Year Six, Chapter Fifty-Four
Renée's Call
Renesmee's Point of View
Just as Jake and I entered the house, after returning from school, I turned and grabbed him. I could not wait any longer. And I was not entirely sure how he could, either. We had been in class all morning and all I wanted to do was jump on top of him and never let go. He must have felt the same, I could see it in his eyes, now. I think he was slightly better at hiding his emotions than I was, on his face anyway, because he hadn't revealed anything while we were at school, if you didn't count the now slightly bent, solid steel chair leg he was sitting in.
After we finished another tremendous kiss I grabbed his arm and led him to our bedroom, discarding torn shreds of clothing as we went.
One hour and thirty-seven earth shattering minutes later I was more than satisfied. And judging by the grin on his face, I'm pretty sure he was, too.
"I'm going to go take a quick shower." Jake said while giving me sweet little kisses on my cheek and running his fingertips up and down my arms. Mmmm, even after everything we just did that little gesture still felt amazing.
"Alright, honey. Love you."
I would join him, but that would just lead to more of what we had just done and I knew Jake was hungry. His stomach started growling just as we were finishing . . . um, things. I could shower later. Right now I was headed towards the kitchen to start making us, well mostly Jake, some lunch.
Ring . . .
What was that? As I proceeded to the sound I spotted my mother's phone sitting on the living room coffee table.
Ring . . .
I knew her phone went to voicemail after the sixth ring. Not that it had ever before. Normally it never left her side. But she had left it behind today, not wanting to risk losing, or breaking it, while she and my father were off hunting caribou, just north of Montreal.
Ring . . .
Even though my mother was aware that she could not get hurt by a giant animal, her clothes, these days, thanks mostly to Aunt Alice, left few places, if any, to hold a phone. And my father had his, in case I, or someone else needed to get in touch with either of them, anyway.
Ring . . .
She and my father had been taking a lot of extended hunting trips ever since Jake and I got together. I felt a little bad for my dad, but I loved Jake, and he loved me, and we were not doing anything wrong. And my father kept saying he would get use to us . . . together . . . eventually.
Ring . . .
We were putting a lot on him, but he was handling things as well as could be expected. Even if he was having a bit of trouble with it at the moment, we knew it would not last forever.
Ring . . . (That was ring number six. It would go to voicemail now, and whoever was calling would try my father's phone instead. I'm actually surprised they had let it ring so long.)
For now, he had done what he said he would do. He had said he would remove himself from our general vicinity if things got to too much for him, which seemed to be happening a lot lately. Hence the preemptive hunting trip to Montreal.
Ring . . .
Who could still be calling? Everyone in the family knew to call my father if they could not reach my mother. Maybe there was some emergency. I decided, just to be on the safe side that I should answer it, just in case.
"Hello."
"Bella? Is that you?"
I didn't recognize the voice and had neglected to check the caller id, never dreaming some unknown person would be calling.
"Um, no. I'm sorry she is out at the moment. May I take a message?"
"Oh, yeah, sure. Just tell her that her mother called. And that Phil's team will be playing in the area, so we will be stopping by to visit next week."
Nana Renée? I had never met her before. And she was coming here? I grew excited, then nervous, within the span of a half second. I had never met her and she had not seen her daughter in six years. My mother had not aged a day since then, and she looked entirely different than she had from the pictures I had seen of her when she was human.
"Next week? I don't know if that is the best time to come."
"Oh, don't worry. I know my daughter. It'll be fine."
"Um, do you have the address?" Maybe she didn't know we were living in New Hampshire and she was going to be traveling to Washington.
"I think so. Um . . . 121 Farmers House Way. Is that right?"
Of course. She knew my parents were going to Dartmouth for college. Someone must have told her the address. But who? It didn't seem like the smartest thing to do.
"Yes, that is it. But maybe you should talk to Bella first, in case she . . . "
But before I could try and dissuade her, she hung up.
I quickly dialed my father's number. Just as I was finishing explaining Nana Renée's call to him, during a moment where no one was talking, (my father was probably thinking about how to best handle the situation) Jake wandered in and grabbed my waist from behind me with his big strong, perfectly defined arms. Yum.
"Hey, beautiful. Did you decide to skip lunch and go for round three?" he whispered into my ear, but it was probably still loud enough for my father to hear. I guess he didn't realize I was on the phone. My hair probably obscured his view of the phone, and the bedroom was soundproof after all.
I turned around, still in Jake's arms, but waved the phone to him and mouthed that it was my father on the line.
"Oops," he mouthed over to me, while still grinning. We had been trying to control ourselves around my father. Mostly . . . Sometimes. We couldn't always help our thoughts, but we did try to limit what we did and said out loud in front of him. Oops, was right.
"Err, sorry Edward." Jake called to the empty air in front of us. He knew that if my father could hear him whisper he would hear his apology.
"Yeah, sorry dad."
"It's alright. I . . . understand." My father said. He sounded like he was not trying to make a big deal out of it, but I knew better. "Your mother and I will be home later this evening to assess the situation."
"Do we need to have another family meeting?" I sighed, hoping not. So many things were happening lately that seemed to required these family meetings, the last one just happening last month, when Jake had, more than justifiably, punched Rob at school.
"No I don't think that will be necessary. Bella and I should be able to handle this ourselves. But please let the rest of the family know we will be returning early." He said before ending the call.
Humph. That was twice within the span of ten minutes I had been hung up on. At least this one was more understandable. Hopefully by tonight my father will have calmed down.
"Come on, you should eat lunch, then we can go find everybody." I said to Jake as I led him into the kitchen.
My parents returned that night like expected and wanted to know exactly what was said. After I showed my mother and recalled the entire conversation in my head for my father, word for word he seemed relieved. I wondered why, but only briefly, as he handed my mother her phone and told her that she only needed to call Nana Renée and inform her that they would love to see her and Phil, but they were going to be away for spring break next week. Apparently my mother was a horrible liar as a human, but like with everything else, she was perfectly good at it as a vampire.
My mother seemed to think the plan would work if she stressed that they had already booked and paid for everything – the flight, hotel, rental car, etc…
"Just make sure you also stress that we will come visit them this summer in Florida."
"You're going to Jacksonville?" How was just delaying seeing her by a few months going to help?
"No, but we just need to prevent her from coming here, and then this summer we will again have to call and cancel. My mother was always doing things like that, when I was growing up. Making plans, breaking them, making new ones, changing her mind at the last minute, it went on and on. She did the same thing with jobs, religions, fitness and diet fads, just about everything. She probably won't even question it."
"Um, guys, Bella? Do you know what time it is?"
"Of course, it's 11:43. Why Jake?"
"Well I know you guys don't sleep anymore but humans, like your mother, do. You might want to wait to call until tomorrow morning." Jake offered.
"Oh, right," my mother said as she put her phone down. "You guys should be getting to bed, too. We'll see you in the morning."
"Good night, mom, dad." I said giving each of them a hug.
"Night Bells, night Eddie." Jake jeered while he used the nickname he knew my father hated, and we headed off to our room, together.
As I looked back I expected to see my father glaring back at him, but was surprised to see my father actually smiling. Hmmm. That's . . . interesting?
Jacob's Point of View
Don't think about Nessie.
Don't think about Nessie.
Don't think about Nessie's big beautiful eyes.
Don't even think about her long, luscious bronze curls.
Oh, and those long slender legs. They looked so good the other day in the purple skirt she was wearing.
Focus Jacob!
Don't think about her tiny little waist.
Don't think about that little spot on her neck.
Especially don't thing about her tight little . . .
"Aurg! Jake, we talked about this. Get control of your thoughts if you want us to continue phasing together."
"Oops, sorry Leah."
"Uh, huh. So I take it that things have progressed with you and your imprint . . . finally."
"Yeah, they did." The other day was so much fun. I didn't realize Nessie's stamina . . .
"Jake!"
Hey, it's been two months and this is the first time I've slipped, and thought about the two of us together when I phased with Leah. I was kinda proud of myself; I had done so good until now.
"Sorry, you're the one who brought her back up." Up until today I've managed to avoid thinking of Nessie in a non PG way while Leah and I were both wolves. I had assumed I would have slipped long before today.
"So, how's the hunting going? Kill lots of innocent bunnies?"
"She just nabbed a deer. Nessie usually only drinks one a week, occasionally two, but that's rare." Ha, it would take a few dozen rabbits to fill her up.
"That's still gross."
"Would you rather her feed from humans?"
"Of course not, don't be ridiculous."
"So what? You want her to starve?"
"She's half-human. Can't you make her a burger or something?"
"She doesn't eat human food."
"I've seen her eat it before, at the La Push bonfires, after Embry's court hearing, and when you help us move in here. A bunch of other times, too."
"I never said she can't eat human food, she just doesn't like it, Leah. She prefers the taste of blood. She IS half-vampire, too."
"Jake? Are you okay?" Nessie was hugging my neck and scratching behind my ear, like one would do to a real dog. I loved it when she would do that, if felt so good, natural, and right, in a weird sort of way. But why did she think anything was wrong?
"Um, Leah, I gotta go. I'll check in with you same time next week. Okay?"
"Sure, whatever," she huffed right before fading away. I guess she beat me to phasing back to human.
"Nessie, what's wrong?" I asked her as soon as I had phased back myself.
"I don't know, exactly. It's probably nothing. I just thought . . . it's silly I guess. I just thought you felt agitated. You looked upset, too, though. What was wrong? Did you hear something?"
"Um, no. Sorry honey. I was just speaking with Leah. Wolf telepathy, remember?" Of course she would. It was silly of me even to ask.
"So what did she say about me that got you upset this time? You know what? Don't tell me. I don't care. And neither should you. I know she doesn't like me. Its fine."
"No, Nessie. It's not. You are my imprint. The most sacred rules for wolves is to not harm another's imprint. That includes mental harm, if only to avoid harming the wolf. She knows that whatever harms you, harms me. Which makes us all weaker – even if it is just the two of us, but it doesn't matter."
"So by hurting me, she's hurting you, and thereby hurting herself?"
"Essentially." I knew she would get it, easily. "That is why it is so forbidden. We need to be strong to do our job correctly. And I don't want her to hurt you regardless of what it would do to me, or her. I never want anything to hurt you, honey."
"I know Jake. But I'm fine. Don't sweat it. Didn't you talk about anything else?" Nessie asked me attempting to change the subject. I guess I should confess my slip up. Better to get it over with now than have her learn about it later from Eddie, or even worse – Leah.
"Um, sort of. I should tell you that I kinda messed up and was thinking about what we did the other day. She saw everything. I'm so sorry honey. Please forgive me. I was trying not to think about it . . . really."
"Oh," she blushed a little embarrassed, before quickly recovering, her facial expression, at least, "well I guess that is understandable. And I knew that was a possibility. But things like that must have happened all the time when you guys lived in La Push, right?"
"Yeah, we've all seen things we wished we hadn't. And shared things we tried to keep private. It's almost impossible not to think about something, especially when that something is as amazing as you are, Nessie." I smirked while pulling her close to me, so I could kiss that little space on her neck that made her make that laughing sigh sound I loved so much.
