"Daddy," my little angel surprised me. I had been concentrating on a picture. Bella on her graduation day. She was distracted and slightly worried. She had reason to be. Nessie plopped down on the couch and looked over my shoulder. "That's mom."
I knew a smile lit me features. The thought of my dazzling wife always filled me with strong emotions. Nessie sighed and leaned against me. My arm automatically moved around her slender shoulders. She took the picture from my hands and traced one careful finger over her mothers' features. "She's so different now."
"Yes. Though she was never ordinary."
Nessie sighed again.
"Why melancholy?"
"Because I'll never know this version of mom. I mean she must have had friends and she would have done things differently. There are some things I would have liked to seen."
I smiled, holding my daughter a little closer.
"Will you tell me?"
"About what?"
"Anything. I want to know something."
"Let's see. Well first of all your mother never had the sense to be afraid. Not even when we first met. The first time she ever came she was not worried about the house of vampires but their reactions."
"That sounds like her." I chuckled then continued.
"She had human friends. Let's see… well there was Angela, she was quiet and thoughtful like your mom. They got along quite well. I remember one day I chased your mom all the way to her house after I followed her from the border, she had gone to the filthy mutts house."
Nessie playfully shoved her dad. She knew he didn't mean it, not really. Even if he admitted it to no one, he looked on Jacob as a son sometimes. And no one could mess with Jake in her dad's hearing.
I continued. "Well then there was Jess. She was your moms' friend for shallow girl time. They kinda lost touch after the whole movie night in Port Angeles."
"Movie night?" Nessie interrupted. Pain flashed across my features.
"Your mother indulged in hallucinations." Nessie stopped avoiding the subjects that brought me pain.
"Anyone else?"
"Well Jake of course."
"Of course."
"And just a couple others. Mike." The name came out a growl.
"Mike?"
"Yes. He had many… inappropriate thoughts." Anger flashed at the memory. "Then Ben who tried running her over and…"
"Wait wait wait… he did what?" Nessie interrupted me.
"Ummmm your mother was still in the dark and he slipped on a patch of ice. I stopped the car. She wouldn't let the matter drop." I grinned. "She can be quite persistent."
Nessie smiled. "And you can't forget Eric."
"Dad..." my daughter hesitated, "there seem to be a lot of boys."
I growled in mock exasperation. "Tell me about it. I had to listen to all their thoughts day in and day out, it nearly drove me mad."
"You know that she probably never noticed any of them right?"
I stared at my daughter speechless.
"I've seen the way she looks at you, there was never anyone else."
"How would you know?"
"I have seen a lot of the looks around this family dad. It's the way you look at her. Alice and Jasper get the look. Em and Rose and even grandpa and grandma. And… Jake gets that look sometimes."
I knew anger must have flashed. "Not in that way." She hurriedly added.
"You know like the world is right when you're with that person. Like your gravity of that person hold you to earth. And that person is your sun."
