Sunlight - Book 3

Chapter 9

As we arrived to our Lake House I was the first one to get off the boat. I was so excited. Then again when was I not? I thought back to the incident that had happened at the mall, Mr. Hawthorne making me cry at school, Mr. Hawthorne hitting his son.

"This is my home." I said to Tyler as we walked the small pebble path that led up to the front door of the house. "And your home too." I grinned.

Tyler glanced sideways at me and then looked once over his shoulder before facing back forward.

"What's on your mind Tyler?" My father asked as him and my mother matched their speed with ours.

Tyler's forehead creased slightly as he seemed to be in deep thought. I wanted badly to be in his mind right now to see for myself but for some reason I couldn't hear anything. All the voices were gone.

"You know you can talk to us right?" My mother added serenely.

We were at the front door and my father opened it. I walked in and waited for Tyler to come in.

"Renesmee." My father called to me. "Go upstairs and put your things away and then get your stuff ready for school tomorrow."

I smiled. "Yes father." I headed up the stairs extra slowly in hopes to catch some pieces from Tylers response. Unfortunately he did say a word and I had ran out of steps as I disappeared onto the second floor. "Darn." I thought to myself.

I ran as fast as I could to my bedroom and hung up my bag before I zipped to my closet and grabbed the first outfit my fingers grasped. After I had hung it up in the bathroom I ran back downstairs. Just in time too as Tyler was beginning to speak.

"My family could be happy just like yours." He said in a strained tone. Was he crying?

I stopped and took a seat on the stairs to continue listening. I was pretty sure my father new I was here because he could read my thoughts.

"What do you mean?" My father asked.

There was a short break in which Tyler said nothing. During this time I could hear choaked sobs. My heart sank and grew cold as I realized he was in tears.

"I don't remember how old I was but it was during the summer time. My family and I were on our way to the beach and I was throwing a fit because I didn't want to sit in my carseat. I remember throwing something at my father and it struck him in the head and knocked him out. Then we crashed." He took in a ragged breath. "My mother and sister are buried in a cemetary because of me. The day my father and I were released from the hospital he hit me because he blamed me for his misery."

I brought my hand up to my mouth to muffle the cries that wanted to come out. I couldn't believe that a human being could hurt their child. He was young and didn't know better.

I rose to my feet, tears streaming freely, and ran down the stairs before I threw my arms around him and hugged him. Tears began falling as he mimicked my embrace. We held each other and just cried.

"It's not your fault." I managed to choak out.

"It is my fault."

I moved my arms to rest on his shoulders and looked him dead in the eyes. "Don't say that. Don't put that blame on you. You were just a little child you didn't understand."

We stared silently into each others eyes as our crying came to a slow stop.

His eyes, hazel, were beautiful. They were the first pair of eyes I had ever seen that wasn't brown or a honey gold. They were different. Very slowly a smile crept up into Tyler's face and I couldn't help but smile back.

Then my father cleared his throat. I jumped back, putting some space between us. What had happened? How long were we looking at one another and how long did my father watch us?

"So Tyler let me show you were you will be sleeping." My father said as he motioned for him to follow him.

Just as they disappeared up the staircase I decided to head to my room. On the second floor I managed to catch my father letting Tyler into the room at the very end of the hall. It was coincidentally the room that was the furthest from the staircase as well.

"Dinner is in thirty minutes." My father told him before closing the door.

I stood rooted to my spot as my father walked over to me. The look he gave to me wasn't exactly one that I've ever seen before. It was like a mixture of being troubled and precarious. Then he stopped before me.

"Don't get too involved with that boy." he said in a gentle voice.

I sighed. "Dad he is just my friend. Anyways, in the end its my choice. Its my love life and that is something you can't control."

"I can keep you from seeing him."

"That's completely pharisee dad. Would you have liked it if grandpa Charlie or grandpa Carlisle told you that you couldn't see mommy?"

He opened his mouth to say something and then decided against it. He knew I was right.

I sucked in a deep breath. "Dad. Don't worry. Like I said he is just a friend." I left him with those words and headed up to my room to get dressed for bed.

Twenty seven minutes later I was showered, hair up, hygeine down and dressed in powder blue silk pajama's. Walking down the stairs to the second floor I smiled as Tyler was coming out of his room. He was dressed in plaid pajama's and a tshirt.

"Hey." He said coyly.

I waited for him to get to my side before we headed down the stairs to the main floor together.

"Hi." I smirked. "Feeling better?"

He nodded his head.

"Your parents are extremely kind." He added as we passed through the hall.

I watched him gaze at each picture quaintly as we walked. Crap! I forgot that I had told him I was adopted. These pictures would contradict those words. Especially since they were of me as a child.

Tyler stopped and pointed at one picture that was of me my mother and my father when I looked like a small child. "This is you and your adopted parents right?" he asked.

I gave a rigid nod.

"But I thought you said they didn't adopt you until you were sixteen." he proceeded to ask.

My mother and father joined us from just off the hall.

"Yes that is true. We didn't legally adopt her until she was 16. With Renesmee she had some photo's so we took those and made them bigger. Then my sister Alice decided to use her excellent manipulation skills and make a 'family' picture." my father emphasized the word family. "I believe the program she used was call photoshop."

Tyler leaned froward to get a better look at the pixilation of the picture. "Wow. She is good." he rubbed his fingers over the large canvas.

"Aunt Alice is good at everything." I chuckled.

"That she is." my mother replied.

I let out a breath of relief. That was a close one.

"Lets go and eat, dinner is ready." My father said.

He notioned for Tyler to go on into the dining room and him and my mother followed. As I passed my father he gave me a you-almost-blew-the-secret sort of expression.

I sat down across the table from Tyler and began filling my plate with a few of my favorite foods. Once Tyler put some food on his plate I began eating.

The only sounds in the room was of two beating hears and chewing. Occasionally I could hear Tyler swallow his food but then it was chewing and heatbeats.

Every few bites I would glance up at him discretely. I didn't understand why my father seemed to be so worried about having Tyler around. He was a good person, he was protective of me like the rest of the family and he liked hanging out with me. What was so bad about that? I'm sure Jake wouldn't complain right? He would want me to have friends.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I missed my Jacob.