Page 87 of Honey Undone
I threw another and it was perfect but Adeline swung and missed it.
“Breath before, not during,” I said to her and she scowled.
“Don’t man-splain how to swing a bat to me Jensen!” She argued. I waited for her to stop thinking so hard, and the second her back foot settled I threw another pitch.
“How do you do that?” She grunted in frustration as the next ball kicked off the backstop into the air. “It’s like you know I’m ready to swing before I do and it’s messing with my head.”
“It’s just basic body language,” I said to her. “You fidget with your back foot as you count your own breathing, three and then your foot stops moving.”
“Okay, okay…” One of the traits I admired about Adeline is that she always took something from a conversation, it was never just about the talking. She wanted to learn, to grow, to be better than she was seconds before. It was why she belonged in California. It was growth, it was her opportunity to be better, be stronger, faster.
“What’s your tell?” She asked me, leaving the bat at her side.
“I don’t have one,” I said with a smile.
“That’s bullshit, everyone has a tick… it’s human nature.” She shook her head in disbelief.
“I don’t know what to tell you, Adeline.” I shrugged. “I just don’t.”
“When you’re about to kiss me the left side of your mouth lifts first,” she turned her whole body to me that time. “When you’re going to say something you think I won’t like, you cross your arms… and when we’re in the gym and you’re starting to get tired but refuse to slow down because I’m not, you grind your teeth together.”
“Is that all?” I laughed, enjoying the observations.
“You have to have one on the field, you wear your emotions on your face. I just don’t believe you’re somehow more evolved during games,” Adeline said.
“You want to know the secret?” I asked her, and she nodded, making me laugh even more. “I’ve been watching everyone else for five years, the first season I learned the ticks of half the baseball players in the league and every time I step up to bat I use one oftheirs. Never my own, never the same twice in a row.”
Adeline stared at me, her eyes wide as she processed the information. She opened her mouth, not once but twice to speak and then closed it again to think about it some more.
“Say it,” I encouraged as she sank her teeth into her lip.
“I’m just concerned that maybe you are a serial killer,” she teased with a soft smile.
“I told you, I wouldn’t have tattooed you if I was planning on cutting you up into tiny little pieces, Belle.” I joked.
“You have to admit the whole ‘I’ve been watching’ thing is weird.” There was no malice to her voice and her eyes were bright with playful curiosity.
“Coach thinks it’s weird too, but it works. Makes me unreadable and it's the reason they bring me out when we’re down.” I said. “It also comes in handy when I need to impress the prettiest girl in Harbor.”
“Wow so now I’m just part of your sick serial killer statistics?” Adeline threw her head back and groaned sarcastically.
“If it makes you feel better, you’re the only girl I’ve risked a game for.” I watched the recognition flicker across her face and I knew that I’d said something that triggered the sadness up in her chest again.Shit.“Ready up.” I grabbed another ball from the crate at my feet and got ready to throw.
It whipped through the air and was by no means the perfect pitch but it flew true and straight. Adeline swung and she swung hard, the bat hit the ball with a loud crack that made me flinch delaying my reaction as she took off running down the baseline to first.
“Hey!” I called after her, trying to eye where the ball landed deep in the outfield. “That was cheating!” I started booking it to the small white dot as Adeline rounded second. It didn’t matter how fast I was, she was faster. Her legs carried her quickly and before I even started running back to meet her at home plate she was pushing the line at third.
I started jogging as I got in and passed second base, keeling over on the pitcher's mound trying to fill my lungs with air as Adeline smiled at me from home base.
“Still think you could catch me?” She asked, and didn’t even sound out of breath.
“You win, you win,” I admitted defeat with a burning chest.
“Can we do that again?” She beamed at me, bathed in the bright stadium lights and for a second everything was alright. There were no pressures to makedecisions, no one watching waiting for us to make the wrong move. It was just me, and Adeline.
“You’re an animal,” I choked out, straightening up. “Ready?” I asked her, palming the ball and she scooped the bat from the ground quickly with a funny little nod of excitement.
JENSEN
