A/N Jacob Black and his hungry friends all belong to Stephenie Meyer :)

BPOV

"Did you and Emily get everything planned for Claire's birthday?" Jake asked me.

After we left Emily and Sam's he'd drug me to the car parts store in Hogan to get brake pads for the Chevy; and now I was lounging in the font seat of the Rabbit reading Romeo and Juliet.

"Mhmm. We ordered the cake and got balloons and Quil is going to pick up the piñata next week."

"Good. Hey babe, can you bring me that wrench?" He pointed to the tool box on the other side of the shed. I tossed Romeo & Juliet onto the driver's seat and tripped across the garage to retrieve the wrench. I handed him the wrench and sank to the floor next to him.

"Are you okay? You've been awfully quiet all afternoon."

Jake secured the caliper back in place and hefted the tire back onto the truck.

"Something happened; pack stuff," he said, taking the lug nuts out of my hand, "But it's nothing for you to worry about. I'm sure it'll blow over."

Jake finished tightening the lug nuts and lowered the truck, "C'mon, we've got to get the beach," he said looking at his watch, "Rez BBQ tonight, remember?"

He offered me his hand and helped me up. I tripped and almost crashed headfirst into the driver's side rear view mirror.

"Careful you klutz," Jake wrapped his arms around me and pressed his fiery lips to mine. I could spend an eternity kissing Jacob, he was my Phoenix in Forks; warm and brown amidst all the wet and green. He had my back against the driver's side door, when Billy called from the front porch. Jake groaned; "Pretend you didn't hear him," he said and resumed kissing me. Billy called again, and Jake, perfectly content to ignore him, did.

"Isabella Marie Swan!" Charlie called out, "I know you're in there, you and Jacob better get your asses out here."

Jake and I groaned simultaneously, "Damn parental units," I grumbled and followed Jake out of the garage.

Truth was I loved my father to death. After the fiasco in Phoenix, he let me come home and night after night he rushed to my side as I screamed myself awake, crashing back into consciousness after yet another night of those terrifying nightmares. Charlie accepted my explanation of what happened the night I ran off to Phoenix; I told him Edward had broken up with me and I couldn't stand Forks anymore, and when I got back to Phoenix I stayed at a hotel and got hit by a car after I tripped on the sidewalk and into on-coming traffic. I knew he didn't believe it, but he accepted it nonetheless.

"What were you two doing in there?" Charlie demanded as Jake and I sheepishly approached the house.

"The Chevy needed new brakes, Charlie. I was fixing them," Jake said holding up his greasy hand as proof.

Charlie narrowed his eyes, examining Jakes hands, "Go help Billy," he told us.

We trudged into the house were Billy was waiting. "Those need to go to the beach," he said pointing at two large blue and white coolers. Jacob crossed the kitchen in two steps and stacked the two coolers and lifted them like they didn't weigh a thing.

"Come on Bells."

I followed him back out into the yard. He put the coolers in the back of the truck and opened the driver's side door for me, "Your chariot," he said as I got in.

At the beach, I parked between Embry's beat up Ford Ranger and Emily's newer civic.

I jumped out of the truck enjoying the last of the sunlight. It had been an unusually sunny day, even for summer in Forks. I kissed Jake and told him I was going to help Emily cook. As I skipped off Paul stopped at the back of the truck to help Jake carry the coolers.

On the beach, Emily and Sue were sitting on plastic lawn chairs chatting about Claire's upcoming birthday.

"Hey," I said, sitting down next to Emily.

"You made it back in time!" she said. I nodded, "Jacob drives that Rabbit like he's auditioning for the Indy 500. It's terrifying. Speak of the devil."

Jacob and Paul set the coolers down next to the glowing barbeque pit, "What?" Jacob said.

"Oh Bella was just commenting on your driving ability, Jake," sue told him.

"There is nothing wrong with my driving," he grumbled.

"Yea, if your driving on the Daytona International Speedway," I muttered.

"You," he said kissing my cheek, "are lucky I love you or my feelings might be hurt."

Leah skulked by throwing nasty looks at Emily, Jacob and I. she was still pissed off about the whole werewolf thing. She blamed me most of all though, because I'd dated Edward and It was because of them that her whole life had changed. And it was because of me that Sam had changed, and imprinted on Emily, leaving Leah. So I couldn't blame her for hating me; if I turned into a werewolf because of the Cullen's and my boyfriend fell in love with another woman I'd be pretty pissed too.

Sue sighed as her daughter trudged off to sit by herself at the tide line.

"Don't worry Sue," Emily said patting her knee, "Leah will come around eventually."

While Sue fretted over her oldest child's fate as a werewolf; Emily and I began cooking pounds of hamburgers and hotdogs. We could hardly keep up as the pack devoured over half the food.

"Wow," Charlie said holding his plate out to me, I placed a steaming hamburger on the waiting bun; "Those boys have one hell of an appetite."

Emily and I looked at each other and laughed, "Yea, Dad, they sure do."

Charlie thanked me for the burger and wandered over to where Billy and Sue were sitting. Since Harry had died, Charlie had taken a real liking to Sue. He was very protective of her. Billy teased him about it to no end. Sometimes the two of them were about as mature as a couple of twelve year olds.

Once everyone had eaten, Billy added more wood to the fire sending blue flames shooting high into the dark night sky.

"All right, listen up, Sam has something he wants to say," Billy announced.

Behind me, Jake stiffened; his warm fingers had been tracing the scar James had left on my wrist, suddenly stopped. I turned to look at him; he had the look of a deer caught in the headlights.

"What's wrong?" I asked him.

Sam stood up in front of everyone, "Emily," he called, "Can you come up here too please?"

"Nothing," Jacob replied, relaxing. His fingers resumed tracing the scar.

Something was going on, something more than just 'pack stuff.' "You need to tell me what's going on," I hissed. He froze again, "What are you talking about?" he mumbled.

"Something's going on, I don't know what, but if you love me, you'll tell me." I felt guilty for pulling the 'if you love me' card, but I didn't like being kept in the dark.

"Later," he muttered.

In front of us, Sam was getting down on one knee, "Emily," he said holding a small black box in his hand, "Will you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?"

Emily squealed, "Yes!" she exclaimed, falling into Sam, "Yes, yes, yes. A million times yes!"

"Did you know he was going to do that?" I asked Jake.

He nodded sheepishly and tapped his forehead, "No secrets, remember?"

"Oh yea." I got up and joined the group fawning over Emily's engagement ring. "Congrats!" I said hugging her, "I'm so happy for you!"

I let Emily show off her ring to the rest of her friends and went to seek out Jacob.

JPOV

Damn it, damn it, damn it! I went to find Sam after Bella went to see Emily's engagement ring. He was sitting on the edge of the crowd talking to Paul and Quil.

"Sam," I called. He turned and motioned for me to join them.

"Hey. We're going over whose going to run patrol tonight. I think it should be you and Leah," Sam said.

I groaned, "Come on Sam. Leah? She's a pain in the ass, I'll run patrol, but not with her."

"Fine," Sam said, "you and Embry, run the woods tonight. Go as far North as the Cullen's place. See if any of them have been back there. If you find the scent, howl. One of us will hear you and we'll go from there."

"I have to tell Bella, Sam," I said.

"Not yet. Let's see what happens on patrol tonight."

"She knows something's up. If I don't tell her she'll be pissed if a Cullen just pops up on her doorstep. She'll know I knew they were back and didn't tell her."

Sam nodded, "yea, you're right. Go ahead and tell her what we know so far."

I nodded and set off to rock Bella's world.

Reviews are better than not having to run patrol with Leah, so leave some!