Jacob

December 30th, 2024

"I can't handle this, Jacob!" Nessie shouts from the back row of seats of the SUV we own.

I buckle our son into his car seat. He's 5 now. We're an hour away from getting to the chalet and the entire morning has been chaos.

"I'm hungry, Daddy," AJ whines.

"I know, buddy," I reply. "You'll get something to eat... What's going on, love?" I ask Nessie.

We're parked outside of a Tim Hortons just beyond the US/Canada border so I could take AJ inside to use the bathroom and so Nessie could feed Sarah and change her diaper in the back of the SUV.

"The second I opened her diaper she decided to pee," Nessie mutters, wiping down the backseat with paper towels.

I chuckle, "could be worse. Remember when that would happen with AJ?"

At least when that happens with Sarah the pee has only one direction to go. With AJ it was unpredictable.

Nessie huffs, "don't remind me," she says getting the baby girl dressed again.

"I'm hungry," AJ repeats himself.

"I know, AJ. I heard you the first time," I reply.

"You didn't get food?" Nessie asks, passing Sarah to me over the furthest seats so I can strap her into her car seat behind us. The baby giggles excitedly at being passed to me. I smile at her.

"No," I reply, strapping Sarah in, "I didn't want to force AJ to stand in front of the display case of donuts and cookies for 10 minutes before ordering him a bagel. We can go through the drive-through."

"Hm, good call," Nessie says, gathering up the dirty diapers and wipes into a bag, " Actually, I'm going to run inside to use the bathroom. I'll just grab breakfast on the way out," she says, giving me a quick peck and then runs inside.

"Daddy?" AJ asks.

"What is it, buddy?" I ask, preparing for another 'I'm hungry'. I make sure Sarah's seat straps are properly positioned so she doesn't get fussy.

"Why is grandpa Billy old and grandpa Eddie not?" he asks.

Crap.

I stare at him, "... don't you want to know where babies come from or something?"

"I know where babies come from," AJ replies.

"Oh, yeah?" I smile, "tell me, Arthur Jacob"

"Mommy swallowed an apple seed and the baby grew in her tummy until Mommy pooped her out," AJ replies, confidently.

I burst into laughter, "okay, watch your show," I put the noise-cancelling headphones over his ears and set up the Spiderman cartoon on his tablet that he has been watching nonstop lately.

I slide into the driver's seat and lean my head against the headrest so I can rest my eyes. We knew that this was going to be a challenge. Nessie wanted to wait until next year. Sarah would be almost 3. AJ would be 6. But everyone made plans to come here for New Years and I didn't want to miss out. Besides, we'll have so much help. And I'm going to propose. Finally...

I should have done it sooner. Much sooner. But life got really busy and we talked about getting married and then Nessie got pregnant again. Whoops. So here we are.

Recently, Nessie had tasked me with getting all of the passport documents together for us and the kids. I had all of the papers in front of me...

Black, Jacob
Black, Arthur Jacob
Black, Sarah Isabella
Cullen, Renesmee Carlie

It felt wrong. We had built this beautiful family and on paper, it was like Ness wasn't even a part of it.

Then one night, two weeks ago, Sarah got a UTI so we took her to the ER because it was late and the clinic was closed. The nurse kept calling me Mr. Black and Nessie Miss. Cullen. Bothered the crap out of me. Ness couldn't figure out why I was in such a bad mood that entire night.

The next day I got my ass out to Seattle with $10K in cash and asked the associate at a jewelry store for the biggest fucking rock I could buy with $10K. Turns out that $10K doesn't buy much. I spotted a large oval diamond on a dainty gold band and asked how much it was. $32K… I had to move some money around but I got it for her. I think it might be too much. Nessie doesn't even wear jewelry. Apart from the diamond love necklace, I got her years ago. She'll just have to get used to it.

I check the rearview mirror to make sure the kids are okay.

Sarah is sleeping. We named her after Mom. Nessie let me choose the name and I couldn't think of any other. The baby girl has a round face, dark skin and black hair like mine. She has her mother's brown eyes.

AJ is short for Arthur Jacob. Nessie wanted to name him after me but I insisted that he has his own first name. She settled on Arthur because, at the time, I had been reading King Arthur tales to her belly and the name just felt right. He has dark skin, a little bit lighter than Sarah's, deep brown hair and big green eyes. We think he got them from Edward. Carlisle said he remembered Edward having green eyes before he changed.

The passenger side door opens.

"Large black for Black," Nessie smiles, handing me a large black coffee.

"You're an angel," I reply and take the paper cup. I admire her beauty; messy copper curls bunched up inside the hood of the sweatshirt she stole from me that she is wearing over a pair of black leggings. I can't wait. Tomorrow at midnight. The clock will strike and I will ring in the new year on one knee with a ring. I grin.

"I know," Nessie replies and puts her medium double-double in her cup holder and then leans over the seat, getting AJ set up with his bagel and orange juice.

I smirk and take the opportunity to squeeze her butt while she is occupied getting AJ's bagel unwrapped for him.

"Um, excuse me," Nessie laughs and playfully bumps me with her hip.

"What'd I do to deserve you?" I smile at her when she sits back down in her seat.

She smiles at me, pulling her hood down and fixes her hair, "you're up to something... what do you want?" she grins, suspicious of my adoration. She sips her coffee.

"Nothing," I shrug and start the car. I better tone it down before she suspects something and ruins the surprise. "Hey, when you get a chance, ask AJ where he thinks babies come from," I grin.

Nessie frowns as she gulps down her coffee, "oh no, he didn't tell you his apple seed theory, did he?" she asks as she buckles her seat belt.

I laugh.

Nessie rolls her eye, "I don't know whether or not to leave it or tell him something a bit more factual before he runs off to school and tells his friends that Mommy pooped out his sister cause she swallowed an apple seed," she shakes her head, jabbing at her phone.

"Who are you texting?" I ask, as I pull back out onto the road, "you've been tapping at your phone all morning"

"Oh… Quil is proposing to Claire. I'm helping him coordinate," Nessie replies.

I feel the blood drain from my face.

"He is?" I swallow.

"Yeah," Nessie smiles, "tomorrow morning he wants to take her to that rest stop at the top of the summit that overlooks the whole valley and resort. So romantic. I had no idea Quil was that sweet," Nessie sighs dreamily. "I'm tasked with taking her to get her nails done so that her hands look good in pictures… Oh, yeah. FYI, I'm leaving you with the kids today so we can go get our nails done," she grins.

"I see…" I grit my teeth.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!

"What?" Nessie asks, probably sensing my frustration, "don't worry, hun, the kids will be too busy playing with their cousins to be much trouble."

"Sure," I reply.

I had decided to propose two weeks ago. Quil and Claire had gone out of town for Christmas. Of course, he doesn't know about my plans. Well, this throws a wrench in everything. Not only is Quil going to propose before me but his plans are like ten times romantic than what I came up with.

"He didn't mention it," I clear my throat. "That's great."

Yeah. Great. Just fucking great.

We are among the first to arrive at the chalet. Apart from Claire and Quil. Leah and Roger were just behind us with their daughter Sophia and their 1-year-old, Harry. They adopted a newborn about a year ago. Thankfully, it worked out and the birth mother did not change her mind this time.

Embry and Bijou are building a snowman outside with Bijou's son. Oh, right. Embry imprinted.

Claire has an uncle who had moved to Montreal after meeting his wife in the military years and years ago. When his wife died a few years back, he decided to return to Washington state with his daughter who, at the time, was pregnant. Mr. Wright, Bijou's father, just thought it would be easier for his 17-year-old daughter to be a single mother in the small community where he grew up than in Montreal. They were there for one day. One day! Embry was working part-time as a mover. He saw her and that was that. Mr. Wright thought he was nuts; who gets involved with a girl who is nearly 9 months pregnant? Embry signed Harmon's birth certificate and then married Bijou as soon as she could fit into her mother's wedding dress.

He's absolutely crazy about this girl. We tease Embry mercilessly. He's learning french because it's Bijou's first language and she speaks it to Harmon. Embry was working really hard to get the language down. One time we were all hanging out and he accidentally slipped between languages and called a meat platter a charcuterie. Everyone thought it was hilarious. Apart from Nessie who thought we were all being rude.

It's almost noon by the time the rest start arriving with their kids. Nessie and the girls head out to the nail place. The older kids are all playing outside while the younger ones go down for naps after lunch. I pull Quil aside.

"You're proposing to Claire," I whisper.

"Yeah," he grins, "I'm nervous."

"You can't propose to Claire. I'm proposing to Nessie," I reply.

"No way, man. No!" he shakes his head, "I'm not cancelling my plans."

"Come on, Quil," I plead.

"Dude, you've had 8 years to propose to Nessie. It's not my fault that you dragged your feet," Quil says defensively, "propose to her anyways. Why do I have to cancel my plans? Look, I got a ring and everything," he says taking out the small antique ring with a petite diamond centred between 4 tiny little diamonds."

"I got a ring too, man," I pull out the velvet box and show him the large oval diamond on the dainty gold band.

"What the fuck?!" Quil's eyes bulge, "dude, you got Nessie a boulder and I got Claire a pebble. No. Not even a pebble. It's fucking-... I dunno, fucking dust! You cannot propose to Nessie with that during this trip. You're going to make me look like a chump!"

I close the box and put it back into my pocket, "please, man," I try to reason with him, "can't you just wait?"

Quil exhales, "I'm sorry. I can't. Too many people already know… Please don't do this to me. Think of Clairebear. This moment is supposed to be special for her. Don't cast a shadow over her moment with that giant rock," Quil pleads.

I clench my jaw. Fuck, fuck… FUCK!

"Fine," I sigh, "fine. I'll figure something else out," I exhale.

"Really? Thanks, man! Thanks!" Quil hugs me and then quickly grabs his and Claire's bags and starts to haul them up the stairs, "hey! Paul! Screw you. Get out of there. The master suite is mine and Claire's. We already agreed to that!"

So much for that.