Once again, I apologise for the long wait. I got completely stomped by the way things developed in this chapter. But I like how it turned out, so I'm not going to complain.

Stephenie Meyer owns the rights to Twilight, its characters, its settings, and all the madness she put them through.

Twenty-one – Bella

I was starting to think it would never happen.

Ever since Edward and Alice had visited almost three weeks ago, ever since that incredible evening Jacob and I had spent touching, for hours and hours, never even getting dressed for dinner, I knew I was ready. Sure, I was still a little shy, a little unsure of myself when I wanted to pleasure Jake, but he was so responsive, it was hard not to feel a boost of confidence in the face of so much… enthusiasm. Besides, I was really starting to enjoy making him lose control…

But because nothing in life was ever easy, any time we managed to spend together lately was inevitably cut short by some sort of crisis or other.

First, the date Jacob had planned for us the last weekend before the full moon was completely ruined by a violent rainstorm. He'd been downright crestfallen about it, confessing to having envisioned a typical picnic-and-sunset-on-the-beach scenario, and I'd blushed bright red, thinking of what the aftermath of such a perfect evening could have been. Jake had stammered a protest about not expecting that from it, making me laugh. I'd assured him that I knew him better than that, but nonetheless… I thought it was time. If anything, he'd seemed even more depressed about the weather after my revelation.

Our schedules had never seemed as incompatible as they did when his patrol shift changed to afternoons and evenings after the full moon. While I worked mornings at the Forum and spent my afternoons half-heartedly looking for a more permanent job in Port Angeles, Jacob got a few hours on the construction site in before patrolling from noon to midnight (the repartition of the wolves' patrol shifts was a mystery to me, really, but I knew better than to question Sam), and succumbed to exhaustion as soon as he made it to bed. More often than not, I'd been too tired myself to wait up for him, and although I still woke up pressed to his warm skin almost every morning, his hands usually having found their way beneath the few clothes I still bothered going to bed in (making me hot in more ways than one), we hadn't managed to get more than a few gropes and some kissing in for the past seventeen days and counting. Even on weekends, there was always something preventing us from spending the morning in bed, be it Charlie and Sue insisting on having a family brunch (Charlie was absolutely stupefied by the quantity of food Leah, Seth, and Jacob managed to devour in such a short time), or Quil needing his pack brothers to perform an emergency 'intervention' when he ran into Claire's parents in Port Angeles (the guy nearly lost it, Jake told me afterwards – it hadn't been pretty), or Emily asking me to babysit Lily at the last minute while she headed over to help Kim with an unusually fussy baby Sean (Kim hadn't slept a wink in over two days by then – she'd been a wreck). Long story short: the whole world seemed against the idea of my finally making love to my wonderful-and-so-incredibly-patient gorgeous boyfriend.

Maybe, I'd decided, we were trying too hard.

"What?" Jacob exclaimed with a laugh when I mentioned it to him. We were in his garage, my butt firmly planted on his workbench, his upper body half-hidden under the hood of the Rabbit. I had no idea why he still hadn't given up on it – I knew he'd been eyeing that 1987 T-top Camaro that old Mr. Fisher down the street from my house had finally decided to sell. Jake had told me all about it on our first date, back in July. "What do you mean, 'we're trying too hard'?" he asked, not even looking my way, all his attention on the Rabbit's entrails. I might have felt jealous of the car if I hadn't still felt the remnants of Jake's soft caresses from earlier that morning – before we'd been interrupted by Billy asking Jacob to drive him over to Rachel's. Maybe it was a conspiracy after all…

"Well, I know you've been doing everything possible to plan a nice romantic night for our first time," I said, taking advantage of my position to ogle his damn fine posterior in the old jeans that were barely hanging off his hips. I was very grateful that Jake had finally put a stop to that ridiculous obsession of his to be fully clothed around me – there was just something about a shirtless Jacob streaked with grease stains that felt like home to me. "And it's not that I don't appreciate the sentiment, because I do. You're the best boyfriend ever," I told him with a grin, just to see him finally rise from under that hood and face me with an inquisitive look. "But – I think we're over-thinking it."

"Really?" Jake said, grabbing the rag from his back pocket to get the worst of the grease off his fingers. He leaned back against the car, his long legs stretched out in front of him, and eyed me with a definitely mischievous look. "So you're saying that I should forget about asking Quil to take my shift tomorrow, and just grab you now and make a run for my bedroom while Billy's away?" My heart skipped a telltale beat, one that I knew Jake noticed, but the fact that he hadn't done exactly that yet told me it wasn't going to happen. My boyfriend was a romantic. I'd never thought it would frustrate me so much!

"Wait, what do you mean, you're asking Quil to cover for you tomorrow? I thought we agreed that Bella Swan did not, under any circumstances, celebrate her birthday?" I'd been categorical: no birthday party-slash-dinner-slash-anything else. It was already a big concession that I'd allow Jake to give me one small gift.

"Come on, Bells," he whined, pushing off from the car to take the three large steps separating him from the workbench. I spread my legs a little to accommodate his hips between my knees and put my arms loosely around his neck as his hands found their way to my hips. "If I ask one of the guys to replace me on any random night, I'll need to explain why and be in their debt forever. But on my beautiful girlfriend's birthday…" he trailed off, waggling his eyebrows in a move that I hoped he meant to be funny. Because if he was going for suave, it was well and truly lost on me!

I huffed. I couldn't argue with him while his thumbs were stroking the exposed skin between my jeans and my t-shirt, and he knew it. "Fine," I relented, giving him a slight push with my forehead on his. "But no mention of my aging allowed. Just a regular evening." I could be stubborn too.

The naughty look he gave me sent tingles down my spine. "Well, I don't know about a regular evening…" he said quietly, leaning in slowly until our lips were a hairsbreadth away. "I have plans for you, Miss Swan. I guarantee that once I'm done with you, you'll be more than happy to celebrate your birthday from now on." He made sure to cut off any protests by kissing me very thoroughly, his tongue seeking entrance and effectively making me forget what we were talking about for the next half-hour.

When Jake left for patrol around noon (he might have been a few minutes late – we'd been… 'preoccupied') and I headed home to sift through more classifieds, I couldn't help but reflect that the way things were going lately, I wouldn't be surprised if his plans were countered by a freak tornado, or something of the sort.

A tornado would have been better, after all.

Jacob swore he had had no idea whatsoever they'd been planning this, and I had no choice but to believe him considering he didn't look all that happy about it either. I don't know how they'd managed to keep him out of the loop, considering the pack-mind, but the ugly truth was that the wolves and wolf-girls were throwing me a surprise party. In my own backyard to boot, which meant Jake and I had nowhere to run to from it. So much for the 'plans' Jake had had for me.

"I'm sorry," he murmured in my ear, taking a seat right next to me on the stairs leading to the backdoor. He kissed my cheek around the fingers of my hand that was propping my head up. I'd decided that giving any indication of my having fun would completely contradict my attempts at letting the guilty orchestrators (I still didn't have exact names, but I'd find out sooner or later) know I didn't want them to ever do something like this again, so I was sulking. It didn't seem to faze any of them so far, and I knew I'd eventually relent, if only because Emily had outdone herself with cupcakes and muffins in half-a-dozen flavours, but I was trying to make a point.

"Not your fault," I told Jake sincerely, leaning into him until my head rested on his shoulder. "You look almost as disappointed and annoyed as I feel," I teased him. The glum look on his face at being once again thwarted in his plans for a romantic evening would have been funny if I hadn't secretly been very much looking forward to them. Our situation was bothering on ridiculous.

"Yeah well, I know they meant well, but…" Jake started. He sighed heavily, the movement of his chest making my head bob up and down with it. "I probably should have told one of the guys that we had plans, instead of hiding the specifics so well that they figured the coast was clear for this." His left hand made a grand gesture to encompass the dozen or so people socialising in my yard, the table full of snacks and drinks (no one seemed to care that there was alcohol being served to people that were technically still underage under the roof – stars, whatever – of Forks' chief of police, the fact that none of them would ever manage to get drunk notwithstanding), and the streamers, party lights and balloons decorating every vertical surface between the house and the trees. I had no idea how they had managed to do all this within the forty minutes it had taken me to drive to La Push to pick up Jake and back. More interestingly, I had no idea what they would have done if Jake had run here, instead of wanting to be fully clothed when he showed up, for once (and needing to carry that small gift I still hadn't seen). In any case, I had a new appreciation for my father's poker face, who had so generously let Jake and I know he would be spending the evening watching the ball game with Billy, and not to expect him early, even if Sue wasn't in town this week.

"Maybe we're cursed," I said after a long moment in comfortable silence. Jake's right arm was around me, his hand resting on my hip, and I was very comfortable, despite the situation. Paul had managed to drag Quil (who wasn't, as it turned out, covering Jake's patrol shift – as with most pack parties, Leah had volunteered to run solo for a few hours) onto a makeshift dance floor where they were attempting to demonstrate their skill at breakdancing. 'Attempting' being the imperative word here, and 'dancing' as loose a term as possible to describe what they were actually doing. It was… entertaining, to say the least.

Jake spluttered next to me: "Cursed, Bells?"

"What? It could happen," I deadpanned. Considering my track record, it wouldn't even surprise me, to be honest. "We've waited too long, and now the sex gods are angry at us." I should have known better than to utter the words 'sex gods' in proximity to several werewolves with super-freakish hearing. The way they all turned their heads towards us in perfect unison would have been hilarious if I wasn't blushing so fiercely. Jake, on the other hand, might get a hernia from laughing so hard.

"You talking about me, Bella, babe?" Embry called from the back of the yard, eliciting laughter and catcalls to burst from the small crowd – my mortification was now complete. Why couldn't the world open up and swallow me when I wanted it to?

Embry had made his way to us while I hid my red face in Jake's shirt, so that I actually jumped when he spoke again: "Come on, birthday girl. Dance with me."

I turned to him with what I was sure was a stupefied look on my face: "What? No way. I don't dance. You guys know that."

"Oh please, Bells, we're indestructible – Embry can take whatever you dish out!" Trust Jake to turn traitor on me in this situation! Wasn't a perfect boyfriend supposed to protect his girlfriend from potential embarrassment?

I huffed when Embry wiggled his fingers, clearly expecting me to put my hand in his and let him whisk me away to the 'dance floor'. A look at Jake's face told me he had no intention to interfere, and I found myself with no other option than to accept the invitation. To dance. At my birthday party. Ugh!

"Paws where I can see them, Call!" Jake laughingly shouted after us when Embry wrapped me in his arms a little more closely than strictly necessary. I knew he was just fooling around – it wasn't a party until Embry pretended to make a pass at me, and Jake pretended to want to take his head off for it. Boys… I'd never understand them.

"So, when are you ditching the overgrown puppy and shacking up with me, Bella?" Embry asked in a teasing tone, his voice loud enough to ensure Jake would hear every word over the music. Seriously – it was a good thing Embry was actually a good guy, and that he always kept the fake-flirting fun, or I'd think he had a death wish. "I mean, you're three whole years older than him now, don't you feel weird, robbing the cradle and all?"

I laughed, giving him a light backhand slap on the chest that he probably never felt. Just like my feet squishing his toes didn't affect him in the least. "Did you just imply I'm getting old, Embry? I'll have you know that's no way to treat a lady!"

He actually looked sheepish for a moment, and my grin grew. Ah! Point to Bella.

The rest of the evening was spent mainly in the same fashion, meaning I got to step on about every guy's toes (Seth came back for seconds, the big freak!) even if I protested every time one of them requested a dance with the 'birthday girl'. At least they allowed me breaks during which I was able to sample the beautiful and succulent food Emily had brought before it all disappeared, and Paul kept me pliable with drinks that were undoubtedly spiked. He never realised that Jake drank two-thirds of every glass, so that I was just slightly buzzed by the time the party started to dwindle.

"It wasn't so bad after all, was it, Bells?" Jake asked me when everyone had left, leaving us alone to dance ('turn slowly in a circle' was probably a more appropriate description) under the stars. He was right of course. The pack always threw good parties. "You look happy," he added softly, brushing strands of my hair away from my face with his warm fingers. The slight breeze blew them right back in my face, making him chuckle.

"I am," I replied just as quietly, looking up to lock my gaze with his. He smiled my smile, and I couldn't help but smile back. We probably looked like fools.

"Good – that's good," Jake said after a long moment, pulling me closer to his chest with his strong arms. Our feet had stopped moving altogether, and we just stood there, our arms wrapped around each other tightly, in the middle of my backyard, surrounded by half-deflated balloons and dim party lights. Rachel had told me she'd come in the morning to clean everything up. "You'd tell me, right?" Jake added in a whisper, his voice holding a note of seriousness I wasn't sure how to interpret. "If there was anything… I mean, no relationship is perfect, obviously, but you'd tell me if you weren't happy, wouldn't you?"

Huh. Where did that come from? "Jake? Baby, what's wrong?" I took a small step back, trying to catch his eyes, but kept my arms loosely looped around his waist. "Why the sudden doubts?"

He shrugged, a sheepish grin on his lips, looking incredibly like an uncertain kid all of a sudden, none of my confident lover's demeanour apparent. "I just– I know Alice would probably call the moment something went wrong and she could see you again, but I can't help but worry." He was looking everywhere but directly at me, his voice so low I had to strain to hear him. "The last few months just seem too good to be true, you know? And then we've barely had any time together lately…"

"Jake, that's not how it works, Alice's 'sight'…" I didn't know why it worried him now, I didn't know why it worried him at all. Even if the fact that we weren't constantly in each other's presence might make me visible to Alice sometimes, it wouldn't change the situation, it wouldn't change my love for him… I wasn't with Jake because of what Alice had – or hadn't – seen. I thought he knew that. "I love you, Jake, and I'm very happy with you. You're over-thinking it," I chided softly, pulling him down to kiss his lips. "Now – didn't you say something about a gift?" I knew we'd have to address this again at some point, but for now, a change of mood seemed best.

"Why, Bells, I thought you didn't like gifts?" Jake took the offered out, his tone switching to a light tease and a soft smile appearing on his lips. "Was I supposed to get you something?" he added, his eyes unnaturally large and his innocent look so fake it made me laugh.

The delicate wooden necklace he fastened around my neck was absolutely stunning. The dark-red wood reminded me of the colour of his skin, it even felt warm against my collarbone. "Did you make this?" I asked in awe, remembering another gift from him, a small carved wolf that rested in my jewel case on my dresser. I hadn't worn it in years, but I'd kept it safe nonetheless.

Jake looked shy again, but there was nothing but love in his eyes now. "Yeah… I figured it'd be easier to make you accept a gift I hadn't actually spent any money on," he teased me, his warm fingers brushing my skin around the necklace, eliciting small shivers. The air was chilly – it was getting late.

"It's perfect," I told him sincerely, "just like my boyfriend." I pulled him down for another kiss, absorbing his chuckles with my lips. He might laugh, but if that's what it took to erase his doubts about us, I'd tell him how wonderful he was every day for the rest of our lives.

As Charlie's cruiser turned into the driveway, the headlights briefly illuminating us, I reflected that the first order of business would be to find a way to spend some time alone with said wonderful man. Preferably sometime soon.

Would you believe the pack actually surprised ME as well as Bella, with that party? I'm starting to think Bella's right – they must be cursed!

(Not really – it'll all work out, I promise.)

Comments and reviews are, as always, greatly appreciated. Just in case I haven't told you all enough, already…