Love's Little Instruction Book

Free Love's Little Instruction Book by Mary Gorman Page B

Book: Love's Little Instruction Book by Mary Gorman Read Free Book Online
Authors: Mary Gorman
Tags: Romance, Contemporary
He didn’t quite catch exactly what it was she’d said. The second pitch was more to his liking — clean, straight, and just over the plate.
    Denise’s voice sounded in his ears. “Come on, Dave!” He hesitated just for a split second as he registered her words. A split second too long. His timing was impaired. He swung and connected, but it wasn’t the solid hit that he had hoped for.
    Tom Ford, the Soap Opera Stars’ pitcher, close personal friend of Todd O’Connor, Greek God, and despoiler of dreams, took a few careful steps forward off of the mound, held up his glove, and neatly snagged the pop up.
    Out.
    Denise patted Dave’s shoulder consolingly as he returned to the ’MTR bench. “Nice try, Dave,” she sympathized. He couldn’t think of anything to say to her in reply. He didn’t want her sympathy. He wanted her admiration, the thunder and the glory, to be a hero in her eyes. Not sympathy. He pressed his lips together and took his place on the end of the aluminum bench to wait out the rest of the inning.
    • • •
    Denise walked up to the plate in the ninth inning, grim faced. She knew that this would probably be her last time at bat, and while it was no disgrace to go down swinging, she didn’t want to be the only one on the team who hadn’t registered at least one hit during the course of the game. They were down by one run; she could be the tying run if she could just hit the damn ball. She wondered how hard it would be to get walked, then discarded the idea. The Stars’ pitcher was too good and Denise only had a faint notion of where the strike zone was anyway.
    The first pitch came blistering by after a windup that left Denise dazzled. Strike . Darn! Why couldn’t the station have taken on the Soap Opera Stars in bowling instead? At least in bowling a strike was a good thing. She stepped up to the plate again and drew up into her stance, trying to do it just the way Todd had showed her — knees bent, shoulders forward, butt out. Keep your eye on … the ball was already hurtling toward her. She barely had time to blink before swinging, but by then it was too late — the bat fanned aimlessly after the ball. Oh well , she thought, shaking her head. At least she’d go down swinging.
    Someone on the Stars’ bench yelled something encouraging to Tom Ford, who laughed and smiled. The laugh annoyed Denise. If she was going to be humiliated, she wanted it to at least look like they had to work to do it.
    Then the Stars’ pitcher made a major mistake. He got cocky. He wanted to show just how bad a hitter Denise was. Instead of a wind up, he lobbed a slow, underhanded pitch.
    Denise saw it coming. She recognized that this pitch was different. She kept her eye on the ball as it flew towards her. She watched it as she swung. She saw it as it caught on the bottom edge of the bat and felt the impact as it vibrated up her arms and to her shoulders. She kept her eye on the ball as it fell to the ground and rolled feebly in front of her. It was funny. She was so focused on the sight of the ball that she didn’t register any sounds; not the crack of the bat, not the roar of the crowd, not even the angry exclamation from the Star’s pitcher.
    Nothing, until Presley screamed “ Run! ”
    Denise suddenly snapped back into real time. The catcher was rising from his crouch and the pitcher was starting forward from the mound. The first baseman planted one foot on the base and extended her gloved hand forward, yelling, “Throw it! Throw it!”
    And Presley was still screaming “Run!”
    She ran.
    She had no idea what was going on behind her as she tore her way up the baseline. Her boobs bounced, her ponytail flapped behind her, and she kept her eyes fixed on first base as she pounded toward it. She thought briefly of trying to slide into first, but was afraid she’d stop cold in the dirt and sit there like a giant clod, so she ran, getting there pretty much at the same time she heard the ball slap against

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