You know the drill. Definitely not SM, twilight characters not mine, yada yada yada. Thanks to those that have reviewed! If you liked the story, or even if you didn't, I appreciate constructive criticism, so please, please review! Keep them coming! 3 chapters with only 3 reviews? I need more so I know whether or not I should even continue!

Chapter 3 – Sunshine

We pulled into the parking lot at the beach and were attacked by several extremely large golden gods. The guys were so crazy. Seth ran and jumped onto the hood of the car while we were still driving, Quil the same, and Embry topped them all by jumping directly onto the roof. I started laughing, they were just too funny. Jacob on the other hand, was not at all amused. He started swerving the car left and right like he was trying to shake them off. He reached up a fist and banged on the roof of the car yelling "Embry you idiot get off of there NOW, I just got the dent out from the last time you did that!" He slammed on the brakes sending them all flying down onto the pavement. They all rolled and jumped up quickly.

Jacob snickered lightly and pulled into a parking spot. He opened up his door and jumped out just as Quil shot out one of his big meaty fists and hit him on the shoulder. I rolled my eyes. I knew where this was heading. Shortly an epic wrestling match would ensue, just as it did every-time these dingbats where together. I opened my car door and was engulfed in a gigantic hug. "Nessieeeee, I missed you so much!" Seth. He was such a sweetheart. "I just saw you last week Seth!" I giggled and hugged him back. I felt another set of large warm hands pulling me from Seth's hug; I suffered through the hard squeeze of a hug, and a light kiss to the top of my head. Embry. The quiet one. "Hi Em" I said smiling. These guys were my best friends, my second family. I smiled hugely. I loved being here in La' Push, it just felt right, like I was home.

I walked around to the other side of the car and had to jump quickly out of the way as Quil and Jacob rolled by, locked in some sort of crazy wrestling hold. I opened the rear door and pulled out the bags we had stashed in the back earlier. "I brought SNACKS" I said loudly in a sing-song voice. Seth and Embry where by my side in seconds relieving me of the bags and already rummaging through them claiming whatever items caught their eyes. "JACOB! QUIL!" I yelled. "If you two don't stop that crap right now you're going to miss out on getting your hands on any of this grub!" That definitely got their attention. They both jumped up quickly dusting themselves off. Quil smiled at me meekly and shrugged a bit. He ran up to me and whispered in my ear "I so totally won that one, you saw it right?" He grinned and kissed my cheek quickly before running off to get his fair share of food. Jacob just sauntered over and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. We stood watching the guys fighting over the food as if they'd never eaten in their lives.

"SETH! You better save some of that food in there for me!" Jacob yelled. Seth looked up sheepishly with a bunch of hot fries sticking out of his mouth and grinned widely making a few of them fall out of his mouth. I laughed. Such a bunch of goofs. I leaned back into the car and pulled out my backpack full of magazines and other various essentials that never left my bag. I unzipped it and pulled out my camera, quickly turning it on and snapping a candid of my guys being dorks. I turned with the camera still to my face and took a picture of Jacob smiling down at me. My breath hitched slightly before returning to normal. Jacob was smiling at me with a smile I'd never seen before. His eyes brighter than usual, his mouth a little more relaxed, emphasizing the full lushness of his lips. It was… well… it was sexy. I smiled back at him shyly before turning back to the others. "Come on guys, let's get going." They lagged, taking their time to continue going through the bags. I tapped my foot impatiently with my hands on my hips, "Sometime today guys."

They all grudgingly relented and we made the walk down the path through the bushes to the beach. I paused a minute to snap a picture of the waves crashing onto the beach. It was so lovely. Noticing the guys were leaving me behind I hurried to catch up to them. The others must have been down here already; we were heading to a spot away from everyone else set up with blankets and a few coolers. I swear, these guys think about nothing but food. I smiled shaking my head. I walked up to the largest of the blankets and set my bag down before slipping off my sandals, stepping onto the blanket, and lying down. The sun's heat on my body, the sounds of the waves, and the surrounding wildlife in the forest made me feel like I had found my own personal nirvana. I sighed contentedly.

I lay there quietly just soaking in the sun when I felt a shadow come over my face and an even more potent warmth against my face. I opened my eyes to Seth's face hovering inches above my own, a huge grin on his face. "So Ness, Jake tells me I get to help you look at hot chicks. Let's get to work!" I laughed and pushed him away from me. "You pervert" I said sitting up. I reached over into my bags and pulled out several magazines and tossed them into Seth's lap. "Here you go, leer away. Just circle the girls you think are perfect" I said reaching into my bag again before pulling out a green highlighter and pegging him in the forehead with it. "Heyyyy!" he complained and laughed.

I looked around searching for Jacob so he could help. He was standing with the rest of the guys down by the shoreline. "Jacob, come help me" I yelled out to him cupping my hands around my mouth to make sure I was heard over the ocean's noises. He turned towards us and started jogging to us. Wow… the sun, Jacobs's body, just… wow. The sun was glistening off of Jacobs body, defining every muscle more so than usual. My heart rate increased. Geeze Renesmee! What is wrong with you? You're acting like you've never seen the guy before! Get a grip! I honestly felt like I'd never seen him before. I know, how ridiculous. I've known him ever since I was born. It was like I was seeing him through new eyes. I wasn't sure I liked the way I was feeling, it was so strange. Jacob was sitting beside me waiting expectantly when I resurfaced from la-la land.

Jacob was giving me a strange look and Seth had taken a break from his fervent circling mission and was smiling at me with a knowing look. What the heck was that look all about? Does he know what I'm feeling? I felt a little exposed and annoyed. I stuck my tongue out at him before turning back to Jacob to spread out the rest of the magazines between us. I made a mental note to myself to pull Seth aside and talk to him about these strange things happening with me. Seth and I were almost as close as me and Jacob. I knew I could trust him not to blab to anyone about my strange reactions lately.

"Ok Jacob, basically we're just going to go through these magazines and circle what we personally feel are the perfect girls." I handed him a black sharpie. I grabbed a blue highlighter and started in on my first magazine. I glanced out of the corner of my eye back at Seth; he was still circling like a mad man. I chuckled under my breath. What a horn dog. I would have to introduce Seth to my best friend at school, Willow. They were like two peas in a pod, both such perverts. We all sat in a comfortable silence for a while going through the magazines. I was starting to sweat from the sun shining down on me. I surveyed the progress we had made, there were only 2 more magazines left to go through. We'd made good progress in the couple of hours we'd been sitting here. "You guys ready to go swimming?" I asked looking back and forth between Seth and Jacob. Seth jumped up and started taking his shirt off.

"I'll take that as a yes" I laughed. "Ness, I'm gonna run out to the woods for a minute to check in with the rest of the pack and change into my shorts" Jacob said grabbing his shorts from the blanket and running off. I lay back onto the blanket to wait. I heard him run up a few minutes later and opened my eyes to be blinded by the sun. I felt my hands being taken and myself being pulled up into a standing position. When I could finally see again Jacob and Seth each had one of my hands and where waiting with expectant grins on their faces. "Geez guys, a little impatient are we?" I asked teasingly. I had a feeling they were planning something sneaky. I decided to take my time; maybe it would thwart their plans if I dawdled.

I put my hands on the bottom hem of my tank top and slowly pulled it up and over my head. I bent down slowly and put it in my backpack. I stood up and slowly un-buttoned the 3 buttons on my shorts and shimmied them down over my hips and legs. I kicked them off from around my ankles onto the blanket. I bent down again grabbing my shorts to put them in the bag too. I heard a strange gurgling choking noise and turned my head to look at the guys. Seth and Jacob were both staring at me with wide eyes and their mouths hanging open. Jacob almost looked pained. I straightened quickly and ran my hands over my body to make sure everything was still tied and in place. It was. What the heck where they staring at? "Are you guys ready?" I asked shakily.

Seth recovered first. He let out a wolf whistle and waggled his eyebrows up and down suggestively. "Alriiiight Ness, sexyyyy" he drawled. I rolled my eyes "Grow up Seth, I'm not much to look at" I said holding my arms out by my sides like I had this morning for Jacob. I looked at Jacob and saw him shake his head as if he was clearing it then punching Seth's shoulder growling. Seth laughed and raised his hands up in front of him as if saying I surrender. Seth gave Jacob a strange look and glanced at me and Jacob grinned. Oh no. Here it comes. Jacob turned to me holding out a hand. "Come on, let's go get cooled off." I reached out hesitantly taking his hand. Seth reached out and took my other. I smiled up at the two of them. I knew they were going to do something at my expense, but I couldn't help but be thrilled. They were just too funny.

We walked to the edge of the water letting it lap at our toes. I sighed blissfully. The coolness of the water was so refreshing. Seth leaned down to look at a shell. I tensed my whole body knowing he was up to something. I mean, Seth is a sweetheart, but he's not exactly the type to mess with seashells. His hands snaked out and grabbed my ankles while Jacob grabbed my hands. I squealed and began struggling. It was pointless, despite my added strength from my vampire genes; I was still no match for the two of them when they were set on doing something. They lifted me up between the two of them and walked knee deep into the water before starting to swing me back and forth between them. I was half laughing, half screaming at this point. I could hear Em and Quil egging them on from deeper in the water. "Alright Jacob!" "Throw her guys!"

When they felt I had gained enough momentum they released their hold on me and tossed me high into the air. I felt the wind rushing around me before I hit the cold water and it enveloped me. When I finally touched my toes to the bottom I pushed up and rose from the water laughing. "You idiots!" I screeched. They had thrown me quite some distance and I had to tread water because I couldn't reach bottom on my own. I scanned the beach until my eyes found them. Wow. They really had thrown me far. The sun was behind Jacob now, illuminating him like he was on display. I watched Seth splash a large swell of water up onto Jacob before diving into the water and swimming towards me. Not that I paid much attention to him, I was too fixated on Jacob now. The water ran in ripples down his body and beaded here and there. Leaving his body covered in shiny little droplets. I felt and heard my breathe leave my body with a whooshing sound, my limbs suddenly felt heavy, as if they didn't belong to me. He was dazzling me! I realized, so this is what Momma means when she says Daddy dazzles her.

Jacob bent down and splashed more water up onto his body as was his usual routine of getting used to the coldness of the water. He straightened and dove into the water in my direction. I lost sight of him and started turning circles in the water waiting for his head to emerge somewhere near me. Suddenly his hands grabbed me around the waist, the difference in temperature between his hands and the water had my stomach doing that strange flip-flop thing again. His head shot up right in front of my face and he shook his head spraying me with water. I laughed and raised my hands up to shield my face. "Hey mutt, must you do that?" I giggled. He grinned and took his hands off my waist. I sunk back down under the water unprepared and took in a mouthful of water. His hands grabbed my shoulders and pulled me back up again. I coughed and sputtered choking for air and wrapped my arms around his neck and locked my legs around his waist in case he decided to drop me again. "That wasn't nice Jacob" I croaked out when I could breathe decently again.

He pulled back lightly on my shoulders so he could see my face. "I'm sorry" he said searching my face. "You ok?" he asked pushing the strands of hair that had stuck to my face back to their place behind my ears. "I'm fine Jacob" I said crossing my eyes. I could see that he was genuinely worried and I wanted to lighten the mood. He chuckled and kissed the tip of my nose. "You're a goof Ness." His hands made their way down my shoulders to my back and began rubbing up and down my spine like they had earlier. The flip-floppy feeling and the tingling feeling returned with his touch, but this time they were joined by a strange heavy aching feeling deep in my lower abdomen. I relaxed more deeply into his body as if I had become his second skin and nuzzled my spot in the crook between his neck and shoulder and sighed. This was mighty strange. I would have to talk to Seth and Carlisle tonight.

JACOBS POV

Her arms tightened around me and she put her face to my neck. I rubbed my hands up and down her back and sides now. Edward would inject me with a lethal dose of his venom if he knew I had my hands on her like this. I just couldn't help it though. The combination of her hot breath on my neck and her warm silky skin under my fingers was maddening. She's not ready yet man, cool it. 16 man, think of it, s-i-x-t-e-e-n. I never thought of her as her actual age of 4. I always viewed her as her emotional and physical age; otherwise I would just plain creep myself out. I let my mind wander to all the things I would love to be doing to her right now. I wonder how she'd react if I let my hands go down a little lower to that tempting backside of hers. I imagined running my hands down her back and slowly taking her cheeks in my hands, letting them fill my palms. I turned my face into her wet hair and inhaled deeply. She always smelled amazing, but when we went swimming like this at the beach, her scent was unreal. I opened my eyes and was distracted by the delicate shell of her ear.

I bet she'd moan if I ran my tongue slowly down the outside and gently bit her earlobe. I made the trip with my eyes only as I imagined. I looked down to the shimmering skin of her slender neck and shoulder. I started to lean forward to kiss her there and caught myself. Whoaaaaa…. Bad idea bud. I sighed and wrapped my arms around her holding her tight. I needed to calm down before she realized what I was thinking, and what was slowly growing in my shorts under the water. "You ready to join the others?" I asked quietly. I felt her nod. I shifted her carefully onto my back. We had been swimming like this ever since I had convinced Edward she was old enough to come to the beach with me. "Ok, let's go Jacob" she said sending her hot breath into my ear. I shuddered. One of the guys was going to have to hold her or I was seriously going to go insane and shock her sheltered sensibilities. "Hold your breath" I warned before diving under the water in the direction of the guys.

We reached where the guys were joking around quickly. "Hey guys, one of you mind carting Ness around for a while? I'm getting kind of tired" I said raising my eyebrows so they caught the hint. Seth spoke up first "Sure man, come here princess Ness." He grabbed her off my back and held her cradled in his arms. She smacked his face "You know I hate it when you call me a princess." He did his ridiculous eyebrow waggle again and said "Exactly. You know I love to irritate you." She leaned up and whispered in his ear. I sighed. I felt an emptiness inside me now that she was no longer clinging to me like a monkey. I watched Seth carry her off separate from the rest of us; their heads bent close together whispering. Sometimes the closeness that she shared with the rest of the guys made me a bit nervous, well… more like jealous really. I knew none of them would ever try anything with her. But I still worried.

"Come on" Embry said chucking my shoulder lightly. "What's up, you know you can talk to us" Quil said. I looked up at the sky watching the clouds roll by and shrugged. "I don't know guys, today has been a rough day, I feel like things are changing and I'm just not sure how to react to it." "Ness huh?" Em asked lightly. I sighed "yea… I'm just seeing her a bit differently is all… not to mention acting like a total ass too." I groaned. The guys laughed lightly. "We were wondering when you were going to notice Ness isn't exactly a little girl anymore" Quil said. "We were kind of taking bets on it" Em added.

I slapped a hand over my eyes and groaned some more. "Well since you guys seem to know everything what exactly do you suggest I do?" "Well" Em went on "technically she's about what? Around 16-and-a-half? Almost 17? Just tell her dude." He had a point, but I couldn't just tell her! It had to be special. A horrible thought occurred to me then, what if she didn't love me?! "You guys, you know she always introduces me as her best friend, what if she doesn't you know, love me like I do her?" Quil groaned this time, "Are you a total idiot man? A blind man could see what you so obviously can't." "Go take a little hike with her, lay on the charm, a little touch here, a little touch there, maybe a kiss or two. Just watch, you'll see."

Was he pulling my leg? Was I really that blind that I couldn't see that her feelings had changed too at some point?

RENESMEE'S POV

Seth carried me cradled against his chest, one arm behind my back, the other under my knees in true princess form. We were walking away from the rest of the guys so I could ask him my questions. We stopped finally and Seth looked down at me and grinned a wolfish grin "Did you have me carry you over here so you could confess your undying love and devotion and request that I ravish you Ness?" I laughed and swatted his chest playfully. "Seth you are such a perv." I remembered my earlier decision to introduce him to Willow. "Are you single Seth?" He got a strangely alarmed look on his face and started coughing. "Not for me you dweeb" I said. Seth looked immensely relieved "Oh, well yes, in that case I am most definitely single." "You interested in meeting anyone?" "I have this friend Willow, she's cute and funny, I really think you two would hit it off."

I described Willow and chatted a bit about her personality before he finally agreed to meet her. "Good, I'll talk to her tomorrow at school and see what she thinks." I had an idea. "You should let me take some pictures of you to show her, she'll never be able to resist your studliness" I added laughing. "Sure thing sweet cheeks" he grinned and started walking us back towards the beach. When we got to the blanket he put me down and I dug out my camera, snapping shots of him. "Now what was it exactly that you wanted to talk to me about Hun, I know you didn't have me haul off to talk about setting me up." I sighed looking away, this is so embarrassing, I guess I better get it over with. I put the camera up to my face as he posed and said "I've been feeling kind of…. Strange lately I guess." He put his arms up flexing his muscles in a Hercules pose "What kind of strange Ness? Are you getting sick?" he asked worriedly after I'd snapped the picture. "I don't think so, I mean… I could be, but I don't think so." I paused trying to find the words to explain. "I think I want Jacob to imprint on me" I blurted. He stopped posing. "Wh.. wh.. Why?" he stammered out.

"He's mine Seth. He's my best friend and I don't want some skank that doesn't deserve him to come along and steal him away. I don't think I would survive if I couldn't be with him anymore…" "I'd be so lost" I whispered. He smiled crookedly and resumed his posing "Well we can't exactly choose who we imprint on Ness, but I'm sure if Jacob could pick he would choose you hands down." "Is that what's making you feel sick?" I thought it over for a minute

"Maybe. When he touches me I feel all tingly and have this ache…" Seth turned his face away from me turning so red I could easily see the flush through his amber colored skin. "What? Do you know what it is?" Seth coughed and sputtered a bit more before finally saying "Uh… Ness… maybe you should talk to Bella about all of this… or maybe even Willow." "Seth, just answer me" I said sharply. When he didn't respond I walked to him and wrapped my arms around his waist in a huge hug and whined "Please?" in my sweetest voice. He groaned loudly. "You're attracted to him Ness; your body is having a physical response to his. Desire, Ness." WHAT?! I thought about it a minute. "Oh." Oh. It made sense.