Hope all is good with everyone. Here's a short chapter for everyone. I have Survey of Art homework over the weekend so probably won't work on this til midweek again. Again, I own none of these characters of course that lucky woman SM does.
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Chapter 10 – And then there were three

The next few weeks went by very quickly, Phil & Renee set a date and I told her I really thought that they should go to Florida alone. "It could be sort of a honeymoon." Smiling at her, because she was glowing. Inside knowing that if they did, then I could leave for Forks early. I'd wait and talk to Charlie about staying there permanently once I got there.

"Are you sure, I know you were looking forward to Florida just as much as we are." She asked me. Shaking my head I attempted to make her really understand that it was ok.

So this is how I found myself on a plane to Forks, two weeks early!

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His eyes blinked heavily at me and the corner of his mouth turned up into a smile. "Bella, what took you so long?" I stretched and found myself pulled from my dream and suddenly wide awake.

I rolled over in my bed and thought about what Jake had happened when I surprised him in the garage yesterday. My flight had been early and since Charlie had already made plans to have dinner with Billy and Jacob we headed straight to their house from the airport.

Charlie put the car into park and it was all I could do to not bolt from the car and run to find him. I took a deep breath and smiled over at Charlie. "It really is good to be home." He smiled back at me and replied. "It's good to have you home Bells."

Looking up I saw Billy sitting on the side porch, he waived at me as I climbed out of the car. Walking towards him I was smiling from ear to ear, he looked good and I reached out and gave him a hug. He whispered to me. "He's in the garage, why don't you go surprise him." As I pulled away he gave me a wink and have a nod towards the small garage that stood behind their house.

"Ok, did he get the Rabbit?" I asked. Billy nodded and said that they'd had it towed over a week or so ago and ever since, he'd seen very little of Jacob, as it had become his new obsession.

I waved to them as I started off to the garage and shuffled my feet along the gravel. Why was I so nervous, my stomach was full of fluttering butterflies. Walking up to the door I stopped and held my breath. He had his back to me and I watched for a few minutes as he bent over the engine compartment of the small car. Tools were spread out along the fenders and the hood stood propped up against one of the walls of the small building. There was something about watching a guy work, and the smell of the grease and oil that was a combination I'd not forget and would always stir something in my gut.

"Jake." I said lightly with a smile. He spun around and looked at me. The face of the little boy that I grew up with had been exchanged by the face of the young man that I saw as my future. He covered the ground between us in a matter of a few strides and swept me up into a bone shattering hug. Sitting me on the ground, I looked up at him and saw all the changes that had occurred in him in the six months since we'd seen each other. I smiled as he tilted my head up to meet his gaze and fireworks erupted in my amdomen when he leaned down to my face. "Is it ok…" he asked. I nodded and he covered my lips with his. The warmth from him invaded every inch of me and I hugged him even tighter suddenly feeling like I was really home.

I he took a half step back from me and then I heard the reason why. From behind us I heard her before I saw her.

"Hey Jake, I got one of each, I didn't know which you'd want…." The girls voice stopped suddenly. As I looked at him, he looked past me and towards the door. I slowly turned around and saw her.

She was a young Quileute girl. Looking to be about our age, and she had a somewhat shocked expression on her face. She was holding two soda's and seemed frozen to the spot where she stood. Looking at her and then at Jacob it felt like a bold of lightening had struck me, I felt awkward and out of place.

After longer the it really had been Jacob looked at me and introduced me. "Bella, this is Andi, Andi this is Bella." His voice seemed strained a little which made me feel even more uncomfortable.

Andi took a step towards us and put one of the sodas in between her forearm and her body so she could hold both and held out her now free hand. "Bella? Nice to meet you, Jacob said you'd be coming to visit again this summer." I didn't want her to smile at me, I wanted to know who she was and why she was here. Stepping away from Jake I reached out and took the soda out of her hand, I didn't want to shake her hand.

"Jacob prefers cola's." I turned and handed the soda to Jake and looked pointed at him. His face gave me a kurt grin and he said thanks. Andi took her extended hand back and looked up and Jacob as well.

"Well, Jacob, I guess I'm going to head home. I'll see you tomorrow?" She said. He nodded but didn't say anything and she picked up a hoodie I hadn't noticed and turned and left the garage. After she'd left, I heard her shout a goodbye to Billy. It was obvious to me that she felt quite at home and that made me feel quite uncomfortable.

I tried to shake the meeting off and walked over the vehicle that he'd been working on. "So this is the girl that I need to fight for your attention with?" I said.

"What? Bells, she's just a daughter of a friend of my dad's…she's been hanging out since school got out, there's really nothing going on." His voice was higher then normal and he was stammering his words a bit.

I could feel him standing closely behind me and I turned to face him. "Um, Jake I was talking about the car." Looking in to his eyes, I saw an unsteady reflection looking back at me.

For a while after that he changed the subject, he took my hand and walked me around the car, showing me the strengths of the car and telling me the history of the make and model. Listening to the enthusiasm about what he could turn it into made me feel good, but I also knew that he probably had already shared all these plans with Andi and knowing that took a little of the excitement out of it for me. I heard Charlie call out to us and pulled my hand out of Jakes and started for the door.

"I'm sure they are ready to go and eat. We'd better get going so that you can get cleaned up." I didn't wait for his response or for him to join me just headed out of the garage and to the house.

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"So, Bella, you met Andi." Billy asked me as I was pushing the fish around my plate. I'd suddenly lost my appetite even though I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast before my flight.

Looking up from my plate, I forced a smile. "Yes, Jacob introduced me." I said and then returned my eyes to my plate.

"I'm surprised she didn't stay for dinner, Jacob. She really likes my fish fry." Billy said and this earned no response from Jake. My head hurt, apparently she'd not only been hanging out with Jake for a while, she'd taken to having dinner with him and his family as well.

Charlie broke the silence that had come over the table. "So how's the wedding plans going Billy?"

"Good, Rebecca is getting really excited, it's not too much longer now." Billy answered. "She's picked out all the particulars, and things are running like a well oiled machine." "You two are coming right." He asked first looking at Charlie and then moving his glance to me.

"We wouldn't miss it, Billy." Charlie answered for both of us.

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After dinner, Rachel came home from work. She gave me a big warm hug when she saw that I was in the kitchen doing the dishes. "So! I bet your glad to be back." She asked with a big knowing smile on her face. I pulled back from her and her face dropped. "What's wrong, what did my brother do already?"

"Nothing, he didn't do anything." I went back to the dishes.

"Wait a minute, you've not been back for what six months…you should be floating on a cloud and you are in here doing dishes instead of well, wherever my brother is right now." She looked around and yes, no Jacob to be seen.

"He said he wanted to get some tools put away before it got too late." I said. "I don't mind cleaning up, your dad did all the cooking." I peeked up at her. She grabbed the dish towel laying next to sink and started taking dishes out of the rinse water side of the sink. Then she shoved my shoulder with hers.

"So, I'm assuming "she" was here when you got here." She smiled over at me. "Bella, I've watched Jacob pine for you since your plane left in January." She grabbed another wet plate from the water and started drying it. "Dad's worried that he's not being a normal boy and started this whole thing. His friend moved back to the reservation a few months ago and dad asking Jacob to show Andi around, introduce her to some of the local kids." She put the plate into the cabinet and grabbed a glass from the water. "If he'd been aware of what I'm aware of, he'd never have done it."

I looked over at her and she gave me a quick grin. "There's really nothing to be worried about Bella, Jacob said that you thought it was time to break the news to Dad and Charlie." I nodded, wishing that we'd done it in January. "So, then, after everything is out in the open, Dad won't push the issue. He loves you as much as he loves any of his kids. He'd never do anything to intentionally hurt you, you must know that." I nodded my head again. I knew that Billy liked me, but I also knew that the Quileute tribe was close and there weren't many 100% true Quileute members left. Of course if Billy had his way he'd have his one and only son marry from the tribe right. I knew that this was a long time away, but blood ties are strong and breaking tradition I knew wasn't something that was easy for any of the kids to do.

After we finished the dishes, Rachel took me in her room and showed me her bridesmaid dress for the wedding. It as very pretty, a light shade of an almost sunset orange. The color complemented Rachel's skin tone perfectly. "We've all got the same color dresses but the styles are a bit different. Since there is some age variance of course. Jacob's tie is made from the same material, just wait he'd going to look dashing." She grinned at me and winked.

"Maybe we can go up to Port Angeles one afternoon and look at dresses." I asked. Having not really given a lot of thought to Rebecca's wedding I didn't think I'd have anything appropriate to wear.

"That sounds good Bella, I think I can get away sometime early next week, before we know it the date will be here." She reached out and hugged me unexpectedly.

"Look at you, you are growing up so fast." I blinked my eyes and saw Mrs. Black. "Renee, can you believe the kids are starting school?" She turned to Renee and she was shaking her head in response. "Before we know it the kids will be getting married." Jacob's mom said. I looked up at Renee's face and she was grinning and looking off at something in the distance. Following her gaze I saw him. My Jacob. He was following Charlie and Uncle Billy across the backyard and dragging a stick along the dirt.

"Have I ever shown you this?" Jacob's mom said. I shook my head and Renee came up closer to us. She opened her hand and inside laid a delicate pin. It was made up of tiny little blue flower with small yellow, white and black details. Reaching towards it I saw how small my hands were. "One day Bella, you'll wear this, it can be your something borrowed, something blue and something old."

"We're still looking for something borrowed, something old and something blue though." Rachel said. I looked up at her out of my fog.

"Are you listening?" She asked.

"Uh, yea… I was just remembering something your mom once showed me." We never really talked about their mother too much and I didn't know how it would be received me mentioning her.

"Really…maybe we can take a peek in her old jewelry box." "I guess there could be something in there, Dad's kind of particular about us looking at things but he shouldn't mind." Rachel was smiling at me, and I knew that it was ok that I'd mentioned it.

Just then Charlie poked his head into her room. "Sorry to break up the party girls, but it's getting late, we'd better get home now." I shook my head and gave Rachel a quick hug and reminded her of the trip we'd need to make. In the living room I looked around and still no Jacob. Bending down I gave Billy a hug and he grabbed my hand. "It's good to have you back Bella, don't be a stranger." His big infectious Black smile beamed up at me.

I wondered if I should go find Jacob and say goodbye. The light was still shining in the garage and just as I was about to say something to Charlie I saw Jacob come to the doorway. Lifting my hand up to wave, I saw him start to sprint towards us. My heart fluttered, how did he have this control over my heart I questioned myself.

Charlie got in the car and started it, and Jacob came to stand beside me on the passengers side. "Bella, I'm so sorry, I got distracted out there." He smiled down at me wiping his hands on a shop towel. "You aren't mad are you?" Squinting at me a little and added a bit of a worried smile.

Focusing then on my feet I said. "Course not, I know your excited about the Rabbit."

He smiled a little and looked into the open door of the car at Charlie. "Charlie, do you think it would be ok, if I came by the house to visit Bella in the morning?" Charlie grinned and shook his head yes and Jacob straightened back up and looked at me. "Is it ok with you Bella, that I come by…maybe we can watch a movie or something." He flashed me the "Black signature smile" and added a wink.

"That would be good…" I replied. "Why don't you give us a call when you are on your way."

"Will do." It'll probably be around 10'ish, I'll have Rachel drop me off on her way into work. With that, he took a step closer to me and drew me into my his arms. I felt the warmth of him fill me and I felt his breath on the side of my neck as his whispered. "Bella's I'm so glad your back. We'll talk in the morning, ok."

I pulled back a bit and said loud enough for Charlie to hear. "See you in the morning Jake."