Chapter Twenty-Six

As I reached the parking lot, I noticed Leah and Nahuel were already out and running to meet me halfway. Leah was the first to meet me and automatically started asking questions.

"He's here? Where? I don't see him!" she said as she frantically looked across the beach behind me.

"No, Leah. He's not at the beach, but he's here in Forks, I just know it! I was walking down the beach and I noticed some prints and realized they were wolf prints! As I followed them, hoping to find him, I saw they turned into human footprints.

"Both sets of prints were pacing on the beach till the footprints turned and headed back here to the parking lot. That's were I lost them." I closed my eyes and lowered my head while rubbing my temples, trying to think.

If Jacob was in Forks, he would probably be at his house. But what if he decided he would do patrol today to give the guys a rest? May he was with Sam? Embry? Quil? There were so many places to choose from that Jacob could possibly be.

As I turned and walked back to the car, Leah and Nahuel in my wake, I decided to try Sam first. Maybe he went to Sam's to talk things out. After Jacob and Sam had reconciled their differences, they grew closer before we left Forks for Seattle.

I climbed back into the front seat and turned to Nahuel as he climbed in the driver's seat.

"Where to?" he asked once we were all in the car.

"Sam's house." I said absent-mindedly.

"Who?" he replied with a confused look. I had forgotten he had never officially met the rest of the old pack.

"You know the big leader guy that I dated." Leah said from the backseat. Nahuel glanced at her in the rearview mirror, mimicking his previous look of confusion.

Leah rolled her eyes. "He was at the big show-down for Nessie when we had all that trouble with the Vol…Voltoros or whatever."

"It's the Volturi, Leah, and no I still don't remember him."

Without a reply, Leah jumped from the backseat and climbed through the middle of the car.

"What the heck do you think you are doing? This is an Italian, special-made! Not some old used Chevy!" Nahuel yelled at her.

"Oh, shut up your whining and get in the backseat. I'll drive." she said as she pushed him out the door.

Mumbling to himself, Nahuel got out and climbed in the back.

"I should no the place better than anyone, I guess." she mumbled under her breath.

As we pulled out of the parking lot, Nahuel continued to shout orders at Leah to be careful with his precious car, at which she paid no attention to and went out of her way to scare him with her driving.

I silently wished that they would quit bickering and just get me to Sam's house. Back to my Jacob. My fiancée. My love. Why did everything have to be so hard? So confusing?

When we finally reached Sam's, Leah had reached her level of patience with Nahuel. She skidded to a stop in front of the house and yanked the car into park. As I got out of the car and ran to the door, I could hear her yelling and slamming her door, along with Nahuel doing the same.

I tried to contain myself as I calmed my emotions before knocking. After a minute or so, the door was opened by Emily greeting me with a smile.

"Renesmee! What an unexpected surprise! Did you come to see your Grandpa?" She said as she moved to the side to let me in.

"No actually I came looking for Jacob. Do you know if he's been here to see Sam?"

She responded by shaking her head. "No, he hasn't. Did he come to Forks with you?"

I let my head fall where my hair covered the sides of my face so that if I cried, she would not see my tears.

"Um, no actually I think he came here yesterday by himself. He never told me where he was going." I guess she could hear the weakness in my voice because I suddenly felt her wrap her arms around me as she led me to the living room.

"Nessie, sweetie, what happened? Tell me everything."

I had never felt a strong connection to Emily, but at the moment, there was no one else I would rather talk to, it seemed. I realized I could no longer let the tears stay locked in my eyes. I could tell the pain was coming through the tears; they had never stung this way before.

"I was standing in my room one night after Jacob had left, talking to Nahuel. After a big fight me and Nahuel had a few summers ago, we had never really liked being around each other. Well, he had come back to Forks just in time to come to Seattle for a visit with my grandparents. The night they got there, we talked and had decided to put our differences aside and we agreed that we would only be friends.

That night after Jacob left, he came to my room. He told me that just being my friend would never work for him and we got into another argument. He then tried to kiss me, to which I did not kiss him back. Just as it happened, Jacob had been walking back to my room and saw it.

Next thing I knew, I was running down the stairs to stop him but once I reached the door, he was gone." I sobbed through my words, drawing in deep breaths after each sentence.

"The expression that I saw on his face for that split second tore me apart." I said.

I leaned over to her and placed my hand on her cheek, showing her exactly what I meant. I knew she could feel the pain that I felt, too. She shivered a little as I showed her the end.

"I tried running after him, but it was no use. I couldn't find him anywhere. I tried calling him, yelling his name, anything, but I had no response. I assumed that if he left Seattle, he would come back to Forks and I left this morning with Leah and Nahuel to come find him. I went first to First Beach, thinking he would be there since it was his favorite place to think.

When I was there, I saw some wolf prints and followed them as they turned into human foot prints, but they faded once they reached gravel."

"Nessie, you forget that a lot of werewolves live around here. It could have been anyone's. Sam's, Embry's, Quil's, or Paul's maybe?"

I shook my head "No, Emily it was Jacob's. I know it was his! I can spot his anywhere! His paw prints are distinctive to me."

Emily reached over to the coffee table and grabbed a tissue to hand me. I thanked her with a smile and accepted it.

"So, after leaving the beach, I started to think of all the places that Jacob could possibly be or that he would go. I remembered that he and Sam used to hang here sometimes before we left, so I thought maybe he would talk to Sam about everything that has been going on. Maybe not, though."

"I really am sorry that he isn't here, Nessie. Have you talked to Billy yet? He might have gone by to see him."

"No, not yet, but that's my next stop." I said as I stood to leave. "Thanks, though. I guess I really needed someone to talk to."

Emily smiled sweetly as she opened the door for me.

As I turned towards the car, I realized that Leah and Nahuel were on opposite sides of the front yard. Every few seconds one would look in the others direction and give an evil look that I would never mirror.

Finally Leah saw me and ran over.

"Hey, any news?"

I shook my head. "They haven't seen him."

Leah's expression was one of concern now.

"I tried fazing to see if I could hear him, but I couldn't hear anything. He's finally mastered how to block out his thoughts from me. Yet even if I could hear him, I wouldn't be able to tell where he was and I'm sure he wouldn't tell me. Seth tried too right before we left. That's what took me so long this morning. No luck there, either."

"Thanks for trying anyway, Leah." I gave her the best smile I could gather.

"So what happened? Are you too still mad at each other?"

Her expression once again changed to a look of revulsion. I knew this couldn't be good.

"Don't even ask what is going through my mind right now about him." Leah said as we headed back to the car where we met Nahuel.

This was definitely going to be an adventure.