59. The Dog's Out Of The Bag
Throwing the double doors open, Bella took a few steps in before she stopped and looked around, mouth agape. "Which ones are mine?"
I'd tried to warn her. The closet - if one could call it that - was larger than most rooms in the mansion, possibly larger than any other room in our little cottage, and filled with enough clothes to stock a department store. Rows of nearly identical white garment bags hid the treasures my sister had procured. It was evident from the amount of fluff within most of them that they didn't contain sweats or holey t-shirts. I had to wonder if there was anything in here that Bella would have chosen for herself.
I stepped around her to get my bearings. All the bags looked the same. It was hard to tell from my memory of what I'd seen in their minds. There. The shorter row by the door seemed right. The clothes inside the bags weren't fluffy, and some of them smelled like they'd come from my closet in the mansion.
"To the best of my knowledge, everything but this rack here is yours."
"All of this?"
The sour look on Bella's face as she surveyed the closet made me want to laugh. She spat my sister's name at the same time as I shrugged and said, "Alice." Was there any other explanation necessary? The cottage may have been intended for both of us, but the closet was for Bella. Or, for Alice, depending on one's point of view.
"Fine," she grumbled, and grabbed for the nearest zipper.
Alice was surely having a good laugh right now. At both of us.
The bag Bella opened held a soft pink silk dress unlike anything I'd ever seen her wear before. It was long, and the material looked like it would cling to her curves in all the right places. I might claim to be uninterested in fashion, but I couldn't ignore the idea of my new, confident, graceful Bella dressed in an elegant evening gown, hair swept up and glittering with diamonds. She wouldn't have any trouble balancing in heels or keeping up with me on the dance floor. I could just imagine her in it, but I knew that was as far as I was likely to get.
Bella looked hopelessly around at the bags and bags of clothes. She obviously had no intention of wearing the pink gown, but seemed to despair of finding anything suitable.
"Let me help," I said and breathed in the various scents in the room. Yes, the wall by the door definitely held my clothes. Silk and satin seemed prevalent elsewhere, but along the back was a dresser that seemed promising. I sniffed again when I got closer, then opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of jeans. Bella's eyes lit up as she zipped over to join me.
"How did you do that?"
"Denim has its own scent just like anything else. Now… stretch cotton?" I found her a long-sleeved t-shirt, and she buried her nose in them, inhaling deeply.
"Thanks," she said with evident relief.
I opened another drawer, but let her choose her underthings for herself. Alice had gone overboard there too, but I didn't mind, not after what I'd seen when Bella had been trying to seduce me. Then and there, I vowed that I would see her in that pink dress some day, if only briefly, before it ended up in rags on our floor.
While she dressed, I pulled on my own clothes. When I turned back to her, she looked so much like human Bella, with her hair tucked haphazardly behind her ears and tugging the ends of the sleeves into place, I had to smile. She took my hand when I held it out to her and kept up with me easily as I dashed through the bedroom, leapt the stone fence, and sprinted through the forest.
I grinned at her when she pulled her hand free and picked up her pace. If she wanted a race, I'd give her one!
It felt good to stretch my legs, to run just because it felt good. I didn't quite leave her behind as I flew through the forest, but I hurtled the river and hit the wide lawn ahead of her by a good margin. She grabbed my hand and yanked me along with her when I paused to give her a victorious grin, and we ran up the wide steps to the house, side-by-side.
Our family was gathered around, watching Renesmee play with silverware. She'd already twisted several pieces out of shape and had the spoon she had just mangled still clasped in her hand when Bella and I came into her view. She lost her interest in it as soon as she spied us, throwing it away and pointing at Bella, who dropped my hand and darted into the room ahead of me. Bella scooped Renesmee into her arms, both mother and daughter smiling broadly at the reunion.
Renesmee let Bella know that she was hungry. As I headed to the kitchen to fix her breakfast, I had to marvel anew at Bella's incredible control. Our child might not smell quite like a human, but her living, beating heart pushed hot, wet blood just the same. The sound of her pulse alone would have sent any other newborn vampire into an uncontrollable frenzy. I felt the same burn that made Bella wince when Renesmee shared her thoughts, but I had decades of practice. Bella had only awoken yesterday!
"How long has she been awake?" she asked.
"Just a few minutes," Rose answered. "We would have called you soon. She's been asking for you - demanding might be a better description. Esme sacrificed her second-best silver service to keep the little monster entertained. We didn't want to… er, bother you."
Ignoring the smirks and knowing looks of my siblings, Bella said, "We'll get your room set up right away. You'll like the cottage. It's magic. Thank you, Esme. So much. It's absolutely perfect."
Emmett, who had started in right away with thoughts of ...wow, done already? and guess when you been waitin' that long, it's kinda hard to pace yourself… gave in to his barely contained mirth and teased, "So it's still standing? I would've thought you two had knocked it to rubble by now. What were you doing last night? Discussing the national debt?"
I nearly crushed the metal cup I held. It just wasn't fair. I'd been glad we hadn't destroyed anything. Here I'd reveled in the fact that she could handle my strength, and he mocked the outcome. Nothing I could say could properly defend the state of the cottage. He would twist anything I said into a joke, aside from revealing a need to defend myself that would only provide him with more ammunition.
Jasper watched Bella carefully, but although the muscles along her jaw tightened, revealing the anger he sensed, she focused her attention on the child she held and not my obnoxious brother. He'd tried to come to terms with her control yesterday, but he still didn't understand how she wasn't at least tearing doors from their hinges instead of opening them. Most newborns were as dangerous simply because they had to learn to modulate their strength as because they had to learn to cope with their thirst. Bella, it seemed, was unusual in that regard, too.
In fact, she hadn't accidentally destroyed anything yet, unless I counted her tearing my clothes to shreds last night.
Which I didn't.
Trying to be more like the girl I loved, I swallowed my irritation and got on with opening a unit of blood for my daughter's breakfast. I shook my head at the incongruousness of such a thing, but what else would a vampire baby have for breakfast?
"Where's Seth?" she asked and looked out the windows as if she expected him to trot out from behind the trees that moment.
"Jacob took off this morning pretty early," Rose answered again. "Seth followed him out."
That was a mild way of putting it. The images in everyone's minds indicated Jacob's hands had been trembling - a sure sign of an emotionally-fueled imminent change. Seth had dogged his heels across the lawn and down the driveway and hadn't been seen since.
"What was he so upset about?" I asked as I left the kitchen.
"I don't know - or care," Rosalie muttered sourly.
Bella took one look at the cup I held and immediately offered Renesmee back to Rosalie for her to feed. I didn't press her, but if she'd wanted to feed our daughter, I'd have given the cup full of human blood to her without hesitation. She might not think she could handle it, but I knew she could.
She didn't seem bothered at all by the greedy little grunts Renesmee made as she began drinking from the cup Rose held. Jasper locked his eyes on Alice, held his breath, and refused to move. I was quite proud of him. Before he'd seen Bella resist, he would not have been able to stay in the room. Beside him, Alice didn't notice that she was staring at Nessie's mouth, watching her drink. The others were pointedly not looking, though they were all very aware of the cup and what was in it.
Once she had Nessie settled comfortably in her arms, Rose continued, "He was watching Nessie sleep, his mouth hanging open like the moron he is, and then he just jumped to his feet without any kind of trigger - that I noticed anyway - and stormed out. I was glad to be rid of him. The more time he spends here, the less chance there is that we'll ever get the smell out."
Esme said Rose's name in disapproval, but she tossed her hair defiantly and said, "I suppose it doesn't matter. We won't be here that much longer."
The various mental images matched her words. Esme recalled offering them breakfast when they first woke, and Carlisle had had Seth demonstrate his full and complete return to health after removing the brace, but everyone else had been engaged in conversations that hadn't included the wolves or, like Jacob, were captivated by the sleeping child. Then, he had simply jumped up and left.
"I still say we should go straight to New Hampshire and get things set up," Emmett said. "Bella's already registered at Dartmouth. Doesn't look like it will take her all that long to be able to handle school."
Dartmouth! We even had a little house there already. I let myself briefly entertain the idea of Bella and I, in just a few weeks time, attending our first college courses together. With her as capable of resisting blood as she already was - standing there with an open cup of blood in the room like it was no big deal, not even interested, not fighting with every ounce of energy, just ignoring it as though it weren't there - we could pick up our lives where we left off. Without a new infusion of human blood, her eye color would shift rapidly, and once they started, the red would be less noticeable. We could go out in public, lead normal lives, right from the start.
The idea made a lovely picture, except for one thing. I was about to remind Emmett that he wasn't taking Renesmee into account - we couldn't go skipping off to college; we had to find a way to help her! - when he turned to leer at Bella.
"I'm sure you'll ace all your classes… apparently there's nothing interesting for you to do at night besides study."
...doing last night instead of knocking down walls… needed such a big closet… Bella and Eddie to play dress-up, of course… Rosalie's snide laughter joined right in with Emmett's. It wasn't Bella she was imagining trying on the frilly dresses and slinky gowns.
Emmett made fun as a matter of course, but even so, how did they dare belittle what we had shared? All I could do was seethe. The others couldn't see what she pictured, and protesting either of their thoughts would only have made things worse, but it rankled! Had they no idea what the last weeks were like? Did neither of them understand what an affirmation of our love last night had been?
Judging by how closely Jasper monitored her, Bella was as angered over their irreverent attitudes as I was. However, she kept her temper, so I struggled to do the same.
Alice shot to her feet, and for a fraction of a second, I wondered if she had seen me acting on my anger after all.
"What is he doing? What is that dog doing that has erased my schedule for the entire day? I can't see anything!" Before we could get caught up in the newest wolf drama, Alice rounded on Bella. "No! Look at you! You need me to show you how to use your closet."
Relief. I wasn't about to act the irrational, impetuous fool. Apparently, Jacob had already done that.
He was loping up the driveway, Charlie's face forefront in his thoughts. He'd gone to see Bella's father!
Fury. What had he done?
"He talked to Charlie," I said. "He thinks Charlie is following after him. Coming here. Today."
Alice cursed and ran out the back door. There was something from the garage that she wanted, but I didn't pay it much attention. Nothing was there that could fix this mess.
That stupid, irresponsible, interfering mutt! Didn't he think we would have brought Charlie here ourselves if that were possible? Didn't he think we would have a damn good reason not to include Charlie in Bella's life?
"He told Charlie? But - doesn't he understand? How could he do that?" Bella shook her head and stared at me, mouth agape. "No!"
"Jacob's on his way in now," I growled. I couldn't comprehend how things could have changed so quickly. Only seconds ago, our future had been bright and wonderful. We would find a cure for Renesmee; I was sure of it. Bella's control gave us time, which was what our rapidly aging daughter needed. She would be sad to leave her father behind, but knowing Charlie was safe and living his life would have eased her grief and allowed her to concentrate on our daughter. But now, oh now.
"Hey, guys," Jacob said as he sauntered into my house, casually, as if a room full of vampires weren't staring daggers at him.
Leah and Seth came in behind him. Jacob may have acted unconcerned and over-confident, but they couldn't hide their anxiety. Even Seth, whom I never thought to see nervous around us, was trembling as his inner wolf strove to break free and protect his Alpha from the family of angry vampires.
The wolves' accumulated vampire lore was scanty at best. They had no idea what Jacob had done in exposing Charlie to our world. Carlisle was a doctor, and we all immersed ourselves in the human population by attending high school. Even Leah admitted that we didn't just go around biting people. Bella was so much herself, she couldn't be a threat to her own father. So why did we look so frightened?
When I'd been explaining Bella's idea for staying in touch with her father, Jacob had protested that Charlie seemed like a strange choice for her first meal. I'd told him it wouldn't be right away, and had agreed that the idea had been madness in any event. I'd specifically said it would be dangerous for Charlie to know the truth. Why was it that the only part of that conversation he felt mattered now was the part he'd claimed insane before?
She could see him, let him make his own assumptions, like she had with both of us. It'd worked out fine for her, hadn't it?
My hands were balled fists at my sides as I gaped at him.
"Rose," Bella said and reached for our child. My sister handed her over right away. Just yesterday, we'd been afraid to let her hold Nessie; now, Bella's arms seemed like the safest place she could be.
"Charlie'll be here soon. Just a heads-up," Jacob said as if we didn't know that already. When no one answered, he continued brazenly, "I assume Alice is getting you sunglasses or something?"
"You assume way too much," Bella snarled at him. "What. Have. You. Done?"
Even under these circumstances, a part of me couldn't help but delight in the shift in her attitude toward him. I felt I could listen to her berating him all day.
His overconfidence faltered. He had expected worry like we'd felt over Renesmee yesterday, perhaps even gratitude from Bella for intervening on her behalf, as if we were keeping her from Charlie, against her wishes. I was known to be overprotective, to hide the truth or even kidnap her if I felt it was in her best interests. No doubt this was just another instance.
He hadn't expected her to be mad.
Maybe if he just explained, she'd see what a favor he'd done her.
"Blondie and Emmett woke me up this morning going on and on about you all moving cross-country. Like I could let you leave. Charlie was the biggest issue there, right? Well, problem solved."
Like he could let us - !
As if that mongrel had any say in Bella's life, or our daughter's! No matter what moronic wolfie claim he felt he had. Did he expect us to stay indefinitely? Did he really know so little about us? What did he expect to happen in ten years, twenty, thirty, when we didn't age? Leaving was only a matter of time, and as far as Renesmee's health was concerned, the sooner the better.
Before I could sputter an answer, Bella snarled, "Do you even realize what you've done? The danger you've put him in?"
"I didn't put him in any danger." He snorted dismissively. "Except from you. But you've got some kind of supernatural self-control, right? Not as good as mind-reading, if you ask me. Much less exciting."
His derision of her astounding ability to resist was intolerable. My fury overtook me then, and before I knew it, I was in his face. "That's just a theory, mongrel! You think we should test it out on Charlie? Did you consider the physical pain you're putting Bella through, even if she can resist? Or the emotional pain if she doesn't? I suppose what happens to Bella no longer concerns you!"
He hadn't realized being a vampire meant living with pain. We didn't seem bothered by the humans around us. Why would we spend so much time around them if it hurt? As far as he understood, vampires killed because we had to in order to survive, much as a human had to eat or eventually die of starvation. Well, and because we were evil, murderous monsters… But it didn't cause a human physical agony to walk past food and not eat it. They might want the cake, be drawn to its smell, but a bit of willpower was all it cost to resist the temptation.
The excitement drained away from his eyes. His shoulders slumped, and he frowned. "Bella will be in pain?" ...and what about... if being near a human will cause Bella pain, what about Nessie...
"Like you've shoved a white-hot branding iron down her throat!"
"I didn't know that." The remorse in his whisper didn't make up for his rash behavior. Ignorance of our nature was no excuse for taking an action that affected us all! He didn't even know all there was to know about his own species; what made him think he understood us enough to make such a decision?
"Then perhaps you should have asked first."
"You would have stopped me - "
Trying not to shout, I said, "You should have been stopped - "
"This isn't about me," Bella interrupted.
I swallowed the angry words I wanted to say. Of all the selfish, short-sighted, childish things! Not asking because he knew the answer would be no, as if this was nothing more than a teen borrowing his dad's car without permission. The most innocent of joy-rides could still end in lives lost, and bringing a human to visit a newborn vampire was far more dangerous. Statistically, Charlie's chances of surviving such an encounter were zero.
But Bella was not the average newborn. Calmly holding our daughter, the living child whose heart thundered in a rhythm she should not have been able to ignore, Bella stared coldly at Jacob and explained, "This is about Charlie, Jacob. How could you put him in danger this way? Do you realize it's death or vampire life for him now, too?"
"Relax, Bella," he scoffed. "I didn't tell him anything you weren't planning to tell him."
"But he's coming here!"
"Yeah, that's the idea. Wasn't the whole 'let him make the wrong assumption' thing your plan? I think I provided a very nice red herring, if I do say so myself."
Oh. I blinked in shock at the image in his mind. Bella looked and sounded different, and there was no way Charlie wouldn't notice, but there was nothing about her new appearance that screamed vampire! other than her red eyes, and they could be attributed to a number of other things. None of them human, of course.
Like a magician's slight-of-hand, he hoped to distract her father from her new supernatural status by pulling his own, look at me, I'm a werewolf, trick.
I doubted Chief Swan would be so credulous.
Then again, Charlie did have a habit of turning a blind eye where Bella was concerned. He had preferred to believe her lies, rather than look at them too closely. Nevertheless, it was dangerous gambling that he would do the same here.
"Say it straight, Jacob. I don't have the patience for this." Bella's fingers flexed against Renesmee's back as if she wished she could wrap them around Jacob's throat. Renesmee didn't mind the strength in Bella's hug. We were distressing her, and Bella's tight hold felt snug and calming. I knew how she felt.
"I didn't tell him anything about you, Bella. Not really. I told him about me. Well, show is probably a better verb."
"He phased in front of Charlie," I said bluntly. I didn't have the patience for his games, either.
"You what?"
After yesterday, I would have thought he'd hear the danger in her voice and heed it, not start snickering as if telling a favorite joke.
"He's brave," Jacob said. "Brave as you are. Didn't pass out or throw up or anything. I gotta say, I was impressed. You should've seen his face when I started taking my clothes off, though. Priceless."
"You absolute moron! You could have given him a heart attack!"
I was hard pressed not to grin. This was serious. Charlie's life was at stake. And not just from the danger Bella represented. Because of Jacob, our whole family was in danger.
Still.
I clenched my teeth together and tried to look furious.
"Charlie's fine. He's tough. If you'd give this just a minute, you'll see that I did you a favor here."
"You have half of that, Jacob. You have thirty seconds to tell me every single word before I give Renesmee to Rosalie and rip your miserable head off. Seth won't be able to stop me this time."
"Jeez, Bells. You didn't used to be so melodramatic." Addressing me, he said, "Is that a vampire thing?"
I scowled in silence. I didn't particularly enjoy being called melodramatic, and especially not when the lives of those I loved were at stake, but there were bigger issues at stake here, and we didn't need to be diverted from his stupidity by his childishness.
"Twenty-six seconds."
Ugh, fine, but I'm no statue. Ima sit. He threw himself into the nearest chair and said, "So I knocked on Charlie's door this morning and asked him to come for a walk with me. He was confused, but when I told him it was about you and that you were back in town, he followed me out to the woods. I told him you weren't sick anymore, and that things were a little weird, but good. He was about to take off to see you, but I told him I had to show him something first. And then I phased."
Weird, but good? Bella was unusual, but I wouldn't use the word weird. I agreed with him about the good part, though. If I'd known how good it would be having Bella as my vampire wife, I wouldn't have fought it, but not even Alice could have predicted the way Bella had turned out.
Stronger inside than out, just like when she was a human.
Maybe I should have predicted it, after all.
"I want every word, you monster," Bella growled.
"Well, you said I only had thirty seconds - "
Bella's lips pulled back from her teeth, and she looked like she was about to thrust Nessie into Rose's waiting hands so she could throttle Jacob as promised.
"Okay, okay. Lemme see... I phased back and got dressed, and then after he started breathing again, I said something like, 'Charlie, you don't live in the world you thought you lived in. The good news is, nothing has changed - except that now you know. Life'll go on the same way it always has. You can go right back to pretending that you don't believe any of this.'
"It took him a minute to get his head together, and then he wanted to know what was really going on with you, with the whole rare-disease thing. I told him that you had been sick, but you were fine now - it was just that you'd had to change a little bit in the process of getting better. He wanted to know what I meant by 'change,' and I told him that you looked a lot more like Esme now than you looked like Renee."
I couldn't believe I'd heard that properly except his words were echoing in everyone else's thoughts, too. Dancing that close to the truth made it easier for Bella's father to draw the right - or wrong - conclusions. There weren't that many supernatural creatures in popular mythology that a human could change into. We obviously weren't werewolves. What other conclusion could he draw?
"After a few minutes, he asked, real quietly, if you turned into an animal, too. And I said, 'She wishes she was that cool!' I started to tell him more about werewolves, but I didn't even get the whole word out - Charlie cut me off and said he'd 'rather not know the specifics.' Then he asked if you'd known what you were getting yourself into when you married Edward, and I said, 'Sure, she's known all about this for years, since she first came to Forks.' He didn't like that very much. I let him rant till he got it out of his system. After he got calmed down, he just wanted two things. He wanted to see you, and I said it would be better if he gave me a head start to explain."
Bella took a deep breath and asked, "What was the other thing he wanted?"
"You'll like this. His main request is that he be told as little as possible about all of this. If it's not absolutely essential for him to know something, then keep it to yourself. Need to know, only."
"I can handle that part," Bella muttered.
"Other than that, he'd just like to pretend things are normal."
He sat back, quite pleased with himself. If he wasn't so damn smug about it, I could almost be grateful for one thing at least: I hadn't had to face Charlie the first time he realized how vastly we'd deceived him. Jacob had taken care of that, enjoying every minute of his verbal castigation of me in the process.
Coward, I scoffed at myself. Although he'd still probably be thinking the same things when he came over, and I wouldn't even be able to defend myself. Not that I had a good excuse for my lies. If the simple knowledge of our existence was too dangerous for him to know, then Bella should never have been exposed.
Grudgingly, Bella asked, "What did you tell him about Renesmee?"
"Oh yeah. So I told him that you and Edward had inherited a new little mouth to feed. She's your orphaned ward - like Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. I didn't think you'd mind me lying. That's all part of the game, right?"
He eyed me sardonically, but I said nothing. Living among humans meant lying to them. There was no other way.
"Charlie was way past being shocked at this point," Jacob went on, "but he did ask if you were adopting her. 'Like a daughter? Like I'm sort of a grandfather?' were his exact words. I told him yes. 'Congrats, Gramps,' and all of that. He even smiled a little."
The image in his mind made me catch my breath. Charlie had dreaded an untimely pregnancy when Bella and I had been dating. Had even wondered if, despite Bella's protests to the contrary, that wasn't secretly our reason for rushing into marriage. He would not have been pleased with me if he'd been correct. I didn't need to be telepathic to read that in his mind.
The adoption of my orphaned ward allowed me to give Bella a child in a way he could accept. I hadn't accidentally gotten his teenage daughter pregnant, but I had legitimately made my wife a mother and him a grandfather. We were a little young to be parents, but weren't acting irresponsibly.
If I wasn't so angry at his presumption, I might have thanked Jacob.
Bella, too, had a hint of a smile. But her smile fell, and she worried, "But she's changing so fast."
"I told him that she was more special than all of us put together." He got off the couch, drawn to Renesmee, and walked up to Bella without a hint of fear. Seth and Leah made to accompany him, but he waved them back. Bella wasn't going to hurt him, he was as sure as I, and none of the rest of us would. Nessie reached for him, glad the angry shouting was over, and pleased with the way he spoke of her, but Bella refused to let her go to him.
"I told him, 'Trust me, you don't want to know about this. But if you can ignore all the strange parts, you're going to be amazed. She's the most wonderful person in the whole world.' And then I told him that if he could deal with that, you all would stick around for a while and he would have a chance to get to know her. But if that was too much for him, you would leave. He said as long as no one forced too much information on him, he'd deal."
I tried to imagine myself telling Charlie about the last weeks of Bella's human life, how I'd watched her shrink and shrivel away to skin and broken bones. No. Jacob was right; he didn't need to know about that. He knew her life had been in danger, and he knew the change had saved her. That was more than enough.
"I'm not going to say thank you," Bella said in a sour voice. "You're still putting Charlie at a huge risk."
"I am sorry about it hurting you. I didn't know it was like that. Bella, things are different with us now, but you'll always be my best friend, and I'll always love you. But I'll love you the right way now. There's finally a balance. We both have people we can't live without."
Contrition didn't suit him, but at least it was genuine. My accusations that he didn't care about Bella had wounded him, because he did care, and he needed her to know it. Not because - not just because he'd imprinted on her daughter. He wanted her approval and forgiveness. He did love her, and did not want to lose her friendship.
I understood him better than he knew. If she'd chosen Jacob instead of me, I'd have been grateful to be considered her friend and to be accepted into both their lives as such, just to be around her.
Thank God that wasn't what happened. Bella was mine, and I was hers. What we had shared last night, and would again tonight, was better than anything I had dared to imagine. Our days would be spent surrounded by family, including the incredible, impossible child I'd given her. Our nights would be spent wrapped up in each other. I got to share my life with Bella. I could accept her friendship with Jacob.
His relationship with my daughter, on the other hand, well, I supposed I would have to take a page from Charlie's book at some point and deal with their relationship on a need to know basis. For the time being, his thoughts about her were innocent and innocuous. Her welfare was his greatest concern, and in no way could he fail to protect her. I still didn't like it, but supposed it could have been worse.
Jacob gave Bella a cheeky grin. "Still friends?"
She seemed to be trying not to smile, but Jacob saw the softening of her eyes and the uplift to her lips just as well as I did. I'd known she'd forgive him for everything eventually. It was Bella's nature. She tried to resist his charms though, and that pleased me.
He held out his hand, and she took it.
"If I don't kill Charlie tonight, I'll consider forgiving you for this."
"When you don't kill Charlie tonight, you'll owe me huge."
Had he been this cocky before becoming a werewolf? He'd been willing to pursue Bella, though he was a year younger than she, so I supposed some things were just inevitable.
He reached his hand toward Renesmee. "Can I?"
Bella's arms tightened and her eyes narrowed. "I'm actually holding her so that my hands aren't free to kill you, Jacob. Maybe later."
I couldn't stop my grin and didn't try. Nothing quite equaled the sound of her threatening bodily harm to an offensive or otherwise annoying boy. Especially when that boy was Jacob.
