AN: You left me speechless with all of your reviews. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I really appreciate it. I've never received that many reviews for just one chapter, that wasn't an epilogue, before.

Listening to: Florence + The Machine – Post Cards From Italy

This is a slow paced fic at first... things will speed up shortly. I think. Meh. I have no idea.

Disclaimer: No copyright infringement is intended. xVampiree does not, in anyway, own Twilight. All characters, besides those not mentioned in the Twilight Series, belong to Stephenie Meyer. Any other recognizable publications and/or characters do not belong to xVampiree. They belong to their respective owners. This story belongs to xVampiree. Copyright 2010.

Chapter 2 – Distracting

Bella Swan

Shit a mother lovin' brick. This was so not how I envisioned meeting my boss for the first time.

"Daddy!" Masen exulted, jumping out of my arms and crashing into his father.

"Hey there, buddy," Mr. Cullen said, lifting his son up. "Wow, you've gotten so big,"

Masen nodded eagerly, "Bella says I'm nearly a man since I went to school today,"

Upon hearing 'Bella', Mr. Cullen smiled, shifted Masen onto one hip and extended a free hand to me. "Isabella, I don't believe I've had the pleasure,"

I placed my hand in his and immediately withdrew it, was he one of those people that somehow always managed to give off an electric charge? My hand zinged."Uh, It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Cullen, but please call me Bella,"

"Bella, then," he agreed and looked around as if in search for something, or someone. "What time does Kate get out?"

"Who?" Honestly, I was only watching the way his lips moved when he spoke. He smirked but didn't repeat. "Uh, she should be here,"

He nodded and looked down at his son, "I've missed you. What do you want to do today?"

Masen's smile was blinding, he looked genuinely happy to see his dad. "Can Bella come too?"

"Oh," I smiled apologetically. I really did want to spend the afternoon with Masen and Kate since I hadn't seen him the whole day, but I guess he should probably spend it with his father who hasn't seen him for even longer. "Mase, I'm fine, you should play with your dad,"

"It's no problem, Bella," Mr Cullen assured me.

"I'm not taking 'no' for an answer," Masen added in the puppy dog eyes and the pout – an extremely deadly combination known to tug on the heartstrings and influence you to make decisions in his favor.

"You've been hanging out with Alice too much," I narrowed my eyes teasingly.

"Yay," he grinned, "now, where are you taking us, Daddy?"

"How about the park? There's still one around here, right?" he looked at me for confirmation.

I nodded, "It's about five minutes away by car," I caught a glimpse of Kate's sandy blonde hair as she weaved through the crowds of students and parents.

"Geez, I hate first days of school," she was grumbling as she approached.

"Katie, look who's here!" Masen shouted, hugging onto his dad.

Kate looked up at her father and a wide grin spread across her face, "Dad!" she ran forward and hugged him. "What are you doing here? You're usually so busy with work,"

I saw something in his eyes, hesitation? But it could have just been the light. "I decided to come visit my family, work can hold off for a while,"

For some reason it didn't look like Kate truly believed him, but she asked no further questions, instead choosing to walk next to me to her fathers car.

I remembered then that my car would be left here, "Oh, I'll take my car,"

"I'll go with Bella," Kate added.

Mr Cullen nodded with a smile and placed his son in the car-seat in the back, fussing over the buckles. I made sure he could do it and then walked with Kate to my car. She sat next to me in the car and looked out the window as we drove and didn't even fiddle with my iPod for a song she liked... That was odd.

"Hey," I said softly. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," she answered flatly. "just tired,"

"I bet. School always drained me, but it was a nice surprise seeing your dad, huh?"

She shrugged, "Yeah,"

I sighed and watched her out of the corner of my eye, contemplating whether or not I should drop the topic or not. When I was twelve years old the last thing I wanted was someone bugging me when I clearly didn't want to talk.

"Can I text Alice and tell her that I wont be going for my lesson today?"

Ah, this was probably the cause of her sadness. Even though she was happy to see her dad, she'd be missing out on her dance lessons.

"It's in my bag," I pointed to my handbag on the floor by her feet. "Why don't you ask her if you can just have a later lesson? Or go tomorrow?"

This cheered her up slightly, "You think I could do that?"

I shrugged, "She's your aunt, I'm sure she wouldn't mind,"

She smiled to herself as she typed on the screen of my touchscreen phone. Ah, the touchscreen, I wasn't sure if Kate wanted me to get it so that she could play with it or if she just wanted any sort of upgrade from the 'brick' I had earlier. So, maybe I was a little technology illiterate when it came to cell phones, I guess I had inherited some traits from my mother after all.

A few moments later, my phone beeped with a message. "She said I can have my lesson tomorrow after school," Kate told me.

Mr Cullen was already at the park by the time we got there and Masen was barefoot running around like a chicken without a head towards the swings. How did he manage to have so much energy, even though school was over?

Kate dug around in her schoolbag for a book and then exited the car, taking a seat under a large tree near where her dad was now pushing Masen on the swing. I sat down at the bench closest to them and picked up Masen's shoes placing them next to me. The wooden slats of the bench were really uncomfortable but I ignored it.

While Mr Cullen was busy playing with his son, I allowed myself to admire the way his coppery-brown hair stuck up in every direction, yet still managed to look like he had spent hours styling it. And then there was the fine example of porn that was commonly known as a jaw – I had a self-confessed jaw fetish – It was just so chiseled...and defined. An involuntary sigh slipped through my lips as I remembered he was married with two kids.

As if he had heard me from across the park, he met my eyes and smiled as he pushed his son. I smiled small back at him, wishing the blush to stop flaming my cheeks. He was distracted for a moment but it was long enough. Masen returned at full speed, the swing hitting Mr Cullen square in the chest, causing him to fall backwards and onto the grass.

I practically heard the 'whoosh' of air as it left his lungs. Thank goodness Masen was holding onto the swing otherwise he would have been on the ground too.

"Mr Cullen, are you okay?" I called out as I ran towards them.

He sat up slowly and coughed, a horrible hollow sound that told me he had been winded. "Please," he wheezed, his eyes wide as he coughed. "Call me Edward,"

I laughed but it sounded more like a frantic whimper, what a strange request while he was like this... "Okay, then, Edward, are you okay?"

He held his hand up in a 'give me a moment' way and took a few deep breaths. In the meantime, Kate had made her way over to us while I picked up a worried Masen.

"Daddy, I'm sorry," he hiccuped, on the verge of tears.

Mr C- Edward regained his breath and smiled at his son, trying to reassure him. "I'm fine, buddy. I just wasn't paying attention..."

I smoothed Masen's hair away from his face and lightly bounced him on my hip. "See? Nothing to worry about."

He nodded and released my neck, indicating it was time for him to be let go. I placed him on the ground and gave Kate some money to go buy her and her brother ice cream.

I watched them both walk away and then looked back to my boss who was now on his feet.

"Sorry," he laughed lightly to himself as he brushed his hands on his jeans. "I'm not usually such a klutz,"

I smiled, "Don't worry about it, I'm just glad it wasn't me for once."

"You're clumsy?" he asked, sounding surprised for some reason.

I nodded, "I'm a broken toe away from getting a disabled sticker for my car and my own parking space,"

He chuckled, "I'm sure you're not that bad,"

"Trust me," I sighed, recalling the time I hit both funny bones while leaning against a wall. "I am."

He didn't comment further, but smiled anyway, watching his children receiving their ice creams. I laughed as I saw Masen get the triple scoop and walk back to us in a snaking path as he tried to lick the ice cream while carefully balancing it in his hold to keep it from toppling over. Kate walked in a leisurely pace, satisfied with her single scoop of strawberry.

"Bella, Daddy!" Masen called, his eyes still focused on his ice cream. "Look, I got three scoops, one for me, one for Bella and one for daddy." He lifted it up to show us but unfortunately two of the scoops fell off and landed with a splat onto the ground. Messing all over his bare feet. "Oh no," he whimpered and I felt so sorry for him, things were really not going his way at all today.

"It's okay," Edward said, seeing the distress upon his sons face. "That was a very good idea, but it's no use crying over spilled ice cream, okay?"

Masen nodded and he looked up at me, "I'm sorry, Bella, it's passed the five second rule now,"

A giggle bubbled and escaped my lips, the five second rule was something he picked up from his grandmother, Esme, when he caught her picking up a cookie that she had dropped from the floor and scolded her for it. He rarely used that excuse, instead opting to use it as a joke since it made me laugh every time.

I heard Kate snort next to me and Edward laughed too. "I think it's time to go," he declared, once the moment was over.

-

The drive back to the Cullen house was incredibly uninteresting... But, Tanya's face when she saw her husband wasn't...

I walked in first, leaving Edward to get his bags from his car while I got the kids cleaned up so I could start dinner. Masen ran ahead of me towards the bathroom shouting 'Pee' at the top of his lungs as he ran. My natural instinct was to shout 'No running' but he'd reached the toilet before I could even open my mouth.

Edward came through the back door leading into the kitchen, dropped his two bags and stretched. One of his bones clicked and caused me to wince as I rummaged through the fridge. That sound to me was like nails on a chalkboard... or Tanya's voice.

Kate washed her hands in the kitchen sink and then went upstairs to put her school things away, leaving me alone with Edward. He seemed out of place in his own home, standing there awkwardly next to the island with his hands in his pockets. Staying out of the way of everything – as if he were a guest.

I glanced outside through the window as I filled the pot with water and noticed Tanya's car wasn't in it's place but she was coming down the drive way. She had probably been out with her latest conquest in Port Angeles. Forks was too small to house her affairs. I felt sorry for Edward, he'd come all this way to spend time with his family and his wife wasn't even being faithful to him.

"Tanya's home." I told him as I placed the pot on the stove. I turned back to look at him over my shoulder.

"Battle stations." he mumbled, his lips twitching with amusement.

I bit my lip to stifle my snicker. It wasn't my place to be disrespectful towards his wife... in front of him at least. He already knew I wasn't a fan of her's from our earlier conversation.

I heard Tanya fumbling with the key and then the front door flew open. She barged in, threw her handbag down and made her way into the kitchen. Her heels clicking on the hardwood floors.

I kept my face angled half towards the food I was cooking and half towards where Tanya would enter, waiting to see the expression on her face.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Tanya's mouth popped open in surprise but she quickly controlled it into a painful looking smile. "Eddie!" she screeched and ran forward to embrace him.

I turned down the heat on the stove by one and retreated upstairs as inconspicuously as possible. They needed their privacy, was the excuse I told myself. When in reality, I just couldn't stand seeing Tanya draped over him, not after she'd been doing who knows what with some random guy just a few moments before.

I knew nothing about Edward, but I knew that he didn't deserve anything like that.

AN: This chapter took me too long to write :/ and yet it's so insignificant.

My beta is the lovely MrsEdwardCullenP, are you reading her story 'Hiding In Plain Sight'? If not, please do. She's an amazing writer, especially if you love laughing out loud at fics :)

Also, a big thank you to Hayley. She knows why.

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xVampiree

Reviews are appreciated.