Love's Little Instruction Book by Mary Gorman

the leather of the glove. Her momentum carried her over the base and beyond as she struggled to come to a halt.
    “Safe!” bellowed the umpire.
    The WMTR team exploded into wild cheers and applause. Denise laughed and bowed, first to her teammates, then to the fans in the stands. The ’MTRs gave her a standing ovation. She gave her first real smile of the day and felt the excitement and adrenaline coursing though her body, but more than anything else she felt relief.
    The next two batters failed to help Denise advance, getting out on strikes and a pop fly. So Denise was still stranded on first base when Dave came up to bat. He looked at her as he loosened up, rolling his shoulders and twisting his torso from side to side.
    He had to smile when he thought about how happy — not to mention astonished — she’d looked when she’d finally made her base hit. He didn’t want to leave her stranded at first. She should know the thrill of crossing the plate. And if he could be the one to make it happen, well, he had the chance to do just that and maybe score the winning run besides. He’d never hit a grand slam in all his years of little league, but he felt like he had the chance to hit one now.
    He flashed Denise a smile up the first base line as he stepped up to the plate. She clapped for him and yelled, “Come on, Dave!” He assumed his batter’s stance and nodded to the pitcher.
    The first pitch was low and outside. He let it go by without so much as a twitch. The next pitch came, straight and down the middle. He swung, but it got by him. He glanced at Denise, and she gave him a smile.
    The next pitch was straight, fast, and right down the middle. As he swung, he thought of every baseball movie he had ever seen: Robert Redford in The Natural , Kevin Costner in Bull Durham , the little kid who picked his nose in The Bad News Bears . This was it. The moment he’d been dreaming of since he first played tee ball in kindergarten — he was going to be a hero.
    The bat connected with the ball in a jolt that smacked of success. Dave let the bat drop and paused just long enough to watch the ball begin its downward arc toward the right field fence, then started barreling down the baseline towards Denise, who was still on the base, visually tracking the path of the ball.
    “Run!” he yelled as he approached. Startled, Denise looked at him in confusion, then suddenly remembered what to do and took off toward second base. “Keep going!” he hollered behind her. “ Go! Go! Go! ”
    Denise widened the gap between them, sprinting full tilt down the base line. She ran for all she was worth and couldn’t believe it when she actually crossed home plate.
    She was positively giddy with relief when she heard the umpire’s call. “Safe!” She wasn’t going to have to apologize to anyone for her lackluster performance. She wouldn’t be the butt of jokes on the morning show. She hadn’t let the team down. She laughed and clapped and positively skipped back to the bench, acknowledging the applause from the stands with happy waves of both hands. Presley was there, waiting for her, hand raised to give her a congratulatory high-five. She went down along she bench, receiving hugs and pats on the back as she went.
    When she got to the end of the line, there was only Todd O’Connor left. He stood a little apart, beaming, as if he felt he deserved the credit for driving her home. The tall, blond man suddenly spread his arms wide and Denise launched herself at him. He caught her against his body with his strong arms and swung her around, both of them laughing as her feet left the ground.
    • • •
    The game ended in a tie score. Paul Lund came to bat just long enough to pop fly to left field, where it was easily nabbed by the pitcher. Dave was left stranded at third. Stranded, he thought, in more ways than one.
    There was a pizza party at a restaurant in the North End after the game. Dave seriously considered not going. He didn’t