The phone was ringing when I got home. It was Billy.
"Hey Charlie," he said, his voice cold. We'd had our differences regarding the Cullens, specifically Carlisle, but this was a whole new level of distance.
"Hey Bill."
"I'm just calling to let you know that Bella is on her way home. She was over here just now. Her and Jacob got into an argument. You know how kids can be, all full of hormones and emotions. I just wanted to make sure you'd be there when she got back, is all."
"Well thanks for the heads up. I'll be sure to chat with her when she gets back." I missed my friend Billy. While it had been nice to spend a bit more one on one time with Harry over the past few months, there was nothing better than the three of us all hanging out together. I was about to ask if Billy would want to come down for a game sometime with Harry when he cut me off.
"Well, I should be going now. You keep an eye on that girl of yours, Charlie. Don't want her wandering off." He hung up before I had a chance to even respond. Had Bella told Jake, and then Jake told Billy, about her ill-fated hiking trips? Or was that something of a warning from Billy, to keep the people of Forks out of the woods that the Quileute rightly claimed as their own?
Bella returned home just a half hour later, and when she pulled up to the driveway I was waiting on the porch. I recognized the face that I'd been dreading to see over the past few weeks; the very same one she'd worn in the months after Edward left.
"Billy called. He said you got in fight with Jake—said you were pretty upset," I said as I opened the door.
"That's not exactly how it happened," she muttered.
I put my arm around her and helped her out of the car. I noticed that her closed were soaked through, but I didn't say anything about it. I waited until we were inside and out of the rain to ask.
"Then what did happen?" I asked when we were inside. Bells was shivering, so I pulled the Afgan around her shoulders.
Her voice was lifeless. "Sam Uley says Jacob can't be my friend anymore."
"Who told you that?"
"Jacob," she said. So I guess that's what the argument was about.
"You really think there's something wrong with the Uley kid?"
"I know there is. Jacob wouldn't tell me what, though. I'm going to go change."
"Okay," I said, thinking about what could be happening out on the rez that Billy didn't want me to know about. Was it because I was Bella's dad, or because I was Chief Swan, that I was being left out of the loop?
I figured I'd better call Billy back and find out for myself.
"Billy."
"Hey Charlie," he answered with the same dead voice.
"Look, Bells just got home a little worse for wear. What the hell happened over there? She's nearly got hypothermia for Christ sake."
"Well Charlie, like I said, Jacob and Bella got into an argument and Bella stormed off. It seems that she doesn't want to hang around Jacob any more."
"I'm not buying that. It doesn't make any sense," I said, thinking back on just how eager Bella'd been to see Jake over the past week and a half—ever since they got sick at that movie theater.
"Well I don't know what to tell you Charlie. It seems that if Bella would prefer to keep company with the likes of the Cullens then that's her prerogative. I can't say I condone it, but that's her bed to sleep in."
"Don't you put this on Bella!" I shouted, all of the frustration of Bella's depression, of Edward, of the missing hikers, of my broken relationship with Billy coming to a head all in one go.
"Bella's made it very clear all along that she and Jacob were just friends," I said.
"Jacob didn't seem to think so."
"Well, if that was it, then why didn't you say so at first? And what's all this about Sam Uley saying that the two of them can't hang out anymore?"
"I don't know what you're talking about Charlie."
"No, Billy, I think she's right about this. I know my daughter, and if she says Jacob was scared before—"
"I think that Bella might be keeping some things from you, as well as everyone else, Charlie. You might not know her as well as you thi-"
"What do you mean I don't know my daughter as well as I think I do!?"
"Well, what with that Edward..."
"If you think I'm going to remind her about that, then you had better think again. She's only just starting to get over it, and mostly because of Jacob, I think. If whatever Jacob has going on with this Sam character sends her back into that depression, then Jacob is going to have to answer to me. You're my friend, Billy, but this is hurting my family," I would have thought that one of my oldest and dearest friends would have been there for me when it came to my daughter and what she had gone through, but there was a sense of scorn, even pity, in Billy's voice.
"The boys are just being boys. Is the Forks police department really going to cross into Rez territory if it comes down to it, Charlie?"
"You got that right—those boys set one toe out of line and I'm going to know about it. We'll be keeping an eye on the situation, you can be sure of that."
"If that's the way it's going to be, that's the way it's going to be," Billy said with that same, infuriatingly distant tone.
"Fine. Yeah. Goodbye." I slammed the phone into the cradle. It pained me to be so at odds with Billy, but there wasn't a damn thing I would prioritize over my daughter. Not after all she'd been through. Not after I'd just gotten her back.
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