Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all characters utilized in this story.

Chapter 2

Jacob and I walked silently through the forest, listening to the sounds of small animals and the burbling of the river. He carried a canoe slung over his shoulder like it was a small branch of wood. It would have shocked a stranger to see him carrying it so easily but we knew there were no other people nearby. We would have caught their scent or heard their footsteps long before they would have known of our presence. We were alone and that's how we liked it. Sometimes we talked as we ventured through these trees we knew so well; he often taught me new things about the flora and fauna we encountered as we walked. But today was not a lesson, we were just hanging out as friends instead of teacher and student. So we walked along without words. It was quite pleasant.

We reached the spot upstream where we had decided to put in. Jacob gently placed the canoe down in the shallow edge of the river, the water whispering softly against the sides. I climbed in with the oars, facing him as I always did. He shoved off and, with a grace that belied his size, leapt in as we floated toward the slow current in the center of the opposing shores.

We drifted along the calm waters in silence, dipping our paddles only occasionally to keep our bow pointed downstream. It was not unusual for us to go hours without speaking. We had little need to. With just a touch of my hand, I could tell him all I was thinking and feeling. This had been my "gift" from the time of my birth – the ability to share my thoughts, feelings and even memories with others, just by touching them. Sometimes I could even "see" what Jacob was thinking as well. Daddy often said that Jacob made vivid mental pictures. It was true, and often I could get a hint of them just by touching him. If I touched him now, I might catch a glimpse of us running through the woods playing tag, and nearly feel the laughter. But instead, I kept my hands on my paddle. After a while, Jacob put his paddle down in the keel. He smiled at me and in one fluid motion, leaned back, resting his hands on either side of the boat, stretched his legs out, crossed them at the ankles and turned his face up toward the sky, eyes closed. A little smile still touched the corners of his lips. He was the picture of serenity.

I continued to let the current draw us along, paddling only occasionally to keep us on course. Soon, I recognized by the change in the trees on the bank that we were getting close to the house. I wasn't ready to get out, so I let us continue drifting. We'd either have to get out downstream and walk back, or we'd have to paddle against the current. Though normal humans would have great difficulty with that, we wouldn't have any trouble. In fact, it would be fun. Sometimes when we paddled upstream I insisted on doing it myself because there was no challenge to it with both of us paddling. Jacob's strength was overwhelming, far greater than a weak river current. I knew he would let me if I wanted to do it myself. He always let me get my way. I laughed silently to myself, thinking about how he always gave Daddy such a hard time when he gave in to Momma.

"Edward, you just give her anything she wants, don't you?" Jacob would laugh, shaking his head. "Can't you say no to Bells at all?"

"Only with great difficulty," Daddy would say with a chuckle and look at Momma with adoring eyes.

Yes, he always gave in to her.

Huh.

I froze with the paddle in the air, considering the similarity I had never recognized until this moment.

Just like Jacob always gives in to me.

But Jacob never looked at me like Daddy looked at Momma.

Did he?

No. I had never noticed that. True, he was my Jacob – had always been my Jacob, had always been a part of me, but not in that way. He was my friend, my best friend. Well, more like family really. He was a part of my family. And I was part of his. In fact, I had frequently thought of myself as a part of his pack. Our relationship was always so easy and comfortable. His smile was warm, like the sun. My own personal sun.

But, there was never anything more. Was there?

Though my mind was racing, my body was frozen. I must have been still too long. Jacob opened one eye and looked my direction. I smoothed whatever look must have been on my face and dipped my paddle back into the current casually.

He grinned. "Fall asleep?"

I smirked at him, and he closed his eye again, tilting his face back toward the unusually blue sky.

I examined his face slowly. I knew it as well as my own; probably better. I had seen it nearly every day since my own birth. But now I noticed details I'd never really paid much attention to before. His russet brown skin was smooth and even, taut over his strong cheekbones and jaw. His closed eyelids were smooth, no tension in them at all, flanked by lashes so dark they were striking even against his dark skin. Tiny lines at the corners were evidence of his easy and frequent laugh. A smile still played on his lips now. I traced their shape with my eyes noting for the first time their fullness. They looked…soft. My stomach trembled. So taken so off guard was I by this inexplicable feeling my mind began to race again.

You silly girl, I chided myself. What is wrong with you?

I tried to shake it off. Then the memory of Momma and Daddy's conversation about me reasserted itself in my brain. "Renesmee's growing up, Edward," she had said.

And now the hormones must be kicking in, I thought wryly.

I had no way of knowing exactly how or when it would happen. There was no one to teach me because no one knew. There was no one like me. Nahuel, the only other half-vampire we knew of that still existed, had said it took him about seven years to reach physical maturity. But he was a boy – well, a man now. I was a girl; we might age differently. And, he only talked about the physical. He had said nothing of other things, like emotions. I certainly looked like a young woman on the outside. But I still felt like a girl on the inside. At least I had until now.

I had never had any interest in boys that way before. But now, I could not deny the thrill that had run through me looking at Jacob. I guess I had known I would start having these feelings about the male species someday, but why now? Why Jacob? The one person I could usually talk to about anything was the last person on Earth I could talk to about this. Just the thought that he would ever know I had reacted to him in this way caused heat to creep up my neck and into my cheeks. I prayed he wouldn't open his eyes.

Fortunately, it was a full minute later that he did, and my flush was gone. He quickly grabbed his paddle and stuck it down in the water, pressing us back against the current, as he laughed.

"Are we going all the way to the ocean today?" his eyes were twinkling.

"No, I just wanted a little workout getting home. Are you up for it?" I challenged with a grin, trying to act like the same old Nessie he had always known.

"Sure, anything you want!" he shot back, quickly turning us and starting to power back upstream. I swung my legs around to face the front of the canoe, dug my paddle in too, and we nearly flew back up the river until we reached the house, laughing the whole way.

That evening, I was glad to have the piano to myself for a while. Everyone else was busy with other pursuits. Momma, Daddy, Alice and Jasper were hunting, Rosalie and Emmett were back at their house, Carlisle was in his study, and Esme was in the kitchen experimenting with a new recipe she got from a show on the Food Network. She had found a new love in cooking, now that she had an interested audience – Jacob and his pack. Because Jacob was here so much, they often were too and they were more than happy to oblige when Esme asked them to try one of her creations. Even Leah had thawed enough that she would eat with the others, though she still hadn't truly warmed up to our family. Jacob was in the kitchen now, "helping" Esme. So now, Esme had two specialties – home design and cooking. My talent was music, a trait I'd inherited from Daddy. I still couldn't compose anything as achingly beautiful as the scores he did, but when I played, I felt like the music was coming straight through me, channeled from somewhere more powerful than my small being.

"You play as beautifully as your father," Momma would sigh, standing by the piano with her eyes closed just listening, absorbing, and when Daddy and I played together, her face radiated joy.

When I was alone, I would get lost in the music, sitting at the piano for hours, never getting tired. It was my thinking place. Even playing the most intricate pieces, I still had space in my brain where my thoughts could either float freely or I could focus on a question or issue I wished to mull. I needed the thinking space tonight. I wasn't ready to talk to anyone about the feelings I had discovered today. It was an uncomfortable feeling. I had never truly felt I had to hide anything from my family.

An hour later, I was no further along in my mulling when Jacob entered the room with a satisfied look on his face, licking chocolate icing from his fingers.

"I'd better go, Ness. It's getting late and I told Dad I'd stay there tonight." He crossed the room in three strides, reaching his arms wide to grab me in a hug like always.

A tiny little tremor of fear ran through me.

Because we were so close and I had never had to hide anything from him, I had never held back using my gift with him, save for the time our family faced the Volturi. And that was over so quickly, and it was a long, long time ago. Aside from that, since the day I was born I had shared my thoughts, feelings and memories with him and my family simply through the touch of my hands. With others outside the family, even in La Push on the Quileute land, I was very disciplined with my gift. Most people, I didn't share it with at all. They wouldn't have understood. It might have scared them. They might start to look at me, at my family, too closely, start questioning what we were. And then, we'd have to move. Humans were not allowed to know about us. They would fear us, as most of our kind deserved, and it might put us in danger. Not from the humans necessarily, but from the Volturi.

The Quileutes were an exception. On the reservation, they were a bit more familiar with the supernatural, since many of them were descended from shape changers who took the form of wolves. They had a whole pack right now. Well, really, two packs. Including Jacob. He was descended from the last Alpha male before this generation – his great-grandfather, Ephraim Black. The whole shape-changing thing had skipped a couple generations, so his father, Billy, had never shifted. But he was proud of Jacob. And, he was comfortable with me – a half-vampire. More than comfortable. He loved me. He treated me like a daughter. That's why I was happy to share my gift with him. After a day out having fun with Jacob on the reservation, at the beach or riding motorcycles, I'd touch my hand to Billy's cheek and share with him about our day, particularly anything funny that Jacob had done. Billy would laugh his rich, resonant laugh and his eyes would twinkle just like Jacob's. And if he was happy and I was happy, Jacob was happy.

Jacob did not look happy now. He had noticed my hesitation when I stood to receive his bear hug, or should I say wolf hug.

"You okay?" Now he was hesitating.

"Oh, yeah," I said quickly, adding a warm (hopefully convincing) smile. "Just distracted, thinking about this new song."

Liar! I accused myself silently as I wrapped my arms around him, careful not to let my hands connect with his skin, hoping he wouldn't notice. He hugged me tight for one second, then pulled back with a questioning look, but because he was already running so late, he just kissed the top of my head, said "Sweet dreams, Nessie," and released me. Then he was gone.

I was exhausted. Holding back my thoughts and even outright lying to Jacob had sapped my strength. It went against my very nature and was like trying to turn the Earth the other way on its axis.

"I'm going to turn in now," I said to Esme, who sat reading on the couch nearby. "Goodnight, dear," she murmured.

Lying down in my bed, I thanked my lucky stars that Daddy wasn't home to hear my mind, but my last thought before falling asleep was what will I do in the morning when Daddy's home? How could I keep him from hearing my thoughts? Even though he wouldn't try to listen, he might not be able to help hearing. And I didn't want anyone to know.

That night, I dreamed that Jacob and I were at the river again, and I had gotten in the canoe. For some reason, Jacob didn't get in. He just stood on the bank, staring at me. I tried to speak to him but had no voice. Then, Sam Uley, the current Alpha of the La Push pack, appeared behind him in his huge, black wolf form. Jacob turned and looked at him, then phased and followed him into the dark forest, never looking back as I drifted away in the canoe, unable to move. I woke to feel tears on my cheeks.