Page 22 of Rescued Heart

Eddie had looked like he could use some help with his baseball team, and at the auction, he’d needed to talk with the mayor. Surely she could get that arranged.

But would that be enough for a deal?

She turned back into the baseball parking lot and hopped out. She jogged to the dugout. Her tennis shoes hit the gravel far better than her heels.

Tank spotted her first as she reached the gate. “Hey, Bia’s back.” The kid squinted. “I think it’s her?”

Eddie frowned, shouting at her from the pitcher’s mound. “Did you get lost?”

Bianca waited at the dugout. “Depends. I was wondering if you and the team needed another helper for tonight.” She pulled on her shirt’s baggy hem. “One more suitably dressed.”

Eddie pointed to home plate. “If you can hit. We’re having a hard time remembering to get our gloves on the ground.”

Bianca lifted the latch and grabbed a bat and helmet from the dugout. “What if I promise to give the team cookies if they don’t allow any passed balls?”

The boy on first thumped his fist into his mitt. “I could go for some cookies.”

The catcher stood and lifted his catcher’s mask. It wasn’t Lincoln this time. Scarlette’s dirty face lit with a smile. “They chocolate chip?”

Bianca rested the bat on her shoulder and walked toward home plate. “You better believe it.”

“Then you got yourself a deal.” Scarlette lowered her mask again. “Get down and dirty, guys.”

Eddie stepped onto the pitching rubber. “Hope you’re not expecting me to lob it in to you.”

She held up her bat, bent her knees, and shifted her weight to her back leg. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

He threw it, and Bianca swung. Hard.

And missed.

Scout snickered.

Scarlette raised her catcher’s mask. “If she strikes out, it still counts for us not missing a ball, right?”

Bianca sent Scarlette a scowl. “It was one strike. Let a girl get warmed up.”

Scarlette shrugged. “No offense. I like cookies.”

Bianca choked up on the bat. “A girl after my own heart.”

Eddie lined the seams of the baseball up in his palm. “I’ll slow it down?—”

“Don’t you dare.” Bianca pointed the end of her bat at Eddie. “Same heat.”

“Bet you two cookies she can’t even hit it to the pitcher’s mound,” Tank muttered behind his mitt toward the shortstop.

Bianca dug her foot into the batter’s box and widened her stance, pulling her bat farther back. One deep exhale.

Eddie wound up the next pitch, and when it crossed the plate, Bianca whacked it over the center fielder’s head.

Scarlette jumped to her feet. “Wow, I think you’ve just become Coach B.”

“Coach B?” Bianca smiled and hit the bat against the bottom of her tennis shoes. “That has a nice ring to it.”

For the first time since she’d seen him today, Eddie smiled. A deep one, revealing two dimples. No wonder she’d thought he was a movie star the other evening.

Tank bent his knees and put his mitt between his legs. “Everyone gets lucky once. Double or nothing.”

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