Home Run Baby: A Sports Romance by Tabatha Kiss Page A

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