Page 77 of Sacrifice Bunt

When they’d woken up next to each other in bed, it was like they'd done it a million times before. There was no weirdness or regret. It felt right.

Noah continued his home run streak in the fifth inning of the afternoon game, by hitting a two-run doozy that went into the upper deck of right field. She cheered him on loudly from the stands.

She really was his good luck charm.

Before he'd left for the game, Noah had asked if she’d be okay having dinner with his mom. He did it every Sunday, if he was home, and in all the craziness over the last few days, he’d forgotten to cancel.

She’d told him not to cancel, that dinner with his mom sounded great.

It was the truth. She’d made peace with her love of Noah in the last few days, and while she hadn’t told him yet, she knew it was coming sooner rather than later.

“What do I need to know about your mom?” Zara asked as they drove down the highway towards Noah’s mom’s house.

“There’s nothing to tell. She’s awesome and she’ll love you.” He paused, glancing at her before quickly looking back to the road. “What about your parents? Am I the sort of person they thought you’d date?”

She knew what he was getting at. “You’re wondering if they’ll have an issue because you’re white.” She shook her head. “They won’t. I don’t tell them about guys I see, but they’ve never been adamant about me dating an Indian guy.” She shrugged. “I mean, I’m sure they’d love it if I did, but it’s not a requirement. Not to mention, my mom is going to freak out when I tell her about you.”

“Why is that?”

“Baseball is her thing. I mean, she loves all sports, but baseball is the one that holds her heart. She’s the reason I’m a sports agent. My dad would have preferred if I were a doctor like him.”

“She's going to like me, but what about your dad?”

That was trickier. “I think he’ll like you too, but he'll be more reserved. Which is funny, because my parents are the opposite when it comes to other things. My dad is the one who tells me to jump and look later, and my mom says take my time and think things through.” She laughed, shaking her head. “It’s weird how I somehow assume they’ll flip flop roles when they meet you.”

“I’m a little afraid to meet them now.”

She laid her hand on his leg. “They’ll love you.” It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him she loved him too, but this wasn’t the place or time.

They pulled up to his mom’s house. “This is it.”

She looked out the window, checking out the cute home his mom lived in. The neighborhood was similar to the one Noah lived in, only the home was even smaller. It looked like the typical subdivision in any other town in the country.

“It’s cute.” She opened the door, stepping out into the warm air. “The flowers are gorgeous.” There were bright flowers trailing the sidewalk and in beds by the house. The colors were spectacular and made Zara wish she had time to garden.

“Mom loves her flowers. She and my sister spend hours out here when she comes to visit.”

“You don’t talk about your sister much. Are you two close?”

He shrugged. “We don’t see each other much, but we get along. I tried to get her to move out here too when Mom moved, but she turned me down. Kind of hard to be a winter survivalist trainer when there’s no winter.”

“That’s a pretty extreme job. She sounds cool.”

He reached out, taking her hand as they walked toward the house. “She’s not bad.”

She was about to tease him when the front door flew open and a woman came barreling out. “It’s about time you got here.”

“I don’t control how long the games take, Mom.” Noah looked at Zara, rolling his eyes.

“I saw that,” his mom said. “You must be Zara.”

Zara stuck her hand out, but instead his mom wrapped her in a hug. “It’s so nice to finally meet you.”

“You know, Mom, you could introduce yourself before you hug her to death.”

She pulled back, smiling and looking so much like Noah that it made Zara smile. “He’s such a pain in the ass, but he’s probably right. You can call me Penny. None of that Mrs. Ashe crap. Last year, Noah’s sister dated a guy and I could never get him to call me Penny. It drove me crazy and made it hard to warm up to him. Which turned out to be a good thing when after three months, she found out she wasn’t the only person he was in a relationship with.”

“Sounds like you have good instincts, Penny.”

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