A/N: I'm so sorry! I know it's been two weeks since I last updated, but I'm here now! Enjoy and sorry once again.

All night, my phone rang. Or at least, that's what I was assuming because I had fifty missed calls from Jared. When I woke up in the morning and saw them, I was surprised my window was still intact. It would be just like him to come to my room and break open my window.

I had to suppress my humorless laughter. Jared was the one stalking me now, how funny.

I got up, showered, brushed my teeth and put my wet hair into a big French braid before throwing on a pair of jeans and a plain gray long sleeved shirt. Just as I was tugging it down, there was a knock on my bedroom door. "Kim?" Jeff asked. "Someone's at the door for you."

I folded my arms and sighed. "If its Jared, please tell him I'm not here."

"It's not Jared…" He trailed off. "I mean, I don't think it is. I don't know! They all look the same to me." I furrowed my eyebrows. If it wasn't Jared, who else would it be? "Can you just go downstairs and see what he wants? I don't want to talk to him again, he gives me the creeps."

"Fine." I muttered, following him down the stairs and opening up the door to find Paul leaning casually against the railing. I wasn't really all that surprised. "Hello Paul."

He gave me his infamous bad boy smirk. "Hi Kim, do you have plans for today?"

I didn't like his tone of voice or the mischievous glint in his eyes. "Well actually I was thinking of going to the mall with Summer."

"Well, think again." And he casually grabbed me by the waist and threw me over his shoulder.

I shrieked. "Paul! Put me down right now! I mean it!"

"Not a chance."

"I'm not wearing a jacket! Or shoes!" I cried. "I can't go anywhere without shoes."

He shrugged, making my torso go up and down and hurting my ribs, and stepped into my house, grabbing a pair of shoes from the closet. "I know these are your Vans. Problem solved." And he took off the giant jacket he was wearing and slid my arms through it. I felt like a rag doll.

"Lucky guess." I grumbled and he started walking down the porch and down the road. "Where are we going?" I asked. I had given up on running away. He was bigger, faster and stronger than me.

"To Sam and Emily's."

"That's a ten minute walk, Paul. Are you really going to carry me upside down the whole way?" I could already feel the blood rushing to my head. "I can walk you know."

"Are you going to run away? If you do, I will carry you by the ankles." He threatened and I grumbled a promise and he finally set me on my feet, grabbing me by the shoulders as I tipped over towards him.

I righted myself and looked down while we walked, blush flushing across my face. Paul kept a strong hand on me, his fingers flexing on my shoulder. "You can let go of my shoulder." I muttered. "Even if I ran away, you're faster than me." He relaxed his grip. "So why are you kidnapping me anyway?"

Paul shrugged his big shoulders. "Because I can."

"That's really all you're going to tell me?" I muttered.

"What kind of friend would I be if I gave it away?"

I should have known. "So this has something to do with Jared." I mumbled. Paul just chuckled and threw his arm across my shoulder, like we'd been friends our whole life. I folded my arms across my ribs, firmly but gentle, and walked next to him. Eventually, I was panting, trying to keep in stride with his giant legs. "Paul, can you please slow down?"

"How about you speed up, okay cupcake?" He teased. I scowled at him and he rolled his eyes. "Fine, I will walk at your annoyingly slow snail pace."

"Be nice or I'll run away and yell rape." I muttered.

He looked at me and laughed. "You know, Kim, I always used to think you were a shy and quiet girl but you have quite a devious mind. Are you starting to come out of your shell a little bit?"

"Yeah well I used to think you were a huge dickhead. Finally get that stick out of your ass?"

He snorted. "You're hilarious, now don't freak out." And he proceeded to spin me around and tie a piece of fabric around my eyes. I have to admit, I freaked out. I started flailing my hands and trying to hit him and pull off the blindfold. "You're a great listener."

"You just cut off one of my main senses!" I cried. "I don't know about you, but I think that's reason enough for me to be a little unsettled."

"Oh come on, like I would ever do anything to hurt you." There was a hint of a smirk in his voice. "We're friends, aren't we Kim?"

"You don't have girl friends, Paul." I grumbled, stumbling blindly along while he guided me with his hands on my shoulders. "You have conquests."

He laughed loudly. "You are very observant. But I guess when you stalk Jared I'm part of the deal, right?" I quickly shut my mouth, and my face lit up. Leave it to Paul to purposely try to embarrass me by bringing that up. "Aw Kim, I'm just teasing you. Don't be upset."

"We may be friends now but I still hate you. You're still an ass."

"So I've been told." And he didn't sound ashamed, he sounded proud. I rolled my eyes behind the blindfold. Typical Paul. "We're here. Watch your step."

He led me through the screen door and I smelled food before I saw it, because of my temporary blindness. "Paul is that you?" Emily called. "Kim! Oh, I'm so glad you came!"

"I'm not sure what's going on but nice to see you too Emily. Figuratively speaking, that is."

She giggled. "Well, I'll take it from here. I'm sure you want to get away from Paul."

"Hey, I'm not that horrible to be around." Paul mumbled with a mouthful of something.

"That's because you've had to live with yourself for seventeen years, Paul. You're used to it by now." I grumbled as Emily took my hand and led me outside. "Why are we going outside? It's a little chilly."

"Don't worry, you won't notice. Have fun!" And she departed back inside.

"Wait, am I allowed to take my blindfold off or not!" I called to her.

The person who answered me wasn't her. "I'm sorry that I made them blindfold you. I just wanted this to be a surprise." Jared's warm hands reached up to untie the fabric and I felt his fingertips brush against my face. My body involuntarily shivered. "Happy belated Valentine's Day, Kim."

There was a small sheet of snow lying across the ground and a path of twinkling lanterns, leading up to a Gazebo with two cushions and a picnic blanket spread out with dishes of food all over it. Around the inside of the Gazebo, white rose petals were spread out on the ground. There were sparkling snowflakes hanging all around. It was like… "A Winter Wonderland." I breathed.

"Are the rose petals too much? I just kind of threw them around at the last minute… Girls like roses right? I mean, I can easily sweep them up right now if you want to go wait inside." He rambled.

"Jared, shut up." I reached up on my very tiptoes to clap a hand around his mouth. "It's beautiful. Absolutely breathtaking."

"Do you want to go sit down?" He murmured. "But first, take off that jacket. You smell like Paul and I would rather not have to sniff him anymore than I have to." I took off the jacket, threw it on one of the deck chairs and took Jared's hand. "I wanted to do this at my house, but my backyard is definitely not this well-kept. Don't worry though, Emily promised that she would kick Paul out of the house so he wouldn't bother us."

I just nodded and sat down on one of the cushions, finding myself reverting back into my shell, astonished and shy. I had never been on a date before, but I'm pretty sure this topped the basic dinner and a movie combo. I looked at the food and without thinking, blurted out, "Did you cook this?"

Jared chuckled. "No, don't worry, it was all Emily." I frowned, feeling a bit guilty. "Don't worry, she offered."

How is it that Jared always knows what I'm thinking? "So it's safe to eat." I teased weakly.

He gathered my hands in his big, warm ones. "Kim, please relax. It's just me. It's us, on a date. Just imagine us talking like we would in History."

"Is it okay if we talk about something other than the Civil War?"

He gave me a broad grin and kissed me on the side of the head. I flushed and looked down at my lap. "It's really good to see you. I've missed you a lot."

"I'm sorry…" I trailed off. "I overreacted."

Jared shook his head. "No Kim, everything you did was justified. I know I've screwed up a lot, before and after our relationship started. But no more screw ups, Kim. I promise that I'm going to do everything right now."

"Thank you." I whispered. "Thank you for being there for Jacob when he needed someone. Thank you for letting me be there for him too. You haven't screwed up as much as you think."

"Well, I have something for you. Hopefully it will make up for the times that I did screw up." He pulled out a little drawstring bag. "Open it."

I frowned a bit. "You didn't have to buy me anything… I didn't get you anything."

"I don't need anything as long as I have you. As long as you're breathing, everything is perfect."

I blushed again and gently poured the contents of the bag into my hand. "Oh Jared…" In my hands was a gently woven bracelet, littered with russet and black colored beads. At the end was a carved wolf. "Did you make this?"

"I did. Emily showed both Sam and I how to do it. She has one too. It's a promise bracelet of sorts…" He paused. "I wanted to ask you, finally, officially. Will you be my girlfriend?" Another pause. "Are you crying?"

His voice sounded horrified and I realized that, yes, I was crying. I wiped away my tears furiously. "That's so embarrassing."

"Kim, did I do something to upset you? Do you not want to be with me anymore?"

I gave a watery laugh. "Don't be an idiot, Jared. I'm just a little surprised, but I'm happy. Of course I want to be with you. I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would ever have you. And yet, here you are."

He awkwardly crawled towards me and wrapped me in his arms. He was so warm and his forehead pressed against mine. "I should have noticed you sooner. I wish I had. We could have had so much more time together."

"But you're here now." I whispered.

"I'm here now." He murmured. "And we have the rest of our lives to be together."

And despite everything that had happened to get us here, despite all of our mistakes, I believed him.

"She actually did that?" Jared muttered, horrified.

I giggled at his expression, taking another bite of my chicken salad. "She did. She said that we were practically family already."

He groaned and slapped a hand over his eyes. "Leave it to my mom to do that the first time she meets you. I'm surprised that you didn't run away screaming."

"Oh I thought about it. But do you want to know what stopped me?"

His eyes smouldered into mine. "What?"

"I really, really wanted my shoe back." I said seriously. Jared's lips twitched upwards into a smirk and he shoved me gently.

"Are you sure that was the only reason?"

I pretended to think about it. "Yup, positive."

He threw me a puppy dog face. "Why are you so mean to me, Kim?"

"It's because I love you." I said lightly, trying to take the intense edge and meaning off of my words, like they were something I would say every day.

I didn't fool him. His face lit up and he engulfed my own face in his big hands and kissed me with all his might. I slid my hands up his chest and grasped his collar while our tongues tangled. He finally let go and I realized that I had been holding my breath. I gasped. "I love you too Kim, so much. I promise that nothing will ever, ever change that." He said solemnly.

"You really did a good job of making up for our cancelled date." I commented casually, trying to ignore the fact that my heart was beating a mile a minute.

He smiled. My heart started up faster. "Well, I'm just glad you came."

"You can thank Paul for that." I grumbled. "He threw me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes."

Jared's eyes narrowed. "I told him to bring you here, not to kidnap you. I'll kill him."

I put my hands on his forearm. "Don't do that, Jared. He was just being a good friend. If he had mentioned your name or anything to do with you, I have to admit, I probably wouldn't have come. I was still being a stubborn child."

"Did you just say Paul was a good friend?" He asked, laughing. "I'm so used to being the one defending him, it's a little strange."

I shrugged. "Well, Paul has been a really nice guy to me ever since we started… talking."

"He loves you, Kim. You're his little sister. In fact, they all love you. Embry, Emily, Paul… Jacob. Even Sam feels strongly towards you, and he barely knows you. They all think of you as family."

"They feel like my family." I whispered. "Ever since my dad passed away, I haven't really known what family was. But…Emily's house feels like home to me. I'm happiest when I'm with you guys. I trust you with my life. That's what family feels like, right?"

"Yes, Kim." Jared's voice was warm. "That is exactly what family feels like."

A/N: And they finally have their first date! How was it? Was it what you expected? Better? Worse? Sorry that the chapter was kind of short, but I felt like this was the perfect place to end it. I didn't want to ruin the essence of their date by jumping scenes.