Chapter Twenty-Five
That night I walked outside, suitcase in hand, to meet Leah and Nahuel. She had finally convinced me that it would be best to let him come with us. It took a lot of talking on her part, but I finally agreed.
I knew that this was what I had to do. It was now or never. I loved Jacob. If I wanted to be with him, I was going to have to do whatever it took to get him back.
I walked over to the garage. We had agreed to take Nahuel's car because it was the fastest of his and Leah's. I sat my suitcase down at the rear of the car and walked over to where Jacob's Rabbit was parked. I smiled as I remembered the first time I had road in it:
"Ready, Nessie?" Jacob called from downstairs. We were still in Forks at the time. I had stayed at Grandmee's the night before. I think I was about five physically.
"Almost! Don't leave me, Jakey! You promise you won't leave?" I ran to the top of the stairs to make sure he was still there.
"Don't worry, I won't leave without you. This is all for you anyway, remember?" he laughed. I had been dying for him to take me to see Leah and the rest of the pack for some time. It had also been a while since I had seen Claire; we loved to play together.
I grinned down at him before running back into my room to find my shoes.
Once I was ready, we raced outside to where his car was parked and he helped me in. This was the first time I had rode with him. Dad had been protective over me and still did not like the idea about the imprinting, but Mom had convinced him to let Jacob take me that day.
The whole time while we were riding, I was asking questions about how his car worked. The wheels in my head were always turning when I was with him. I wanted to be able to do everything he did, just like him. He explained how a few years ago he had built the car himself, and I was in complete amazement as he told me the stories.
Back in the garage, I laughed aloud as I suddenly remembered the summer he taught me how to drive:
We had driven to the Quileute reservation and stopped on a dirt road Jacob said he used to ride his motorcycle down. He turned off the engine and we traded seats so that I was on the driver's side.
"Okay, Nessie, turn the ignition on. Now push down on the brake and shift into drive. Okay, now push off on to the road."
I followed his instructions and started to drive. I had just about pulled completely onto the road when Jacob yelled. "Nessie! Wait!"
"What is it, Jake? What happened?" he had scared me half to the death, if that was possible.
"You didn't look both ways before pulling out! Now what if someone was riding down this road? You could have hit them!"
"Jake, there is absolutely no one on this road! It is completely deserted! No people, no cars, not even a turtle or a squirrel!"
"Still you should have looked." he mumbled.
"Are you going to let me drive or not?"
He simply stared at me as I sarcastically looked both ways and pulled out onto the road.
He continued to critique everything I did the entire day. I was on edge with him by the time we finally made it home.
I would never lose those memories; they were some of my favorites.
I turned around when I heard someone walk into the garage.
"Ready, Nessie?" Nahuel said as he loaded my suitcase and the others he was carrying into the car. I nodded.
I climbed into the passenger seat while we waited for Leah.
He turned to me as he sat down beside me in the driver's seat. "Ness, are you sure this is what you want? You know I love you and I only want you to be happy, even if that means you being with Jacob and not me."
I nodded again. "This is what I want. I love him, Nahuel. He means everything to me!" I said as Leah crawled in the back seat.
"Okay! Let's go find us a wolf!" She said as she slid into the middle.
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We had left Seattle at 4:30 that morning. The drive to Forks should have only taken us a few minutes, a drive that would have taken a human two hours.
We had decided to drive a normal speed so that we had time to instigate a plan of what I was to say to Jacob.
Leah and I talked about the speech I would try to give him. It was hard to get any ideas with the reason for the problem sitting in the vehicle and driving us to Jacob. After the first hour, I fell asleep mid-sentence. I was extremely tired. I had not gone to sleep the night before; I had been afraid I would not wake up in time.
When I woke up, we were driving on Main Street and the Quileute reservation was 15 minutes outside of town. Leah had not eaten before we left, so we stopped to have breakfast at a diner my mom and Grandpa Charlie loved. As I ate my pancakes, I tried to work out all different aspects of how to get to Jacob. Would I talk Billy first to see if he had been home, and if so, had he talked to him about us? Should I go straight to First Beach and—? I had no idea what I would do. I knew what I had to say, but no ideas on how to say it.
After paying the waitress, we went back to the car and headed to the reservation. We
drove straight to First Beach. As we pulled up, we saw no vehicles or wolf prints. I told
them to stay in the car; it would be hard to talk to him alone much less with a crowd around us. As I shut the door, I took a deep breath and exhaled to calm my nerves.
I walked out on to the beach and slipped off my flip-flops. I had always loved the feel of the sand; I didn't know when I would get to see this beach again. As I walked along the beach searching for Jacob, I looked down to notice the faint indentions of paw prints. I bent down to examine them and was relieved to see that they were wolf prints.
"He's been here!" I whispered to myself. I stood up and looked around; I could see nothing but beach.
I started to yell him name, but received no response.
I followed the prints as they lead me down the beach and back again as if he had been pacing. I then noticed as the wolf prints faded, that they slowly turned into human footprints that lead me back to the road at which they ended when I reached the gravel.
I ran back to the car, yelling the entire way. "He's been here! He's here in Forks!"