Jacob Moves In
Disclaimer; all characters and copyright belong to SM.
A/N-thank you for the kind reviews and for following this story!
Chapter Fourteen
The smells wafting from the kitchen were extremely unpleasant. As soon as Jacob and Bella let themselves into the house they began to cough. Bella's eyes began to water. Jacob was trying to hold his breath, but ended up gagging. They fled back outside, gasping in relief as the fresh air hit their faces.
"What is that?" Jacob wrinkled his nose in disgust. "It smells like one of those stink bombs Quil let off in the science lab once."
Bella wiped her streaming eyes with the back of her hands. She coughed again as she tried to draw too much air into her lungs at once. It took her a few moments to regain the ability to speak. "Its mom." She gasped.
"What?" Jacob looked back at the house in alarm. "Should I go back inside and rescue her or something."
Bella tried not to laugh at the shocked expression on his face. "No...what I mean is mom's experimenting again."
"With what?" Jacob was completely confused. Charlie was going to pitch a fit when he came home from work to find his house being used as a science lab.
"Cooking." Bella couldn't hide her smile anymore at the horrified look in Jacob's eyes. He looked absolutely terrified.
"No way is she cooking in there, Bells. Whatever she's rustling up could kill a normal human being." Jacob pretended to shudder.
"You're not a normal human being." Bella teased him. She couldn't stop laughing. She reached out and patted his taut stomach. "I'm sure your wolf belly can handle it. You're a quick healer, right."
"Ugh...are you serious. That would end even me." Jacob shuddered again. "I like your mom and everything, Bells. But I've heard the horror stories Charlie used to tell about her cooking. He's still traumatised by it all. I can see why now."
"Why do you think I always used to do the cooking when I was living with Renee." Bella gazed at the house. She was going to have to be brave and go inside. She needed to go in and put a stop to whatever disaster that her mother was concocting. She couldn't understood what had motivated Renee to even attempt it. "I better head in."
"Well at least I'm not the only one who isn't domestically challenged." Jacob said dubiously. "Are you sure you want to risk going in?"
Bella began to pull her shirt off. She giggled when Jacob's eyes widened in shock. He was looking at her like she was about to do a striptease in the middle of the street. "Chill, wolf boy. I have a tank top underneath."
Jacob felt his skin heat up. He was glad his tan skin hid his blushes. "I knew that." He tried to act nonchalant but failed. "I told you that you were brave."
"Or stupid in this case." Bella folded up her shirt and then covered her mouth and nose with it to stop the suffocating fumes from choking her again. "Here I go." Her voice was muffled. She glanced at Jacob one last time. "You could come with me."
"Not this time, sister. You are on your own." Jacob said with a grin.
Bella's eyes were streaming so badly she could hardly see. She ran blindly into the kitchen calling Renee's name. She found her mother standing over the stove, panicking. Several saucepans were on the burners, their contents bubbling alarmingly. Bella coughed as she went straight to the window and pushed it open. Fresh air streamed in and she sighed in relief.
"Oh, baby, I don't know what happened." Renee cried when she saw her daughter. Her hands fluttered in front of her face as she watched Bella haul the saucepans off the burners one by one. Then she switched them off. "I was doing so well, too." She lamented as the contents began to curdle.
Bella dabbed at her face with her shirt and breathed in deeply. Renee's face was a vibrant shade of red from where she had been hovering over the steaming pans. Her hair was wet with sweat. Fine tendrils hung around her heart shaped face. She looked completely crushed that her experiment had failed. Bella was used to dealing with the aftermath of her mother's enthusiastic attempts to be a domestic goddess. She gently guided Renee to a chair and helped her to sit down.
"I just wanted to surprise you all, baby." Renee said glumly. "I noticed that Charlie seems to have an abundance of fish in the freezer so I thought I could make use of them. I was trying to replicate your grandmother's special sauce. The first four attempts failed but I was sure that last batch I whipped up was near perfect."
"Oh, mom." Bella put her hand over Renee's and squeezed. "You should have asked me for help. We could have done it together." She winced when she glanced at the ruined stove and the dripping walls. This was even worse than when Jacob tried to cook. Some of the wallpaper was already peeling off and there were black spots on the ceiling. She noticed the mangled smoke alarm. It must have gone off and Renee had tried to disable it.
"I told you I wanted this to be a special surprise, baby. You were so distressed this morning when I dropped you off at school because of that creepy ex of yours." Renee babbled. "By the way I totally sorted that out for you. He won't be bothering you again. You can go to your classes in peace."
"Huh?" Bella got lost in this mire of information.
"I hope the principal kept his word." Renee gazed at Bella innocently. "He wasn't in your classes today was he, baby."
"Oh...I kinda ditched school today." Bella admitted. She felt her heart clinch in her chest. Edward had been calling her constantly all day but she had ignored him as she spent time with Jacob on the beach. This was all such a mess. What had Renee done?
"You never went to school?" Renee gasped. She cupped Bella's face in her hands and looked at her intently. "I wish you had told me you were feeling that bad, baby."
"Mom, I think you've got things confused..." Bella began.
"Is everything alright in here?" Jacob startled them both with his sudden appearance.
"Wow, you can move silently for such a built guy." Renee put her hand over her palpitating heart.
"Sorry." Jacob apologised. He shrugged helplessly when Bella rolled her eyes at him. He was so used to not making any noise when he moved that he had forgotten to make his presence known. He took a moment to look around the kitchen and his eyes widened before meeting Bella's knowing gaze. Charlie was going to lose it when he saw the state of the place. "I suppose you could always blame me." He offered.
"Aww...you are such a sweetheart but I can't let you take the blame." Renee gushed as she stood and reached up to pinch his cheeks as if he was a five year old. "He's too cute, baby. Isn't he cute?" She turned to look at her daughter.
"Yeah, very cute." Bella drawled sarcastically. "We need to find a way to break the news to dad that the kitchen needs to be redecorated...again."
"Don't you worry about Charlie, baby. I'm in his good books at the moment. I'll smooth things over." Renee patted Bella's hand reassuringly. "He can be a grumpy bear sometimes, but I can handle him."
Bella groaned in disbelief. Renee could be so clueless at times. There was no way Charlie was just going to roll over and accept this, especially after forking out all that money on the prank chair and the new recliner taking pride of place in the lounge. She had planned to fess up to her father today about the prank they had played on him, and that the original recliner he had purchased was still sitting in Sam Uley's back yard. But after this latest disaster there was no way she could tell Charlie now. That would definitely push him over the edge.
The first suitcase sailed out of the window and onto the front drive. It was soon followed by a second. Bella and Jacob winced at the sound of raised vices coming from inside. Despite Renee's confidence that she could handle Chief Krabbs at his worst, things had gone south as soon as he saw the wrecked kitchen and calculated how much it was going to cost him to put it right. A third suitcase hung precariously out of the window as Charlie tried to push it outside with the others and Renee wrestled with him to pull it back inside.
"Should we go up there and intervene?" Jacob whispered to Bella. The olds antics were beginning to attract an audience. The locals were coming out of their houses and looking at the Swan house with interest. It was well known that the police chief lived there. A few pulled out their cell phones and began to take pictures.
"No, leave them to it." Bella said irritably. She was so embarrassed by her parents theatrics. They were unbelievable, acting like squabbling children. "Come on, I'll shout you dinner at the diner."
"Are you sure?" Jacob checked as he walked beside her in the direction of the diner. "I mean I don't mind going in there to try and talk them down."
Bella's face was grim. She shook her head. "No, let them be. If they want to air their drama so all of Forks can see then that's their problem."
Jacob could tell Bella was hurt. He wondered if it brought back painful memories of her parents split. She had been very young when it happened, but it still must have an effect on her. He put his arm around her slim shoulders and drew her protectively into his side. "It's gonna be alright, Bells. I promise."
"You are going over the top, Charlie." Renee yelled at him as she managed to rescue one of her suitcases. Her clothes littered the bed where he had pulled them out of the wardrobe.
"Over the top?" Charlie ranted. He stopped momentarily to glare at his ex-wife. "I have only just started. You cause chaos wherever you go, Ren. I have had enough."
"It's just cosmetic damage." Renee's eyes filled with tears. "It can be fixed."
"This is more than that." Charlie snapped. "I work damn hard to keep this place presentable and to put food on the table and give our daughter a home. Hell, I'm even still paying alimony to you even though you have remarried now. You are Bella's mom and I know that boy you married doesn't earn enough to keep you. So I continue to pay, for our daughter's sake, not yours. Then you come in here uninvited and turn my house upside down in the process as well as my life." Charlie began to stuff Renee's belongings into one of the empty suitcases. "I've been very tolerant since you rocked up here but now I've reached my limit. Go home to your husband, Ren. Just go h..." He stopped talking when he came across some familiar looking papers amongst his ex-wife's personal items. He stared at them in disbelief, before glancing at her red face. "These are divorce papers."
Renee's lower lip wobbled as she stared at the crumpled paperwork in Charlie's hands. "So now you know." She gasped painfully.
"Shit...so now I know." Charlie's anger dissipated as he sank onto his bed and stared at the paperwork again. "Phil's divorcing you."
Renee had gone to bed early. She was too upset to face anyone. Charlie had silently rescued her suitcases from the front drive and brought them back inside. He was now sitting at the kitchen table with Bella and Jacob, filling them in on what had happened. "Phil has met someone closer to his own age. It came out of the blue according to your mother. He just came in one day and presented her with the divorce papers and told her that he was leaving."
"Oh my god." Bella was totally shocked. She had always liked Phil despite the age gap between him and Renee. She couldn't believe that her young stepfather could be so cold. He had always seemed besotted with her mother. "Mom must be devastated. Why didn't she say anything?"
"She was too upset and embarrassed. I got the sense she's been living in denial since it happened." Charlie ran his fingers through his hair restlessly. "I've got to say, kiddo, I'm out of my depth here and don't know what to do."
"Thanks for letting her stay, dad." Bella felt her eyes filling with tears. She didn't know how she was feeling. Part of her couldn't help but be resentful that Renee hadn't come to see her like she had thought, but the other more rational part was full of sorrow for her mother's pain.
"What could I do?" Charlie shrugged. "She's lost everything. She has no money and nowhere else to go."
Bella licked her lips to moisten them. Everything was a mess. She felt Jacob's hand reach for hers under the table. He curled his fingers around hers and held on tight. Bella turned to face him and tried to put on a brave smile. She was so grateful that he was there. She knew she would have felt much more overwhelmed without his solid presence beside her.
A/N-thanks for reading!