Ch1 LWFE

You know what they say about best laid plans.

Bella's phone rang while she was sitting in the Airport terminal at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway about twenty minutes before she was due to catch her flight to Miami.

Not recognising the number, she answered the call, "this is Bella."

"Great, I'm glad I caught you. Look, you don't know who I am, but I got your info from a mate who knows your number two, Jasper Hale?" said the strong male voice with an unmistakable Australian accent.

"Oh? And who's your 'mate'?" Bella asked, placing emphasis on the last word. She was highly suspicious by the enquiry but intrigued non the less.

"Uh, Emmett Cullen, he's..."

"Rosalie's other half." Bella finished for him with a sense of relief, her lips turning up in a smile.

Rose was Jazz's twin sister and Emmett was her goofball fiancé, who was a never-ending source of laughter, so any friend of his had to be a decent human being.

"And you are, I didn't catch your name?" Bella asked, amused by the strange start to the conversation.

She heard the man swear under his breath, "Sorry, my name's Edward, Edward Mason."

"Well Edward Mason, to what do I owe the honour of your unexpected phone call?"

Edward wasn't normally so rattled by just talking on the phone with a new person or even a new female person, but he was in a bind and what he had in mind to ask an unknown woman wasn't exactly what he would say would respectable in polite society.

Em said not to pin all his hopes on said woman because, even though she was heading in the right direction with exactly the right credentials, she had a lot going on and there was no guarantee she'd take him up on his... offer.

But it was worth a crack wasn't it?

"Uh, I'll just come out with it, I picked up a plane from Canada and my pilot has come down with something and can't get the bird across the drink in any good time. I was just wondering on the off chance... since you were heading to Australia, that you might want to pilot it over with me?

"And you can't fly it back by yourself?" Bella asked, knowing it wasn't uncommon for pilots to singlehandedly ferry light aircraft across the pond, indeed it was quite the adventure even though it took the best part of a week of long, lonely days in most cases.

"No, no. I'm just here to make sure the handover is smooth, take a trip back in the right-hand seat and maybe have a play," Edward said truthfully, but for some reason he wanted Ms Swan to know that he wasn't a complete novice. "I only have my PPL and no twin or hull rating."

Those words piqued Bella's interest.

"So, it's a boat?"

"Yeah, I bought a Grumman Mallard."

"A Mallard?" Bella sat forward, those beauties were rare, less than thirty that were airworthy in the world and they were old... like seventy years old, she used to fly the same type for Crown Airways in Miami many years ago before the company's untimely demise.

Their conversation was interrupted by her boarding call.

"Hey Edward, I'm about to jump on a plane, I've got your number, so can I think on it and get back to you?"

That wasn't a flat out no was it?

"Sure," Edward said with a hint of enthusiasm.

"And can you text me the tail number? I'd like to know which G73 it is we're losing." She said with a little sadness.

It was an aviation thing, if it infected your blood, you often formed a permanent emotional attachment to these magnificent flying machines. To lose a legend like this to another country or to the shame of the scrapheap could almost feel like losing a loved one.

Almost.

The two bid one another farewell and before she knew it, Bella was on her way to her home state at thirty-two thousand feet and with another thing added to her long list to contemplate.

Bella didn't have too much to wrap up at her home, just catch up on bills and what not.

She received the information that she needed from Jenks and the first meeting was scheduled for a week starting today at his legal office in Sydney.

Jenks had already taken the liberty to book Bella's flights and transfers so she didn't have to trouble herself.

That gave her four days to head up the coast and square things up with her mom and get back to Miami.

"It's gonna be a whirlwind trip." Bella mumbled, placing a much-needed caffeine hit on her coffee table before collapsing back on the couch at the daunting thought of the task ahead.

The choice of her words could prove to be more foretelling that she expected.

It wasn't unusual for her to drive to Renée's for a few days' visit and she made the effort most times when she came home from a swing.

Knowing her mom, Bella was adamant that she would tell her about Charlie in person.

If she had told her over the phone when she first found out, Renée wouldn't have let up on how Bella was coping; not only making herself sick with worry, but also annoying anyone who would listen at Bella's work to try and find out.

Even though Bella was a thirty-seven-year-old grown ass woman, her mom never stopped being her mom.

If Renée received the news in person and Bella was able to explain the what, the where and the how, then she was more likely to accept it based on her daughter's behaviour and Bella could then just get on with proceedings uninterrupted.

Bella thought she could at least live in the hope that it would be the case.

Renée had never quite understood Bella's estrangement from Charlie and to spare her mother's flighty disposition, she may not have been privy to all of the many reasons for Bella's choice.

Truth be told, Renée was far better off not knowing.

With only days away from heading off to Sydney, her chaotic thoughts about her father were never far from Bella's mind and she had plenty of time to contemplate them on the five-hour trip up the coast.

The weather was almost always great in Florida even if a little humid at this time of the year. This day was shaping up to be no exception, so Bella cracked open the windows of her Chevy truck while it was still cool enough and let the air rush through her long dark hair as she started her trip North.

Prior to her flight from Phoenix even taking off, she'd saved Mr Mason's number and looked up the registration on the Mallard in question.

Bella was well impressed with Mr Mason's purchase and tried to hold onto the images of sitting in the pilot's seat of what was arguably the best-looking flying boat ever built. But more pressing issues kept creeping into her mind and that pushed the pilot's fairy tale thoughts well out of the way.

As a consequence, she hadn't given a second thought to the aircraft or the man with the smooth voice until she spotted an Amphibious Cessna Caravan on finals to Runway 09R, while she was driving past the airport in Fort Lauderdale.

Interestingly as sometimes happens, maybe Edward's ears were burning, because he chose that moment to call her again.

An involuntary smile found its way to her face.

"Ah Mr Mason, sorry to tell you, I still haven't made any sort of decision yet," she said cheerfully.

Pleased that Bella had likely made note of his contact details, Edward too couldn't supress a grin.

"Well, that's too bad Ms Swan, here I was completely expecting that you'd dropped everything in order to satisfy me." Edward joked, hoping that Bella wouldn't take what he said the wrong way.

She didn't.

She was used to the locker room talk of the predominantly male industry she chose to work in and never considered herself a wilting flower. On the contrary, she regularly gave as good as she got and had to chuckle about how she could have read into Mr Mason's words.

"I'd probably jump at the offer if I didn't have so much on my plate already, but..."

"Hey, no need to justify anything to me, although I'd be lying if I wasn't sitting on the edge of my seat in hope that my offer would be too good for you to pass up."

"That's not playing fair Mr Mason."

"Edward please, my father is Mr Mason."

Bella laughed out loud. "Do you always try to schmooze your way to getting what you want... Edward?"

"Eh what can I say, it's a rule of the deal."

"Ah, I see. So, Edward," she said, trying the name out loud. She liked how it sounded coming from her lips, "tell me, what's the real reason that you're calling me? Are you bored or something?"

Edward sighed. "Maybe I am bored."

Truthfully Edward had been climbing the walls at his Santa Barbara Hotel, waiting for Bella to finish up with whatever she had to do and call him in the affirmative so that she could alleviate him from the dilemma that he currently found himself in.

But that wasn't a fair responsibility to put on someone who was still stewing on the decision and it wasn't as if he hadn't tried to find someone else.

Being the middle of the fire season meant that any pilots worth asking were under contract and he'd also exhausted his short list of other endorsed commercial and private pilots who simply couldn't make the mammoth trek across the Pacific at such short notice.

Edward was a successful businessman and therefore jumped on any opportunity if it came his way.

Bella was just about his last hope and he wasn't about to let her slip through his fingers if he could help it, so schmooze he would if it meant he'd attain his goal.

"Or maybe I just wanted to get to know you a little before I let you fly my two-million-dollar airplane," he said, maybe a little more brashly than he intended.

What was it about this woman that had put him off his A game twice now?

"Is that so?" Bella asked, and although his words could have made her highly suspicious of his motives, she didn't get any 'stranger danger' vibes from the enigmatic man, "I'm impressed you have the balls to be so bold as to assume," Bella said, calling him out.

"Incidentally, how did you manage to get hold of Sierra Romeo anyway? That bird has been many a man's fantasy for at least as long as I can remember."

"Ah! I see you did your homework," Edward said enjoying Bella's sharp wit immensely. Part of the art of persuasion was provoking interest in the subject, "I guess I was in the right place at the right time."

"That sounds way too easy."

"There are many ways in which to motivate a man to part with things that are precious to him Bella, one of them being to simply have the balls - as you say - to be bold enough to ask."

Bella was quiet for a moment, not quite sure what to say about that. She knew better than anyone how some people could manipulate - or motivate as Edward put it - to influence some to do just about anything given the right incentive.

Images of him flashed through her mind and a nervous pang ran through her at the thought.

It wasn't just her father that she had walked away from all those years ago.

"Bella?" Edward's voice cut through her musings.

"Yeah, I'm here," she said, with a shake of her head, a feeble attempt to clear the remaining dregs of her unease but it was too late, the relaxed tenor of the conversation had evaporated.

Edward wasn't clueless and also sensed the change in the tone of the conversation, he had lost the friendly banter that they were sharing and Bella had shut down on him.

He could have kicked himself for potentially ruining any chance he had to make the deadline he needed to set a few of his other business plans into motion, but moreover for overstepping the very new rapport he had been trying to build with Bella Swan.

What was it about her that tweaked his curiosity to the point where the state of her wellbeing was more important than his own?

He hadn't even met her yet!

"I'm sorry Bella, I..."

"I gotta go."