Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize! Song credit to The Ready Set
Thanks to those of you who reviewed. The story is definitely winding down as this is the second to last chapter…unless I have some breakthrough (which I doubt will happen). Thanks again, hope you enjoy!
"'Cause I got some intuition
Or maybe I'm superstitious
But I think you're a pretty sweet pill that I'm swallowing down
To counter this addiction, you've got me on a mission
Tell me darling, can I get a break somehow?
How could I say no?
She's got a love like woe."
Love Like Woe
Ever since Mar had hit the seven month mark I had begun to look around for another place to live. Not that I wanted to be away from Mar and Paul, but with the baby coming I understood that it was going to be their time to be a new family and I didn't want to get in the way of that. However, I fully intended on living somewhere close and visiting a lot.
But finding a place was not as easy as it seemed. Sure there were a few run down houses around where I lived now, but I did not have the time, money, or skill to invest into that. And then there were a few above garage apartments in town. One was horrifying which made sense considering Embry Call had been the last tenant. The other was alright, but definitely not what I wanted to settle for. With the way the hunt was going there was no way I was going to be moved out of there before the baby arrived.
"I want to show you something." Jake said as he strolled into the house like he owned the place.
JB immediately jumped off of my lap and ran to dance around Jake's feet excitedly. The little traitor. Jake sent me a smirk, knowing how I felt about my dog's loyalties.
"I told you already when we were eight, Jake. I don't want to see your weiner." I replied before promptly blushing when I realized that that was no longer an accurate statement. When we were eight the boys had loved nothing more than getting us girls to run away screaming by starting to unzip their pants and asking if we wanted to see their hot dog. However, I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't stick around to see what those cut off jeans were hiding now.
Jake laughed, "Liar. Anyway, it occurred to me that you've never seen where I live."
My brow wrinkled in confusion, "I figured you lived with your Dad, and I've seen that house plenty of times."
Jake shook his head, "I moved out."
"Why wasn't I notified?"
"I did it before you even came back here, doofus." He replied. "But come on, you've got nothing better to do at the moment anyway."
I rolled my eyes, "For all you know I could have been doing something life changing."
"I don't think sitting in your recliner with a dog on your lap talking to yourself can be considered life changing."
"I was not talking to myself!"
"Sure, sure."
I shot him a scowl but gave in to his demands and went to get my shoes. Once I stood up from slipping them on he pressed a soft kiss to my lips, grabbed my hand, and led me outside and into the woods to the left side of the house. I had never been into the main woods, thanks to Buck's constant vigilance, but I knew that on this side of the woods it was safe. Grams' friend had lived there back when we were kids and I remembered visits to her house were the only reason we ever had to be in the woods ever.
Sure enough after a short walk amongst the trees we came to the clearing with the familiar two story house sat. Jake's truck sat in the drive and painted in black lettering on the mailbox was the name 'Black'. He had been my neighbor this whole time and I had been unaware of it?
"You jerk; I can't believe you wouldn't tell me that you were my neighbor."
"It never came up and before I kissed some sense into you I figured it was too dangerous to tell you where I lived."
"Got that right, buddy."
Jake laughed, "Come on, I'll give you a tour."
Thankfully Jake had done a lot of work to the house and it no longer looked like an old lady had thrown up on it. In fact it was actually quite stylish and modern. I figured guys would just paint things blue or green, but the living room was actually a light yellow!
"I see you're surprised by my design skills." Jake said proudly.
"Yeah I am."
"Well I will admit to having some help from Emily, but she can't have all the credit."
The rest of the tour showed that the whole house had been changed. It was amazing what some furniture that wasn't floral and some nice paint colors could do to a place.
"So now that you know where I live-"
"I can come over and steal your food." I finished, scowling as I thought about the entire plate of pecan sandies I had made for Mar's pregnancy cravings. She had not been happy when she discovered the plate empty and powdered sugar on Jake's shirt.
Jake smiled sheepishly, "No, I was thinking more along the lines of…would you like to live here? With me?"
"Honestly… I have no other choice, so yeah."
"Oh, so you're just saying yes because you haven't found anything else?"
"Yeah." I replied keeping a straight face. Jake, however, looked slightly wounded. "Oh quit looking like I kicked a puppy; yeah I want to live with you and not just because it's the only decent place I've seen."
That brightened up his face. And before I knew what was happening he had thrown his arms around me and was swinging me around. After a while I started to get sick and thanked him when he finally set me down on my feet. Then he pulled me in close so our lips could meet.
Of course that was when the phone decided to ring.
"Hello…mmhmm…yeah…OH…okay we'll be there!"
"What was that about?" I asked curiously as Jake hung the phone up.
"Mar's in labor, we've got to go; it's progressing fast."
Xxx
I still couldn't believe Mar actually wanted me in the room while she gave birth to her child. Was I honored? Yes. Was I a little grossed out? Make that a lot grossed out. Was this a good form of birth control? Hell yes. However, I did want to be there with her despite the fact that it was nasty as hell. Paul stood on the other side of her, allowing her to squeeze his hand to death…although I'm sure he barely even felt it.
But it was right for me to be on her other side. Our Mother wasn't around to be with her and if Grams had still been alive she would've been right here by her side cheering her on. Unfortunately, I wasn't the best cheerleader for childbirth. There was the fact that I'd never given birth and then there was the fact that I really didn't know what to say anyway. So I just stood there, stroking her brow and watching the doctors anxiously.
I had left Jake pacing in the hallway and I knew that by now the rest of the pack was probably gathered waiting along with Jake for news.
"Alright, Marilyn the baby is coming now. So I want you to give it all you've got." The doctor finally said.
Thank God, I didn't know how much more of this Mar and I could take. Paul seemed perfectly calm; the bastard. Finally after a few more pushes the sound of cries filled the delivery room immediately bringing tears to all of our eyes.
"Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Noels you have a girl."
Yes! But I wasn't about to announce my personal triumph to the rest of the room. Instead I bent and hugged my sister the best I could as they quickly cleaned up the baby. When they finally brought her, wrapped in a pink blanket, for my sister to take the three of us stared down at her in wonder.
"She's beautiful." Paul whispered.
She really was. Yeah, she clearly showed the trauma she had just gone through, but in our eyes she was perfect.
Mar looked up at me with tears in her eyes, "I want to name her after Grams, is that alright with you?"
"Why wouldn't it be?" I responded as the tears spilled over onto my cheeks. "Grams would be honored."
"Here, why don't you hold her before you go tell everyone the good news?" Mar suggested as she held the baby out for me to take.
I was hesitant at first, but after Jake's instruction with babysitting all those months ago I at least felt like I wouldn't hurt her as I took her into my arms for the first time. Her eyes were closed as I cradled her against my breasts, but when I placed a kissed to her forehead he eyes snapped open and she stared up at me with her large dark eyes.
"You and I are going to have a lot of fun I think." I whispered. "I'm your Aunt Jamie, and I bet you're going to grow up to be just like me…no matter how much it makes your Mommy mad."
"I heard that, Jamie."
Xxx
When I walked into the waiting room full of the members of the pack, they all looked up me anxiously. Jake, however, moved to my side and slid an arm around my waist. I leaned into his form and smiled at the people gathered around me.
"In a few minutes Paul and Mar want you guys to come meet Joanne Jamie Noels."
"I knew it would be a girl!" Kim shouted. "You owe me twenty bucks Jared."
"Hey why didn't anyone tell me they were doing bets?" I cried in outrage.
"Mar would've killed you if she found out you were betting on her kid." Jared replied with a shrug. "And besides I didn't want to be forty bucks down."
While the pack started to talk excitedly amongst themselves Jake leaned down close to my ear. "So there's another JayJay in the family."
I laughed, "Don't you call her that either. And yeah it was Mar's sick way of honoring me. However, the important part is that she has Grams' first name."
"What does she look like?" He asked.
"She's beautiful. And I already know that she's going to grow up to be just like me."
Jake laughed loudly, "If that's true, we better all be prepared."
Xxx
I smiled down at Joanne as both Paul and Jake worked on carrying my boxes outside to load into Jake's truck. She was only a week old and didn't do much but sleep in our arms, but I needed to get in some good quality time before I was officially moved out of the house. Plus I wanted to avoid doing manual labor. Why should I have to lift a box when two extra strong men were around?
"Quit using your niece as an excuse to be lazy!" Jake called from the doorway where he and Paul were navigating my awkward bookcase through the doorway.
"If I remember correctly, you invited me to live with you. Which is completely in sin you know. Grams would have something to say about that I think."
Mar walked into the room then, "Actually Grams probably would have encouraged it at this point."
"Shut up, Marilyn, you aren't helping." I replied.
Mar rolled her eyes at me, "Give me Jo and go hold the door for your boyfriend."
I started a little at the term. Even though that's what Jake and I technically were…it was still odd to hear it come from other people's mouths. The term just didn't seem to fit us…maybe it was because we still spent a large majority of our time arguing back and forth like we did. Like Wendy said…it really was a strange form of foreplay. Anytime either one of us got sick with the argument, it was so easy to just lean over and silence the other with a nice long make out session. And I knew that these would only increase in frequency since we would be living together.
"I'm not a virgin you know." I announced suddenly on our way back to the house in the truck loaded up with all of my stuff.
My comment seemed to come out of nowhere, but after thinking about make out sessions I naturally started to think about what came after that. We had not gotten that far yet, but there's nothing like close proximity to change that…especially since Jake wanted us to share a bed so we could cuddle. Yes…Jake admitted out loud that he wanted to share a bed with me so we could cuddle. But I was sworn to secrecy; he didn't want it getting out that the big bad alpha wanted to cuddle every night.
"You aren't?" Jake asked curiously.
"No. I lost it in undergrad to my boyfriend at the time. I figured I should tell you since we're living together now and might become intimate." Jake blushed at that, but I continued on. "However, he was the only guy I ever had sex with…and it wasn't that great."
"What does that mean?"
"That means he didn't satisfy me. I may have been virginal, but I read books you know."
"Yeah I saw those when you were packing." Jake chuckled.
"Are you a virgin?"
He was quiet a minute before he asked, "What do you think?"
I studied him closely, "I think you are. However, I know your hand is no virgin."
"Jamie Jameson!"
"Oh don't act like some prudish old lady, Jacob Black. I caught you doing that the day before we moved away."
"No you didn't!"
"Well, I didn't let you know that I saw you, dummy! I came to your house; your Dad let me in and said you were in your room. Your door wasn't completely closed all the way so I peaked inside and saw you sitting on the bed taking care of business. Not that you really knew what to do back then…but the intent was the same you dirty little boy."
He remained quiet until we pulled into the driveway and the truck was in park. I was just about to hop out when he spoke.
"You're right, I am a virgin."
"Ha! I knew it!"
"But I bet you twenty bucks that when we are finally intimate you'll forget everything about your first boyfriend and being unsatisfied."
"You're on." I replied as a shiver raced down my spine.
