Page 39 of Batter Up!

“What’s in the bag?” Penelope asked.

I pulled out a small bag of Epsom salt with a note taped on the bag.

“Honey, you better not let him go,” a customer who overheard what we were talking about said. “He’s a keeper.”

I couldn’t keep the smile off my face while I served customers.

The gift for the pedi/mani/massage question was a gift certificate to get a pedicure at the local nail salon. Throughout the day, several other ball players came in and asked chocolate or vanilla (I answered chocolate and was given an assortment of chocolate candy bars), summer or winter (I answered summer and was given flip flops), Batman or Superman (I said Spiderman to be silly and was given a little stuffed Spiderman).

“I love that he’s using a grand gesture to not only try to win you back but also to get to know you better,” Pen whispered to me between customers.

“I can’t believe he’s doing this all for me,” I answered with a sigh.

“You’re worth it, girl,” Penelope exclaimed.

I blushed and shrugged then asked a question that had been on my mind, “Is it bad I’m really glad he’s doing all this? I wanted to forgive him yesterday but also wanted to still be upset. Now, I have a big reason to forgive him.”

Penelope just laughed at my admission as four of the Raptor players came in together. A few of them looked uncomfortable, but one asked if I liked pizza or pasta.

“Pizza,” I replied as I sat down a large tray of assorted mini cakes to add to the cases.

“Okay,” the shortest player on the team, that I recognized as Dominic Anderson, said and looked down at his piece of paper. “So, what are your favorite toppings?”

When I told him I had been craving meat lovers, he nodded in agreement and then looked into my eyes. He tilted his head to the side and said, "You know what, look really familiar."

"Probably from coming to the games!" the first ball player said with a roll of his eyes.

"That's probably it," Dom said with a shrug of his shoulders.

Another guy took the list out of his hand and asked, “Do you prefer fettuccine or penne noodles?”

“Swanson! How dumb are you?” he swatted him in the back of the head and pointed at the list. “She said pizza. You have to ask the next pizza question.”

“Oh,” Swanson said and looked up at me. “Sorry, Missy.”

“Molly. Her name is Molly!” Dom corrected him with a shake of his head. “Just give me the damn paper.”

“It’s ok, Ben,” I said to the shortstop and handed him a snickerdoodle cookie. “You tried.”

“Thanks for this,” he said with a huge grin and took a bite of the cookie. “How’d you know my name?”

“She’s a super fan, remember?” the first ballplayer, I recognized as starting pitcher Keegan Tucker, said, then continued with an impatient sigh. “Anyway, do you prefer thick or thin crust? And what kind of pop would you like to drink with it?”

“Oh, thick crust sounds amazing right now. Thanks, Keegan. And I’m limiting how much pop I drink, so water or lemonade would be good. Oh, yeah, strawberry lemonade sounds so good.”

Penelope and I were enjoying this way too much and laughing along with a few of the customers. “They better get me some pizza, too,” Pen stated with a laugh. “This is a lot of fun.”

A little while later, the bell over the door chimed. I had to laugh out loud when I heard Pen’s stomach growl, and she called out, “That better be pizza.”

“I’m not pizza, but we could bring one over in exchange for cookies,” a familiar male voice said.

“Hi, Nate!” I exclaimed and went around to hug the guy who had helped transform my bakery. “Where is Autumn?”

“She’s doing her thing and has an open house on Livingston Road today,” he explained.

“She’s good at her job,” I said and turned to see two of Nate’s friends behind him, who had also helped with the renovating. “Hi, Ayden! Hi, Craig!”

“Hi, Molly!” Ayden said with a huge grin and gave me a big hug, lifting me off the ground. He was a good-looking guy with gelled-back, dirty blonde hair and kind gray eyes. He wasn’t as tall or muscular as many of the baseball players that had been coming in here all day, but he had a solid build. You could tell from his tan that he worked outdoors a lot with the construction crew and that his muscles were from working at the job sites. I could tell a group of girls who had been complaining earlier that I couldn’t make frappuccinos were watching him from their table.

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