All characters are owned by Stephenie Meyer

Bella POV

On our way to Emily's house the three of us bumped into Embry and Quil, so I took the opportunity to pull Jake to one side while Rachel chatted with them.

"How the hell am I going to get through today? You know I can't lie!" I whisper shouted, letting him know how worried I was about trying to keep this huge secret from his sister.

"It'll be fine honey, she doesn't know anything. Plus you'll have the girls, so you can figure it out together." He responded quietly, looking perfectly at ease.

"That's alright for you to say, you're all staying away for the day!" I complained, feeling a little annoyed that Jake and the guys were leaving us to deal with this alone.

"Don't worry about it Bells, Emily has to deal with this kind of thing all the time. And Kim too; their families don't know about us so they're used to making stuff up under pressure. Just let them take the lead if you don't feel comfortable."

"Fine." I muttered, still annoyed. "I almost kissed you at the table earlier by the way, that would have been awkward."

"I know, I keep having to stop myself from touching you in front of people, it's hard to carry on acting like just your friend." He said, smiling down at me. "I was thinking we should probably tell everyone tonight, the guys are probably going to see it in my mind today anyway."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. How do you think they'll take it?"

"They'll be happy for us, except for maybe-" he abruptly stopped what he was saying then as Rachel was making her way over to us; we had reached Emily's house. I looked at him wanting to know who wouldn't want us to be together, but he just gave me a weird look. It was soon gone though, as he grinned and bent over to hug me. "Have a good day, girls!" he said, jogging down the road to catch up with Sam, Embry and Quil who had already set off. I had to hand it to them; they really did look like they were just going for a normal run.

"Right, let's get inside." I told Rachel, smiling at her before leading her up the steps of Emily's porch. I thought about knocking but the door was already open, so I stepped inside and called out.

"Emily?"

"Hey vampire girl, we're in the kitchen." Shit. The first slip up of the day, and we had only just set foot in the house. I glanced at Rachel and giggled awkwardly.

"Vampire girl?" she asked, frowning slightly as we walked towards the kitchen.

"Yeah, um… silly nickname Emily has for me. Because I'm so pale." I told her, internally praising myself for the quick thinking. She seemed satisfied by my answer, so I hurried to join Emily before she said something else that I couldn't explain so well.

"Hi Emily, you remember Rachel?" I said a little too loudly before we had even made it through the kitchen door, trying to warn Emily of Rachel's presence before she made any more references to the secret. When I rounded the corner I saw that she had stopped dead in her tracks and looked horrified, but she quickly changed her expression when Rachel walked in the room behind me.

"Hi," Rachel said. "You have a really lovely home."

"Hey Rachel, thanks so much!" Emily replied, quickly becoming the bubbly, friendly Emily I had always known her as. "Come on in, take a seat! Do either of you want a drink?"

She quickly busied herself with fixing us both a glass of lemonade, casting me weary glances whenever Rachel wasn't paying attention. I managed to silently let her know that she hadn't let the secret slip through a series of expressions, and she finally settled down.

"So, you go to Washington State?" Emily asked Rachel as she joined us at the table.

"Yeah, I graduate in a couple of months though." She replied, taking a sip of the lemonade Emily had made for us. "Wow, this is great!"

"Thanks." Emily replied with a smile. "So, have you decided what you're going to do once you've graduated?" The question seemed innocent enough, but I knew that Emily was trying to find out how Rachel would take the news of Paul's imprinting.

"I'm not completely sure yet, I guess I need to start looking for a job now though! There are a couple of big firms based in Seattle, or I was thinking about going over to Hawaii for a while to see Rebecca."

"So, no plans to come home?" Emily asked, glancing at me quickly. I felt awful for Rachel that her plans would probably be changing greatly, but also awful for Paul as his imprint would probably not take the news very well.

"No. That sounds really bad doesn't it? I mean, I miss dad and Jake loads, but ever since mum died I just couldn't wait to get away from La Push. There are too many painful memories for me round here."

I couldn't help but feel a little annoyed by Rachel's selfishness. Although Jake very rarely spoke about his mother, I knew that her death had a great effect on him, and his sisters hadn't stuck around for very long before leaving a young Jake to look after their wheelchair-bound father. Before I could voice my irritation, we heard the front door open and Kim called her greeting.

"In the kitchen, Kim!" Emily called back, glancing at me. "Bella and Rachel are here too!" She continued, obviously wanting to prepare Kim so that she didn't make the same mistake she had.

Over the next few hours we baked lots of food for the meeting tonight, chatting a lot about the guys. There were a few near misses with various references to the 'wolves', but luckily Rachel bought Emily's quick explanation that we nicknamed the boys 'wolves' due to their eating habits.

"Do they usually run for this long?" Rachel asked as she glanced up at the clock. The boys had been gone for almost four hours, which of course was a ridiculous amount of time for any normal men to go jogging.

"I think they had a couple of errands to run afterwards." Emily told her, looking to the clock herself. "They should be home soon."

"So, what's going on with you and my baby brother, Miss Swan?" Rachel suddenly asked, and I remembered the way she had looked at me when I had been with Jake earlier.

"Um… I…" I stuttered, feeling my cheeks burn. "He's my friend." I finally finished, and I noticed Emily roll her eyes.

"It's a little more than that." Emily laughed. "Jake loves Bella, but she went through a… difficult break up recently." She explained to Rachel, who nodded knowingly.

"Anyone I know?" she asked me. "Was it someone on the res?"

Emily snorted at that, and Kim had to nudge her so that Rachel wouldn't notice.

"No, he wasn't from the res." I told her, not wanting to divulge any more information about Edward yet. "Anyway, I'm over that." I told Emily defiantly, and she looked shocked.

"Since when?"

"Since yesterday. After the funeral."

"What happened after the funeral?" she asked with wide eyes, and I became very aware of the three sets of eyes that were now fixed on me. I glanced uncomfortably at Rachel, wanting Emily to get the hint that I didn't want to talk about it, but it was Rachel who spoke up.

"Don't worry about it being awkward Bella, I don't mind you talking about Jake in front of me. I actually think you would be good together."

The three girls gave me an encouraging look, and I let out a sigh. "We kissed." I told them quickly, instantly covering my face with my hands.

"Finally!" Emily and Kim both laughed, and Rachel looked at them in surprise.

"You don't understand how much Jake talks about Bella," Emily explained to her, before turning back to me. "I'm just glad you've finally taken your relationship a step further! So, do you like him now?"

"I've always liked him." I replied indignantly, still not looking from behind my fingers.

"I mean like him." She said, the way she pronounced the word making the meaning very different. I seriously thought about not answering, but knew it would be easier in the long run if I just answered her questions now.

"Yes, Emily. I like him. And I like him. In fact I… never mind."

"Were you just going to say what I think you were going to say?" she asked, eyebrows raised high on her forehead and an eager expression on her face.

"Probably." I admitted with a smile.

There were excited screeches from Emily and Kim, while Rachel looked at me intently.

"I can tell you've been good for Jake." She told me with a smile. "He's happier when he's with you, I can see that already."

"Jake's the one who's been good for me." I told her, fully meaning it. "I had a pretty… strange year, and Jake's really been there for me."

Emily and Kim exchanged a knowing look at that, which unfortunately didn't go unnoticed by Rachel.

"What's going on here? I feel like there's some big secret going on that I don't know about… it's really weird!"

The three of us exchanged uncomfortable looks, but just as Emily opened her mouth probably to tell Rachel another well-rehearsed lie, the front door opened and we heard the voices of the boys.

"In here!" Emily called out, sounding grateful for their timely arrival. Rachel continued to look around the table as if waiting for an answer, but we all busied ourselves with greeting the boys once they had stepped into the kitchen.

Jake walked straight towards me and pulled me into a tight hug, whispering that he had missed me. As soon as he had set me back in my seat and glanced at Rachel though he must have sensed the tension, as he turned to face Sam who was standing with his arms around Emily.

"I think it's time for this meeting, Sam." He said seriously, and Sam glanced at Rachel before nodding.

"OK Paul, do you want to come through and say your piece?"