"Hey, everyone!" Jacob beamed from the door, like he always does when he comes over. Everyone just quickly smiled in his direction to great him, too engrossed in the film to do anything else. Well, everyone except Rosalie. But that was normal.
He came over and took a seat on the floor next to me, taking some of my kettle corn. I wonder if he sat here for the kettle corn, to torment Rose, or to be next to me... I found myself thinking. I couldn't help but notice my heart skip a beat again. Very weird. I knew the others noticed, too, but I think they were being nice and ignoring it.
"You look really nice today, Nessie," Jacob whispered in my ear. I felt my face grow a little warmer than my already heightened half-breed temperature. I gave him a shy smile.
"Shhh!" Rose hissed from behind us, smacking Jacob in the back of his head with the back of her hand, then rubbing it on the couch as it to remove the smell. I giggled and continued watching the movie.
I couldn't concentrate on the movie I walked in on. It was that one Sean Connery and all the other random characters, although good, I wasn't interested.
I just couldn't stop looking at her next to me. She looked more perfect today than ever. I don't know why it changed so much in the past few days since I saw her.
I wish Blondie would stop playing with her hair, though. It's making it smell a little. But for some reason, I just don't care.
Nessie isn't the same little Nessie she was a few days ago. Sure, she stopped growing a few months ago, but she was still "little Nessie" to me. Now she is a woman, and a downright perfect one at that. I wonder if she knows that, yet, and I wonder if her feelings for me have changed. I think mine just made the transition from "doting older brother" to "possible boyfriend material."
Edward shifted in his seat a little. Ooops, I might want to turn this thought process down or off with him around. He glanced my way and mouthed, "You think?"
"Shutting up," I mouthed in return.
The movie finally ended, so I got up and stretched out my stiff joints. Felt good to get off the floor. I adjusted my skirt and took the now empty bowl into the kitchen. Jacob followed.
"You want to go for a walk? You look like you could need it," he asked me. It's true, I really wanted to walk. Especially with him. Couldn't let him know the second part, though.
"That would be great," I answered, smiling up at him. He was so tall. I suddenly found myself thinking about how it would be to kiss him. Wow, that was weird. Changing mind frequencies.
"Awesome! Lets go down to the beach at La Push! It's beautiful." He was suddenly glowing with excitement. I had to say, the idea did the same to me, but I hid it well. I think.
"I'd love to, but I should get changed first. Like Alice, I don't want anything to happen to this outfit. It's one of my favorites." I tugged gently on the plaid collar while I spoke, careful to only give enough pressure to identify "this outfit."
"I don't disagree. It looks great on you," he said, his dark skin growing slightly darker with his blush. I smiled at his reaction.
"I have some nice bathing suits Alice bought me. I'll go put one of those on," I said as Alice entered the room, as if on cue.
"Hey! I bought you that one that matches this, remember?" she said, pointing to my plaid skirt. "The tan one and the pink one!"
"That's right! I'll go put one of them on." I forgot that as soon as I stopped growing and had a nice figure to boot that Alice bought me enough bathing suits to wear a different one every day of the summer and never have to repeat. All styles, depending on my mood. Some skimpier than others. The two in question more modest, but not too much.
"I'm coming with you to change. I want to make sure you find the right suit and right cover up. Sometimes you're like your mom. You need to be baby-sat when it comes to fashion," she said matter-of-factly. Couldn't really argue with her there. I nodded in agreement, smirking at her. She had an ulterior motive, I just know it.
"Lets go!" I said, putting the bowl in the dishwasher. I stuck my head into the living room. "Jacob and I are going to the beach, so Alice is coming with me to the cottage to get ready," I told my parents, both now on the couch. Looks like my mom decided to share once the movie was done, but she still had her legs over my dad's lap. They nodded to me, smiling, and I left through the back door with Alice.
"You," Alice said, pointing at Jacob, "chill here for a little bit. Leave when I come back. I don't want to ruin the reveal!" You could hear it in her voice-this was a game to her.
"Here we go again," I muttered as Alice pulled me from the room, leaving everyone snickers behind me.
"Jacob, can I talk to you for a second?" Edward asked me.
Here it comes, I thought.
"No, it's not. Well, not really. Just come on," he said. Damn, forgot about the whole mind-reading thing.
"You seem to do that a lot." He did it again. I just shrugged.
We went into the back yard of the large white house. I could still smell Nessie's trail to the cottage. It was nice.
"I know you know already why I brought you out here," Edward stated. I nodded to let him know I followed. He wanted to talk about Nessie.
"That's right. Look, I know the deal with this imprinting thing. I've been listening to your thoughts and hers all day. You two were kind of loud, so it was hard to tune out," he said rubbing his temple.
"Sorry about that," was all I could say. I didn't know when my mind was screaming or not.
"Don't worry about it, thoughts like that tend to be a little louder, it seems. And since one of the parties in question was my daughter, I guess I was already tuned in." He shrugged a little. "In any case, I've come to realize that things may be changing between the two of you very soon, and I need to face that."
"Wow, Edward. That means a-"
"I wasn't quite finished, yet."
"Sorry. I'll stay quiet."
"Thanks. Anyway, although I've known this change was inevitable between you two, with the imprinting and all, I just have one favor to ask of you."
"Anything." I wasn't about to overstep my boundaries if he's going to accept everything that easy.
"Don't push everything on us all at once. Bella's still uncomfortable with this, and Renesmee is our daughter. Take it easy on us, go slow, whatever. And don't let her try to push you, okay? I know another part of the imprint thing is to give the object of your imprinting anything they desire, but please, for our sake, hold back if she wants more than we can handle, okay?"
"I think I can handle that," I assured him. He practically just gave me his blessing. I'm not about to screw this one up!
"Thank you," he said, smirking at my silent eagerness.
As if on cue Alice emerged, slightly confused to her sudden company. "You can go see her now!" she said to me, her mood suddenly changing to excitement. Like she wanted to show off a newly finished project. Edward smiled at her and nodded. I think she showed him what Nessie was wearing and he was approving.
"She was and yes, I did." He smiled at me.
"Dude, stay out of my head," I said, putting my hands to my ears. He just laughed and waved his hands as if to say, "get going already." I ran off towards the cottage, letting everything blur behind me.
Nessie was standing outside, her back to me. I could already see the black trim tying her bathing suit around her back and neck and that she was wearing a black skirt, just barely long enough to cover her. Her hair was tightly braided against her head, the tail hanging perfectly centered down her back. She turned around and I lost my breath. The whole suit was lined in black, making the tan plaid stand out. It covered her like a bikini, but it was connected in the center, only hiding the middle of her stomach. She looked amazing.
She peered out from behind her slightly-oversized sunglasses at me. "What do you think? I wanted to wear a bikini, but Alice said she wanted to make sure Dad was comfortable, so she chose a mock-two-piece so it covered more." She twirled slowly, showing it off. "The hair was my idea. The curls get tangled so easy in the sea air." She smiled at me.
It took all my energy to keep be from breaking the promise I just made to Edward.