He knew by her response that he'd made her a little mad. But better for her to be mad than to be moping. "There's this one chick, she was dragged here from a United States that was going to hell. She told me that every big important city had been blown to smithereens by nuclear bombs. That the small town she lived in, actually smaller than Forks believe it or not, was going through the coldest winter in years, people were dying left and right." He shook his head. "She has no one she knows here. And yet she's the most upbeat person in this joint. When someone's down she tries to perk 'em up, get them to see the good side of a bad situation." He tapped her nose lightly. "If she can do it, if she can see the light at the end of the tunnel, when there isn't much of a light for her, you can too. You got me, Leah, Alice, and Jasper here for you."
He bent down so that they were eye to eye again. "You aren't alone. You got us. So quit treating me like chopped liver okay. It does bad things for my self esteem." That last part was a tease. He got hit on at every turn? How could his ego be any less than it was?