A/N: So... I went from four months between updates down to one month! That's a pretty good improvement, right?

Hugs and bunches of flowers go to the lovely ladies at Project Team Beta. Seriously... I am slowly getting my head around parts of grammar and punctuation I didn't know even existed until a few months ago.

And you, my beloved readers, are what keeps me writing this. Keep up the awesomeness.

Alice didn't come with me to watch over Bella the night after our official break-up. Or the night after that. When I saw my now ex-wife at home, the broken look I couldn't help but give her filled her with pain.

"Just give me a couple of days, Jazz. I need to get my head sorted," she whispered as I approached her. Her voice was full of anguish.

All I could do in reply was nod. As much as I felt hurt by the circumstances we found ourselves in, Alice must be hurting more.

I, at least, had Bella. Her presence was what kept me sane. Lunch was now the best part of my day – it meant unfettered time with Bella. Ever since Wednesday, we had sat together—either at the table with the other juniors or by ourselves. I would spend the time gently questioning her, trying to keep the topic off me and my past, and pretending to eat the junk they considered food.

The weekend was horrible. I didn't have a real reason to be there, so I couldn't just turn up at her house. Instead, I spent most of Saturday as I spent my nights—hanging out in the trees encircling her backyard and listening to her clean, do laundry, and finish her homework. When she and her father left to eat at the diner, I followed them and "accidentally" bumped into them outside. I berated myself for my stalker-like tendencies, but the feeling I got when I surreptitiously grazed my hand against hers quickly defeated any rogue guilty thoughts floating through my head.

In the very early hours of Sunday morning, Emmett appeared in the tree next to mine, concerned. He insisted that I go hunting with him, and it wasn't until he suggested it that I realized I hadn't gone in days. As much as I was loathe to leave Bella alone, Emmett quickly swayed me by reminding me that she would be safer if I was well-fed. Even though I knew that I could never do anything to hurt her and would never consider drinking from her, mistakes happened. It was like some form of torture to be hundreds of miles from her, and the aching in my chest was almost unbearable. I ensured that we returned as soon as was possible, and though my brother teased me for it, he was filled with empathy.

So it was that after two days of barely seeing her, Monday was exceptionally sweet. After getting to school early to wait for her, she and I promised we would spend lunch together, just the two of us, and excitement filled me as the noon hour drew closer.

I was waiting at a small empty table when she entered the cafeteria, and my excitement quickly faded as I singled out her emotions as she collected her food.

"Bella? What's wrong?" I asked softly as she seated herself opposite me.

"It's, uh, nothing." She swirled her tiny plastic spoon through a tub of pudding, not eating it, but using it as a distraction.

"Please tell me?"

Silence stretched between us until I reached out and ran my fingertips along the back of her hand to regain her attention.

She sighed. "Did I do something wrong?"

"What? No. Never." I couldn't comprehend why she would think that she was anything but perfect, or why she was emanating such uncertainty.

I didn't want to push her, so let her tell me in her own time.

"On Wednesday Alice was so excited to meet me, and she seemed so nice, and I had thought… But since that day—I swear she sees me coming in the hall and turns the other way. It's like she's avoiding me."

I glanced across the cafeteria at where Alice was sitting. She could obviously hear our conversation and wasn't even pretending to ignore us. I frowned slightly in her direction, and she sent me back a contrite look.

"You haven't done anything," I reassured her. "Alice just—" I paused. "Alice has had a pretty bad week. It has nothing to do with you." Well, nothing that I can tell you about, anyway. "She'll be back to her old self in no time, I'm sure. And then I'm sure she'll want to spend time with you."

"Oh, she doesn't need to—"

"She wants to. Trust me."

Bella nodded thoughtfully before finally starting to eat her pudding.

"I was wondering," she started between bites. I looked up into her sweet face curiously. "You normally sit with your family, right?"

I nodded.

"You do know that you can sit with them, don't you? I don't see why you feel that you need to keep me company."

For a second, I felt hurt that perhaps she was brushing me off and didn't want to spend time with me, but quickly threw away that thought. Her emotions told me loud and clear that she liked having me around.

"Bella." I sighed softly. "I truly want to be here with you. There is nowhere I would rather be."

She finished off her pudding and discarded the cup onto the tray. "We could both sit with them if that'd make you most happy."

"Sweetheart," I said, taking her hand between both of mine. She blushed slightly at the endearment. "If you hadn't noticed, I quite enjoy having you all to myself."

She nibbled on her bottom lip and her heartbeat increased slightly at my admission.

"But," I amended, "if you'd like to, we can sit with them one day this week. You can meet the rest of the family."

She nodded shyly before averting her eyes towards the table. "All except one, right?"

"What do you mean?"

She hesitated. "On my first day here, there were five of you right? I wasn't just imagining that?"

"Edward," I confirmed softly.

"Yeah, that's the name Jessica told me. He, uh, seemed rather…. unfriendly."

Well, if she wanted to call being on the verge of slaughtering her 'unfriendly', we could go with that description.

"I haven't seen him since that day. Has he been sick? He sure looked it that day."

I squeezed her hand gently. "He's, uh, visiting with some friends up in Alaska." Technically true. "So, no, he won't be joining us for lunch any time soon."

A flood of relief ran through her.

He had obviously scared her with his near-attack. While the day we met would forever be the best day of my existence, it was somewhat marred by Edward's reaction, and furthermore by my own lack of reaction. I shuddered to think what would have happened if Emmett hadn't been there to restrain Edward. Those few precious seconds when I had been forced immobile by her presence could have been fatal for her, and for that possibility I would always be ashamed. Ashamed that one hair on her head could have been harmed.

"I'll protect you from now on," I whispered. Her eyes darted to my face, knowing I had said something, but unable to make out the words. She frowned in confusion and I simply smiled tightly in response.

It was with an ache in my limbs that I let her leave for Biology, wishing—not for the first time—that we had more than the one class together. I couldn't help but compare our 'involvement' to my relationship with Alice. With Alice, we both knew that we were mates, and our affection was always equal. We knew instinctively that the other felt just the way that we did. The hardest thing I was finding with the Pereche bond was that while Bella was still human, our affection would remain off-kilter. I was feeling the full force of the bond while she was only feeling a portion of it. It felt like until she was changed, I would constantly be waiting for her to catch up to me.

Just this past weekend was evidence. If I had been human, I would have been close to tears with the pain I felt being away from her. Yet while she was happy to see me on Monday, her life had continued on as normal. She didn't feel that flood of relief to finally be within touching distance like I had.

I knew that she liked me—that she felt a connection and something like a pull towards me—but it was as if she was at the edge of a swimming hole, nervously dipping her big toe into the shallows. I, on the other hand, was running towards the edge at full speed, wanting to cannonball straight to the middle. The only thing stopping me was the sight of her timidly standing there, frightened of getting splashed.

I so desperately wanted to take that leap, but didn't know how to do so without scaring her away.

I spent History just staring at her from across the aisle. Those around us probably realized how smitten I was. In fact, from the bursts of amusement coming from the other students, I was fairly sure they knew just how besotted I had become. Every so often Bella would sneak a glance over at me, blushing when she noticed my eyes trained directly on her face. I tried to concentrate on the lesson. I really did. It just seemed so pointless when there were much more interesting things in the room. I'd heard it all before, anyway.

When the final bell rang, I moved as fast as humanly possible to the parking lot to wait at the behemoth she called a truck.

My skin tingled as she approached me, fiddling with her keys. "Bella," I said with a relieved sigh.

Amused, she gave me a small smile. "Whatcha doing here?"

"Waiting for you," I replied, smirking.

"Uh… for any particular reason?"

Because I can't go longer than an hour without seeing you. Probably not the answer to give when wanting to not scare her away. "Because I had something to ask you," I blurted out. What? Where did that come from? I searched frantically through my brain for something I could ask her.

She gazed at me, waiting for the promised question, and I felt time passing us by while I breathed in her scent and stared into her deep brown eyes until she glanced away, embarrassed.

"Saturday," I said finally.

"Saturday? What about it?"

"Well, I was hoping that you'd do me the honor of spending the day with me." So, apparently I lost my footing and fell into that darn swimming hole without intending to.

Her heart fluttered as she looked me up and down. "Like… a date?"

Ever so slowly I reached out my right hand and to grasp her left. Tingles ran up my arm at the contact, and if I wasn't mistaken, she seemed to shiver. I hoped that it was from anticipation and not because of my cold skin.

I met her eyes and a smirk slid across my mouth. "Not like a date. An actual date."

"Okay," she breathed.

"You don't want to sleep on it or something?"

"No," she said with conviction. "No need to sleep on it. I want to go."

A grin practically split my face in half. "Great." I rubbed my thumb caressingly across the back of her hand before reluctantly releasing it.

I couldn't entirely believe that had just happened. Bella had agreed to go on a date with me! It simultaneously felt incredibly fast and nowhere near fast enough. But I couldn't tell her that; she wouldn't understand without knowing all the details of my unbreakable connection to her.

"Where are you planning to take me?" she asked as she unlocked and opened the door.

With the spontaneity of my proposal, I had no plans whatsoever in place. "It's a surprise," I hedged.

"Okay," she said hesitantly before sliding into the truck.

"I'll see you tomorrow, anyway," I promised.

She nodded, smiling at me, and pulled away. Thinking I couldn't hear her, she squealed slightly as she drove away, and elation poured off her in waves.

I stood in the spot her truck had just vacated and watched her drive away.

"I think I'm falling in love with you," I whispered at her departing vehicle.

If I had known what was going to happen the next day, I think I would have said it to her face.

But as the dense grey clouds rolled in overhead, I had no idea what was awaiting us.