Edward and Jacob were sitting on the couch at Billy's, holding hands as they watched him flick through channels on the television.
Jacob was impatient and wanted to leave.
He hadn't said so, yet, but Edward could tell because of the tension in his body where their shoulders touched.
He slid his free arm around his shoulders, pulling him closer, trying to be reassuring.
He smiled when he felt some of the tension leave his shifter's body as he sighed almost inaudibly, relaxing against him.
Then it retuned intensified when Billy spoke.
"So, Charlie called this morning. Seems Bella is coming back for a visit tomorrow."
"Really?" Jacob asked, the drawling-tone in his voice implying that he didn't actually care, though his tension said that he did, or that he at least felt threatened by her.
Which was understandable.
Edward himself felt that threat now that he and Jacob were more then just friends.
She couldn't stop them from being together, nobody or nothing could, but she could make it hard on them if their relationship became public-knowledge, or if she told Charlie.
So far only Edward's Adopted-Family, Billy and the elders, Emily and the pack knew.
Jacob had been officially kicked out of the pack, but there was nothing they could do to stop him from shifting.
They couldn't take away his Birth-Right.
"Yes. She'll be staying for the weekend and going back on Sunday. He's excited."
"I'm sure he is."
"He wants her to come back for good."
"I'm not stopping her."
"I think you are, Jake. You and Edward. I know that she doesen't know that you're more then friends now, but both of you have implied the neither of you wants her around anymore."
"Because we don't."
"Jake-"
"Dad," he interrupted, holding up his free hand.
"Let me explain, okay?"
Billy sighed, but he nodded for his son to continue.
"This isn't as easy for us as we make it look. We love each other, but we're still getting used to that. If she could accept us, that's one thing, but there's no guarantee that she would. What if she found out, or we told her, and she didn't accept it? She could potentially make this a lot harder for us then it already is. Can you understand that?"
"Yes, I do. I can see where you're both coming from, I can, but I still think that you should at least talk to her. I'm sure that she's really confused and hurt right now."
"Fine. We'll talk to her. Here, or at Cullen-House. I'm not comfortable with having her in our home yet. Right, Edward?"
"Of course, Jake," he answered, squeezing his fingers gently with his.
"Whatever you want. I don't really want her at our place either."
"If we do it at your family's home there will be more people to act as buffers. She'll have to talk to all of them, where as if we do it here, there will just be my father. It should make it easier."
"I agree."