The Little Things

37. Life goes on

A rather monumental part of the summer began one cloudy day, where I was alone at the Blacks house, still hobbling about on my busted ankle.

Billy was out fishing with my dad and Jacob was patrolling. I didn't want to be home with Bella, even though our relationship was improving, so I came to chill here and wait for Jacob.

The house was at the end of the road leading to it, and it didn't get much vehicle traffic. So I was quite surprised to hear a car pull up. It wasn't time for Dad to be back, so I limped over to the door to see who it was.

A short, dark haired woman got out of a little grey car. She paused and stared at the house before walking up to the porch. I ducked away from the blinds to look a little less suspicious, and pulled the door open.

"Hi, can I...?" I trailed off. The woman standing in front of me had her hand raised to knock and she froze. I stared at her in shock and gasped. "Rachel?"

She smiled and nodded. "That's me. And you are?"

I let go of the door and hopped forward. "Liana Swan. Jacob's friend?"

Rachel's smile widened. "Of course. I remember you. How are you?" She gave me a big hug for someone several inches shorter than me.

I pulled back, "I'm doing good. This ankle sucks, but I'm doing better."

"Oh no! What happened?"

"Stairs." I said simply. I didn't want to tell the elaborate lie that we had come up with, and so I gave the answer that everyone but my dad got.

Rachel winced. "I'm sorry. Hey, are my Dad or Jacob here?"

I shook my head. "Sorry, no. Our Dads are out fishing and Jacob will be at work for a couple more hours. Did they know you were coming back? I didn't."

Rachel shook her head. "I wanted to surprise everyone."

I realized that we were still outside and so I ushered her in. "So, What do you want yo do while we wait? We could walk by the beach, or maybe just stick around the house."

Rachel wandered around the house for a minute. "The beach would be nice, but can you walk that far?" She motioned to my cast.

"If you drive to the beach then yeah." I was sick of being stuck in the house for so long and if I ever went anywhere, someone would come with me and either help me walk, or outright try to pick me up and carry me. Cough, Jacob, cough. So Rachel, being new to the situation, would likely trust me to know my own capabilities and let me walk on my own, however slowly it may be.

So ten minutes later we found ourselves at the beach.

We walked, well, Rachel walked and I shuffled along the mildly busy beach for a while.

"So, what does Jake do for work? Is it a summer job?" Rachel questioned.

I fumbled a moment before answering. "He, uh, he works for the tribe with a bunch or other guys as a security sort of thing. It's kind of a year round thing."

Rachel nodded. "Neat. Isn't he a little young though? Sixteen and doing security?"

I laughed at the irony. It was way more than just security. Sixteen, plus turning into giant wolves, plus fighting vampires, yeah, it was a lot. "Yeah, he is kind of young, but it had really helped some of the guys on the Rez to find good friends and stick to the right track." I answered. "Oh hey! There's some of our friends."

I waved at Paul and Jared who were thankfully both wearing shirts and shoes with their shorts. They waved back, and started to jog over.

Rachel looked a little amused. "Little Jake is friends with those guys? They are buff. And good looking."