A/N: Double-shot Friday? Well…kinda! :)

Yes, this is Moment 7. I was going to hold on 'til Monday with it, but I was reminded that today…is…the LAST DAY to vote at The Mystic Awards! As a reminder, Bella and Embry are up for the Best No! Couple, if you're so inclined to vote. :) You can tinker with this and click on over: http:// themysticawards. webs. com/

While you're there, you *might* notice the name LJ Summers with the story Do You Remember in The Hurt award *and* the same name at The Golden Fingers award. IF you are so inclined, please go vote! :)

Thanks for reading all of this! ~LJ

And now, on to the Bonus Moment…

~*~*~

Moment 7: Charlie said okay? Really?

"I got a surprise for you," Embry told me over the phone. He had persuaded his mother to get him a cell phone of his own, so now we each had one. He could call me and we kept track of the hours we were apart, that way.

I was on my break at the Newton's, in the back room. Mike had followed me, even though he was supposed to be out front with customers. I supposed we didn't have any just then. I ignored him as best I could. "What kind of a surprise, Embry? You know I'm not real fond of surprises."

He laughed softly into the phone and the sound was, to my ear, seductive. It did not erase the velvety depths of Edward's vocal memory, but Embry's was close. It was real. It did not make promises it had no intention of keeping. And it was mine. "I know, Bella. Don't you think I haven't figured that out yet? That's why I'm calling to tell you about it, so you won't be surprised surprised."

"Ha! And you're calling so that if I freak out, you're miles away from me."

"That too."

We shared a laugh and I heard Mike huff something and return to the front of the store.

"So I'll come by after you get off work, all right?" Embry suggested. "And I'll bring it with me."

"This surprise isn't going to require me to get dressed up or anything, is it?" I asked, my tone leaking acid.

He hastened to assure me. "Not in the least. Jeans and a leather jacket. You can even wear your Converse." He laughed again. "D'you have a leather jacket? I can bring you one of mine, if you want."

"I've got one, thanks."

"See you after your shift. Twenty."

The number was a reference to how many hours it had been since the last time we had seen each other. Thirty was his current limit. A limit we had tested and found to be pretty solid, for now. By the time I would see him, it would be twenty-two.

I cooked a quick dinner while I waited for Embry to arrive. Charlie was due home soon, too, and I figured I would be feeding all of us before finding out what wasn't a surprise. Jeans and a leather jacket. We got to talking about the leather jacket and Embry didn't get around to telling me what he had for me. Something outdoorsy, maybe? I finished prepping the lettuce and cheese and got the tomatoes diced while the tortillas fried for tacos. My classmates in Phoenix called them Tacos Gringos when I brought them for the rare class party, but "White Guy Tacos" were pretty good for me and Charlie. Embry had an appetite no matter what I was cooking, so I didn't think any of the food would be hanging around as leftovers.

I heard the police cruiser arrive at the same time as the motorcycle. Dad never knew the bike was mine; he thought it was Embry's and we'd never enlightened him. A smile tugged at my lips as I smoothed my long-sleeved green knit shirt, making sure the sleeves were down. I hurried to wait by the front door, ready to open it when Embry and my dad reached the porch.

But they weren't coming!

Instead, I saw my dad and my – my werewolf? boyfriend? guy? – talking on the driveway. And – I saw my surprise. A motorcycle helmet! Red, like my bike, Embry was holding it up to show Charlie.

I expected Charlie to turn purple and stomp away, so I held myself tensely by the door. Was he going to bar Embry from the house? He couldn't! That would be a nightmare for real. For Embry and for me. My mouth went dry and my heart thudded loudly in my chest. So loudly that I swear Embry heard it. He shot a quick, concerned glance to the window where I was hiding, anyway. Drat those supernatural beings and their supernatural hearing!

Charlie took the helmet from Embry's loose grip. He didn't throw it across the yard, though. Instead, he seemed to balance it in his hands and inspect it. I saw him nod – my dad, the chief of police, nodded at a motorcycle helmet – before handing it back to Embry. There was some more conversation. A few more nods. Embry flashed my dad a broad, white grin before the pair of them shook hands and turned to – finally! – come in the house.

About time, too. My tacos were getting cold.

"Hey, Bells," Charlie said tossing a significant look up at Embry. Then, he inhaled and sighed with satisfaction. "Ah, tacos. Good. Hungry, Embry?"

Embry blinked. "Yes, sir. I am."

"Dad, we'll be in in a sec, okay?" I eyed the helmet with a lifted brow. "Give us a minute?"

"Yep. I'm gonna go wash up."

His footsteps clumped heavily up the stairs. Embry winced a little and held up the fire engine red helmet. "Surprise?"

I had to chuckle a little. "Um, kinda? Actually the real surprise, Em, is that my dad didn't take the helmet and find a new home for it, you know?"

He laughed out loud. A big, deep laugh that lightened my heart. It really did. "It gets better," he said after he had caught his breath and put an arm around me – really casually, so I almost didn't notice.

Almost.

"You got me a motorcycle helmet and it gets better?" I was wondering if it was as I hoped it might be. If we could go riding together like we had to the bonfire. If Charlie was really not going to commit murder if Embry took me on the bike.

He set it on the kitchen counter. I picked it up, my dinner preparations cooling without my oversight. "It's a beautiful color, Em," I murmured. He had found me a helmet. He had braved Charlie, too.

"He said we could ride, so long as I'm driving, and you're wearing this," Embry said softly. "I remembered – I remembered that you liked to ride before, and you seemed to like it on the way to the bonfire..."

"I did!" I assured him with a blushing look into his dark, liquid eyes.

He gave me a delighted grin. A grin that sharpened his cheekbones, brightened his gaze and parted his lips in pleasure. It was an expression I knew right then I wanted to see again. "So you like your surprise?"

I chuckled and nudged him with my shoulder. "Yeah, you win. You got me a surprise I'm happy about, okay?"

He drew his fingers through my hair in a slow pass of his hand. "Good. That's all I wanted."

Charlie reappeared and we all began a small assembly line to put our tacos together. Dad lay down the law to me about the bike and the helmet. Embry assured him of my safety and of his, Embry's, insistence in my wearing a leather jacket when we go riding.

With a reluctant smile that did in fact reach his eyes, Charlie shooed us out of the house after every single taco shell had been eaten. "Go on. Get out of here. I'll clean up. It's still light outside, but I want you home before it gets too dark," he said with a mostly-feigned scowl at Embry.

"Yes, sir. We won't go far," my werewolf said. He was mine, after all. Emily had said as much.

It was a strange thing, the imprint, but I trusted it. I trusted it more every week, this feeling of permanence that Embry brought to me. It was there in the flashes of awe that I sometimes caught in his eyes. It was there in that worrisome thirty-hour sanity limit that we both preserved with care. Oddly enough, I felt it in his quiet. He just understood things. Like when to tease me and when to just say, "Okay."

And here at the end of May, when the sky melted in shades of orange and purple at twilight – a time that would always remind me of Edward, I was sure, until the end of my life – I made new memories with another supernatural man. Twilight became the time of leather and speed, and the scents of pine and soap and wind. It was our time, Embry's and mine.

"You all right back there?" he called over his shoulder at the traffic light. One warm hand rubbed my cold ones as they gripped him around the waist.

I told him I was, tightening my grip on him through my arms and legs. I could feel his chuckle through his back. "Here we go," he said in warning as the light changed.

He took off a bit fast, making me squeal. As we moved forward, I saw some surprised looks from folks on the sidewalk. Lauren, Jessica, Mike and Tyler were out for the evening, apparently. They stared at Embry and me as we roared away.

~*~*~

On Monday… Moment 8: First Kiss