Edward stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets. “Hello Bella,” he said quietly. I didn’t know what to think or say or do. My mind hadn’t caught up with what was happening yet.

“If this is a bad time,” Edward started to say, but I shook my head quickly. No matter what else I was uncertain of, like why he was here, and what he was thinking, there was one thing I knew for a fact and it was that I didn’t want him to leave.

I stepped aside to offer him entry, still not saying a word. He gave a puzzled glance and slid past me. I followed.

“Wow, Bella…the place looks great,” Edward said, attempting to fill the awkward silence with small talk.

That snapped me out of it, because ‘the place’ hadn’t changed much since he’d last seen it, and I suddenly found that particular fact hilarious, because I started to laugh…no…not laugh exactly…chortle. Insanely. Because, now that I thought about it, I realized that I had been maybe one minute from true insanity in every literal sense of the word just before he arrived. And then, with perfect timing—because really, everything he did was perfect—he stepped in and saved me.

“Bella?” Edward asked in puzzlement, coming forward and gripping my arms. I let out a strangled sob, because I remembered his touch along with everything else about him, and the crying was added to the…chortling.

“Bella!” Edward said again, alarmed now. I felt myself collapse against him, and I leaned all my weight into his body, letting him hold me up.

“Edward…Edward,” I moaned, crying.

“What’s gotten in to you?” Edward shook me a little and I noted the concern and panic in his eyes as he tried to figure out what was going on.

Then it hit me. He was actually here. Standing in a place I never expected to see him in again, his arms wrapped tightly around me. Gazing at me with concern etched in every one of his features.

And I was crying my heart out without knowing anything about what was going on.

My eyes widened and my cheeks turned bright red with heat. I disentangled myself from his arms and backed up and few steps until I hit the arm of the couch. I looked everywhere but his eyes, appalled with myself. What would he think of me now? I wrapped my arms around my body, my eyes still wandering.