Thank you all for you AWESOME reviews…..so here we go with another chapter….
I had never seen Jake so nervous before and blushing, he was actually blushing; he turned to me and opened his mouth. "Kayla, I want you to know that I love you and always will. You know you're the air I breathe and my every being. You're the one who keeps me grounded and my gift to you is a gift of promise. I promise to love you forever, to protect you, take care of you and always make you happy. I love you Kayla Hawkes" he ended his speech. I could hear some "awes" from the pack and the audience. "I love you too Jacob" I responded.
I had tears in my eyes when I kissed him and hugged Jake. "Kayla" he said stepping slightly away from me and reaching into his pocket. I stared at him as he brought out a little pouch and opened it and pulled out a ring. "This is a symbol of my promise to you, and a promise to our future, this was the promise ring my dad bought my mother when he promised her" he said as he slid the ring on my right hand finger, it fitted perfectly. It was a beautiful gold, heart shaped ring with forever engraved on it. I pulled Jake in for a kiss and I think we got so lost in the moment when I heard someone say "get a room guys" which brought us back to reality and everyone laughed. This day was the best ever, the party continued and I went to sit down and Seth came to join me.
"Hey Kayla, are you okay?" he asked. "Yeah, why you ask?" I replied. "You just look so exhausted" he said. "I'm okay, today has taken a lot out of me" I replied. "Sure?" he questioned. "I'm sure, thanks anyway" I answered and laughed. We chatted some more about regular things.
What no one knew except for Nana was that since waking up from my ordeal, I had been having horrible nightmares. The nightmares were all about the time I was held captive; I kept on reliving the horror. I would wake up screaming in cold sweats, I was too scared to go back to sleep all I saw was that woman's face and her eyes. My Nana would always sit up with me and comfort me, she insisted I tell Jake, but I didn't want to worry him anymore. So against her wishes we decided not to tell Jake.
The last of the guests left quite late, Jake offered to take my gifts upstairs to my room. After a short while he didn't come down, Nana and I went to check on him, he had fallen asleep on my bed. "Leave him be, let him sleep" Nana said as we looked at Jacob's sleeping form. Nana and I spoke for a while after I had, had a shower. "Thank you for a lovely birthday Nana" I said as I hugged her. "Nana, now why did you give me your house?" I asked.
"Your grandpa built this house for me when we fell in love; I was only fifteen years old. By the time we married, this house was completed; I was eighteen when we married. The house was to go to your daddy when we passed but seeing as Samuel, your dad is no longer here, it becomes yours" she sighs thinking about my dad. We spoke some more, and we grew tired.
I said my goodnights and got into bed, sliding quietly next to Jake, as if instinct, Jacob wrapped his arms around me, I snuggled against his warmth, I felt his cheek rest against the back of my head and his breath on my shoulder, I fell instantly asleep. I woke up to the birds chirping, I didn't recall waking up during the night from my nightmares, this was the first time in a while that I had such a good sleep. Jake was still asleep, so I snuggled closer to Jake and fell asleep once more. I was woken up with a kiss on the cheek and the bed shifting as I felt Jacob getting up and leaving the room. I kept my eyes closed as I was still a bit tired and fell asleep once more.
"Afternoon sleepy head" I heard Jake's voice a while later.
"Mmm…its still morning, I want to sleep some more" I mumbled. "Nope it's a little after twelve already" he answered. "Oh my hat!" I said sitting up quickly and then feeling dizzy. "Easy, take it easy, you've only just slept in, no need to be hard on yourself" he joked. "Nana's just finished making lunch, would you like something to eat?" he asked. My stomach rumbling answered his question. "Yeah, I'm hungry" I replied smiling. "Okay, gonna let Nana know you're awake and then I'm going to take a shower" he said kissing me. I noted his bags of new clothes were still in the room as he left. "Okay" I replied swinging my legs out of bed as he left to tell Nana.
I got up to go brush my teeth and made my way downstairs as Jake was on his way up. "Will be back in a jiffy" he said kissing me on his way up. "Morning Nana" I said as I made my way into the kitchen I looked up at the kitchen clock. "Or afternoon, I can't believe I slept in so late" I added. "Afternoon baby, I can believe it, you haven't slept well since you know when" she said. "It seems Jacob's presence manages to keep those bad dreams at bay" she said. "It seems so" I answered. "Kayla, you know what you need to do" she stated. "No Nana, it would be making him worry even more" I answered. "Kayla, you going to have to tell Jake, you can't keep secrets from him, it's going to wear you down" she whispered. "What secret are you keeping from me Kayla?" Jake asked as he rounded the corner of the kitchen, looking quite concerned.
My breath was caught in my throat, not only because of what he had heard from our conversation, but he was standing at the kitchen doorway in just a pair of shorts and what a delicious body I might add. I shook my head to get myself out of thinking dirty thoughts of us, but also now that I would have to face the music. "Kayla?" Jake called me pulling me out of my trance, I swallowed hard.
I gave Nana a look of "you did this on purpose" look. Jake looked at me, then at Nana, he had a concerned look on his face. Nana then excused herself as Jake came to sit next to me. I panicked, his body was still slightly wet from the shower and he looked….stop it Kayla, I thought to myself. Jake touched my hand, "It's nothing Jake, really" I said. "It's not anything if your Nana is telling you that you should not keep it from me, tell me please, Kayla" he said sounding almost pleading. "Jake, I…" I took a deep breath and then I dove into the story of my nightmares I had been having and that I was not able to sleep.
I continued to explain to him that last night was the first time I had actually had a peaceful nights sleep, with no bad dreams. Jacob held me as I felt something wet on my shoulder. "Jake, are you crying?" I asked. "It's my fault you went through this, I should've been honest with you from the start, and you would have never left here that night which resulted in…" he couldn't finish it. "No Jacob, never think any of this was your fault" I said as he stroked my face and my hair, "promise me you will never keep anything from me again, no matter how silly you might think it is?" he asked and I promised as he pulled me in for a kiss.
Nana entered the kitchen smiling as we pulled apart, she dished up lunch and we spent the day putting our photos in our memory album Edward and Bella gave me. Jake left later with a dish of some dinner for Billy. "I'll see you later" he said kissing me good bye and saying bye to Nana. Jake left for the evening, Nana and I cleaned the kitchen. I felt better knowing that Jake knew of my nightmares, but how was I going to prevent them from happening I was not sure. But little did I know Jake had an idea….
Months flew by, Jake would spend the nights sleeping over but would leave early morning to go home and get ready for school. Then he would come over and we would drive to school together. Before we knew it our schooling was coming to an end and graduation was upon us as was the last of our school summer holidays. It had been nearly a year since the incident….
As Jake and I got ready for graduation day, I drove Nana and Jake took his dad to the school. The only discussion that was in the air was what college or what one was going to be doing once we graduated school. Jake was very unsure about his future because of his pack responsibilities it was going to be difficult for him to commit to full time employment, but he enjoyed working on cars and motorbikes. As for myself, I decided to do a course on photography, as this was something I come to enjoy since doing our memories book and the camera the Cullen's got me started on.
We decided we were going to take our last summer break before we started on our futures, but I had an idea for Jacob, but would have to wait to speak to him over the holidays. Not too sure if he would agree to it but would have to give it a try.