Hello everyone, sorry for the long wait. But I am back on track. Thanks again for the love! I enjoy reading your reviews. They help for inspiration! just sayin.

Thank you to SunflowerFran3759 for her beta skills and support. Any mistakes are mine for deciding to add stuff at the last minute!

Disclaimer…there are a lot of references to religion and politics. Keep in mind that I'm basing it on my hometown and everything you read, from comments about George Bush to God are all things people around here say. The reason I include them is because Edward and Bella's surroundings will affect their relationship.

Chapter 3- A Kinder Day

"Your father asked for you again."

"Really?"

"Yes. You know he loves you, Son."

"I got a raise at work, Ma. I'm making good money. I think I might buy myself a pickup. A new one. I might even move to a better apartment."

I hear my old mother sigh. She never wins with me. I bet it's frustrating.

"That's good Son. I always knew you were a great worker. You best thank the Lord."

"Uh-huh."

"Have you been to church lately?"

"No, Ma'am."

"Son, why don't you find yourself a home in the Lord's presence and thank him for your success? You've always been a good man. You've always been a God-fearing man."

"I'll ask around and see what I can find. I gotta go now, Ma."

"Alright, Son. God bless and goodnight."

"Yeah, night."

~RN~

Carlisle hasn't been the same since his son, Peter Cullen, died six months ago. He used to be all smiles and handshakes with the oilfield men. Now, he just walks around, nods, doesn't say much, gives his orders and then hides in his office. I'm not a father, but I imagine losing a son must be the worst feelin' in the world.

He's still respectful towards me and gives me encouraging words whenever he catches me doing a good job, but it just ain't the same.

"I hear the Bella ain't doin' so well," Angela says to Mrs. Cope as I punch my timecard. "They haven't seen her at the church since the funeral. She also dropped out of the university."

"Poor thing," Mrs. Cope adds. "Imagine losing the man of your life right before the wedding? I bet she's heartbroken."

"Meh, I mean Bella was always a bitch in high school. She and her group of preps thought they were the shit just because they live in El Dorado and their daddies make loads of money. I kinda hate her, but she didn't deserve this. Pete was a nice guy too."

After givin' her intellectual opinion, Angela turns and finds me looking at them. I quickly look down at my dirty boots. It ain't like me to be snooping around. But I can't help but feel bad for this Bella girl. I ain't never been in love, so I can't compare a loss, but I hope she's getting through this.

"Hey, Edward, you doing okay today?" She grins at me. I notice she's wearin' a lot of eye makeup. It's not very flatterin'. I really wish she would get the clue that I don't like her that way. I mean, she's pretty and all, but she don't seem like my type of girl. She looks like she loves to gossip and watch dumb shit on TV. She might even listen to shitty music. I bet she's clingy with her men.

I nod and give her a forced smile.

"Just wanna get home is all."

"Oh, well you have a great evening."

"You too," I mutter.

As I walk towards my truck, I see Jasper talkin' to some workers. When his eyes catch me, he waves me to him. "Hey, Mase, why don't ya come over here for a minute?" I nod and walk over to my boss.

He takes off his worn-out trucker hat and runs an oil stained hand through his sweaty, blonde hair. He looks shit tired. Ever since Carlisle took the time off to mourn his son, and even when he came back, Jasper has been picking up the slack. If anyone ever said that he don't do much, ain't darin' to say it again. His red neck and sweaty shirt say nothin' but hard work.

"Mase, I just wanted to make sure you're still up for the challenge. Are you still coming with me to Houston for that leadership training?"

I chuckle and give him a nod. He knows there ain't nothin' I want more.

"That's great. With this oil boom, we're gettin' more and more business and more men working. I just know it will be very soon before Charlie Swan and Carlisle Cullen hire another crew leader. I ain't supposed to say this, but I'm gonna work really hard for you to be that man they find to lead. You're the best we got, man."

"Thank you, Jasper."

He chuckles and rubs his red neck. "Nah, no need to thank me, man. Just saying the truth."

"Well, I still appreciate it."

He pats me on the back and starts to walk away.

"Hey, Jasper?"

"Yeah?"

"I know this might be a little random, but do you know of a good church I can go to?"

He laughs. "Sure! Cross Paths is where I go. Carlisle and Charles go there too. It's a good place with a lot of good people."

Knowing Carlisle and Charles go there I just know it's full of wealthy people. What I've learned in my life is that it don't matter if it's the Lord's home, if you got money, you got money. You're still gonna feel it in your pocket. Even in the presence of the Holy Father, you're still gonna know it and act like it.

"I know what you're thinkin' and believe me I don't blame ya.' But it's a great place. Why don't you come with me on Sunday? And if you don't like it, I'll personally look for another church for ya."

"Deal," I tell him.

~RN~

"You know what's better than Rosa's fajitas?" Emmett asks with a mouth full of meat and onions.

"Em, close your damn mouth, you fool," Rose scolds him.

"What is?" I ask, laughing at the idiot as I sit across from them.

"Not a goddamn thing! This shit is holy. The Mexicans know what they're doin.' Bringing their food over to the white folks is probably making them a fortune."

Rose laughs. "This place is owned by a white man."

"Fuck, Really? That's funny."

I stare as Emmett uses his oil stained hands to make himself a burrito, and then shove the whole thing in his mouth. He's a fucking monster.

"So, Mase, any luck with the ladies as of late?" Rose asks while she scratches at the bright ink on her arm.

Emmett laughs, spillin' some beans on the table. "Mase here is shy as fuck. Every time we go to the bar he barely says two words to the girl shoving her tongue down his throat. That's why they don't stay."

Rose rolls her eyes and hands her husband a napkin. "I'm sure it's because they ain't decent bitches. Why even make an effort?" She says. "Besides, you're a great man, Edward Masen. I'm sure you'll find a special gal."

"All I know is that when we go to San Antonio in two months for our vacation, you better be talking to the ladies. I hear there are some chicas bonitas down there," Emmett jokes.

"I'm sure."

~RN~

"Are you sure it's okay for me to tag along with you and your mother?" I ask Jasper. We're currently in the living room of his mother's amazing house.

The Whitlocks sure do have money. They even have one of them fancy little dogs with a bunch of hair that wouldn't scare anybody and are kinda pathetic and needy. He keeps runnin' around me, lickin' my boots.

Damn little thing.

"It's just church, Mase. I mean I feel bad enough that my mother is going to ask ya a lot of questions, because nobody should have to deal with her, but you're fine."

I nod and just hope Mrs. Whitlock don't notice my dirty boots. I tried findin' the best button shirt and jeans I own, but no matter how much I cleaned them, my boots still looked like hell.

"If she asks you a lot of uncomfortable questions about religion and politics, just cough and I'll hush her up," he tells me.

Mrs. Whitlock is an old, white woman with loads of money. She has Jesus Christ on her mind and heart right next George W. Bush.

She also has wanderin' eyes.

I try not to squirm when her eyes roam my face and body. I sure as hell don't know what to do. Jasper don't notice his mother's curiosity for me, and she knows it.

Crazy old lady.

"This is a nice place," I tell them as we walk up to the church. Its two stories high and it's almost as big as a shopping mall.

"You know how Texans love Jesus," Jasper jokes and leads me through the crowd.

I quickly become nervous as I notice all the rich folk and their nice Sunday clothes. They are all beautiful and blonde. I think of what I must look like.

Messy bronze hair and a wrinkled shirt.

At least I shaved this morning.

We sit in the back as the pastor starts getting ready to talk. I nervously shove my hands together and tap my foot.

"Sorry I haven't been around," I whisper. "But I'm here today. Give me strength to deal with these high end people."

I look around as everyone finds their seat. There is a short young woman with black spiky hair joking around with a group of girls, but nobody else is giving her any attention.

Except Jasper.

His blue eyes move every time she moves. They follow her like a hawk watching it's pray.

"You like her?" I ask.

He snaps out of his trance and clears his throat. He nervously chuckles and fixes his tie that needs no fixin.'

"Alice Brandon? Are you crazy, Mase? I couldn't care any less for that crazy woman. She's a liberal and supports abortion and gays. Also, I've heard she's a lesbian."

I laugh. He didn't sound like he believed anything he said. He didn't believe it or he really doesn't care for her left winger beliefs.

"She sure does look like she don't belong here, but she ain't a lesbian, Jasper."

"Yeah, she sure is. Look at her. She has short hair and a piercing on her right eyebrow, just above her pretty green eyes."

"Well I'll show her what a man can do. She's cute. I might approach her after this is over."

"What? Mase, you're in God's house. Why you talkin' about hittin' on that woman She-sh-she wouldn't want you anyway?" He stutters.

I laugh. "I'm just messin' with ya. Why you gettin' so mad? I thought you didn't care about her."

He clears his throat and turns to his mother who is distracted, talkin' to another older lady.

"I'm just sayin'…not here."

"Sure, whatever, Jasper." I chuckle again.

I wait around for a few minutes. I fiddle with the bible in my hands and try not to listen to the conversations around me. It's surprising some of these people can think the way they do. They don't even shut their nonsense in the presence of the All Mighty.

The group of women in front of me suddenly stop gossipin' and turn to face the entrance of the church. Their eyes widen and their mouths drop.

I turn around to see what has their attention.

The first person I see is Charles Swan.

He walks straight in and clears some booth space at the front and then waves for the rest of his company to come in.

An older woman walks in with an arm wrapped around a younger woman's back.

The young woman is wearing dark clothes and has messy brown hair. I don't get to see her face very well, but from what I can see she don't seem very happy.

She slowly walks to the front and sits next to Charles Swan.

A few of the women around the room start whisperin' to each other.

"Damn women," Jasper sighs. "They just can't leave her alone."

My eyes stayed glued on the sorrowful woman. I slide a little to the end of my seat so I can get a better look. I can only see the side of her face but that's enough to know that she's a beautiful lady.

"Who is she, Jasper?"

"That's Bella Swan, Charlie Swan's daughter."

"The one in the accident?" I whisper.

"Yeah, his only daughter. Poor girl hasn't left the house. This is the first time she's come to church since Peter's funeral."

"Can't blame her. You come here to praise the Lord but it's a little hard to give anyone any praise when you're life is turned upside."

The pastor starts talkin' and I hold my hands together and sit up straight.

"You gonna sit up, boy! There ain't no slouchin' in the Lord's home!" He roughly whispers in my ear while he takes a tight hold of my neck.

He squeezes hard makin' me jump in my seat. I wanna turn around and ask my mother to help me. He's hurtin' me, but I know she will be too afraid to do anything.

"God says to love your neighbor," the pastor says, bringing me out of my memory.

My back starts hurtin' after a few minutes. It's been bad for weeks now. I ain't got time or the money to go see a doctor. Eli says he knows a lady, la curandera, that will fix it, but I keep forgettin' to ask em about her.

I try to move around in my seat so it won't hurt so bad, but there is no use. I try to pay attention to the Lord's words, but the pain in my back and my wandering eyes that can't seem to forget about young Bella Swan won't let me.

I look at her. She don't seem very interested in what the pastor has to say. She just stares at the floor while Charles rubs her back and her mother runs her hands through her messy curls.

"Bad things are gonna happen to you. The devil will want you to question God. But you can't fall. Don't fall for it! God has his reasons. You just have to be tough and look up for answers. Look up! Things happen for a reason."

Bella suddenly stands and snaps away when her mother tries to hold her back. She don't look at anybody or anywhere else besides the floor and starts walkin' to the exit. When her mother is about to follow her, Charles makes her sit down.

Bella has a small limp and tears running down her face as she makes her way out the church. She looks shattered.

I know the feeling.

I wait a few minutes, before walking after her. When nobody is lookin' at her direction anymore, I tell Jasper my back is killin' me and that I need to stretch.

When I reach the outside of the church, the cool breeze of the Sunday morning hits my face. I look around for the broken girl, and when my eyes find her standing under a tree, my feet act before I can think.

Suddenly I'm standin' behind her. I stare as her small shoulders shake with her quiet sobs.

"Ma'am?" I ask. She doesn't turn or move. "I know there is pain in your heart, but tomorrow will be kinder. I know it seems like a cruelty that I'm saying this to you now, but you'll see. I've seen it."

Her shoulders stop shakin' and she slowly turns and faces me.

And God bless me.

I ain't never seen a prettier face.

Pretty.

It don't seem accurate.

Beautiful still ain't enough.

Even with her tear-stained cheeks, reddened and wet eyes and furrowed eyebrows, Isabella Swan is the face of pure beauty. Her brown eyes glue themselves to my face, and my green does the same with hers.

I wouldn't be able to tell a soul how long we stood there, just starin' at each other with the wind blowin' her hair's sweet scent towards me. I wouldn't be able to say how my heart raced, and at the same time felt a peace it never had. I might be losin' my mind, but I know what I'm seeing.

I saw it a few years ago when I faced death. As I lay in a pool of my own blood, waitin' for the good Lord to finally take me; I saw a light of hope for life. It filled my heart and soul and I lived. I felt alive even when science would say that I was minutes away from taking my last breath. That beautiful light was the sweet and peaceful contradiction to death itself.

That's what Isabella is.

How can she not believe a brighter day exists when she herself is the face of that same light I saw? I hope she can see it.

Her crying has stopped and though the wind is drying the tears on her cheeks, the pain is still visible there. No wind could take that away.

I just wish I knew what to do to make it better.

Not one word is spoken, but she lets me move a strand of her messy hair behind her ear. She closes her eyes and exhales a broken breath.

"Sorrow eyes…your sorrowful eyes will see ahead once again."

"How do you know that?" she asks, her voice full of hope. Her eyes are beggin' me to give her an answer or solution to her broken heart even though I'm just a simple man of simple means.

"I just do. You will move forward once again, I swear it," I say, because there is hope for her. There has to be. I believe it with my whole scarred heart.

Her eyes fill with tears, but before she can say anything else someone shouts her name. She looks towards the voice and suddenly our sacred moment ends and we're back into the world that took her happiness. It's no longer just the two of us.

Two blonde women walk towards us.

I step back as they ignore me and walk straight to her, wrapping Bella in their arms.

"Let's go back. Your parents are worried sick, Bella," one of them says.

"Everyone was whispering and asking what had happened. It was quite the scandal," the other one says.

They lead her back towards the church, but before she gets too far, she turns and looks my way one last time.

I give her a smile, and though she doesn't return it, I hope she feels it.

~RN~

BPOV

"Bella, baby you can't just lie in bed all day," my mother says.

"I can. I have been," I mutter into my pillow. I just wish my mother would let me be. These past months have been…difficult.

Do I not deserve a single moment alone to mourn properly?

I love my mother and father, but it's almost as if they are afraid to leave me alone for one minute. If they aren't around, they have the maid walk by my room and check on me every hour.

Everyone has left me alone. Why can't they?

"I know you're having a hard time, Honey. But time has passed and it's time you moved on. I'm sure Peter himself wouldn't want to be spending your life like this."

"Please don't say his name, Mom. Please, just let me be." Even the mention of his name is painful. The guilt takes over and I don't know what to do. It's a desperate feeling. It's as if I'm drowning and I have no hope for one, last breath.

She sighs in frustration, kisses my cheek and leaves the bedroom.

Finally.

~RN~

Green eyes.

Green eyes.

I've stared at the white walls in my room for so long that I'm starting to see things.

Green eyes.

"Tomorrow will be kinder."

I keep holding onto that man's words. I hold onto them as if they were some sort of life support. At times I become angry with him. How dare he promise me a kinder future if the past clouds above me, hiding me of any light? But then I start falling. I start falling into the sadness and pain that have caught and held onto me for the past six months like a cancer. After that, I reach for the legs of that man's words.

"Tomorrow will be kinder."

"Daddy?"

Charlie snaps his head in my direction. I've never seen him this worried about me. Usually when I had problems, he would just nod and give me a quick suggestion and not even look at me in the face. He was always politically correct with his advice. He never included any emotion or silly matters of the heart, but ever since the accident, he's been more attentive than ever before.

"What is it, sweetie? Does your leg hurt?"

"It always hurts, but I was wondering something."

"Yes?"

"Mama said I need to distract myself with something. I heard the other day, while you were on the phone. I heard you say that you need a secretary in your front office."

It takes him a moment to realize what I'm implying before he huffs and begins to shake his head, quickly rejecting the idea.

"No, ma'am. I will not have my daughter working for me at the oil rig."

"Well why not?"

"It's dangerous. It's a bunch of dirty men who spend twelve hours without seeing a woman, and when the go to punch out, they go crazy for the only women in the office."

"Dad, I'm sure if they know I'm your daughter they won't ever dare to talk to me or look my way. I'm tired of being sad. I'm tired of sleeping. I'm tired of just aging."

"What did Dr. Qasim say?"

"That damn Indian doesn't know what else to tell me. She just gives me meds and I don't want to take them. I don't want to feel like a zombie. I know I'm depressed, but I also know working will serve as a good distraction."

He takes a deep breath.

"Please, Daddy."

"You promise to tell me if anybody is disrespectful to you?"

"Yes."

"If I ever hear any man hitting on you, I will fire him and you, so you won't go back there."

"Yes, Dad, fire everyone, but just give me the job."

"I know I'm going to regret this, but fine.

You can have the job."

Please leave me a comment with your thoughts!

Love you all!

And thanks to my fellow Texans for letting me know we're kinda' neighbors hehe

P.S If you wondering, I'm kinda like Alice haha.