Page 15 of Picking Daisies on Sundays

I may have just gagged a bit.

You can’t blame me for being worried. Who wouldn’t want to impress someone they’re interested in? Especially when I’ll possibly be compared to Bella this entire time.

As if on cue, I watched her come into view. She was sat on one of the benches in the dugout lacing up her sneakers. She wore denim cutoffs, a baseball jersey, and blonde hair in an elastic. She looked like one of those models on a baseball costume package.

Bella snapped her head up, spotting Levi’s presence I assume, giving him a big smile and wave before she got up to walk towards us—him. It was like watching the star of a romance film make her entrance.

I immediately looked down at my tank top and linen button

down, its fabric shaping my short torso but doing nothing for my boobs. I looked back at Bella’s full chest to compare, as if that

would help my case—worst idea ever. Was this some sick joke? She had to have big boobs? Really?

What was it like to be that beautiful?

Guys didn’t care that much about boob size anymore, right?

I already imagined Jia and Gabe’s responses: “Why the hell would you thinkthat? Do you not know the male population?”

It shouldn’t matter; it’s the 21stcentury and I shouldn’t look at my body as something to satisfy a man.

But then I looked up at Levi as Bella approached him. All dreamy gazes and sensual smiles as he watched her.

There was a pinch that clung to my heart. I instantly wanted to curl into a ball; my hand instinctively going to my shorter ponytail before my arms held each other in front of my chest. Maybe I should’ve put on more makeup or worn a thicker bra.

“Hello Levi,” Bella said as she embraced him. Does her voice always sound sensual?

Levi returned the embrace, but his words were much more formal, as if he were trying to keep emotional distance. “It’s nice to see you. You remember Dani,” Levi said kindly, reaching his hand out for mine, where I stood several feet away, trying to stand out of the way.

I subdued any look of expression that my face was prepared to make at Levi’s outreached hand as I placed my hand in his, allowing him to pull me forward, already forgetting the plan.

“Hi…” I paused for a moment, unsure of how to refer to her, “Bella, it’s nice to formally meet you.” I said as nicely as possible, reaching out my free hand.

I watched as she looked at my hand, assessing the gesture. I expected her to reach out with a hand as well, but instead she

bypassed my hand and leaned in for a hug.Not what I was expecting.

“How old are you, 65? Who shakes hands anymore?” Bella said with her arms around me, laughing, somehow making it sound like less of a dig.

I responded the only way I knew how to: laughing with her.

“Ready to play some ball,Dani?”Bella asked, a smirk on her face that made her look like she could take a good picture at any angle. But the way she said my name felt like the way a kid mocked an adult when you told them to do something.

“Oh, she’s ready,” he said confidently, “Dani was the best on her team when we were in high school.”

“We’ll see about that,” Bella said.

Oh yes, we will definitely see about that.

Fortunately for me, my body hadn’t lost the ability to catch a ball. Specifically, because Levi was too busy standing at first base to see me. But unfortunately, my body did as I expected, which was lose all ability to hit a ball.

My team made the decision that I would only be allowed to bat one more time, seeing as the first three times I did, I couldn’t even make contact with the ball. Which wouldn’t have mattered if there weren’t last minute stakes added to the game by Jeff’s wedding party.

“The winning team gets their own rooms at the beach house, and the losing time has to share the rest,” one of Jeff’s friends had said—or shouted more like, with a beer in his hand. I don’t think

that—whateverthatis—will have anything to do with me, but it must for the rest of the wedding party here, because I had never

seen a group of men get so competitive before.