Page 123 of Off the Mark
She fingered the material of my jersey. “The uniform’s a nice touch, by the way.”
I looked down at my old Syracuse Mets jersey, which hadO’Callaghanand the number 18 in blue box lettering on the back. I’d shaken it loose from the back of my closet, where it hung with the rest of my uniforms.
I had a dim memory of Dean helping me shove a lot of this shit out of sight during the first few months after my surgery. When all I could seem to do was prowl around my house like a caged animal, hungry for a future I was never gonna have.
The idea to put it on for a date with Charlie had come as a surprise. I was in a different place now, a waybetterplace, but I didn’t wade around in painful memories on purpose.
Tonight, I dropped the jersey over my head for the first time in years and felt…peaceful.
“I figured you’d appreciate the call-back to our Jolene days,” I said, hooking a finger into the waistband of her running shorts and yanking her in for a kiss.
Her lips lingered and her eyes fluttered open to gaze at me with pure love before she stepped away. And I was back to thinking about anvils again.
I nudged the bag at my feet, which held bottles of water, bags of chips, and two cold beers. “Now if you’re averygood girl, I’ve got a special cheesesteak delivery arriving in an hour.”
“I make no promises. But I am”—she bit her lip— “so fucking happy to be here with you. Wherever here is.”
“FDR park, one of the largest parks in South Philly, andtheplace to play baseball for most of the kids here.” I used the bat to point out the three fields surrounding us. “Thatis the field we used when I played middle school ball.Thatis the one my high school used and where I was scouted for the minors. Andthisis the field where my dad used to play. My grandmother would sit on those bleachers to cheer for him and also do some light-to-moderate threatening of the umpires if they didn’t call things in my dad’s favor.”
She arched an amused eyebrow. “She did for you too, didn’t she?”
“Oh yeah. It was always awkward to bump into the umpires at church after Alice O’Callaghan put the fear of god in them.”
I handed Charlie the bat.
Her eyes tracked along my arm, then back to my face. “How does it feel, being out on a field like this?” she asked.
I toed a streak of dust across home plate. “Being on a field is…new. Not something I do anymore. But it’s been a great day. The best day, really.”
“Any reason why?” she asked.
“Yeah. I’m here with you.” I lifted the brim of her hat and kissed the tip of her nose. “And I can feel you starin’ at my shoulder, but I promise I’m okay to be out here. We just won’t go to the batting cages over there, because if I’m holding a bat, and a baseball comes flying at my face going seventy miles an hour, I’ll swing for it out of instinct.”
She gave me a cheeky salute. “Sounds good to me. So whatarewe gonna do?”
I took a step back from home plate and waved her over. “Practice makes perfect, so show me what that swing looks like, gorgeous.”
“Question.” She tapped the bat in the dirt. “If I’ve seenA League of Their Ownat least a dozen times, does that make me an expert?”
I laughed as she stepped close. “A Rockford Peach if I ever saw one.”
I turned her gently so we faced the wide green of the outfield—the Philly skyline rose past the chain link fences, the busy streets, the hundreds of row homes. “Is it okay if I move you around a bit?”
“Do your worst, O’Callaghan.”
I dropped a kiss to the top of her shoulder. Smoothed my palms to her waist and adjusted so she faced the pitcher’s mound. I touched her knees, encouraging her to bend. Placed her feet shoulder’s width apart and raised her right elbow with the tip of my finger.
I stepped in front of her to get a better look and caught the loose smile playing on her lips.
“Okay, show me this swing of yours.”
She did, in slow motion, and the sight of the bat slicing through the air gave me a jolt of excitement.
“Do you miss it?” she asked softly.
“Always,” I said roughly. “Anyway, that was pretty good.”
I went to stand behind her and wrapped my arms so I was gripping the bat with her, hand over hand. I ran my nose through her hair, inhaling the scent of her shampoo right at the nape of her neck. Charlie arched back and wiggled her ass against my cock.
