A/N:

Here is my submission for the Oklahoma fundraiser.

Love Blooms Over Lunch

BPOV:

"Oh, Bella! You just don't know how happy I am that you are here to help me! I don't what I'd do without you here," I rolled my eyes as Alice gushed for the millionth time since I had arrived in Forks on Saturday. I knew better. She was just trying to make me feel better about being here. She didn't really need me. She'd done just fine on her own for the last two years that she'd owned the shop. She was just taking pity on me because I was her cousin and she loved me. I felt like a real loser because I had earned a degree in accounting yet was unable to find a job. So many people had been laid off a couple of years ago that companies that were now hiring were taking advantage of the desperation of those who'd lost their jobs. When they could hire someone with three to five years of experience for the price of a college graduate why not get the experienced help cheap? I sighed and walked back to the storeroom to continue sweeping before we opened Alice's flower shop for the day.

I spent the morning sweeping and organizing the storeroom and cooler, saving dusting the shelves in the showroom and going over her books for the afternoon. I didn't want to end up running out of things to do by lunch time. Alice kept herself busy by putting together some arrangements that people had ordered. She had always had an extremely creative nature to her when we were growing up. When we were kids and I would visit my dad I would spend my days at Alice's while he was at work. Alice was always dragging me outside to draw on the driveway. I'd draw a basic tree or rainbow and she draw these elaborate landscapes. With sidewalk chalk. There was currently a 3-D design of floral arrangement on the sidewalk outside the shop. She even had an art studio in her attic at home for what she called her "chill" time.

It was approaching lunchtime when Alice announced that she was running out to make a delivery and join her boyfriend, Jasper, at the diner for lunch. I had known Jasper for a while and I met his friend Emmett on Saturday when I got here. Alice had asked them to come over to help unload my car. I didn't have much to unload, I could have actually handled it all myself. I think she just wanted me to feel welcome here and meet her friends. The only things that I had brought with me were what I'd had in my dorm room, which were basically just my clothes and books. Once I made my decision to do this, I just threw them all in my car and set off for Forks. Alice had already furnished the room when she decided to make it a guest room when she moved into the house. Since I was the person that was most likely to come visit and need a room she had gone ahead and decorated it in my favorite color, lilac. She even had vases of fresh lilacs in there. I was completely in love with what she'd done to the room and intended to keep everything as it was. Emmett's girlfriend Rose was there too and we all had a late dinner once everything was inside my bedroom. Alice told me that Edward would have come to help too, but he worked nights. So did my dad.

Giving Alice the opportunity to go out to lunch with Jasper without having to close the shop was about the only benefit I was actually giving her by moving here. I waved her off and continued to thumb through the catalog of floral arrangements that she told me to study. Later this week she was going to start teaching me to how to handle and care for the flowers and prep them for arranging. Eventually she was going to teach me how to do arrangements myself. I didn't know how well that was going to work. I didn't have a single artistic bone in my body. But as she put it, if I could do the arrangements too, she could actually take a vacation someday. Or a honeymoon, she'd muttered. I bit back the laugh that was trying to escape me. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Alice and Jasper were going to end up married. He'd even told her that he intended to marry her. He just wanted to have the book he was working on done before taking that step. That way he could devote more time to helping her with the arrangements. Not the planning. He was sure that she already had the entire thing planned out. I knew that she most definitely did. I had already been asked to be her maid of honor.

My phone chirped with a message from my Mom and I knew that I'd have to call her back later. Mom tried to talk me into moving to Jacksonville to stay with her, but the offer from Alice at least gave me some income and my own bedroom. Jacksonville would just be another place that I was unemployable and I didn't want to live with either of my parents again at this point. Mom and her new husband Phil moved to Jacksonville a couple of years ago. He had been a ball player until he blew out his shoulder and couldn't hit well anymore. But mom didn't care. She loved him and he loved her. Now he was working as a high school softball coach in Florida. They were happy with the life that they had set up there and their little one bedroom beach house. Plus, I knew that I wouldn't be happy sleeping on their couch long term.

I finally decided to put the book aside and grab my lunch from the cooler when my stomach started to growl. It wasn't much, just a sandwich, some fruit, and a Little Debbie cupcake, but it was cheap and easy. I grabbed the romance novel that I was currently reading and started to eat my lunch. I must have gotten completely carried away in my book because I didn't hear anyone come into the store. It wasn't until a male voice asked, "Is that a good book?" that I knew someone was standing in front of me. I looked up at the most gorgeous man that I had ever seen, and then promptly realized that I was still sucking on my Juicy Juice Apple Juice box. I don't think that I had ever been this mortified before in my entire life.

I put the box down and tried to regain my composure as quickly as I could. Which wasn't easy as the evidence of my juvenile lunch was still sitting on the counter between us, "Can I help you, sir?" I looked into his deep green eyes as he stared into mine.

We stood there like that for a minute before he finally cleared his throat and spoke again, "I like juice boxes too."

"Huh?" was my brilliant response. I couldn't believe that was the only thing that I could possibly come up with to say? This man was going to think that I was an idiot. No surprise here. I was so unemployable that my cousin had to give my a pity job. I felt like banging my head on the counter several times but I didn't want the sexy man to think that I was psychotic as well.

He shifted from foot to foot, obviously nervous and probably wanting to get away from me as quickly as possible. "I'm…uh…I'm Edward. I am here to pick you up. I mean I have an order that I need to pick up." He was full on blushing by this point and so was I.

"Oh yes." I turned and started to walk out from behind the counter. "Alice told me that you'd be stopping by. One moment while I go get them for you." I rushed off to the cooler where I helped Alice store them after she was done with the arrangements. Alice told me that Edward had a permanent order placed for small floral arrangements for the tables at his restaurant. He was the owner/chef of a seafood restaurant in town. Well, the only seafood restaurant in town. Alice told me that his food was amazing and she was going to drag me there soon.

I stopped just inside the door, leaned against a shelf and took a few deep breaths. I didn't realize that he had followed me until he spoke, making me jump in surprise, "You're Bella, right? Alice's cousin?"

"Yes, I am."

"She told me that you were coming to live with her."

"I'm not surprised. Between her and my Dad I'd be surprised if there was anyone in town that they missed."

"Actually, I think that I did hear it from him, too. He was really happy that you were coming here to stay. So am I."

"Wha..?" I spun around blinking at him stupidly. There you go sounding like an absolute genius again, Bella. Way to run off the first good looking guy you've met in a long time.

"Yeah. Uh, it's just that Alice has been having a hard time dealing with her parent's death. It was just so sudden you know. I mean, she has her friends and your dad and all, but, and don't get me wrong, Chief Swan is a great guy, but he's not exactly the best person to go to for emotional issues." I snorted at that. That was my father alright. Emotions and tears always scared him and sent running into hiding. "We've all done what we could for her, but I think that she just wanted you." And I now feel like crap again. Her parents had been out in Port Angeles having dinner when a storm started rolling in. Why they didn't just stay put and get a hotel was beyond us. They tried to make it home but never did. They lost control on the ice and ended up flipping into a ditch. They were both gone before the EMT's got there. Dad told me that the first responders found them holding hands. I wanted to be here for the funeral but one of my professors was an ass and wouldn't allow me to take the final early so I could go to the funeral. He was known around campus as the most hated professor in the history of the university. No exceptions for anyone. For any reason. Unless you could prove that you were hospitalized. It is no surprise that someone took a baseball bat to his car once.

Alice told me that she understood and didn't want me to jeopardize my education. If I had skipped the exam I would have flunked the class. Not only would that be on my permanent transcript but I would have to take the class over and he was only professor who taught this class. I talked to her and Jasper a lot more on the phone and over Skype after that. Not that we didn't already talk a couple times a week already. I thought that she was doing better, and Jasper hadn't seemed concerned about her. At least not that he let on to me about. Perhaps I should pay closer attention to her now that I'm here.

I helped Edward carry the three boxes of floral arrangements out to his truck before we went back in and I rang up the order. I noticed him snagging strawberries from my lunch while I was running his credit card. I smiled to myself but didn't say anything to him. I actually thought that it was pretty funny. I leaned on the counter as I handed him the receipt he startled after a moment and started to back away from the counter, "It was a pleasure to meet you, Bella Swan." He turned and continued to the door. He was halfway through the door when he turned back, "By the way, the fruit punch boxes are a lot better than the apple juice." I laughed out loud as I watched him run out the door, get into his truck, and drive away.

EPOV:

I stood outside Alice's shop peering in the door. There was this incredibly beautiful woman standing behind the counter eating her lunch. This woman was definitely not Alice. Alice was pretty but this woman was breathtaking. There were definitely similarities in their features. They both had the same pale skin tone. I knew who this woman was. Alice and Jasper had been going on and on about her cousin who was coming to Forks to stay with her for a while. I took a deep breath and walked inside. I walked straight up to her and stood there for a minute, completely amused that she was so into her book that she hadn't even heard the bells on the door chiming. I finally said something to get her attention. She looked almost embarrassed about the juice box that she was drinking as she tried to hide it from me. She looked so cute drinking that thing that I got completely flustered and ended up acting like a complete idiot. I didn't intend to follow her to the back room but the second she started walking away from me I just started following. It was like I didn't have control over my mouth or my legs. When she turned from me to run my credit card my line of vision got stuck on the way that her breasts filled out her t-shirt. I was afraid that I was going to open my mouth and embarrass myself more than I already had so I grabbed a strawberry from the container in front of me and ate it. I couldn't talk if I had food in my mouth. Then she leaned over the counter. Her shirt was a little loose on her and she was giving me the perfect view of her breasts. I was sure that purple lace was going to star prominently in my dreams tonight.

I almost got out of the door without embarrassing myself again but then I just had to mention that I liked fruit punch juice boxes. I always kept them in my fridge at home. I wasn't joking when I told her that I preferred them to the apple juice ones. People have this misconception that because I'm a chef I don't eat frozen pizzas or premade frozen dinners or other things of that nature. I do. They aren't the best tasting by far, but sometimes I'm just not in the mood to cook.

I got back to the restaurant and had some of my staff unload the boxes and place the fresh arrangements on the tables. I got fresh flowers three times a week from Alice. Perhaps that was a bit excessive, but appearance and quality were everything in my line of work. If my dining room looked neglected even the tiniest bit it could cause the patrons to question other areas on my restaurant. I locked myself in my office and laid my head down on my desk for a few minutes in an effort to get over the horrid impression of myself that I just gave Bella. I just kept seeing her in my head. Her beautiful brown eyes. Her full lips turned up into a small smile. Her full breasts tightly incased in all that purple lace. I was completely attracted to her, there was no denying that. I wasn't even going to try.

I had remembered hearing about her when I was a kid, Chief Swan's daughter coming to visit every summer. But I had never had the opportunity to see or meet her. My parents weren't exactly close to the Swans or the Brandons then. Dad and Charlie would run into each other often at work as an ER doctor and the chief of police, but never really socially. From what I knew, Charlie spent most of his off time either fishing, on the Reservation, or fishing on the Reservation. Come to think of it, I think that the last time that I remember hearing about Bella visiting was the summer before our freshman year of high school. Alice and Jasper had just started going out at the end of the school year but that was the summer I wasn't in Forks. My grandmother, who lived in Chicago, had taken ill and Mom took me with her when she went to help out. We ended up staying the entire summer.

I walked out and checked out how the people that did prep were doing. I was always particular about consistency but I was never mean, rude, or cruel to my employees like you see chefs on TV treating people. My mother always impressed into me that you could catch more flies with honey and she was right. I treated my employees well and they worked hard for me.

The rest of the day dragged on. It was Monday so it was always pretty slow business-wise. It was a day that I did more cleaning and catching up on paper work and supply orders after the weekend. I left my kitchen to my employees to run and returned to my office to attempt to get some paperwork done. I was halfway through my supply order when my mind wandered back to Bella. I wondered what she was doing. I smiled when I thought that she just might be packing her lunch for tomorrow with another juice box at that moment. That is when I came up with an idea. I looked at the clock and realized that the store would be closed if I waited until the restaurant was closed. I grabbed my keys and ran out of my office yelling out that I'd be back soon.

The next morning as I was standing in my kitchen at home I was starting to have second thoughts about my great plan. What if she had a boyfriend? What if she just wasn't interested? I didn't want to embarrass either one of us or make things awkward. We were going to be forced together occasionally with Alice and Jasper being together. I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and sent a text to Jasper. If anyone knew and would tell me it would be him. He had known Bella for years, since that summer he and Alice started dating. He had even gone with Alice to Phoenix when Bella's mother got married a few years ago, and I knew that they talked on the phone and Facebook often. It was taking Jasper forever to respond to me so I figured that he must be in an interview or in a corner of the Reservation that had bad reception. Jasper was a historian and was currently writing a series of non-fiction books on the history of the Quileute tribe. It took some convincing for him to gain their trust but he was adamant that it was going to be completely fact based and biographical. There would be no embellishing or poetic license as it were. They agreed to the books as long as they had a chance to read them and give final approval before they were published. He was also the history teacher at the high school, but since school was out for the summer he was spending all of his free time on the reservation.

I was about to give up on Jasper answering me back when my phone vibrated, "No boyfriend that I know of. Why?"

"Just curious." Then I turned off my phone and took off for work. I had to finish the payroll this morning or my employees weren't going to get paid on Friday. At almost noon I was finally done with the paperwork and called my sous chef, Kate, and service manager, Jared, into my office. I told them that I was going to leave for a bit and gave them a list of things that needed to be done before dinner service. Which was the only service that we had. There wasn't enough demand to open for a lunch service. But I had a handful of people that came in early to prep and prepare before we opened the doors at four. Occasionally we would open early for a special party, but those had to be reserved in advance and a particular menu agreed on.

I grabbed the paper bag of food that I had brought with me out of the cooler and ran out the back door. I jumped into my truck and drove off for Main Street. The closer I got the more I started to second guess myself again. What if she wasn't interested in me? I had definitely made a fool of myself yesterday. She probably thought that I was the world's biggest doofus. I took a deep breath and forced myself to get out of my truck.

"You are just so stubborn!" Alice yelled in the direction of the backroom. She turned and was surprised when she saw me standing there. "Edward! Hey! Was there something wrong with your flowers?"

"No. They were perfect as usual. I was actually wondering if Bella was here and if I could talk to her?"

"Sure. She's in the back being her usual stubborn self. Bella! You have a visitor!" I sincerely felt sorry for Jasper if any child of theirs inherits it's mother's lung. She nearly burst my eardrums with her screaming.

"Geez Alice, do you have to get so loud. I think Mom and Phil heard you in Florida."

"Ha. Ha. Edward, maybe you can convince Bella to go to the diner for lunch and mingle with the locals."

"Alice, I told you that I am fine with my sack lunch."

"Actually, I was kind of hoping that you'd be willing to join me for lunch."

Both of them looked at me in surprise but Alice recovered first, "Yes! Go to the diner with Edward! GO!"

Bella was standing there staring at me like she couldn't believe what she was hearing. I got very self-conscious and dropped my gaze to the floor, "You don't have to. I wasn't thinking of the diner though. I actually brought my lunch today, too. I was thinking that we could go to Tilicum Park and have a picnic. It's not raining for once and it's almost warm out. But if you don't—"

"Edward," she interrupted me. "I'd like to have lunch with you. Just let me get my stuff. I'll be right back." She turned and bolted out of the room. She returned a minute later with her purse and a brown paper bag. As I held the door open for Bella, Alice yelled after us, "Bella! I don't want to see you for at least two hours. In fact, take the rest of the day off!"

"She is so embarrassing sometimes," Bella muttered as I walked her to my truck.

"Alice is Alice. She doesn't always think about the things that she says but she does mean well."

"I know that she does." I helped her up into my truck. It was a pretty high step up. I liked to spend time outdoors when I had free time and around here a truck or jeep was the better options for navigating some of these back roads.

The drive to the park was a peaceful one. Bella rolled her window down and closed her eyes as the warm wind blew her hair around. I was absolutely taken with her beauty.

When we got to the park I grabbed our lunches off the back seat and started around the truck. By the time I got to the passenger door Bella was already out of the truck and straightening her skirt. I lead her over to the picnic tables and sat down across from her. There were a couple of parents with their kids here but not many. Even though I had expected more people to be here since school was out, I was glad to have a little relative privacy with Bella. I watched her pull out a lunch very similar to the one that she had yesterday before I took my food out of the bag. I had purposely chosen foods that I thought would compliment her lunch. I was really relying on luck that she'd be bringing the same today that she brought yesterday for lunch. It was when I pulled out the two fruit punch juice boxes that she started laughing.

"You weren't kidding about liking those were you?"

"Nope. I love them, but, here, one of these is for you."

"Fruit Punch is actually my favorite too. But they didn't have any when I went to the store with Alice on Sunday."

"That would be because I bought the last two on Saturday."

"Hoarder."

"I'm not a hoarder. I'm an addict. There is a difference."

"And just what is the difference?"

"I don't have a whole pantry or room full of them. I don't scour the internet ordering as many as I can get my hands on."

"And you actually drink them and are willing to share them, too," she said with a smile as she pierced the top of hers with the straw.

The rest of our lunch we spent in quiet conversation getting to know each other. She was incredibly smart as well as beautiful. I was thrilled to find that we had a lot in common. She even enjoyed cooking and playing around with new recipes. This woman was absolutely perfect for me. After we were done eating neither of us were ready for our lunch to be over so we took a walk around the park. In a move that was bold for me I grabbed her hand and held it as we walked. I normally wouldn't get so touchy feely on a first date. This was a first date, right? I mean I did ask her out and she said yes. Maybe I should have asked her on a more traditional date first.

It finally came to a point that I could no longer put off returning to work and I was forced to end our time together. She asked me to go ahead and drop her off at Alice's house, saying that since Alice told to take the afternoon off she would and she'd cook something nice for dinner and maybe dessert too since she had the time.

I pulled into the driveway and we both sat there, still not wanting our time together to end.

"I had a great time, Bella. Thank you for having lunch with me. I don't work tomorrow. I was wondering if you'd join me for dinner."

"I'd love to have dinner with you." She looked over at the house and then back at me before taking my hand in hers again and squeezing it, "You know, I think that this could be the start of a beautiful friendship."

"Bella?"

"Yes?" She looked at me and I got lost, again, in those big, brown eyes.

"I want a hell of a lot more than friendship with you." Then I kissed her on the cheek before she jumped out of my truck and ran into the house with a radiant smile on her face.

A/N:

Thank you to Sweetpea123 for betaing this for me. I live in the Midwest so I know from personal experience the fear and devastation that tornadoes bring. I hope that you enjoyed this story. These two have been stuck in my head for a while now. Thank you for reading, my readers mean everything to me.