Page 3 of First Base

“Mags, you forgot something,” he called out. I hustled over to the three of them to grab it, ignoring the look on Jamil’s face. It screamed I told you that you haven’t drunk enough coffee yet.

“Thanks, Adam.” I turned to try to make a quick escape. I didn’t trust myself to my own devices around Tommy Mikals after our first encounter, and I especially didn’t want to look like I was drooling over him in front of Adam and Jamil. I knew I’d never hear the end of it.

“Mags, have you met Tommy yet?” I cringed as I heard Adam call back out to me. “Tommy, this is one of our team photographers, Maggie Redford.”

I spun back around, pasting a smile on my face as I made eye contact with the Chicago Cougars’ new player. Just like before, it was like the air in my lungs evaporated on sight. My stomach swooped like I was a passenger on a roller-coaster ride as I struggled to regain my breath.

“It’s nice to officially meet you. Glad you’re okay.” Tommy stuck his hand out to me after he realized that I wasn’t going to be the first one to say something. I was beginning to wonder if I had seriously wronged someone recently and this was karma catching up to me.

“Nice to meet you officially, too. Good luck this season.” I tried to use that as my opportunity to escape, but cursed as I heard Jamil call out to me again. Damn him and his chipper morning attitude. I only wanted to put space between myself and Tommy Mikals and his brilliant blue eyes and sexy smile.

“Canon, are you and Olivia going to go to the club tonight? We’re celebrating Opening Day.”

I looked at Jamil over my shoulder and gave him a small smile. “You know my answer to that, Jamil.”

“I’m always hoping one time you’ll surprise me.” Jamil returned my smile before I turned to walk as fast and far away from Tommy Mikals as I could. I tried to ignore the fluttering that had started in my stomach from the moment I had looked up into his eyes after I’d nearly been annihilated by that baseball. I hadn’t seen anyone look at me like that for a long time. Those butterflies felt like they were at war with the sadness that came to the forefront of my mind at the feeling.

It was the first day of college and as per usual, I was running late. I had even set five extra alarms to avoid this exact moment: me running across campus looking like a scared, lost first-year. Some senior was probably filming me from the window of their dorm, and I’d find the video later on some account online.

As I came running around the corner of the hallway my class was supposed to be in, I saw a guy with sandy-blond hair that curled around his ears. He was staring at a piece of paper that had been taped to the door, and he was startled when I came barreling closer. When I realized that he was standing in front of my classroom, I put on the brakes and pulled up right next to him.

“Here for English 111?” His voice was like butter. It was rich and made every other voice I’d ever heard seem dull. Whoever he was, he clearly wasn’t from the Midwest. He had a thick East Coast accent.

“Yes,” I told him, between sucking air into my lungs and trying to focus on the piece of paper he had been reading.

“The professor canceled class today. Said we’d start on Wednesday.” Some of my worry at the thought of being late to my first college class lessened. “You okay?” The guy was looking at me with an amused expression on his face. Which was probably from the sweat that had started to accumulate on my forehead from the run across campus.

“Oh, yeah. Just a little morning exercise.” I watched as his eyes crinkled before he let out a small laugh. When he looked at me again, it was like I could practically see the sparks shooting around in the air between us.

“I’m Luke.” He stuck his hand out toward me.

“Maggie.”

Tommy

The Cougars were my last chance at redemption.

All of my poor decisions as a young kid who got access to a massive amount of money, alcohol, and women for the first time in his life had finally caught up to me, almost effectively ending my professional baseball career. I wasn’t proud of any of those decisions. I was the epitome of young, dumb, and stupid. By the time I finally realized what road I was going down, it was too late for my career with San Diego. They cut me, wanting to put distance between themselves and the reputation I had made for myself. The moment that the general manager walked up to me to tell me to pack my bags and leave the clubhouse, it was like I had come back up to the surface, finally able to breathe again. From then on, I promised myself I would stick to the path that younger me would have been proud of taking. I was lucky that I was even starting my eighth season in the league. I hadn’t gone to college. I joined the draft right out of high school and didn’t have a degree to fall back on. I needed to focus on baseball and proving that I still deserved to be taken seriously.

But life seemed to be tempting me once again.

I watched Maggie Redford hurry back down the tunnel, her camera bag clutched tightly to her chest. She didn’t glance back at us. Her steps were hurried, and if I didn’t know any better, I would have guessed she was trying to put as much distance between herself and us as she could. My eyes followed her until she disappeared farther into the stadium. It wasn’t until she was long gone and I was in the locker room that I realized my chest had grown tighter, as if she had wrapped a string around my rib cage and pulled.

The second I saw her at practice this morning, I was instantly intrigued. I had watched between swings the way her eyes roamed the field, looking for the next angle. She walked around the field like there was nowhere else she was more comfortable being. When she smiled at her coworker, I was like a magnet, completely drawn to her.

It had been over a year since my last relationship. At the time, I had thought it would be the relationship that would make me a monogamous man. But instead, I had my heart eviscerated. During the year after San Diego had let me go and the Cougars had signed me to a contract, I had been completely celibate. I hadn’t wanted to risk potentially losing my career again to women that weren’t worth my time. When I looked at Maggie, my brain had to remind other parts of my body that I had sworn off women.

Her smile had me rethinking all of my rules.

Maggie was unlike any woman I had ever seen. She was an explosion of energy. Everything about her felt like it was turned all the way up—forcing you to notice her—but what I found even more interesting was that she didn’t seem to know that about herself. The moment I stood over her, offering her a hand after her close call with the foul ball, it was like she had morphed into a scared animal, unsure of what to do or where to go. The confident girl with the dissecting eyes was gone.

Her light brown hair was wild and big, curling out in every direction. When she smiled, it was like she was grinning with her whole body. Her eyes crinkled at the corners, and her smile seemed to take up half her face. When she looked up at me from her spot on the field, cradling her camera, I struggled to remember to breathe. Her eyes were like bright emeralds, the kind that gem investors would pay millions for. She was all soft curves and feminine lines. Basically, the complete opposite of any other woman I had ever dated before.

Back in California, it felt like I had a different model on my arm every weekend. I was used to the type of girls that picked at their salads when I took them out to dinner and cared about the labels they and their dates wore. At the time, it had felt like a symptom of a glamorous lifestyle, like something that came with the turf. But when my own habits had taken a turn for the worse, it felt like none of the people I had surrounded myself with cared if I ended up dead on the side of the road. All they cared about were how many likes they got on their latest photos on social media and if they were wearing something more expensive than the person next to them.

When the wool had finally been removed from my eyes, I realized I needed to turn my life in a completely different direction. I had worked my entire life to be where I was now, and if I continued dating and spending time with the people I had been, all of that hard work would be for nothing.

“Oh no, man.” Jamil pulled me back into the present. “No chance.”

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