A/N: Thanks so much for the great comments and the adds to your lists! I am so glad if this story is entertaining you! I'm having fun with it.

One: Take a whiff of him!

"Can't believe I'm doing this," I grumbled to Seth as I laced up running shoes. "Jogging in town. It's freaking ridiculous."

My brother, in the process of inhaling five eggs, three pieces of toast and a quart of orange juice only grinned at me with that way-too-happy face of his. "Didn't you spend all night running, sis?"

"Shut up."

"You could probably drive right past his house and knock on the door and he'd answer, you know," my obnoxious brother went on, speaking around the crust of bread hanging from the corner of his mouth. Pig. Didn't he learn any manners from our parents and me? "Charlie's a great guy, especially since the vamps left." Yeah, he just started phasing and all of a sudden he's the big Vampire Expert? I felt like I was living in the Twilight Zone sometimes, I swear.

Finished with my shoes, I bounced to my feet, practically vibrating with nervous energy. "All right, I'm gone. Don't forget to check mom's tires before you go on patrol."

He waved me off with a smile from which dribbled orange juice. I rolled my eyes and just before I closed the door behind me, shouted, "You have got to work on your table manners or you'll never impress your future imprint!"

I didn't even stick around to hear him deny it. Hell, if I could imprint, so could he. Instead, I jumped in my ancient Maxima. A Maxima. Who drove one of these things, anyway? Thing is, Sam and his friends found it and the guys put it together as a kind of project the last summer Sam and I were together. I don't even know what year it started out being, but it's got to be a mess, now. Still, it's a dust-hiding silver and doesn't stand out anywhere.

Which makes it perfect for stalking my imprint.

I had to laugh in the privacy of my own front seat. I was stalking my freaking imprint. Who does that?

I left La Push and headed into town. Charlie's house was almost a place I could find on auto-pilot by now. I came, oh hell. I ran past here phased at least once a night. Just to run next to his cruiser for his scent. It was weird. The cruiser was there and my throat went dry, just thinking how I could make this work. I should have asked Bella what to do. I hadn't told anyone but the other guys. I think Sam told Emily. But I know that if Embry had told Bella, I would have totally heard about it by now. She might think I've been a bitch, but the girl was practically fearless. Had to give her that much, anyway.

Clomp clomp clomp. Work shoes making their way down the thin stairs at the Swan house. I knew the stairs were thin because Jake had been in there and he'd shown us the entire interior of the house. Hell, I even knew what Bella's old room looked like.

But I had no idea about Charlie's... Even thinking about it made my skin heat uncomfortably. I got twitchy and jerked myself away. You are a complete moron, I told myself.

Nerves thrumming, I searched the yard for some excuse, any excuse, to talk to him when he came out. Could you be any weirder? I wondered. Keys. I heard his keys and my heart just jumped. I was terrified. I was thrilled. I was going to fall on my face and –

My darting gaze hit the newspaper on the driveway. The Forks Forum was wrapped in plastic against the inevitable rain. I scooped it up just in time to hear the front door being unlocked with that halting, clicking sound I already knew better than I ever would have figured I'd care to know it.

Crap. I was supposed to be jogging. Right. I didn't have to fake the breathlessness, and I couldn't fix the lack of sweat, so I just had to wing it, hoping I didn't blurt out anything stupid.

"Hey, Charlie!" I called over the hood of his cruiser. "Good morning!"

He stiffened, his eyes narrowed, before he saw me and smiled. The man had a great smile, like that – broad and warm and welcoming. His eyes crinkled up at the corners and his shoulders relaxed as he strolled over to meet me next to his car. "G'morning, Leah. What brings you up this way so early?" His gaze skimmed over me, undoubtedly seeing the running shoes, the blue shorts, the white tank top. I knew it was the attention he'd pay to anyone to check out their story, but I still had to keep myself from grinning like an idiot. "Running? Aren't you kind of far from home?"

"Uh, yeah. Um, here's your paper, Charlie," I blurted, thrusting it out in front of me and breathing him in. He smelled like old leather and laundry detergent and – and male. Virile male. Yeah, I knew that it was the imprint that was making my lady bits all excited, but wow. "Um, you want to come down for dinner sometime? Um, I know that will Bella married and everything, I bet you could use something to eat that wasn't from the diner, huh?"

Damn. Now he'd know I was stalking him! I grimaced and hoped he didn't catch that.

My worry was over fast when he laughed. "Yeah, I guess even the Rez has heard I'm haunting the diner." He stopped, pursed his lips under his mustache – I never thought a 'stache was sexy before I imprinted on Charlie Swan, but I sure thought his was – and looked me dead in the eye. I felt my mouth go dry but I took a long breath through my nose to try to calm down. I was doing great, but then he did something I didn't expect.

At all.

He reached out to me and surrounded one of my shoulders with his hand. "So, did ya mean it, Leah? You and your mom taking pity on an old guy?" He chuckled so I could see he was joking as he slowly dropped his hand.

But inside, I was torn. It wasn't my mother I wanted him to see – it was me! What the hell could I do about that?

"Well, I – I haven't really a – asked her," I stuttered. Stuttering! When did I start that nonsense? I was turning into Jell-O, right here on the street! "I could, um, invite Bella and the twins, if you want. Make it kind of a deal, you know." I'd have to tell Bells what was up, too. Then, she could help me cook! Yeah! Charlie needed someone who could feed him, that was for sure... I could learn to do that. I could totally learn. Of course.

At the mention of his daughter and the grandkids – Charlie Swan was the hottest grandpa I'd ever seen – his dark eyebrows rose up into his forehead and he sort of lit up from the inside. "That sounds like a plan, Leah. I like it."

"What time?" I asked.

He rapped the paper against his leg and thought for a moment. I took a deep breath and tried to get a grip on myself. My emotions. I knew what the guys had felt when they'd imprinted but damn – this was harder to manage than I'd thought. What the hell was the matter with me? Even when I was ass over head in love with Sam I didn't feel like this. It was never this intense and – and needy. This was how Sam had felt, more or less, with my cousin Emily.

Yeah, I woulda dumped me, too, if I'd been him. And if she had been Charlie.

Okay, that was weird.

"I'll call you down at the house, okay?" A brief flash of pain crossed his face before he asked, "Same number as, ah, before right?"

He had been best friends with my dad. The pain flashed behind my eyes, too, and I bit my lips together to keep a sudden, startled cry from letting loose and embarrassing me.

"Aw, Leah, hon, I'm sorry. I didn't mean –" One awkward arm loosely embraced my shoulders and I instinctively ducked my head into the crook of his neck. And then, yeah, I cried a little because I missed my dad. He'd died earlier in the year and it was normal that I'd miss him. But I was also leaning into him, feeling the surprisingly taut lines of his body as he half-embraced mine.

Before I did something really stupid, like nuzzle his throat and sigh, I backed away from him a little and wiped rapidly at my eyes. "Uh, sorry, Charlie. I didn't mean –"

He smiled lopsidedly. "Still on for dinner?"

"Sure! Yeah, the number's still good and all. Let me know and I'll call Bella, okay?"

"Uh, Embry can come too, if he wants," he murmured, scrubbing at the back of his neck.

I had to grin. "I don't think we could keep him away, even if we wanted to."

"I can believe that!"

He was still chuckling as I took off on my pretend jog. I had to keep it up until his car turned the corner at the end of the street. He waved at me.

It was the best morning of my life since Sam broke up with me. Damn. I was sounding all girly. Then, because I knew I had to, I checked the cheap WalMart watch on my wrist. That had been about a seventeen-hour break from the time I was sniffing around Charlie's police cruiser until I had seen him. I had to set my mental clock back to zero and start over.

I really, really didn't want to deal with an insane time. Which meant I would have to get way more devious or tell him.

Yeah. I needed to tell him. Soon.

Bella was going to kill me.

A/N #2: I will be taking this story to the point where I have Jacob's imprint story before I update that one, in case anyone is wondering if I forgot about poor Jake. I just want to make sure I mesh their timelines properly. They are separate stories, but they happen mostly concurrently at some point and I don't want to goof up too much.

Also... The prelim round for the Indie TwiFic Awards finish voting tomorrow, March 2nd! If you haven't voted and you want to, check the info on my profile and head on over. Thank you! ~LJ