Okay, so it's been an inexcusable amount of time since I updated, and truthfully I have no good excuse. Writer's block and life drama aside, I've been slacking on my updates this summer. I hope you enjoy this chapter, I'll try to get the next update up in a lot less time than it took this one. Also… love everyone who reviewed, you guys are awesome! And a special thanks to the reviewer who let me know I was messing up Edward's last name, lol I probably wouldn't have ever picked up on that myself:)

Chapter 14

When we pulled up to the empty lot the rain had thankfully slowed to a drizzle.

Alice groaned and put the hood of her raincoat up. "I hope my hair doesn't get all frizzy."

"Who cares if it does? There's really going to be no one here to impress anyways. Unless you've got a crush on Em."

Alice hopped out of the truck, after rolling her eyes at me.

I shrugged my shoulders and got out of the truck too. Just as I had expected it was very muddy, my work boots sinking right in.

Unlike what I had expected though there were quite a few more people on hand than I had thought. I made my way through the muddy plot to a table underneath a make-shift tent made out of a tarp.

There was a woman sitting behind it with a habitat for humanity hat on gazing over a clipboard. When she looked up to greet me I gasped in surprise. "Esme, right?"

The nurse from the hospital smiled her friendly smile at me as she recognized me too. "Small world isn't it?"

I let out a small laugh. "I guess so. Are you the project manager?"

"No, I'm only filing in, he had a bad bug. You'll see him working with us as soon as he's feeling better. He was sorry he couldn't be here when he saw that you were the one that was responsible for the funding, but sends his regards." She said glancing up at my confused face. "Dr. Cullen manages these projects in his spare time."

I noted the extra smile that appeared as she mentioned his name, they definitely were involved. "Oh, well pass along a hello and get well soon from me too… if you happen to see him."

"I will honey, now I need you to sign this waiver. We'll be getting stared in about five minutes." I quickly signed and handed it back as I saw 

Alice approaching. She was equally surprised at seeing Esme again. The two began chatting and I made my way to a familiar yellow Jeep that had pulled up.

"Hey Bells!" Emmett greeted pulling me into a bear hug. He looked down at my outfit and laughed. "You look awfully nice for working in the mud."

I glanced over my tight fitting jeans, blue sweater and matching blue raincoat. "Thanks to the fashion mafia over there." I mumbled sarcastically.

"Where is my little Ali-gator?" He said scanning over my head.

I nodded to the sign up table. "Why don't you go say hi, I have to grab my gloves out of the truck."

He was gone before I finished my sentence. And before I reached the truck I could hear Alice's excited squeals. Looking towards them I saw him swinging Alice around like a rag doll. I shook my head and climbed into the cab to search under the seat for where I was sure I had left my gloves.

"Ah-ha!" I triumphantly said a few moments later, while wiggling myself out from under the seat.

"Bella?" I jumped up fast from my bent position hitting my head hard on the roof of the cab.

I heard the laughing before I registered that it was Jasper that had called my name. "Are you okay?"

"Yea, I'm fine. It didn't really hurt… that bad." With my cheeks burning I turned to face Jasper.

To my surprise it wasn't him that was laughing, but his sister Rosalie and Edward Masen. My day was just full of surprises. I fought the urge to crawl back under the seat and stay there forever. "Wow, I didn't realize you were all coming?"

Jasper was paying no attention to me though; he was looking past me to Alice who was currently talking very animatedly to Emmett. "Hey Bella, who is that guy with Alice?"

I could hear the jealousy in each word and suppressed a smile. "That's Emmett McCarty. He's an old friend of mine."

I saw Jasper relax a bit.

"You weren't kidding when you said you really don't need any help hurting yourself were you?" Edward's smooth voice spoke through his laughter.

I took a deep breath before answering, willing away the blush covering my face. "Funny. Alice only said Jasper was coming."

"Rose isn't staying; she was only dropping us off." Edward clarified.

"Actually maybe I will stick around and help for a bit, in fact I'm going to go sign in." I looked at Rosalie and saw her staring over at Emmett with a grin on her face.

"I'll come with you." Jasper said as the two started off.

"Poor Emmett." Edward voice reminded me that he was standing next to me.

"Why poor Emmett?" I asked.

"Because, I think that Rose is interested, and he seems like such a nice guy." He shook his head like he truly felt sorry for him. Sure she wasn't the friendliest person I had met, but come on.

"He'll never know what hit him." He turned to me with that crooked grin on his face. "So how does all this charity stuff work? Where do we start?"

"Well, to be honest… I'm not sure how much help you'll be on those things." I said motioning to his crutches.

A grin spread over his face, and suddenly I had to remember to breath in. "Oh, I'm much more limber than I look."

Within a second I was blushing again. Looking to the ground and not knowing to how to answer that I jumped down from the cab. Only not quite as graceful as I could ever be my foot hit the mud and my body began loosing ground. Before I landed myself bottom down in a pile of mud I felt a strong arm snaked around my waist holding me steady.

"See." Edward's face was laced with pain as he smiled at me, I could see it in the slight wince of his eyes.

I quickly straightened away from him while muttering quiet thanks.

"So…" He said the smile lingering as he looked down at my red face. "Care to help an injured man to the sign up table?"

I laughed and nodded, still slightly too embarrassed to speak.

We made our way silently over to the table, me stealing many glances as the perfectly sculpted face beside me. The more time I spent with him the more I could see what Alice was talking about, he really was a great guy. A subconscious smile crept onto my face as I thought about how close to him I had been just a few moments ago.

"What?" Edward asked and I was startled to see him staring at my face in question.

"I was just thinking about something." I answered truthfully.

"Care to share?" He asked, stopping a few feet from the table.

"Umm, well… I just thinking that I was wrong about you." As the words slipped out, I wished they hadn't. They were much more honest than I needed to be.

The amused smile played on his face again as he thought about that. "What did you think of me?"

I groaned, knowing I might as well just tell him. "I sort of thought you were an arrogant jerk."

He laughed openly at my words. "And now?"

I looked to the ground, feeling the blood rush to my cheeks in anticipation of what I would say. "Now? I think you're…." Gorgeous, perfect, breathtaking- I silenced my thoughts and focused. "You're someone I could see myself being friends with."

For a reason I didn't understand, he didn't laugh, instead he just stared at me with a concentrated look upon his face. "So you want to be my friend?"

I may have been imagining it but the way he said friend, made the word come out twisted and uncertain. I nodded my head. "Sure."

His green eyes were piercing into mine as he stared at me. It made me slightly uncomfortable, and I wanted to turn away, but found that I couldn't. When my hands started shaking then he finally looked away, making his way to the table. Before he did though he turned to me, the amused smile back on his face. "Friends then."

I don't know if I really heard him or not, but I could have sworn when he turned he mumbled something else. I brushed it off and made my way to follow him, wondering if being just friends was what I really wanted from Edward Masen.

Disclaimer: Twilight and all its characters belong to Stephenie Meyer.