Chapter 2
The day after the funeral
"What?" Bella asked out loud. She had been refraining from expressing her true feelings up to this point, but this new proposition took her by surprise.
"I want you to come and live with me, Bella. I know I haven't been much of a father to you, but I want you to give me a chance."
"Why? Why are you were you waiting till now?" Bella had already been shattered by the death of her mother. She didn't need this.
"Don't get me wrong, Bella, I loved your mother… I really did… but I was stupid and let her slip through my fingers. I'm never going to get a chance to make things right with her; I just want to be able to have done one thing right."
Bella sat back in her chair. She had never considered the red padded seats in the local diner to be comfortable, but they served their purpose. She stared at her father. This man had missed her whole life, but now he wanted to take her away from it. The thing that scared Bella the most was that she was seriously thinking about it. The man in front of her had the look of someone who had drank more alcohol than water, but at the same time he had a trustable warn look. His eyes reflected the garish light coming from the neon sign outside, and the only think that punctuated Bella's thoughts was the rain; keeping gentle cadence with the ticking clock on the wall.
"What's Forks like?" She asked.
Charlie's eyes brightened a little, this was the first time Bella had implied interest. "It's… in Washington, so it's cold a lot of the time… uh… it's a quiet town, you'd be getting away from the buzz of the city."
"But what are the people like?" Bella leaned in.
"The people?"
"The people are a town's blood, the spice of it."
"Why don't you find out?"
"What?"
"Tell you what, Bella. Why don't you come down for a month…? I promise there won't be any obligation. You can live with me and go to the high school… See if this could work out."
The next words out of Bella's mouth would be crucial. In one moment she would seal the fate of not only herself, but more than a dozen people she hadn't even met yet. She could turn the world upside down with just one word. Then she said it, and the word, dear reader, was "yes."