A/N: Hello again! Sorry for the late posting this week. I could give you a bunch of excuses but they'd all be bullshit. So I'll just humbly say I'm sorry. Thanks to all of you for being so wonderful and supportive!

Special thanks for making my words look so much better to Jessica1971. She's the best!

Disclaimer: I don't own it or anything associated with Twilight. That honor belongs to the great Stephanie Meyer.

Someone like you….

Chapter 12

BPOV

"Bella," Edward said, smiling as I continued to gape at him. "Would you have dinner with me tonight?"

"Oh," I breathed, blinking several times as the smile pulled at my mouth. Having wanted to hear Edward say those words for weeks, the irony of the situation was not lost at all on me. "I would love to…"

I watched as the smile began to fall when he seemed to realize I wasn't actually saying 'yes'. Edward sat back in his seat, taking a deep breath. I could see the tension in his shoulders as his palms flattened on the table top, the muscles in his forearms flexed.

"Why do I hear a 'but'?" he asked, his voice rough with the disappointment obvious in his expression.

"It's not like that, Edward," I said quickly, shaking my head as I tried to reassure him. "Phil? My step-dad? He's out of town, so I made plans to have dinner with my mom tonight. That's the only reason that I have to refuse. I can't cancel on my mom."

Edward studied me for a long time before he spoke.

"That's it? You're having dinner with your mom?" he asked suspiciously, quirking an eyebrow. "Not that you don't want to go out with me?"

"No, Edward, of course I want to go to dinner with you," I said, staring at him as if he had lost his mind.

"I just have other plans tonight," I said, emphasizing the fact that it was a one night only kind of thing. "Why the heck would I tell you no if I really didn't have other plans?"

I rolled my eyes playfully and shook my head, laughing. I knew there was a lot about Edward I didn't know, but in that one exchange several things became crystal clear. For one, Edward was struggling, not only with trusting me, but himself. He truly didn't know whether to believe me about having plans with my mother. I could see he wanted to, but there was something in his eyes that screamed that even though he accepted my excuse, he wasn't sure it was the whole truth.

Edward's generally suspicious nature was not a complete surprise; in all honesty, I attributed that personality quirk to his former occupation. Being a cop's daughter, I was used to that calculating look when someone in law enforcement was trying to make a judgment call about a person's guilt or innocence. Though Edward wasn't ever technically a cop, that trait was still very much ingrained in his personality, add to that what obviously happened between with his ex-wife? I could understand.

What I couldn't do, however, was deny the fact that it hurt that he didn't trust me enough yet to believe that I would always be honest with him. I had hoped that after the revelations of our morning together a few of the bricks of that wall he had around himself might have at least cracked a little, even if they hadn't fallen.

I also began to realize that Edward wasn't as confident - not in himself - as he initially seemed. That in and of itself was quite possibly the most shocking of all the epiphanies I had that morning. His ex-wife's betrayal had done quite a number on him, and that just made me sad.

In the few weeks we had known one another, I had come to find that Edward was one of the most intelligent, charming, and kind people I had ever known. He was also quite possibly one of the most attractive men I had ever seen.

"Well, that's a relief at least," he laughed, finally. I could see the tension drain from his shoulders and that deadly grin pulled at the corner of his mouth. "How about the rest of today? I need to run an errand, but if you didn't mind, you could go with me and we could just hang out. Maybe we could even hit the park and let Remi run around. He would probably enjoy tha-"

Edward suddenly stopped, blowing out a hard breath and running a hand through his hair before giving me an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, that's being pushy, isn't it? You probably have a hundred other things you need to do today and I'm monopolizing-"

"No. No, Edward," I laughed, cutting off his adorable ramble. "You're not being pushy. I don't have to meet my mom until seven, so I'd love to just hang out with you."

Edward's face lit up with a genuinely happy smile, his eyes once again sweeping over my face. I had the strangest sensation when he looked at me, like that he thought I was going to disappear at any moment and he wanted to remember my features. When Edward spoke again, the breath caught in my throat and I felt my heart slam against my sternum.

"I don't want to let you go, Bella… ever."

"So don't," I said on a whisper and watched as Edward's eyes flickered up to meet mine. A fire flared inside those moss green depths as he stared intently into my own.

I tried to breathe, unsuccessfully, knowing without a shadow of a doubt that things were about to get very interesting between us. For the first time in a very long time, I realized I wasn't afraid. I was willing to take the leap into the unknown, as long as Edward was jumping with me.

~O~

After we argued over who would pay for what at the restaurant, we found a very disgruntled Remi sitting in the passenger seat of my jeep. He was appeased by the plate of leftovers I supplied, of course, and my forgiveness was complete as he scarfed it down in nothing flat.

My Gran always said the quickest way to a man's heart was through his stomach; I guess that pertained to males of all species.

Edward's 'errands' actually consisted only of visiting The Bass Pro shop so he could purchase a new fly fishing rod.

Remi, as was usual when we were in public places, was on alert as soon as he jumped out of the car. I absently ran the smooth leather of his leash through my fingers. It was a habit of mine I had noticed recently; it soothed me for some weird reason. The thought occurred to me that since I didn't know we would be visiting the park, I had not brought Remi's muzzle. The park Edward mentioned was dog friendly, but it wasn't technically a 'dog park', so Remi would be staying on leash.

I giggled as I watched Edward place his new rod reverently in the back of the jeep and he turned to scowl in my direction. Once I relocked the doors, we made our way toward the park just down the street.

We walked quietly beside one another for a while. It was nice and I had an overwhelming urge to take Edward's hand in mine. It struck me, once again, how easy it was to feel comfortable with Edward. Even with the earlier stress, it honestly felt as if we had always known one another. It was all so… normal. Just walking, quietly, down the street, such a completely mundane activity, but for reasons I couldn't exactly put my finger on, it felt much more significant.

Looking up at Edward as we entered the park and made our way toward the trail, I had to bite the inside of my cheek to hold in the giggles as I decided I had to tease him a little bit.

"I cannot believe you spent like three hundred dollars on a stick," I said, shaking my head in mock disappointment.

Charlie was an avid fisherman and I had spent more days than I wanted to remember fly fishing in the creeks and small rivers around Forks and La Push. So, I was well aware of what and why Edward had purchased the rod. Beside the fact that he would use such a tool in his profession, it was obvious Edward took fishing very seriously. It was cute.

Edward's head whipped around to look at me with wide eyed horror.

"It is not a stick, Bella," he said indignantly.

It was clear by his tone and expression that I had insulted him. Referring to a rod as a 'stick' was one of the highest forms of disrespect to a true fisherman. I knew that, but I couldn't help myself. After a morning of confessions from the both of us, I felt more confident in where things stood between us, which led me to feel more at ease in repaying Edward for some of the teasing I had endured over the last few weeks.

"I don't even know how to respond to that," he said, shaking his head sadly as we walked down the trail. "You should never, ever make fun of a man's fishing rod, Bella," Edward said seriously, but I could see the corner of his mouth twitching. "It's just not done in polite society. That's like… like telling him his kids are ugly or calling his wife fat."

"Calling his wife fat, huh? That's pretty serious." I turned my head to look up at Edward with a contrite expression, pursing my lips to hold back the laughter. It was incredibly difficult.

"Yeah, it's terribly insulting," he said and lost the fight as the twitching turned into a full blown smile and he began to laugh, shaking his head. "You said that on purpose, didn't you?"

I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and shrugged.

"That's just wrong, Isabella Swan," Edward said, still chuckling as he shook his head. "You're a devil in disguise behind all that innocent façade. Personally, I'm shocked."

I shrugged again and giggled despite myself. I seemed to do that a lot when I was with Edward.

We settled into that same comfortable silence again as we continued down the path. I heard Edward quietly clear his throat and turned to see him running a hand through his short hair, a slight scowl on his face.

"What?" I asked and he turned quickly, the question was clear in that moss green stare as his eyes locked with mine.

"You looked upset or something by whatever you were thinking about," I said, scanning his face and trying to figure out what was on his mind. "What is it?"

"I wasn't upset," he assured and ran his hand over the top of his head again, making his hair stand up in all different directions. I couldn't help but smile at the insanity of the waves of that weird red color as the sun made the deep shades shine and the lighter almost blond tones lighten even more.

"I… do you mind if I ask about why you came back to Denver?" he asked with a grimace. "You've told me about going to Julliard. I mean, damn, that's not a school that you get into, much less graduate from unless you have the talent. I don't know... I just don't get why you would come back here and work as an instructor in a studio? Was it…"

He trailed off, but I knew where the rest of that question was going. Edward wanted to know if what had happened with Demetri was the reason behind my returning to Denver.

"No," I said, my grip tightening slightly on Remi's leash, who gave a little huff of acknowledgement of his recognition of my slightly agitated state. "No, Edward, it didn't have anything to do with Demetri. Well, not directly, anyway."

I saw Edward's brow knit together as he tried to figure out just what I was saying as I continued to explain.

"When…" I stopped, swallowing the bile that had risen at the back of my throat as the images of the night Demetri attacked me flickered through my mind. "When Demetri attacked me… I was leaving the studio after practicing alone for the senior performance. Because of all the crap he had been causing, I was having a hard time getting the choreography just right...I wound up being at the studio much later than I planned and I had left Remi at my apartment…."

Edward nodded and remained silent though the clenching of his jaw was a tell-tale sign of what he was thinking.

"Anyway," I continued, "after I healed up, or actually that was the problem, I wasn't healed completely. I was lucky, really. It could have been a whole lot worse than it was… the knife nicked some kind of vital stuff but…" I swallowed around the lump in my throat. "I just… I started training again because my professors were going to let me perform in a later production and I would still be able to graduate on time. I wasn't going to let Demetri take that away from me, so I pushed my body beyond what it could take," I stopped to take a deep breath because my heart was pounding in my chest. Thanks to Dr. DePetrillo and the work we had done together, I was happy now with where things were in my life, but it hadn't always been that way. "During the final practice before my performance for the professors, I popped my Achilles."

Edward sucked in a hard breath and I looked up to see the grimace on his face. I smiled and shrugged and began walking once more.

"Yeah, it was pretty awful," I said, dropping my eyes back to the ground. "It sounded like a gun had gone off and my leg was on fire."

"Holy shit, Bella," he breathed. "How… but you… we run like every morning. I don't understand how you're able to run or do the instructing?"

Nodding, I smiled and looked up at him once more.

"I had surgery almost immediately to repair the tear," I said, completely understanding his dismay over how I was able to do what I was doing but not pursue the dream I once had of being a professional ballerina. "I have full mobility of my leg. I can dance and still complete most of the positions. Well," I sighed, "I can do them well enough for instructing, but not well enough to stay in competition on a professional level."

"That really sucks, Bella," he said. "I'm sorry."

"I'm really okay with it," I said, smiling at the simple truth in that statement. "I love what I'm doing. It's taken me a while to get to that place, but I really think this is where I was supposed to be all along. I just wish I had figured that out a lot sooner."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," he agreed. "So I'm gonna assume that this Demetri is in custody, right? I mean-"

"Yeah, yeah, he is," I said, cutting him off as I felt my heart leap into my throat at the thought of Demetri not being behind bars. "He um….his parents are really wealthy and just before I left New York they had finagled their way into getting him deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial. He was transferred to a high security mental hospital until he was fit to go to court."

Edward released a heavy breath and I looked up to see him staring down at me with a sad expression. "I'm really sorry that you went through something like that, Bella."

I nodded and looked down at my hands as I obsessively threaded the leather through my fingers over and over. Finally a little calmer I turned to smile up at Edward as the playfulness I felt a little earlier began to return.

"What about you?" I asked. "I mean, I obviously know what caused your divorce." I quirked an eyebrow playfully, and Edward grimaced. He needn't think that he was off the hook completely for being such an ass. If things were going to progress between us, Edward needed to understand I might forgive, but I didn't forget easily.

"But I don't get the move," I said. "Or more than that, you made a complete career change? A whole life change? Why?"

Edward turned to look out over the landscape and took a deep breath. I fell silent, waiting, hoping he would finally reciprocate and open up to me a little more. It seemed like a very long time before Edward released a heavy sigh and I turned to meet his gaze. I gasped slightly at what I saw behind his eyes, and for the first time I knew that the iron curtain he kept so tightly closed had lifted, at least for the moment.

"When I came out here I was a mess," he started. "I moved across country with little more than a need to get away from all the shit I was leaving in Chicago. I didn't know what the hell I was going to do, but I knew I couldn't live the way I had been living there. It broke my mother's heart, but I just couldn't do it anymore."

Edward laughed a hard sound, rubbing the back of his neck absently. The expression on his face wasn't happy, but it wasn't exactly upset either. It was more a resigned acceptance of the circumstances behind his choices and where they had led him. I understood that sentiment, intimately.

"I lived with Em and Rosalie for a while," he said, shaking his head and smirking. "That was interesting, let me tell you. There are things I know about my cousin and his wife that I never wanted to be aware of."

Edward shuddered at the memory and I laughed at the expression on his face. I only knew the McCarty's on a professional level and really had no desire to know any of the specifics of their personal life. My last encounter with Emmett McCarty had not been exactly pleasant, although thankfully it had ended on slightly less hostile terms.

"Anyway," he sighed and scrubbed a hand over his head as if trying to erase the images. "I know I've told you about working with the police department and that I was married once, but…"

Edward trailed off, shaking his head, and I somehow knew there was a whole lot more to his story than I originally realized. Something had really hurt Edward, deeply, and I was beginning to understand it was much more complicated than just a cheating ex-wife.

"Heidi, my ex-wife…" Edward started. "She, uh…" he paused again, taking a deep breath and blowing it out slowly.

"My ex-wife's in prison, Bella," he said, the pain in his voice broke my heart.

I felt my jaw unhinge and my eyes widen. That was not what I expected him to tell me, at all.

"Why?" I breathed.

"She was a VP at this big bank in Chicago and, well, you know what I did then," he asked and I nodded.

Edward had explained during our morning runs that he was at one time the lead consulting forensic psychologist for the largest police precinct in Chicago. That was the main reason I wondered what had happened to cause him to leave such a prestigious position to come to Denver; it just hadn't made sense, until then.

"Well, it seemed that Heidi got into doing some money laundering for some less than scrupulous individuals," he said, his tone hard and jaw tight. "She also embezzled a shit load of money from the bank in addition to the money laundering… I… I didn't know a damn thing. I didn't even see it coming. Not the affair, not the money, none of it. She was a very good liar. I was completely blindsided. Of course, that didn't stop the investigation of me right along with her."

"Oh my god," I murmured.

"Yeah, my career?" he said, shaking his head, the anger was almost palpable as he replayed that time in his life. "That was a fucking joke. People who I thought would have had my back no matter what were suddenly the first ones on the 'kick Masen merry-go-round'. The guys I had worked on and solved all those cases with were nowhere in sight when it came down to the nitty gritty. When I found myself on the other side of that interrogation table, there wasn't a 'friend' in the bunch."

Edward barked a hard sound that was probably supposed to be a laugh, but nothing about the sound was happy.

"I mean, really, I can't blame them," he said, continuing bitterly. "You know, I was the man. I knew everything. So how the hell could I have not known that my own wife was not only sleeping with my best friend but also stealing and laundering money for the fucking mob? It's ridiculous, really." Edward released a hard breath and scrubbed a hand over his face. "Needless to say, the career I had thought was so great was nothing but a memory after that. I stayed on for a while, but it was a waste of time. I was done. I quit shortly before Heidi's trial was over. We were already divorced by then and there wasn't anything keeping me in Chicago anymore other than my parents. I moved to Denver and, well…" Edward stopped walking and turned to look at me, that crooked smile beginning to curl his lips. "I get what you mean about being where you're supposed to be, finally. I know that right here, right now, this is where I am supposed to be."

The urge to touch Edward was back suddenly - with a vengeance - but this time I didn't fight it; instead, I reached out to place my hand on his face. The breath caught in my throat as that same pop of energy coursed through my body. I couldn't stop the smile from spreading over my face when Edward leaned into my touch.

"I'm sorry they hurt you, Edward," I said softly. "You didn't deserve that, but I'm not sorry it brought you to Denver…" I trailed off, letting the 'to me' stay inside my head. The mere fact that I even thought those words scared the shit out of me and I could only imagine what they would do to Edward if I spoke them out loud.

Edward's eyes slid closed as he released a shuddering breath and took a step closer. I felt the warmth of his hands as they ghosted around my waist, his palms flattening over my back as he pulled me into his arms. There was no reservation, no hesitation at all as I relaxed into him, placing my cheek on his chest and wrapping my arms around his middle. Edward dropped his head into the crook of my neck as he hugged me close. I could feel the pounding of his heart and knew that the rhythm matched my own. I smiled as I heard Remi's indignant huff but he sat at my feet like the indulgent friend he was.

"I'm starting to realize that coming to Denver was the best decision I've ever made," Edward murmured, his lips skimming the skin of my throat as he spoke. I shivered at the sensation and his arms tightened.

"Why couldn't I have met you before…?" Edward trailed off wistfully, pulling back and running his curled fingers from my temple to my chin. His eyes flickered from mine to my lips and back again.

I'm not stupid. I knew what was running through his mind in that moment. It was literally written all over his face. Edward wanted to kiss me. I wanted him to kiss me. What I didn't want was for our first kiss to be associated with the conversation we had been having. We were both feeling the hurt of our pasts and that just wasn't the place I wanted our first kiss to come from. I wasn't willing to allow that to be the way we started whatever it was that we were doing.

"I don't think that would have been a good thing, Edward," I said, looking up into his green eyes, which were a much darker shade than normal.

Edward's brow dropped impossibly low as he stared at me, disbelievingly.

"What?" he said and began to take a step back, but I clenched my fingers in the fabric of his shirt, not letting him get away.

"Well," I started and shook my head solemnly. "If we had met back then - before you married Heidi - I'm pretty sure my daddy would have had you arrested since I was under age. You know how cops are about that whole statutory thing."

I quirked an eyebrow and tried to hold the serious expression. I knew it was a losing battle and the giggles bubbled out of me as Edward continued to gape at me in stunned silence.

Seeming to gain his composure, Edward wrapped one arm around my waist, his free hand buried into my hair as he pulled me into an embrace once more. The rumble of his laughter vibrated against my cheek and I smiled at how right it felt to be in his arms.

It had been one hell of a journey to finding one another. All things considered, if going through the confusion of the last few weeks was what it took to get to where I stood at that moment… well, I couldn't really regret it any longer.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it! They've pretty much made it clear where things stand...we'll see. ^_~

Until next time...

xoxoxoxoxoxo

bellasunderstudy1