Embry laid outside of the window of the Cullens guest room that night. He had figured that Delilah would spend the night after going to the movies with them, and he had been right. It wasn't necessarily because he was scared for her safety so much anymore, though he still was by instinct, it was more about not being able to get her out of his head. That was the usual MO, sure. But he was now considering what Delilah would want, if she had the choice. She had been so curious about the Emily, Leah, Sam love triangle, and she had known there was more to it than she was being told, he could feel it in her energy.
He hated lying to her. It went against everything he his instincts asked of him, begged of him. She deserved the truth too. What would it hurt? He thought about that question over and over, knowing he was annoying any wolves within a certain radius of him. He contemplated every option he had. Embry could make like Sam suggested and not pay mind to what the Cullens thought was best of her. Things weren't exactly going poorly, though. After all, she was dating him now. Embry thought about his decision to keep the pack from his own mother, how he thought it was for her own good and even though it had caused issues, Embry had found he preferred the issues that came from keeping it from her than the complications and danger that would come with her knowing about what he was. Maybe the same should apply to Delilah, he thought. Considering all she went through before he ever met her, and what she was currently trying to deal with when it came to her father in the present day. Was he selfish for even considering complicating her life more? Just because it would be easier for him when it came to trying to help her understand how he felt about her and why he felt that way. Then again, she felt it too. Maybe she was scared of the overwhelming feelings. Maybe knowing why they were so strong in the first place would comfort her and make her feel better. He then considered his third option, which was to talk to the Cullens and address everything now that he was romantically involved with Delilah. He didn't know how they'd react, they'd been more forthcoming in the sense of welcoming him into their home and not scowling at him every time he entered a room. They trusted him to take Delilah places, and Jake had even said that he'd overheard Delilah talking to Rosalie, Alice, and Bella about Embry and how she felt about him. The fact that they had listened and not let their personal feelings bubble to the surface said something, Embry thought. Maybe it would be okay to have a casual conversation about it with them when Delilah wasn't around.
Rosalie took Delilah home around 9AM, and Embry had trotted off into the forest before Delilah had walked outside. He'd pick her up around 12.30, giving her more time to sleep if she wanted to.
Embry was slightly nervous when he saw that her father's truck was in the driveway, but Delilah had apparently seen Embry pull up and was out the door before Embry was ever able to cut the engine. He got out of the car, opening her door for her as she approached. Embry felt his heart jolt when he looked up, seeing her dad staring at him through their kitchen window, his eyes narrowed as he sipped on a cup of coffee.
"Do you think I should introduce myself to your dad?" Embry asked, not breaking eye contact with the middle aged man. He didn't know what to do other than offer a friendly wave, which earned a nod from the man who then turned and walked away from the window, his lips never moving from the neat line they had been positioned in from the moment Embry saw him.
"Oh, that's okay. I'll introduce you to him at my game this Friday, if you want." Delilah replied casually, clearly oblivious to the stern look her father had shot at her boyfriend. Embry didn't say anything else, he just shut her door gently, taking one last look at the now vacant window before walking back to the driver's side.
Delilah requested that they go on a hike, but first to visit Emily's place, she wanted to see how she was doing now that everyone knew about the pregnancy. Delilah sort of let it slip that she'd been privy to the news when she said that she wanted to check on Emily, considering she hadn't been at the meeting the night before. If he hadn't already known, this would have told Embry that Emily had confessed to her that she was pregnant during their one on one conversation. But he did know, and he didn't see any sense in bringing it up. Delilah didn't notice her mistake, either. Though she was a smart girl, she wasn't a liar, and she didn't know the patterns on how to keep up with a lie, clearly.
Embry caught Delilah's hand as the walked up to the small house, which had the door wide open. Embry pulled them both in without a knock or a word, seeing the usual scene of the boys littering the front rooms of Emily's house.
"Delilah!" Emily smiled at her.
Embry wondered if the lack of information had changed Delilah's opinion on Emily. If she thought she was some sort of homewrecker that Embry felt the need to cover for. This led him to wonder if Delilah saw him differently. She'd agreed to date him, sure. But that didn't necessarily mean she hadn't been wary of his explanation and the situation in general. This was a point to Sam's argument, that Embry should tell Delilah everything. Embry had seen the way that Sam looked when he found out that Delilah was confused about the situation. He really cared about what his fellow wolf's imprint thought of him. Embry didn't know if this was a selfish reason, though. If he was using this as an excuse to tell her the truth.
"Embry finally stopped wimping out, I heard." Emily walked toward the couple, smiling ear to ear humorously. Delilah giggled, looking up at Embry as his face turned a crimson color.
"Well, yeah." Delilah replied, ghosting her thumb against his hand's skin softly. He felt better after that.
Delilah liked being on the reservation and she liked getting to know Embry's friends and who he worked with every day. Most of them seemed to have taken a liking to her, so she enjoyed playing ball with them on the beach and listening to them tell stories about their lives together on the reservation. For something that was relatively close, she didn't know too much about the reservation before she started spending time with Embry. At Quil's request, they were heading to the beach within fifteen minutes of Embry and Delilah showing up at Emily's house. Everyone vacated the house, all but Emily participating in the games at one point or another.
Delilah had thrown the ball back and forth, impressing the boys with her stamina and ability to keep up with them with little to no issue, especially considering her height in comparison to theirs, and her muscle mass in comparison to theirs, as well as other factors that she wasn't aware of.
After a while, Delilah threw the ball at Collin before turning to look at the cool colored ocean. She hadn't noticed Leah had left the circle of athletes until she saw her standing by the ocean, staring off at nothing in particular it seemed, just thinking.
Delilah didn't know what it was, but she felt compelled to walk over to her. And she did, with Embry's eyes burning holes in the back of her head, not that Delilah noticed. She just continued on her walk until she was two feet away from the tall, toned girl. Leah looked up at her, finally noticing that she was approaching her.
"Hi." The jet black haired beauty greeted simply, looking back to the massive body of water in front of her. Delilah walked a bit closer, staying silent for a minute or so.
"I just saw you out here, thought I'd see if you were doing okay." Delilah explained, looking at Leah expectantly. She didn't really know what she was expecting, though. Leah didn't know her from Adam and Delilah didn't know how she would respond to this sort of approach from her, a stranger.
"Sorry it's that obvious. I know you're new." The laughter Leah paired with her statement was almost morbid. Delilah wished she knew Leah better. She wanted it to be socially acceptable for her to press forward on the issue. She knew she was missing parts of the story, especially Leah's side, it would seem. And Delilah cared. She cared about the broken girl that stood before her because it didn't seem like anyone else cared for her, at least first.
"Don't be sorry. I don't really know any details, but… I'm sorry you're hurting." Delilah didn't know what else to say, considering the little information she had to go on. Leah looked at her, smiling soberly with glassy eyes.
"I think you're more intuitive than you give yourself credit for. Embry underestimates you." Leah replied slowly, cocking her head as she gave Delilah a once over through narrowed eyes. Delilah wondered what she meant by that, of course. But she tried not to let it distract her from the girl's hurt, which seemed to be losing the focus it deserved.
"Well, even if he does, you can talk to me about anything. I know you don't know me very well but, you can talk to me. If you need to." Delilah's offer meant more to Leah than Delilah would over understand. She'd felt so alone for so long, so put up with, at best. Now there was someone seeking her out, asking if she needed help, and she might take the help, the listening ear in the long run if seeing Emily grow more and more pregnant with Sam's baby become more and more unbearable than it already was, Leah thought."Thanks." Leah's answer was so simple in comparison to her thoughts, but so was Delilah's smile. It was nice that someone was coming in, not knowing Leah before the Sam and Emily situation, so they didn't look at her differently based on the changes in her behavior that came with her broken heart.
"Delilah watched as Emily began to walk toward them, slowing herself down as she carefully walked downhill. Delilah noticed Leah immediately clammed up, looking back to the water. This was all but proof to her that she'd opened up to her at least somewhat. And Delilah would be sure to keep that in mind when she talked to Leah next. Hopefully she'd be able to check on her in a way that the others didn't seem like they could, maybe they didn't want to. Delilah didn't want to believe that though.
"Oh." Emily's voice cracked as she approached, seeing that Leah had turned her back to her. Delilah bit her lip, feeling awkward and in the middle, all of a sudden. "I was going to ask you, Delilah. Has Embry asked you to be his date to our wedding yet?" Delilah found herself looking back at Leah, whose posture had clearly stiffened. Delilah breathed in as she tried to gather her thoughts back to Emily's question.
"He hasn't, no." Delilah replied, somewhat confused by the question.
"Oh, well. I know he will. Are you free November 17th? That's our wedding date. I just need to know if I should count you in the table arrangements and whatnot." Emily somewhat rambled, seeming excited by her own proposition that she'd laid out for Delilah. It took Delilah by more surprise than Emily had anticipated. She hadn't expected to be wanted at their wedding. After all, she hadn't been around all that long.
"If you want me there and he asks, I'll be there no problem." Delilah smiled at Emily. The last thing she needed was to upset the woman who was with child over not accepting an invitation to her wedding.
"Great! It'll be the best time." Emily grabbed both of Delilah's hands with hers and beamed at her.
"Oh, look who's here!" Emily was suddenly even more giddy as she looked to her left. Delilah followed suit, and they both watched as another copper toned female approached. She was scrawny in her body type, Delilah could tell from several yards away. Another thing she noticed was how intently Jared was watching the young woman that was approaching them from either further down the beach.
"Kim! You finally get to meet Delilah." Emily let go of Delilah's hands, then making hand gestures toward her. The skinny girl stood in front of Delilah, assessing her for a moment before she looked up and smiled widely at her.
"You're Embry's girl, I heard about you. I'm Kim." The girl commented within her introduction of herself, jutting her hand out for the pale green-eyed girl to shake.
"Yeah, Delilah." She said her name as the girl energetically shook her hand up and down. Delilah looked at Emily, who was silently but clearly amused by Delilah's personality meeting Kim's.
"Yay! We finally have another girl on our squad." Kim let go of Delilah's hand, then looked at Emily with elation in her dark brown orbs. Emily seemed to give the girl a nonverbal warning before she looked back to Delilah.
"The girlfriends of the patrolman, we all hang out a lot. See, that's Rachel over there." Emily pointed to a woman across the beach who was sat in Paul's lap. Delilah had never seen Paul so, well, domestic. He was planting kisses all down the left side of the girl's face. She didn't seem fazed by it, which led Delilah to believe that it was likely a regular occurrence the girl's dynamic with him.
"Oh! Yeah. We always get together whenever they're all patrolling at the same time. That's usually on Wednesday nights. You should come up, we all watch movies together and sometimes we play slap jack!" Kim put Emily's earlier rambling to shame. She was a fast talker, but she had a sweet energy about her.
Delilah suddenly looked back at Leah, who was looking at the circle of girls with her eyes narrowed. Delilah suddenly felt guilty, like they were excluding her in some way. But she was on the patrol team, so Delilah didn't exactly know how to realistically include her in whatever group she'd just been brought into. Nevertheless, Delilah felt bad about it.
"You should, Delilah. This next Wednesday it's my turn to pick the movie, it'll be good." Emily's smiles were always warm and inviting, but this one was incredibly so. She was really trying to make Delilah comfortable with the situation, and she really seemed like she wanted her around.
"Oh, I know I can't next week. I promised I'd help Jasper pick out his anniversary jewelry for Alice that day. I can probably come the week after, though." Delilah gave an excited smile, trying to let them know that she really was interested in accepting the invitation and getting to know all of them better.
"Jasper and Alice? Like the Cullens? Are you friends with them?" The happy go lucky expression seemed to leave Kim's face as quickly as it had come. This threw Delilah off course, not knowing how to respond to such unease toward her friends.
"Yeah, I know all of them pretty well." Delilah further explained. There was a small silence, giving Delilah time to wonder about Kim's manner and reaction toward the Cullens, and time to compare it to Embry's previous reaction to them, and the Cullens previous reactions to him.
"Well, they're nice people. It's okay, we get to hang out with you the next week." Emily's right hand touched Delilah's forearm as she smiled at her softly.
"She'd have more fun with us, though." Kim grumbled, sighing.
Embry soon walked over to the group of girls, whisking Delilah away to the hike he'd promised her. As Delilah walked by his side, she wondered more and more about everything that had given her pause over the last few months. She wondered if it was her suspicious nature, or if it should have given her more pause. She thought about all of the times she'd felt half truths were being told, or excuses were made, and she wondered if she would do well to stay more alert with all of these things. If she wanted the truth.
Hello! Thank you for reading another chapter. I'm excited to continue the story tomorrow. With everything going on, I just want to quickly tell anyone that comes across my story that you are WORTHY. Please know this. I know there's a lot going on, and I hope that my story can bring you even a moment of comfort. Stay safe everyone. And again, thanks for reading.