Home Run Baby: A Sports Romance (11 page)

Trisha chews on her lip for a moment, thinking hard. “You grew up in Hartford, right?”

“Yeah,” he answers.

“Well, did you get a chance to see her while you were in town for the last few games?”

“I did,” he nods. “She showed up at the stadium and we had a good…
chat.
”

“I don’t suppose you’ll let me in on the details of that little
chat
, would you?”

He smiles. “No.”

Trisha leans closer to him and runs a finger up his arm. “Oh, no problem, honey. I’ve got the rest of the season to pry that out of you and, believe me, what Trisha Wells wants, she usually gets.”

“I don’t doubt that,” he says, clearing his throat. He looks in my direction, his eyes bouncing between me and Devin behind me.

“Hey, Trisha!” Devin says, leaning forward. “You know, I’ve been on the road with the guy for a while now. I’d be happy to sit down with you sometime soon and tell some good stories — maybe over a cup of coffee or some breakfast.”

Trisha looks right through him. “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind,” she says dryly.

“Excellent.” He winks at her and sits back in his seat.

The interruption seems to have been enough to distract her interest. Trisha takes out of her phone and scrolls through emails while Hunter enjoys the peaceful silence for a few minutes. Eventually, he takes out his own phone and I feel mine vibrate in my pocket.

Take a walk with me tonight?

I glance around, careful for spying eyes as Hunter looks at me for an answer. His eyes flash with expectation and devious playfulness. Even my senses tingle a bit at the idea of having a secret conversation under everyone’s noses.

I send a text back to him.

You asking me on a date?

I peek at him again and his lips curl as he nods at me.

My fingers move discretely, tapping another reply.

Sure. But no sex.

He reads it and throws on a pouty face.

I raise an amused brow and send another text.

We should take things slow.

Hunter nods again as his thumbs tap at his screen.

Agreed. I’ll pick you up at nine.

I slip my phone back into my pocket and smile at him across the aisle.

Chapter 14

Hunter

I knock on her door and wait.

I shouldn’t be nervous but I am. I shouldn’t be thinking about the fact that she’s pregnant with my kid but I am. There’s a whole lot about this situation that just shouldn’t be but there’s nothing I can do about that right now. The only thing I can do — that either of us can do — is take a deep breath and start from the beginning, like we both agreed.

The door opens and Daisy smiles at me.

“Hey,” she says. “Come on in.”

I step inside, quickly glancing over my shoulder for witnesses before closing the door behind me. “Ready to go?” I ask.

“Yes,” she answers, stepping into a pair of shoes lying on the floor near the bed.

I look around the room and I chuckle at the state of it. Clothes of every color lie draped over the chairs or tossed on the floor by the mirror in the bathroom.

“What?”
she snaps, staring daggers at me as she slips on her jacket.

“We’ve only been here a few hours.”

“So?”

“How do you trash a motel room in
a few hours
?”

“Oh, please,” she laughs, “this is nothing. You should see my apartment.”

“I think I’ll pass.”

“Suit yourself.” She throws her purse over her shoulder. “Let’s go.”

We step out and she locks the door behind us. We head down the balcony and round the corner towards the stairs but a head of long, red hair in front of my door stops us in our tracks.

Daisy hops back.
“Oh, shhh—”

She grabs my hand and yanks me with her. We disappear behind the corner before Trisha notices we’re here. Daisy covers her mouth to silence her chuckles and I lay a finger over my lips as I peek around with one eye.

Trisha knocks on my door, posing elegantly with her cleavage arranged in just the right way. After a few seconds of impatience, she knocks again, this time louder and faster. Finally, she rolls her big, painted eyes and marches away, stomping down the stairs to her own room on the first floor.

“Wow…”
Daisy mutters. “She wants it.”

“Oh, I am
flattered
,” I joke.

She pokes her head around the corner. “Is she gone?”

I nod, looking down at Daisy’s playful face. “Why are we hiding?”

“Do
you
want to piss off the woman writing an article about you?”

“Fair point.”

“And I don’t want to piss off my new boss when she’s trying to mark her territory,” she adds.

“Another fair point.”

“Also, I figured
you
would have told her you weren’t single if you wanted her to know about us.”

I bite my lip. “She caught me off-guard, Daisy. I wasn’t expecting her to ask stuff like that right off the bat… or
at all
, really.”

Daisy pushes off the wall and rounds the corner towards the stairs. “It’s okay,” she says. “It’s not like we labeled this or anything.”

I catch up to her and we walk side-by-side. “Should we?”

“Maybe,” she whispers as we glide down the stairs, “but not before the first date.”

We move the rest of the way in silence, staying light on our feet as we pass by Trisha’s door and through the parking lot.

The motel drifts off behind us and disappears from sight as we reach the park nearby.

Daisy loosens up and we slow our stride as we enter the grounds. Several people pass us by on the sidewalk, including couples young and old, linked by the arms and completely unaware of others around them. This must be a popular late-night hangout for local lovers. My hand twitches, wondering if we should do the same but I keep my hands at my sides.

“So, where are we going?” she asks.

“You’ll see,” I say. Her face flinches. Daisy Hawthorne obviously isn’t the type that likes surprises. “It’s not far. Just another minute and you’ll know exactly where we are.”

The baseball stadium comes into view and I glance at her as confusion sets in.

I say nothing, filling my lungs with the familiar scent. They all smell like this. The air is still heavy with the lingering scent of popcorn and hot dogs. I can almost hear the announcer off in the distance, calling out every play as they happen.

“What the hell are we doing back here?” she asks me as I lead her around the dark, abandoned building.

“Well… if I’ve still got my skills from a misspent youth…” I pause by the side exit and yank the door open, “then we’re breaking into a baseball diamond.”

She raises a brow, her little eyes sparkling towards the pitch black hallways. “We are?”

I gesture her in. “After you, Daisy.”

Hesitation claims her for a short moment as she glances around for spying eyes. We rush inside and I let the door latch behind us. I take hold of her arm in the dark and guide her, pretending that I know exactly where we’re going.

“Why are we breaking into a baseball diamond?” she whispers.

I match her volume. “Because it’s fun.”

“Isn’t it also illegal?”

“That’s what makes it
fun
.”

“Misspent youth, huh?” she teases. “Were you a
bad boy
?”

“I might have been.”

She chuckles as we round the dim corner and step outside onto the field. Our path is barely illuminated by the towering buildings nearby and the bright moon above our heads.

“Okay…” I lead her to home plate. “Stand here.”

“Hunter, what—”

The stadium lights pop on and I grin.

She jolts with the slightest rush of adrenaline. “Okay, how did we
really
get in here? Who’s up there?”

I turn and wave towards the media room at the top of the bleachers. “I bribed a janitor.”

“You bribed a janitor? With what?”

“I told him you’d blow him.”

Her jaw drops in horror.
“Hunter.”

I crack up. “I’m kidding. I signed a few baseballs for his kids… and then
I
blew
him
.”

She laughs. “Oh, that’s okay, then.”

“Good.”

“Jeez,” she says, scanning the stadium, “is this really what it’s like out here?”

I keep my gaze on her, admiring the light as it brightens her eyes. “Yeah, it is.”

“I can only imagine what it’s like when this place is packed.”

“It’s…” I break away to look around. “It’s something else, that’s for sure.”

“Now it’s just extra crazy that you hit me with that baseball,” she says. “Of all the seats in the stadium.”

“Yeah, no kidding.”

We start walking around the diamond, taking the straight path towards first base.

“So,” she says, looking at me.
“Baseball.”

“Baseball,” I repeat.

“How long have you been playing?”

I grin. “Since I was a kid. I played little league and then high school ball and then went right into the minors after that.”

“Hence why you never went to college,” she recalls.

“Precisely. It didn’t take long to recruit up from the rookie leagues. I played Double-A for Hartford for the last two seasons but then I got traded to New Jersey this year mid-season.”

“Interesting…” She hums softly.

“So,” I say, spinning around and walking backwards down the white line in front of her.
“Photography.”

“Photography,” she repeats.

“How long have you been snapping pictures?”

She grins. “Ever since my dad let me play with his old Polaroid camera when I was ten.”

“Really?”

“It didn’t take long before I ran out of film,” she says, “but my mother didn’t like me messing with it so she refused to buy me more — not that Polaroid film was easy to find in the first place at that point.”

“Why didn’t she like you messing with it?”

“Because
he
gave it to me.” She shrugs. “They divorced when Rose and I were five and disagreeing with each other was more of a principle than anything else.”

“Right…”

“She’s never been a big fan of me pursuing art.”

“What did she want you to do instead?”

She stops and laughs at her feet. “She wanted me to be a
lawyer
, like
her
.”

I wince.
“Boring.”

“That’s what I said!” She shakes her head. “She wanted Rose to be one, too, but she chose to go into Chemistry instead and Rose can do no wrong anyway, so…” Her shoulders bounce. “Mom let it slide.”

“You don’t seem to have a lot in common with your twin,” I note.

“And you’d be correct. Rose is more or less the perfect daughter and I’m…” she inhales a deep breath, holding it for a long moment before finally letting it out,
“not.”

“Well, you seem just fine to me so far.”

It brings a quick smile to her face but it doesn’t last long. “I left home at eighteen,” she says, “came out to the east coast to be on my own and prove her wrong but… that hasn’t really panned out.”

“Hence why you haven’t told her about the baby yet.”

“Ha!” She grins. “Oh, she’s going to have a field day on that one, let me tell ya. There will be
I told you so
parades flooding the streets from here to California until the day its born.”

I chuckle. “It can’t be that bad.”

“It’ll be bad enough.” She looks up at me. “So, what about you? Are you a big failure for Mommy, too?”

“Not really,” I answer. “My parents are my biggest fans.”

“Cool.”

She starts again, walking slowly along the diamond and I trail beside her from base to base. After a few moments of silence, she turns to me.

“Was that true?” she asks.

“Was what true?”

“What you told Trisha earlier. About how you think about me a lot… or, you know, I
assume
you were talking about me, anyway…”

I pause, smiling. “Yeah, that was true.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

She looks down at her feet.
“Really?”

I chuckle. “Does that surprise you?”

“Kind of.”

“Why?”

She hesitates. “I guess I never thought of myself as someone that people think about, if that makes sense.”

“You were the first thing I thought of when we arrived in Hartford the other day,” I tell her. “We drove by the bar as we went through downtown and I wondered what you were doing, who you were with… if you were happy.”

Her eyes pop up. “You did?”

“After that night, I wanted to get to know you better but I was leaving and…” I shake my head. “I don’t know, maybe a part of me knew that this wasn’t over.”

She grins. “Well, I definitely didn’t have that part in
me
.”

“Oh, yeah?”