SM owns.

Thanks Mommakat!

BPOV

"You have really great hair, you know," I said to Irina as I languidly dragged a brush through her ice blonde hair. I was sitting on the edge of her bed and she was on the floor in between my legs.

"You always say that but your hair is way prettier than mine. It's thicker and the color is richer," she replied as she flipped to a new page in her magazine.

"She's right. Your hair color is very beautiful, was it that color when you were human?" asked Rosalie who was on the bed beside, me laying on her stomach and painting her nails a dark red.

I nodded my head as Irina gasped and clutched her chest as she looked at Rosalie in disbelief. "Am I imagining things or did Rosalie Hale just compliment someone who is not herself?" Irina asked.

Rosalie smirked and pushed Irina's head playfully but carefully as not to mess up her nails. "I compliment people I like all the time, thank you very much. After hearing her bitch Edward out, I've decided I like her," Rosalie said.

I frowned a little. I was glad that Rosalie liked me and even flattered that someone as beautiful as her could find something to compliment me on, but it had not been my plan to make people think that I disliked Edward. I just wanted to keep my distance from him.

"I didn't mean to be a bitch to him," I muttered.

"Oh don't worry about it, B. He very often deserves a bitching out," Rosalie told me using the nickname that my sisters gave me.

I didn't want to make a big deal about the Edward thing, so I let the subject drop. Everyone in the house had heard what I'd said to him and I had been mortified. I didn't want to make a bad impression with the Cullens. They were supposedly like family and I didn't want to cause any discord.

Kate came in the room dressed in a sleeveless red dress with a plunging neckline that showed off her ample bust. The hem was at the knee but there was a split reaching very high up on her thighs. It looked very familiar. Her hair was half up and half down and spiral curled. She struck an overtly sexy pose in front of us.

"How do I look?" she purred.

Rosalie let out a low whistle as Irina whooped excitedly.

"You look like every boy's wet dream...and probably some girls too!" Irina exclaimed.

Then I realized why the dress was so familiar. "Kate that's mine! I just bought that dress! I haven't even worn it yet!" I fussed.

"Yes, B, I know!" she smiled sweetly at me. "But I told you in the store that you're too short for the hem and you don't have the rack to really work the neckline like I can." I shot Rosalie a glare as she snickered beside me.

"Yes, but you also told me to go ahead and buy it!"

"So that I could wear it."

I growled at her and she came over and kissed the top of my head. "Don't worry, my dear. You remember that little midnight blue number I bought? The off the shoulder one with the ruching," she asked and I nodded my head. "Well I've never worn it and it is currently residing in your closet," she said.

It was a fair trade so I grinned and went back to brushing Irina's hair. "Well in that case you look even sexier than you already think you do."

Kate giggled and thanked us as she sashayed out of the room. Rose, Irina, and I hung out a little more before Emmett came looking for his wife and Irina left to go hunt with Esme. I went down to the library and nestled into my favorite chair-and-a-half resting my back on one arm and my feet over the other.

I had just cracked open a book that Kate made me promise to read claiming that it would improve my Russian. My sisters were anxious for me to pick up their native language and I was just excited to learn something new, plus Russian curse words were a lot harsher than English ones. They really got the point across and I had learned those first.

Just as I had gotten immersed in my book, Tanya came into the room. I didn't look up to acknowledge her but I could feel her hesitancy. I stiffened, waiting to find out what she wanted.

"B?" she called to me from the doorway. I finally lifted my head and met her eyes. "Run with me?" she asked.

I stifled my sigh and nodded my head. I closed my book and followed her out of the house. We took off into the trees and we ran in tension filled silence for about a half hour before she stopped and leaned against a huge pine and crossed her arms. I mimicked her position on another tree across from her.

"You don't like Edward."

It wasn't a question but a statement of fact. I really didn't want to get into any kind of conversation with her about him. Just the mention of his name had my stomach doing somersaults.

"Look," I began and heard her sigh in disappointment. "It's not that I don't like him, Tanya. I barely even know him."

"Well what is it? You haven't been very nice to him at all. Are you still upset from that day we talked about him, because I know that our relationship sounds bad but Edward just over thinks everything and that can slow things down," she told me.

"For fifty years!"

"Bella you don't know him!" she exclaimed rushing over to me and taking both my hands in hers. "Just give him a chance! Both of you are really important to me. I'd really love it if you two could get along!"

I shook my head in refusal. I could never be Edward's friend. It would kill me being close to him, harboring the feelings I possessed, and all the while knowing that I could never have him.

"Tanya, I'm sorry for the way I've acted so far toward him. It was truly never my intention to be mean. I promise to be polite from now on but that's all I can promise right now," I replied staring down at my feet.

She sighed again but this time in defeat. "Will you at least admit that he's beautiful?"

My eyes snapped up to hers and saw that the tension was gone. She was now grinning at me smugly, basically daring me to disagree, and I dropped my eyes once more.

"He's exquisite," I shrugged feeling both traitorous and relieved talking about him with her.

"I told you!" she gushed.

Tanya then embarked on a feature by feature appraisal of Edward which I dutifully participated in as if he was no different from any of the other men we'd fawned over. When we got back home, I went straight to my room and stripped out of my clothes. I crawled into bed and buried myself in covers and pillows feeling completely exhausted. It was the first time I missed the ability to sleep.

The next day I showered and got dressed. I hoped that it would be a lot better than yesterday. I went down to the living room and found Carlisle, Esme, Rose, Emmett, and Irina all there laughing about something Emmett had done a few years back. I greeted them all but kept walking until I found who I was looking for; Jasper. Too bad he was with who I was hoping to avoid; Edward.

They were all sitting on the back patio. Jasper and Alice were sitting on a white wicker cushioned loveseat as Edward and Tanya sat on the couch. While Alice and Jasper looked as though they were joined at the hip, there seemed to be a whole country between Tanya and Edward. I moved to sit in an arm chair but Tanya had taken hold of my wrist and pulled me into the spot between her and Edward.

It was at that moment that it dawned on me. I had done something horrid in a past life.

I stifled a sigh and tried to position myself so that I was closer to Tanya than Edward but there seemed to be some kind of static energy generating in the space I'd left between me and the gorgeous man. I tried my best to ignore it, but it was just too prominent.

"We were just talking about going snowboarding today, you should come with us," Edward said.

I looked over at him not really meaning to, but I seemed to automatically respond to his voice. He was too beautiful for his own good. I took a calming breath and fixed a polite smile on my face.

"No," I said shaking my head. "I don't want to be a fifth wheel."

Edward quickly opened his mouth to say something but Alice spoke first and I was glad to turn my attention to someone else.

"Oh you totally won't be," Alice said. "I'm not going. Rose, Irina, and I are going into town to shop. Only Jasper, Emmett, Edward, and Tanya are going, she told me.

"And please don't make me be the only girl amongst all the guys!" Tanya chimed in looking at me with pleading eyes.

"I don't know how to snowboard."

"Oh it's so easy," Jasper said. "I'll be happy to teach you."

I sighed and gave in. I had already deemed Jasper as one of my distractions. If he was going and willing to teach me, I would easily be able to keep my focus on him.

"You'll love snowboarding Bella. We'll have to go to Juneau for higher and steeper mountains and you might be able to find a few polar bears up there," Tanya said and suddenly Emmett was on the patio wearing the expression of a starving man in front of a free buffet. He was standing directly in front of Tanya and me and I found myself alarmed at how huge he was. It just wasn't right to be that big.

"Polar bears? I hear they can get pretty fierce," he said with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Very fierce," I nodded. "Strong too. I was surprised actually because I always thought they were so cute when I was human, but not so much now. It's nearly impossible to find something cute when their claws are trying to scrape your face off."

Emmett looked at me with an amused smile. I was instantly charmed by his deep dimples.

"You hunt bears?" he asked seeming surprised.

"All the time."

He burst into a hearty booming laugh and I found myself giggling too even though I wasn't even sure what we were laughing at.

"Oh I gotta see the shrimp take on a bear," he laughed.

"Shrimp!" I scoffed standing up and poking him in his broad chest. "I'll have you know that not only can I take down a bear but I can take one down faster than you! Big things come in small packages!" I exclaimed.

"Hear! Hear!" Alice the pint sized vampire yelled and I high-fived her in the spirit of uplifting the height challenged world wide.

Emmett chuckled incredulously but nodded his head. "Oh you are so on," he said. "And just to make it interesting, why don't we make a little wager?"

"Name the terms."

"Loser has to jump in the Pacific, eat a raw fish and keep it down for five hours."

"Deal."

"Deal."

We shook hands and he left the patio laughing, clearly thinking he was going to win.

"Kick his ass Bella!" Alice said and I nodded once.

"I plan to."

Emmett was clearly competitive and that was something I could definitely put to use. He was therefore added to my list of distractions.