Sam had been coaching Little League for three years, but it was the first time I'd made it to a game.

"Cody, eyes on the ball!" Sam yelled to Holly's little boy, who wasn't so little anymore. Cody had grown a foot since I'd seen him last, when a psychotic trapped him in a trashcan. That might sound like extraordinary circumstances, but it was normal for me. These days, it seemed like I only saw people when their lives were in danger.

I sat by myself on the top row of the bleachers. I'd thought about sitting with Holly, a few rows down, but she was on a date with her fiancé Hoyt. He had his arm around her shoulders and was cheering Cody louder than any of the real dads. I hadn't wanted to spoil their family time and I didn't know the other spectators well. All of them were older than me—Holly had Cody young. Most were in twosomes: moms and dads, boyfriends and girlfriends. I was the only one without a kid on the field.

Sam chose that moment to catch my eye. He smiled. The bits of Sam's hair peeking out from under his baseball cap glinted copper in the evening light. I was too far away to catch his thoughts, but he gave me a little wave so I wouldn't have to. He was thinking of me. I waved back. Maybe we could get dinner at Crawdad's after the game. All of a sudden, I felt giddy. My heart sped up and I couldn't help grinning. The intensity of my reaction surprised me. Sam smiled at me all the time.

"Hello, lover."

I glared at Eric, sitting next to me in what had been empty space ten seconds earlier. So my weird happiness hadn't come from Sam. I should have known. The longer I lived with Eric's bond the less I was able to separate it from my real feelings and the more it scared me.

Eric stretched out like he owned the field, resting his long legs on the row of bleachers in front of us. His usually perfect hair was messy from flying in to ambush me. "Hi," I said, through clenched teeth. Eric wasn't on my favorite person list. I hadn't seen him in two days. That might not seem like a lot, but it was practically an eternity considering how much time we'd been spending together.

Since Eric's family got staked in my yard, we'd been going at it three times a night, maybe more. There was something about his newfound freedom that made him horny and him horny always revved my engine. We hadn't talked about what had gone down that night, which was fine by me. What was there to say? A lot of people die when we hang out? The conversation wasn't leading anywhere good.

"You are still angry at me." Eric said. Between the bond, the stink-eye I was giving him, and the two days of incommunicado, I was surprised it took him this long to figure me out.

"I'm going to Sam's brother's wedding." We'd had this fight two days ago, which precipitated the not hanging-out. I was already missing the regular sex, but I'd rather swear celibacy than admit it to Eric.

Eric moved closer to me. I leaned into him without meaning to. He didn't look at me, but he smiled. I could feel something close to satisfaction rolling across the bond. Jerk. I looked around for Sam. As one of two adults on the field, he wasn't hard to find. Sam's had his back to us as he shouted at his kids, but there was something deliberate in the way he faced away from the bleachers. I figured Sam had seen Eric arrive. No one else paid us any mind.

If Sam was deliberately not looking at us, Eric was deliberately not looking at me. His eyes were fixed on the field. Sam's team, in blue caps, was at bat against the red caps from Monroe. "You're not here for Little League," I said to Eric.

"No." Sometime in the silence Eric had wrapped his arm around my waist. It felt so natural I hadn't noticed. I minded that I didn't mind. "I came to say goodbye before you go."

"Thanks," I said, teeth still clenched. Two nights ago, Eric made a big stink over the wedding. He said he didn't want me leaving because I would be outside his protection, but he was jealous of me taking a trip with another man. Eric knew there was nothing between Sam and me. Even if there were, I wasn't the kind of woman who cheated.

This was as close to an apology as Eric would give me. While I appreciated him trying, I wasn't going to back down because he'd finally realized he couldn't stop me from having my own life. He'd be happy if he could keep me on a leash.

My annoyance must have filtered through the bond, because Eric slipped his arm off my waist. Suddenly, the bleachers exploded in cheers. I looked up in time to see Cody slide across home plate. Sam clapped Cody on the back. Holly jumped up and down, clutching Hoyt's hand as he wolf-whistled. Hoyt grinned at the people near him and even turned around to give me a thumbs up. I waved back, so I saw the moment Hoyt noticed Eric. Hoyt's smile tamped down a notch and he gave Eric an awkward nod.

Eric didn't say anything, but I felt something thrum in the bond. Anger, maybe, or even embarrassment? Or were those my own feelings? For whatever reason, Eric's discomfort touched me in a way his apology hadn't. I felt protective of him. After all, he was on my turf.

"Come here." I scooted close to Eric and tucked my hand into the back pocket of his jeans. There was only a thin layer of cotton between me and Eric's best asset. Yum. "It's only for a weekend."

"I will see you Monday." This was Eric's way of asking me to stay over.

"Sure." There was no reason not to visit him. Besides, I would want to see Eric after a weekend of no physical contact. I wanted to 'see' him now and he was sitting next to me.

Some agreement achieved, we were quiet. I watched Cody race down the at-bat line, collecting high fives. Eric stared at the back of Hoyt's head. "Do you enjoy this game?" he asked.

"I'm here to support Sam." I said, then regretted it. It wasn't the most delicate comment considering our fight, but that didn't make it less true. Eric acted like he hadn't heard me, which was one way of dealing with it. I tried to dredge up other reasons why I was here so the Sam issue wouldn't loom so large. "I like kids. I like baseball. I played softball when I was in school. It's a lot like this, except the ball is different. I was pitcher. That's the person throwing to the one with the bat."

"I also played a game like this while I was alive," Eric volunteered, surprising me. He almost never spoke of his human life. "We hit a ball with a stick. Otherwise there are not many similarities."

"Did you like it?"

"Yes."

"Do you miss it?"

"Being a vampire is better."

"Well, I miss softball." Nowadays I got out my aggression beating up supes, or in the case of Bruno, knifing them. I missed the days when no one got hurt and I could feel better by throwing a strike out.

"I will miss you when you are gone." Eric surprised me again. "Pam is not the same."

"It's because she doesn't let you in her pants."

"That is not the reason." I was afraid Eric was going to take the conversation somewhere serious until his smile turned into a leer. "At least, not the main reason."

I laughed. Flirting was more familiar territory than goodbye. "I'll miss you too." I sighed and put my head on his shoulder. It felt good to have Eric sitting next to me. It was much easier to be mad at him when he was away in Shreveport. "Honestly, I've missed you these past two days. I hate fighting."

"You could agree with me more."

Eric said it like he was joking and maybe he was, a little, but I knew there was part of him that really meant it. "What do you want me to say, Eric?"

"I want you to come back safe," he said. "I want you to miss me. I want you to never see the shifter again."

I'd handed Eric an opening and he'd run with it. I should have known better. "What if I gave you two out of three?"

"Not good enough."

"It's going to have to be. I have my own life."

"Yes," he said, I think to shut me up. Then he kissed me. It did a more effective job of shutting me up than any words he could have used.

Eric and I had our share of problems, but physical compatibility has never been one of them. My heart sped up as his lips moved over mine. I heard myself moan and had to pull back. There were kids on the field.

When we broke apart, I saw Sam staring at us. Little blue-hatted batters crowded around him, oblivious. When Sam noticed that I'd noticed him, he looked away.

Eric noticed too. He didn't hide his smile. "He will not bother you."

"He wasn't going to." I was mad.

Eric laughed and kissed my cheek. "See you Monday, lover." Then he was gone. I felt a whoosh of air, so I figured he'd taken off. Sam's team was still at-bat and everyone was focused on the game, so they missed the flying Viking.

Monroe's red hats squeaked out a win, even with Cody's home run. I was too embarrassed about Eric's smooch to find Sam after the game, but I ended up chatting with Holly and Hoyt. I got to my car after most people had left. Sam was still around, loading bats into his pickup. I wondered if he'd been waiting for me.

"Good game," I called to him. The lot was so small I couldn't avoid him. After Eric's display, I wanted to run home, but Sam and I were going out of town together this weekend. I had to face him.

As was usual with him, Sam didn't waste time dancing around the problem. "So Eric's not happy about the wedding?"

"He can stuff it." I said. "I want to have a nice, normal weekend. I don't want to think about blood or bonds or vampires or anything but meeting your folks."

Sam smiled. "Ok. Normal I can do."

I thought I'd feel better after clearing the air, but I felt the same, maybe even worse. What I really wanted was a weekend without people dying all around me. That's basically what I meant by 'normal,' but if I told Sam that, he'd know how screwed up my life really was.

I said goodbye to Sam, drove home, and threw clothes into an overnight bag. It was only midnight when I climbed into bed. There were five hours until dawn and seven until Sam and I left for the wedding. I missed Eric, but figured that was the lack of sex talking. I reached for my phone to call him, then put it back. I had to be awake soon. He was busy in Shreveport. Dealing with him would make me mad or sad.

Maybe a weekend apart would do us good.

Belongs to Charlaine Harris and HBO. Thanks for reading and reviewing!