Chapter Eight:
Ignorance is Bliss
At 3PM the next day, Seth Clearwater picked up Caroline to take her home.
"You're kidding," she deadpanned when her cousin tried to explain that Jake was busy but would come see her tonight. "No fucking way. This is unbelievable." She threw up her hands and stared at her cousin in disbelief.
"There's a lot going on right now, Care," he started.
"I was kidnapped!" Caroline tried to keep her voice down as she got into Seth's old truck. "I was given the promise of a damn explanation and you better have a good one." She knew it wasn't Seth's fault per say, but he definitely wasn't innocent in this.
Seth sighed as he started the engine. "Jake will come over tonight and -"
"Tell him not the bother," Caroline spat. She got out of the car and slammed the door roughly. "I'm walking. Goodbye, Seth." She said with such finality that she knew she had hurt his feelings, but right now she found she didn't fucking care.
She ignored her cousin's protests and stomped down the street towards Forks. It was an hour long bike ride she remembered, but she had no idea how long it would take to walk there but she figured even a couple hours wouldn't be long enough for her to cool down.
Seth drove alongside her for a couple of minutes, begging her to go with him. "What if it rains?"
Caroline shrugged. "Then I'll get wet."
"You'll get sick and Jake will be pissed at me."
"Funny," she frowned, glancing at him. "I don't really think my wellbeing is much of his concern."
"And Jake's wellbeing?"
Stupid question, she seethed. "Not particularly my concern, either. I'm really fucking tired of this push and pull we've doing. It's giving me whiplash and I have no interest in continuing it. So if you would please," Caroline stopped and turned to face him abruptly, irritated at his fast reflexes for stopping at almost the exact same time. "Leave me alone."
She started walking again and was pleased when she couldn't hear his car rolling behind her.
Good riddance. She didn't need them to help her solve whatever puzzle Ranger Daniels had given her. They clearly weren't interested in answering any of her questions. As far as she was concerned, they were a dead end.
She thought back to the night she met Ranger Daniels outside the Aquatics Center. His dirtied clothes, his dark eyes, and his bloodied shirt were clear indicators that she was playing with fire. She had so many questions for him, but no way to contact him. The number he had called her from was out of service.
Thirty minutes into her walk and it started to sprinkle lightly on her. Springtime in Washington was always rainy, but she had hoped she would make it home before then.
She was glad she had borrowed a jacket from Emily before she left but she kind of wished she grabbed a thicker one. She pulled up the hood and started jogging. It was a 15 mile walk and she had covered some ground in her angry stomping, so she had probably 12 more miles to go. She wished she had had the foresight to grab her wallet before she was abruptly taken from Charlie and Sue's home. She was getting thirsty and would have liked to buy a water bottle but without her wallet she was SOL. Another thing to add to the list of things Jake did to piss her off.
Jacob Black was a lot of things: a hothead - but he was working on it, incapable of sharing his feelings in a constructive way - also working on it, in a constant state of stress - not much he could do there, and a slight tendency to be an asshole. But for all his downfalls, Jacob Black was not a pushover.
"They can't stay here." His voice was low and deceptively calm. He and the pack had spent the past day and night arguing with the Cullens. There had been another attack and Jake didn't know who was behind it, but the last thing he needed was Carlisle taking in young vampires while he was trying to figure out what the fuck was going on. Jake had sent everyone but Embry and Quil home to pick up patrols.
"Jacob, be reasonable." Esme started but her husband held up a hand to stop here. Smart, Jacob thought.
"I am being reasonable."
"Jacob," Carlisle said cautiously. "I believe they have some information about what's going on. Information that you want. We just need to get them to trust us."
"I don't trust them." He growled. "I don't particularly trust any of you." He glared at the vampires in front of him, his temper flaring when Bella stepped forward.
"We trust you," she said in her breathy voice that once set Jake over the edge. The Cullen's were a good family as far as vampires went, their diet was a testament to that but vampires were still vampires. And the treaty only included them, not unauthorized, non-vegetarian guests.
The Cullen's house phone rang, saving Bella from whatever insult Jake was likely to throw at her. The room was silent as Jasper went for the phone. "It's for you," he held the phone out of Jake. He clenched his jaw as he crossed the imaginary border separating him, Quil and Embry from the vampires.
"What's going on?" He ground out, eyes glued on the vampire in front of him. Jasper always freaked him out a bit.
"Caroline is pissed, she's walking home."
"From La Push?" He growled. "Did you tell her -"
"I told her everything I could," Seth said in a pointed tone, reminding Jake of just exactly what they were keeping from her. "She's pissed off and wants nothing to do with any of us." Jake ran a hand in his hair and glanced back to Embry and Quil who was listening in. Fucking hell. "I'll come back and make a deal with them, you take care of Caroline."
Jake locked eyes with Carlisle. "Come quick," and he handed the phone back to Jasper.
"Why is he calling about Caroline?" Bella asked, looking at Jake with doe eyes.
Edward sighed. "He imprinted on her."
Something crossed over Bella's features but Jake didn't have time to analyze it. He had an angry imprint to deal with.
"He what?" Was the last thing he heard before he was out the door. The broken sound in her voice that would have once glued him to her side now water off his back.
Jake found her almost 6 miles out from Sam and Emily's drenched and shivering. He pulled his old truck up to the side of the road in front of her and rolled down his window.
He saw the conflict in her eyes but as she neared she lifted her chin and made to walk past him, completely ignoring him. He was expecting that. He grabbed bag of chocolate chip cookies Emily had given him and held them out to her.
His imprint looked like she was almost going to get in the car when she huffed. "Can't have cookies without milk."
Jake grinned and grabbed a water bottle he had filled with milk. He shook it for added flare.
Her lips turned up slightly before she painted an indifferent look on her face. "I'm mad at you and I don't really like you," she said as she walked to the passenger door.
"But you will," he gave her a lopsided grin as she fastened her seatbelt and opened the bag of cookies.
"What kind of milk is this?" She demanded, knowing full well she was being a brat. He was starting to learn she had a tendency to revert to that attitude.
"One percent."
She nodded in contemplation before taking a sip. "Skim is my favorite." She glanced at him and arched an eyebrow. His cheeks flushed. "You gonna remember that?"
He laughed, the tension in his jaw and shoulders seemingly evaporating as he die. "I'll remember." He put the car in drive. It was unnerving how easily she could put him in a good mood. And how easily she could anger him when she put herself in danger.
Jake was drawn to her. Her voice sent shivers down his spine and her sharp, dark eyes made his hands feel clammy when she looked at him. She was funny and dramatic and always angry at him in a way that he shouldn't find endearing, but he did. She was also irresponsible, he thought. She was deliberately dancing with wolves. He chucked at the analogy.
"What?" She said through a mouthful of cookies.
He looked over at her as she wiped some crumbs off of her face. "You're so cute."
"What?" She asked again.
Fuck, did he say that outloud? "Don't let it get to your head, Care Bear," he winked. Nice one. He had no game.
She narrowed her eyes at him but her lips were upturned at the corners. "Call me Care Bear, and I'll throw you out of this truck and take it home myself."
Jake turned off the freeway, "I'd love to see you try." Her cheeks flushed and he smiled brightly. She was still upset and he had to fix that, but seeing the pack's memories of her reaction after he imprinted on her told him that she had a flair for the dramatics and handled a lot of her emotions through humor. But Jake couldn't resist making her blush at the same time.
He knew when he first saw her that she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Even when he fought the imprint, he could see her through the eyes of his pack and watching her laugh and joke with them made it hard for him to push her away. The anger she directed towards him was warranted and it hurt.
"You took the wrong turn, Ephraim." She noted. "Do I need to take the wheel?"
It was his turn to narrow his eyes at her. She was flirting with him. He had seen her flirt before, through Embry and Quil, and he didn't realize how nice it was to have it directed at him.
"You need a new car, right?"
"Yes but I don't have anything with me, I don't even have my ID," she pointed out.
"And you wanted to drive? What if you got pulled over?"
Caroline punched him in the arm. "I don't get pulled over."
Jake raised an eyebrow but didn't respond as he took them to the shop in town. He, Embry and Jared used to spend a lot of time fixing up cars there, but since the rise in animal attacks, they hadn't really had a lot of freetime to sit under the hood of a car for hours on end.
"I wasn't sure if you were a big car kind of girl," he started, pulling into a parking spot outside of the shop. "But Colin's mom just got a new car after her SUV started having more problems than she could keep up with, and in exchange for me helping her pick out a new car and ward off used car dealers," Caroline snorted, "she let me have her SUV. And because I already have a car..." he trailed off.
Caroline's mouth dropped open and she gave him a quizzical look. He watched as the gears turned in her head and she started to protest. "No, Jake, what?" He got out of the car and pointed at the old Ford Explorer across from them.
"It's going to take a lot of work," Jake started, going around the car and opening her door for her when she made no move to leave. "And you can have it on the condition that you help me fix it."
"Jake, no. I can't take this," she stared at the car.
Jake grabbed her hand a helped her out of the car. "You're not taking it. You're fixing it. And I'm going to help you."
"I'm serious, Jake." She shook her head as she finally pried her eyes off of the car.
"So am I," he gave her a grin, watching her face closely. Did she hate the car? Did she not like the color? He could paint it for her. He would paint it any color she asked.
Her full lips pulled into a small frown. "We're not even friends," she said softly.
His heart clenched at that but he smiled through it, trying to keep the hurt off of his face. "I would like to be. And what better way to become friends than by building something together?" He wrapped a muscled arm around her shoulders and guided her to the car, relishing the feeling of her tucked besides him. "Go take a look."
"I'm going to pay you for this," she said.
"Lucky for you," he winked, "I work here, so I'm going to be paid for working on this anyways. She doesn't run yet," he placed a large hand on the car's hood, "but we should be able to get her up and running in no time. Until then, you can use my truck - and don't you argue with me, I can just take my bike."
The bright look on Caroline's face caused his heart to stutter. She was smiling broadly, her dark eyes crinkling in the corners. "I've never worked on a car before," she reminded him, turning back to the SUV and skimming her fingers along the hood, dangerously close to his hand.
He nodded. "Me neither, guess we'll find out together."
Caroline's laugh was the most beautiful thing he had ever heard and he was too distracted by it to remember to flinch at her playful punch to his shoulder. "Geez," she said, shaking her hand. "You got a brick under that sweatshirt?"
Jake grimaced, he needed to pay more attention, he reminded himself. He laughed, although a little delayed. "Let's get this girl inside and see what we have to do."
"Right now?" Caroline asked.
Jake grabbed the keys from his pocket. "There's not time like the present, right?"
She grinned at him and snatched the keys from his hand with a laugh. "Get that garage open and let's get started! And Jake?" she asked causing him to turn and face her. "Thank you."
Caroline and Jake spent three hours in the shop that day, but it didn't feel like nearly long enough. She learned that she really didn't know much about cars and how then ran other than when she needed to change her oil and how to do it.
Jake was patient and non judgemental, teasing her lightly but he never once made her feel stupid. The famous mood swings she had experienced with him were nowhere to be found today. She watched him work on the engine with a precision she could only compare to how she thought a doctor worked on a surgery. His sweatshirt was pulled up to show his forearms.
He would ask her for tools at some points and walk her through what he was doing. He quizzed her a couple of times to make sure she was paying attention and she could proudly say she was correct most of the time.
She watched him rub the back of his hand over his forehead, dragging a long line of grease across his face. She tried to stifle a laugh when he looked at her, but the new look he was sporting was too much for her.
"You know, Jake," she said as she grabbed a wet rag out of the bucket and walked over to him. "If I had any idea looked this good with grease all over your face, I would have tried fixing cars with you much sooner." She ran the rag over his forehead, pushing it into his hot skin to rub away the stain as best she could. His breath hitched as she leaned into him lightly and she grinned but he didn't say a word. She looked down from his forehead to meet his eyes and her knees felt weak. The intensity in his stare was enough to make her wish there were less clothes between them, she imagined him on top of her with that same look in her eyes. She leaned back and sighed. "Maybe if you weren't such an asshole before..."
Jake groaned. "I know, I'm sorry." He ran a hand through his short black hair. "I still have a lot of explaining to do, don't I?"
Caroline nodded. "But, I don't feel like going over it today." She tossed the rag back in the bucket and put her hands on her hips. "I'm ready to eat and take a fat nap. Care to join me?" She asked, her eyes widening as she realized she had just asked him to nap with her.
"I would love to get food with you but I have some tribal business I have to go over with the elders," Jake said sadly and Caroline tried to ignore the feeling of disappointment in her gut.
She grinned at him anyways. "Oh? Tribal business? Is that code for you're ready to get rid of me?"
The frown that cut across his face deepended. "Caroline Talltree-Young," Jacob walked towards her until they were standing directly in front of each other. "There is nothing I would like more than to spend more time with you."
The butterflies in her stomach erupted tenfold and Caroline's earlier (and nearly constant) desire to see Jacob Black naked on top of her was only emphasized. She stared at his handsome face and held her breath. His eyes flickered down to her lips and reality came crashing into Caroline and she stepped back and looked at the ground.
"Well, that's good to hear but I'm starving." She didn't miss the disappointment on his face and was sure hers was written on her face.
Jake cleared his throat and nodded. "You can take my truck home, I'll just have Seth come and get me." He tossed his keys at her.
She nodded to him and started out of the garage. "I'll see you later then?" She asked, hoping it didn't come off as desperate as she thought it sounded.
"Tomorrow?" he said back, the hopefulness in his voice causing her cheeks to flush.
She bit her lip to keep a cheesy smile from taking over her face. "Sure." She left without a goodbye.
Caroline took her time driving home. She liked Jake. She thought maybe she had always kind of liked him and that's why she was so angry at his reaction to her. No, she lusted after him then. She hadn't really spoken to him then. Jacob was undeniably handsome. Strong arms, broad shoulders and russet skin cut with muscles, it was hard not to imagine herself in scandalous situations with him. Especially since he spent most of his time shirtless, and the way he wore his shorts low on his hips only egged her on.
But she wasn't just lusting after him anymore. He was funny, he flirted with her with ease and they had good banter. When he got flustered and tripped up on his words she wanted to kiss him. Just kiss him until she couldn't breathe and then kiss him some more. He did have nice, full lips.
But, she reminded herself, he was quick to anger and was very obviously keeping something from her. She hadn't gotten her answer today but part of her didn't want it.
She had a sinking feeling that whatever secrets he and his friends (and her sister) were keeping had something to do with her investigation, even just barely.
Caroline finally admitted to herself that she didn't want to know because if it were true it would be heartbreaking to know that these people who said they wanted to be her friends, her half-sister who claimed to love her, and a man that insisted he wanted to be close to her knew something about her father's murder and didn't tell her anything.
Maybe it was selfish, but ignorance, Caroline knew, was bliss.