Renesmee's POV

I gazed out at the ocean that seemed to go on forever and sighed. Jacob was talking to his friend Quil a few feet away from me. My mom suggested that he bring me to the beach to cool off. The weather was strangely warm and I hadn't been to a beach before so I had been excited. But when I got here, instead of the joy and energy everyone expected me to feel, I was actually kind of sad. The sea was large and extravagant and beautiful . . . but I couldn't help feeling remorse as the sun dipped into the horizon, beginning to set.

"Nessie!" Jacob called.

I looked over and saw him waving me over to where he, Quil, Sam and some other girl I didn't know were standing, waiting for me. I wondered briefly if she were a wolf-person too. The La Push beach was a lot nicer than any of the others. Maybe it was the friends and family environment. Not many people would brave the cold and go swimming in Forks, but wolf-people didn't get cold, from what I knew.

I walked over to them and pasted a smile on my face. I enjoyed meeting knew people.

"Renesmee," Jacob said, leaning down on one knee so that he could be my height, "you already know Quil and Sam, but this is Emily, Sam's fiancée. She wanted to meet you."

I smiled up her politely and noticed three long scars running down the left side of her face. I shivered but quickly averted my eyes, not wanted to be rude.

"Hello, Emily," I said.

She beamed down at me. "Jacob has told me so much about you, Renesmee. Are you really as extraordinary as he says?"

I smiled wider. "Probably not. Jacob has a habit of over-stating things when it comes to me or my mother."

She laughed and leaned down to kiss my forehead.

Jacob took my hand and we walked in silence down the beach until we were far enough away from Sam and Emily that they wouldn't hear me.

"What happened to Emily's face?" I whispered, on the off chance that we still weren't far enough away.

He looked down and I could tell this topic made him uncomfortable. "I don't want to tell you."

I rolled my eyes. "That only makes me want to know more! I won't tell anyone."

He chuckled. "Everyone already knows." He looked down at my expression and sighed before continuing. "Sam hurt her. It was an accident a along time ago. He regrets it everyday. But he lost control and she . . . was standing too close, I guess."

I nodded, understanding. Werewolves could be unstable sometimes. My father had given me a whole lecture on being careful and staying with Jacob whenever I was in La Push.

"I wonder how she deals with that," I pondered, "knowing that he could hurt her at any moment."

Jacob stopped walking and kneeled won in front of me. "How do you deal with it?"

I immediately caught onto what he was trying to say. He could hurt me at any time, if he lost control. For some reason, this knowledge didn't even make me flinch.

"I don't have to," I told him. "I trust you."

He looked at me with unfathomable eyes from under his lashes. It was a look I saw from my mom and dad and Rosalie sometimes. Pure love. I knew he didn't understand what I was trying to tell him and I couldn't think of a good way to phrase it. So I decided to show him.

I placed my pale hand on his russet colored cheek and showed him the picture of him, as he was now leaning before me, with that look in his eye. I imagined him hugging me, shielding me with his large arms, comforting me, so that's what he did. He pulled me into a vice-tight hug tat left me breathless when he released me.

"You're incredible, Renesmee," he said at last.

We continued walking and I pulled my hand out from in his, picking up a pretty shell in front of me.

"I want to talk to you," I said.

"I'm listening," he responded, his eyes on the beach ahead of us.

"How do you know my mom?" I asked. "I mean, how did you meet?"

He chuckled. "I knew Bella when we were both kids, we used to play together. Billy and Charlie are good friends. Then when she moved to Forks, we got closer. She's like my best friend," he whispered.

I smiled. "What about my dad?"

He shook his head. "I wasn't really friends with your old man, Nessie, up until you were born."

I furrowed my brow. "Why not? Did you not like him?" I thought of the possibility of someone not liking him and I just couldn't imagine it. Rosalie was mean sometimes . . . but we all knew she was just kidding.

"Well," he paused to look into my eyes, "and don't hate me for telling you this, okay? But . . . well . . . I used to like your mom. In that way. I guess I thought Edward was just getting in the way."

I was shocked. I stopped ad stared up at him. "You? And my mom?"

He shook his head vehemently. "No! It was never like that! Your mom didn't like me in that way, and I never understood it . . . until now. Until you were born."

I folded my arms over my chest grumpily, not sure how I felt about this.

"Listen, I love Bella, but she could never have, like, a tenth of what I feel for you Renesmee!"

I softened up about it then, and carried on walking. "Okay . . . I guess that's okay, then."

We kept walking through the beach and I didn't tell Jacob, but I was planning on having a little talk to my mother about this. As soon as possible.