Hey guys!

So.. this is my first story and I really really hope you guys like it. I'm nervous but I will try my best to keep you guys entertained! Haha. so.. here we go! Reviews are more than welcome. ;)

Summary: Edward and Bella are both single parents of 6-year-old boys. When Bella moves to Jacksonville for a new start, her and Edward become close, as well as their kids. However, when her dark past comes back to haunt her, will Bella be able to protect herself, and her son? Will she allow herself to trust Edward? EXB, EXR, JXA, All human.

Disclaimer: As much as it pains me to say, I do not own Twilight. :(

BPOV:

"Ben, lunch time!" I yelled throughout the house to my son. I placed the peanut butter and jelly sandwich with goldfish on the side onto a paper plate, and poured him a glass of chocolate milk. He bounded into the kitchen as I placed his meal onto the table.

"Thanks, Mommy," he smiled at me before digging into his meal. I ruffled his dark hair and took a seat next to him, taking a bite of my own sandwich.

"Mom, will you play outside with me after lunch? It's a nice day," my son pleaded. I smiled at him, he was such a well-behaved kid. People said that six-year-old's were not exactly pleasant, but my son usually did not give me a hard time, he was very well-behaved.

"Sure, honey. But we need to put sunscreen on, the sun is much brighter here then back at Grandpa's," I informed him. He nodded his head in understanding and took a bite of his sandwich.

We finished the rest of our meal in a comfortable silence, with the radio in our kitchen playing soft music in the background. Moments like this were perfect to me, when it was just me and my son, with nothing to worry about.

After lunch, Ben ran upstairs into his room and got his shoes on while I fished the sunscreen out of one of the drawers in the kitchen. I applied a light amount onto my own skin, and called Ben over when he reappeared into the kitchen.

"Mom, you're putting a lot on!" He giggled as I made sure to apply sunscreen to every inch of his showing skin, and even putting a second coat of it on. I guess you could say I was overprotective when it came to things like this, but I had my reasons.

"You can never be too safe, honey," I said and poked his nose lightly. He laughed in response and then he was off, running into the garage, most likely looking for some kind of sports equipment to play with outside. I chuckled at his enthusiasm and followed him, watching as he pulled out a plastic bat and a plastic ball from the toy chest.

"Baseball it is," I smiled at him and helped him carry the equipment into the backyard. It was a beautiful day, of course. Always so sunny and hot in Jacksonville, but I liked it that way. Ben got to bat first, of course, and I told him he was mean for never letting me get the first chance to bat.

"Mom, if you got to bat first, we would be out here for hours!" He teased me as he found a spot in the middle of the yard to claim as home plate, standing there with the bat held behind his head, ready to whack the ball. He definitely got his sarcasm and wit from me.

"Well, if you're gonna be mean, then I'm not gonna pitch it," I teased him back, taking a spot a good ways away from him, watching as he stared at the ball, waiting for me to throw it.

"Mom, I was kidding! You're the best baseball player there is," Ben said in his cute voice, smiling adorably at me and making his blue eyes huge. Damn him, I couldn't resist giving him anything when he did that. I sighed under my breath and threw the ball to him, watching as he whacked it with full force, the ball gliding quickly to the other end of the yard. Ben whooped and cheered, doing a victory dance. I laughed and walked to get the ball.

"I'm the next Derek Jeter!" I heard him cheering. Instead of going back to the imaginary pitcher's mound, I took the bat right out of his hands and placed the balll into them.

"My turn to bat, you just a hit a homer," I stated and took my stance, bending my knees and holding the bat behind my head. Ben ran happily to the pitcher's mound, clearly proud of himself.

"Okay, Mom. You only get three chances to hit it, so make them count," he called to me. I rolled my eyes at his attempt at teasing and waited for him to throw the ball.

He threw it lightly, and I tried my best to hit it as hard as he could, but failed miserable and completely missed the ball. I grumbled and picked the ball up, listening to Ben laugh as I threw the ball back to him, thinking to myself about the fact that my six-year-old son is better at baseball than me.

"Here comes the next pitch!" He yelled and threw the ball again, but this time I made sure to hit it. However, it went completely left into the neighbor's yard. Ben laughed again but ran over to get it. But instead, a little boy walked over to us with the ball in his hands.

"Is this yours?" He asked in a small voice, holding the ball out to us. I walked over to him and took the ball from his hands, smiling warmly at him.

"Yes, thank you. I'm sorry for hitting it into your yard," I said to him.

"That's okay, I love baseball!" He gushed, and Ben gave him a high-five. This little boy had to be around Ben's age.

"Why don't you play with us?" Ben asked him, handing him the bat. The boy's eyes lit up and he all but sprinted over into our yard.

"Wait!" I called out, "shouldn't you tell your Mom or Dad that you're over here?"

"My Dad was just outside with me, he's coming back out and he'll see me over here." The boy brushed it off like it was no big deal, but I was still worried. I didn't want this boy's father to come outside and see him in my yard like I abducted him or something.

I was assigned to a new position: outfielder. Of course Ben gave me the most tiring job, I was so going to get him for that. I stood in the back of the yard, waiting for the boy to hit it out to me.

"Anthony?!" I heard a man's voice call smoothly from the house next door, interrupting Ben's pitch. We all looked over and I saw the most beautiful man with bronze-colored hair and piercing green eyes, and I noticed that his son looked exactly like him.

"Over here, Daddy!" Anthony yelled back, and then swung the bat after Ben threw the ball. The ball rolled right to me, and I picked it up and then walked over to the man, explaining the situation.

"Sorry, I hit the ball into your yard and your son came and gave it back to us. My son asked him to play and he was all for it," I explained to this handsome man, not being able to look away from his eyes, they were amazing, almost hypnotizing.

"That's okay, I don't mind when people take my kid out of my yard," he teased and gave me a crooked smile that almost had me fainting.

"I'm not a kidnapper, but good try," I said sarcastically and rolled my eyes, causing him to chuckle. "Okay, Anthony, why don't you come back over here? You can't just go where you please without asking if it's okay with them and me."

"It's fine if he wants to stay over in my yard and play with my son. Ben gets lonely sometimes, it would be nice to let him play with someone his age for a little bit today," I offered, watching as Ben and Anthony chased each other around the yard, squealing happily. I looked at Anthony's Dad and saw that he was smiling at our kids.

"Tell you what, I'm getting pretty bored, myself. Why don't I come over and play, too?" He asked lightly, dazzling me with that smile again. I was so distracted by his good looks that I couldn't find my voice, so I just nodded. We made our way to my back patio that overlooked my yard, sitting down in the deck chairs.

As I sat, I just realized that I had invited a strange man and his son into my yard and I did not even know his name.

"I'm Bella, Bella Swan," I introduced myself and offered him my hand. He smiled and shook it graciously.

"Edward Cullen. So, you just moved in a few weeks ago, right?"

"Yeah, about two weeks ago," I answered as we both kept an eye on the kids, watching them run around happily, without a care in the world.

"Where are you from?" He asked, this time taking his eyes off our kids and looking at me. I kept my eyes on Ben and Anthony, though, knowing that I would lose my train of thought if I looked into Edward's eyes.

"I was actually born here in Jacksonville, on the other side of town. But my Dad and I moved to a small town in Washington when I was younger, and I lived there up until we moved here. I wanted to come back here the day I moved away, I love it. So once Ben finished the school year, I came back," I informed him, surprised at myself. I usually built a wall around myself, not letting anyone in. But I found myself sharing information with someone that I'd just met five minutes ago. That wasn't like me, but I felt comfortable with Edward, like all of this was natural.

"Ah, I see. Well, welcome to the neighborhood! It's cool having another young parent here. Some of the people living in this development are around our age and they also have young kids. We're all actually really close, you should come hangout with us sometime," he offered, and this time I looked at him, his velvety voice pulling my attention towards him. He was smiling warmly at me, so I smiled back.

"That would be nice."

"Great! Next weekend is Memorial Day, and we're having a barbeque at one of the houses down the street on Saturday, you and Ben should come. There will be plenty of kids for him to play with, and you could meet all the neighbors," he said and I looked back at Ben and watched as him and Anthony played another game of baseball. I smiled at the thought of Ben having a bunch of friends to run around with, he would love that. I know he gets lonely. I also would love to have some friends that I could hangout with around here. Ben wasn't the only one that got lonely.

"Sure, sounds like fun," I said and smiled to myself. I was glad that I had found friends for Ben and I already, I knew he would be happy to play with the kids in the neighborhood. Summer was coming and I wanted him to have people to spend time with that were his own age. He's spent his life so far playing with me and my Dad, so this barbeque would be good for him.

"Okay, I'll let you know the details when I hear of them," Edward said.

The boys played outside for a few hours, while Edward and I sat on the porch, getting to know each other. I found out that he was a single parent, and I told him that I was, too. However, neither of us prodded for more information from one another, so nothing else was said on that topic.

Edward told me that he owned his own construction company, sharing that he builds home and apartment complexes. The name of his company was EAC Homes, which stood for "Edward Anthony Cullen Homes."

"That's sweet that you added Anthony's name in the title of your company," I praised him. He chuckled and informed me that the "Anthony" part of the title wasn't only because of his son, but it was also Edward's middle name.

I told him that I was a second-grade teacher back in Washington and I was planning on pursuing the same career here when the school year started up again. He gave me a funny look when I shared this information with him, probably wondering how I could afford this huge house on a career like that with no other source of income in the family. But I had plenty of money and I did not need to share that story with him.

Around 4:30, though, we decided to call it a day, as Edward had to go.

"Anthony, time to go home now, bud. We have to meet Grandma and Grandpa at the diner in half an hour," Edward called out to his son. Anthony and Ben both groaned in dissatisfaction and dragged their way over to us, not ready to end their fun quite yet.

"Can me and Ben play again tomorrow?" Anthony asked his Dad, tugging on his shirt impatiently.

"Son, tomorrow is Monday and I have to go to work. Grandma is going to watch you tomorrow."

Ben and Anthony both put their heads down in disappointment, and it broke my heart to see how upset they both were. They had so much fun today and I didn't want it to be put to an end.

"Anthony is welcome over here tomorrow, I'll be here all day," I offered, watching as Ben and Anthony's faces lit up and they jumped up and down in excitement. Edward smiled at them.

"Are you sure, Bella?" He asked, uncertain. I told him it was no big deal and I would be glad to have him over.

"Okay, thank you so much. It's supposed to be quite hot tomorrow, so you can take the boys over to my house and use our pool if you want to. Just make sure Anthony uses his floaties, he can't quite swim on his own yet." Edward informed me. I nodded in response.

Edward and I exchanged numbers, and he promised me he would call me in the morning before he brought Anthony over. We said our goodbyes and I brought Ben in the house, turning the TV on for him as I made us a dinner of spaghetti. He shared his whole day with me in detail as we ate, saying how much he liked Anthony. I smiled at the fact that my son had a new friend, and I told Ben that him and Anthony could play all the time. Ben smiled brightly.

After dinner, Ben went back into the living room to watch TV and I did dishes. I was just about finished when I received a text message. I grabbed my phone off the counter and looked at the name: Edward Cullen.

Oh, I almost forgot. When Anthony is over tomorrow, don't let a random person take him out of your yard.

I rolled my eyes at his sarcasm and typed my reply.

Smartass.

There's chapter one! I hope you guys like it.

Reviews make me motivated to write more, so let me know if you guys have any comments or suggestions, anything is welcome!

Thanks!