troubles or Renée's apologies or hostile vampire armies. I was only human.

"Then perhaps I should smile at you more often," Edward muttered, indeed smiling, though his eyes flickered with worry at the mention of vampire armies.

As soon as I hung up, I stretched onto my tiptoes to kiss him. He put his hands around my waist and lifted me onto the kitchen counter, so I wouldn't have to reach as far. That worked for me. I locked my arms around his neck and melted against his cold chest.

Too soon, as usual, he pulled away.