I was given this amazing prompt: Kid!jakeandbells - During one of the summers she's there, Jacob teaches Bella how to ride a bike after seeing her with training wheels.
The Little Mechanic
"What is Renée up to?" Billy asked, ignoring the sharp pain of his wife's elbow between his ribs.
Charlie Swan, sitting on the run-down couch on the other side of the clutter-free coffee table, a bouquet of pink gerbera placed effortlessly in a brown vase, simply stared down at the beer in his lap, fingertip tracing the well-known etiquette.
"She said something about a road trip through Texas with some rugby player," he said plainly, the complacency about his words too heavy to be true.
Sarah quickly pushed a bowl of cookies across the table, a subtle force behind her gentle action, too hard to resist. Charlie quickly grabbed one of the cookies, still warm, the chocolate melting beneath his fingers.
"How old is he this time? Fifteen?"
That earned Billy another punch in the ribs, but he knew that Sarah was not to blame. She would never quite understand how his words did not really hurt Charlie any more than the thought in his head.
The power of making jokes about something severe was often underestimated.
"How is Bella doing? She seemed a little reclusive," Sarah asked with a compassionate smile, showing her calf against her husband's beneath the table.
"She's a lot more quiet than usual. I got her a bike and she's pretty much driving up and down the street all day without a word. I suggested to see a movie, you know, they have all those Disney films in cinema in Port Angeles this month, but she just shook her head."
"You're doing nothing wrong, Charlie. Don't you start telling yourself that again."
Sarah got up from her spot on the couch, her long dark hair waving down her back as she stepped around the table, resting her hand on Charlie's shoulder.
"She's a very sweet girl."
The screen door of the Black's house rattled in the same second, all three adults in the room turning their heads to the door.
Rachel and Rebecca, wearing identical green dresses and their hair in identical braids, stood in the doorway, arms crossed in front of their chests, each of them a chain of daisies around their necks.
"You were supposed to play with Bella, girls. What are you doing in here?" Sarah asked, removing her hand from Charlie's shoulder to press it against her hip.
"It's not our fault if she'd rather play with Jake, Mom," one of the girls complained, grabbing her sister's hand and pulling her through the living room, disappearing in their room, the door falling closed with a loud bang.
"Unbelievable," Sarah muttered, before she turned around to look out of the small window, pulling the curtain aside. She suddenly sighed sweetly, as if she had seen a puppy outside.
"Come take a look at this," she whispered.
Billy and Charlie eyed each other with wrinkled foreheads before walking over to the window to join Sarah. There wasn't much space, so the three of them pressed themselves close against each other to look outside.
"What is he doing?" Charlie asked, rubbing his eye, wondering if he should maybe get his eyesight checked.
"He's teaching Bella how to ride her bike," Sarah answered, her voice full of adoration at the sight of her six-year-old son holding Bella's waist, guiding her along the deserted street.
"But she knows how to – wait a second! Where are the training wheels?"
"Jake probably took them off," Billy said casually, wrapping his arm around Sarah's waist.
"He what?" Charlie asked in disbelief, caught between his two options. If he allowed his best friend's son to continue teaching his only daughter how to ride a bike without training wheels on an asphalt road, she would most likely fall down and hit the only sharp thing within a mile. But the genuine smile, the faint blush on her cheeks, the way her tongue peeked out in concentration were everything he had wished for. She finally looked like a happy child. Stopping this seemed cruel.
"He's really good with his hands. Last week he dissembled the remote control and put it back together. It didn't work, but only because Sarah took the batteries away. He's a little mechanic," Billy said proudly, watching his son let go of Bella's waist outside.
Charlie held his breath, waiting for the inevitable crash. But it never came. Instead, he watched his daughter ride the bike down the street with a victorious smile on her face, Jake jogging behind her, grinning proudly.
"Too bad the camera is broken," Sarah sighed disappointedly, just as Bella clumsily attempted climbed off the bike.
"I won't forget this, no worries," Charlie said, smiling as Jake took Bella's hand to help her off the bike.
"Renée doesn't realize what she's missing out on here," Billy mumbled truthfully. Before Sarah could put her elbow to good use again, her anger dissolved into another adoring sigh as Bella – face red as a tomato – pressed a chaste kiss on Jacob's cheek before running towards the house.
"They are so sweet together," she whispered, leaning closer to her husband as they watched their son standing in the middle of the street, fingertips pressed against his flushed cheek.