PREVIOUSLY-

"Bells." Charlie said, acknowledging I was there. I could see the sadness in his eyes, so I let go of Jared's hand and leaned forward to hug him.

I pulled away and looked over at Sue who was talking to Paul before she turned her attention in my direction. "I'm so sorry for your loss, Sue. Is there anything I can help with?"

"Thank you, Bella. You don't need to do anything, honey. I think we have everything covered. It was so nice of you to come by though." She said to me with a kind smile.

I looked back at Charlie and he motioned for me and Jared to follow him out the back door. I worried about what he was going to say but Jared grabbed my hand again, reassuring me that it would be okay no matter what.

Once we got outside, Charlie turned to look at us while running his fingers over his mustache.

"So who's this?" Charlie asked me, looking over at Jared.

"Jared Cameron, sir. It's nice to finally meet you, even if it's under these circumstances." Jared replied before I could, holding his hand out for Charlie to shake.

Charlie shook it and looked slightly impressed which I was happy about.

"Nice to meet you too, son. So how long has this been going on?" Charlie asked the both of us with his eyebrow raised.

"Uh—" I stuttered, completely forgetting our backstory all of a sudden.

"I met Bella when she started coming down to the res to visit Jacob. He's a good friend of mine and introduced us. We really kind of hit it off right away. I asked her to be my girlfriend a couple months back." Jared replied to him when I lost my words making me very grateful.

"A couple months, huh? Why am I just hearing about it now?" Charlie questioned, now looking directly at me.

"We wanted to keep things to ourselves for a while, Dad. It was really me though, I wanted to be sure it wouldn't turn out like how it did with Edward, and I can definitely promise you that it won't. Jared helped me get my head back on my shoulders again." I told him. There was a lot of honesty meshed in there and I knew it was the right thing to say when I saw Charlie nodding his head.

"Well I can't blame you there." He muttered before turning to Jared. "So Jared, what are your intentions with my daughter?"

I covered my face with my hand and sighed. Jared squeezed my hand before replying.

"To be completely honest, she's it for me Chief." My breath hitched in my throat. While I already knew that would be the case, it felt different hearing him say it. I could feel the absolution in his emotions and I looked up at him in adoration.

"Aren't you two a bit… you know, young?" Charlie asked us as he put his hands on his belt.

"We're both 18 but that doesn't really matter, at least in my opinion. When you know, you know, and I definitely know that Bella is my future without a shadow of a doubt." Jared replied to him with honesty, making me remember the visions that had passed through my mind only hours before.

"Right. Well as long as you treat my daughter how she deserves, we won't have a problem. Got it son?" Charlie responded.

"You won't ever have to worry about that, Chief. She's everything to me." Jared wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me into his side, kissing the side of my head in the process.

"It better stay that way." Charlie told him adamantly.

I decided to be brave and ask him what had been on my mind since we'd left Jared's. "Hey Dad, is it alright with you if I stay here on the reservation for the night?"

I felt Jared's surprise at my question and Charlie's eyebrows rose at me.

"Well, you're 18 Bells. I can't stop you if you want to stay. I guess you'll be staying with Jared?" I nodded my head. "Right. Just—be safe, alright?"

I blushed at his words. "Yeah, of course. Thanks, Dad."

"Thank you, Chief." Jared told him, holding out his hand to shake again.

Charlie grabbed his hand. "Might as well call me Charlie, son. Take care of my daughter."

"Always." Jared returned with honesty before looking down at me with a certain affection in his eyes that I'd never before experienced.

I smiled at Jared's interaction with Charlie and before I knew it we were saying our goodbyes and leaving. Paul had decided to stay until it was time for him to patrol so Jared and I slowly made our way back to his house.

Once we got there and he closed the door, he turned to me and brushed a stray piece of hair out of my face.

"So you get to spend the night…" He whispered to me.

"I know I probably should've asked you first, but—"

"The surprise made it so much better, I promise. You have no idea how excited I am that you're staying. I'm not going to lie; I was really worried about you going home tonight. Sam's memory of being too far from Emily after he imprinted on her was brutal." Jared said as I pulled him toward the kitchen.

"What happened?" I asked him curiously, wondering how it had been for Sam.

"Emily lived up in Neah Bay when Sam imprinted on her. She was only down here visiting the Clearwater's because she's their cousin. After Sam imprinted, shit hit the fan. He was with Leah at the time and then he imprinted on her cousin out of nowhere. Em told him to stay with Leah, but he couldn't. He was definitely meant to be with Emily instead of Leah – they were totally toxic for each other – but when Em told him that she wanted him but that he needed to go back to Leah, he lost it. After the accident, Em moved here but before when she went back to Neah Bay, his wolf totally freaked. He was running 60 miles every night just to be close enough. He stayed phased for weeks. That was all before I phased but I've seen it in his head countless times." Jared explained to me as I looked in his refrigerator for whatever food he had to make.

"Every night?" I asked him worriedly.

"Every night until his wolf couldn't handle the distance anymore. He doesn't even know how long he stayed phased in Neah Bay but he thinks it was close to a month." He responded as I handed him some salmon.

I swallowed deeply, knowing that it would be the same for us. I lived all the way in Forks, but even though it wasn't as far as Neah Bay, it was still too far for his wolf.

"So what are we going to do? I still have a couple months of school left…" I questioned, wondering how that was going to work.

"I mean, your dad already knows that you're spending the night here tonight. Do you think he might let you stay more often?"

I bit my lip. Charlie wasn't the type to hover and he seemed okay with the fact that I could make my own decisions. "I'm 18 so legally I can stay where I want, but I think having Charlie's approval would make me feel a little better. What about school though?"

"I can drive you to school. It's not like I have school so it wouldn't be a problem. If I can convince Charlie, would you stay here with me?" He was nervous about asking but I put my hand on his arm to calm him down.

"Like moving in?" I asked with a sly smile.

"I know everything is happening so quick but I really—"

"Yes." I replied, cutting him off and surprising him at the same time.

"Yes?" He questioned as if not hearing me right.

"Yes." I stated without hesitation. "We already know it's going to happen, so why put it off? I feel like there's a certain level of assurance that it wouldn't be a mistake considering we're already tied together for life. It's not like one of us is just going to up and change our mind suddenly. Right?"

He lifted me up and spun me around, kissing me thoroughly when he put me down.

"Oh yeah, you're definitely moving in ASAP." He murmured in between kisses.

"Convince Charlie and I will." I whispered back to him.

"Consider it done." He smirked.

A/N- Sorry it's been a few days, my dears. I've been doing a lot of work helping my husband (technically ex-husband and baby daddy that I got back together with after the divorce was final lol) on an app that he's developed. Still a lot of work to do before it's out on the app store, but it's coming along nicely! Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter and be sure to leave a review.

-Bex