V

As if she was aware I was watching, as if she took pity on the agony I felt when I couldn't see her, Bella came out to the backyard after an hour indoors. She had a book in her hand and a blanket under her arm.
	Silently, I climbed into the higher branches of the closest tree overlooking the yard.
	She spread the blanket on the damp grass and then lay on her stomach and started flipping through the worn, obviously often read book, trying to find her place. I read over her shoulder.
	Ah- more classics. Sense and Sensibility. She was an Austen fan.
	I tasted the way the sunshine and open air affected her scent. The heat seemed to sweeten the smell. My throat flamed with desire, the pain fresh and fierce again because I had been away from her for so long. I spent a moment controlling that, forcing myself to breathe through my nose.
	She read quickly, crossing and re-crossing her ankles in the air. I knew the book, so I did not read along with her. Instead, I was watching the sunlight and wind playing in her hair when her body suddenly shifted, and her hand froze on the page. She'd reached the last page of Chapter Two. The page began midsentence: "perhaps, in spite of every consideration of politeness or maternal affection on the side of the former, the two ladies might have found it impossible to have lived together for so long-"
	She grabbed a thick section of the book and shoved it roughly over, almost as if something on the page had angered her. But what? It was early in the story, just setting up the first conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. The main hero, Edward Ferrars, was introduced. Elinor Dashwood's merits were extolled. I thought through the previous chapter, searching for something potential offensive in Austen's overly polite prose.
	She stopped on the title page for Mansfield Park. Beginning a new story- the book was a compilation of novels.
	But she'd only made it to page seven-I was following along this time; Mrs. Norris was detailing the danger of Tom and Edmund Bertram not encountering their cousin Fanny Price until they were all adults- when Bella's teeth ground together and she slammed the book shut.
	Taking a deep breath as if to calm herself, she tossed the book aside and rolled onto her back. She pushed her sleeves up her forearms, exposing more of her skin to the sun.