Around midday I hear a knock on the door which turns out to be Emily calling over to invite me to Kelly's welcome home party.
I cook some mini quiches and cupcakes to take with me before having a shower.
As I'm trying to decide what to wear I hear Ember calling from the lounge. I pull on my dressing gown before going to see what she wants.
"Well hello Miss Ember. Does your mummy know where you are?"
"Yip. See." She points out the door toward down the main house where Emily is standing on the porch. "She said I could come visit but I had to see if it was okay first. So is it? She said to give her the thumbs up if I could stay."
I lean out and flash Emily a thumbs up before heading back inside with Ember. "So Miss Ember, I was just about to pick something to wear to the party. Wanna help?"
"Yip! Tripp got me this pretty party dress to wear. Do you like it?" She twirls around to show me. It's a cute purple dress with little black skulls around the bottom and black ribbon straps. She has a long sleeve top and leggings on underneath.
"It's very cool. I've actually got a dress a bit like that too." I pull it out of the wardrobe. It's fitted to the waist then flows out to a handkerchief hem at knee length with a v neck and black lacing down the back to the waist. It's a deep purple colour.
"Wow, you should wear that. We can be twins."
"Okay." I pull the dress on over my bra and knickers before locating a pair of black sandals. I find a black shrug as well in case it gets cold.
"How does that look?" I ask Ember.
"You look pretty," she smiles.
"Thanks hun," I pull out the hair dryer and blast my hair. I scrunch through some curl booster and leave it out. A quick swipe of mascara and some lip balm and I'm good to go. I sprits on some perfume before we head out. Ember insists on having some too.
"Well I think we're ready. And looking pretty awesome as well."
"We look hot!" Ember giggles.
"Yeah we do. Let's go help your mum," I say as we grab the baking and head out the door.
"I can't wait to see Uncle Kelly again. He's cool. Did you know he's been shot four times?" She tells me as we walk over to the main house.
"Wow. He's pretty lucky to be alive. He must have a guardian angel."
"Knock, knock! Need some help in here?" I call out as Ember and I come in the open front door.
"Hello sweets. In the kitchen!" Emily calls back.
Ember and I come into the kitchen to find Emily up to her eyeballs in plates of food. Ember and I put ours down on the table.
"What shall we do?" I ask.
"Um everything needs to be taken outside. The drink buckets need to be filled with ice and drinks. The rest of the outdoor chairs need to be set up. And I need to get changed." She finally looks up and smiles, "So not too much to do. You two look gorgeous. And you match."
"We're twins!" Ember tells her happily.
"So you are."
"Okay Em, you go get dressed. Ember and I will sort this lot out. Go on. Take your time."
She lets out a sigh, "thanks Peyton. I won't be long."
Ember and I take everything out to the barbeque table and cover it with a cloth. Then we set the chairs out. We are just taking the ice buckets out when Emily comes back. We all fill them and stick the drinks in, beer for the adults and soda for the kids.
"Now take a deep breath, have a beer and relax for a few minutes," I tell her. "I have a feeling it's going to be a long night."
"These nights usually are," she says while settling into one of the deck chairs.
Not more than two minutes later people start turning up. And they just keep coming.
"Did you get me a beer bro?" a deep voice calls out as Colin hands me a beer from the bucket.
"Sure Kelly, here," he passes one over.
"Kelly. Nice to, officially, meet you. I even have clothes on this time," I laugh as I hold up a hand to shake his.
He turns to me and smiles. Or at least he starts to. His face sort of freezes in place, a half smile on his lips. He just stares at me not saying anything. What amazing grey eyes.
"Ah hi. I'm Peyton. We sort of almost met this morning."
"Oh, yeah, um, hi. I'm Kelly," he finally snaps out of it and takes my hand. And then keeps holding it. Way past the point of appropriateness.
"Hmm, well nice to meet you. I'm just going to go see Rachel and the babies now," I extricate my hand from his grasp and walk off. That was super weird.
I head over to chat to Rachel and have a cuddle with her beautiful girls.
After a couple hours Rachel takes the girls home. Ember and Levi are running round on a sugar high. I keep noticing Kelly watching me. Kind of creepy. But damn that man is sexy. Trust me to fancy the crazy one.
"Peyton," Ember and Levi are looking at me with puppy dog eyes.
"What?" I ask nervously.
"Can you play hide and seek with us? Please?"
"I guess so. Is anyone else playing?"
"Yep," Tripp answers from behind me. "Ember told me I had to." He's smiling though. He cannot seem to say no to that girl.
"And Uncle Embry said he'd play too. He just got here," Levi says.
"Hey Peyton, Tripp," Embry says as he joins us.
"Hey. So shall I count first?"
"Yeah, yeah. Close your eyes," Ember tells me.
After we've decided on some boundaries I sit in a chair, cover my eyes and start counting. Tripp, Embry and the twins all rush off in different directions.
When I get to fifty I can feel someone watching me.
"Hey are you okay?" Deep voice. Mmm.
"Yeah, I'm good. I'm playing hide and seek with the twins. I'm it."
"Oh, okay. Do you want some help searching? They're really good."
"Sure." I get up and head in the direction of the house with Kelly following me.
"Sorry if I freaked you out before."
"Don't worry about it. Anyway, I hear you're officially retired. So what are you going to do now?" I ask as we search the house.
"Not sure yet. I think I'm just gonna do nothing for awhile. What about you? What do you do?"
"Oh I'm in the book industry."
"Okay, cool. So how long are you going to be in La Push for?"
"Another few weeks at least. Longer if I can find another place to stay. Emily and Sam have the cabin booked out from the end of June."
We head outside and look around by the cars. Kelly finds Levi huddled in the back seat of Jacobs truck. I find Ember hiding under the food table. Tripp is hiding up a tree and Embry is nowhere to be found. Levi starts to count and I quickly head inside. I noticed the linen cupboard was huge when I was in here with Kelly. I step in and pull the door closed after myself.
"Hey beautiful," a voice says from behind me. I jump about a mile and turn around.
Embry is standing there grinning.
"Have you been in here the whole time?"
"Na. I was outside, then after you looked in here I came in."
"Cheater. No wonder we couldn't find you."
He pulls me in and wraps his arms around my waist. "So, you wanna fool around?"
"You always know just what to say to make a girl swoon don't you," I laugh.
"You know it," he leans down and presses his lips softly to mine. "Did I mention how beautiful you look?" He kisses me again.
"You might have. Feel free to say it as much as you like. It does my ego good."
His mouth covers mine, our tongues dancing in a familiar rhythm. And then the door bursts open. I quickly pull away from Embry and turn to see who has found us.
Levi is jumping up and down giggling, "Ew. Girl germs!" he yells before running off.
Kelly, on the other hand looks like he's about to explode. His fists are clenched tight and his whole body is shaking.
You know that old expression 'if looks could kill'? Pretty sure Embry and I would be lying in pools of our own blood right about now.
"Hi. You seem to pop up at the most inopportune moments don't you," I try to laugh off the tension.
"Ah, you alright Kelly?" Embry asks nervously.
"Get your filthy hands off her you fucking bastard. Get the fuck away from her!" Kelly is livid, screaming at Embry.
"What the hell is going on?" I'm rather confused at his reaction.
"Just go outside Peyton. Let me talk to Kelly for a minute," Embry nudges me past Kelly. I don't stick around, quickly making my way to the back door. As I'm heading outside I'm pretty sure I hear someone getting hit.
"Sam! Tripp! You guys better get in there. I think someone is getting their butt kicked." They're both already up and running for the house before I'm finished talking. Navah, Heath and Jacob aren't far behind them.
Emily rushes over to me. "What the hell is going on in there?" she asks worriedly.
"Your guess is as good as mine. Kelly seems to have lost his mind."
"Well what were you doing?"
"Um, Embry and I were hiding." I'm pretty sure I'm blushing by this point.
"Oh. Well, I'm sure Sam will get Kelly calmed down. Don't worry about it," she assures me.
"Yeah well, I might head home now. I'll see you later," I give her a quick hug and make my escape.
As I walk back to the cabin I can hear wolves howling and snarling. They sound pretty close which makes me walk even faster.
Eleven men standing in the forest. Then they morph into eleven huge wolves crouched low and ready for battle.
Injured wolf. Kelly, hurting. He's bleeding, flickering between wolf and man. Wolf. Man. Wolf. Man.
I wake up drenched in sweat. Am I losing my mind? Kelly's going to get hurt. But it can't be real. People don't turn into animals. It's just not possible.
Time to do some investigating.