AN

I feel like I'm avoiding my own life to focus on these guys right now. I can't promise an update every day like I've been doing, but they will be up quickly.

Also, I took a look at how many people had read the first couple of chapters, and I'm amazed there are that many of you out there into Twilight a decade after my first infatuation with it! Thank you so, so much for taking the time to read!

I hope you're enjoying so far!

"What are you going to do?"

I sighed. "I don't know, Leah. I need to gather my thoughts."

She scoffed. "I think that will be easier on you if you actually take initiative and do something to help the situation."

My mother gave me a pitying look and leaned across the table, grabbing my hand with a gentle squeeze. "It will work out, Seth. You know that."

"I have no links!" I suddenly burst, my frustration beyond a point I wasn't sure it had ever reached. "I have nothing to go off. I don't know anyone who knows her, I don't know where she works, or what she does for hobbies…I have her address, that's it."

"Yeah, Annie hasn't met her before. She said the house was vacant up until about a month ago."

"Thanks, Leah,"

"Well, I tried!" my sister's temper flared and my mother gave her a warning look.

I let out a long breath. I hadn't felt this hyped up in a long, long time, and I didn't enjoy the feeling. I wanted the carefree attitude I was known for to set back in, but apparently that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

"So, what? My only option is to knock on her door, introduce myself completely out of the blue, apologize for the state I was in last time she saw me, and hope for the best."

"The imprint bond has been known to work through worse," Leah offered under her breath.

Leah and I looked up at the sound of the cruiser nearing the house. Mom knew the look, and watched the front door expectantly. As if on cue, headlights shone through the window and the car parked in the front drive.

"No more imprint talk, Charlie doesn't need to know."

"Yeah," I pushed away from them and raised myself to my feet. "I'm going to head. I'm not feeling the best."

"Seth," Mom's face fell, and for a moment I felt terrible. "Dinner's ready. At least leave after you've eaten."

"I'm not hungry," I half-lied. I hadn't really had my usual appetite since the incident. I wandered to the door slowly, not knowing what I was going to do when I actually reached it.

Leah followed me outside and we both greeted Charlie.

"You on your way out, Seth?"

"Yeah," I sighed. "Not feeling too great."

He frowned at me, obviously seeing I wasn't in my usual state of mind. "Take care of yourself, son."

"Will do."

We both watched him inside, closing the door behind him. "So I guess you don't need a ride home."

"Nah, I'll be fine, Lee. Thanks," I turned to make a move, and her voice followed me out of the yard.

"You will be fine, Seth."

"Yep."

I took to the trees, tearing my shirt over my head as I walked quickly, deeper into the forest. I only paused long enough to discard my pants, tucking everything at my ankle, and let the change happen, picking up my pace on four legs as I travelled further and further.

Seth in the HOUSE!

Hey, Leo. I wasn't in the mood to carry on with him.

A shared thought slipped between Leo and Embry, and Embry's voice entered my mind. You're scaring me, man. What's going on?

I don't know what to do.

Where are you going? They both paused to watch the direction I was headed in. A small street came into view in the distance, and I slowed my pace as I neared the edge of the forest.

Stalker mode, I like it.

I huffed, stopping and sitting, the small pale gray house ahead of me and to the right.

You could get closer if you went around the back. I thought on that for a second, but hesitated, drinking in the little outdoor table, the two seats, one pulled out as if someone had been sitting in it recently. There were twinkle lights wrapped around the railing of the porch, though they weren't turned on. A small yellow car was in the driveway. I studied the license plate, running my tongue along the back of my teeth in concentration.

The light in the main window was on, but the curtains were mostly drawn to a close. I could hear the sounds of a television show, but I couldn't place what it was.

And then there was talking.

"What are you doing? Do you want to come up?" there were a few quiet thuds, and then a larger one and a heavy sigh. A dog. She had a dog. Her voice echoed in my mind as I thought her words over and over again. Her accent was strange, and I wished she would talk more so I could place it. She wasn't American.

British? Embry suggested

She sounds like a kid. Leo chuckled.

Her voice was high, and music-like. It reminded me of Alice's voice, but not as perfect. Not as…inhuman. There was a youthful quality to it, but she was definitely at least eighteen-years-old, judging by the look of her.

I took the guy's advice and took to the trees again, making my way around the street so I was in the forest behind the houses on her side. I had a clear view of her house, the backyard had a tall fence, but it was easy to see over on my raised patch of land. No one would be able to see me from here. I sighed and slid my front feet forward, reclining on my stomach as I set up for the night.

Your bed would be move comfortable. Embry reasoned with me.

But she won't be there.

The guys were silent for a moment, Leo speaking up first. Just go knock on her door and introduce yourself.

I barked a laugh, imagining how that would go. I didn't want to freak her out any more than I had, and showing up, unannounced, after dark, wasn't going to be easy to explain. By the looks of things, she lived alone. And I was a relatively big guy who she had seen streaking down the street only twenty-something hours before.

You have to go to work tomorrow. Embry reminded me.

I know. I'll go home. I'll come back in the morning before I head off.

I wonder how she'll take it when she finds out you sat and watched her house at night.

I thought on that. Would I gather the courage to let there be a day where I could actually speak to her? Tell her I stalked her from a distance? I wondered how she'd take that. Kim had seemed pretty thrilled by it when Jared had admitted it in the beginning of their relationship.

She's pretty, Leo mused as he watched me imagine various scenarios, chatting with her in my kitchen at home. She probably has a boyfriend if she looks like that.

I let out a low growl, and he shut up and got back to work.

I had been there a couple of hours when the sound of the television shut off. I heard a little bit of shuffling, the shower being turned on. She was in there for a good five minutes before cutting the water. I watched the lights in her house turn on and off, getting an understanding of the lay-out. The bathroom was on the left-hand side, a room closer to me on the back corner was lit and I strained my neck when I realized there were sheer curtains hanging on the window.

She was there, dressed in a large hooded sweatshirt, her legs bare as she hesitated by the door. A large white and black dog followed her in, jumping into the bed under the window and lying down immediately. She crossed the room and flicked on a lamp before shutting off the main light. It was difficult to make her out completely through the curtains with a dim light, but not impossible. She almost disappeared behind the wall as she climbed into bed, putting her hand out to the dog and stroking its ears lovingly. I imagined what that would feel like, ignoring Embry's chuckle.

She sat with the lamp on for another fifteen minutes, looking as though she were answering messages on her phone until she eventually sighed, made herself comfortable and extinguished the light. I couldn't see her anymore through the bunched curtains, and I figured she'd put her head on her pillow, out of sight.

Well she's a dog person.

Yeah, the thought made me extremely happy.

Here's to hoping she's okay with dating one.

I managed to make it home as the sun started to rise, waking me from a deep sleep. I showered, changed into my work uniform, and jumped into my truck, heading straight back over to Forks. I parked a little ways up the street. It was nearing the time people would be leaving for work, and I wondered if I would see her leave and get any indication to where she was headed before I had to make my way to work.

I scolded myself for being so ridiculous. If anyone could see me right now, they'd tell me I was being stupid. I would terrify the poor girl if she knew the extent I was going to just to run into her.

The little yellow car stayed in the driveway, and the sounds of the street interfered with what I was trying to trace from her house. I waited until ten minutes past the time I really needed to leave to make it to work on time before I regretfully turned my car back on and left the street.

My head was a mess, and apparently I wasn't too good at putting up a show of being myself.

"What's up, Seth? You look miserable." Grace frowned up at me as she grabbed a stack of menus, hesitating on her way to take them to the small group of people who had just sat themselves down for lunch.

"Weird night," I mumbled, taking way too long to look over what it was exactly I was meant to be doing.

She pouted, twisting her lips as she thought over what I'd said. "Is there anything I can do to help? You finish early today…"

"Yeah, I'm just going to get through the next few hours and try to sort myself out."

"Okay," she said softly. "Just let me know if I can do anything, okay? You've got my number, yeah?"

"I do," I agreed, not looking at her again. She paused a moment longer before making her way into the dining area.

Four hours. I could do four hours.

Ness was waiting for me outside, as usual. She jumped up from her place on the bench, but made her way to me slowly, her eyes guarded as she took me in.

"Oh, Seth,"

"I know. I look awful. I've heard it all day."

"You look tortured," she sighed, hugging me gently. "We're going to have a brain storm on how to get you to this girl."

I chuckled sadly. "I need all the help I can get."

"Well, I'm here for you." She turned and we started walking toward the café. "You know she felt something too."

"I don't know…"

"She did," she didn't leave any room for doubt. "All the girls did. Everyone has said there's something there, in that initial look."

"What about you?" I turned to look at her, and she frowned.

"Well, Jake was one of the first people I ever saw. I remember it, but I didn't really have any idea about physical interaction. I remember knowing he was mine, whether that was from hearing him before I was born, being a child and thinking I deserved to have a claim over him or the feeling I got when he imprinted…" her voice trailed off as I stopped dead in my tracks, my head turned toward the side street we were passing.

The little yellow car was parked, empty. My eyes narrowed in on the license plate and I swallowed. "That's her car."

"She's here," Nessie's voice grew higher with excitement. "Do you think she works here?"

"Maybe," I turned in a full circle, as if she could be somewhere in the small swarm of people surrounding us.

Nessie watched me silently, her mouth open as if she were going to say something. I became aware that I was ignoring my friend and turned to her apologetically. She smiled immediately and put her hand to her throat.

"You know, I haven't hunted in almost two weeks. Jake's got the afternoon off. I think I need something more than tea to satisfy me, if I'm being honest."

"Are you bailing on me, Cullen?"

"No" she nudged me forward, the direction we were going, but turned and looked over her shoulder. "You are bailing on me, so you can go and sort this out. You'll find her. Imprints work in mysterious ways. Follow wherever your feet take you, or whatever you guys do in this situation."

Easier said than done. I was almost one hundred percent sure the whole magic side of being drawn to someone physically was something the guys relied on when coincidence occurred.

"Wish me luck," I breathed, offering her one short, half-hearted grin as I started heading off without any guidance.

I tried to do the whole not thinking, 'let the imprint guide you' thing, but I felt like a bit of an idiot. I also didn't want people to notice if I paced the same square block without any meaning to it, so I acted as though I were window shopping. I passed the café Nessie and I were meant to be sitting in right now, not really looking in.

And then something reached my ears. Music, a guitar, and a light, youthful voice singing along. The same strange accent I'd heard the night before accompanied the words of the song, and I felt my legs speed up, reminding myself no one needed to be suspicious of a tall dark weirdo running at inhumane speed.

The sound got louder as I reached the end of the next block, and I wondered if anyone had ever had a voice so good in the history of forever. I was probably a little biased.

The day was only partly-cloudy, the sun shielded currently, but perhaps showing up here and there in the next few hours. People had taken advantage of the almost rain-free day, and the square was busier than normal for a Tuesday afternoon. I passed through a gathering of workers on a cigarette break outside of their building, and then there she was, in front of a long brick wall between a clothing and a home wares store.

A guitar case sat open at her feet, a small pair of tan boots tapping on the pavements as she strummed the instrument and grinned as she sang for the people walking by. She was wearing a purple dress that fell to her knees, mustard tights, and a thick yellow cardigan to match. She was dressed as brightly as a children's television character, though her song was directed at adult behaviors. A yellow and pink ribbon were tied to the top of the neck of her guitar, falling toward the ground and swaying as she moved in time to her song. A young couple passed her, and the girl threw in a few coins.

"Thank you!" she paused in her singing just long enough to throw them a smile, and picked it up without missing a beat. I frowned at her accent again. It was stronger when she was talking than singing.

Her hands were small, but her fingers were long and thin, and they moved around on the neck of her guitar effortlessly. Her hair was out and unstyled again, straight but with a hint of a natural wave. It was a deep chocolate brown. Her skin was lightly tanned, and there wasn't a freckle marking her anywhere she was uncovered by clothing.

No one had stopped to watch her, so I kept a distance, not really wanting to stand out from the crowd as I stood there, eyes boring into her in a way that made me wonder if I could ever look away again. She was too beautiful. Leo was right. There was no way in the world a girl who looked like that wouldn't have met the love of her life by now.

But she hadn't. I was here.

She came to the end of her song, her fingers strumming the last couple of times and she lowered her eyes to the ground as a young mother and her two small daughters clapped as they paused in their passing.

And before I knew it, my feet were moving. I fished my wallet out of the back pocket of the jeans I had changed into, pulling out whatever was inside and leaning down as I neared her.

"Oh," her hand moved out in front of her. "No, that's too much!"

I looked down at the fifty-dollar bill in my hand, my heart racing as I registered the fact was speaking directly to me. I wondered if my voice was going to work. "It's not too much." There you go, it did.

"I'm not that good," she chuckled nervously. I straightened, the bill still in my hand, and she lifted her shoulders the same way, looking up at me for a long moment. "Hey,"

"Hi,"

She paused for a second, and I wondered if Nessie was right. Was there anything she was feeling at the moment? The look on her face said yes, but I didn't know if I was telling myself that in hope. "You're the naked guy."

Great. "What?" I frowned, grateful my acting skills weren't the worst.

"The other night…Halloween. You were at that party and you ran down my street naked."

"Ah, you saw that?"

"You stopped outside my house."

Damn it, Seth. "That was you."

"It was dark," she mused quietly, looking toward her guitar case for a while. I dropped the bill in, and she immediately bent, reaching around her guitar to pick it up. "I really can't accept this, seriously. It's too much."

"You really can," I grinned. "I might be a millionaire, for all you know."

"Are you?" she raised one eyebrow skeptically, a smirk on her lips.

"Nah,"

She threw her head back, laughing so loudly a couple of people looked in our direction. I almost laughed along with her, her attitude infectious, but I held back.

"Well, seeing as you're not a millionaire, I guess you'll have to take this back." She thrust her hand out to me, and I took it from her, being very careful not to touch her skin as I let in. I don't think I could handle any physical contact at this point. I was somewhere between wanting to scream as loud as I could, and wanting to vomit.

A sudden wave of confidence hit me as I realized this could be the end of our short, first conversation, and I frowned thoughtfully, not able to look her in the eye. "Well, if you're not going to let me give you this, which I think is super unfair, because I saw you thank a few people as I was walking past, would you let me get you a cup of coffee?"

Her mouth opened as if she were going to say something, and I saw her fingers tremble. She rested them on the top of her guitar to steady them, but her heartbeat picked up, and I felt a little bad I was making her nervous.

"I wouldn't have thanked anyone who was trying to give me fifty dollars. That's unheard of."

"Maybe you don't value yourself enough," I said gently. I'd scared her. "Forget about the coffee, sorry." I crammed the bill into my front pocket and took a step back, apparently unable to turn away from her, and she frowned, lifting the strap of her guitar over her head and stepping toward me in one fluid movement.

"No, I was just about finished up anyway. Coffee sounds great."

"Really?" I really tried to reign in my smile, but I don't think I could.

"Sure," she smiled at me sweetly, turning to bend at her knees and put her guitar snuggly into its case. "I've been meaning to check out the area anyway. I haven't stopped at any cafes here yet."

"You're new to the area?"

"Yeah," she clicked the final lock into place and straightened up again, throwing a small, brown leather bag over her left shoulder and holding the guitar case in her right. "I moved here about a month ago. I was in Seattle for a few weeks beforehand. I've just been a bit too scared to venture out, but I decided it's time to stop being a coward and get it over and done with."

I wanted to ask her a million questions in response to that, but she was looking at me to lead the way and I turned, watching her follow. "Well, there's a really great little café a couple of minutes from here. My best friend and I are a big part of the reason why they're still in business, I think."

She giggled nervously, following each of my footsteps with two of hers. I managed to slow myself down through my adrenaline high to make it easier for her to keep up with me.

She was quiet as we started our walk. I wondered what was going through her head. I wanted to hear her talk again.

"So you're not from Forks, you're not from Seattle, and with an accent like that, I'm guessing you're not from the U.S. in general…"

"Australia," she answered me, looking up with a shy smile. "I wanted a change, and I decided moving halfway around the planet was good enough."

"That's a fairly big change," I agreed.

"I also cut all of my hair off, but it didn't seem to be enough."

I wondered what her hair had been like before the cut. It just reached her collarbone at this point. It was thick and shiny, and my fingers twitched as I wondered what it felt like.

"Do you know anyone in the area?"

"Not this area," she said quietly. "I have family that live in Seattle, and I was staying with them while I sorted myself out. My cousin met a guy years back and she moved here when they got married. She has a little boy now. It was nice to see her again. But my great-grandmother was from Forks, I think. Back in the day. She moved to Australia when she was pregnant with my grandmother."

"And that was reason enough to move there?"

She shrugged. It looked like a struggle with the guitar case that was nearing her size, and I reached to pull it from her hand. She began to hesitate, but I'd already straightened up and kept walking, so she stopped. "I was always curious about the place. It kind of called to me, I think. I'm not much of a summer person, and I couldn't think of anything better than living somewhere where it's winter every day."

Called to her. Nessie might be onto something with all her imprint theories. "Did you know your great-grandmother?"

"Yeah, she was wonderful. She died when I was sixteen."

"And she spoke about Forks?"

"No, not exactly. Her accent was almost completely gone when I knew her, and she was pretty secretive about her life before making the move. She had another daughter before my grandmother, and it was just the two of them and my grandma in her belly when they settled overseas. My grandma doesn't know who her father was, or why her mother left. When she passed away, my grandmother did some digging into her family history, and Forks popped up. As soon as she started reading into the town it fascinated me, and having a cousin that moved to Seattle, it just seemed like a good escape."

"It sounds like you're here to uncover a deep, dark, family secret."

She laughed with me. "It does, but I think I'm just trying to find myself, honestly."

I pushed open the door of the café. The girl behind the counter looked up and smiled warmly. "Hey, Seth! Where's Ness today?"

"I believe she is going hiking with her boyfriend," close enough to the truth, and I wouldn't have to explain who the girl in question was to my imprint.

"Take a seat. Do you want the usual brought over?"

"Yep, I'll have the usual, and…" I looked down at the wide-eyed girl beside me, resting the bottom of her guitar case on my toes as she paused in panic.

"Um…black tea? And…her eyes moved to the pastry counter. "One of those custardy things."

"Sure thing,"

I bypassed my usual seat by the front door, wandering further into the café and taking a seat at a small table beside a window. She followed me silently and sat in the seat across from me. She suddenly seemed nervous again.

"I just want to say, I don't usually say yes to coffee with random guys."

"I don't usually invite random girls to coffee." I said honestly. She twisted her lips in the essence of a smile.

"Seth," she said suddenly, quietly. My stomach clenched at the sound of her voice saying my name. "Not to be weird or anything, but that's one of my favorite names in the entire world."

"No, it's not,"

"It is!" she insisted, laying her palms on the table. "I always said, if I was going to have children, I would name them Seth or Hugo!"

"No girls names?"

"Girls are difficult," she chuckled. "Kids are difficult."

I frowned gently. "You don't want kids?"

"I don't think so…" she glanced out the window, maybe wondering how we started on this topic so early in conversation. "I just figure, there's so much to do with your life. Having a child changes everything. It's not about you anymore, it's about them." She sighed and turned to me, her eyebrows lowered. "My little sister just had a baby. I didn't want her to go through with it, I thought it would ruin her. She's not in a relationship, and she's too young. She hasn't sorted herself out yet."

"Hmm," I wondered how much that was affecting her, if that was one of her reasons to leave her home. "Maybe it will change her life for the better."

"It honestly seems to be," she agreed quietly. "She's changed a lot, and I'm proud of her."

Our order was brought to the table, and she thanked the waitress genuinely.

"What's your name?" I suddenly asked, only just realizing I had no idea.

"Guess," she grinned at me, and then laughed when I froze, way too loudly in the small space again. "It's Daisy."

"Nice to meet you, Daisy," I laughed along with her. What a weirdo! A perfect, beautiful weirdo. Her name suited her sunny exterior, a bright change in a rainy town full of people wearing shades of brown and gray.

"What do you do, Seth?" her eyes fell to the backpack on the floor beside my feet.

"I work at a restaurant down the road."

"Waiter?"

"Chef,"

"Fancy!" she took a small sip of tea and smiled over the rim of her cup. "I'm the world's worst cook."

Perfect. Perfect, perfect, perfect. I could win her over with home-cooked meals and movie nights. "I'll have to give you some lessons."

"I'm not going to say no to that." Her face seemed to be set in a permanent smile, for the most part. Somewhere in the back of my mind I thought about people telling me I was too happy throughout my life, and I wondered if the universe had chosen her for me for that reason.

"Do you live in Forks?"

"La Push," I wondered if she'd heard of it.

"The reservation? You're Native American," she nodded once.

"How could you tell?" I chuckled.

She took a bite of her pastry, humming appreciatively. "You put my tan to shame."

"Yeah, and you'll just lose it living in a place like this."

She shrugged as if it didn't matter. "My dad's side of the family is quite dark-skinned. I tan up easily. I'll go back for holidays to refresh."

I couldn't help myself laughing happily at just about everything she said.

"Do you live alone?"

"I live with my sister, when she's home. She's got a raging social life at the moment, so I don't see too much of her." Not to mention we would both patrol on odd nights, so the nights she was at home I was usually out.

"What's your sister's name?"

"Leah. Yours?"

"Nena. Are your parents in La Push, too?" I was a little taken aback that she seemed to be so interested in my life.

"My mom and my stepfather actually live in Forks. He's the chief of police there."

"Connections, I love it," she finished off her pastry and picked up her tea again. "And your father?"

Don't get awkward, please. "He passed away when I was fourteen."

Her eyebrows pulled together, a small crease forming between them. "Oh, I'm sorry, Seth,"

"It was a long time ago," I dismissed. "He was great. He was actually my step-father's best friend. Charlie helped my mom out a lot in the years after he'd passed away, and I think she fell for him through it all."

"That's really nice," she was thoughtful for a moment, and I pressed on to hear her speak again.

"What about your parents?"

She sighed and stared down at the table, tracing patterns on the top with her fingernails. "I'm not overly close with them. My sister and I have a strained relationship, and I'm much closer to her than I am them. They both live in the same town I grew up in. My dad remarried about a decade ago, and he has three step-children. My mum's…a mess. She cares more about going out and acting like a teenager than being at home." She sighed again, heavily. "I love my grandma, though. She raised me when I was little. She's the greatest."

I smiled warmly. "What's her name?"

"Peggie," she smiled sadly. "She and my cousin Raina were the only two people I was worried about leaving. Which is stupid, because Raina lived in Sydney up until a year ago, and I'm probably still going to see her as much now as I did then."

"And where abouts were you?"

She thought through how to answer. "A coastal town, about two hours north of Sydney. Completely surrounded by water. The ocean on one side, a huge lake on the other. It's weird being so tree-bound in Forks. I've never lived more than a ten minute walk from the beach."

"La Push has a beach,"

"First Beach," she said knowingly. "I've done my research."

"Have you been?"

"No," she studied me silently. "As I said, I'm just starting to force myself to leave the house."

"Well, if you need someone to show you around, I'm a great guide." My pulse picked up at my proposition, terrified for a moment that she would turn me down.

"Cooking and sight-seeing? You're going to make a new woman out of me, Seth."

I avoided where the conversation was taking us. "What do you do for work?"

"I teach singing, piano and clarinet at a couple of schools in the area, after hours. I also paint murals on people's walls, which is weird, but it's fun. And I have an online store where I sell things that I've made. I was doing that back at home as well, and it was easy to keep it up when I moved. Most of the things I make were being shipping to America, anyway. And when I'm feeling especially brave, I busk."

"Busk?"

"Sing on the street for money," she giggled.

"Ah, I knew about that one." She smiled brightly at me. "So you're a woman of many talents."

"Only artsy talents. I'm not very good with social skills."

"You seem to be doing fine with me."

"It's the anti-anxiety meds," I wondered if she was joking, because she laughed, but I somehow doubted it was far from the truth.

I realized I was at the bottom of my coffee. I drained the mug, disappointed it had turned cold, and she followed me, tipping back the rest of her tea. Her hand reached across the table and pulled a corner off what was left of my second Danish and she stared me dead in the eye as she brought it to her lips and popped it in her mouth.

"Sorry. I'm a sugar addict."

I was in sudden fear that our little meeting was coming to an end. "Are you working tomorrow?"

"I should probably get some sewing done…" she leaned her arm on the table and rested her chin in her palm. "Are you working tomorrow?"

I had patrol from midnight, and I was set to finish by six in the morning. "I have Tuesday afternoons through Friday morning off."

"It's your weekend," she observed. "What's the weather meant to be like tomorrow?"

"I'd say it's perfect La Push weather for the beach." Why not take a shot? It seemed to be going pretty well.

"So, rain and brisk winds?"

"Sounds about right."

She pursed her lips, and her fingers trembled against her cheek. "So…does that mean we have a beach date tomorrow?"

"How about we use the word 'tour', keep it strictly professional?" I smirked at her, and she smiled brightly.

She nodded once, her wide green eyes looking at me through her top row of black eyelashes. "I think that sounds perfect."

We both fell into a comfortable silence. Our plates and cups were empty, but she didn't make a move to leave the table, and I certainly wasn't going to stand first and have this come to an end. I studied her face, and she looked straight back at me, as if challenging me. I didn't know whether she had a hidden confidence about her, or if she was just unique in the way that she didn't care about social boundaries, but she didn't shy away from my gaze as I looked her over.

Her eyes were the most intense thing about her heart-shaped face, almost too big. Her nose was thin and turned up at the end, but had a small ridge in the center when being looked at upon profile. Her cupids bow was pointed and high and fell in a slope to the bottom of her top lip, which was about as thick as her bottom in the center. Her bottom lip had a slight, permanent pout, and I wondered what it would feel like to push my finger tip to the middle of it. By modern standards, she was absolutely stunning. And coming from a guy who had spent a great majority of the latter half of his life in a house full of vampires, it was easy to say she was almost too beautiful to be completely human. But she was. Her heart beat, the coloring of her skin, the way her body gave way to her nerves, completely human.

"Were you guys ready for me to take these?" the girl who usually manned the front counter reached out to take our cups. Daisy pulled herself off the table and smiled up at her warmly.

"Yeah, thank you,"

The table was cleared, and yet we still hesitated to stand. "Should we head out?"

"I suppose so," I said regretfully. I stood with her, grabbing my bag and her guitar case. She swung the small leather bag over her shoulder and made a beeline for the front counter, digging through her belongings to produce a tiny leather wallet with messy stitching around the edges.

"I don't think so," I came up behind her and pushed it down in her hands, very careful to avoid skin-on-skin contact again. "You promised I could pay."

"I don't think I promised." She gave up and crammed the wallet back into her bag. "But thank you."

"My pleasure."

We were quiet as I walked her to her car. We reached it within a couple of minutes, and she popped the boot, standing back for me to Tetris her guitar case into the small area. "Thank you, Seth,"

I straightened up and she closed the boot with a deep thud, hesitating again. I could almost see her thoughts as she wondered what to do next.

"So, tomorrow…" she looked at my chest instead of my face. "I suppose I should give you my number."

"Oh, yeah," YES! I grabbed my phone out of the pocket of my jeans and handed it to her.

She typed her name and number in, frowning at my phone as she did so. "You're not, like…going to kidnap and murder me or anything?"

"I'll try my best not to," I told her, and she saved her contact, smiling up at me curiously.

"I guess no one would notice I was missing, so it would be the perfect crime."

I narrowed my eyes, unable to help myself. I wondered if she was honestly scared about spending the day with someone she didn't know, or if her sense of humor was just void of obvious sarcasm.

"I'm not going to kidnap and murder you, Daisy. I promise."

She nodded slowly. "Probably for the best."

"I'll message you in the morning?"

"Perfect." She smiled warmly, and I felt my insides heat at her expression. "I'm an early bird, so don't worry about waking me," she wandered to the driver's side door and held it open, giving me one last look before climbing in. "Thanks again for this afternoon, Seth. It's nice that someone reached out. I really needed a friend around here."

"Thanks for going to coffee with me."

She nodded once, fell into her car, closed the door and started the engine. I watched her pull out the parking space and drive to the end of the street, turning out of my sight, a stupid smile on my face the entire time.