I fell asleep that night with a small, worried smile. As I drifted off I could still feel Jake's goodbye hug, could pretend his arms were still around me. As I drifted away I could almost stop worrying about things, almost believed there was a chance things could work out now... That the drama could... could stop... and Jake... Jacob Black was...

I trailed into dreams of making Jacob laugh and Jacob making me smile.

Then.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The screech like a dying animal, like a wound slicing through the calm night air, woke me abruptly from my dozy smile.

"Isabella?" I muttered. "The hell...?" I stood up and walked to the door, opening it a crack and listening as my dad dealt with my sobbing sister.

I'd thought this was over. She'd actually... Hadn't she looked fine just earlier today? I thought back to the conversation on the porch, frowning as I remembered how she had almost smiled at the thought of Ja... Oh.

Oh.

A sick wave of jealousy and guilt swept through me.

I stood in the dark until I heard Bella assuring Dad that she was ok, until the creak of stairs told me he was gone. Then I swept down the stairs, jaw clenched as I silently stormed into her room and clicked the door shut behind me.

"Isabella." I whispered sharply.

In the dark I saw her sit up: she was just a shadow stranger, hunched over with pain I didn't understand.

"Gen?"

Quickly I moved in and took a seat on the bottom of her bed. "You didn't let me finish talking last time." I said, deciding to take the slow route to the question I actually wanted to ask.

Bella shrugged. "I'm fine, Gen. Really."

"Oh, bullsh**." I said. "You're a mess. Though... that would be fine if you were actually trying to get better."

Isabella's voice didn't even change as she attempted to defend herself. "I am too."

"Oh?" I practically sneered. I felt sick to my stomach from the scare she'd given me. "What have you done to get your mind off the Great and Powerful Dick?" I demanded.

"We went sledding..." Bella started. I waited for her to mention the ice-skating too but she only trailed off and wrapped her arms more securely around her torso.

"Ok." I sighed. "Sledding with Jacob and me. So what can you do next?"

"I..."

"Dude. You have other friends then Jacob." I wondered if she would call me out on that, that I hadn't called myself her friend. But she just shook her head. "Come on. For dad. How can we make you better?"

"I can't Gen." Bella whispered. "It's... it's just too hard. I can't pretend."

"So don't pretend." I wriggled up the bed, forcing her to move over so that I could lay down against her pillow. "You didn't pretend with Jacob."

"I care about Jacob."

"And what? You don't care about anyone else?" I raised an eyebrow. "You know what? No. Figure this out yourself. I'm freaking exhausted."

"Sorry."

"You should be." I grumbled, turning over and snuggling up against her pillow. "Do you have any idea how great a dream I was having?"

Bella gave a fake, half-hearted attempt at a laugh and lay back down beside me. "No."

"Well it's was awesome." I mumbled into the pillow, pouting even though she couldn't see me.

"I am sorry, Gen." Isabella whispered. She twisted so that we were lying back to back and then threw her extra blanket over the two of us. Just the way we'd slept when we were little. "You know that right?"

But I was warm and cozy again and, before I could answer, I fell asleep.

...

I had work the next day.

Sundays where the worst: no basketball with the kids after, no coaching to look forward to. Just miles of coffee orders to burn through as my smile grew more and more painful. It usually wasn't quite that bad: Annie really was a nice boss. But today all I could think of was Jacob and my sister, my sister and then Jacob. Happy. Worry. Happy. Worry.

What was I supposed to do?

The question applied to both situations.

It was two hours til my shift ended when I heard my phone buzz. I had about five seconds to see that it was from Jacob before another customer walked in and I was distracted from even reading it. Swarms of people ran in and out of the coffee shop, most grabbing a bite for lunch before heading back out. Sometimes I felt like there was no way this many people lived in Forks: it took about five seconds to remember that I could put a name to literally everyone who came in. Including one customer who showed up twenty minutes after his text.

"Hey, Gen!" I nearly had a heart attack as I glanced up to smile at the next customer only to have the giant Jacob bouncing toward me. "Can I get a peppermint hot chocolate and... I guess a chocolate chip chocolate cookie? Hi, Gen."

"Yes. You said that already," I teased him as I punched in the order, hoping with all my might that I looked annoyed instead of terrified. "One sec."

"I said 'Hey'. That's different from 'Hi'." Jacob told me, following me as I went to grab the cookie. "Though I guess I did say 'hi' in the text. Which I'm guessing you didn't have time to read."

"Nope." I picked out the biggest cookie and then put it back and replaced it with the cookie with the most chocolate chips. "You know me. Work, work, work."

"Oh, yeah: serious, serious, serious. That's Genevieve Swan." Jacob joked back. I heard a laugh behind me and scowled back at Annie as Jake kept talking. "I was just telling you I was in town. Friend of Charlie's needed a quick look at a car."

"Are you sticking around?" I asked. Maybe he could swing back and I could ask him about Isabella, I thought. Decent enough excuse to hang out, right? "Cuz I did want to ask you about something."

"Oh, yeah, sure." Jacob said, giving me a huge grin. "When do you get off?"

"Um, about two hours." I finished packaging the cookie and handed it over, taking his money in return.

"Yeah, I can wait around." The tall boy said with an easygoing shrug. "I'll be in the corner." He told me, grabbing the hot chocolate and turning to go take a seat.

"Wait... what?"

I felt myself growing mortified; he's... he's not going to freaking wait for me, is he? I meant come back! Crap! Does he know I like him now? Does he like me? Am I about to implode this like I did with Tyler? I have no idea what I'm doing.

But all I could do was go onto the next customer and silently wish for a smidgeon better luck with my communication skills. And I had to do this for TWO. F***ING. HOURS. Toward the end Annie noticed the look on my face and banished me to the kitchen for dishwashing duty, which was nice as it meant I no longer had to watch Jacob out of the corner of my eye to try and see if he was watching me out the corner of his eye.

"Oh my gooood." I groaned, pressing my face against my forearms to avoid my soapy hands. "I've got it baaaaad."

"As long as you don't give it to me," Annie teased from where she'd overheard in the doorway. "Your shifts up, grumps."

I sighed loudly and forlornly.

She just chuckled.

"I'll see you later, Gen."

"Not if I die of embarrassment." I muttered as I dried my hands and went for my things. I was pouting.

"What?"

"Nothing!" Aaaaaah. "I'm good! Bye, Annie."

"Have fun, grumps," She laughed at me as I pulled on my coat. "Let me know when you have the rest of your game times."

"Will do." I hurried out before she could ask me anything else, my brain still berating my heart for its very existence. I walked quickly over to Jacob's table where the poor guy was staring aimlessly into his napkin. I stopped to watch him but apparently he'd noticed my appearance and turned to smile up at my grouchy face. "Ready to go?"

...

About an hour later I'd run out of things to say. We'd talked about Isabella and brushed past the subject of Paul and Embry and onto a funny story about what Jacob'd been doing up in Forks. Now I was sitting on my light blue bedspread, leaning against the cold window beside my giant friend, flipping through the iPod I'd fetched just for something to look at. Jacob had chosen to play with the earbuds I'd left trailing across the blankets behind me. Paying too much attention to him as I considered how little I liked not knowing exactly what he thought, I realized I'd been watching my ipod play Maroon 5 for half the song without either of us listening to it. Outside a storm was brewing and the wind's shrieks weren't doing anything to cheer me up.

"Any good songs on that?" Jacob said, taking my deep sigh as a sign that he should break into my thoughts.

I turned to give him a skeptically look, my mood only slightly better after our talk about all our worries. "Well. Depends." I flipped forward three songs, went back, changed my mind, and went back to the genre menu. "What's your definition of good?" I asked.

"Good beat." Jacob said with a shrug. I started to answer and then turned away, looking out the window as I tried to hear... had that been a howl? No. Just wind. Jacob called my attention back with a laugh. "Though a slow song every now and then isn't... horrible."

I smiled skeptically at his suddenly shy grin, watching his eyes go back to the headphones. "Yeah? Well how about let's try..." I flipped to a random song, 'Collide' by Howie Day. "This... Put the headphones in and tell me what you think." I ordered, nudging him with my elbow when he didn't move.

"You take one, I take one." Jacob insisted. He handed me the left earbud and scooted closer, looking down at the name of the song as I restarted it.

"Ok, but I can't promise anything. I haven't added anything to this for months and..."

"Gen. I can't hear the song."

"Maybe I can't hear the song."

"Maybe... Maybe you should stop talking."

"I dunno... that's sounds a little out there, Jake." I wrinkled my nose and considered the tiny screen. "I'm not actually in the mood for slow songs... Or... It's just reminding me of my last slow dance, I guess."

Jake raised an eyebrow and pressed the pause button, wrapping his hand around mine to do so. "Bad experience?"

"Um..." I paused, struggling against my annoyance at the memories and the distraction of how warm his hands felt around mine. "Yeah. Actually." I shook my head. "Just a lack of good experience."

Jacob grinned. "Well that means we're tied then." He said. "My last slow dance... well..."

I frowned up at him for a long moment, trying to read this mind through his eyes. As he trailed off, part of me felt like he was trying to tell me something. Or ask me something. Or thinking something. But my own bramble of emotions were still getting in the way. I stared up into his eyes a moment longer before I realized the song was still on pause and his hand was still on mine. Then I slid off the bed.

"Come on."

"What?"

I pulled at his hand with both of mine, the iPod still between our joined fingers. "Come on!"

Jacob followed me to the center of the room, where I stopped and finally took the iPod from him. Hitting play, I slipped the device into my jeans pocket and held out my hands, striking a formal pose and waiting for him to catch on.

He stared at me a moment, letting the first beats of the song start again through the earbuds we still shared. Then he caught on and, ignoring my outstretched hands, wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close.

"Oh, it's that kind of slow dance, huh?" I managed to get out as I slipped my arms around his neck—sheesh he was tall.

He smiled at the squeak in my voice, but seemed to feel just as awkward as 'Collide' echoed in our ears. "Am I still supposed to be telling you if I like this song?"

"What song?" I asked, starting to turn in a slow little circle. "Oh! Right. No?"

Jacob laughed, leaning in closer so that his headphone wasn't pulled quite as tight. "Ok." He said, lowering his voice so that I had to stand a bit more on tiptoe to hear him. "Slow dancing isn't quite as bad as I remember, is it?"

"Mmm." I replied. I was suddenly wishing he'd lean down just a little more. Our faces were so close. Just a couple inches. I could see his eyes finding my lips again, just like they had when we'd been out in the snow with his hand on my cheek.... "Jacob?"

"Yeah?" He breathed back. I felt his words brush across my face and glanced down, feeling a flush starting across my cheeks and the back of my neck. "Genevieve?"

"Um..." Just inches away. Was he going to kiss me?

Another scene played out in my head: another boy. Another chase. I'd ruined that.

Jacob moved a little closer. Neither of us had noticed that the song had frozen and left us in silence. I took a shaky breath, suddenly terrified of pushing myself any closer to him.

No. No don't ruin it.

Crap!

I pulled back and he let his arms fall to his side as I yanked out the iPod and began jabbing buttons at random, refusing to look at him and feeling like I was about to cry. I was furious, too: at everyone. At myself. And terrified of Jacob, of the tall boy standing confused before me, still linked to the stupid Genevieve Swan via a pair of cheap earbuds. I accidently hit the play button and we found ourselves listening to the opening lyrics for a third time.

"The dawn is breaking..."

I swore and Jacob laughed, breaking the tension. Without meaning to, I tilted my head back up and gave him a thankful, shaky smile.

"A light shining through..."

Jacob started to say something and then hesitated. Should I apologize? And what for? Being stupid? That seemed safe. I opened my mouth but Jake was already shaking his head at me.

"You're barely waking..."

"Jake..." I started.

"Gen." He replied, voice teasing.

I guess that was too much.

"I'm tangled up in you."

I went straight back into his arms and let him press his lips to mine, hands dropping the effing iPod to pull him closer as his wrapped his arms around me in return.

Somewhere, off in the forest, a wolf howled through the storm.

But what did I care?

I had Jacob.

I smiled through the kiss and felt him smile back just as a tiny voice in my head popped up yet again.

I had Jacob Black...

For now.