Hey, guys! I can't thank you enough for how much you guys liked that first chapter! You made my day, and it made my day even better when Erica liked. Anyway, thanks to kyla713 for looking things over, and to Mina and Packy for being in my docs.

Enjoy!

Chapter 2-

It was only a few weeks before that we had met Bella for the first time. She was sitting on the very same bench, only a tank and shorts, thanks to a weird, small heat wave that had hit in late September before October would bring the fall rains. She was sitting alone, book in her hands, lost to some far off world that jumped off the pages.

Toby kept begging me to let him bring her a leaf that had fallen. Only it wasn't red, but green. Healthy. He insisted that she had to have it. At first, I felt it would be a rude interruption, but then, the more I looked at her, the more I thought it couldn't possibly harm anything by a child bringing someone a leaf.

So I let him go.

He shyly walked up to her, and I noticed that normally, a person would look up when the heard or felt someone approaching, but she did neither. She remained absorbed in her book. The urge to pull my son back was strong, but I stayed back, watching.

Next, he tapped her on the knee lightly and she jumped up as if he scared her. I quickly made my way toward them, in case I needed to pull my son back away.

"I'm sorry," Toby said. "I just wanted to give you this leaf." He was looking down to the ground, almost as if he had been scolded.

The woman's brow knitted in confusion, tilting her head. I watched in rapt attention as she gently placed her finger under my son's chin and tilted his head up. She looked at him so intently before asking in a somewhat quiet, a tiny bit nasally sounding voice, "Can you repeat that?"

She sounds deaf.

Toby repeated himself, ending by placing the leaf on her book. She smiled, and signed as well as spoke. "Thank you."

Toby had never encountered a deaf person before, so this would be a good learning experience. I just hoped this beautiful woman wouldn't mind. I bent down, my hand on Toby's back, as I looked up at her, placed my hand on my chest and made sure she would be able to read my lips, since I suspected she probably could.

"Hi, I'm Edward." I made sure to slowly enunciate my name for her before turning and glancing at my son. I pointed to his chest before looking at her again. "And this guy is my son, Toby."

She shyly waved hello and then pointed to herself. "Bella."

The last couple of weeks had consisted of us running into her at the park and slowly learning how to sign simple things. I thought it took a lot of her, as she wasn't used to just talking to anyone, but I thought she enjoyed Toby's company most of all.

I secretly hoped that maybe we could get her to open up a bit more, and if all went well, get her to spend time with us outside of the park.

Toby and Bella were playfully signing back and forth. Though, she was helping him with placement of his fingers and how to gesture just right. My son's eyes would grow in amazement with each new sign she'd teach him. I knew she didn't expect him to pick it all up, but he was eager to learn. She was currently teaching him how to sign his name when he broke eye contact from Bella and looked toward me.

"It's getting cold. Chocolate time now?" I nodded in response and looked to Bella. I'd been looking up YouTube videos over the last few weeks on how to sign, slowly learning. So I was hoping that I at least would get something right.

Please come with us. Hot chocolate? I signed. My movements slow and clunky in my limited abilities with signing. Her eyes grew bright, and I knew she was happy with the effort I'd made.

Bella nodded and grabbed Toby's hand as she stood up. She turned to me with a playful smile upon her lips and signed.

I got the 'But I'm', but wasn't sure on the rest. I was sure the confusion was written all over my face. I was knocked out of it when I heard a shy laugh and I looked up to see Bella and Toby walking ahead. I knew then that Bella had totally gotten one over on me.