Page 42 of Rescued Faith

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” Bryce jammed the extra glove he’d picked up back in the bag.

“Sorry I’m late, Coach. My aunt didn’t know where to park.”

Bryce looked up. Harry was running toward them with a familiar blonde walking behind him.

“She’s your aunt?” Bryce asked the little boy with freckles and blond hair.

He nodded. “Uh-huh. And she said after practice we get to go get ice cream!”

What was it with Penny Mitchell showing up everywhere this week?

“I’ll go get Harry set up. Give you some…privacy.” Izan chuckled as he jogged away.

“So, you’re Harry’s coach I’ve heard so much about.” Penny grinned. With her hair pulled back and a ball cap on, she looked like she belonged here on the baseball field. And since when did she wear shorts and sandals? He’d rarely seen her in anything besides jeans and her boots.

And he had to admit, she looked good like this.

“And you’re the aunt. The one who’s taking him out to ice cream.”

“Don’t want to shirk my auntie responsibilities.” She looked down at the equipment. “Need any help? I’ll be here for the whole practice. I promised Harry I would stay and watch.”

“How are you at pitching?”

“I’m decent.”

Which probably meant she was a real ace. “Great. You can work with them on batting. Take it easy on them though. They’re just kids.” He couldn’t help but lean in closer to her, taking in every fleck of blue-green in her eyes.

“I don’t take it easy on anyone.” She lifted her chin as if to saychallenge accepted.

And didn’t he know it. A chuckle escaped.

He tried not to sneak too many glances at her as she took seven kids to work on their batting while he had a group in the field catching grounders and pop flies.

Keeping himself from falling right back in love with her was going to be harder than he’d thought.

THIRTEEN

Penny relaxed in the driver’s seat of the car. Might as well get comfortable if she was going to be here a while. She pulled out her telephoto lens camera and set it on the dash. She popped a piece of minty fresh gum in her mouth and settled in.

Situated on the edge of town, out on the state highway, the biker gang bar across the street from her was one of the last things on this road before people hit the interstate. The rusty metal siding gave the building the appearance of an old warehouse, while the colorful neon signs for various brands of beer beckoned people in. A few Harleys leaned heavily on their kickstands near the door while a semitruck without a trailer shaded them from its parking space at the edge of the lot.

“Come on, Emma. Give me something here.”

As she lifted the camera up, her phone rang. Jude.

“Hey, how’s Denver?” she asked him on speaker phone.

“I’m in Georgia now. Leading some training. How are things going there?”

“Well, I’m outside the Highway to He?—”

“Lemme guess, the biker bar?”

“Yeah. Tony’s CI said he saw Emma here. I’ve been scoping it out the last few nights.”

“Must be getting impatient, huh?”

“You know me well. So what doyouknow about this place?”

---