Thank you to everyone for the wonderful feedback on the last chapter. Yes it was sad but unfortunately there are going to be many more heartbreaking chapters in this story, I hope you'll all stick with it though.

:-D

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. Coz I would never give you 3 books of UST & then fade to black. That's just mean.

EPOV:

If packing up your life and moving across country is hard, unpacking said life would be classed as a nightmare. So standing here amongst a mountain of empty boxes, I feel a smug sense of accomplishment. Sure it had taken almost two weeks, but for a move that will hopefully be our last, it was time well spent.

Gathering the boxes from the living room and moving them into the garage, I start up the stairs to collect the rest, remembering the last time we moved house. Alice was only five and we used the empty moving boxes to build a fort that took up the entire dining room, until Tanya came home, demanding we tear it down, telling us to grow up, making my baby girl cry. The memory stands out in my mind as a turning point in Alice's young life, from that day she was no longer my baby girl, no longer interested in my childish games, my jokes, me.

It was also the one and only time I asked Tanya about having more children. She said no, said Alice was a mistake, a mistake she didn't intend to make twice, that I should be grateful to have a child at all. And I was, so I let the subject go, I never brought it up again.

"Dad, where's my phone?" Speak of the devil.

"On the table by the front door...I think." I step aside as she rushes past me and down the stairs, looking ready to go out. "Where are you going?"

"Just out with friends," she shrugs.

I really want to question her, ask who these friends are, ask to meet them, meet their parents, run police checks and drug tests. But this is a small town and I trust Alice, she's a good kid, I trust that she won't get into trouble and if she ever does, I know that she'll call me. Secretly I'm envious that she's made friends faster than I have, easier than I have. Sure I've become friends with a few of my future co-workers at the school, but my only attempt of forming a friendship outside of work, with the woman at the grocery store, ended in disaster.

"Okay...well have fun and be careful," I say, just as the doorbell rings. Alice tries to open the door as little as possible and sneak out, but I'm right behind her, opening the door wide, startling our...guest.

The young guy standing on our porch looks ready to run, his hands combing through his shaggy blonde hair, eyes darting between me and the beat up Charger parked at the curb, until his eyes lock on Alice. He stops fidgeting, straightens his stance, clears his throat. Interesting.

"Good afternoon, I'm Jasper Whitlock, sir," he says, extending a hand in my direction. His voice is confident but his hand is shaking. The knowledge that I'm making this kid nervous just by standing here makes me feel powerful. I've never been in this situation before, Alice has never had young gentlemen callers, none that I know of anyway, I wonder how much I can get away with when it comes to interrogating this kid.

But out of the corner of my eye I can see Alice pleading with me to not embarrass her, to not make a scene. This boy must be important to her and as wary as I am of teenage boys sniffing around my daughter, I can't disappoint her.

"Nice to meet you Jasper," I say, giving his hand a firm shake, he barely flinches. I'm impressed. "Is that your car?"

"Um...yes Mr...I mean sir," he stutters. "It looks pretty bad but I promise we'll be safe...I mean I'm safe...it's...the car. The car is safe." He almost looks like he's in pain, he's so flustered and as fun as I find torturing this kid, for Alice's sake I have to put him out of his misery.

"Okay, okay I get it," I say turning to Alice. "I want you home by 9:30, no later or I will come looking for you, alright?"

She's about to argue when Jasper interrupts. "That's no problem, sir. I promise I'll have her home at exactly 9:30."

"Good man. I will see you at 9:30 then, be good."

Alice hugs me quickly before following Jasper down the steps, towards the car. As they make their way down the path, I realise I've seen Jasper before.

"Hey Jasper."

"Yes sir?"

"You work at the grocery store, don't you?"

"Um...yeah? he says, unsure of why I'm asking.

"I just wanted to ask you about the woman you work with. Long brown hair, around my age?"

"Who, Bella?" He tilts his head, narrowing his eyes. "Why do you want to know?"

"No reason, I was just wondering," I brush off his curiosity.

"Oh...her name's Bella Swan, she owns the store."

"Great, well you kids have fun and Take care of my little girl, alright?"

"Yes, Mr Cullen."

I stay on the porch watching them into the car and drive away, thinking about the information that Jasper had given me. Bella. Beautiful name for a beautiful woman. Chuckling at my own cheesiness, I head inside to work on my new lesson plans.

But after an hour of working I give up, my brain refusing to concentrate on anything except Bella. Her reaction that day should have deterred me from pursuing her, she clearly wasn't interested in me, yet I still felt drawn to her, this inescapable need to be there for her, with her, to erase the sadness from her beautiful eyes.

I decided I needed a plan, a chance to introduce myself again. I hadn't seen her around town, so the chances of coincidentally running into her were slim, leaving me with only one option. I would have to back to Bella's store.