A second chance

Chapter 15

Bella watched, amazed, as the Cullens played. She remembered Afton and Felix once playing baseball in the hall with an expensive vase. She had laughed from the sidelines... with Renata..

Esme had been telling Bella stories of her own past. She now found out the reason why Esme had jumped from a cliff. She hadn't known what to say, but luckily, Esme didn't want to talk about it for long either.

She kept up a running commentary and Bella was able to understand the rules of baseball much better with only one, calm, collected voice explaining it to her.

She saw how Edward had an adorable habit of glancing over at her whenever he did a home run. She would always beam and give him an eager thumbs up and he would turn away but she could tell from the way his cheeks were shaped, that he was grinning.

One time, Emmett was being careless and the ball flew straight at Bella's face with full force, so quickly she had no time to react. Luckily, Alice, having seen what would have happened, was able to jump and grab the ball before it touched her.

Edward spent the next 10 minutes screaming at Emmett and he wouldn't back down. So, in the end, Bella had to go over and calm him down, which took another 10 minutes.

"Jasper," Rosalie scoffed. "In what fucking world was that a foul?!"

"This one!" Jasper scowled.

They both turned to face Esme and Bella.

They shrugged simultaneously.

Suddenly, Alice who had been chatting to Edward on the other side of the field, stopped talking and froze.

"What is it?" Jasper asked, rushing to her side.

Edward froze too. "Do you think..?" He asked Alice.

"Maybe... it could have been them."

"You guys know how much that pisses me off, right?" Emmett sighed.

It didn't take long for them all to realise that now was not the time for jokes.

"How long?" Edward asked.

"A minute?"

"What the hell is going on?" Rosalie demanded.

Alice and Edward turned to look at Carlisle. "There are 3 vampires on their way," Alice said. "They were just going to pass through, but they heard our game."

"We're not sure if maybe they've been killing the humans," Edward said. "And I can't know unless they think about it."

"If it was them, maybe it's a good thing we'll see them first," Carlisle said, obviously thinking of the wolves.

"They're not dangerous, though. Right?" Esme asked.

Edward shook his head. "I'm sure they would also respect it if we asked them not to hunt in the area."

Emmett chuckled. "Even if they didn't, how many did yo say there were? Three?" He scoffed and flexed his muscles.

They all spun round as they saw 3 people emerging from the woods.

The Cullens stepped forward, slowly, to meet them half way.

"Hello," a dark skinned man greeted. "I am Laurent." He had a hint of a French accent. "These are James," he inclined his head at a tall dirty blonde man, "and Victoria." The redhead clinging onto James.

"I'm Carlisle," Carlisle smiled. "This is my family." He gestured at the others. "I'm afraid that your hunting activities have caused something of a mess for us."