Jake POV

"Charlie!" Bella's voice was full of worry.

"He'll understand, Bells," I assured her. At least, I hoped he would. I didn't figure—based on a lifetime of knowing him—that Charlie could ever really be mad at her. And it wasn't like Bells was responsible for what had happened with her engagement.

Somehow, though, my words didn't seem to help. I glanced at Paul, but didn't figure he would have any ideas if I didn't. But I ended up getting yet another surprise this morning.

"Babe, what did your dad say when you called him last night?"

Bella's fingers twisted together before her right hand clenched around her now-bare left hand. Paul shoved his chair back and moved around the table to crouch down next to Bella. He pried her hands apart, cradling them loosely in his own.

"Babe?" Man, he sure wasn't acting like the Paul I knew. It was like he…cared. I knew—I just knew—that he and Bella hadn't known each other before now, so why in the world would he care so much about what was happening to her? Was she that—no, I'm not going to even go there about my best female friend.

Bella POV

I sat there, knowing I ought to say something, but not having a real clue as to what. Jake's question had brought that whole brief phone conversation with my dad back into my mind, and I didn't really want to face it. I didn't want to have to face just how clueless I'd been about the kind of person that Edward was showing himself to be now.

"Dad, hi."

"Bella, you never made it home! Are you alright?"

"No, I'm fine." Notthat I really was fine, but it was my standard answer most of the time. "I'm sorry I didn't call you before now. I've just had a bad day and—

"What happened? Are you hurt? Broken down?—"

"No, I'm fine, really. No, I don't want to talk about it right now," I forestalled what I knew my dad's next question would be. "I'll stay here tonight and—what?" My words cut off when my dad interrupted me.

"Edward came by the house a few minutes ago, really broken up. Bells, he…he said he didn't know where you were, that he thought…he thought you might be…with someone else. But I know you aren't—that you can't be."

"He did what? How dare he?"

"I knew he was lying, baby. I'm going to go over there right now and—"

" No, don't. I'll deal with him tomorrow. Please, Dad. I just need tonight to get things figured out. I'm fine, and I'll see you tomorrow."

"Dad just said that Edward stopped by his house—must have been where he went after he left here."

"What did he say?" Paul continued to press me for an answer, even as he squeezed my hands gently.

"Edward told Dad…that he thought I was cheating on him."

"Fuck!" Both men snarled.

"Charlie threw him out on his ass, right?" Jake demanded.

I couldn't help laughing just a little at that picture. "Something like that, I think. And then I think he called me—I didn't listen to the message, just called him back."

Paul grabbed my phone and started tapping. "I'm putting my numbers in, and Sam's and Jared's cells, too. If you need me, call," he emphasized, handing the phone back.

"Thanks." Taking my phone back, I pulled up his number and sent him a text so he'd have my number in his phone.

"So what are you going to do now?" Jake pushed himself back into my awareness.

"Go home and talk to Charlie."

"You ready for that?"

I loved Jake—I really did. He'd been my best guy-friend for years. But there were times, like now, when he could be a little annoying.

"I think so. No sense putting it off, and I don't want to, anyway. I want this to be over."

I wasn't interested in any more breakfast, and with Paul flatly refusing to let me deal with the dishes, I headed to the guest room to repack my bag and then wheel it out to the front door. Showing a good amount of discretion, Jake took the suitcase out to the car for me so Paul and I could say goodbye.

"You can do this, " he told me. "You are strong. Just stick to your guns."

"I'll try."

"'Do or not do, there is no try'," he quoted Star Wars at me. "And I'm only a call away if you need a boost."

"Thanks."

Paul POV

I couldn't help pulling her close for one more kiss before letting her go and watching her drive away.

Once the car had disappeared down the road, Jake turned to me. "So what now?"

"Now I take a shower, and then you can drive me to your shop to get my truck."

"What am I supposed to do while I wait?"

"Figure something out. The dishes, maybe."

Walking past my bed on the way into the bathroom, Bella's fragrance seemed to linger in the air. But even if I was imagining it, the memories of her would last for a while. Bella in my bed, in my shower… But as much as I wanted to savor them just now, I didn't have the time. I had to pick up my truck and then get over to the site where my company was building a house.

Back in the kitchen to grab a thermos of coffee, I saw that the limit of Jake's clean-up had been to pile all the dirty dishes into the sink. "Gee, thanks," was my sardonic retort to Jake's smirk. "Let's get going."

Bella POV

I drove away from Paul's house with a part of myself wanting to turn around and stay. Leaving this bubble wasn't at the top of my to-do list. Neither was the confrontation I knew would come with my ex-fiance. But before that, I'd have to fill my dad in on what had happened. In hindsight, it was surprising that he'd let me get away with the minimal information I'd given him last night; though, I hadn't exactly given him much chance to demand more.

I knew he would take my side in this, and I loved him all the more for never believing Edward's lies for an instant, but this just made me think about Edward's parents and his siblings. Well, mother, stepfather, and step-siblings. Edward's real father, Edward Masen Sr., had died when Edward was just a baby. His mom, Esme, had met and married Carlisle Cullen a few years later, and he'd adopted Edward. Carlisle already had two kids of his own, Emmett and Alice, who he'd been raising alone after his wife Kate had walked out on them. Edward got along well with his adopted/step-siblings, and I liked them, too, even though I didn't get to see them often anymore. Emmett and his wife Rosalie lived in L.A., and Alice lived in New York City with her husband Jasper.

If Charlie could be expected to support me wholeheartedly, then the Cullens would do no less for Edward, which was only natural and expected. I could mourn the loss of the large family I would have married into, but they weren't worth the moral and emotional compromise that marrying Edward now would demand.

And I didn't want to marry Edward, not anymore. Having seen that Edward had discovered that there were other fish in the sea, part of me regretted that it had taken something like this to make me see the same thing. How much, I now wondered, might be different now if I'd accepted any of those rejected college social invitations, even on a purely casual and platonic basis, the way my mom had encouraged? I resisted the temptation to consider how much the last day with Paul was impacting my current state—I needed to keep my focus, and thinking of him wouldn't help there.

All of my thoughts had occupied me through the half-hour drive from La Push to the house I shared with my dad in Forks. He must have been watching for me because he was on the porch by the time I parked my car on the parking pad, and halfway to me before I could get my car door open.

"Bella, honey, what's going on?" He swept me into a hard hug, which only confirmed how worried he was about me.

"Edward cheated on me, Dad," I tried to be as strong as Paul had told me I was and just get the words out there. "I walked into his room yesterday to see him f—" I abruptly toned down my intended words to keep my dad from having a heart attack—"having sex with that girl he went to school with. And I don't think it was the first time they did that."

Charlie looked as stunned as I must have when I'd seen live what I'd just described to him. But he pulled himself together and walked me inside. Then, like a good cop, he walked me through everything, asking questions when he needed to, letting me just talk out my thoughts when I needed to do that. "I just don't know why he did it, though. Any of it." And I didn't have an answer now any more than I had all the other times I'd asked this since yesterday afternoon.

"Best defense is a good offense," Charlie offered.

"What?"

"Any suspect with half a brain will try to shift attention away from himself and onto someone else, anyone else, even the victim. If he can make this all about you, then maybe people won't focus as much on what he did."

"But why not just break up with me? Why cheat on me and then accuse me of cheating on him?"

"I wish I could tell you, Bells. Maybe he wants a breakup to be your doing."

"Well, if that's it, then he'll get his wish."

"Bells—"

"I can't trust him anymore. And while I hate how he did it, Edward opened my eyes to the fact that he's not who I thought he was, and that's not the person I want to spend my life with."

"I only want you to be happy, Bella. If you don't want to marry him, then no one will make you. Just take a little time to think; don't do anything reckless."

Oh, I'd gone far beyond reckless in the past 18 or so hours. But that was the part I really didn't want to confess to my father.

"Did he leave here when you asked him to last night?" I asked.

"Yeah. He wasn't happy, but he left. He—did he try to find you, Bella?"

Deep breath. "He already had. He came to you after I slammed the door in his face."

"Where were you? I was worried about you."

"I'm sorry. I just had to go someplace where I could clear my head and think. I didn't have any idea he'd manage to follow me, or that he'd use some tracking thing in my car to know right where I was."

"What?" Charlie's face started to darken—a danger sign with him.

"Jake said Edward probably used something called Lo-Jack in my car to find me."

"So you went to Jake's?"

Another deep breath. "No. I went to La Push, to the cliffs to watch the waves, and I met a friend of Jake's there. They offered me a place to stay for the night."

Being a good cop, Charlie knew right off that I wasn't telling everything. "And which friend of Jake's was it?"

"Paul Lahote."

"Good construction worker," my dad replied. "Bit of a reputation as a ladies' man. So he gave you a place to stay out of the kindness of his heart?"

"Something like that."

"Uh-huh," Charlie grumbled. "Bella…"

"I didn't cheat on Edward while we were together. What I do now that I'm single again is my business." I scrubbed my hands over my face. "I need to go upstairs and unpack. I'm going to try and squeeze in a shower before Edward shows up and tries to put dents in the front door."

Paul POV

"Earth to Paul!" I jerked back to awareness when Sam's voice broke into my thoughts, and his hand smacked the back of my head.

"What?"

"Where's your head today, bro?"

"I'm okay," I dismissed the concern.

"Sure you are," Sam shot me a skeptical look. He started nudging me along, calling, "Back in ten," to Jared across the worksite. "So what broad has your shorts in a knot?"

Before I knew it, I was up in my best friend's face. "Don't call her that!" I snarled.

"Whoa!" Sam took a step back and brought his hands up to ward me off. "Ease up, Paul. Sheesh. I'm sorry, man."

"Fine."

"Reworded, the question stands, though. And we'll stay here as long as it takes for me to get an answer." I knew Sam meant it—he was the definition of stubborn, which was part of why we'd managed to get our construction company off the ground. I ran my hands through my hair.

"You're starting to freak me out, you know? Who is she?"

"Bella. Bella Swan."

"Jake Black's friend?"

"Yeah."

"Didn't think you knew her."

"I didn't, until yesterday. Met her on the cliffs…yesterday," I was brought up short at just how much had happened in the past day and how different everything seemed now. "24 hours ago, I didn't really know who she was, and now I can't stop thinking about her."

"The sex was that good?" Sam got another glare for that question.

"Not that it's any of your business, but yeah, it was."

"So this is a problem because…"

"Because she's the kind of girl I always stayed away from—and somehow she's a woman I can't stay away from and don't want to."

"Now you're definitely starting to freak me out."

"How's that new?" Jared interrupted. "You two pussies plan on helping me build this house, or just sit around gossiping all day?"

"Paul's having some kind of emo-crisis over Bella Swan," Sam informed our friend and business partner.

"The same Bella Swan that's engaged to that Cullen?"

Sam's eyes shot back over to me. "Forgot about that. You hooked up with a girl with a ring on the finger?"

"Hell, no," I denied. "She pulled it off and threw it at him when she caught him cheating on her yesterday."

"Rebound revenge sex. Hot," Jared laughed, extending his fist to me for a bump.

But my fist didn't touch his. "It wasn't like that," I replied, wondering even as I did if I was trying to convince them…or myself.

"What was it, then?"

"It was like two stars colliding. Unstoppable."

"Paul," Sam was serious. "I get that she's different, special. I'm just worried you're diving headlong into a pool that you don't know the depth of. I don't want you breaking your head, neck, or heart on this."

"She's not—"

"And you might be completely right. But, she was in that relationship for years, right?" A nod. "Even with something bad, girls just don't cut things off just like this—" his hand chopped the air. "She's got to grieve, or whatever, and maybe then think about what comes next. Maybe you both need to slow down and take things in order."

I knew Sam knew what he was talking about—he'd watched his sister Emily go through a bad breakup a couple years ago. Rationally, I got that everything Sam was saying was true—emotionally, it made my blood boil. I didn't know how I'd made this deep of a connection with Bella in such a short time, but I had, and now couldn't stand the idea of Cullen keeping some hold on her, not when I was here.

"Don't knock that 'bolt of lightning' stuff, Sam," Jared grinned. "It was like that with me and Kim, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember. And I'm not knocking it at all. Nor am I saying that Paul can't have found that with Bella. I just think she needs to get her past wrapped up before starting on a future."

There wasn't really much to say beyond what we had already. And we didn't have time to, either—this house needed to get built, and we couldn't afford to waste a nice day when we got one. I followed my friends back to the in-progress building. But even as I started taking measurements and swinging a hammer, I still kept thinking about Bella.

AN: Hope this came out alright. I'm completely making this up as I go along.