::Chapter 2::

"Meetings"

Disclaimer: see chapter 1

note: Looking for a Beta…any suggestions? please let me know

Meeting Sue inside, I looked around. 'This place is perfect' I thought, smiling at Sue. Setting Cora down, Sue showed us around, explaining that her late husband and she had bought this house a few years back, planning to fix it up and rent it out. After he had passed, this project was on a stand still. The house was great, it had a nice sized living room furnished with a couch and loveseat, 2 bathrooms, 3 bed rooms and a decent sized kitchen looking out to the back of the house. The back yard was large, with the forest lining the edge of the property. I thanked her again for renting it to me, and asked if she knew of any daycare that was accepting children. She smiled again, explaining that she had run a small daycare at her house, only taking kids of her friends. Granted she only had one little baby boy and a younger girl that she watched, but Cora was welcome. That was a large load off my chest.

Rounding through the kitchen, she asked "Now, Mia, do you need help moving your truck load into the house? My son and his friends would be glad to help, and can't wait to meet you"

"Sue!" I exclaimed, "You have done enough for me! I don't want to take advantage of any of you"

"oh my dear, it's no trouble at all!" she smirked, knowingly "They all know you were coming to rent this old place out, might as well put them to work and be helpful"

"I can pay.." I started saying, but Sue held her hand up, not having any of it. "Please!" she said laughing, "Those boys would figure out a way to stop over and bother you, so we might as well give them a real reason to put them to work. Listen, I have to run but I will bring the guys over a little later to start moving you all in. If there is anything you need, I took the liberty of writing my number on that little notepad next to the phone. Call, Please! It's great to have you!"

"Thank you again, Sue" I said, Cora pulling at my arm, wanting to find her room. "oh!" I said, remembering the money for the first month's rent in my purse "wait here just a sec"

Walking to where I dropped the purse off near the front door, I dug around before pulling out an envelope with the rent money for Sue. Handing her the envelope "First month's rent" I explained, "Just want to be prepaid so nothing to worry about later"

"Thank you" she said, pulling me into a hug "I really is great to have you here" I could of sworn I saw a little knowing twinkle in her eye, but shrugged it off and waved as she climbed into her truck and drove off. I looked down at my daughter and smiled, "Wanna go find your room?" Cora nodded, smiled and ran upstairs to pick out her room.

Three hours later, having started pulling boxes out of the truck and moving them to the right places, I heard a loud knock on the door. Cora, sitting in the living room, playing with one of her dolls, yells "Momma! Someone's at the door!"

I grin, passing through the living room and to the front door. Opening it, I am greeted to an amazing sight. Two scantily clad young men, in nothing but jean shorts and smiles on their faces, were standing in my door way. "Ms. Woods?" the smaller, leaner of the two spoke up, "My name is Seth Clearwater, My mom Sue sent us over here to help you unload your truck"

"Oh! Please call me Mia" I said, embarrassed for staring "I appreciate you two coming over" I said, before realizing there were more of them standing back next to my truck.

"No, I brought others" he said smiling, "This is Jared" he said, hooking his thumb to the large-ish male standing to his right. I smiled and said hello and opened the door for them. The guys started grabbing the boxes and beds like it was no problem, each of them saying hello and their names as they walked into the house.

The first through the door was Jacob, carrying 3 boxes of kitchen stuff. Then came Sam, carrying another 3 boxes of stuff for the living room. Quill and Jared was next, carrying my bed up to my room; Lastly, Seth and Embry, carrying Cora's bed up to her room. I tried to help, but the guys were having nothing of it. Every box I grabbed, one of them would grab it away from me, plus more. Finally the truck was unloaded and everyone stood around. My daughter, who hid during the move, finally peaked her head out of the door and ran to me, so I picked her up. I introduced them to my little girl and then thanked them each profusely, saying that I would like to do something for their kindness when Seth perked up, asking "Can you cook?" Sam shook his head, "Not cool, Seth"

I laughed, adjusting Cora on my hip. "I'm no Martha Stewart, so nothing fancy, but I can bake". It was true, I sucked hard core at cooking, barely able to boil water, but baking, it was my passion. Figure that out, if you can. "Do you guys like pies and cobblers?" I asked, looking around the circle.

"We will eat anything" the oldest, Sam, said. I chuckled, "Well how about this" I suggested, "I wanted to bake anyway and I don't just do one pie at a time. How about I pay you guys in pastries and baked goods?"

That seemed to be a great idea, or so the consensus was. I invited them to come inside, but they all politely declined. I had noticed, out of the corner of my eye that the one they call, Embry, seemed to be more disappointed than any of them. I also noticed that he liked to stare at me quite a lot. 'What an odd fellow' I thought, waving as they all departed. Sam seemed to be focusing his attention on Embry, while Embry was focused on me. I didn't say anything however, didn't want to sound like a paranoid freak and all.

Seth yelled over to his shoulder as he was leaving "Hey Mia! I forgot to tell you, my mom is going to be stopping by later to drop off something for you"

Nodding thanks, I waved them goodbye and walked inside the house with Cora.

Cora and I busied ourselves with unpacking the boxes. I didn't have much, just took what I could get into the truck. I had left the rest of my stuff in a storage unit back where we came from. I couldn't afford to rent a moving trailer and move it all here. We started in the kitchen, cora handing me one plate at a time and I put them on the shelves. When that was completed, we moved into the living room. I had packed Cora's old Disney Princess Radio/CD player so I turned it on and found a station that her and I could dance to. As we moved about the living room, we danced and laughed, placing our few belongings around the room to decorate.

"Mommy" Cora said, quite winded, "I'm hungry and I'm Sursty" I love how her little lisp, Melts my heart every time. Her 'th' sounding words comes out sounding like 's' words.

"We have to go get groceries, love" I said, pulling her into a hug, moving her honey blonde hair away from her sticky hot face. "I have some crackers and juice in the truck, want some of that?"

She nodded and I walked to the truck. I pulled out the juice and fish shaped cheddar crackers from the back seat and brought them into her. We sat in the living room, snacking. Cora was in the middle of telling me a story about how a princess killed a dragon and lived happily ever after, when there was a knock at the door. Rising and padding over to the door, I opened it to find Sue smiling, carrying a casserole dish. "Hello Sue" I said happily letting her in.

"Hi again" she said, walking through the door "I figured you two were hungry and hadn't made it to the grocery store yet, so I whipped up a little something for you"

"Oh Sue!" I exclaimed, amazed at her generosity, "You didn't have to do that for us!" I followed her through the living room to the kitchen, Cora on our heels. "You've already helped us out too much with sending those guys over to move our stuff in!"

"Hush now" she said, setting the hot dish on the range and laying the oven mitts next to it, "I wanted to! Plus! I had to swing by this way anyway and invite you to a bon fire that my sons friends and their girls are throwing."

I must have looked amazed, because Sue started chuckling. "I really don't want to crash someone's party, Sue" I began, "And you have been amazing already, I really have never felt so welcome anywhere!"

"You are more than welcome to come" She said, taking my hand, "Your Aunt has told me about your..…past" she added lightly "And I just figured you needed to get out more" She added, searching for plates. I showed her where we had them and she started dishing up Cora and I some late lunch. "Cora is more than welcome to come also; there will also be other children there that I watch for her to meet."

I nodded, pouring Cora and I a cup of water, fixing her a small plate and getting her settled so she can eat. "This is so good, Misses Sue!" Cora said, taking a big bite of noodles and peas.

We laughed, "We would love to come meet some of the locals" I said, giving her a spontaneous hug. "Thank you"

Sue nodded, smiling. "Well, I'll leave you two to eat. Bon fire is Saturday, around 7"

Placing my plate on the table, I said "That sounds great! I'll make dessert" I said, She nodded in agreement and turned to leave. "I'll walk you out"

Shutting the door behind her, I returned to the kitchen to find Cora digging into the casserole dish, trying to fill her plate again. "It must be good if you're getting seconds" I said laughing, helping her.

The rest of the day flew by quickly. We had gotten groceries after eating and had accomplished getting Cora's bed made and her clothes in a small temporary dresser. After reheating the casserole and eating that for supper, I got Cora bathed, dressed, and tucked in for bed. We said our prayers and she was out like a light.

Kissing her forehead, I watched her sleep for a few minutes, before dragging myself off of her bed and returning to the kitchen to clean up. Once dishes were finished, I picked up the boxes from the living room and stacked them near the back door. Checking both dead bolts on the doors and turning out the lights, I tiredly went up stairs to shower, dress and sleep.

Next morning, I awoke to my little girl curled up to my side. 'She must have snuck in my bed last night' I thought, as I rolled gently off the bed and stretched. Dressing quickly, I went down stairs to make some breakfast.

After fixing breakfast, I went upstairs to wake Cora. I got her dressed and fed and we went off to the school where I would be working. We met with the principal, a handful of the staff, and saw my new classroom. I couldn't wait!

That night went fairly uneventful, and before I knew it, it was time to put Cora down for the night. The next day was Friday, and I wanted to get a head start at baking for the bon fire the next night. Cora and I loaded up the truck to head over to the grocery store. I was going to need a lot of things if I was planning on making the desserts. Plus, I had to get things to make desserts for the guys that helped move my stuff.

Loading our cart with baking supplies and a few miscellaneous items I had forgotten the other day, Cora and I paid and put everything in the truck. I swung by a locally owned ice cream Shoppe on our way back for an extra treat for us.

Cora and I spent the day baking and freezing all the pies and cobblers for the next day. It was fun to see how she really jumped (almost literally) into baking. She talked nonstop about anything and everything, but then she stopped in the middle of mixing our last batch of cookies and asked "Momma?"

"Yes, love bug?" I answered, pulling a pan of cookies out of the oven and replacing it with another pan.

"Is Seth going to come play over here one day?" Her eyebrows furrowed, "I really like him, momma. He's really nice"

I smiled as I turned around to face her "I don't know, love bug" I said, wiping some flour off her little nose "I 'm sure next time you see him, you can ask him, but I don't know how busy he is"

A knock at the back door, interrupted our conversation. Looking up at the clock, I gasped '7:12! Holy! I have to get her fed and bathed!'

Walking to the door, I turned the light on to see who was out there and frowned in confusion. Opening the door quickly and ushered him inside. "Hi Seth! What in the world are you doing out this late?" I didn't realize he had someone else behind him as I went to shut the door and hit whoever was behind it. "Oh my Gosh! Are you ok? " I said, putting my hand in front of my mouth in embarrassment. "Come in, come in!"

"Hi Mia! Hi Cora! You two remember Embry?" He said, nodding to the other man in the house. Embry shut the door behind him and turned back to me.

"Yes, Hello Embry" I said, blushing.

"Seth!" Cora exclaimed, excitedly "We was just talkin 'bout you!" she said hurriedly, jumping off her stool next to the counter and running over to give him a hug. "you were!" he said laughing and bent down to pick her up. "Nothing bad I hope?"

"No, she just wanted to ask you something" I said, concerned that Cora was so comfortable at being held by a somewhat complete stranger. 'she's never this friendly around strangers' I thought

"Have a seat you two, would you like a cookie?" I asked, nodding towards the ever growing pile of chocolate chip cookies sitting on the counter.

"We were out walking and saw your light on" Seth said, still holding Cora as he walked to the counter and swiped a couple cookies, tossing one to Embry. "Milk?" I asked, opening the fridge and retrieving it. After pouring each a glass, I capped it and put it back.

"Oh my god Mia! These cookies are amazing" Seth gushed, "Did you help?" He asked Cora, reaching over and sneaking another cookie.

I turned and saw Cora talking excitedly to Seth about her role in the baking process, now seated on his lap. Looking over to Embry, I smiled. He makes me nervous, I don't know why. Butterflies exploded in my stomach when ever our eyes met. "You might want to check those cookies" He said softly.

I went to the stove, slipped on the oven mitts and pulled the cookies out. They were brown, and hard. "Oh damn" I said, frowning. Putting the last batch of cookies in the oven, I looked to the guys. "Want these?" I asked. Seth nodded so I packaged them up evenly and handed both of them a container each. I jumped when my hand brushed Embrys, almost dropping his container. I swear to everything holy and good that I was shocked. Call me corny, but it happened.

"Lets get you some supper, huh Cora?" I said, trying to shake off the electrical charge I was just zapped with. "You guys hungry?"

"We better be going" Embry said, smiling wide. "We have to get back"

I nodded, pulling out some sandwich meat and cheese to make a quick sandwich for us. "Thanks for stopping by" I added quickly "Come by anytime"

Cora groaned, but jumped down from her perch on Seths' lap. The guys got up and headed to the door. "Wait! Seth!" I exclaimed, making the guys turn around, "are you two going to be at the bon fire tomorrow night? If not I have your dessert I said I'd make for you two in the other room…"

"No we will be there" Seth said, Embry nodded and added "Wouldn't miss it for the world"

I smiled "We will see you tomorrow, then"

The boys left then, and I dead bolted the door behind them, turning off the outside light. After eating our sandwiches and pulling out the last batch of cookies, I ushered Cora upstairs for a bath and bed time. She talked nonstop about how Seth promised to come over one day and play dolls with her. I frowned, 'I need to talk to Sue about this, I'm a little worried'

After her bedtime book and prayers, I tucked her in and kissed her forehead. Before leaving the room, I made sure her night light was on and shut her door.

After packaging all the cookies and goodies from our day of baking, I cleaned up the kitchen. Finally around midnight, I dredged upstairs and showered. After climbing into bed, I curled up and fell right to dreamless, deep sleep.

A/N: Un beta'd so all mistakes are mine. A big Thank you to the reviewers and to those of you who added this little story to their 'favorites' list, it truly is an honor. I will try in being more consistent with updating. I have the next two chapters mapped out and half way written, just need more time to write. RL can be a pain in the you-know-where. Bon fire next chapter! Wonder what's going to happen?