Chapter 1

Jacob's POV.

I pull up to First Beach and check the back seat. Renesmee is looking out the window with excitement in her eyes. She's never been to the beach before — a part of me feels a little guilty that it was me who brought her for the first time and not Bella.

Bella, my best friend and former love of my life. I can honestly say that I don't have any lingering feelings for her, romantic wise. I'll always love Bella, but I'm not in love with her anymore. Renesmee changed that. When I looked into Renesmee's eyes that first time after her birth, I felt whole. Complete.

Telling Bella that I had imprinted on her daughter wasn't exactly the most fun experience of my life. Bella's always had a little temper — not bad, just strong when she has her mind set on something — so when she discovered the connection that I now share with Nessie, she flipped. Looking back on it now, it was quite comical. She had just been newly turned and everybody didn't know quite what to expect from her. From what I remember of newborns, they were quite vicious, uncontrolled. When Bella was turned, she kept perfect control of herself, for the most part. To tell you the truth, I was a little scared of her that first day. She had bright red eyes and a feral look on her face. It wasn't until I slipped the nickname I had given Renesmee that she finally lost her control and launched herself at me. Seth had jumped in the way and had gotten hurt — not badly, just a dislocated shoulder. He's trooper.

I shake my head to bring myself out of my reverie, and get out of the car and open the side door for Nessie. She had already gotten her seatbelt unbuckled, so she jumps from the car. She's really excited.

"Ready to have some fun?" I ask her. She shakes her head yes and makes a slight dash for the beach. I quickly take hold of her tiny hand to stop her.

"Not so fast, squirt. We still have our beach toys to get out of the trunk." She sighs a little impatiently.

"Can we build a sandcastle Jake?" she asks me.

"Of course! We can't go to the beach and not build one. What kind of day at the beach would that be?" I say to her. She lights up.

"Yay!" she yells excitedly. We get what we need from the trunk of my car and make our way down to the beach. It's still a little early so Quil and Clair haven't arrived yet.

We find a perfect spot near the shoreline and set our stuff down.

"Jake, can we make the sandcastle now?"

"Of course. We need to get some water so we can wet the sand so it will stick in place when we mold the castle together." I pick up the little pink bucket and walk to the shoreline and dip the bucket into the water. Once there's enough in the bucket, I walk back over to Nessie and pour the water onto the sand next to her, and she squeals when some of the water splashes onto her small feet. I chuckle at her reaction; she's so cute sometimes.

"Okay," I start. "Now that we have the sand all wet, we can compact it into the buckets and start making the castle."

I kneel down and scoop sand into the bucket, showing her what to do. She copies my actions, and together we make our castle.

About an hour and one decent looking sandcastle later, we sit back and view our masterpiece. We have three towers, a door, and a moat. I smile down at her

"It's pretty good, Ness. I think we did a good job. What do you think?"

She taps her chin in thought. "It's great! I wish Mommy and Daddy were here to see it."

I grab my backpack and pull out a small digital camera. "We'll take a picture so we can show them later. Here, get by the castle so you're in the picture too."

Nessie kneels by the sandcastle and smiles a huge smile. I snap the picture, then turn the camera and show Nessie.

"Perfect," she announces. She sits down next to me, grabbing one of the little sand shovels and starts digging around in the sand again. I sit and look out at the ocean, stretching my legs and sighing peacefully. It's a beautiful day today, rare for this part of Washington.

"Jake? Have you ever made love?" Nessie asks me.

Startled by the question, I have no idea what to say to her. "Uh…umm. No, Nessie, I've never. Why do you ask?" I stumble over my words.

"Momma said that people like to make love, and I wanted to know if you ever have."

I can only guess that this is coming from this morning's incident with Edward and Bella, and Nessie walking in on them. I chuckle softly to myself — I was not expecting to see that when Nessie was showing me her dreams. Before Nessie, I've always wondered what Bella looked like naked, I've even dreamed about it. But now, it was a little awkward to witness. Don't get me wrong, Bella is a beautiful woman and she looks amazing naked but she's Edward's now and the mother of the girl that one day will see me differently than just a big playful goofball. I'm a guy, and any guy would be happy to look at a naked woman. I'm happy for them though, I really am. I'm happy that Bella is happy.

I look at Nessie who is waiting for me to reply. I sigh, "I guess I just haven't found the right girl yet, Ness." She looks at me.

"When you do, will you?" Maybe. I say to myself.

"I don't know. But let's not talk about that. Why don't we go swimming, huh?" I change the subject. Nessie shakes her head yes. Glad that she has dropped the questioning, we get up and start for the water. I look up when I hear another car pull up. Quill has just arrived with Clair.

"Look Nessie," I turn her around, facing the direction Quil and Clair are now walking towards us.

"Quil's here with Clair. Now the real fun can begin!" I say. Nessie runs over to Quil and Clair.

"Hi Nessie." Quil says. "Jake."

I nod my head and clap him on the shoulder. "You guys ready for some splashing?" I say.

Quil lifts Clair up onto his shoulders and walks them to the shoreline. Renesmee in her excitement runs at full speed ahead of everyone to the water. Panicked, I run as fast as my human form can take me. But it's too late — by the time I reach Nessie, she's already halfway in the water when a big wave crashes into her and knocks her down. Underwater.

"NESSIE!" I yell. I get to her within a few seconds and lift her sputtering form out of the water and bring her back to the shore.

I worriedly check her over to make sure she's okay. She's coughing and laughing at the same time. I lift her little arms up overhead to open up her lungs and help get the air supply she needs to get the water out.

"Again!" Nessie says enthusiastically.

"Nessie!" I say authoritatively, "what were you thinking? You can't just shoot off like that! You almost drowned!" My voice has risen a bit because she gave me a scare.

Nessie looks down at her feet, toeing the wet sand. "I'm sorry, Jakey," she says in a shaky voice. "I just got really excited. I've never been swimming before." I lift her chin when I see a lone tear fall down her cheek. I look into her big brown eyes and I'm done for.

"It's okay, Ness. I just worry about you, that's all. Plus your daddy would have my head if anything happened to you." I tell her gently. "I'm sorry for yelling at you. You just scared me." She nods her head. I ruffle her hair and say, "Come here, I need a hug." Honestly, I really do need a hug after that big scare. Nessie reaches as wide as she can and gives me a good squeeze.

"Let's go have some fun." I take her hand, and we wade into the water. The water's a bit cold, but nothing Nessie's warmer skin temperature can't handle. We walk a little ways until the water is up to Nessie's knees.

She dips her hand into the water and scoops some up and then brings her hand up and watches as the water drips off her hand and falls back into the ocean. She's quite amazed by it.

She looks up at me, asking with her eyes for what she should do. "Here," I say, "let's start out slow. Dip your lower body into the water like this."

I show her as I kneel down so the water is up to my lower thighs. Nessie follows my example and kneels in the water, only the water doesn't end at her thighs, it ends at her waist. She giggles as a small wave splashes at her tummy.

I laugh because her giggle is just too adorable. "Okay, now let's try getting our upper bodies wet. Here, watch what I do." Nessie looks at me and I lay down on my stomach to get my shoulders wet.

"But since you're small you can just sit on your bottom," I tell her, not wanting her to drown while trying to follow my lead. She sits down so that the water reaches just above her shoulders.

I feel a splash on the side of my face and look over to see Quil standing there with a goofy grin on his face and Clair laughing. I narrow my eyes and bring my hand back and glide it just under the surface, making a small wave and splashing him right back. Clair laughs again.

Nessie splashes me on my other side and I look to her, and she's got her hands over her mouth and she's laughing as well. I playfully narrow my eyes at her this time and bring my hand back and gently splash her right back.

She squeals and splashes me back, and so begins the big splash battle. We all splash each other for a few more minutes before I call it quits.

"Baby" Quil says to me under his breath. I splash him one more time and stand up. "Okay, how about we try some actual swimming now?" I look down at Ness and she's already standing and waiting.

I take her hand, and Quil takes Clair's. We both bring the girls a little deeper so now the water is up to Nessie's waist when standing. I kneel down and hold her body horizontally and place my hands under and above her body.

"Okay, I'm gonna guide you through the water. Use your arms and feet to paddle," I tell her. She does, and it's so fast and floppy that I get drenched with water.

Laughing, I stop her and set her back on her feet. "Let's start with doggie paddling. Use your arms and paddle them in front of your body, but do it slower than before," I instruct her.

She does as I say, and soon enough she's paddling circles around me. We spend about an hour and a half in the water, the girls swimming and splashing and having fun.

I feel my stomach grumbling and remember that I haven't eaten in a few hours. I know Nessie won't eat much human food, but if there are chocolate chip cookies in the deal, she won't have much of a problem with it.

"Hey Quil!" I yell out. Quil looks up from his own swimming lesson with Clair.

"Yeah?" he asks. He looks back down to Clair to make sure she's still above water.

"How do you feel about getting some grub after this? I'm starving," I say, rubbing my stomach.

"Sounds good. Where should we go?"

I look up to the sky and see the clouds starting to roll in. We must have been here longer than I thought.

"I have to get Nessie home before the storm hits. I say we leave now and head to my place and eat, and then I'll take Nessie back home after." I suggest.

"Sounds good. Let's go." Quil lifts a still-paddling Clair out of the water and heads for the beach.

"C'mon Ness, time to go." I get up, but Nessie doesn't move.

"I don't want to leave. I wanna stay." She tells me.

"Nessie, I have to get you back home before the storm comes. Plus we're all hungry, so I want to go eat lunch with you before I have to take you home," I explain to her.

She folds her arms across her chest. "I don't like human food," she says stubbornly. Just like Bella, I think in my head.

"There'll be chocolate chip cookies," I bribe her. I can see the internal battle going on inside her head.

She sighs. "Fine, but I want three," she orders me. Oh she's a sassy one. I'll have to talk to Bella about that later.

"Fine. Let's go before it actually starts to rain." She uncrosses her arms and makes her way up to the beach.

Once out of the water, I get a towel and dry Nessie off and then myself. I slip her little sundress back on over her swimsuit. I pick up our toys and my backpack, and we make our way back up to the cars.

"We'll meet you up at the house, Jake," Quil tells me. I nod my head and open the trunk to put our beach stuff away. I put Nessie in the back seat, make sure she's buckled in, and jump in the driver's seat, start the car, and head to my place for some lunch.