x-x-x-x-x

Not long after Bella's transformation, the phone which had been pretty insistent before, now became incessant, to the point where we were all tempted to take the phone off the hook. The only reason we avoided this drastic move was because of who was on the other end of the line; Charlie.

He of course was concerned for his daughter's wellbeing and since we hadn't given him a straight answer as to her condition, he wasn't about to let us be. The discussion of course came up what we were going to do, IE, did we stick around and wait Charlie out, or take the more drastic avenue, and move.

Charlie's situation reminded me in every way of my own mother's and Carlisle giving her the news of my death. This was way different though, my mother as far as I know hadn't demanded to see my body and it was pretty fathomable that my body was lost amongst the chaos that was the Second World War.

Would Bella be able to handle being at her own funeral? Would she be able to stand Charlie and Renee's anguished cries, her friends' mournful tears? I'm not a psychic, but I am a profiler and I know Bella, as strong as she is and as strong as she thinks she is, I cannot picture that ending well at all.

It ended up being Jacob who forced our hands. The minute he heard that we would most likely be moving the only thing he could think was that we were taking Nessie from him so he decided to clue Charlie in on the fact that the world he thought he knew was just the tip of the iceberg.

The idiot morphed, transformed, went wolfie; whatever you want to call it in front of Charlie. If that wasn't bad enough he mentioned to Charlie, that Bella wasn't quite Bella anymore. To top off his insane move, Jacob clued us in on all of this five minutes before Charlie was coming over…talk about last minute planning.

Luckily we always tend to have backup plans and Alice is the biggest planner of the whole family so she had every scenario covered, even this one. She supplied Bella with contacts that were as close as possible to her original eye color and set the rest of us to kind of instruct Bella on the methodology on a vampire pretending to be human, well, technically she asked Esme to do it and the rest of us kinda threw our two cents in.

We gave her all sorts of advice that helps us get through a typical day pretending to be human.

"The main thing is not to sit too still or move to fast." Esme told her

"Remembering to move is one of the only things we really have to work to remember." I advised "even if you don't like sitting still anyways like me its easy to forget that you have to move to keep up appearances."

"Sit down if he does," Emmett offered. "Humans don't like to just stand there."

"Let your eyes wander every thirty seconds or so," Jasper added. "Humans don't stare at one thing for too long." He paused "right Chris?" he nudged my shoulder and I rolled my eyes,

"Yeah, yeah, yeah,"

Jasper grinned a little

"No shiny objects," he added

"Aw, leave me alone Jaz," I grumbled,

"Cross your legs for about five minutes, then switch to crossing your ankles for the next five," was Rosalie suggestion.

"And blink at least three times a minute," Emmett added. It was at that point he noticed I had put on a cricket match, granted it was a rerun, I'd watched this match live weeks before. But it was a great match I didn't mind watching it again.

"Damn," I muttered.

Emmett frowned and shook his head,

"nope no baseball knock off." he walked over to the remote and changed the channel, settling on the easy chair.

I started to protest but decided not to fight it, I could just watch the match online if I really had to. I would be chucking a cricket ball at his head at some point though.

Jasper ignored the pair of us as he continued to make suggestions, his quick jab at me being distracted by "shiny things" was his one spur of the moment goof off, he went right back to being serious. Of all of us, Jasper has had to work the hardest to act human so in all reality he is the expert at this.

"Move your hands, too. Brush your hair back or pretend to scratch something." He recommended.

"If you're standing up remember to shift your weight every once in a while." Was the last bit I added, at least before Alice stepped in and put a stop to our suggestions, apparently we were bombarding Bella with too many suggestions.

I didn't agree, she looked fine to me and actually seemed like she wanted to know more, but we did stop and let her grasp everything. Just by profiling her I could tell she would be fine, Bella's willpower seemed to be her own gift in this life and I hoped my profile was right and that would continue.

So I wasn't surprised that based on our suggestions and her own strength Bella did a pretty amazing job when Charlie arrived and Charlie himself wanted to be on a need to know basis with all of it so he didn't ask too many questions.

Even his meeting Nessie, held close in Bella's arms as a means to keep calm, went pretty smooth. He did question Nessie's origins and just judging from his voice. Emmett and I weren't eavesdropping I swear, just listening from afar to make sure everything went off without a hitch.

Well, I was paying attention, Emmett was focused on the football game. He was still sitting in the easy chair closer to the TV while I was sitting Indian style on the back of the loveseat which is usually next to the couch, but in anticipation for Charlie's arrival, we flipped the couch around and moved some of the other furniture, which put the loveseat in close proximity to the easy chair.

Why wasn't I sitting in the loveseat itself? Part of it was to keep everyone in my line of sight. The loveseat has extremely squishy material and I tend to sink right down into it to the point where I wouldn't be able to see the couch and its occupants.

Sitting on the back of it would allow me to profile and give Edward and Jasper any notice if things didn't go as planned, especially with Alice's sight being blocked because of Bella holding Nessie…however that was only part of my reasoning, the other part I think was sheer survival.

Emmett tends to flail his arms about when he's watching, well pretty much anything. I've been on the receiving end of that motion during many sporting events, hell he even did it to me last December when we went to the Patriots game. Luckily because we were trying to blend in with the crowd and that meant bundling up because of the frigid New England cold I was layered and therefore protected from his unintentional attack.

My profile was going into overtime with the crowds and the game itself so I hadn't even noticed that Emmett switched seats with Jasper, then switched seats with Carlisle, removing the two bodies in between Emmett and I ratio.

I have asked Emmett many times if he was sure his family wasn't Italian somewhere along the lines, Emmett is usually pretty quick witted, for some reason that particular joke goes right over his head.

Anyways, Charlie wasn't completely believing the whole 'Nessie is Edward's niece and him and Bella were adopting her' scenario that Edward was feeding him. But in true Charlie fashion he repeated the phrase 'need to know' and left it alone.

The whole 'Grandpa Carlisle and Grandpa Charlie' thing was pretty funny, but we knew it wouldn't take Charlie long to notice the resemblance between Nessie and Bella. After all, I've seen baby pictures of Bella, Nessie is a dead ringer for her mother so Charlie definitely noticed that not to mention from a vampire perspective Bella resembles her father in a lot of ways so naturally Nessie inherited a lot from her father, a lot from her mother, and even a bit from her grandfather.

I think the only time this meet and greet took a tense moment was of course Emmett forgetting that said meet and greet was going on. He tends to um, get into sporting events more than anyone else in the family, I mean I will match him on certain occasions, but an event like this one when things are already tense, I'm able to control my excitement, Em, not so much, the arm flailing is just the beginning.

It also depends on the game he is watching, it could be a baseball, football, hockey, you name it if he's only somewhat invested in the team he'll cheer on a good play but that's about it. But if he's insanely obsessed with the team it gets noisy in our house and this was no exception.

College football was on and it was the Florida Gators a team that he can't get any more obsessed with. I was paying more attention to Bella, Charlie, and Edward than I was the football game, but my profile is always on high alert, so when I felt a wave wash over me, I knew something was coming.

I looked down at Emmett, he was on the edge of the chair, getting closer and closer to the edge as the running back made his way down the field towards the end zone. I could see where this was going, I knew he was going to score, but there was no way to warn the others and certainly no time to remind Emmett not to:

"WAHOO! Go Gators Go!" his voice boomed throughout the house.

Us vampires all froze, I mean literally froze, Charlie and Jacob both jumped at least a foot in the air and poor Charlie looked as if he were about to have a heart attack.

"Emmett!" I hissed and he also winced realizing his mistake.

Seconds ticked by as we all stared at each other, you'd think that the air would feel so tense, so thick it be suffocating, but it wasn't. I looked over at Charlie, he was tense for a moment, but I saw his body relax, he looked over his shoulder at Emmett and gave a slight smile

"Florida winning?" he asked and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Just scored the first touchdown," Emmett exclaimed. He gave Bella a mischievous look and I winced, hiding my head with my hands. I glanced up only for a second as Bella looked at me suspiciously. 'Bout time somebody scored around here." He added and I slapped my forehead. Bella looked furious, but Charlie seemed completely oblivious. He stood up and took a deep breath before walking around Jacob and headed towards us. He looked at me confused as he passed by

"Is that really comfortable?" he asked me

I nodded and grinned

"Comfortable and safer."

"Safer?" he asked

"And that's the extra point!" Emmett shouted throwing his arms in the air. "Heck yeah!"

"Safer, trust me on this" I repeated nodding at him, Charlie seemed to understand my meaning. I slid off the back of the loveseat and gestured for him to take it, which he did, giving me a nod as a thank you.

"Well," he said turning his full attention to the game he sighed, "I guess we should see if they can hold on to the lead."

Bella stared at her father in shock for a second, she looked over at me and I shrugged, giving her a grin, this wasn't necessarily a bad thing and I had proof, because Charlie ended up staying for two games and the after-game commentary. All before Seth had to remind him that he was having dinner with Seth's mum and Jacob's dad.

Bella offered to walk her dad out and took Nessie with her. We could all hear them talking as we drifted off doing our own thing, Bella even managed to give her father a hug and let him hold Nessie. It surprised even me. I knew she was doing excellent, but I didn't think she knew just how well she was doing, I didn't think she'd chance something like that, but it was nice to be surprised.

With my ability, I'm not use to being surprised and so it shouldn't be that interesting to learn that I don't much care for surprises when they do occur, but this was one surprise that I could get behind and enjoy.

Jacob headed into the kitchen to go raid the fridge and the rest of us meandered onto other things. Alice and Jasper were sitting together on the steps, Carlisle was in his usual chair engrossed in a book, Esme was sketching, Emmett and Rose were building a house of cards under the stairs, and I gravitated towards my chess set, a gift from Aro that also serves as a creepy reminder of my own Volturi experience, both my first as well as my much less pleasant recent encounter.

Believe me, there was a few times after I returned from Alaska where I was tempted to send the set back to Aro, but I couldn't do it…even so, I haven't touched the set in a long time, certainly not since the events with the newborn army. My fingers gently curled around the onyx carved knight. Come to think of it, I haven't played chess in a while either, certainly not on the board anyways I don't think the battle with the newborns really counted as a chess match.

I glanced over at Jasper hoping he could play, but I decided to leave him and Alice be, Edward had gravitated towards his piano and was playing it softly. I heard more rustling coming from the kitchen as Jacob went about making some sort of dinner for himself, I wondered for a moment if he would play a game with me. I didn't have long to contemplate that as I heard Charlie drive off and Bella let out a smooth 'wow,' whisper. Instantly Edward was behind her, I could hear the two of them talking as they headed back towards the family room.

"You took the word right out of my mouth." Edward explained

"Edward, I did it!" Bella replied, still in disbelief, I exchanged a look with Emmett and we both chuckled a little.

"You did. You were unbelievable. All that worrying over being a newborn, and then you skip it altogether." He laughed quietly. "I think you did even better than Chris," Edward looked over at me "no offense Chris,"

I shrugged

"None taken,

"I'm not even sure she's really a vampire, let alone a newborn," Emmett called, winking at me from under the stairs. "She's too tame." He added "even Chrissy boy wasn't this tame."

"Don't forget who put you on yer blo-" I paused with Nessie, I've definitely become more aware of my language and making sure to take care with how I speak around her.

"Go ahead Chris, say it, you know you want to," Emmett taunted with a grin, I glanced over at Bella and more specifically Nessie and was relieved to see the baby was sacked out in Bella's arms.

"Don't forget who put you on yer b-l-o-o-d-y… a-r-s-e after you teased and taunted me for six hours straight until I finally agreed to wrestle with you?"

Edward and Rose chuckled, remembering that, Esme however looked up in shock, and I winced, I had forgotten Esme had no idea about that whole incident.

"Boys," she called

"Don't worry Esme," Rosalie spoke up "Chris put Emmett down pretty quick,"

"The little twerp cheated, playing all weak and frail." I rolled my eyes, Em paused and looked at Bella mischievously "anyways at least we could be sure you were a newborn, still doubting super woman over there." I snorted back a laugh as Bella actually snarled at Emmett. He laughed it off. "Oooo, scary," he added.

Now Bella hissed at him, this woke Nessie up a little, she yawned, looked up at her mother and placed her hand on Bella's throat

"Charlie will be back tomorrow," Bella assured her and I chuckled, it was nice to see that Nessie was taken with her grandfather.

"Excellent," Emmett said, Rose looked over at me and we both chuckled a little, both of us knowing that Emmett was asking for trouble and was about to experience it for himself.

"Not brilliant, Emmett," Edward spoke up, he held out his arms towards Bella, silently asking for Nessie. Bella looked at him confused, but handed Ness over.

"What do you mean?" Emmett asked, still confused. I couldn't believe he couldn't see it, I mean I get that I can profile and that others cannot necessarily see what I can, but he was being so dense it wasn't even funny, he was going to get his arse kicked and it was actually pretty funny.

"It's a little dense, don't you think, to antagonize the strongest vampire in the house?" Edward asked

Edward snorted his laughter

"Please," he shot back

"Bella," Edward whispered to Bella, Emmett listened closely and even I leaned closer to listen "do you remember a few months ago, I asked you to do me a favor once you were immortal?"

It took Bella a moment or two as she thought back to her human time, then suddenly her eyes lit up as she remembered what Edward was talking about. I remembered it too, Edward told me all about it. It was definitely going to be amusing to say the least.

Alice started laughing and Jacob poked his head around the corner from the kitchen, his mouth stuffed with food.

"What?" Emmett asked, he was completely confused as to what was being plotted around him.

"Really?" Bella asked Edward, he looked over at me and I studied Emmett's body language and the more I profiled on my brother, the more I was confident that Bella would not only whoop his butt, but it was going to be funny as all hell. I nodded at Edward, this would work out exactly as he thought it would.

"Trust me," Edward said, grinning at me.

Bella looked really nervous as she took a deep breath.

"Emmett," she called nervously "how do you feel about a little bet?"

The word bet always catches Em's attention, he was literally on his feet in a split second, eyes bright and excited.

"Awesome. Bring it." he smiled manically as Bella sized him up, she looked up at Emmett and I could see the wheels turning, she wanted to back away. Emmett is the biggest goofball there ever was, but there's no denying his size plays into how most people react to him, he's intimidating.

I know I was scared of him when I first joined the family, I literally clung and stayed as close to Edward as much as I could until I got more comfortable with Emmett and realized he wouldn't hurt me.

"Uh," Bella started to say

"Unless you're too afraid?" Emmett suggested. Bella's confidence seemed to get the needed boost, she stood straight and looked at him.

"You. Me. Arm-wrestling. Dining room table. Now." She insisted and Emmett's grin got wider.

"Er, Bella," Alice said quickly, "I think Esme is fairly fond of that table. It's an antique."

"It is!" I spoke up reminding Emmett "it's over 150 years old," he shrugged and nodded at Bella.

"Thanks," Esme mouthed at Alice.

"No problem," Emmett said spoke up, he looked at her with a gleaming smile. "Right this way, Bella." He nodded for her to follow and as she did, the rest of us joined them, mainly out of curiosity. Emmett led Bella down towards the river over to a large granite boulder he placed his elbow on the rock and waved Bella forward.

Now that this thing was happening, Bella's nerves were at an all time high, she was eyeing Emmett's muscles and his maniacal grin apprehensively. She looked over at me and I grinned and gave her a thumbs up. She took a deep breath and looked back at Emmett,

"Okay, Emmett. I win, and you cannot say one more word about my sex life to anyone, not even Rose. No allusions, no innuendos – no nothing." She ordered nervously, Emmett looked over at me now and his grin got wider.

"Deal." He said "I win, and it's going to get a lot worse." Bella's eyes went wide as she took that in, she looked over at Edward and clearly wasn't sure if she should accept this bet, Edward was grinning, he clearly thought she'd be okay, but he was biased so Bella looked at me. I gave her a nod, she could be him, it was a typical Emmett situation, he was being over confident and being over confident against a newborn. "You gonna back down so easy, little sister?" Emmett taunted. "Not much wild about you, is there? I bet that cottage doesn't have a scratch." He laughed. "Did Edward tell you how many houses Rose and I smashed?"

I slapped my forehead, only Emmett.

Bella was un-phased at this point and more determined than before. She reached out and took Emmett's hand

"One, two- " she started to count, closing her eyes as she went

"Three," Emmett exclaimed and basically met with a brick wall. He had assumed it would be easy to move Bella's hand, but her hand wasn't budging. Emmett was pushing as hard as he could, he was trying desperately to move Bella's hand even a little, but it wasn't happening. Bella seemed like she was getting bored and I saw her hand give a twitch and Emmett's hand moved half an inch. Bella laughed, but Emmett growled,

"Just keep your mouth shut," Bella spoke up, before pulling Emmett's hand down against the boulder, breaking the boulder into pieces. Emmett kicked the fragments across the river, creating a domino effect with some of the trees.

"Rematch. Tomorrow." He growled

"It's not going to wear off that fast," Bella told him. "Maybe you ought to give it a month."

"Or two," I whispered to Jasper who nodded

"Tomorrow." Emmett insisted

"Hey, whatever makes you happy, big brother." Bella added looking at me, she was smiling and I smiled back.

"He doesn't listen to reason Bella, you're not going to change his mind." I explained. She nodded and reached down to the stone, suddenly realizing the strength she has as the rock crumbled to pieces.

"Cool," Bella mumbled, she grinned wider, whirled around and literally karate chopped the rock with her hand, splitting it in two. She began to laugh, I mean full on laughing. She was having fun just letting go and clearly she needed it. We were all chuckling and enjoying Bella's amusement, when Nessie let out an actual laugh, not her usual baby/toddler giggle that she'd been doing, but an actual child like laugh.

"Did she just laugh?" Bella asked, taking a break from her rock smashing fun as we all stared at Nessie.

"Yes," Edward said.

"Who wasn't laughing?" Jacob muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Tell me you didn't let go a bit on your first run, dog," Edward teased gently as if he was teasing one of us.

"That's different," Jacob said, and I couldn't help the chuckle at Bella's shocked face when Jacob mock punched Edward's shoulder. "Bella's supposed to be a grown-up. Married and a mom and all that. Shouldn't there be more dignity?" now I snorted "what's so funny flea?"

"Who wants to have dignity and be boring?" I asked

Renesmee frowned, she looked at me for a second and I grinned, profiling my niece and how much fun she was having watching her mother have fun. She reached up and touched Edward's face.

"What does she want?" Bella asked.

"Less dignity," Edward said with a grin. "She was having almost as much fun watching you enjoy yourself as I was."

"Aren't we all?" I asked, looking at my watch for a moment. As amusing as it was to watch Bella take out the rock and the fun Nessie was having and was about to have, I had something important to tend to in the garage.

I slipped away from the family and headed towards the garage, I glanced over my shoulder, no one questioned where I was going, even Nessie was preoccupied which was fine with me. It gave me time to work in peace, something I hadn't been able to do in a few weeks.

It was Bella's truck that pulled me away from the entertainment. I had to put working on it on hold for a while, but I could see a lot of free time coming where I might be able to get it running. Of course my original plan had been to get it running in time for Bella's birthday, but that was impossible on so many levels, most importantly of all how much work it was going to take to get the old Chevy running again.

The engine, among other things was completely blown out, that alone required me to find a replacement and that was going to take time. The new plan was to have the truck ready for Christmas and I was pretty confident that would work.

It was because of the engine I left everyone and returned to the garage alone. After Bella and Edward had left for their honeymoon I started emailing around to different places, I was beyond determined to get the truck restored for Bella.

I even posted on a car restoring message board. I listed the details about Bella's truck, what was wrong with it as it stood and if anyone out there potentially had the parts I needed, more specifically, an engine. I hadn't had any replies and I had pretty much given up on the message board. No one seemed to have one and believe me it was frustrating as all hell. Then two days ago someone responded to my post, my inquiry about an engine for a 1953 Chevy pickup truck.

This guy in Portland said he was rebuilding a 1970s Ford truck and a buddy of his had an extra engine that he sold him for like fifty bucks, turns out the engine was too old to fit the year of his truck and since he was fully restoring it to bring to car shows, it wouldn't work, he was looking for someone to buy it.

The pictures he sent me matched the engine from Bella's truck, perfectly. I knew just by looking at them that it was within a five year span and would work.

So I responded to the guy, gave him my email, we started emailing back and forth and then I emailed him my cell number, and just waited for the call.

So when my cell phone went off I jumped on it. Everything about Bella's truck was easily replaced, except the bloody engine so I was really hoping that this guy and I could work out a reasonable deal.

"Hello?" I said answering the phone

"Hello, is Chris around?"

"Hi, Karl?"

"Yes this is Karl, is this Chris?"

"Yes, hi, how are you?"

"Not bad, yourself?"

"Can't complain," I responded, even over the phone I could hear and feel the hesistation in Karl's voice. Try as I might, I can't mask how young I actually sound, especially over the phone or so I've been told, so Karl obviously wasn't sure he wanted to work with a kid. So to be honest I wasn't surprised when the question regarding my age came up pretty quick.

"So, Chris I have to ask, and please don't take offense to this, but how old are you? I mean your emails and posts make you sound pretty mature, but man I got to tell you, you sound like my thirteen year old son."

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair.

"Yeah I get that a lot, to be honest Karl, I'm fifteen going on sixteen. But I'm pretty mature, I even have a mechanics license. My older sister and I work on and restore cars as a hobby and the truck that I'm restoring is actually a gift for my older brother's wife. It, uh, belonged to her father and he gave it to her when she started driving, it's a tradition in her family to pass this truck down. It ran pretty well up until a few months ago when it just died. I was with it for hours trying to revive it, but I couldn't." I finished, I've gotten really good at, erm, storytelling, part of that was the truth, but of course some of it was fibbing.

Karl didn't say anything for a few seconds as he was taking all that in. Finally I heard him chuckle.

"It's great to know that kids are still into fixing up old cars. My buddies and I used to love tinkering under the hood of my father's Pontiac when I was a kid." I grinned, and we have acceptance. "So yeah, about the engine, my buddy sold it to me for about fifty, you willing to pay that?"

"Yes sir" I replied "the engine has to be the toughest thing to find right now. I even tried contacting some of the Chevy dealerships in the area and a couple car museums and no one could point me in the right direction for this engine, I'm hoping to have the truck fixed up and running by December."

Just then, I heard footsteps coming towards the garage, I had been keeping an ear out just in case Bella wandered in, I didn't want her to know what I was up too and I certainly didn't want Edward to figure it out either, he was convinced that the truck was sitting in the junk yard for scrap.

Luckily he's been so preoccupied with Bella and Nessie that he hasn't been snooping in the garage. But I knew this wasn't Bella and it wasn't Edward, I got the whiff of dog right after I first noticed the footsteps and knew it was Jacob.

He poked his head into the garage and looked at me curious as I finished explaining my position to Karl. There was a brief pause and I could practically see him nodding,

"This truck you're working on, is it your first restoration?" Karl asked, Jacob walked over to my work bench and sat himself down on it watching the phone call play out, I rolled my eyes at him

"No, second actually, last year my sister and I restored a 68 Mustang from the frame up." Jacob looked over at the Mustang as I said this, he hopped off the counter and walked over to it checking it out.

On the phone, Karl whistled

"Impressive, I'm a Ford guy myself, not much of a Chevy man, but they do have some sweet trucks though. What year did you say this truck is?"

"53," Jacob called from the driver seat of my Mustang, I covered the mouth piece of my phone

"Shuddup," I hissed and he grinned and laughed at me. "It's a 53," I replied to Karl

"How's the body?"

"Bodies in pretty good shape, it's all internal that seems to be the most issue. Though I probably will repaint it, the rust on it is pretty nasty." At that point Jacob picked up a loose lug nut from my toolbox and chucked it at me, not hard, I know he was joking and it was easy enough to catch even though he was aiming for the back of my head. The only reason I didn't flick it back at him was I was afraid I'd hit the Mustang or worse…Rosalie's BMW.

"Well, I hope this engine works out for you, you said you folks are up in Forks?"

"Yeah, just outside of town,"

"And your parents are okay with you making a deal like this?" I tried not to laugh as I rolled my eyes, but Jacob was literally on the ground laughing his head off, I had to move towards my loft to get away from him.

"Yeah, they trust me and my brother or my sister usually go along with me."

"Well, in that case why don't you folks come down to me, I've got some other parts that might fit the truck and I can bundle them up for you."

I grinned, that definitely made things a lot easier and I could get Emmett to go along and maybe even see if Jacob or Jasper were up for a road trip.

"Sounds good to me," I said

"You got a paper and a pen? I'll give you my address, can you come down tomorrow? My wife's been on me to get the engine out of our garage, apparently she'd like to start parking her car there before winter comes."

I laughed

"Not a problem, we'll be down say around 1?"

"Perfect, good talking to you Chris, look forward to meeting you," Karl paused "I don't suppose you could bring some pictures of that Mustang? I'd love to see it, told you I'm a Ford guy."

"Sure, I'd be happy too," I replied "see you tomorrow," and with that I flipped my phone closed and returned to the first level of the garage where Jacob was waiting for me, still laughing a bit, but with a look of expectancy on his face. "Can I help you Jacob?" I asked

"What's the deal with the engine?" he asked

"Don't you know it's impolite to answer a question with a question?" I asked

"Nope," he replied and grinned "so engine?"

"That was the guy who responded to my post,"

"Sweet," Jacob exclaimed "he's got one?"

"Hopefully what we need, I looked at the pictures he emailed me and they look about right." I paused "he asked us down to Oregon to his house to check it out and take it. Fifty bucks and he might have some of the other parts we need as well."

"Okay," Jacob replied as if he wasn't sure where I was going with this "so?"

"So, normal circumstances I'd take Emmett and Jasper along, but I was wondering if you'd like to go with Em and I. Jasper will be preoccupied with following Bella around and I know you'd probably want to stay around Nessie, but since you're the one who originally fixed the truck up, I'd really like your input on the restoration."

Jacob seemed taken aback by that statement. He actually stared at me in shock for a moment or two, before he recovered.

"Seriously?"

I shrugged

"Only if you want too,"

He scratched his chin

"Throw in lunch and you've got a deal."

"Lunch?" I repeated "who said anything about lunch,"

"One McDonald's quarter pounder and I'll be happy."

I rolled my eyes again and sighed

"Fine, lunch." Jacob nodded and started for the garage door, he paused and turned back to me. "Something else I can do for you?" I asked

"Look Fle-…Kid," he started, then nodded at Bella's truck "it's a nice thing that you're doing for her, she was almost like her old self out there and I think having this back will really do the trick. You're a pretty good kid…for a leech." He added with a grin

"You're not so bad yourself hairball." I shot back "and you better watch it…someday I may be your uncle-in-law."

Jacob pretended to shudder at that as he headed out into the woods, leaving me with a lifeless truck and a lot of work to get it running.