Charlie never could understand my natural aversion to sports. After all, I was the daughter of a die-hard Mariner’s fan and the wife of a minor league shortstop. I should have developed at least some degree of respect for people who could run across an outfield without breaking a bone. He never really understood that I respected anyone with coordination on some level, but that after years of hearing his sports lectures, the words ‘pop fly’ made me twitch.

Edward was more helpful. The last two times Emmett had invited me to go throw the ball around, my loving husband had invented an urgent errand for me to run. Renesmee had instead taken a turn chucking the ball at Uncle Emmett while he barely flicked it at her. According to Edward, there were few things more amusing than a guy who could rip a bear’s head off trying to go easy on an one-year-old. I was sorry that I’d missed the show, but was grateful that I hadn’t had to test out my sports skills on my brother-in-law.

Tonight, though, I should have been paying closer attention to the weather. The usual thunderheads had been racing towards Forks like something out of The Perfect Storm, but it was supposed to swing Southwest after paying a cursory visit to town.

The first sign that something was amiss came not from Alice as it usually did, but from the sound of a Dodge Stratus pulling off the highway at unsafe speeds. I heard quite a few of those each day, but this one had a barely-perceptible click in the fuel pump that was unique to only one car in my experience.

For whatever reason, Tanya and the coven had decided to visit.

“Tanya,” Esme greeted them as soon as they stepped out of the car. “This is a pleasant surprise.”

“It shouldn’t have been a surprise,” Kate countered. “I had it on good authority…”

“GAME ON!”

It was times like this that I wished my human hearing had been left intact. Emmett was normally loud and at this moment, he came close to rupturing my eardrums.

Garrett grinned broadly. “We still on for tonight?”

“Damn right we are,” Emmett laughed. “Do you know how long it’s been since we had a decent center-fielder?”