It was finally time for Jacob and I to go visit my Mom in Florida and boy did I welcome the break. Things were getting a little too heavy for me here and the break was just what I needed.

"I assume you'll call when you land." Charlie scratched his neck, assuming the role of 'father' once again.

"Yeah, sure."

I hugged him goodbye and turned to go through security, as I removed my shoes I noticed that Jacob was no where to be seen. I continued through security alone and was putting my shoes on when I saw him toss a brown bag into the trash and put his shoes in the gray bin. He looked visibly upset about something, I made a mental note to ask him about that later.

When Jake sat down on the bench next to me to put his shoes back on he grumbled, "Dude needs to relax."

"Who?" I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

"Hm? Oh, Charlie."

"What? Why?" I mean the question itself was silly, Charlie did need to chill out about a lot of things. But why would Jake think that?

"Never mind. Ready to go?"

I nodded and we headed towards our gate. The airport was packed today, probably all the Spring Breakers headed out. We located our gate, G4 and sat down in nearby chairs facing the run way.

"You excited to leave?" I asked him, I was worried about his wolf gene in new territory. Though he had assured me he would be fine.

"Yeah! I've never been out of Forks. Thanks for bringing me along, I'll try to be good." He winked at me and I stuck my tongue out. I don't know why I resembled a 16 year old every time I was around him, but it was nice.

"You want anything? I'm making a drink run." Jake offered, "My treat."

"Ahh, surprise me."

"Sure, Sure. Be right back."

My heart was pounding and I closed my eyes trying to calm it. What was with me lately? I was trying to act as normal as possible around Jacob, was I failing miserably? I scanned the airport, people watching something I enjoyed doing. So many different cultures and differences. I spotted a young couple probably my age, cuddling with each other and sharing ear buds on his Ipod. I wanted that, I wanted to be that girl who had the boyfriend and could hold his hand out in public. Stop it! No. I was not going to date Jacob, No. Jacob, where was he anyways.

I located him outside of the Starbucks, chatting with a pretty brunette. I watched her flirt with him mercilessly for about 5 minutes while he waited on our drinks. He kept backing away from her touch, which surprised me. She was very attractive and was not giving up on him that easily, very stubborn. Though he was used to head-strong women, I was his best friend and I was the most stubborn of them all. She wrote down her number and slipped it in the pocket of his plaid shirt, heading towards her gate. Who hits on someone in an Airport?

He shook his head, fished the number from his pocket and crumpled it, tossing it in the trash and grabbed our drinks in one swift movement.

"Mocha Frap for the lady." He knew me so well, dammit.

"Thanks Jake." I took a sip, I did love a good cup of coffee.

"Your welcome."

We sat chatting for about 15 minutes before we began to board the plane, we were near the back and that was fine with me. I didn't care for planes very much and the closer I was to an exit the better off I'd be.

"Hey, I'll take the window seat. Don't want you getting sick on me." He knew me better than I knew myself sometimes.

I smiled and switched him places and we buckled up for the long 8 hour plane ride.

Take off was brutal, I bit my lip and clenched my eyes shut. I felt Jake pry my hand off the arm rest and put his hand in mine so I clenched that instead. I didn't let go of his hand for most of the flight either, which I am sure he was fine with.

After a while we tried watching TV.

"Would you quit changing the channel?" I flicked a cracker at his head and laughed as he pulled it from his shaggy hair. He had let it grow out again when he knew we would be coming, I had missed his long silky locks almost as much as he had.

"You are such a brat!" He laughed, popping it into his mouth. "I didn't like that one. Why can't we agree on a show?"

"Uhm, because you are a guy and I'm a girl." I gave him a 'DUH' look and laughed as he shook his head.

"Well damn." He finally stopped on a cooking show, our happy medium. I loved to cook and he loved to eat. "There, now hush."

I laughed and he squeezed my hand in the sweetest, 'im sorry' gesture. I looked at his face and felt my heart just open up, I felt the urge to kiss him and I shoved a cracker in my mouth.

"Uh, You okay Bells?"

I nodded, mouth full of cracker, releasing his hand and busying it with a magazine.

Landing was the same, hands intertwined and my heart beating out of my chest, once we landed though I released it and swore to myself I wouldn't touch him again until our next take off.

Mom greeted us warmly and hugged Jacob which was funny. "I am so happy to see you both, how was the flight?"

Jacob opened his mouth and I shut it, "It was fine. Really." I smiled at him as we headed towards the car.

Mom gave me a room that had a beautiful ocean-view balcony, I pushed it open and let in all the fresh air while I checked out the room. From the Queen sized bed adorned in little lilies you could over look the ocean shore for miles. I wouldn't mind waking up to this every morning, that's for sure. The room had photos of me up in it on the walls and all of my things from Arizona were in boxes in the closet. Some of my High School stuff was on my dresser with old jewelry and photos of friends.

There was an in-suite bathroom and I walked in to find Jacob buttoning his pants. "Oh my god." I covered my face and backed into the wall.

"Sorry." Jake mumbled.

"Ag, doors lock." I mumbled incoherently. When I pulled my hand from my face he had left and shut his door to the bathroom. Apparently we were sharing one, great. It would be easier than him jumping up the side of the house, but did little to keep my feelings at bay.

I knocked lightly on the door and he opened it, revealing a similar room but without the balcony. It was a light pink color with sage green accents throughout it. Here he was, this huge, masculine looking guy in a room that was fit for a princess.

"So pretty!" I nodded towards the bedroom and he shot me a warning look. I laughed and went back to my room to put my stuff away.

After dinner Mom pulled us into the family room for a family meeting, I knew this wasn't going to be a top ten moment for me.

"You guys like your rooms?" Mom smiled that warm smile that crinkled her nose because it was so big.

"Yes, they are beautiful Mom. Did you decorate them?"

"Yes! Oh I just love your room Jacob. I read on your balcony at night Bella. That is your bedroom if you hadn't noticed. If you go to school down here you could re-decorate it too!" She sipped her wine while smiling at Jacob.

"Thanks Mom." I knew she was set on having me move to Florida now that I was out of High School. But there were ties in Forks, ties that even I didn't fully explore yet. Not to mention Phils schedule was still crazy and Mom was gone a lot. I couldn't leave Charlie either, who'd feed him?

"No problem kiddo. So, house rules real quick."

"Unfortunately Phil has a lot of things that have popped up this week, I'm going to miss two of his games while you are here. But I want to show you around town, so we'll sit down and have a meeting about what you'd like to do tomorrow." Mom and her schedules, Charlie was the total opposite.

"So, obviously no parties or drinking. Bella knows a majority of my rules, she can fill you in on those. However, having Jacob here is a little different and I ask that doors stay open." She smiled, almost as though she was asking permission. "Just to throw it out there I mean. We will have plenty of time to catch up!"

"Nothing to worry about Renee. We will be on our best behavior." Jacob soothed, I blushed involuntarily.

"Thanks." She stood up, smoothing out her skirt. "I have to go to a meeting, but I'll be back around 10 or so. So sorry to leave you guys! We'll catch up. Money on the table, keys are by the garage door. Feel free to take the BMW, just be careful!"

Later...

Jake and I went for a walk to the boardwalk and chatted. "Sorry about earlier." Jake kicked a stick and shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Huh?"

"The bathroom. I'm used to it being me and Dad, I'll try to remember next time."

"Oh." I blushed so hard I felt the heat radiate from my skin.

Jake must have seen me blush so he changed the topic to playing a game of beach volleyball. I argued with him that I was no good at sports, to which he replied 'you need to do things that scare you, it's vacation!'

"Heads up!" Jacob spiked the ball, barely missing my face.

"Oh damn, you weren't kidding." Jacob ran over and picked up the ball. "I like your face the way it is, let's do something else." He laughed and chucked the ball. "Oooh, how about we go out on a boat!"

He reminded me of a kid inside a candy store, everything new and exciting to him. It felt right that I brought Jacob along with me on this trip. He'd gone through so much and then you add on the change of finding out you aren't fully a human. He deserved a little time to be a 17 year old boy, see what life had to offer.

We ended up renting a boat and he took control of it after I nearly crashed leaving the boat rental dock.

"Oh god Bella. You really are something." He laughed, rubbing my back.

"I was born a clutz, what can I say?" I moved to the far side of the boat, facing him. "It's not like you've never messed up on something."

"Oh, I'm perfect." His teeth were. So was his tan, his eyes and his laugh. The way he'd cock his head to the right when he'd look at me underneath his hair. Stop!

"Whatever you say."

"On a serious note, can I ask you something?" His voice had changed, he was hesitant but determined.

"Sure."

"Did you and Edward ever...You know." He avoided my gaze and maneuvered the boat effortlessly through some lily pads.

I was caught off guard, unsure of what his implication was and why he was asking. "Uhm?"

Still looking ahead he mumbled, raising his eyebrows to emphasize, "Y'know"

My heart was pounding, but for once it wasn't out of fear from being in harms way. I was safe, I was protected and my god I was falling for him.

"No." I answered, fidgeting with my shorts. "Why?"

He didn't answer for a while, he finally killed the motor and looked up at me. "You know I care about you, right?"

"Yeah."

"I wanted to know how in love you were with him. How far you went." His sudden curiosity in my sex life was shocking and appealing to me at the same time.

"Kind of like my curiosity about you imprinting on someone?"

"Yeah," He smiled warmly at me, "Exactly."

"I thought I loved him. I was going to marry him and make sacrifices beyond my comprehension Jake."

"When did you know you didn't love him and the choices you made were wrong?"

"When you kissed me." I said shyly, "I knew I could never kiss him like that, unless I let him kill me. I'd have to give up all of my friends, family. And you. I'd be in pain and eternally frozen in time." I forced my eyes shut, the memories of us flooded my brain.

"Bella, you are the most amazing girl I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. If someone cannot see that, they aren't worth your time."

"Thanks Jake." I smiled up at him and he cocked his head to the side, staring at me with big brown eyes.

"What do you want from life Bells?"

"I don't know how to answer that." I untangled my shoe from the fishing net and sighed. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, anything." He nodded.

"What was in the brown paper bag you threw away?"

He looked out over the water and pursed his lips. "Ah, you saw that?"

"Yeah, you acted funny. Did Charlie give it to you?"

He simply nodded.

"Well?"

"Ah, I don't think it matters really."

"It does, I am curious." I egged him on.

"No it doesn't, I threw it away because they wouldn't be used." He blushed and brought the boat back to life.

"Jake, please tell me he didn't..." Condoms? Charlie was incapable of being normal for 5 seconds!

He laughed, "I was taught not to lie."

"Oh my god. I'm so...he's..."

He cut me off, "It's fine, really. He's just looking out for his daughter."

By giving my best friend condoms? Well, to be fair he had caught us kissing and was probably suspicious of us going together. I still couldn't believe this, the thought of Jake and I...no. I wouldn't go there.

"I got your birthday present already," He said, lightening the mood. "I know you are going to be so excited too."

"Since when did you get so cocky about gifts?"

"Since you have loved everything I've given you, who knows I may even get a kiss out of it."

I shook my head and laughed, he was stubborn that was for sure.