Enchanted to Meet You

“Mom?”

I wasn’t expecting to wake up at my mother’s house. I was supposed to stay with my dad this week.

She pushed open the door and smiled. “Good morning.”

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, kicking the covers on the bed off of my body. “When did I get here?”

Concern flashed across her features. “You came here last night. Your father is working all day for the next two days so Chief Swan can take a few days off.”

I blinked. “Oh.” I tried to picture my dad stepping up to the chief position at the station.

She stepped into the room, sitting on the corner of my bed. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah, I just…I could have stayed home by myself.”

She shrugged, probably insulted. “I just thought you might want some company?”

“I do.”

She smiled, her lips pressed together. People said we looked a lot alike, my mother and I. We had the same smile, the same green eyes. Our hair was the same unique color brown. But those were probably the only things we had in common.

“Jacob is downstairs making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”

I raised my eyebrows.

“He came over about ten minutes ago looking for you.”

I instinctively leaned to see the clock behind her. “It’s eleven o’clock?!”

“It is.” She stood up from the bed. “Why don’t you get dressed and come downstairs?”

“’Kay.” I said, ironically lying back in bed again.

I waited until she left to get up for real. I dressed myself in a pair of sweatpants and a tank top, not worried about anything else at the moment.

I laughed to myself as I watched Jacob scrape peanut butter with a knife from the bottom of the jar. He was struggling, his hands a bit too big and just not enough peanut butter left to satisfy him. So there he stood, scraping away.

I was watching TV from the sofa when a thought occurred to me. “Hey Jacob?”

“Hmm?” He wasn’t paying attention to me. Peanut Butter is obviously more important.

I changed what I was going to say right before I said it. “Is Seth okay? And Leah?”

“They’ll be alright.”

I looked at my fingers, my nail polish chipping. “What does ‘imprinted’ mean?”

He paused and looked up at me, then continued scraping. “Where’d you hear that?”

I instantly regretted asking. I should have thought of that before. Who knows what it could mean. After all, it was Quil and Embry.

I shifted positions anxiously. “ Embry mentioned something about it…I was just curious.”

He finished his sandwich before he could get to the sofa and sit down next to me. “Well,” He swallowed the last bite of it whole.

I tried not to look so eager to hear what he had to say.

“I don’t think I should tell you.” He said slowly, a doubtful smirk on his lips.

I didn’t get it. “What do you mean? Why not?”

“It’s just…I don’t think I should tell you.”

I stared at him, and he started laughing, like it was a joke that I wasn’t aware of.

“Fine, whatever.” I stood up pretending to be angry. “I don’t care anyway.”

“It’s not like that,” He followed me to the refrigerator.

“Oh, isn’t it?” I yanked open the drawer and grabbed a juice box. “It’s probably something else you don’t trust me with that is wolf related, right?”

He stopped in front of me. “Not exactly.”

I jammed the straw in the juice box. “It isn’t?”

He became flustered. “Val, I’m not the right person to tell you.”

“What does that even mean?”

“It means exactly what you know it means.”

I rolled my eyes dramatically. “Of course it does.”

“You know, sometimes I think you’re more stubborn than Bella.”

“Don’t you dare compare me to that whiny freak.”

His face was priceless. “I thought she was your friend?”

I was forced to drop the act with a few giggles. “I’m kidding.”

He watched me with confused eyes.

I laughed and patted the side of his face. “You’re a special one.”

I’d figure it out eventually.

. . . . . . . .

Seth’s Point of View:

“What the hell.”

I let my eyes drift from the baseball game on TV to Jake. He just barged into my house, but everybody does that. Embry and Jared did that about fifteen minutes ago.

“What?” Embry asked, feeling pressured.

“What did you say to Valerie?”

Her name shocked my senses to life. They’ve been down for the past week for obvious reasons.

“When?”

“Last week, when we were here…” Jake was careful to not mention too much, even though I was already reminded of it. His heart was in the right place, anyway.

Embry continued to be stupid.

“Today she asked me what imprinting was. Does that ring a bell in your empty head?”

Embry shifted in his seat. “Yeah, so?”

Jacob pointed a lazy finger at me.

Embry followed the invisible line. “Yeah, I know. What’s the problem?”

“Seth should tell her when he’s ready.” Jared said firmly. He would know, since he has Kim and all.

Because the thought was swimming around in my head, I took the time to consider it. I imprinted on her, didn’t I?

“That grin makes me wanna gag.” Embry groaned, pointing down his throat. I didn’t realize I was grinning.

“Leave him alone.” Jacob threw a throw pillow at him (no pun intended) and actually defended me. Wow.

“Well maybe it’s a sign that you should just tell her already!” Embry threw the pillow at my face. I didn’t block it.

I imprinted on Valerie.

“See what I mean? It’s ridiculous.”

“Clearwater, back to earth, buddy.” Jared shoved my shoulder.

“Sorry.” I mumbled, dropping my eyes to the pillow in my lap.

“Tell her before some idiot goes and tells her for you.” Jacob said, sitting between Jared and I, and hogging the bag of chips to himself.

All of the sudden, I wasn’t upset anymore.