Chapter 6

Rated M

Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer. Thanks so much for reading! I know I haven't updated this one in a bit. Real life-well, it's been real. That's for sure. Every day, I say, it can't get worse. Then it does. I've finally realized, it could be a whole lot worse and I'm thankful that it's not.

After my first official date with Bella, it was like I was high on life. I smiled nonstop for at least 24 hours. My dad swore I was smiling in my sleep. It was a great feeling. Not long after our little make-out session, my dad and Charlie came home from the beach. Charlie had managed to have one beer and wanted Bella to follow him home.

I thought back to when I walked her out to the truck and kissed her good night. I was pretty sure I could hear the sound of Charlie's jaw popping open. I chuckled at the memory. Bella and I talked about her shopping experience with Alice. Mostly she was content to see her friend, but not very happy at all the clothes Alice tried to buy her. She admitted that the sweater set she wore on their date, Alice bought for her. I always worried about her, especially with the pushy bloodsucker, but she insisted that she liked it.

It was Sunday and other than patrol later, I didn't have any plans. I figured I could head out to the garage to tinker around. As I stepped out on the front stoop, I saw Quil walking by on the road. He glared at me and I watched him go by. I could tell he was getting bigger. It saddened me.

Loping off to the garage, I tried to keep my thoughts from darkening over Quil's impending change. Sure we needed help. The patrol schedule was grueling, even with Leah and Seth. Leah seemed shocked into silence. She'd been the world's biggest bitch right before her change, and now, she was quiet. She ran, she trained, and then she went home. It was kind of scary her current state of detachment. Seth was sad for his family, but seemed to take to the whole wolf thing. He was surprised the legends were true, but he simply accepted them.

I decided that today I'd work on the motorcycles. They always needed tweaking from being ridden around, especially with Bella crashing them every 500 feet. This got me on the track of thinking why she ever rode the bikes to begin with. I took a deep breath in and slowly exhaled. Instead, I decided to focus on last night's amazing kiss. The way her lips felt against mine, and how it was a dream come true.

While working away, I heard the thunderous rumble of the Red Monster and grinned wide. She was coming to see me. Not that she hadn't come by unannounced before, it's that we were in uncharted territory now. We'd have to talk soon to figure things out, or I'd let them play out. I kind of liked that idea. It didn't give her a chance to draw any lines. I heard the truck door shut, so I walked out of the Taj.

I chuckled as I watched Bella carefully take each step as if she would fall on her face any second. Poor unbalanced girl probably would. Maybe she needed glasses or something. Huh. I'd have to ask her about it. I whistled at her to get her attention. When she looked my way, my heart thumped at the smile on her face.

"Hey, Jake!" she responded, turning to walk my way.

"Hey, heartbreaker. How are you?" I asked. As she got closer, I walked up to her and kissed her lightly. She blushed a little but didn't turn away.

"I was bored, so I thought I'd come see what you were doing. I tried calling, but you didn't answer. Glad you're home."

"You're always welcome here, you know that. Even if I'm not home, you can go in and make yourself comfortable."

"Yeah, I know," she whispered. I noticed she was fidgeting with her hands in her hoodie pockets. She looked up at me shyly. I wondered what was going through her mind. I grabbed her arm and pulled her after me into the garage. I wasn't too dirty even though I'd been doing some bike maintenance. Bella asked what I was doing so I explained I was fixing up a little bit of damage from the last time she laid the bike down.

"I'm not so great at balancing on the bike, but I'm getting a little better don't you think?" she asked.

"Definitely," I grinned. "You haven't broken anything lately."

She laughed, tucking some loose hair behind her ear. "Want to take me out riding today?"

"Sure," I said. "Let me get this back together." I finished wiping the parts off and screwed everything back in place. I stood up, wiping my hands off and noticed that Bella was laying on her side watching me from the old couch. I couldn't help the quick flash in my mind of her laying exactly like that but completely naked. I shook the picture from my head and told her I was ready to go.

That morning, we rode through the mud and rain. By the time we returned to my house, we were covered in mud and soaking wet. Bella had kept up and even raced ahead a few times, allowing her tires to spray mud back at me. We parked the bikes next to the garage and went around the back of the house. I grabbed the hose, ready to spray off the worst of the mess.

"What are you doing with that?" she asked, backing away.

"Getting ready to rinse the mud off?" I answered, unsure of the reason behind her reaction.

"Well, you spray yourself and I'll go in the house," she said, trying to march past me.

"Oh, I don't think so, honey. You'll get mud all over the house. Then I'll spend hours trying to clean it up."

"I will not!" she huffed at me. I smiled and turned the hose on.

"Jacob! Jacob, don't you dare!" she yelled, running back. In typical Bella fashion, she tripped on air and fell on her butt. I squeezed the sprayer and started hosing her off, her screams loud and shrill.

"Jake! I will never let you kiss me again if you don't stop that now!" she retorted, her face red with anger. I let go of the hose and backed off. She stood and grabbed hold of it, spraying the rest of the mud from her body. Slowly, I started towards her and somehow she managed to surprise me when she shot the water right in my face.

"Oh, it's on now!" I grabbed her body and held her against me, spraying us both with the cold water. It didn't bother me, but she squealed and shrieked. Finally satisfied that I'd gotten most of the mud off of us, I turned her around and held her close. Her body started to shiver, so I pulled her toward the laundry room and grabbed a blanket off the top shelf, wrapping it around her.

"Dry off and then get in the warm shower," I told her.

"What about you?" she stuttered out.

"I'm fine. One hundred and eight over here, remember?"

She quickly rubbed herself down and went into the house. I heard the bathroom door close and the shower start, so I stripped my clothes off in the laundry room and tossed them in the washer. On the way to the bedroom, I wondered how smart it was to be walking around naked in the house. I stopped and listened and could hear Bella muttering in the bathroom about trying to get wet jeans off.

I went into my room and got some dry clothes and stopped outside the bathroom. "Do you need some help, Bells?" I smiled, knowing she was probably sputtering and blushing.

"Ugh. Yes, I can't get my jeans off," she grunted. My eyes bugged out. What did she just say?

The lock turned and the door opened. She stood there looking at me, looking as frustrated as ever. I looked back at her with what I was sure was a look of shock.

"Are you going to help me or not?" she snapped.

"Yeah, yeah. What do you want me to do?"

She growled. I smiled, it was cute. She closed the toilet lid and sat down. She took a towel and laid it over her lap.

"Close your eyes for a second," she commanded. I did so and waited further instructions.

When she told me to open them, I realized she pulled her jeans down as far as she could get them and laid the towel over her lap to cover her underwear. I was both disappointed and relieved. I knelt down and started working one leg of her jeans from her body. They were stuck to her like glue. Eventually I got them off and stood up.

"Can you get it from here?" I asked, a little unsure. I glanced at her shirt. It seemed stuck to her as well.

"I think so," she answered, quietly.

I left the bathroom, but waited outside in case she needed me. As much as I would love to see her without clothes on, I didn't think she was ready for that yet. I heard her fight and grumble but eventually she got in the shower. I hoped there was warm water left for her. I went out to her truck to see what kind of clothes I could find for her. She had a backpack on the seat, so I unzipped it and looked inside. There were clothes in it. I brought it in to the house and called out to her in the shower. She said to leave it outside the door.

While she finished, I went into the kitchen and made some sandwiches for lunch. She came out of the bathroom and sat at her place. I smiled to myself because she and Charlie both had seats at our table.

"I've got to head out for patrol in an hour," I said, still stuffing chips and a sandwich into my mouth. She nodded.

"Okay. I'll go home when you leave," she replied.

"What are you doing next Friday?" I asked her.

"I don't have any plans yet. Why?"

"I thought we might go out on our second date," I smiled at her.

"Well, Jake, that's almost a week away. I'm not sure teenagers make plans like that," she smirked.

I laughed loudly at how she turned my words against me. "So?" I asked.

"It's a date," she grinned back.