Thanks to everyone for all the condolences, alerts, favorites etc... on this story. Your kindness and generosity remind me why I am in this fandom. I haven't review replied yet, but I promise I will reply to them all.

As stated in chapter 1, this story is written for acinad as part of FGB and dedicated to my mother.

As usual, I don't own.

Chapter Two – One Leap

What if I let myself fall
What if the stars don't agree
Would the world stop, or would it spin round without us
Would it spin around you without me
Well our heroes have all been traded in
Can't think of what they used to be
So we look round and pray for salvation
While they search for a light out at sea
So we take, one, leap, for the bottom
And I pray your hope's not forgotten
And it's to too much to say
I need you this way

One Leap – Joshua Radin

"This seat wasn't taken, was it?" he asked in a deep seductive voice as Bella clutched tightly to her drink and simply shook her head, unable to speak. They looked at each other curiously for a few moments before the stranger began to speak. "Not to pry or anything, but didn't I see you earlier in the day?"

"Umm… possibly," Bella lied, not wanting to give away the fact that she had in fact seen him several times during the day, each time finding herself more attracted to him. However, now that she sat beside him and could see his distinct features up close, Bella was surprised at how young he was. He wore a tight fitting long sleeved t-shirt and jeans that clung just as snugly to his lower half. It was casual, yet still appealing, and Bella watched closely he dragged his fingers through his hair, making it stick up every which way and she blinked profusely, realizing this guy couldn't be more than 23 years old, maybe 25 at the most.

"Wait… I saw you earlier today with Jacob Black, right? I never forget a face." He smiled brightly at Bella who was taken aback by his charming façade and handsome crooked smile. He seemed open and genuine, and Bella found that she couldn't help but smile back at him. "I'm Edward, by the way. Edward Cullen. I work over at Aspen Mountain as a ski instructor."

"Oh… that must be fun. I'm Bella," she replied, caught off guard by Edward's continued conversation.

"It has its perks, I suppose. I am a little curious though… how did your session with Jacob go? You didn't look all that steady out there today."

"How do you know how steady I was?" Bella questioned curiously as Edward smirked and took a sip of his beer as Rosalie watched their interaction out of the corner of her eye as she rang up another bill on her register. She was concerned the moment Bella began speaking with Edward, and it wasn't because Edward had a bad reputation within Aspen, it was quite the opposite. Edward was her cousin and she knew Bella was just in town for the holidays and not staying on a more permanent basis. Her cousin tended to jump into everything he did with both feet, and based on the infectious grin on his face, Rosalie could tell this was no exception.

"Let's just say I found it hard to focus with such a beautiful woman out on the hill; especially one in the hands of an idiot." Edward winked at her as Bella tried, unsuccessfully, to hide her blush.

She was in new territory and feeling somewhat uncomfortable because Bella couldn't understand why Edward, a young and very gorgeous ski instructor, was chatting her up at the bar. It had been eons since Bella had been flirted with, if that was even what Edward was doing with her, and Bella honestly couldn't be sure what was going on.

"Things went well; I just didn't feel all that confident."

"Then he wasn't doing it right." Bella coughed on the sip of drink she had just taken and when she turned to look at Edward, he was smiling from ear to ear. "I meant the skiing. You shouldn't assume the worse or is your mind always in the gutter?"

"Uh no… it's never in the gutter actually," Bella stammered as Edward couldn't help as his smile grew larger. He had seen Bella the moment she got to the mountain earlier in the day and had watched her from afar; frustrated that Jacob had been given the job as her private instructor. Edward would have given his right arm that morning to be the one to assist Bella with her lesson, but he had already been scheduled for a private session that had been cancelled at the last minute.

"That's really a shame." Bella blushed again and Edward took a sip of his beer to try and stay focused on his task. When he saw her walk into the restaurant earlier in the night, Edward gathered his courage and headed in, wanting to just talk to her and determine if she was as smart as she was beautiful. So far, he was not disappointed in what he had found in Bella.

Edward had tried not to pay much attention to her throughout the day, but found it impossible. She had soulful brown eyes that called to him and she carried herself differently than the other women on the hill. Most of them came to Aspen for seasonal jobs, hoping to land themselves a rich husband, but Bella appeared to be completely opposite of those girls. As he stared at her for a beat longer he realized why she was different.

Bella was clearly a few years older than the girls who hung around the mountain. The small lines around her eyes showed her age and her maturity to Edward, though Bella would insistently claim that they really showcased her stress and anxiety. There were bags under her eyes and Edward could tell that she had attempted to cover them with make-up, but they were still visible up close.

She was a beautiful woman, of that Edward was certain, but she didn't hide her emotions very well. Edward saw her bite down on her bottom lip when he first introduced himself to her, and could tell she was a bit shy and unassuming. If he was as good as reading people as he thought he was, then Edward figured that Bella was probably a professional woman, getting away from her hectic life for the holidays because she had no family to spend it with. As he motioned to Rosalie for another drink, he found himself wishing he could find out the real story behind the stunning brunette.

Bella hated the small frown lines around her mouth and pulled at her loose fitting cashmere sweater, trying to hide the extra pounds she had gained since her split with Mike. She had been very fit during their marriage, always running around with Charlie during her downtime and managing some time at the gym at her work on a weekly basis, but since Mike had left and she had to juggle the responsibilities of both parents on a daily basis, Bella didn't find her own fitness a priority anymore. It wasn't that she sat around eating vats of Ben & Jerry's until she was ill, she just couldn't manage the energy at the end of the day to drag her ass to the gym when she had a daughter who needed her attention. It was a small sacrifice to Bella, but one she regretted every now and again. Particularly at that moment as Edward stared at her darkly.

"So uh… are you guys having dinner together?" Rosalie asked a moment later as she approached with Edward's next beer and her eyes flittered between Bella and Edward. Rosalie knew she was being presumptive, but from her perch behind the bar she could tell that both of them were interested in the other, although neither appeared bold enough to say anything.

"I already ordered," Bella replied as her fingers seized the napkin beneath her glass. She would be lying if she said she wasn't intrigued by Edward. Who wouldn't be intrigued by such a striking young man, but he definitely wasn't her type. He was too young, too gorgeous and Bella surmised that he was probably looking for a one-night stand, whereas Bella wasn't looking for anything. She was in Aspen to relax and try to make it through her first Christmas without her daughter.

So far, it wasn't going as planned.

Then again, her life hadn't exactly gone as planned.

"I'm actually not hungry. I ate before I left the mountain, but if you want the company," Edward said casually as Rosalie raised her eyebrows in question at her cousin, who simply motioned her away as Bella noticed their odd exchange. "Rosalie can be a little overprotective, sorry about her."

"Overprotective… of me? Why on earth would she be… oh wait. If she's into women I'll have to let her down easily or something. It's just… wow, I'm flattered but…." Edward couldn't help the laugh that fell from his mouth as Bella glared at him in frustration. She had never been propositioned by a woman before, and now not only did she feel out of place with Edward, she felt embarrassed at the situation that had unfolded with Rosalie.

"She's my cousin, Bella."

"Who… Rosalie?"

"Yeah. She's not hitting on you, I promise. She's practically engaged to her boyfriend, Emmett. She's just looking out for me. She's more like a mama bear than a cousin if I'm being honest with you."

"Why does she need to be overprotective of you? I mean, you're a young twenty something guy who looks like he could clearly handle his own. Does she think the big bad woman is going to come and hurt you?" Bella laughed at the image herself being some sort of succubus to the younger man, and though the image was somewhat appealing, it was far from the truth.

"I'm 22 actually, and yeah, I can handle myself. I've been out on my own long enough to know better than to do something stupid." Bella laughed again, unable to think of Edward as being old enough to know about anything other than skiing and women. Wasn't that what Aspen ski instructors lived for during the busy season anyways?

"Wow 22, huh? Yeah, you've lived life alright." Edward frowned slightly as Bella laughed again, clearly mocking his age. Rosalie came over a moment later with Bella's dinner and slid it in front of her as Edward watched her curiously.

"Are you laughing at me, Bella? Yeah, I may be 22 but my life has been far from normal. How old are you?"

"Didn't you learn never to ask a woman older than you her age?" Bella queried as Edward let out a small laugh of her his own. Yes, he was younger than she was, though he couldn't venture her age based on the short conversation they had shared. He would guess based on her looks that she wasn't any older than 35, but even then it didn't deter him. Bella was beautiful and though she called to his body and his mind, he just wanted to get to know her. She was intriguing.

"Yeah, my mom told me that once. I rarely paid much attention to her."

"Are you sure you don't want to eat something? I mean, I feel kind of bad eating my pasta while you sit there." Bella was ignoring Edward's question, not really wanting to get into more personal details about herself. She was enjoying their simple conversation, but discussing her age, Seattle or her daughter Charlie was something that wasn't going to happen.

"I'm sure. I already ate. Anyways, I thought I could take a few minutes and pick your brain."

"About what?" Bella questioned as she was about to spoon some penne noodles into her mouth. She clamped her mouth shut down around the fork and watched Edward keenly. He knew that she was deflecting answering his question about her age, but it wasn't important to him. He was curious about her and why she was here in Aspen.

"You."

"I'm not that interesting," Bella replied as she finished her fork full of dinner and reached onto her plate for another.

"I beg to differ," Edward claimed confidently as Bella blushed and took another bite. "I think you are a lot more interesting than you give yourself credit for. For instance… why are you in Aspen three days before Christmas?"

"I had nowhere else to be. No one wanted me."

"There you go again, that can't be true. Surely, you are wanted by someone, Bella." Edward wanted to say that he wanted and desired her, but he knew if he said something at that point, he would scare her away, which was the last thing he wanted. Bella fought back her groan, but Edward noticed her reticence, so he switched gears. "Okay, why did you come to Aspen then? You could have gone anywhere in the world, but here you are."

"I was given a gift by a friend for a trip away. I figured there was no time like the present and all that, and she had already gone to the major expense of getting me a room at the hotel that I decided to splurge and do something just for me. I rarely do anything like that, so I got the bigger suite, bought all the ski gear and then decided to try and ski. I failed miserably... as you saw earlier in the day."

"Like I said, you just had a bad teacher. I'm sure if someone a little more capable took you out onto the hill things would have been drastically different." Edward winked at Bella once more before taking a swig of his beer. Though he wasn't overly confident about his abilities with women, having never truly been in love in his short life, Edward was very certain about his abilities on skis. He wouldn't tell Bella about the X-Games medals or his national championships, because that wasn't who he was anymore, but he wouldn't act like he didn't know his way around a pair of skis either. "What do you say?"

"What do I say about what?" Bella was confused as she dropped her fork on her plate and looked back at Edward, who for the first time all evening, looked a bit anxious.

"I said you needed a better teacher, someone with a little more experience. What about me?"

"What about you?"

"Do you want me to teach you how to ski?"

"Oh… ohhh," Bella shouted like an idiot, finally catching on to what Edward was asking. If she was being honest, Bella wasn't sure she wanted to get back up onto skis after the disaster that was her session with Jacob. Then she remembered the amount of money she had spent on her gear at the store in town earlier in the day and the practical side of her refused to let the money go to waste. "How much do you charge?"

"No charge." There was no way Edward would charge Bella his outlandish fee for private lessons, especially since the goal was simply to spend more time with her. This was best idea he could come up with in such short time. After all, Edward hadn't really anticipated seeing Bella again after initially setting eyes on her earlier in the day, but when he saw her in the restaurant, he felt like it was fate telling him to talk to her, to find out more about her.

"No. I wouldn't feel right getting lessons from you and not paying for them. It is your job right?"

"So what? I've actually got the next few days booked off, so if you did want me to teach you how to ski safely and properly, we would have to do it off hours." Edward couldn't help but try to convince her, regardless of the fact that he had actually booked the time off to do some work on the business he was trying to build. He knew that realistically he couldn't be a ski instructor for the rest of his life; it just wasn't something his heart was in. He was determined to make his life mean something now that making it big in the Olympics was out of the question. Bella was different, a breath of fresh air in the snowy mountain town, and Edward couldn't stop himself from shelving his plans and wanting to spend time with her.

"I just don't think its right, but thank you for offering."

"I won't take no for an answer, Bella. If you don't learn to ski, what are you going to do while you were in town?"

"I hadn't really thought too much about it. I hadn't really thought about anything since I decided to come on this trip. I've just been going with the flow and seeing what felt right."

"Well, I think you should go with your gut. What does it tell you?"

"It tells me to run like the wind," Bella admitted nervously as she gasped when she felt Edward's hand on her knee, rubbing her soothingly with his strong hand. His touch was electric and unlike anything she had ever felt before.

"Just go with the flow, Bella. You only live once and all that shit, right?" Bella nodded softly as Edward broken out his crooked grin again and she couldn't help herself as she agreed to the lesson the next day.

When she went to sleep that night, after spending almost two hours down in the bar with Edward talking casually about anything and everything, Bella felt exhausted, yet excited about what the next would hold for her.

At ten o'clock the next morning, Bella met Edward down at the gondola building, the same spot she had met Jacob for her lesson the day before. Edward assured her that Jacob wasn't on duty today, because she felt nervous about learning from Edward when Jacob had failed the day before. Of course, Edward had checked the schedule as soon as he got to the mountain that morning and found that Seth and Paul, two other instructors were on duty and Jacob wasn't scheduled until after the day after Christmas.

After they rented Bella some skis and boots, using Edward's employee discount, Edward took her out onto the base of the mountain and started out slowly, teaching her the basics to begin with. A lot of it was mundane for Bella, since Jacob had taught her some of it the day before, but she was surprised at how at ease she was with Edward as he explained her to all the little idiosyncrasies that Jacob hadn't mentioned about everything, even things as easy as walking in her skis.

Edward was patient and easy going about everything, which helped Bella relax. With every question she asked, Edward responded with reassurance that made Bella feel safe, and this was all part of his plan. He wanted her to feel comfortable enough with him to be herself. He knew that even though they spoke for hours the night before, she never told him much about herself. He had no idea where she was from, if she was really single, what she did for a living and he had dozens of questions he wanted to ask, but while teaching her to properly side-step he realized it wasn't the right time to ask.

As he looked up from her skis, Edward caught Bella staring at him intently and smiled brightly for a moment before suggesting she was ready to try the bunny hill. "Isn't the bunny hill for kids?" Bella questioned, embarrassed to be seen with young children who could probably out ski her, even though she was 25 years older than they were.

"Get over your misconceptions about the bunny hill, Bella. It's for those who are still learning, no matter what age they are. When I was ten I could ski down black diamond trails with ease, but I was brought up skiing." Bella smiled gently at Edward and nodded her head in understanding as he grasped her glove covered hand and began to pull her along with him. Bella had her poles gripped tightly in her other hand and let him pull her where they needed to go. She trusted him to teach her, and she hadn't trusted anyone outside of her family in a very long time.

Edward explained to Bella the mechanics of the tow rope and Bella followed him up to the top of the small hill, her stomach uneasy once she reached the top and looked down. It was by no means high, but considering it would be her first real time going down a hill, since she didn't consider her failed attempt with Jacob the day before as real. Bella felt anxious until Edward came up beside her and rested his hand on her shoulder as he followed her gaze down the hill.

"I'm here with you all the way, Bella. Don't worry."

"That's easy for you to say, you've been skiing since birth."

"I'll take care of you, okay?" Bella nodded again and focused as Edward explained to her again about stopping and slowing down while on her skis. Of course, Bella's initial inclination was just to sit down on her ass, effectively stopping everything, but Edward laughed when she explained this to him.

With a few more gentle instructions, Bella found herself heading down the hill, feeling rather impressed with herself for ignoring her anxiety and moving forward. Sure, she felt embarrassed as she went down slowly and with her skis pointed together, but the reception she got from Edward at the bottom once she had made her first real attempt at skiing was like nothing she had expected. He hugged her. Sure, there were layers of ski jackets between them, but still he wrapped his arms around her and held her for a beat longer than was necessary and that made Bella blush again.

Bella spent an hour navigating the bunny hill before Edward assured her that he felt confident in her abilities and guided her to a beginner trail that he was sure she could handle. Bella was on edge after finally feeling comfortable on the small hill but decided to trust Edward. After all, he hadn't steered her wrong yet.

As they went up on the chair lift, Edward's thigh was right against Bella's and though he wanted to reach out and hold her hand, she was clutching tightly to her poles and the lift, looking nervous as hell. Of course Bella had no reason to be worried. Just like Edward expected, she got down the hill like she had been doing it for years, not hours. Bella was so overjoyed at her growth on the skis in the past twenty four hours, she even insisted on going down the beginner hill a few more times, thinking of how exciting it would be to tell Charlie about her day. Bella missed her daughter something fierce but the distraction provided by skiing and Edward had made a big difference. She no longer felt that empty hole in her heart and wasn't feeling as bored as she had expected.

After their sixth run down the hill, Edward reminded her of the time, explaining how they had missed lunch and Bella hadn't even realized it. Edward helped her take her skis back to the rental area and felt apprehensive as he tried to verbalize what he was thinking. After spending hours with her, Edward wanted nothing more than to invite Bella to dinner that night, but he couldn't get the words out. It wasn't until an awkward silence fell between them and Bella advised him she was going to head back to her hotel that Edward managed to say something.

"I'd like to see you again," he shouted out gracelessly. "What I mean is… do you want to ski together tomorrow?" Well, that wasn't what Edward had meant, but it was what he said.

"Sure, I think I can manage some time to come back to the mountain. At this rate I should probably get my own skis and boots huh?"

"What about tonight?"

"Uh… I don't think night skiing is the best choice for a beginner like me, right?"

"Oh… I didn't mean skiing. I uh… it's just… ?" Edward stammered and tried to fight his tension, but it wasn't working. He had never felt for someone what he felt for Bella, especially so quickly. Sure, Edward had had girlfriends before, but Bella wasn't really the typical girlfriend type. There was just something different about her that made her attractive to him and he was dying to learn more about her.

"Um… what?" Bella was taken aback. She thought Edward had just asked her out on a date, but based on the quickness and rambling nonsense of what she heard, she couldn't be sure. Sure enough, Edward extended the dinner invitation again, this time slower and more pronounced, and Bella couldn't help but smile at his apprehension. It just made him all the more appealing and gorgeous to Bella, and she couldn't refuse him.

When Bella left the mountain that afternoon, she had a smile plastered on her face and couldn't wait to get back to her room. She wanted to call Charlie and tell her all about her accomplishments on the ski hill and then she wanted to call Alice and get her advice because Bella was stepping into completely unchartered territory as the more experienced woman who desperately wanted her ski instructor.