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8
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Somebody said them city boys
Ridin' around lookin' for some trouble
If they bring it 'cross that county line
You know there's gonna be a rumble
-Brantley Gilbert, Small Town Throwdown
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Sam sighed and watched the clouds rolling in overhead. It had been threatening to rain for the last three days now and he looked forward to a few hours of rest. He, Paul and Jared had been mending fences and working with the horses on the ranch since they'd woken up earlier in the day.
"So Sam…"
Sam rolled his eyes. "Here we go." He quipped.
Jared arched an eyebrow. "Anyways… have you talked to Bella?"
Paul snorted. "I heard them on the phone last night. Man, you've got it bad."
"Will you two just drop it. What's got you so vested in my love life anyways?" He grizzled.
Jared grinned. "Because we want to see you happy for once?"
"Because she's good for you? I mean… you saw the left hook she threw! Who the hell knew the cop's daughter could even throw a punch that well?" Paul grinned.
Sam snorted. "Paul… she's the chief's daughter… she's known how to shoot a gun since she was ten or something… she hangs out with Jake, Quil and Embry… plays sports… loves football and she happens to know how to ride a horse better than both of you combined… do you find it that hard to believe that she can throw a punch?"
Jared smirked. "You know an awful lot about her all of a sudden."
"You're completely missing my point." He quipped with a roll of his eyes.
Paul snorted. "Getting defensive are we?"
"Hey guys!" A voice said from behind them, sparing Paul and Jared from the tirade Sam had been about to unleash on them.
They turned to see Jacob, Embry and Quil walking up to them with none other than the object of their discussion following behind them. She was absorbed in a book she held in her hands and Sam couldn't help but grin.
"Hey, guys. Momma Uley send you out to help us?" Paul asked hooking a piece of fence to the new post he'd just put into the ground.
Sam grinned. Paul had told him once he had felt weird calling Allison mom sometimes. So, upon taking his advice, he'd sat down with her and together they'd come up with the name Momma Uley. He still used it sometimes out of habit even though most of the time he called Allison mom these days. "You three gonna help or did you just come to watch and be obnoxious?"
Jacob shrugged, holding a hand out to stop Bella before she ran into Embry. "We found a book worm and dragged her out of hiding." He quipped. "We figured the fresh air would do her some good. She's been sitting in her room with her nose in a book all morning long so far."
Bella glared at him and when he turned away from her, she seized the opportunity and smacked him in the arm with her book. Satisfied with his painful wince, she went back to reading leaving Quil and Embry rolling with peals of laughter. Even Sam had to chuckle.
"Hey Bella." He greeted.
Her hair hid her cheeks thankfully or he would have noticed the blush she sported. "Hey Sam."
"How's your hand?" He wondered.
She held up her bandaged left hand for him to see. "I only busted my knuckles up bit. Emily has a bony chin I guess." She shrugged.
Quil rolled his eyes. "No… that's just your luck. Even punching someone, you're bound to hurt yourself."
"Do I need to hit you too?" She threatened.
His eyes went wide and he took a step back. "Nope, I'm good."
"Mmhm…" Bella smirked. "That's what I thought."
He huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. "So mean!"
"No, Quil. Me being mean would have been me patting your head and saying good boy."
It was Jacob's turn to laugh with Embry. Quil only huffed. "Man I'm never gonna live that down am I?"
"Someday." She shrugged. She walked over to a near by tree and sat at the base of it while Jacob, Quil and Embry proceeded to help Sam, Paul and Jared. Allison had promised them desert if they did help not that they needed to know that had been their motivation to lend a hand in the first place.
It took them two hours to fix the stretch of fence that had, just the day before, been leaning. In that two hour stretch, the sun had re-emerged from behind the clouds with a vengeance. Like most boys their age were prone to do, they had lost their shirts when they'd gotten too hot. They thought nothing of it, but Bella was on the verge of orgasm from the gorgeous sight it brought to her eyes.
"Thanks for the help guys. We have to go get cleaned up before mom has another fit over us being late to lunch again like last week." Paul said when they were finally finished.
Embry laughed. "You're kidding right? Aunt Allison promised she'd save some desert for us- that's what convinced us to help you. I'd maybe walk over burning coals for her pie." He joked.
Sam only nodded. He looked over to Bella to see her still reading and sighed. "Y'all go on back. I'll grab Bella."
Jacob only shook his head. "He's got it bad…"
"I heard that!" Sam huffed.
Quil snorted. "You were meant to hear that!" He called.
Sam raised his left hand and lowered all but his middle finger in reply. Paul and Jared guffawed before pulling Quil and Jacob along behind them, Embry in the rear giving his friends an extra shove to get them moving.
Bella swallowed and tried to keep her breathing calm when Sam stopped in front of her. She pretended to ignore him until his shadow fell over the pages of her book when the wind moved the tree branches just the right way. She finally looked up at him and froze. He was gorgeous. Muddy boots, dusty jeans, no shirt, a cowboy hat on his head and sweat dripping off of his skin with the sun at his back.
She must have been dreaming.
"Can I help you?" She finally asked, trying hard to keep her voice steady.
Sam grinned. "It's time to go in, lunch is about ready." He told her offering her a hand to stand.
"You guys done already?" She wondered taking the offered hand.
She squealed when he pulled her up too quick for her liking. He caught her before she could fall by wrapping his arms around her waist with a grin on his lips. Her book lay abandoned on the ground and her hands went to rest on his broad shoulders. His broad, bare shoulders.
"Don't think for a second I don't know you sat there watching us more than reading that book of yours, sweetheart." He all but purred with his lips against the shell of her ear.
Bella inhaled, regretting it as soon as she did. He smelled like sweat, spice, pine and dirt. A shiver raced down her spine as she looked up at him. The things running through her mind at the moment just may have been enough for her father to chain her to a bed and place a chastity belt on her for good measure.
"Hey guys! You comin?!"
They moved apart quick enough to appear marginally guilty and turned to see Embry walking back towards them. Sam looked at her over his shoulder and gave her a wink before walking off toward his truck. Bella let out a shuddering breath and picked up her forgotten book before following after him.
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"Thanks for bailing me out of the house guys. I'm convinced my dad's master plan is to drive me insane before I leave for college!" Jacob sighed.
Bella only rolled her eyes. "Your dad is worried that you're out causing mayhem in the streets. Of course he's going to keep you home a lot this summer! It's his last chance to try and get it through that thick skull of yours that you are in fact 18 now. Legally… you can be tried as an adult!" She huffed shaking her head with an amused smile on her lips.
Jacob rolled his eyes while Quil and Embry snickered. Bella treated them all like an older sister sometimes. If it suited her, she became a partner in crime at others. Right now, she chose to be an older sister as they made their way towards Nashville- a city 15 minutes by car from their small town of Alapaha.
Bella had her head resting on Embry's shoulder while Quil drove. She loved leaning on him. He was the most comfortable out of all of her friends. She told him often enough but it never seemed to bug him too much.
"We're goin through the cane maze right?" Quil grinned when they parked the car.
Bella chuckled. "Do you think you'll grow up sometime soon, Quil?"
"I hope not! I'd cry.. I think." He chuckled causing Jacob and Embry to roll their eyes.
Bella shook her head and pulled her phone out to take a picture of them. She did it whenever they weren't looking and got some amazing pictures of them each time. Embry saw at the last minute and turned his head causing Bella to pout.
"Did she take a picture again?" Quil wondered having heard a camera click. Bella merely grinned.
Embry nodded. "Yeah, but that's not what we have to worry about right now. Trouble followed us." Embry said jerking his head towards someone behind him.
Jacob sighed. "The hell do they want?"
"Just ignore them… we're not home right now… city police are a tad more strict than my dad is and I only have so much weight I can pull if one of you gets into a fight." Bella tried. She didn't want to tell them that they'd been followed since they left town- it didn't bother her, but the boys were in the mood for a fight and THAT did worry her.
Quil sighed and presented his back to her. "I can't make any promises." He told her as she hopped onto his back. He'd promised her a ride and she was only too happy to take one right now. At least one of them wouldn't be able to fight.
Ten minutes before they left the maze and Bella's wish for a peaceful night went up in flames. Their follower finally made his presence known. It was high school all over again.
"Black! I have a bone to pick with your pansy ass!"
Jacob's jaw clenched and his hands balled into fists before he pushed the anger away.
"Come on Jake… ignore it. He just wants attention." Embry instructed.
"You'd know all about that wouldn't you, Call. I'm sure the guys from the football team would love to have your attention again."
Quil looked over his shoulder at Embry with a worried frown. They'd all done well to squash the rumors in school that Embry was gay. Just because he didn't fool around and respected women was no reason to believe he didn't like women. He and Jake both knew that his first crush had in fact been Bella. She was the first girl he'd ever gotten off thinking about (He'd been mortified afterwards and had never told her) but he had more respect for women partly because he'd been raised by a single mom.
The muscles in his neck rippled as he tried to quell his rising anger. He may have been quiet by nature, but he was by no means a pushover. A hand on his shoulder distracted him enough that he nodded and stood before walking off with his friends again. He wasn't going to give into them.
Not tonight.
Quil being tripped and Bella landing on her already bruised hand was the last straw. Jacob whirled around and came nose to nose with James, his girlfriend Victoria and his best friend Laurent.
"Bout time you faced me like a man instead of running scared." James mused.
"Jacob… come on… you promised…" Bella tried.
James sneered. "If it's not the whore. Have fun cheating on my cousin?" He asked.
Bella glared and lifted her chin in defiance. "I wonder who cheated on whom… I have to ask… does it run in the family or do you allow Victoria to participate in your trysts too?"
James lunged at Bella who merely arched an eyebrow. He was shoved backwards by Jacob who had stepped in front of Bella in an effort to keep her from being hurt. It only enraged the blonde even more.
"Guys, come on… he's not worth it." Embry huffed.
Jacob glared before spitting at James' feet. "We're comin."
"Pussy. You do everything your little bitch asks you to do Jacob? It's no wonder you've got Sam fighting your battles for you these days. You turn into his little bitch like Embry? Or do you have some kind of man card left under all that muscle?" James taunted.
Embry only rolled his eyes. Did he not know Sam was his cousin?
He had been looking for a fight. He didn't understand that he would have his rear end handed to him by three agitated boys in a minute if he wasn't careful. Victoria had even stopped laughing when she saw how the situation had started escalading.
Bella turned and eyed her friends, trying to think of a way to defuse the situation. Even Quil had turned around while cracking his knuckles. Until James had started talking about Embry, he had been letting Jacob handle it.
"Jake… please… come on… We're be out of here… come on… I can't throw my weight around here… remember?"
"Bells…" Jacob sighed when he felt her hand on his arm.
"Please Jake… come on guys…"
Jacob sighed and took a step back. "Alright."
"Damn son, she's got you by the balls, doesn't she? She make you lick her boots too? Oh wait… that's Embry's job. I bet he's a real good bitch. He looks cute enough. I have a few friends that would love to straighten him out, don't you think Laurent."
James didn't have a single warning. Jacob's fist connected with the skin of James' face before he thought to duck. James smirked. Talking about Embry had been the final push he'd needed to make Jacob fight.
Jacob was feral and precise in his hits. James may have given as good as he got to start, but Jacob had stamina on his side. It took Jacob a grand total of eight hits to force James to the ground. They both stood breathing hard when Jacob finally got a handle on his anger. Bella had done her best to hold her other two friends back as the two fought. Embry and Quil put hands on either of his shoulders and Bella coaxed them to start walking again.
None of them saw James stand. They did however hear Victoria gasp and Laurent shout to 'stop' before a burning, white hot dose of pain flooded Jacob's right shoulder. Bella gasped Jacob's name when she saw him cradling his arm. Quil and Embry jumped to Jacob's aide, knocking James to the ground before proceeding to beat him into a bloody mess.
By the time Charlie arrived at the hospital where Jacob had been transported to, he was livid. He'd known for a long time that James would be nothing but trouble. He knew he'd do something else stupid too as soon as the judge let him go with six months of community service and a month of probation instead of the jail time Charlie felt he deserved for assaulting a police officer- even if they did live in a small town in Southern Georgia.
It all boiled down to the Cullens having money and being able to buy their way out of most any given situation.
'Not this time.' He mused walking into the room where Jacob had been placed.
"Come on now, it's not that bad." He grinned.
Jacob only sighed. He just wanted to go home, lay in his own bed and pretend tonight didn't happen. The only good thing to come about was he wouldn't have to deal with James for a while- possibly until he left for college- and Edward would be more cautious around town without his bulldog of a cousin to buffer him against the other guys in town he pissed off on a daily basis.
Maybe something good had come out of it after all. It only took him getting stabbed for it to happen. He rolled his eyes. Yeah, because that had been something good.
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