Edward, Bella, and all things Twilight are the creation and property of Stephenie Meyer. I own a jealous, pissed off singer and an ex-waitress in pain.
Rated M for adult content.
Chapter 8: Opportunity Knocks
ATLANTA
He looked out of the windows of his spacious office in the Atlanta business district at the traffic congesting I-75 nearby and resigned himself to the fact that he wouldn't be getting out of the downtown area anytime soon. One of the perils of working in a major city was the horrendous traffic situation, and Atlanta was notorious for backed-up traffic. Jake loosened his tie and unbuttoned his Oxford shirt, propped his expensive Italian leather loafers on his desk, and reached for the flask he kept stashed away for situations just like this.
He downed a healthy swig of Grey Goose vodka, re-capped the flask, and placed his hands behind his head for a few moments of contemplation. Life was treating him pretty good lately. His law office was thriving, he had a nice home in Buckhead and drove an expensive foreign car, and he hadn't been kicked out of any beds recently, so the ladies weren't complaining. Unfortunately, the one girl who mattered, the one girl who had always had his heart, couldn't see what was right there before her eyes.
Jacob William Black could not remember a time in his life when Sissy wasn't everything to him. They had been children together, playing in their backyards, his momma and her momma hanging laundry outside in the fresh Georgia sunshine and talking housewife talk while the two young ones entertained each other. They'd grown up together, from diapers to teenage years and beyond. They walked to school with each other, dug worms for fishing, had contests skipping river rocks, and swam in the river together also. Jake remembered boldly suggesting skinny-dipping to Sissy when he knew her titties were coming in, but she had shyly declined. She wore her tee shirt into the water, which plastered to her body, revealing everything, and he grinned inwardly, remembering how he stayed in the water, hiding his woody from her.
He recalled how horrible it was for Sissy and her momma Renee when her daddy started screwing around, carrying on like a big shot because he had a successful music career. Word had traveled all the way back to sleepy Georgia that Charlie Swan was a womanizer, hitting the bottle and worse, dabbling in illegal drugs. Renee flipped out and left, and Sissy ended up with her grand maw and grand paw till Charlie came back for good and put Sissy to work in the bar.
Jake decided he needed another drink of the Grey Goose. The trip down memory lane wasn't always a happy one. Sissy had damned near been worked to the bone waiting those tables in that dive. Charlie had that recording studio, and it was the only pleasure she allowed herself, sitting on the stool in the studio while her daddy recorded her. Jake had heard that voice his whole life. She sang everywhere they went, walking the clay roads to school, on the riverbanks fishing, in the church choir, out on the front porch on a clear summer night. If he closed his eyes and concentrated, he could hear Sissy singing as if it were his childhood again.
When her daddy died, she continued working in the bar, and began asking for her turn at the microphone to learn about singing before a crowd. He'd be in THE BARsome nights when she was perched on that stool, and he'd shiver when she'd sing. There wasn't a prettier girl around. He had loved her for his entire life and she didn't have a clue. To Sissy, he was just good old Jake.
He had been determined he would win her heart. After graduating high school he'd left for college to make something of him so he could come back and show her what he had become. He was no longer Jake, the neighborhood boy. He was Jacob William Black, attorney at law in Atlanta. He was somebody, and he loved her. He was unprepared for the fact that when he returned, she had met that famous singer and been swept off her feet into the love story that captured America. He was shocked that his Sissy was now Bella Swan, star.
But things were looking up. She was home again. Trouble was brewing on the home front, and Jake was going to capitalize. She had walked into THE BAR the other night unexpectedly and he had just happened to be there and they had laughed and joked and reminisced about old times. She played darts with him and drank a beer and revealed that she and that Cullen guy were having a lover's spat. If that idiot couldn't understand that she didn't want a man who was going to turn into a party animal like her daddy did, then too fucking bad for him if he lost her. Jake heard opportunity knocking at his door and he planned on answering it.
Author Notes: More angst ahead before we get to the happily ever after...now we've Jake in the picture, too. What's it going to take to get these two back on track?