Bella watched her dad like a hawk at the grocery store, noting how he had to use the cart to lean on heavily. After just a few feet, his breathing would grow shallow. She noticed how his forehead glinted with beads of sweat from the exertion, but he never once complained.
She threw ingredients into the cart for lasagna, salad, garlic bread, and an apple cobbler. Charlie tried to pay at the checkout, but she refused to let him.
Back in the truck, he questioned her, "Bella, you can't have much money. You should have let me get it. You worked only a handful of days here and there for cash. Why?"
"Dad, please trust me when I say I am fine. I worked when I could for a small sense of normalcy. I don't want to go into details here, but I promise. I'm alright."
The last time Bella had looked, her account had more money than she'd thought it should have. And she didn't spend frivolously, only on necessities to run.
Bella didn't want to think about where it came from, considering that the five thousand that continued to appear monthly was blood money from the Cullens. She was afraid that Edward's will had left everything of his to her. She had thought about burning it, but now that she was back home, she knew there were plenty of ways it could help much more than her escape.
Fixing her dad's house was priority number one. She would try to talk to Sam about it that evening–if he wasn't too angry with her for running away. She'd thought of Sam as a big brother after he'd rescued her from the forest and refused to let her delve into depression. It was only because of the pack that she hadn't lost herself completely.
She owed them, too. Bella thought she could make a large anonymous donation to the tribe and maybe set up a trust fund for the pack. They deserved better than the hand they got dealt, especially considering they put their lives on the line to keep the Olympic Peninsula safe.
As she parked in the drive of the red cabin, it surprised her to see the expansions. She wondered if Jake and Angela, or Paul and Rachel, lived there to help care for Billy. Maybe they needed his help with the passel of kids both probably had by now.
She supposed living together simply benefitted them all. It made sense to Bella that they would live together and help each other. That was always the type of family Bella had wanted. The kind that stuck together even when they were mad at each other. The type that worked together and tried to make the best of all the situations, no matter how big or small.
As she slid from the truck seat and shut the door, she choked back a scream when she was scooped up into burly arms, her face pressed against a firm, broad chest. As she inhaled, the familiarity of the scent overwhelmed her, and tears gathered in her eyes once more. Bella clung back to him tightly.
Into her ear, he whispered, "Bella, where the hell have you been, Loca?"
Attempting to laugh and not sob, she swiped at her eyes. "All over, really."
Pushing back from him, she took in Jake's larger-than-life appearance. He still towered over her, but the youthful face she knew had tiny crow's feet at the corners of his eyes and laugh lines around his mouth.
"You look great, Jake. I missed you so much."
"Why'd you leave, Bells?"
"You already know why."
Stepping back from her, he said, "I know what you wrote in the letters, but that doesn't really explain it. We could have protected you."
"Jacob, you guys shouldn't have had to protect me. You shouldn't have felt like you had to protect anyone. We were all just fucking teenagers back then. None of us knew anything about life. And some of us are still figuring it out. I don't want to fight about this. Charlie has already insisted I should have called. I should have stayed. I shouldn't have left. There were no better answers then, and there aren't any now. What good does dwelling in the past do us?"
Sighing, he shoved a hand through his hair, "I guess you're right. We all just missed you, Bells. Life wasn't the same without you."
"It wasn't the same without my brothers, either. But I can't change the past."
Sagging against the side of the truck, she peered up at him. "Will I have to have this conversation with everyone from the pack? If so, can we invite them all for dinner and get it over with? I am completely exhausted already."
Dinner was a rowdy affair, with all the wolves, new and old, roughhousing in the yard. The weather had cooperated for once, and it had stopped raining long enough they could spend the evening outside.
Picking her way through the crowd, she sat next to Sam. "Hey, Sammy," she said, bumping his shoulder with hers. "How's life?"
"It's better now that you're home. We missed you, Bella. It damn near wrecked the pack when you took off. It took a while to get back to normal. Everyone loved you and wanted to keep you safe. It took a while for me to convince them you were trying to protect us. Not that you didn't trust us to take care of you. Your self-destructive behavior was showing how much you cared about us. I didn't think it would take you fifteen years to come home, though."
He smiled to let her know he wasn't trying to be harsh.
She bumped his arm with her shoulder again. "You always understood me, Sam. It's the same thing you'd have done in my shoes, though, isn't it?"
A wry smile was the only answer he gave.
"Anyway, that isn't why I came over here. Are you and the pack still doing construction?"
Eyes lighting up, he launched into a description of some projects they had coming up.
"Would you have time to squeeze in renovations to Dad's house? He needs a ground-floor bedroom and master bathroom added to the house so that he doesn't have to go up and down anymore. His body isn't allowing that much from what he told me."
"I didn't realize he was that bad, Bells. I'd have already taken care of it. As much as Charlie has done for each of us, it would be the least we could do."
"I know you would, Sam. But I want to pay you to do it. I can, I promise. I want to do this for him." Blinking back tears, she whispered, "Like you said, it's the least I can do."
"Of course. Whatever we can do to help, Bells. You know we will."
Bella kissed Sam on the cheek and smiled faintly at Emily, thankful that, despite the years, her big brother wasn't mad at her. Instead, Sam was simply happy to see her safe.
Her eyes drifted to Embry and Quil, who sat holding hands, watching their tow-headed daughter play with all the other children. She had a lot of personality and sass for being so pint-sized. Bella tried to fight back a giggle as she shook her finger at the burlier of the two of her dads, and he looked appropriately chastised.
Her eyes roamed around the pack as she watched her family. Seth and his fiance, Melody, sat cuddled together as they rocked a baby each. Twins ran through the Black family, and they had gotten blessed with them. A boy and a girl–Tatum and Harrison-were still tiny, but Melody was one of the lucky ones. She didn't look like she'd ever had a baby.
Jared and Kim chased three black-haired boys while trying to get them to eat their salad by bribing them with the promised dessert.
She had watched Paul with his two-year-old daughter, Sarah, and he was incredible with her. He doted on the little girl, obviously wrapped around her little finger. Bella's mind wandered to Rachel, and she couldn't figure out where she was. It was supposed to be impossible for a wolf to live without the imprint. But Bella didn't have it in her to ask anyone yet. Instead, she stood and walked through the crowd to where Paul sat. They hadn't started all those years ago as anything close to friends, but they had developed a friendship over time. In hindsight, Bella would say he'd become one of her favorite people back then. His cut-to-the-chase personality, strong opinions, and dirty sense of humor had endeared him to her. She always knew where she stood with Paul.
Sitting beside him, she laid her head on his shoulder and looked at his yawning toddler. "Sarah is beautiful, Paul. You and Rachel must be so proud."
His voice was rough when he said, "I am. Sarah is my pride and joy. I never knew I could love anyone as much as I love this tiny human."
After a brief pause, Paul said, "I heard why you left. But you should have stayed. I won't say more than that, Bella. Everyone went crazy trying to find you. We spent weeks with our noses to the ground, trying to find some trace of you. After a month, we focused on the redhead. She kept coming back with two or three others. The last time she came, she brought four. She was sneaky, but we got her. It took a bit to get her cornered, and Brady almost didn't make it, but he's okay now."
Bella's tears began tracking down her cheeks faster than she could swipe them away. "I never meant to make you guys think I didn't trust you."
"Bella, of all the pack, I knew you left because your ass was too self-sacrificing. You were trying to protect us. Shit, I knew you were leaving Washington when you jumped in the truck. I could see the desperation in your eyes. There was no point in trying to stop you. I knew you would come back, eventually."
"I think most everyone else gave up hope. Thanks for always having faith in me, Paul."
"What are friends for?"
Smiling, she stood and stretched, looking for her dad. She needed to check on him and see if he was okay after such a long day.
