For I Am Captured Straight to You

PART FIVE

"The target is in sight."

"No it isn't. The target is Bella. That is her window."

"Well…she's inside the window, isn't she?"

"No, Quil. She's beyond the window. If she were inside the window, I could walk around with her paperclipped to my pocket."

"I don't think Embry would be cool with that."

"Then it's a good thing I'm right and you're wrong."

"Whatever. I'm gonna find some rocks to throw."

Jacob watched Quil crouch down to dig through the grass and then reached into his pocket to retrieve the shiny silver phone he'd snagged off Embry before leaving the Rez. He pressed and held the number '2.' Three seconds later he heard ringing coming from Bella's room.

Sheets rustling.

A thump.

A curse.

More rustling.

"Hello?" Bella finally croaked.

Jacob grinned into the receiver. "Hello, sunshine."

"Jacob?"

"That's Agent Tall Dark and Smexy to you."

"Smexy?"

" it."

"Wuh?"

"It means I'm smart and sexy, Bella. Smexy. The best of both worlds. Just roll with it."

"Why are you calling me, Jake?" she groaned. See, when Bella didn't get enough beauty sleep, not only did she look like a zombie, but she acted like one, too. Jacob always tried to keep his flesh a safe distance from her mouth. Just in case. "And why do you have Em's phone?"

"Because how else am I supposed to call you from outside your house?"

There was silence on Bella's end.

Probably fantasizing about chomping on your fingers.

"Bells?"

"Jake," she sighed finally, his name dragging as if it weighed a ton. "When we watched that movie and I mentioned how sweet it was that John Cusack stood outside with a boom box above his head, I didn't mean I thought it would be sweet if you tried—"

Jacob shook his head. "Oh, no, you've got it all wrong. No boom box. But I did bring you something much simpler and just as noisy."

"What? Jake, you know I don't—"

"I promise you'll be doing me a favor by taking it off my hands. Come over to the window." Jacob snapped the phone closed so she would have to at least tell him to fuck off in person.

Quil stood up abruptly, hands cupped together. "Look! Rocks."

"Look!" Jacob grabbed Quil's shoulders and twisted him around toward the house. "Bella."

She appeared in the window, pushing it open after a bit of fumbling. Her hair was tangled around her shoulders, which were distractingly bare beneath her camisole. "You brought me Quil?" she asked, not sounding the least bit impressed. Not that Jacob could blame her.

"He'll sing if you want him to. Does a mean cover of Afternoon Delight."

"What are you guys doing here?" she muttered while rubbing at her eyes.

"You were seriously asleep already?" Quil raised an eyebrow. "It's not even twelve yet. What kind of college student are you? I had rocks to throw."

Bella yawned. "I don't understand. What's happening?"

"We're adultnapping you."

This was usually the point where said adult being "napped" would inquire, "Why?" But Bella was a pretty rational person and knew that it was sometimes better not to ask questions with potentially alarming answers. With Quil, it was always better.

"How?"

"Jump." Jacob shrugged. "I'll catch you."

Wearily eyeing the two story drop, Bella politely declined.

Jacob did his best to look wounded. "When have these arms ever steered you wrong?"

"Jake," Bella sighed and leaned her elbows on the sill, "I don' care how strong you are. If I ended up toppling out this window headfirst—which seems likely given my history with gravity, there won't be much you can do to soften the impact. And you know how fond I am of not being paralyzed from the neck down."

Quil turned to Jacob. "We did not allot time for this level of resistance. T minus 20 minutes."

Bella rolled her eyes. "Can't you just climb up here and carry me down? That's what Embry does."

The two boys shared a bemused look, before Quil sighed condescendingly. "Two problems."

"First off," Jacob began, "what happens if your dad catches us in there? In your room? In the middle of the night? I mean, what's our excuse gonna be? 'Don't worry, Chief Swan, I swear we were just watching her sleep.'" He snorted. "Cuz that doesn't sound bad."

"And secondly," Quil jumped in, "you're Embry's girlfriend, so he's allowed to be alone with you in your room at questionable times of the night. But once you start having three different guys in your bedroom…well, let's just say people start to talk. We're just looking out for your reputation here, Bella."

Jacob nodded solemnly in agreement. "Honestly, where's your sense of propriety?"

Bella eyed them skeptically, and Jacob knew she was using her Laser Stare of Truth. (Charlie had taught her well.) "You're just worried that Embry would hurt you if he found out, aren't you?"

Silence.

"Pretty much."

"Yeah, that's a fair statement."

Bella shook her head in amusement, loose pieces of hair falling in front of her face. "How about I just use the door?"

Quil snorted. "Sure, 'sneak out' through the front door. Who does that? I suppose you're also gonna wanna ask Charlie's permission before you go."

Bella—wisely—ignored him. "Does it matter what I wear?"

It was cool outside, but given the nature of the, uh, activity that was planned, she wouldn't have to worry about heat.

"Nope," Quil said with a cheeky grin. "You'll just be taking your clothes off anyway—ow!" Scowling, he rubbed the back of his head as Jacob fixed him with a warning look. "What? She will!"

"Never mind," Bella mumbled and ducked back inside.

Another successful application of the "don't ask Quil, don't let Quil tell" policy.

She did end up using the front door and—although she tried to be sneaky about it—left a note for Charlie on the kitchen table. (For some reason, Bella had gotten it in her head that if she hummed loud enough, they couldn't hear her doing other things like going to the bathroom or dragging a pen across a piece of paper. But her ignorance was sorta endearing so the boys just let her go on thinking she was ingenious like that.)

"You guys are dressed," Bella remarked in surprise as she locked the door behind her.

Quil grinned cheekily. "That can be fixed."

"No, it's a good look for you," Bella commented.

Jacob snickered.

"I guess that means you didn't run here." She peered curiously at the driveway, which was empty save for Charlie's cruiser. "How did you get here?"

"In style." Quil tossed an arm around Bella's small shoulders and began leading her toward the sidewalk, which they followed around the corner of the block.

Jacob watched Bella's face expectantly as her eyes fell upon the two motorcycles parked at the curb. The bikes bore little resemblance to the bare, rusted heaps of metal they had scavenged a month previously on her birthday. They'd been a decent distraction during his Sam-proclaimed Bella-exile. Any time he hadn't been patrolling, he'd been holed up in his garage, pretending Bella was there with him, asking questions she wouldn't remember the answers to.

Jacob had put the final touches on them just that morning. It hadn't taken much convincing to get Quil to agree to help drive them down to Charlie's

And Jacob wasn't disappointed by Bella's reaction. She gasped and moved toward the red Honda first—it was closest. She ran admiring finger over the handle bar. "I can't believe it," she exclaimed with a grin. "I thought you would have stopped working on them after the whole werewolf thing."

"You think a little bit of facial hair was gonna keep me from our babies?"

"Our babies?" Bella giggled a tad bit hysterically.

The sound had Jacob smiling like an idiot. He still knew how to get under her skin, and she still lived under his.

"Yeah, you and me made a couple of good lookin' kids, huh?"

Big brown eyes and a slow smile caught him from beneath long lashes, so Jacob was already half-breathless when Bella came crashing into him, arms thrown around his middle.

"Thank you, Jake," she said into his chest. "They're amazing. Best birthday present ever."

"So, Bella," Quil said from where he was straddling the Harley, patting the seat behind him in invitation, "ya wanna?"

And then he did a creepy eyebrow wiggle thing that should have been restricted to sexual predators and mimes. Bella choked on her laughter.

"Actually, you,"—he pointed to Quil—"are going to be driving that one." He pointed to the Honda. "Bella and I will be riding Black Beauty."

Bella pulled away with a frown. "I don't get to drive?"

Jacob took her hand and led her over to the black Sprint and grabbed the riding jacket slung across the back. "Put this on. We'll work your way up to the driving part. Right now we're on a tight schedule. Here, don't forget the helmet."

She only stared at it in his outstretched hands. "You and Quil aren't wearing helmets."

"Because we've got thick skulls. Now, on it goes."

"Jake—"

"Look, Bells, if we drive and we crash and you split your head open on the pavement, it's all good for you cuz you'll be dead. But me? I'll probably survive only to be slowly maimed and dismembered by Embry and Charlie. So, please, do this little thing for me. Okay?"

There was some minor huffing and puffing, but Bella eventually conceded. She shrugged into the coat that was at least two sizes too big and wrestled with the zipper while Jacob slid the bulky helmet on over her head. When she was finished, Jacob stepped back to give her an appraisal.

"You look…"

Like a bobble head Martian—if Martians were black and lumpy.

"…good. Now let's go."

The whole point of kidnapping Bella from her bed in the middle of the night was to make her more comfortable with the Pack. It was tradition that whenever someone new went wolf, everyone got together to listen to the Elders tell the old legends, the history of how Quileutes came to turn into wolves, and the story of the third wife.

Jacob had purposefully chosen a seat across the fire from Bella. He'd heard the stories before during his and Embry's "initiation" shortly after his own first phase. He'd known going into tonight that the majority of his time and attention would be put into Bella-gazing. And he'd been right. The moment she had stepped out of Leah's house wearing some traditional, hand-woven Quileute dress, he'd been a lost cause. It wasn't the first time Jacob saw someone dressed in one of those things, but she was the first person who wasn't all wrinkly. It fit her nicely, hugged her…waist. And the bright colors stood out against her pale skin in a way that was more than distracting in the firelight.

Leah had demanded that she wear it, even though no one else had to dress up for the thing. Her exact words had been, "Look, this bonfire is for Quileutes only because they're going to be divulging ancient Quileute secrets like the ultra-covert Quileute legshake and hand jive and shit. She's gotta at least make an effort to blend in. It'll put the elders in a less pissy mood." But Jacob suspected she had an ulterior motive—a very large-ass, wishes-it-were-primary ulterior motive—involving a desire to incessantly drive Jacob crazy by making his life a living, 5'3," brunette Hell.

Said living Hell was currently sitting hip-to-hip with Leah across the bonfire's flames. Their heads were bent together conspiratorially, as Leah blathered on about some TV show. Bella was nodding along, snickering and adding her own occasional commentary. Leah looked relaxed for the first time since she'd phased nearly two weeks back. (It had been a busy weekend, what with Quil, Leah, and Seth all phasing within 12 hours of one another. For Sam, it had been like giving birth to triplets…with pointy, three-inch canines. Although, Leah probably wouldn't appreciate that metaphor considering her and Sam definitely used to sleep together, and that would be all incestuous and nasty.)

Bella was good with people like Leah—with people in general, really—because she was first and foremost a listener. A non-judgmental one, at that. She was too passive to get caught up in people's faults but not superior enough to ignore their problems. That made her a nurturer by default, even if Bella would whole heartedly deny it.

Christ. She was hot, sensitive, and humble. Was it really that big of a surprise that he fantasized about walking over, taking her hand, and leading her far out into the woods where he would—

"Hey." Embry nudged his shoulder as he settled down beside Jacob on the log, hands stuffed into the front pocket of his hoodie.

Jacob swallowed, eyes jumping guiltily from Bella to the fire. His heart jumped sporadically inside his chest, and Jacob had to remind himself that Embry couldn't hear his thoughts. Not now.

Yeah, relax. He has no idea you're mentally stabbing him in the back every opportunity you get.

Embry grinned, oblivious as always. "Bella said she liked the bike ride. Except the part where she had to wear a helmet."

"She's on a personal mission to give you grey hairs by the time you're 25."

Embry sighed as if being the object of Bella's scheming were some great burden, but he was smiling fondly as he watched her across the fire. Jacob allowed himself to look at her again, knowing Embry wasn't paying him any attention. Emily had brought out the stuff to make smores, and Bella was skewering a couple marshmallows for the flames. Bella might not have been that big on sweets, but she was a complete sucker for toasted marshmallows. Something about enjoying the feel of the surprisingly warm and soft inside on her tongue (yes, Quil had nearly choked on a Dorito upon hearing that explanation.)

"Is there something going on between you two?"

Jacob's head whipped sideways to find Embry was looking at him carefully. Contrasting shadows and light colored the sharp angles of his face, and for the first time Jacob saw Embry as the man phasing had forced them all to become. He wondered how much of that change showed on the inside.

"Going on between me and who?"

Embry gestured with his chin. Jacob knew without having to look who he meant, could feel the silent Bella in his bones. If there was one word that didn't need to be spoken in order to pass between Embry and Jacob, it was Bella's name.

And Embry was looking at Jacob more shrewdly and more openly than he ever had before. Usually when Embry looked as someone, he did it to see them not to see through them. He was a good guy who didn't judge with a glance and who was too fucking polite to stare long enough to recognize what someone was beyond their exterior. Some people called it naiveté; Jacob called it 'having better things to do than get dragged down in other people's negative shit.'

But now…Embry was looking at him for answers, and Jacob's stomach dropped to his feet at the obvious implication.

He knew. Embry knew. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. But he'd been so careful. Too careful. He couldn't possibly…

"It's just…"—Embry lowered his voice—"she's been acting different ever since we got back together."

"Oh?" Jacob choked out.

"Yeah. She keeps wanting to spend more and more time off the Rez. At first I thought it was the whole wolf thing. Maybe she didn't feel safe around the pack, after…"

…that one time you almost ripped her face off.

"But then she has no problem hanging out with Leah or Seth or Quil. I've just…noticed that the three of us haven't really hung out together in a while. Did you two have a fight while I was, you know, gone?"

Jacob sucked in a painful breath.

A fight. Embry thought they had gotten into an argument. Sneaking a quick glance back at Bella before once again meeting Embry's earnest eyes, Jacob cleared his throat. "Did…Bella say something about a fight?"

"No, but why else would she be avoiding you?"

Bella was avoiding him? His knee jerk reaction was to say, 'no.' Bella avoiding him was exactly the type of thing that would have showed up on his Bella Swan radar—which happened to be his most active and accurate radar. But then he thought back over the past two weeks and couldn't recall a single time Bella had strolled through his front door as if she owned the house, the dirt it was built on, and the sun shining down on it.

He'd seen her, sure, but that was only when he ran into her at the Clearwaters' house, hung out with everyone at First Beach, or kidnapped her from her bedroom in the dark of night. Jacob had chalked it up to Bella and Embry still smarting from the breakup and wanting to make up for lost time (Jacob's personal euphemism for them having lots and lots of makeup sex—not his best survival mechanism, but it kept Jacob from bashing his head against large, pointy rocks or bashing Embry's head against large, pointy rocks, so it did its job.) But what if he was wrong? What if it had nothing to do with Embry and everything to do with Jacob?

"You think she's avoiding me?"

"Did you know that we're flying to Jacksonville next week to visit Renee and Phil for Thanksgiving?"

Jacob felt like he'd swallowed a rock. "You and Bella?"

Embry nodded.

"No, I didn't know that."

"Renee is always trying to get Bella to visit, and this one time when they'd all agreed she would stay in Forks, Bella decides last minute to fly out and see her mom? That's so unlike her, man, and she's been acting weird about it." He cast a rueful look to the ground, where he was digging his toe into the dirt. "Honestly, I've been sorta hoping that you two had a fight. That's an easy fix. Now I'm worried it might be something worse."

Like maybe the two of you made it to third base behind my back.

"You know what?" Jacob clapped Embry on the back. "I think you're blowing this out of proportion. She's probably just adjusting to this whole 'supernatural creatures really do exist' business. Maybe she's just not sure how to act around us. And she seemed okay when I picked her up tonight—well, minus the scary hair and wild eyes bit. But that's pretty standard for her any time after 10:30. Not that I see her a lot after ten thirty because she's typically sleeping, and I don't watch her sleep or do anything more than watch her sleep. But sometimes I do see her at night, after 10:30. Of course neither of us are near a bed when these rare, rare occurrences…occur, and they are rare. Like, holographic Charizard rare. You remember how rare that card was, right?"

You can shut up now.

Embry laughed, and the tension left his shoulders. "Maybe you're right. I'm probably making a big deal out of nothing." He shook his head as if to clear it of all his speculation. "I just don't want to screw things up again. If there's anything our time apart taught me, it's that I always want her in my life. Like, forever. I can't imagine ever watching her from the outside looking in again."

When most eighteen-year-olds said something like that, people scoffed. When Embry said it, Jacob nodded and died a little.

"Yeah…that had to be awful."

Embry squeezed Jacob's shoulder as he stood. "Thanks for the talk down. I'd be lost without you, man."

An hour and five smores later, Jacob was in his garage, tinkering with the Rabbit, and not sulking. He had high-tailed his ass off of First Beach the moment an opportunity had presented itself. (Okay, so he bribed Quil to create an opportunity, but it wasn't like the guy needed much convincing to start a marshmallow fight. It had Bella, Kim, and Emily scrambling like crazy because when a werewolf whipped something at you that was that small and that fast, it stung like a bitch.)

Working in the garage usually served as a useful distraction for Jacob. It kept both his hands and mind busy. Except that the part he was currently working on wasn't actually broken, and Jacob was only mindlessly removing and reinstalling it, telling himself that there had to be a way for it to fit better. He could have done it in his sleep, and he could definitely do it while mentally replaying his and Embry's conversation.

He had just gotten to the part, 'Why else would she be avoiding you?' when he heard footsteps approaching from outside. Two sets. One quiet and agile, the other heavy and dragging by comparison. Was it strange that Jacob recognized the sound of Bella's footsteps from 30 yards away?

No, but the fact that you can smell her from 15 yards away definitely gives you some stalker cred.

Five seconds later Embry and Bella were standing in the garage entrance, holding hands and having one of their silent body language conversations where they leaned, and brushed and, and touched. Bella was tired. Embry was reluctant to see her go.

"We thought we'd find you hiding in here," Bella murmured sleepily.

"Much better thought out than taking shelter inside Jared's car," Embry remarked. "Turns out Jared has a key."

Bella rubbed at her arm—she was wearing street clothes again. "I think I'm going to have welts in the morning."

Jacob snorted and couldn't help but grin at the thought of them cowering in the backseat as Jared bombarded them with compressed marshmallows. Kim had probably kept him loaded with ammo. "Well, you are an easy bruiser, Bells."

"It was like being pelted with rocks," she insisted.

Jacob might have been more concerned if Embry hadn't been rolling his eyes over the top of her head. If he wasn't freaking out, it couldn't have been that bad.

Jacob ran his hands along his jeans in a half-hearted effort to clean them. "I'm sure you'll be all black and blue by morning."

"It already is morning." She rubbed at her eyes and then turned to hide a yawn in Embry's arm.

It was just after three, and Jacob was fairly certain that Bella was going to go comatose at any moment. Embry, of course was thinking along the same line.

"Jake, would it be cool if I used your car to take Bella home? I couldn't find my mom's keys and she's gotta be at work early tomorrow, so I didn't want to wake her to ask where they are."

As if he'd spent the last forty minutes practicing this very response—and not moping like a little girl—Jacob opened his mouth and said, "Actually, I need to replace a part before it's good to drive, but it shouldn't take too long. I can just drive Bella home when I'm done so you don't have to wait up."

"I don't mind waiting for you to finish."

Bella swung around in front of Embry so that she was facing him. "But you have to be up early tomorrow, too, remember? You told Mr. Fields you would be at his place by nine to help move that load of lumber."

Embry groaned and it was music to Jacob's ears. "You're right. I forgot all about that. That's six hours from now."

Bella hooked a hand inside the collar of Embry's sweater and pulled him down the ten feet it took for their faces to be level. She kissed him briefly. "Go get some sleep."

But Embry kept her from retreating by cupping her face, as he pressed his lips slowly and softly to hers.

Jacob looked away. It was almost impossible for him to recall a time when seeing them like this was something he had thrived off of.

The drawn out silence was broken when they pulled apart, and Jacob resumed pretending he had something important to fix.

"Then I guess I'm out of here," Embry said while hugging her one last time. "Thanks, Jake, and I'll see you tomorrow."

"Sure sure." Jacob kept his eyes focused on the part in his hands, as he listened to Embry's footsteps disappearing down the road toward his house. The part of his brain that wasn't trying to determine if there were any pack members within earshot was tuned into Bella's proximity—as per usual. The only light in the garage came from the weak moonlight outside and the work lamp Jacob had hanging from the Rabbit's open hood. Her human eyes had to have difficulty seeing in the darkness, so she didn't risk moving around much.

Slowly she inched to his side. Her ponytail had fallen over her shoulder and brushed his harm. He sucked in a sharp breath.

"What are you working on? Is it the, um…oh shoot. What did you call it? The something filter…"

"Have you been avoiding me?"

Fuck. You're about to sound like a butthurt little girl, aren't you?

"Huh?"

He could feel her confused stare but didn't manage to look her in the eye. "It feels like…you've been avoiding me. I mean, you've stopped coming by the house on your own. I only ever see you in La Push if you're with Embry. You haven't invited me and Billy over to yours and Charlie's in forever. You don't call me anymore to complain about your classes. This is the first time you've been in the garage since I phased. And you're missing the annual anti-Thanksgiving party to go see your mom. With Embry. It's frustrating that I can't even tell if you're acting strange because you're never around. Did I do something?"

Someone write this shit down and send it to Seventeen. I can see the title now: "Five Signs Your Best Friend is Rattling the Closet Door."

He held his breath, waiting and dreading her response. Because they both knew he had done something. He wondered if his attempts to suppress the existence of That Night by not talking about it had backfired and Bella hated him. After all, he had put his hands in her underwear without asking. Maybe not discussing it made him a dick.

Bella didn't reply right away. She was wrestling with how to answer. She always did that when she was afraid someone's feelings would get hurt by what she had so say. Screw that Gandhi guy. She and Embry had to be the two most non-confrontational people to ever live.

Which meant that he wouldn't like whatever she had to say.

"Jake…"

The garage suddenly felt very, very small. Jacob put the part he'd been mindlessly toying with back where it belonged and none-too-gently allowed the hood to fall shut with a dull thud…followed by a loud clang and shattering sound as the work lamp fell to the concrete floor, the case and bulb breaking on impact.

Bella yelped and jumped backward from the bits of scattering glass.

Jacob cursed. "Shit! Sorry. I forgot that was on there. Don't move."

Bella froze in place, blinking against the sudden blackness that Jacob was nearly immune to. "The soles of my shoes aren't very thick," she said.

"I know." She was wearing a pair of those would-be moccasins that were really only suitable for squashing stray spiders in the bathroom and not actually walking in. "Here. Let me just…"

Jacob grabbed her hips, lifted her into the air, and sat her down on the hood of the car, releasing her only when he was sure her crappy shoes were braced against the front bumper. Her body heat lingered in his hands as they fell to his sides. The short laugh that escaped her stayed with him, too.

Bella shook her head in amusement. "You guys make me feel like a little kid when you do that."

"What?"

"Move me around like I weigh twenty pounds."

"That's because you do weigh twenty pounds…in werewolf pounds, which is like dog years but backwards and measuring weight instead of time. And of course the conversion is less scientific and more of a guesstimate."

"So it's nothing like dog years."

"No one likes a smartass."

"Then why do I bother being friends with you?"

"Pity mostly." And even though she couldn't see Jacob's grin, he could see hers.

"I do have a weakness for social outcasts," she murmured thoughtfully.

He rocked forward onto his toes, shifting—inevitably—closer. "Aside from deserving a whole bunch of sympathy friendship, I strongly suspect you stick around because you know how good I am with my hands."

Bella's mouth fell open mutely as her eyes widened in surprise.

How does a foot as big as yours fit inside a mouth?

Jacob cleared his throat and quickly tried to backpedal. "You benefit from me doing like mechanic stuff with my hands. Like fixing your truck…"

But it was too late. Bella crossed her arms over her middle and lowered her face toward the ground. She was closing herself off from him.

Nuh-uh. Not on his fucking watch.

Jacob reached out and brushed his fingers over her knee. "Is that why you've been avoiding me? Because of that night you and Embry broke up? Because Bella that was…I was…"

…doing what I had been secretly wanting to do for months.

Bella didn't respond. But she also didn't shrink away from his touch when he braced his hands on her thighs. Instead she unfolded her arms and wrapped her small hands around his wrists, squeezing gently.

"Jacob," she whispered.

He let his head fall down toward hers. "Yeah?"

"That night, you said,"—her tongue darted out to wet her lips in a nervous gesture that went straight to Jacob's groin—"you said you think of me…in a certain way. Sometimes."

He tried to think back to That Night without really thinking about it. He failed. Lots and lots of images and noises rushed him at once, and the few words that had been spoken were sorta muddled in the middle of it all. Still, there wasn't anything about That Night he didn't remember. "Yeah."

She finally looked him in the eye. "What did you mean? Exactly."

Jacob wasn't a complete moron. He recognized this for what it was: the moment of truth. Bella Swan was asking him how he felt about her. Jacob wasn't a complete moron. He knew she really didn't want the truth. If she got it, he knew she would want to give it back, and he wouldn't be able to take it.

And who the fuck was he kidding? He couldn't even take things as they were right now. What he was doing every day—secretly pining after his best friend's girl and singing songs while running around as a giant dog—wasn't working. He was miserable, and he was pretty sure he was making everyone else miserable. And he missed Bella. And he just wanted to be happy again.

If he couldn't change the fucking situation, then it was time to get his shit together and adapt. He was seventeen and shouldn't be planning to live out the rest of his life in state of constant misery and 'woe is fucking me.' He wasn't a weepy vagina.

Could have fooled me.

Suck it up and lie.

Jacob took a deep breath. His dull nails dug a little deeper into the material of her jeans as if his body were resisting what he was about to do. "I meant that I'm attracted to you sometimes."

"Physically you mean?"

"Yeah. I wasn't kidding when I said you've got great sex hair."

Bella blushed, but it was the small, embarrassed grin she gave that he'd been after. He could already feel something filling his chest that was lighter than the dread he'd been carrying around for weeks. Relief, maybe.

"But look, Bells, I promise you don't have to worry about me humping your leg every time I see you. We were both pretty upset that night, and we forgot who we were for three minutes. Temporary insanity, okay?"

The tight grip she had on his wrists slackened. The tension left her legs beneath his palms. It made talking easier.

"I think Leah's hot—"

Ew.

"—but I manage to keep my hands to myself around her. I do normally possess some semblance of self-control. So you don't have to avoid me, okay? Cuz, unlike Leah, I actually like your personality, and I miss hanging out with you."

Bella was staring at him square in the eye, her eyebrows knitted together in an expression Jacob couldn't make sense of. A few silent seconds passed before she cleared her throat and looked away. "No. Yeah. I was just avoiding you because I felt guilty. It was wrong what we did. And I hate keeping things from Embry."

Jacob exhaled loudly, and this time he knew it was relief. "I think it's better that he doesn't know. It would only hurt him. You know how sensitive he is."

"Sure, sure," she agreed quickly. She was starting to squirm beneath him.

Jacob took that as his cue to lift her and set her down well beyond the vicinity of the broken lamp. She stepped back from him almost immediately and turned to the bikes parked in the garage entrance.

"Why don't you just drive me back on the bike? I promise not to fall asleep and slide off the back."

"If you want."

"I do." She reached for the over-sized jacket and slid it on without looking at him. Next, she took the helmet in her hands.

"Hey, Bells?"

She turned toward him, her face open and hopeful. "Yes?"

"Do you ever worry that Embry might imprint on some random chick, or a squirrel, or something?"

She hesitated and then smiled faintly. "I know Embry. I know that he loves me and will always be there for me. We'll always want to see each other be happy."

Jacob knew the feeling.

AN: A couple of peeps who review have their PMs disabled, so I can't reply to the awesome things they wrote, but I still want to say "thank you." I appreciate you taking the time to comment on what you read. :)

It would take a miracle for me to have part six out by next Friday. I fly back to school on Sunday, and things will be hectic/busy for a little bit. But I'll be writing as best as I can as fast as I can, so hopefully it shouldn't take TOO too long for me to get the chapter out. Oh, and there will be seven parts in all.