Ch 6

Around 7:30 Malachi and I started getting ready to go to Billy's. "Here" I tossed a contact case with muddy brown contacts in them to Malachi, "put these in. They will blur your vision and irritate your eyes but you need them."

"OK" he said and walked into the bathroom leaving the door opened.

"Don't forget, my dad and his wife Sue are human. Sue knows what I am but my father does not. So please don't eat them." I said with a small laugh, which caused a laugh from Malachi as he hugged me. "You look good with the contacts in." I said as I headed for the door.

"Thanks, they are bothering the crap out of me." He said as we reached my car. "WOW this is your car?"

I nodded. When my old truck finally kicked the bucket I allowed Edward to get me a new car, which is a sleek black Ferrari. "Edward got it for me after my old Chevy truck died." I explain climbing in.

"Wow, he must really love you then." Malachi said as I gunned the engine and tore out of the garage. "So how long have you been friends with the werewolves?"

"I've known Jacob and Billy, that's Jacob's father, since I was a little girl. I think we met when I was 4."

"Oh..." Malachi said. The rest of the trip was quiet, which was good for me because I had time to think about what I was going to say if my father was there. As we pulled onto the reservation and into Billy's driveway Malachi turned to face me, "So basically I just follow what ever you say and agree right?"

"Basically." I replied as I parked the car and got out. "Ready?"

"Yep." he said as he grabbed my hand and we walked to the front door.

Seth opened the door, "Bella!" He said excitedly as he grabbed me in a big hug and twirled me around.

"Hey Seth. Haven't seen you in a long time. How have you been?" I asked when he put me down.

"Good... been busy." As if he finally realized that Malachi was standing there next to me he said, "Oh, hey... I'm Seth. You must be Bella's boyfriend and coworker Malachi. It's nice to meet you." He held out his bear sized hand to shake Malachi's in a manly greeting.

"It's nice to meet you too Seth." Malachi said taking his hand.

"Oh Bella, just so your not shocked... your father is here with my mom..."

"yea Billy told me he was going to be here... hence Malachi wearing contacts."

"No, that's not it... My mom is expecting." Seth said smiling.

"You mean she's pregnant?!" I squealed. Seth nodded. "Oh my God! That is so cool!" I started tugging on Seth's arm, "Come on let's go in."

Seth and Malachi were still laughing as we all walked into the house, "Hey guys look who I ran into." Seth said.

Everyone turned to face Seth, "Bella!" the entire pack yelled in a very good fake surprised voice.

"Hey guys! I haven't seen you all in so long... I really need to visit Forks more often." I replied hugging them all.

"Bella?" I heard Charlie's voice coming from inside the kitchen.

"Hey dad." I said as him and Sue walked out of the kitchen. "I've missed you." I ran to hug him holding back on my strength so that I didn't hurt him.

"I'm so happy to see you Bells. What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Well it's summer break in Alaska and I wanted to come see everyone that I've been missing. I'm so sorry I couldn't make it to your wedding dad."

"It's fine kiddo. I'm just glad your here now. How long are you in town for?"

"A while." I replied. Then facing Sue I said, "Congratulations Sue. I heard from Seth that you are expecting, do you know if it's a boy or girl?"

Sue blushed, "No, your father and I wanted to wait and be surprised. Who's this handsome man you have with you?"

"You mean besides my half-brother?" I said with a laugh. "Everyone this is Malachi. He's my coworker and boyfriend." Malachi shook my dad's hand and waved to everyone else.

"Hey Bella, what happened to Edward?" Jacob asked me with a smirk on his face. "Last I heard you guys were still together."

I held back a hiss that bubbled up into my throat, "Oh, we broke up. He was being very controlling and was getting on my nerves so I broke it off with him." I said.

"Bells, I'm sorry to hear that." Charlie said not bothering to hide his pleasure at the news. "Are you still frirends with Alice?"

"Yea, Malachi and I are actually staying on the Cullen's land in a small guest cottage that Esme had fixed up for me when I come to visit." I said as I sat on the couch next to Quil. "Hey Quil how have you been?" Obviously changing the subject.

"I've been good. Claire is sorry she couldn't be here, she's busy with a school play that she's in."

"Oh that's wonderful! I would love to see it if I'm still in town." I said, settling in for a few hours of playing pretend catch-up with the pack and with Charlie and Sue.

Billy finally rolled into the room from the kitchen, "Good evening Bella."

"Hey Billy" I said getting up to hug him, "It's been a long time. I'm happy to see that your doing well."

"Yep, having all these young people around makes me feel younger." He replied with a laugh. "Hey everyone. Dinner is ready so if you want to start heading into the kitchen."

"Wait, who cooked?" I asked.

"Sue and I. Don't worry Bella after not seeing you for years I didn't want to kill you so I wouldn't let Charlie cook." Sue said with a small laugh as Charlie blushed.

"Aw his cooking wasn't that bad..." I said laughing and hugging my dad.

"Bella, are you actually going to eat human food?" Malachi said in a low whisper that my dad wouldn't hear.

"Yes, and it'll taste like crap but it's the human thing to do. Just imagine that it's blood and you'll be fine." I whispered back as he took my arm and lead me, like a gentleman to the table.

"Everything looks delicious as usual Sue." Sam said as he pulled out a chair for her.

"Thank you Sam." Sue replied. Charlie sat down next to her with Billy on his left at the head of the table.

I walked to the chair next to Jacob that he always saved for me and sat down pulling Malachi into the empty seat on my left. "So Malachi, how long have you and my daughter been dating?" My father asked with his police chief voice.

"For 2 years sir." Malachi answered as he looked at me with adoring eyes.

"Aww that's sweet." Sue said, "When did you guys meet?"

I answered that one, "We actually met our last year at Alaska State University, ASU. We were in the same class and we started talking. Then when I found the job at a local school he ended up working there as well, and we've been dating for the past 2 year." I smiled. "Malachi, can you pass the mashed potatoes?"

"Sure." He picked up the bowl of mashed potatoes and then when he handed it to me and our hands touched it was like something had eletricuted us. There was an actual spark that shot between our hands and with out thinking we both putted our hands away from each other gripping them to ourselves. No one said anything until the bowl hit the floor, "Oh shit!" Malachi said, "I'm so sorry Sue. I didn't mean to drop it. I'll clean it up." he got up and ran into the kitchen and was back in the blink of an eye with paper towels.

"That's OK, Malachi. It was an accident." she gave a nervous laugh.

I shot Jacob a nervous look out of the corner of my eye, but he didn't notice because he was looking at Billy who was slowly nodding. "Jake?" I said in a low whisper.

"I'll explain later Bella." he whispered back.

About 11, Malachi and I stood up, "It's getting late guys. I think we are going to head back."

"So soon?" Charlie asked. "When will we see you again?"

"Soon dad... real soon." I said as I kissed his forehead. Then we made our rounds of good byes and headed out to the car. "You can blink Malachi." I said with a sigh. He had been holding back on blinking so that his contacts would finish dissolving.

"That's so much better." he said when he could finally see clearly again. "Those damn things are a pain."

"Yeah I know but they are necessary when you are around Charlie... at least until the animal blood dilutes your bright red eyes." I said with a laugh.

"Yea I know." he looked out the window. "Whoa! What was that?"

"Probably the pack making sure we get home OK. Don't worry about it." I said. "They like to check in on me and make sure I'm safe... that's the price of having the alpha male as my best friend." I pulled into the garage and we took off running to the cottage. "So what do you want to do tonight?"

"I can think of something..." Malachi said with a wink.

I giggled and walked close to him, "And what is that?" I challenged him flirty like.

He didn't respond just put his hand under my chin, lifting my head up to that I could look in his eyes. Next thing I know his soft lips were on top of mine in a passionate kiss, too soon he pulled away from me. "I really like you Bella. I don't understand these feelings... they are really strong."

"I know Malachi. I feel the same way, I'm working on figuring out what's going on." I sighed. "The reason we went to Billy's house tonight wasn't so that I could see my father. We went because I think that we are imprinted and that's why are feelings are so strong and it hurts to be away from each other even thought we just met." I took a deep breath, even though I didn't need to, before continuing. "Jacob and his pack have a theory that they imprint with people as a way of finding their soul mate or the person best suited to pass on the legacy. When I realized that my feelings for you were mutural as the ones you had for me I got to thinking about it and I really think that's what is happening with us. I'm not saying it's a bad thing. So anyway, we went to Billy's so that he could observe what was going on with us and see what he thought." I turned toward the road, "He will be here in a few minutes. Jacob is driving him here... he needs to talk to both of us." I finished and walked to the front door of the cottage to wait for them to arrive.