Chapter 2: Secrets
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Bella's Point of View

It was late in the summer and Max was finally moving in. The house where we were staying here was quite large. On the top floor were the two largest bedrooms, one with an adjoining medium sized room. Edward and I had the one with the adjoining room, obviously for Renesmee, and Carlisle and Esme had the one across the hall. On the second floor, there were three bedrooms, one for Rosalie and Emmett, one for Alice and Jasper, and another that Alice and Rose had converted into a massive closet. In the basement, there was a large bedroom that Jacob used. This left Rose and Alice to surrender their mega-closet for Max he said it was fine if they left some of their clothes in there but Alice new better and moved her excess clothes to the basement, near/around/in Jacob's room.

Max was a really nice guy. He smiled at Renesmee, he made jokes with Emmett, had a passion for cars like Rose, had a special sense of emotion like Jasper and even played the piano like Edward. It was early in the evening when he had finally gotten his few things situated. We all sat in the living room having light conversation, discussing school in the fall, and the special arrangements Carlisle had made for Max to go to school as well. He too would be a junior like Jacob, because he too had yet to finish any sort of high school education for the first time.

Renesmee was sitting on my lap, asking Max questions about his life, when she touched my cheek, and showed me she was quite hungry. I too knew my thirst was becoming too great for comfort, when I decided we should go on a hunt. Jacob was lightly snoring, and Edward was deep in conversation with Carlisle. I was almost out the back door before Max appeared in front of me.

"Are you off to hunt?" he asked.

"Yes, Renesmee doesn't hold her hunger well…" I laughed at Renesmee who stuck her tongue out at me.
"May I join you, then? I haven't hunted in a while…" I noticed his almost completely golden eyes, but decided against mentioning it. Renesmee loved attention, and she knew Max would be amazed at how she hunted.

"Come with us, Max!" She smiled and reached over to him, as if for him to carry her. I let him. Although Renesmee was more than old enough to run on her own, her slow speed, and smaller legs would only slow us down, and nobody should try and slow down a thirsty vampire.

We came to a clearing, and he let Renesmee down. "Bella," the way he said my name made me smile back.

"Yes?"

"The bond you have with your daughter is so strong and beautiful, it's one that I have never seen in a vampire, and even when I see the bond in humans, never have I seen one so strong. All of the bonds I see amongst your family members are so different and stronger than I have seen before," he now looked cautiously at me, "there is one bond with your daughter that I urge you to pay attention to…" I was frightened at first, but then I figured what he meant.

"Do you mean Jacob?"

"Yes… how did you know? He seems to have a very … odd but quite powerful bond with your daughter that I don't seem to understand…"

I laughed, "It's hard to understand, it's a wolf thing… when Jacob first saw Renesmee.. he sort of discovered her to be… his soulmate…"

He looked at me oddly, as if I were suggesting a baby and a grown man should be in love.

Renesmee had quickly found a deer, and asked me if she should go for it, I urged her to.

"Oh, it's not like that Max… it's odd, but for now, he only cares to protect her, like a big brother." He nodded trying to understand, as the scent of a few deer blew past us, I ran in that direction. Max and I made it to the deer at the same moment and quickly pounced on our prey. I was proud of myself for becoming a much cleaner hunter. When we were done, I could hear Renesmee running towards us, ready to go home. Seconds before her arrival, Max sauntered over to me.

He came dangerously close to my face and said, "Bella…" the way he said my name would have made me blush. "you have a little something…" he rubbed my cheek with his finger and showed me the blood that had been on my face. Okay, so maybe I still had a few things to work on. However, my inability to hunt neatly was not the only thing on my mind but rather the look in Max's eyes as he touched my face and the feeling he left on my cheek…

Renesmee hurried by my side, and jumped into my embrace. I didn't look or speak to Max, I just ran straight home.

Edward's Point of View

I noticed Renesmee's hunger, and was about to get up with Bella, when Carlisle began to think of a conversation he had just had with Bella about her transformation… I began to question him about it, but he quickly denied ever thinking about it. Bella got up to leave, I wanted to ask her what exactly had happened during her transformation, when Carlisle began to think about it again. I questioned him further, he didn't budge.

Bella, Renesmee and Max had been gone briefly before I noticed their return. Bella didn't have her usual, perfectly content expression and I quickly looked to Max, his thoughts calm and pure as usual. I still felt like he was hiding something from me, however. Like those weren't his real thoughts, like there was something else. Everyone thinks of things that they shouldn't, everyone worries about things, and has deep desires that pop up in their mind every so often. Not with Max, he was different, and I wanted to know why my wife looked ever so slightly disturbed. I never wanted even the slightest discomfort to befall upon her, and if it was because of Max, he would surely pay.

The night was fast approaching and I knew tomorrow Alice was planning on taking Bella, Renesmee and Rosalie hostage for the day to get clothes for the first day of school and the cold fall here. Knowing the long day ahead for my daughter, I asked Bella with my eyes if she thought we should take Renesmee upstairs and call it a night.

We had taken to this silent communication as soon as Renesmee started to resist bedtime like a typical toddler.

Alice was just finishing showing Jacob how to French braid Renesmee's hair, without "destroying her beautiful hair" as Renesmee had put it the last time he offered to do her hair. The scene was quite something. Bella was sitting on the floor in front of Renesmee, holding her hand, convincing her that Jacob wouldn't hurt her, even though she was quite sure he would. Renesmee loved when people did her hair, and Jacob was sick of not being able to do that. Undoubtedly there was a loud squeak from Renesmee as soon as Jacob pulled a little too hard on her hair.

"OUCH! Jakey, you can't do my hair! Let my mommy do it, please," he eventually gave in and in his mind he swore that he would go buy a doll tomorrow so that he could practice for her. I smiled at how much he was willing to do for her, just like I was willing to do anything for my Bella…

Bella opened her mind to me, we better get her upstairs quickly, tomorrow's going to be a long day and it's almost 11, if only Jacob could accept the fact that he can't do her hair…

Before her bubble could surround her mind once more, I caught a glimpse of the end of Bella's hunt with Max. I had quite a few questions for Bella tonight…

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What do you guys think? Should I continue?