I wanted to walk home today so Oliver could go straight home and see if Miley and Jake had made it back ok but he didn't want to let me out of his sight which was alright with me. He dropped me off at home and insisted on walking me inside since my dad wasn't home and we didn't know if there was an insane vampire waiting for me inside.

Oliver walked in quietly to hear anything out of the ordinary. "It's all clear." he turned to me. "Are you sure you're going to be ok?"

I nodded "Yeah, I think I'll be ok. You just go and check in with Miley and Jake and asking them if they found anything about Maya during their trip."

Oliver nodded. "I'll be back in a few hours." he kissed the top of my head and walked out the door to his car driving off and leaving me here.

I walked around my empty house. I was still enormously afraid Maya was in here somewhere waiting for me but Oliver said no one was here which meant no one was here. I kept pacing like somene crazy. When I thought I couldn't get any crazier, I managed to find a picture of Jackson and me and the rest of the pack sitting on the kitchen counter. I sighed and realized a message was written on the back.

You don't know how much I miss this. -Love, Jackson-

I did know how much he missed me, but I didn't want to miss him this much. I wasn't making this easy for Oliver and I knew what I was about to do would just devastate him but I had to do it. I shoved the picture in my pocket and ran out the door to my dad's fishing truck (since he took the good car) and began to drive as fast as I could to Dunn...to Jackson.

As I drove to Dunn I could see the other wolves in the woods watching me then running with my car. I could only see that one wolf was Bray but I couldn't tell who the other one was. I kept driving down the long and winding road which lead to Jackson's house thinking the whole time: "What am I doing? What am I doing?!"

I finally got to Jackson's and the wolves I had seen had caught up with me. Bray phased back to human as did the other one and smiled at me.

"Lily Truscott." his smile reminded me of a brother who hadn't seen his sister in years and she was finally coming home. Last year these wolves were like my family, I loved them so much and I never expected them to welcome me back with open arms but here was Bray smiling and treating me like I never left. It made this a lot harder for me.

"Bray, you've gotten so tall. You might be as tall as Jackson."

He shrugged "I'm getting there." he held out his arms to hug me and as I was going in to hug him I noticed he hadn't put on his shorts yet.

"Um..."

"What? I don't have fleas." he looked down. "OH!" he put on his pants and held out his arms again smiling.

I threw my arms around him and hugged his tightly like a giant teddy bear. He began to hug me a little to tight and I heard my back crack, which is what I needed due to the stress.

I looked at the other wolf who was still unfamiliar to me. "Who's this?"

"Oh right! This is one of our newer additions to the pack. This is Miles, and his sister is somewhere in the woods hunting. Her name is Grace."

"It's nice to meet you Miles."

He shook my hand "Likewise Lily. Are you here to see Jackson?"

I nodded "Is he here?"

Bray nodded toward the barn. "He's in the garage fixing his car. We'll leave you to talk with him."

"Thanks Bray."

"Again, it's good to see you, we've missed you around here."

I almost cried, now I knew not only Jackson was missing me but the whole pack. I was missing them too. "I've missed you all too." I hugged him again then walked into the garage to see the person I came here for.

Sure enough he was in there tightening some bolt or something in the engine. I gently knocked on the door. "Jackson."

He stopped what he was doing like someone had froze him then he slowly turned around and looked at me.

"I'm here." I said walking closer to my shirtless best friend.

"You're here."

"We need to talk."

Jackson nodded "Yeah we do."

I took a deep breath and let the words in my head just fall out. "I miss you Jackson, I miss you so much."

He took two steps closer to me and wrapped his arms around me. His body was burning as it was pressed against mine but it felt good, better than good, great.

He whispered in my ear "I miss you too Lily."

Sneak Preview:

"So, you came back for me then?" Jackson said smugly.

"Yeah I wanted to see you."

Jackson laughed then shook his head. "You still can't admit it can you?"

I looked at him puzzled "What are you talking about?"

He walked closer to me and was hovering over me by at least five feet. "You're in love with me Lily, you've fallen for me and you can't even see it."

I was shocked and dismayed by what he was saying. I was not in love with my best friend! I was in love with Oliver! I didn't want Jackson that way...right?