Love Will Take You (Twilight: Paul Lahote)

Chapter 11 Ms. S

Nia was surprised to wake up at ten in the morning despite her lack of sleep. She rolled to the other side of the bed seeing it empty. Probably because her dad was just meters away from her room. The window was still open though, Paul knew pretty how how much Nia enjoyed being woken up by the birds singing in the morning. But that's not what woke the brunette up. The smell of toast bread and bacon made Nia run down to grab breakfast. Breakfast that was being cooked by her father. She took two stripes of bacon and placed it all in her mouth. She moaned in pleasure. "I love bacon."

"That's why I made it." He placed a few more strips on her plate before kissing her head. She smiled at the sweet thought of her dad.

"I thought you had work today."

"It's a Sunday."

"Oh...right.." Nia dipped the bread into her cup of coffee and ate it in three bites.

Charlie scrunched his nose at Nia's weird mannerisms. He knew pretty well that she got them from her mom. Gosh he missed Reneé, well not in that romantic kind of way. One of his daughters just got married and the other will move out by the end of the summer. Charlie knew that he will get lonely sooner or later. Heck, he already felt lonely. Charlie wanted to put himself out there. And that's what he had been secretly doing with....He just didn't know how to tell his daughters. He was afraid of how they were going to react. A bread dripping with coffee waving in front of his face brought his attention back to reality. Nia stopped waving the food as soon he snapped out of his deep thinking.

"Dad, you okay?"

"Yeah i'm-i'm fine. Excuse me." He exit the kitchen not before grabbing the wireless phone. Nia wondered why he acted so weird. She wondered what he was thinking about just a few moments ago. There was only one way to find that out. She ran upstairs and grabbed the other phone in her room. Nia eavesdropped on a conversation between her father and a mysterious female. She was beginning to think that this was the woman her father had been secretly dating.

"It's okay Charlie. It's normal to worry but there's no need to. Any girl on her honeymoon would be a fool not to extend her trip in a tropical island." This voice sounds so familiar...

"I know S, but she doesn't sound all right to me. Maybe I just miss her too much." Who is this S?

"Then give her another call. Tell her how you feel. Besides, you have Nia in the house. And what I heard from my son was that she'll be staying in Forks after all, not college." Nia banged her head on the wall. Her dad wasn't supposed to know yet. "What's that?" Oh shiz, she heard the bang.

Luckily for Nia, her father didn't hear it. Unluckily though, he only heard the 'not going to college part'. "What do you mean she'll be staying here? She's all set for Oxford."

"Well word on the street is that Paul Lahote asked her to move in with her. I've always not liked that kid Charlie, he always gets into fights." Nia bit the insides of her cheeks, she couldn't see her father's face, but she knew that he was frowning.

"Great another teenage wedding to plan. I was routing for her. Oxford is-was her dream ever since she was in middle school." Charlie sighed. "I'm feeling stressed. Want to grab coffee later? I need someone to talk to, if that's okay with you?"

The mystery woman chuckled into the phone "I would love to Charlie. See you at three?"

"Okay" They both hung up. Nia ran as quickly to the kitchen acting as if she hadn't been snooping on her father's love life. She pretended to act busy by sipping her cup of coffee empty when Charlie came in. Instead of sitting at the edge of the table as usual, Charlie pulled the chair beside Nia and sat on it. "Would you want to get something off your chest?"

Nia pretended to look confused. "What do you mean?" she said while her conscience screamed a 'yes!'.

Charlie didn't know how to say it. In fact, he couldn't still wrap his head around what he just heard. It might just be idle gossip right? Nia wouldn't want to waste an opportunity right? A part of him wanted to believe that it was just rumours, there is only one way to know for sure. "I just heard from a friend  that you would be moving in with your boyfriend by the end of the summer?"

"...yes?" she gulped.

"Is that a yes? Cause you sound so unsure of your answer." He started to worry again. She has so much potential... It would be a waste if she gave it up.

"Dad let me explain-"

"Nia" he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I know you very well and this sounds so unlike you. You have to tell me the truth okay? Is he in any way forcing you to abandon your decision abou-"

Her eyes widened at this "-No no no dad no. Paul would never do that. He did ask me to move in with him and I said yes but I didn't mean it. I'm pushing through with college but I don't know what to tell Paul yet. I'm still figuring that out." She still saw the worried eyes of her father that was staring right back at her. She put her hand on top of his ensuring him some more. "I've worked to hard to abandon my studies now. Don't worry dad I'm making the right choice here. You know what my dream job is, Paul too. He will understand. I hope he will."

"Well if he won't, I have two shotguns in my closet-"

"-DAD!"

"I'm kidding sweetheart." He laughed ruffling his daughter's morning hair. She smiled at the nickname. Nia didn't hear that in years.

Now that was over, there is still another issue they need to address. "So I heard that there's this totally cool movie showing later. Want to watch with me let's say at three?" She smirked on the inside.

Charlie stammered on his answer "I-uh-can't bud. The boys and I will do...stuff...that we usually do from time to time." It took all strength for Nia not to burst out laughing. He still was a really bad liar. We're talking about the chief of police here!

"What stuff dad?"

"....stuff..."