分节阅读_125

  you i had
  lost a child?”
  ”no,” i murmured, stunned, sg to uand what lifetime she was
  remembering.
  ”yes, my first and only baby. he died just a few days after he was born,
  the poor tiny thing,” she sighed. ”it broke my heart — that's why i
  jumped off the cliff, you know,” she added matter-of-factly.
  ”edward just said you f-fell,” i stammered.
  ”always the gentleman.” she smiled. ”edward was the first of my new sons.
  i've always thought of him that way, even though he's older than i, in
  o least.” she smiled at me warmly. ”that's why i'm so happy that
  he's fouhe e souural on her lips.
  ”he's been the odd man out f; it's hurt me to see him
  alone.”
  ”you don't mind, theant again. ”that i'm… all wrong for
  him?”
  ”houghtful. ”you're what he wants. it will work out,
  somehow,” she said, though her forehead creased with eal
  an.
  esme stopped thely, we'd reached the edge of the field. it
  looked as if they had formed teams. edward was far out i field,
  carlisle stood betwee and sed bases, ahe
  ball, positiohat must be the pitcher's mound.
  emmett was swinging an aluminum bat; it whistled almost untraceably
  through the air. i waited for him to approae plate, but then i
  realized, as he took his sta he was already there — farther from
  the pitcher's mound than i would have thought possible. jasper stood
  several feet behind him, g for the other team. of one of
  them had gloves.
  ”all right,” esme a clear voice, whieould
  hear, as far out as he .”
  alice stht, deceptively motioyle seemed to be
  stealth rather than an intimidating wihe ball in both
  ha, ahe strike of a cht hand
  flicked out and the ball smato jasper's hand.
  ”was that a strike?” i whispered to esme.
  ”if they don't hit it, it's a strike,” she told me.
  jasper hurled the ball back to alice's ermitted
  herself a brief grin. and then her hand spun out again.
  this time the bat somehow made it arouo smash into the
  ihe pact was shatteri echoed
  off the mountains — i immediately uhe y of the
  thuorm.
  the ball shot like a meteor above the field, flyihe
  surrou.
  ”home run,” i murmured.
  ”wait,” esme ed, listely, one ha was a
  blur around the bases, carlisle shadowing him. i realized edward was
  missing.
  ”out!” esme a clear voice. i stared in disbelief as edward
  sprang fre of the trees, ball in his upraised hand, his wide
  grio me.
  ”emmett hits the hardest,” esme explai edward ru.”
  the inning ued before my incredulous eyes. it ossible to
  keep up with the speed at which the ball flew, the rate at which their
  bodies rad the field.
  i learher reasoed for a thuo play when
  jasper, trying to avoid edward's infallible fielding, hit a ground ball
  toward carlisle. carlisle ran into the ball, and then raced jasper to
  first base. when they collided, the sound was like the crash of two
  massive falling boulders. i jumped up ihey were somehow
  unscathed.
  ”safe,” esme a calm voice.
  emmett's team by one — rosalie ma around the bases
  after tagging up o's long flies — when edward caught the
  third out. he sprio my side, sparkli.
  ”what do you think?” he asked.
  ”ohing's for sure, i'll h dull old major
  league baseball again.”
  ”and it sounds like you did so much of that before,” he laughed.
  ”i am a little disappoieased.
  &qu