CHAPTER 54

Embry POV:

Life became a lot easier after that. My dad told me he would help me fix Sue's banister that I splintered when I threw Josiah into it. We spent a whole weekend working on it. Dad was really good at this stuff. Sue said it looked better than the original one!

Leah helped me get caught up at school and, thanks to Seth's genius idea about the flyers, our car repair business was actually picking up again. Money was flowing in, most of it going into the bank, and we thought if business stayed good, we might be able to give Mr. Collins a down payment by June. That would be awesome! The sooner we moved into the shop, the sooner Leah and I could get married.

Jake told me he was thinking of marrying Bella, too. But, he knew she wasn't in a hurry to get married after almost making that mistake with Edward. Besides, Bella was a little leery of marriage because of her parent's divorce. It had been pretty rough on her as a kid. I felt bad for Jake because I knew he would marry her tomorrow, he was that in love with her. I had a feeling she would change her mind with time.

Leah started her new job at the restaurant and she really liked it. She was doing OK working and keeping up on her college classes, but we didn't have as much time together. I had gone in and eaten a couple of times, but I knew it made her nervous, so I didn't make a habit of it.

Seth was kind of lost without her, too, although I knew he wouldn't admit it. He liked having her cook for him and fuss over him. Spoiled little brat. But he had Abby now, so he was spending more time with her. He had turned 16 last weekend, and his mom finally let him get a permit, so Jake and I were teaching him to drive. I let him drive the truck first because it was an automatic and well, it was a piece of crap. So, if he hit anything with it, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. He was actually a pretty good driver. He picked things up quick. Leah said he could drive the Jeep, so we took him out and I showed him how. He pissed Leah off by picking it up quicker than her! He enjoyed that.

Mom and Dad's wedding was in two days. Dad had just gotten back from his "time away" as Mom called it. He was only gone three days this time. I was glad the wedding was almost here because Mom was driving me crazy! She had said she wanted a small, simple ceremony. But, of course, she's a woman, and apparently they aren't capable of doing small and simple. She and Sue drove all the way to Seattle to find Mom a "simple" wedding dress. Of course, she came home with one, but she also had a suit for me to wear. A suit! I had never worn a suit in my life! And a shirt, and tie . . . it was a nightmare. Thank goodness I already had a belt and shoes from Sam's wedding, or she would have made me go shopping for shoes. A fate worse than death. Leah told me to quit being a baby. This was my mom's day, so I should suck it up and be good for her. So, I did. Sue made me try the suit on so she could make some adjustments to it. Sam thought it was hilarious until Mom announced that he needed one, too. Dad took him shopping one afternoon and bought him one. He let me go along just so I could make fun of Sam. It was a good day!

They were getting married in a little church in town then the reception would be at Sue's house. Sue insisted. Emily told Mom in no uncertain terms that she was making the wedding cake, and Mom was not paying one red cent for it. That fight lasted at least two days before Mom realized you can't win against Emily. Her baby bump had turned into a baby belly, and Mom was worried about her doing too much. That didn't fly either. Emily would have her way. I told Mom to give it a rest, that this is just who Emily is and it made her feel good to do this. So she did.

Dad asked Sam and I both to serve as Best Man because he said we were the "best men he knew." Corny, yea, but it made me feel good. I told Sam he was holding the ring because I couldn't take that pressure again! He laughed and agreed. I was giving the bride away. Mom insisted. I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but I agreed to it. Mom asked Emily and Leah to be her bridesmaids, so it was going to be a family affair. Of course, they had to have new dresses, so off they went to Port Angeles on a Saturday to find them. They came home all giggly and chatty about their day. I had to admit it was fun to see them all enjoying being together.

Dad was going to move into our tiny little house with us. I was afraid that would be a little weird. They told me it was only temporary. They had their eye on a bigger house and were trying to work out a deal with the owners. Dad had sold his house in Port Angeles already to one of the guys he worked with on the docks. He had just gotten married and was looking for a small house. Sam and I were driving up there tomorrow to help him move some of his stuff here.

I was sitting in the truck waiting for Seth to come out of school. I usually gave Quil a ride home, but Quil was spending more and more time with Claire and today, he stayed home with her because she had a check-up with her pediatrician in Port Angeles and she wanted Quil to go with her. I shook my head and thought again about how patient he was, and how glad I was for the hundredth time that it wasn't me that imprinted on a toddler!

I was going to let Seth drive us over to Jake's, so I was sitting in the passenger side of the truck. I watched the door for him and saw him and Abby walk out and turn for the parking lot. They were holding hands and talking. Abby laughed at something Seth said and smacked him on the arm. They were so fun to watch. They walked up to the truck and Seth opened the door and Abby crawled in. "Hey Embry," she said to me.

I looked over at Seth and said, "Um, hi Abby."

"Cheerleading practice was cancelled and Abby's bus already left. I told her we could take her home. That's OK, isn't it?" Abby looked over at me with her cute, little pitiful face.

I smiled and said, "Of course it is. Let's go." Seth fired up the engine and drove us out of the parking lot. "I don't suppose it had anything to do with me letting you drive? You didn't want to show her your mad driving skills?"

Seth rolled his eyes and Abby giggled, as only Abby could. "Whatever," he muttered. Yea, I knew him too well.

We chatted about school and Abby told me about getting a letter from her brother in the Navy. "He's going to be in Seattle in a couple of weeks and he wants me to come over and see him," she said excitedly. "I really want to, but I don't know how I'll get there."

"Why doesn't he come here? Or why doesn't your mom drive you?" I asked.

She turned to me and said, "He hates my mom. He doesn't want to see her at all. Only me." I nodded. Wow. That's sad.

"Well, it's a good thing you have a good friend with a truck, huh? I'll drive you there. Or, we can all go in Leah's Jeep."

Her face lit up like a Christmas tree. "You mean it? You would do that for me?"

"Yea, sure. You're a good kid, and I like ya."

She launched herself at me and grabbed me around the neck. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! You have no idea how much this means to me."

"Um, I think I do. You're squeezing all of the air out of me!" I managed to get out.

She let me go and laughed. "I'm sorry!"

"It's OK, Abby. You get the details and let me know where and when, OK?"

She nodded her pretty little head like a bobble-head and looked over at Seth. He glanced at me and said, "Thanks, bro."

I nodded. Seth pulled us up to Abby's trailer and parked the truck and stepped out. Abby looked over at me and said, "Embry, you're the best. Thank you so much." Then she kissed me on the cheek, smiled at me and got out. Seth took her hand and walked her to the door. He held her and kissed her then, as always, he stood there and looked sadly at the trailer as she disappeared inside.

He hopped back into the truck and closed the door. "You really care about her, don't you?" I asked him.

He looked over at me. "Yea, I really do." I patted his shoulder and he put the truck in reverse and backed out and we headed for home.

Friday was finally here, thank God! We had a half day today because of some teacher meeting, so I was out at eleven. I dropped Quil off at Claire's and then Seth and I headed to his house. I was taking him home, but I was going to eat lunch with Leah then head over to Sam's to take him with me to Dad's house in Port Angeles.

We parked the truck and walked into the house. What is that smell? Something smells fantastic! Seth and I looked at each other and headed for the kitchen.

"Man, something smells really good! What are you cooking?" Seth asked Leah, who was at the stove stirring something.

"Yea? It's gruel. You'll love it." Seth rolled his eyes and went to the fridge to get something to drink. I walked up behind Leah and put my arms around her waist and kissed her neck.

"That does smell good," I said over her shoulder. She held up the spoon for me to take a taste. "Wow, that's good! What is it?"

She looked over her shoulder to see where Seth was. He had left the kitchen so she said, "I found a recipe for Lamb Stew, but don't tell Seth it's lamb. Mom made lamb one year for Easter and he threw a fit and wouldn't eat it because it was a cute, little baby lamb."

I laughed and said, "Well, I'll eat it. Cute or not, it's delicious!" She turned and kissed me. I took her in my arms and kissed her back.

Seth came back in the kitchen and said, "Hey can you make out later? I'm starving!"

I pulled away and said, "Me, too! Is it ready?"

Leah smiled and said, "Sit down, you two." She put the pot of stew on the table and ladled some into each of our bowls, then some for herself. There were warm biscuits in a basket on the table so I grabbed one and dunked it in the stew and took a bite. "Oh my God, Leah. This is fucking awesome."

Leah laughed and looked at Seth. "Wow! I got a 'fucking awesome.' That is very high praise." I laughed and took my spoon and dug in.

Seth took a bite and told her it was great. Then he asked what it was. "It's stew, and that's all you need to know," she said. He nodded and ate. I guess he knew not to ask a lot of questions when it came to food.

"Be sure to save room for dessert. I made pumpkin pie." I looked at her and said with my mouth full, "Are you serious?"

"Close your mouth and yes, I'm serious."

Seth laughed at that and shoveled in more stew. We finished lunch and Leah cut the pie. "I love pumpkin pie. I love ANY pie," I told her.

Seth and I had two pieces of pie and finally declared ourselves full. Seth excused himself from the table to go and call Abby. "OMG, you've been away from each other for, like, a whole hour!" I said in a silly girl voice.

He threw a biscuit at me and I caught it and took a bite out of it. He rolled his eyes and walked out of the kitchen. I put the biscuit down and looked at Leah. I scooted my chair back and said, "Come here, baby."

She got up and sat down on my lap and wrapped her arms around my neck. "I wish I could spend the rest of the day with you, "I said to her.

"It's OK. I understand. I'm glad you're helping your dad. Is it weird for you to think about all of you living in that little house together?"

"Yea, kind of. I mean, the walls are pretty thin, you know? I made sure I bought a new pair of headphones for my CD player. I guess I'll just listen to music at night."

She laughed and said, "I never thought about that. You're right. Oh Embry." I kissed her and held her close.

"But you know," I said close to her ear, "they are going to be gone for a whole week on their honeymoon. I will have the whole house to myself."

She smiled. "Yea?"

I nodded. "I want you to find some way to stay with me, at least one whole night. I want so much to sleep with you and wake up with you in my arms." I captured her lips in a kiss and she opened her mouth to let my tongue caress hers. We kissed until we were both a little breathless, and my pants were a little tighter and getting uncomfortable.

She pulled away and said, "I promise I will. I want that, too, very much." I smiled and she got up.

I looked down and said, "Um, I think I'll just sit here for a minute, if you don't mind." She laughed and said, "Yea, OK."

I finally tore myself away from Leah to drive to Sam's and pick him up. Of course he had to rag on me for being late. "I thought you said you would be here at 12:30, not 12:55," he said as he climbed into the truck.

"Sorry, bro. Leah was all over me. What could I do?" I glanced over and saw him smile at that.

"Yea, OK, I'll give you that one." He pulled something out of his jacket pocket. "Hey, before you drive, take a look at this," he said has he handed me a picture. "That's our baby!"

I gazed at this black and white picture, and was amazed! It was a baby. You could make it out perfectly. "Wow, Sam. This is awesome!"

"Yea, I know. It's a girl, bro. We're having a baby girl!" His face was lit up with excitement. "We had the ultrasound this morning. She's growing perfectly, and right on schedule to be here on Valentine's Day."

I handed the picture back to him and held my hand for a high five. He smacked it and I said, "Congratulations! Wow, a baby girl."

I started the truck and drove out onto the road. "Is Emily excited?"

"Oh, you have no idea. She can't wait to run out and get some little dresses. Man, a girl. I'm going to have to get a shotgun so I can sit on the porch and run off all her dates!"

That made me laugh. "I can picture that, bro!" I told him, and I could! We talked on the way to Port Angeles more about the baby. They had picked out boy names, but they hadn't settled on any girl names. They were going to work on that this weekend, he said. We talked about the wedding and other stuff and then I handed him the directions Mom had written down for me. "Help me find where I'm going," I asked him.

He helped me find the right streets and we pulled up in front of Dad's. It was a nice little house for the neighborhood. Leah had tried to describe it for me. She had only been here that one time with Jake, but she did a pretty good job. It looked just like she said. We got out and Dad came out onto the porch. "Hey boys!" he called and waved to us. We walked up onto the porch and he led us inside.

He had decided to sell most of the furniture and appliances with the house, but he wanted to save some things. He had a lot of boxes sitting in the front of the door for us to load into the truck. "Is it OK if I look around first?" I asked him.

"Sure," he said. I started with the little living room. There was the fireplace that Leah had told me about. There were no pictures on the mantle now. He had packed them all into boxes. I walked back down the hall and saw a small bathroom then the hall ended in the little kitchen. I looked out at the backyard. Dad had planted flowers along the fence line. It looked nice.

I walked back down the hall and went up the stairs. There were two small bedrooms and a bathroom up here. Dad had more boxes sitting in the one bedroom. "Dad? You want these boxes downstairs?" I hollered out.

"Yes," he hollered back. I stacked up three boxes and picked them and headed down the stairs. I set them down at the bottom of the stairs. Dad had just walked back into the house from loading the truck and I said, "This is a nice little house."

He smiled and said, "Thanks. I did most of the work on it myself. In fact, I have decided that's what I 'm going to do for a job. I'm going to get myself licensed as a contractor. What do you think?"

I nodded. "I think it's great! You should ask Sam to help you. He's really good at that kind of thing, too."

"Really?"

"Yea. You've seen his house. It was pretty dumpy when they first moved in. He's made it really nice."

Dad looked at me and smiled. "Maybe I will. Thanks, son."

"You're welcome."

Sam came in as I asked, "Dad? Um, Leah said that Charlie had done a credit check on you when he was trying to find you and that you didn't have a mortgage or credit cards. How did you buy this house?"

"That's not really our business, Embry," Sam scolded.

I gave him a look and Dad said, "No, it's OK. I don't mind telling you guys. When my grandpa died, he left me some gold coins. I locked them away in a safe deposit box for an emergency. Well, when I came here, I needed a place to live and figured that was an emergency. So, I went to the bank and saw what gold was selling for and about fainted! I sold just a few of those coins and bought this house. I got this place for back taxes, so it wasn't much. But I've worked on it over the years, and I made a pretty good profit on it. At least enough to find us a new house in LaPush or Forks."

"Wow. Impressive, Dad," I said.

He smiled. "Well, I still have some of those gold coins. I have them divided. Some for you," he said to me, "some for you," he said to Sam, "and some left in case I have another child."

My eyes grew wide at that. "You and Mom? Might . . . have a baby?"

"Come on, we're not that old! You're mom is still young. She's just 36! And I'm only 40. It's not completely out of the question. And, as much as I love having boys, it might be fun to have a girl."

Sam grinned at me. He pulled the picture out of his jacket and handed it to Dad. "Speaking of baby girls, take a look at this."

"Wow. Sam . . . this is amazing. This is your baby." Dad looked up at him and said, "You are a lucky man."

Sam chuckled. "That, I am. It's a girl. We're having a baby girl." Dad hugged Sam and patted him on the back.

"That is great! I'm so happy for you two." He handed the picture back to Sam who said, "Thanks, Gramps."

"Gramps? Oh God, that makes me sound so old! Maybe I am too old to have another baby." We all laughed at that. "Come on. Let's get these boxes loaded before I grow a long beard and have to walk with a cane."

We loaded my truck and Dad's truck. It was fun getting his mattress and box springs down that tight stairway, but we made it. Dad took one last look around then closed the door and locked it. He put the key in the mailbox then he turned to look at us and said, "Let's go home."