1"Are you hungry or thirsty?" Nessie turned to Jimmy and I tried to pretend that I wasn't listening, but of course I was listening, I was far to curious.
"Thirsty a little." She lead him to the kitchen and poured them both some Ice Tea, the smell of the sweet liquid made me wince slightly. Nessie had gotten to like human food and she had no problem eating and drinking whatever was around, but of course her and I went on a hunting trip when she was in the mood, but usually she was okay without it. I couldn't be more proud of her. I walked into the kitchen and Nessie glanced over her shoulder at me.
'Can I go to Jimmy's house later?' She knew I heard her and made sure she saw my slight smile.
"Dad, do you want something to drink?" She asked me without hinting anything was wrong, she was good at this by now, I could hear the double meaning in her words.
"No thanks honey, I had a drink before." She nodded slightly before turning back to look at her friend. Her eyes sparkled slightly when their eyes met, I could see the electric shoot through their eyes before they both looked away, blushing slightly. I held in my smile, how adorable was that? I wasn't how I should feel, she was my daughter, this was a boy that she liked...or loved..and that felt the same way about her back, and I was her father, who knew how she was feeling, I was still young, 17 was not much older than 14, but than again I was her father, I should be worried, I should hate this, I should hate him, and I think I did in a way, but I couldn't bring myself to hate him.
I ground my teeth together, I was lost when it came to being a dad. I had talked to Carlisle about it, and all he said was, love them more than you love yourself, protect them more than you protect yourself, make them happy before yourself, and never forget that they are quicker than you, good luck.
He wished me good luck, what was I gambling? What did luck have to do with it? I shook my head at the memory of that particular conversation with my father. Was she really quicker than me? I know that if I was a normal father, I would be in my forties and than she would very well be quicker than me, but since I was forever young, was she still quicker? I watched as she chattered and chattered on to Jimmy, talking about a million different things at once. Jimmy just stood their leaning on the counter sipping from his glass and watching her intently as she spoke about how Mr. Beagen took away Jackie's phone for texting and how Mrs. Vivalde kicked 4 kids out of class in one period. I listened in on both their thoughts.
Nessie's thoughts were working way past the current sentence she was on, no wonder she talked so fast, her brain was already forming it's next sentence before she was even done with the first one. Jimmy's thoughts were half listening to her chatter and half thinking about the color of my daughter's eyes. He liked them a lot, and I smiled to myself. Than his thoughts took on a different approach, noticing my gold eyes and how they didn't match hers. I winced slightly, like Bella years and years ago, Jimmy was quick and missed nothing.
I sighed to myself, turning and returning back to the living room and throwing myself down onto the couch, the springs protesting with my added weight. I turned on the tv, not really interested with what was on, but trying more distract myself from whatever was going on in the kitchen right now. Than the thoughts of Jimmy hit me like a brick and I tensed slightly. I saw it in his thoughts as he pressed his lips to her, stopping her mid sentence. Both their thoughts went blank and I held my breathe, jealousy filling my mind. I was the only man in my daughters life, that was how that was supposed to be, she was supposed to love me and me only when it came to the male gender.
They separated and both of them were silent. I clenched my jaw and held onto the couch to keep from running into their and kicking him out of the house before he knew what hit him. The only thing that kept me rooted was Bella, the memory of Charlie and how he kept us under close watch and how I felt about that. Nessie would never get older, she was stuck were she was, it was in no way far to treat her like a 14 year old forever, it wasn't like she asked for this.
My body relaxed as they came walking back into the room where I was, smiles forever planted on their lips as they sat down on the other couch, very close to each other. I would have to tell Bella about this, she would know what to do. She was much much better at this parent stuff than I was. For now I would just carry out my plans from before, spending some time with my daughter.
"Ness, I was thinking, would you like to go somewhere tonight?" She looked up at me and smiled.
"Anywhere you had in mind?" I smiled at her and I watched as Jimmy's hand slid slightly around her shoulders and I pretended not to notice.
"I was thinking maybe..." I was not sure what to say, where would a teenage girl want to go?
"How about the mall?" I raised my eye brows slightly than nodded in approval, it was Friday, she didn't have school the next day.
"Sounds fine, would you care to join us Jimmy?" I knew it would make her happy if he tagged along, even if I wanted it to be just her and I. I remembered Carlisle's words, make them happy before yourself.
"No thanks, I believe my mom was saying something about making my favorite dinner, pigs need their mud you know." They both laughed but I heard his real thoughts as he spoke the words. I don't want to interrupt their father daughter time, Nessie and us spend enough time together. He rose to leave, hugging Ness on his way to the door.
"I will see you sometime tomorrow, call me if you want to hang out or something." She nodded and they looked at each other for a bit longer before he turned and headed for the door, her close by his side. I watched through their thoughts as he pecked her on the cheek before dashing off down the driveway as fast as his human legs could carry him.
She returned to the living room and sat next to me on the couch, her eyes serious. "He has no idea that you can see everything that happens even if you are not in the same room, please don't be mad." She shocked me yet again, so grown up for her age.
"Why would I be mad?" She turned to me, still serious. "I know you saw that." I nodded slowly, watching her reaction. "Then why are you not mad?" I shrugged. "As you know, I am forever the age of 17, as you are forever the age of 14, your not a baby anymore, more of a woman in a girls body, like im a man in a boys body, I have no reason to be mad."
I couldn't help but be straight forward with her, her large curious eyes not only melted hearts but they sparkled with her intelligence and understanding. "Your thinking of you and mom, grandpa told me many times he was not happy with you to being together, until you told him the truth about how unique you are." She always had a thing about the word vampire, considering me still a human, but a unique one. She was right though, Charlie never understood Bella and I's relationship until it came time to sit him down and tell him what I was, what my family was.
'Charlie, I know that this is something that is going to sound very unreal to you, and most likely scare you, but I promise you, that what I am about to tell you is not what it sounds like, not as bad as it seems.'
His eyes were wide and nervous as I just sat their across from him, explaining myself.
'Go on...'
'Me and my family, well, we are not your average human, as you know.' He nodded once, all ears.
'Well, we are actually...' He knew already, he wasn't sure, but he thought he had an idea.
'You're a vampire...' I nodded slightly, not taking my eyes off of him. 100 emotions played across his face all at once and I listened to his thoughts. "All this time! That's what they were! He was a vampire! But he comes out during the day...No wonder he always passed on dinner! What about him and Bella, how come he didn't hurt her...or me.."
I explained everything to him from day one, and told everything he wanted to know, but also made him swear that if he ever spoke a word to anyone else about this, that it would put Bella, his granddaughter and his son-in-law in danger and he understood and kept his word.
"Yes, but I do want to know, you have not told him anything about us?" I watched as she winced slightly. "He knows something's up, but not from me, actually, from you and mom." I watched her, raising an eyebrow, I didn't hear anything in his thoughts except for the thought about my eye color. "He asked why your so pale and why your eyes are sometimes gold and sometimes black and how come when we eat, you guys never do." I nodded slightly. "And you told him what?" She shrugged. "I told him that sometimes people are different, like him and I are boy and girl, you and mom are well...different as well, just in other ways."
I waited for more and she sighed slightly. "He promised me he wouldn't tell anyone and that it wouldn't change anything, and I told him that if he guessed, I would tell him." We sat in silence for a second. "Do you want him to know? Do you trust him?" She met my eyes, and I saw nothing but confidence. "I trust him with anything and everything, and yes I want him to know, I would tell him myself if I could."
I nodded, understanding where she was coming from with this. "The same thing happened with me and your mother, she took it so well, what if he doesn't take it as well?" My comment didn't seem to bother her, "Jimmy is different, he sees no skin color when it comes to race, no difference in religion, he's not afraid of spiders or snakes, if he were to know that he spends just about all of his time with a half vampire, I think he would find it more interesting than scary." I had no reply to this, I could tell by the few times I had spoken with the boy and from his thoughts that Jimmy excepted things for what they were, but would this be to much?
"If you say so Ness, you would know better than I would, I don't know the boy well." She nodded and stood up, putting on her pair of crazy colored sneakers with rainbow checks on the side. "Let's go to the mall than, shall we?" I nodded at her, standing and heading for the door, her right behind me.
