Home Run Baby: A Sports Romance by Tabatha Kiss

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.