All Grown Up: The Story of Jacob and Renesmee Part I

I Named You Bella

Bella

After Edward gave me a long, tender kiss goodbye, I put on my bravest face to go over to Charlie's. If this would be one of his last memories of me in person, I wanted to make it a good one. Alice followed behind me and parked a few houses down. Unbeknown to Charlie, she would be in the background all day watching my future until I safely returned to our property. It wasn't her fault, but she felt awful that she hadn't seen Renee's visit until the last minute, and she was determined today would go smoothly.

Charlie seemed pleasantly surprised that I had managed to make it over at 3:30. As promised, he presented me with my very own goofy looking, olive-colored vest. Alice must be appalled. I loved it.

We got to the water's edge long before sunrise and sat on the boat in the cold, silent darkness. Charlie, clad in his favorite gear, had a coffee in hand. He was quite content. I'd never fully understand what he saw in this, the joy he got out of all his little gadgets, but I was glad to be with him.

I decided I was going to wait until we got back to the house to drop the bomb, I wanted to enjoy our morning.

When I asked about how everything was at the station, he reluctantly told me that his troopers had created a profile for him on an Internet dating site. I laughed as he shook his head.

"It's ridiculous. They took a picture of me sitting at my desk, they didn't use the flash so I didn't know they'd done it. I'm still not sure when they took that. And they put a headline on it that says, 'single and ready to mingle'."

"Oh no, that's so cheesy!" I said through my laughter. "So any takers?" I wondered.

He looked down at the water and didn't say anything, but the corner of his mouth curled up in a smile.

"Tell me!" I demanded. He didn't look up or speak yet, but his smile grew despite his attempt to contain it. "Aw, come on. Did you meet somebody from there?" I prodded.

"No, no," he quickly insisted.

"Well is there a special somebody you are GOING to meet?"

"I dunno," he mumbled. "There's this one..." he said, trailing off.

"Well, whats her name?" I said, trying to coax it out of him.

He was still looking down, but he smiled just saying her name out loud. "Elaine," he said to the pond.

"And?"

"And what?" he said with a shrug.

"What's she like?" It was like pulling teeth with him! When I finally got him to tell me about her, I found out that she was a fish and game warden, she'd been a cop for 10 years before that. She'd been born and raised in a tiny town a little west of Seattle. She was divorced also, she hadn't been married very long he thought, but long enough that she'd had two children who were now grown. I pointed out that he sure knew an awful lot about her. I got him to admit they had been messaging each other several times a day.

"Did you talk on the phone?" He shook his head, no. "Maybe that's a good next step," I said.

"You think so?" he asked somewhat doubtfully, looking up and meeting my eyes. He might have had a few more lines now, and more then a few gray hairs. Soon his hair would be more salt then pepper, but he was still so handsome.

"Yeah, you should ask if you could call her." He promised me he'd at least consider asking Elaine if he could give her a call.

He ended up catching several fish, I didn't catch a thing. I had no idea why, I could stay far more still then he could. I was tempted to just reach in and grab one, it would have been simple. Despite being Charlie's daughter, I guess I just don't have the gift.