A/N: Hey all, here's another one for you. And I just have to give a virtual high five to luv2beloved for her review of the last chapter. She asked about Ness' wedding band and if she was wearing it or not. She was the only one to comment on it and I'd been wondering if any of you would catch that I hadn't mentioned anything about it yet. All I can say is it will be brought up in an upcoming chapter. I won't bore you with any more dribble…Hope you like it.
Ness and Jacob sat next to each other on the old couch in Billy's living room as he sat in his wheelchair across from them. The first few moments after Billy had discovered them kissing by the front door had been awkward to say the least.
Once Ness had managed to unwrap herself from Jake, they'd stood nervously waiting for Billy to say something. He'd looked at each of them, causing Ness to grow even more embarrassed. And then, surprising both she and Jake, he'd started laughing. He'd rolled his chair over to the living room then and said, "I remember when me and you mother had moments like that. Couldn't keep our hands off each other back then. Come on in and have a seat."
Jake had turned to look at Ness and she'd just stared back. She'd been mortified at being caught and she didn't think she'd be able to comfortably sit across from Jakes dad and make polite conversation. But he'd taken her hand and given it an encouraging squeeze, and she'd known she couldn't refuse.
It hadn't taken long for the residual tension to ease, Billy had a way of making people feel comfortable and Ness could see where Jake had gotten his charm from.
"So, how long have you been in Forks Ness? I don't think I've ever seen you in town?" Billy asked after all of the introductions had been made.
"Uh, not too long actually. I live in Seattle, I just came out to Forks last week to get away for a bit." She replied.
Billy raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Seattle, huh? What would make you wanna come all the way out here?"
"I used to come to Forks all the time with my family when I was younger. My parents lived here before I was born and my grandparents still own their old house just outside of town." She explained.
"You don't say. Who're your grandparents?" Billy asked, wondering to himself if he'd known them.
"Well my father's parents didn't live here all that long, but his father worked at the hospital in Forks for a few years, Dr. Carlisle Cullen, and my grandmother's name is Esme Cullen." Ness explained.
Billy's eyebrows furrowed as he tried to put faces to the names, they sounded vaguely familiar but he couldn't quite place them. "I know I've heard those names before, but I'm having trouble remembering. The old man aint as sharp as he used to be," he joked.
Ness smiled before continuing, "They moved to Alaska after my father and their other children left home. But my mother's father, he lived here his whole life, so you might have known him. His name was Charlie Swan, he used to be the Forks chief of police."
And that's when recollection dawned on Billy. He hadn't known the former chief all that well; Charlie had been quite a few years older than Billy. But he remembered the story he'd read in the paper all those years ago when the daughter of the local chief of police married the son of Dr. Carlisle and Esme Cullen. He also remembered the story he'd read about the former chief a few years later, "It's coming back to me now, I remember the announcement that ran when you're parents married." And then in a softer tone, "I didn't know the chief well, but I heard when he passed, I'm sorry you had to lose him before you really got to know him."
Ness felt a brief twinge of sadness in her chest at Billy's words. Charlie had died when she'd been just five years old and although she didn't have many memories of him, she still missed him and she cherished those she did have. She felt Jake's arm wrap around her shoulders then and she was thankful for the support, it was comforting. "Thank you," was all she could manage to get out.
It was clear to Billy that speaking of her grandfather was painful for Ness, so he gave her a moment before moving on and changing the subject. It took a few minutes, but she came around and he eventually had her smiling again. They spent the next half hour together, talking and even laughing as Billy told Ness stories of a young Jake and all of his adventures.
Ness was enjoying herself immensely, but after awhile the long day she'd had and the lack of sleep she'd gotten the night before began to catch up to her, and she found herself yawning in the middle of her sentence.
The yawning was not missed by Jake and he began to realize that it was probably time he take Ness home. Not wanting to cut her off, he waited for her to finish speaking before he brought it up. "I don't want to break up the party or anything, but it's after ten and it'll take another half hour to get you home Ness. So if you're getting tired we should probably head out."
She knew he was right, but the prospect of Jake dropping her off at home and then leaving was not appealing to her at all. Even less appealing was the idea of getting back on the motorcycle; as tired as she was, she doubted she'd be able to hang on. "I guess you're right, but…I don't know if I can ride on the bike right now. Do you think we can take your car instead?" she asked, rising from the couch to stand as she yawned again.
Billy cut in then saying, "If you're that tired honey you should just stay the night here."
Ness began to blush at that. She was sure Billy hadn't meant it as it had sounded, but she couldn't seem to stop the mental images that ran through her head at the mention of spending the night with Jake.
Billy knew he'd put his foot in his mouth when he saw Ness' reaction. He hadn't meant to embarrass the girl and he rushed to correct the situation, "What I meant to say was…I'm sure Jake would be gentleman enough to let you have his room for the night. The couch aint so bad, right son?"
Jake cleared his throat; a little thrown off by the images his father's words had conjured as well. "Yeah of course. You're welcome to stay," he said, giving Ness a half smile.
She took a moment to contemplate. If I stay, Jake will be here when I wake up in the morning…and if he doesn't have any plans, maybe we can spend the day together. But if I have him take me home, there's no guarantee how long he'll stay or if he'll ask to see me tomorrow. And I still haven't gotten the chance to be alone with him long enough to talk about things. But if I stay… Her decision was made then.
Half an hour later; after having said goodnight to both Jake and Billy, washing up for the night and changing; Ness lay in Jakes bed. She was surrounded from every direction by his scent; his pillow was under her head, his sheets were wrapped around her and she was wearing his shirt. Exhausted, she fell asleep easily as she thought of him and the night they'd shared.
…
The sun shone brightly through the window and made it impossible for Ness to sleep any longer; she hadn't realized the night before that the curtains were open. She stretched and then sat up, slowly looking over the room and its contents. There wasn't much to it; an extra long, full sized bed, a dresser with a laptop sitting on it and an armoire were all that occupied the small space.
After standing from the bed, she made her way over to the dresser to retrieve her clothes she'd left folded on top the previous night. She grabbed the pile and was just about to turn away when something on the mirror caught her eye. It was a picture and Ness could tell just by looking at it that it was old; the edges were bent and torn in certain spots and the color seemed off, there was also a crease down the center of the photograph as if it had once been folded in half. The picture was of a woman, sitting on a set of wood steps and holding a little boy in her arms. They looked so happy, sitting there, starring at the camera with huge smiles on their faces. The woman looked just like Jacobs sister; but Ness thought that the picture looked much too old to be Rachel and she began to wonder if it might be Jakes mother instead…and if so, was he the little boy?
But all of these thoughts left her head when she heard a knock at the door followed by Jake's deep voice. "Hey Ness, are you up?"
She quickly made her way to the door, clutching her clothes tight to her chest, and opened it. "Good morning, I was just going to head to the bathroom to change." She said as she looked up to meet his eyes.
Jake smiled down at her. "Well I'm just in time then…I didn't know if you'd want to put your dress from last night back on, so I brought you these," he said as he held out a pile of clothes to her. "It's nothing much, just an old shirt and a pair of cotton shorts. My sisters left a whole bunch of old clothes here after they moved out, they should fit you better than any of my stuff would."
"Thank you. Um, is it okay if I take a shower?" She asked while taking the items from him.
Jake tried to keep his body under control at the thought of Ness showering in his shower, but it was near impossible. What he wouldn't give to be able to join her. He'd spent a miserable night on the couch, not because it wasn't comfortable…No, it had been miserable because he'd known Ness was in his house, in his bed, and all he'd wanted to do was slip into his room and join her. But he'd resisted and instead spent the night tossing and turning on the couch, trying to keep thoughts of her out of his head.
"Yeah sure, help yourself. Just meet me in the kitchen when you're done and we can have some breakfast," He managed to get out.
He watched as Ness nodded and slipped past him. Once she'd made it to the bathroom and shut the door, he turned to make his way to the kitchen.
As Ness showered, Jake busied himself in the kitchen, getting things ready. After his restless night, he'd woken early, showered and changed. By seven o'clock he'd been done and with nothing else to do for hours, he'd decided to surprise Ness with breakfast. He hadn't been kidding when he'd told her he couldn't cook and he certainly hadn't expected her to cook as a guest in his home. So he'd done the next best thing, he'd made his way to the diner in Forks and picked up an assortment of things; bagels, donuts, muffins, biscuits and croissants with different flavors of jams and cream cheeses along with some fresh fruit. He'd had no idea what Ness liked to eat in the morning and he hoped he'd managed to pick up at least one good thing. Just as he finished setting the last of the items out, he heard the water turn off in the bathroom and he sat to wait.
A couple of minutes later, he watched as Ness walked out of the bathroom and started down the hall towards him. Her hair was damp and her face was flushed, most likely due to the steam from the shower; she'd never looked more beautiful to him.
As Ness approached the kitchen, she saw Jake sitting at the table, starring at her. She was just about to comment on how rude it was to stare, teasingly of course, when her eyes swept over the table and the massive amount of food covering its surface. "Jake, wow, are you expecting people over or something?"
Jake could tell by the look on her face that he might have overdone it. He shook his head as he smiled sheepishly and said, "No I uh, I wasn't really sure what you'd like…So I just got a bunch of everything."
Knowing that Jake had cared enough about her to go out of his way to make sure her wants and needs were met made Ness feel good and she smiled back as she sat down across from him at the table. "Thank you, and I'm sorry, I don't want you to think I don't appreciate all of this." She said as she waived her hand over the table to indicate all of the food. "Because I really do, I just didn't expect it."
"It's okay," Jake said as he shrugged, "And it's no big deal, really. I was up anyway, I just wanted you to have a good breakfast and I didn't think a bowl of fruit loops would do the trick."
Ness chuckled at that. Although this had been a nice surprise, she would have loved the fruit loops just the same. "Well, thank you…again," she said as she reached for a cinnamon raison bagel and some cream cheese. "But I hope you at least have plenty of room in that stomach of yours because I doubt that what I can eat will even put a dent in this spread."
Jake had started digging in himself; he had two bagels, a blueberry muffin and a chocolate donut in front of him and he was just starting to spread cream cheese out on the first bagel. "It's almost 8:30, Billy should be up soon and I'm sure he'll be hungry. And anything we don't finish I can take over to Quil and Claire's with me, it definitely won't last long there," Jake said.
Jake was quiet for a minute or so after that as he focused on his food; Ness focused on his words instead. He was going over to Quil and Claire's today, which probably meant he was just waiting for her to finish breakfast so he could take her home. She knew it was his day off; of course he'd want to spend time with his friends. She just couldn't help but feel a little disappointed; she'd been hoping that he'd want to spend the afternoon with her.
Jakes voice cut through her concentration then as he asked, "You okay Ness? I'm on my second bagel already and you've hardly touched yours."
Ness shook her head and forced herself to smile. If Jake wanted to spend the afternoon with his friends, that was his right and she wouldn't let it ruin the rest of the time she did have with him. "Yeah, I'm fine, I was just thinking of something," she said and then paused to take a bite. "But even so, it's not fair to hold me to your standards, you inhale your food after all," she said with a cheeky smile.
Jake looked incredulously back at her. "That's ridiculous. I'll have you know I chew every bite carefully before taking another. Choking on a hot dog in the middle of the street at three years old is no joke and I'll never make the mistake of taking bites that are too big for me again." He was able to keep up the façade for another couple of seconds before he cracked a smile and began to laugh.
Ness laughed along with him before asking, "So was that true? Did you really almost choke on a hot dog in the middle of the street?"
"Yeah, luckily my mom was there with her fist to pound on my back and dislodge the sucker. I know it's not the proper way to do the Heimlich and all, but it worked alright for her."
Jake didn't say anything else and he didn't take another bite of his bagel for a moment after that. He just sat, starring off into space, as a sad smile played at his lips. Ness didn't miss a second of it. It had been the first time he'd ever mentioned anything about his mother to her. She'd wondered about it at first, and then again when she'd seen the picture on his mirror earlier that morning; had his mother left, did they not have a good relationship, or had she died? Seeing that look that had crossed his face just a moment ago told Ness all she'd needed to know, it was the same look she'd sometimes get when she thought of her grandpa Charlie; Jake's mother was dead.
She didn't try to change the subject, she didn't try to snap him out of it, she didn't speak at all. Instead, as silently and softly as she could, she reached her hand across the table, placed it over his and let Jake have his moment.
…
Jake hadn't said anything else about his mother and neither had Ness. When Billy wheeled himself into the kitchen a few minutes later, he was indeed hungry and helped himself to a couple of donuts. Once they'd all finished breakfast, Ness helped Jake clean up.
They worked mostly in silence, both thinking about the day ahead of them. Just as she finished, Ness handed Jake the last wet plate to dry and turned towards him, she was about to tell him that she was ready to head home whenever he was ready to take her; but he spoke first. "So, what do you have planned for today?"
Ness just shrugged her shoulders, slightly embarrassed, beyond Jake she had absolutely no plans, but what was she supposed to say? Actually, I don't have any plans what-so-ever because the only reason I'm here at all is you and you haven't asked me to do anything with you today and everything I think about and want to spend my day doing revolves around you…She thought to herself…Definitely not.
Jake took the shrug as an indicator of no solid plans and forged ahead. "If you want, I've got to head over to Quil and Claire's this morning. I promised I'd help out with something and if you're not too busy… maybe you could come with-"
Ness cut him off before he'd even finished, practically shouting, "Yes." She felt her face heat up, embarrassed over how desperate she'd come across. But Jake just gave her that sexy half smile she loved so much and she instantly felt better.
He let out a slight chuckle before continuing. "Yeah, so…I'll probably be busy most of the time, but I figured you could hang out with Claire and do…whatever girls do," he paused to take a small step closer to Ness. "And then after," another small step. "Maybe we could spend some time together," another small step. "Alone," there were just a couple of inches separating them when he finished.
His head was tilted down towards hers and all she had to do was lift up a little to be able to reach his lips. She quickly darted her eyes around his wide shoulders and checked to make sure the room was empty. Seeing no sign of Billy, Ness raised her arms, locked them around Jacobs's neck and used them as leverage to lift herself enough to touch her lips to his.
The kiss was short but passionate, both knowing they weren't alone in the house. Ness gave herself just a moment to fully enjoy the taste of Jake as she ran her tongue over his full bottom lip. He was tangy and smokey and she couldn't resist gently nipping at his lip with her teeth. But, not wanting a repeat of the night before, she knew it was time to stop when she heard his quiet moan.
Jake hadn't been able to stop the moan that passed his lips when he'd felt Ness' teeth graze his lip, but he knew it was for the best when he felt her pull away. They didn't have the time or the privacy to get caught up in each other at the moment. He helped guide her back to her feet and then stepped a short distance away to give them both some space.
"So I take it that's a yes?" He asked teasingly.
Ness gave a sultry look back and said, "Definitely."
A short while later, they were seated in Jakes car and headed to the Ateara house. He'd explained along the way what exactly he'd agreed to help out with. Quil and Claire lived in a small two bedroom house on the reservation. With Claire expecting, they really needed more room, but a new house just wasn't feasible. The house they were currently living in had belonged to Quil's grandfather and had been left to him when he'd died.
In order to solve the space issue, Quil and Claire had decided to build on an addition to their current home with the help of their friends. They were adding a bedroom with an attached bath to the back of the house. With Paul and Jared both working in construction, they figured they could get it done by the time the baby arrived.
"They're lucky to have such devoted friends," Ness stated after Jake had filled her in.
"Yeah well, out here we all watch out for each other," he replied as he shrugged.
He continued to drive slowly down the dirt road for another minute before he turned and stopped the car in front of a small, blue, A-frame house. It had only taken a couple of minutes to reach their destination as the house wasn't very far from his own. So close in fact that they could have walked, but Jake had needed to bring a few supplies, as well as the left over bagels and such from breakfast, and had thought it best to take the car.
Just as he put the car in park, he saw Ness reach her hand out towards the door. He turned his torso in her direction and placed his right hand on her shoulder to stop her.
Ness let go of the handle and turned back towards Jake, a question in her eyes.
"Before we go in I just…I," he paused then to take a deep breath before continuing. "Thank you, for earlier. When I was talking a-about my mom…you helped."
Ness looked directly at Jake and could see how hard it was for him to be talking about his mom. He looked so young in that moment, like a vulnerable little boy. Wanting to comfort him, she moved as far to the left as she could, fully turned her upper body in his direction and leaned towards him. She placed both hands on either side of his face and gently pressed her lips to his.
The kiss was different from any of their previous kisses; it wasn't passionate, it wasn't needy, it didn't ignite a fire within either of them. But it was warm and tender and comforting and it was exactly what Jake had needed.
As she pulled away, Ness whispered "You're welcome." She removed her hands and settled herself back into her seat as she observed Jake. He looked better, in control of his emotions again, so she asked, "You ready to go inside?"
Jake just nodded his head in response and they both proceeded to exit the car. When he reached her side, he took her hand in his and held onto it as they made their way to the front door.
…
A couple of hours later, Ness stood by and watched as Jake worked; he was kneeling on the ground, hammering away at a nail, and he was shirtless. Claire had sent Ness out and around to the back of the house a minute ago to round up the guys for lunch, but as soon as she'd seen Jake, she'd been mesmerized. With every strike he made, the muscles throughout his arms and back would flex and bunch and ripple; it was enough to make her forget why she'd come back in the first place.
That was, until she heard from an unsolicited observer, "Hey Jake, I think you got yourself an audience."
She didn't even have to turn in the direction of the voice to know who it belonged to; Embry had been teasing her every chance he'd gotten since showing up that morning over she and Jakes PDA act on the beach the night before.
After the third or fourth time he'd made her blush, Jake had come to her rescue, informing Embry that if he didn't shut his mouth, Jake would shut it for him. That had quickly escalated into a faux boxing match that had ended with Embry in a head lock shouting Uncle as Jake flexed his bicep around Embry's neck.
Once he'd been released, he'd begrudgingly apologized, promising to lay off the teasing. She now realized that his promise apparently only applied to the night before and that her stalker session was fair game.
Jake snapped his head around after hearing Embry and immediately locked eyes with Ness. He could tell even at his distance that she was blushing, embarrassed at being caught starring. And although it made her look adorable, he didn't want her to be embarrassed; if she liked what she saw, she could look all she wanted.
"Can it Embry," he threw out over his shoulder as he stood. He heard Embry mumble something in response but it was too low for him to make out, so he let it go. He started walking towards Ness instead and was by her side in three long strides.
"Hey, everything okay?" He asked as he brushed her still slightly pink cheek with the back of his hand.
"Yeah," she said as she nodded. "Claire just asked me to come back and let everyone know that lunch was ready."
Jake smiled down at her and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before dropping his hand back to his side. He wanted to kiss her, but he knew that would probably embarrass her even more and he didn't want to make her uncomfortable. He was also covered in sweat and he didn't think she'd want him all over her in his current state.
Little did he know that at that moment, Ness wanted nothing more. Just as he'd tucked her hair behind her ear, Ness had caught sight of a drop of sweat as it slid down Jakes neck. It had kept going, over his collar bone and down his chest, trailing over the contours of his abs before it disappeared under the waistband of his jeans. She'd run her eyes back up Jakes torso and over his face, stopping at his eyes.
She starred into them now, hoping Jake would somehow read her mind and move a little closer. But to her disappointment, he didn't. He nodded and called over his shoulder, "Hey, lunch is ready, let's eat."
After making their way back to the house and cleaning up, everyone made themselves a plate of food and found a spot to sit in the living room. They ate lunch together as the guys discussed the build. Rachel had joined Ness and Claire around noon to help with lunch and the three of them sat talking about the baby; what theme they wanted to go with in the nursery, what names they'd been thinking of and so on.
The rest of the afternoon flew by after lunch and before Ness knew it, it was 4:30 and the guys were calling it a day.
After washing up, Jake found Ness and asked if she were ready to go. She nodded her head and together, they said their goodbyes.
As they walked out to his car Jake asked, "Do you want to go back to your place?"
"That sounds good," she replied.
Jake cheered internally at that; she wasn't tired of him yet, she wanted even more time with him, time alone, he was on cloud nine.
When they reached his car, Jake opened the door to the passenger's side for Ness and she got in. She picked up her clutch, which she had left in the car, and pulled out her cell phone as Jake made his way around to the driver's side.
Looking down at her phone, Ness noticed she had three alerts. She quickly unlocked her phone and saw that she'd received two calls and a text from Michael. She hadn't spoken to him since the day before; they'd had a brief conversation before her aunt had called. Ness saw that he'd left a voicemail, but she knew she couldn't listen to it now. The text hadn't seemed urgent; it had simply asked her to call him when she had a chance. But nothing could be done now, not with Jake sliding into the driver's seat next to her. So she slipped the phone back into her clutch and tried not to focus on it. She still hadn't had an opportunity to tell Jake about Michael, but she was hoping to do that tonight, once they got back to her place; she just hoped he'd understand.
As soon as Jake got into the car and started driving away, he felt the change in Ness; her body looked tense and her face looked worried. He began to wonder if it had something to do with him coming over, is she worried that things are moving too fast? Maybe she's changed her mind about me coming in and she just doesn't know how to tell me. These thoughts and more swam through his head as he drove to her house. They both remained quiet during the drive, each wrapped up in their own thoughts.
Finally, Jake reached her house and he stopped the car. He wasn't sure what to do; she hadn't said anything since leaving La Push and he didn't know if she wanted him to stay or not. But she'd invited him and hadn't withdrawn the invitation, so Jake decided to see it through. If she wanted him to go, she'd have to tell him.
He turned the car off and opened his door. Ness didn't wait for him to get her door before exiting, but she waited for him as he made his way to her side. Still silent, they started up the walkway to the front door. The silence was killing Jake, but he didn't know what to say to make it better.
Ness was a mess, a million thoughts had been running through her head as they'd driven. She'd been so sure about what she was doing; she'd hardly even stopped to really think things through. But now, all of those things were crashing down on her from every angle; Michael, Jacob, her marriage, fidelity, honesty, love. It was overwhelming and she felt like she was going to crash at any moment.
Just then, as they reached the front porch steps, Ness felt something vibrating in her clutch. She knew it was her phone and she cringed, wondering if it was Michael. She quickly pulled the phone out and checked the screen. Relief poured over her as she saw it wasn't him, but her mother instead. Hoping for something to take her mind of off things for a moment, she held up a finger to Jake as she brought the phone to her ear.
"Hey mom," she said into the receiver as she walked a few steps away from Jake.
"Hi sweetheart. Is everything okay?" She heard Bella ask.
"Of course, why wouldn't it be?" Ness questioned.
"Well, I got a call from Michael just a little while ago. He said he'd been trying to reach you all day but you weren't answering. So he asked me to call and check on you."
Ness felt her stomach drop when her mother mentioned Michael. All she'd wanted was a moment, one moment where she didn't have to think about him or Jake, but she just wasn't that lucky.
Jake watched from the steps for a minute as Ness talked. He'd heard her say hi mom when she'd answered, but she'd moved too far away after that and he had no idea what was going on now. All he knew was that Ness looked even worse now than she had in the car. After another minute, the hand that was holding the phone dropped back to her side. But she didn't come to him.
Hesitantly, Jake approached her instead. He just wanted to make sure she was okay. If she wanted him to go, he would, but he had to make sure she was good first.
"Ness?" He said her name like a question when he reached her side.
After a second, she looked up at him, and Jake could see the tears in her eyes threatening to spill over. He moved closer and brought his arms up to wrap them around her, but she moved back, out of his reach.
That had hurt, but Jake wasn't going to let it stop him. "I wanna help, but I don't know what's wrong…Please talk to me," he pleaded.
She looked away from him then, and in a voice so quite he had to strain to hear, she said, "I need some time, I-I'm sorry."
That was all she'd said. Jake's heart was beating fast in his chest and it was a struggle for him to simply breath, but he somehow managed to get his next words out. "It's okay, I'll go. Just…promise you'll call me?" He'd meant it as a statement but it had come out sounding more like a question.
Jake waited, holding his breath, for her answer. When all she did was nod her head slightly, he knew that was all he'd get.
Something had happened that had caused Ness to close herself off and he hated that he didn't know how to fix it. All he could do was give her what she seemed to want, space. Accepting that there was nothing more he could do for the time being, Jacob turned away from her and began walking back to his car.
Once he was in his and back on the road, Jacob began replaying the past twenty-four hours he'd spent with Ness in his head, trying to pinpoint what he'd done that could have triggered her behavior, but he came up empty handed.
By the time he reached his tiny house on the reservation, he was exhausted. He made his way slowly to his room, walking right passed his father and ignoring him when he asked about Ness. He pulled his jeans and his t-shirt off once inside and practically collapsed onto his bed. His face was buried in his pillow and as he took in a deep breath to relax himself, the lingering scent of strawberries flooded his senses and he groaned. How the hell am I supposed to get any sleep when I'm surrounded by her, he thought to himself. Fuuuck.