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BPOV

I could see Edward pacing on the front porch as I ran back. I smiled at the sight of him probably worrying about me. I'm sure his family had told him that I'd gone off with Tanya. The second he heard my approach he stopped his pacing and looked up with relief on his face.

"Why do you even have a cell phone? You never answer it and that's probably because you never carry it!" he exclaimed pulling me into his chest.

"You're such a worry rat. I'm fine," I replied as he kissed the top of my head.

"Did you talk to Tanya? What happened?" he asked pulling back a little so that he could see my face.

"Yes and everything, well almost everything, is fine," I replied. "She's not mad at me or anything, but there are a few other things you and I need to talk about."

He grabbed my hand and led me to the porch steps so that we could sit.

"What is it?"

"Well first I was thinking maybe we could keep our PDA to a minimum when Tanya's around. She's admitted that she's jealous and of course that's understandable but she's my sister and maybe until she really gets used to us we can just not be so…enthusiastic?" I asked looking at him pleadingly.

"Well do you mean when she's in the room with us or when she's in hearing range?" he responded.

"In the room," I qualified.

Edward nodded his head and kissed my knuckles making me smile. "Okay," he smiled. "We can do that."

I leaned over and kissed him on the lips in thanks. That was the easy part. I was sort of afraid to bring up the next topic for discussion. I knew that it would not be settled as easily as abstaining from flaunting our relationship in front of my sister and no matter what we decided one of use would be doing something we really wouldn't want to do.

"Will we be living with your family or mine?"

Edward's eyes widened in surprise and then seconds later his brows knit as he thought. I watched his face intently trying to decipher what he was thinking by any minute change in his expression but I couldn't figure out anything. He remained silent for a whole two minutes before he finally spoke.

"Well what do you want to do," he asked.

"Oh Edward. You know what I want to do just like I already know what you want to do. I want to stay with my family and you want to stay with yours," I said exasperatedly.

"You're right. I'm sorry," he replied and knit his brows again dragging his other hand through the bronze mess on top of his head. He opened his mouth to say something but then closed it again.

"What?" I asked knowing that he was holding something back.

He grimaced a little before turning so that he could look into my eyes. "Bella I'm not just saying this because I want to stay with my own family, okay?" he began.

I nodded my head to let him know that I understand and also to encourage him to keep talking.

"I think that it just makes more sense to stay with my family," he said softly. "It's just this whole thing with Tanya. If we have to hide our affections for one another from her, I think for us to able to have a healthy relationship we should be away from her."

"But we know she'll be okay after a while. We just have to give her time. She said that she's happy for us. We just sprung it on her and she needs a little time to adjust that's all. Plus your family is already so large and maybe people in Forks will start to get suspicious when your parents adopt another child that just happens to fall in love with another one of their adoptive children," I replied.

I wasn't stupid. I knew that Edward's lone reason was far better than mine combined but I really didn't want to part from my sisters. We'd all had an instant connection to each other and that had always been special to me. I'd felt like I'd found people that I'd belonged with. Of course, I belonged with Edward now too, so maybe I was just being greedy. I was free to be with Edward, Tanya had understood, and now there were no hard feelings between the three of us. Maybe in addition to that trying to stay with my sisters was like trying to have my cake and eat it too.

"Well how about we see how it goes with Tanya? If it looks like she'll able to handle us being together then we'll go to Russia," Edward said.

I could tell by the look in his eyes that he really didn't want to go. Edward had been with his family for a lot longer than I had been with mine. Of course we loved our families equally but it would probably be a lot harder for him to adjust without the Cullens than it would for me to adjust to living away from my sisters.

"No," I responded shaking my head. "We can stay here. It probably is for the best."

"But Bella I don't want you to be unhappy," he replied.

"I won't be. I have you," I smiled hoping that it looked more authentic than it felt. I kissed his lips and then got up to go for another walk. Edward grabbed my hand to stop me though and waited until I was looking into his eyes before speaking.

"We'll talk about this again. A decision doesn't have to be made today. Clearly neither of us is happy with the decision but we're too busy trying to sacrifice ourselves for the other. There has to be a way for both of us to be happy. We just have to take the time and find it," Edward said.

I grinned and swooped down to give him a real kiss. I pressed my forehead against his still smiling.

"I love you," I whispered.

"I love you too," he replied.

When I finally broke away from him, I told him that I was going for a quick hunt. He offered to come with me but I wanted to go alone. I wasn't even really thirsty, I just wanted to conduct a little experiment. I didn't want anyone to bear witness if I had a hard time taking down the blood of an elk when I used to be completely satisfied by it. I wasn't sure how gross animal blood would taste now that I'd had human blood and I needed to see how hard it would be for me to jump back on the band wagon.

I ran out into the woods and after about twenty minutes came across the scent of a few elk. I tried not to dwell on the fact that it didn't smell appealing at all. I focused instead on the thick wet thudding of it's heart. I tackled it down and snapped the neck before biting into his neck. Tangy bitter blood gushed into my mouth. I groaned at the taste but forced myself to keep drinking. Even when not thirsty, vampires had a subtle burn in their throats. I tried to tell myself that this blood, no matter how awful tasting, would soothe that burn and nothing else mattered.

That's what I tried to tell myself but actually all I could think about was the taste. It was nothing like how Dominic's had tasted, how pleasure more intense than an orgasm had filled and pulsated through my entire body and made me tingle all over with delight.

Abruptly I pushed the elk away from me undrained and sat down on the ground with my legs crossed and my face buried in my hands. I felt like such a failure, such a disappointment. Maybe my family didn't think of me that way, but I felt that way about myself.

"It just takes a little time. Don't worry. You're a natural vegetarian."

My whole body stiffened and I tried to hold back a growl. Even if I hadn't wanted to be alone right now, he was the last person I wanted to see. I didn't move and tried to pretend that I hadn't heard him in hopes that he would just go away. When I heard his footsteps coming closer instead of retreating, the beginnings of a growl rumbled deep in my chest as a warning for him not to bother me.

"Can I just explain," he asked.

"Go away."

"Please Bella, you're my friend and…," he began but I cut him off.

"Well then why couldn't you have just explained that to your fucking wife!" I shouted. My temper was worse than it probably would have been if I hadn't just failed at my first attempt at hunting again.

"I'm sorry," Jasper said stepping closer to me but I leapt to my feet and put more distance between us.

"Well you should be," I shrugged and crossed my arms over my chest. I wanted to go back to the house, back to Edward, but I would have to pass Jasper to do so and I knew that he would try to grab me to stop me. I wasn't sure how I would react to physical contact right now.

"She came to me saying that you weren't to be trusted. That you were using our friendship to get closer to me so that you could eventually sleep with me. I knew that she wasn't all that happy with all the time we spent alone but I didn't think that she thought that. She told me that she'd already talked to you and that if you bothered me again, I should let her know immediately," he told me.

I scoffed and turned away. I really wasn't interested in his little tale. I had more important shit to deal with. I decided to put Jasper and Alice on my list of reasons why staying with the Cullens wouldn't bode well.

"Bella! Please! Just listen to me," he exclaimed.

"Jasper, I really don't care," I said turning back to face him. "You and I don't have to be friends. I understand, really I do. If Edward told me to stay away from you, I'd do it in a heart beat. We're just not that important to one another," I shrugged again.

I could see that my lie had hurt him. I wanted to convince myself I didn't care because he had hurt me too but I just couldn't. I hardened my face as my insides softened at his expression of pain.

"You don't mean that," he said shaking his head. "You're just upset."

"Whatever makes you sleep at night," I replied. "Well…you know…figuratively," I added.

He chuckled and moved to close the space between us again. "Bella, you are important to me. She told me what she said to you and I was never so angry at Alice as I was at that moment," he said. "We argued for a long time that night. I told her she had no right to say anything like that to you and that you could spend as much time with me as you wanted. Then she got upset and said that I was probably enjoying your attention and that we were already sleeping with each other. It was a big mess and our biggest fight ever. I never agreed to stay away from you Bella but I could feel how confused and upset she was. I love you Bella, but I'm sure you can understand that she comes first. She's my wife and I love her more than anything. I wasn't used to feeling those emotions coming from her and I just wanted to make her feel better," he continued.

"I assured her that there was nothing going on beyond friendship between you and I. She nodded but I think she just didn't want to argue anymore. Things had been a little rocky between us ever since that fight so when you came to hug me I was more so trying to avoid another fight with her. I wasn't rejecting you," he said.

I chewed on my lip trying to decide whether this explanation was good enough. I mean, I really did understand that Alice came first in his life. Edward definitely came first for me. I tried to put myself in Jasper's place and tried to see myself doing something different. I would do anything to keep Edward from being upset. Why wouldn't Jasper be the same with Alice?

"It was really shitty of you to try to shake my hand in light of a deflected hug," I told him.

"You're right. There's no way I can explain that. It was some kind of fucked up reflex," he replied shaking his head sadly at the memory.

"You really hurt my feelings," I grumbled. "You were the only person I could talk to about Edward and I thought you had abandoned me."

"I know and I'm so sorry. It was never my intention, darlin. I would never abandon our relationship. You're my little sister," he replied.

It made me happy that he thought of me as his sister. I pursed my lips and glanced up at his face. He was smirking, clearly thinking that he'd gained my forgiveness.

"You look awfully smug for someone still skating on thin ice," I said.

"What can I do to make it better?"

"Apologize and call me darlin again," I said trying unsuccessfully not to smile.

"I'm sorry, darlin," Jasper exclaimed dramatically while simultaneously pulling me into a hug. I giggled and hugged him back.

"Next time you shun me to keep Alice happy, just push me away and forget the handshake all together," I told him.

"I'll keep that in mind," he said. "But I don't plan on shunning you again and I didn't shun you that time."

"Yea, yea whatever," I said pushing him back and raising my fists. "Now I'd like to kick your ass as a last punishment."

Ten minutes later I was face down on the ground.

"When will you learn, Grasshopper?" Jasper sighed.

TPOV

I'd thought Denali was a small town but Forks was about half the size of it. It was a great location for vampires like us looking for permanent residence but my sisters and I had never settled here. It was much too green and the men left much to be desired, good shopping was nonexistent and so was the night life. Bella liked to have a good time, I hoped that she didn't decide to stay here. I really didn't think Forks was the place for her. Seeing her with Edward would take some time getting used to but I think that seeing her happy with him would cure me. Not to mention while she would be constricted to one man, I would be free to roam and that was a definite plus.

I moseyed along down a sad little street looking for something to catch my interest, a distraction of some sort. I'd been thinking about my conversation with Bella for the last couple of hours and it was starting to exhaust me mentally. I couldn't help but feel a little guilty when I thought about all she'd done to keep herself away from Edward for my benefit. It showed how much she really loved me and how good of a person she was. I couldn't see myself doing anything that selfless.

On the flip side of things, I was still a little upset that she didn't trust in my love for her enough to think that she couldn't have just come to me. I know for a fact that I would have rather known sooner than later. Of course it wouldn't have been an easy conversation but it would have been better than the one we ended up having. I would have rather found out in a one on one conversation without everyone watching and her clinging to Edward like a life preserver.

And while I was sad that the distance Bella enforced hurt her, I was secretly elated that it had hurt Edward. I was still a little bitter that he pretended to want me all that time. Even though I hadn't gotten a chance to get revenge on my own, I felt as if Bella's refusal had gotten the job done. Now he knew how it felt to be turned away by someone you really wanted.

I found myself inside a miniscule diner, filled with dirty old men wearing flannel coats and trucker hats. Part of me wanted to just turn right back around and leave but my body seemed to have a mind of it's own. I walked over and sat on a steel bar stool at the counter with a ripped red cushioned seat. A tired looking old woman with frayed grey hair came over to take my order.

"Just a cup of coffee, please," I told her.

She nodded her head and brought me a cup and filled it. I poured in some sugar and milk and stirred it languidly watching the milk float like clouds in the dark liquid. My mind had wandered thinking about Russia and how it would be so good to be home again. I couldn't wait for Bella's first strip to Moscow, there were so many things I wanted to show her. I was snapped back to the present though when a mind bogglingly delicious scent filled my noise. I clasped my hand too tightly around my spoon bending the metal to the shape of the inside of my fist as I got myself under control.

My breathing picked up as the scent got closer to me and I felt the human's heat on my back. I spun around and found myself face to face with the most beautiful man in the universe. His skin was the most amazing russet complexion and his long dark glossy hair was pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. His eyes were so dark and his lips so full. He was just a little taller than me and with an athletic build. Not too big and not too thin. He was perfection.

"You new in town?" he asked.

His voice was deep, a little gravelly and totally sexy.

"Yea, I…I'm…um visiting family," I stammered. His beauty was making me stupid.

He chuckled and the sound did all kinds of things to my body. I had to cross my legs.

"The Cullens?" he asked.

My eyes widened in shock.

"Yea, how'd you know?" I responded.

He grinned exposing his magnificent pearly white teeth. He began to slowly lean in closer to me and I gasped in anticipation.

Was he going to kiss me?

God I hoped so!

Unfortunately, he did not. Instead he almost gave me a heart attack.

"Because I know what they are. And I know what you are."

He pulled back and he chuckled again at what had to be a comical expression of shock on my face. I didn't know what to say or do. Did he really know or did he mean something else? He cleared that up with his next statement. He brought his hand up and cupped my cheek. Despite all the turmoil raging inside me, I found myself leaning into his hot hand, enjoying the softness of his skin and the odd tingle that traveled down my body that sparked from his touch.

"You're a beautiful, beautiful vampire," he whispered.

"How…," I began feeling dazed and confused but he cut me off. He dropped his hand and before I could whimper at the loss of his touch he grabbed my hand. He tossed some money on the counter to pay for my coffee and nodded his head toward the exit.

"Don't worry," he smiled. "Come with me."

I nodded my head and let him lead me out of the diner.