The sun was shining, a rare moment of warmth and blue sky. Jake and I were down in La Push on the beach, our swimsuits on and our towels laid out on the rocky shore. I watched from our spot as Jake barreled into the waves, jumping into the water with huge splashes. I threw my head back and laughed, feeling light as air.
"Come here!" Jake shouted, standing up so that his chest, dripping with salt water, was glinting in the sun.
"No way!" I called back, shaking my head. "It's too cold!" He crossed his arms and stuck out his bottom lip in a childish pout.
"Don't make me come get you!" I raised my eyebrows, and he laughed, stomping through the water back to shore. I stood up fast and backed away from the water's edge, grinning involuntarily. He stepped onto the sand, finally out of the waves, and sank slightly into a running stance, his knees bent and his arms out towards me. I shook my head and turned around to run, peals of laughter escaping my lips as he chased after me. When he caught up to me he grabbed me from behind and swung me around, the water soaking into my shirt and flinging around us. He set me down and stared at me, both of us laughing, as he leaned down to kiss me, long and slow. He picked me up suddenly, flinging me over his shoulder like a rag doll, and headed back to the water.
"Jacob Black, put me down!" I screamed, my lips still stretched into a grin and my cheeks flushed. "I'm not getting in!"
"Like you have a choice!" And then we were in the water, my feet and hands brushing the tops of the waves. The water was freezing, and I curled up, trying to scrunch up away from the ocean. Jake brought me out another few steps before dunking me, and the cold was bracing, like climbing an incline on a roller coaster and finally dropping from the top. I broke the surface and breathed deep, pushing my hair from my face. Jake was standing in front of me, crouching down in the water so that only his head was showing. He was grinning.
"I can't stand you," I said, laughing. I leaned my head back into the water, dipping my hair and brushing it back with my fingers.
"You just looked too dry up there." I stuck my tongue out, and he lunged at me, dunking me beneath the surface. I popped back up, gasping. He grabbed at my shirt and pulled it over my head, messing up my hair again and leaving tiny goose bumps all up and down my arms. He balled it up and tossed it to shore, the lump of fabric barely making it to the shore. Jake turned back to me and ran his hands over the silky fabric of my bathing suit across my stomach. I swatted his hand away and kissed him, leaning across the water to him.
I put my arms around him and shoved him further from shore, and he dragged me with him, holding me against him with one arm as he swam. He was still so warm, and the water was suddenly perfect with him beside me. We kept going, further and further, with my sun wrapped around me.
"Bells?"
"Hmm?" I turned towards Jake, taking my eyes from the trees through the window and shaking myself from my thoughts. He smiled.
"You're being awfully quiet," he remarked, one hand resting gently on the steering wheel and the other slung across the back of my seat. His tiny car chugged along down the road.
"Just thinking."
"About what?"
"Remember when we were down at the beach a few months ago, when the weather was nice enough to go swimming?" He smiled, glancing at me quickly.
"I miss that," he said wistfully.
"It's not going to be warm enough for that again for a while," I said. "Plus, with school for you and work for me, it would be tough to find time like that again."
"When do you have to go back to the library?" I grimaced.
"Tomorrow," I replied. Jake nodded slightly and slowed down for a turn, pushing the wheel with little effort. "How's it going with trying to graduate early?"
"I still haven't heard anything back," he said glumly, his face falling slightly. "Billy won't tell me a thing, even though I know he knows what the decision is gonna be. Why can't they just tell me now? I'd love to just graduate in the spring and be done with it."
"I think they'll let you," I said, trying to cheer him up. "I bet they're just making you wait because Billy is trying to mess with you."
"I just want to be done already. I feel ridiculous sitting there. You know I had one of the new teachers come up to me this August and ask me what subject I taught? It's insane." I laughed, and he smiled.
"You never told me about that," I said through giggles. He shook his head incredulously.
"I don't belong in school anymore! I'm too old!"
"Jake, you're not even 18 yet." He turned to me with a raised eyebrow. "Okay, fine. You're too old."
"Exactly."
It only took us another few minutes to get to the La Push limits, and from there we drove on to Sam and Emily's. Leah, Jake said, was coming over later with her boyfriend, but Jake wanted to get a chance to talk to Sam without her there. Sam nodded at Jake on our way through the door, but he eyed me with a reproachful stare.
"Jacob, this doesn't really involve her," he said evenly, and I felt my face get red, suddenly ashamed.
"She goes where I go," Jake retorted, squaring his shoulders. "Haven't you figured that out yet?" Sam sighed and went around to the kitchen. Jake turned to me and squeezed my hand, his eyes glinting.
"So when is Leah coming over?" Jake asked. I heard the water turn on in the kitchen.
"About ten minutes," Sam replied, clunking a dish against the side of the sink.
"Good," Jake whispered to me. "I want to get this over with so we can get out of here." He smiled at me, and my face mirrored his.
"I was thinking of going over to Charlie's for dinner tonight," I said absently, my mind drifting. "Do you want to come over?"
"What are you making?"
"I was thinking of doing fish with the Clearwater's fish fry."
"Count me in," he said, grinning. He kissed the top of my head, and I leaned into him slightly, making a mental note to call Charlie once we left.
"You two can sit," Sam said, coming back from the kitchen with a few bottles of water in his hands. "I might as well warn you before she gets here." Jake tugged me over to the couch and sat, me on his right closer to the front door.
"Have you met the guy yet?" Jake asked Sam as he sat in the armchair off to the side. Sam ran a hand over his face, his expression tense and almost weary.
"She brought him over yesterday," he said. "I wouldn't mind him if he didn't know about us. He was asking all of these questions. Jared got so mad that he almost phased, and Leah left pretty quickly after that."
"I don't blame him," Jake spat. "Leah's an idiot for doing this. Doesn't she realize what another person could do to us? What if he spills the secret?"
"I know," Sam said, his voice tired. "This isn't ideal. I'm still not even sure how she told him. She's still a part of this pack and she had orders."
"Maybe she phased by accident in front of him?" I suggested quietly after a minute of silence. "Then he would've been prying so much that she might have just told him everything."
"Or he just figured it out himself after he saw her," Sam said thoughtfully, his eyes distant.
"Whatever she did, it's not good," Jake said in a low voice. His arm beside mine was pulled against his body tightly, the muscles taut.
"She's almost here, so you should try to calm down," Sam warned. Jake visibly relaxed, his body sinking more into the couch cushions. He took a few deep breaths.
"I'm right here," I said softly, just to him. He turned to me, and a relieved smile broke across his face. He stretched a hand out to me and grabbed mine, our connection strong, warm.
"Don't yell at her," Sam said, pulling Jake's attention back to him. "We don't want her to run again. Keep it light; don't get mad at her. Make her want to stay. Sue said she couldn't bear to have her leave again." Jake nodded once, and I thought of Sue, alone and worried for her daughter. I wanted to help convince her to stay, too, for Sue's sake.
There was a sudden knock at the door, and Jake sucked in a breath, his expression situating into something passive. Sam stood and walked over to the door, pausing to turn back to face us. He caught Jake's eye and nodded very slightly. And then, with a hand on the knob, he pulled open the door.
Leah looked so different. She had dyed her hair a light brown rather than a dark black, and she was wearing makeup, which I'd never seen on her. She had on a dress, light blue and flowing, and tiny little sandals on her feet despite the cold weather of November in Washington. Her hand was wrapped around the hand of the boy beside her. He was tall, but not as tall as Jake or Sam. His hair was bleached blonde, and his skin was tanned, almost as dark as Leah's. He looked nervously at Sam, then at Jake, and then his eyes fell onto me. His features contorted, and he stepped inside, letting go of Leah's hand. I stood up from the couch, my expression unknown. He cocked his head to the side and furrowed his eyebrows deeper.
"I thought you said she was in California," I said back to Jake, not taking my eyes off of the boy in front of me, my voice weird and twisted.
"Do you two know each other?" Sam asked, but his words were so small, so far away. Leah's boyfriend took another step towards me.
"Bella?" His voice was so familiar; I could've picked it out from a crowd of hundreds.
"Chris?"