Page 49 of Guys Can't Write Romance
Daisy felt like they’d suddenly switched to speaking Swahili. She glanced at Chloe for help, but her roommate was already deep in conversation with Rhino about some bet involving quarters and drinks.
Daisy settled back and watched the game play out on TV. She sipped her beer, trying her best to follow along, but couldn’t make sense of half the rules Chad, Troy, and Brett were arguing about. The players seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time standing around, occasionally spitting, then brief bursts of activity that caused the bar to erupt in either cheers or profanity.
Seeing the confusion on her face, Chad leaned over and explained things in between bouts of teasing. “See that guy? He’s the pitcher. His job is to throw the ball so the batter can’t hit it. That guy behind the batter? He’s the catcher. He tells the pitcher what kind of pitch to throw using secret finger signals. And those guys out in the field? They each have a territory they defend.”
“Got it,” Daisy nodded, secretly impressed at how easily his enthusiasm broke it all down. Of course, she would never admit this in a million years. But there was something oddly endearing about the way he lit up explaining the game, his passion infectious despite her initial resistance.
By the time Daisy finished her first beer, she looked a lot less horrified. And maybe even relaxed. She was also kind of... sort of... starting to understand some rules of the game. For starters, she had quit calling base hits a first down.
“Wait, so if he touches all four bases, that’s a run?” she asked, pointing at the TV where a player was rounding second base.
“Exactly!” Chad exclaimed, raising his hand for a high-five that Daisy reluctantly returned.
“Crap. She’s learning,” one of the boys at a nearby table said to his buddies. At the same time, groans arose from several other tables within earshot.
Chad looked around and saw guys begrudgingly slapping down twenty-dollar bills in the middle of their tables. He turned to Brett and Troy, who had also been watching the nearby tables, and they all laughed.
Daisy followed their gaze to the nearby tables, then turned back to Chad, her brow furrowed in confusion. “What? What’re you guys laughing at?”
“I think they just lost bets over what sport you would confuse it with next.”
“Oh,” she said, her cheeks turning red. She turned to the other tables. “Sorry. Sorry.”
The boy at the first table just waved her off as he handed the waitress a wad of cash. “No worries. We had ‘hockey’ in the pool. Better luck next time.”
Daisy turned back to her table and buried her face in her new beer. She took a deep gulp.
Meanwhile, across the table from Daisy, Rhino was losing badly to Chloe in a game of quarters. Several people had gathered to watch, placing side bets on each round.
“Aren’t you frat guys supposed to be pros at this?” Chloe said as Rhino downed yet another beer with Chloe’s quarter at the bottom. “‘Cause you’re getting owned by a girl.”
Rhino wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, looking equal parts impressed and defeated. “I think I’m being hustled.”
Chloe grinned. “You are.”
“You definitely are,” Daisy agreed.
Later that afternoon, Daisy had just started on her third beer and was feeling… happy. The initial sensory overload had faded into a pleasant background buzz, and she found herself actually cheering when a Dodger player hit a ball that didn’t go foul or get caught. She leaned into Chad and hollered above the ruckus. “So, why do they always scratch their crotches?”
Chad almost choked on his beer. “Uhm, it’s a guy thing.”
“A guy thing?”
“Guy parts and plastic cups to protect those parts.”
“I still don’t follow.”
“Use your imagination.”
She did. And then, a moment later, her face turned beet red as understanding dawned. “Oh. Yeah. Okay. Definitely a guy thing.”
Chad shot her a grin. “You’re blushing, Fields.”
“No, I’m not,” she said, burying her face again in her beer and taking a deep gulp.
From across the table, Rhino suddenly blurted out: “You’re telling me he actually cried during a Hallmark movie?”
Chad’s head snapped up. He looked over and saw Rhino and Chloe talking. They both stole a glance at him, as if they weren’t deliberately saying this loud enough for everyone to hear.
