Page 13 of Hard Hitter

Rae held the bat up and behind her right shoulder, with her left elbow up and her right elbow pointing more toward the ground.

"A lot of people do this." He got behind her and gently moving her right elbow up higher, "The tip of your bat should be facing up, not behind you. And you're leaning too much to the back. You want to load all your weight onto your right leg just before the swing, but you don't want to stick your butt out." He placed his hands on her hips and shifted her right hip slightly.

Why were his hands shaking?

"You two need a room?" Jett shouted from second base.

"Don't be jealous, Jett!" Rae hollered back. "You'll get to put your hands on a girl when you bring your cousin to the homecoming dance next month!"

Quinn let out a snort of laughter, his tension and nerves easing up significantly. "Okay, so I shouldn't be able to push you off balance." He walked around and gave her pushes from different angles, on her shoulders, back, and just for fun he pushed in next to her hip bone where he happened to know she was extremely ticklish.

Rae jumped back with a squeal, not able to stop herself from giggling. "Hey! That's cheating!"

"Sorry, sorry, I couldn't help it," Quinn said through a light laugh. "Okay, for real now…" Rae got back in her corrected batter's stance and Quinn got behind her again, now positioning her hands low on the bat. He held his hands over hers, his arms wrapped around her. So much for his nerves subsiding. Her butt was up against his crotch where only an hour or so ago he’d been sporting some wood.

Swallowing, he tried to focus on the game and not on how good she smelled. Tangible things. Baseball. The bat. All of his friends watching.Her thighs resting against mine…

No! No, no. Not that.

We’re swinging a bat. Just swing...the bat.

Guiding her path through the swing, he helped her get a feel for the motion of it. "The beginning of your swing, you load onto your back leg, and the power of your swing should come from your legs and your core, and you want to hitthroughthe ball. Your swing doesn't stop when you make contact."

After a few more guided swings he had her practice a few on her own. Once her swing was looking good, he called to the boys in the field who had started playing catch again, to let them know they were ready. He squatted down behind Rae and got his glove up, ready to catch. Before volunteering to catch he hadn't considered how much more distracting her skort would be from this angle.

Come on, man, we just got past this.

Quinn shook any unwelcome thoughts about her lean, sun-kissed legs or her new curves that seemed to fill out her clothes a little better out of his head and focused on the game. He couldn't have the ball come flying and hit him in the face because he was gawking at his best friend's...assets.

Chris sent in a solid pitch, Rae swung, but the ball ended up in Quinn's glove.

"Early," Quinn said, throwing the ball back to Chris, "but the swing was good."

Again, Chris wound up and sent in a close pitch this time. She pushed her hips back and jumped away from the ball to avoid taking a hit to the side, and Quinn missed the ball, distracted by the shape of Rae's butt as it stuck out when she hopped back. His face burned scarlet, wondering if anyone had noticed where his focus had been. He found the ball and threw it back over to Chris, shouting out "Ball!"

Focus, Quinn. She's your friend. Friends don't think about each other that way. Friends don't check out each other's curves, no matter how good they look in a skort.

"I think Jett was right about that skort," Chris chortled.

"Head in the game, man!" Jett exclaimed as he and Tyler laughed in the field.

Rae turned and looked at Quinn over her shoulder curiously, "You gonna be okay back there?"

Trying to stifle his guilty grin, knowing he'd been caught, he shrugged, "It's not a bad view back here."

Oh my God, did I really just say that?!

To Quinn's relief Rae just shook her head with a breath of laughter, "Boys…"

Chris sent in the next pitch.

Crack!

The bat hit the ball hard and sent it over the guys' heads, far into left field. Rae took off sprinting toward first base and dropped her bat on the way. Quinn stood up to watch as Tyler chased the ball into left field. An excellent runner, Rae was already approaching third base before Tyler had the ball to throw to Jett. Quinn broke his eyes away from Rae, knowing the ball would be coming to him- it was going to be close. He watched as Jett threw the ball, as it arced over Chris from second base, simultaneously aware of Rae advancing in his periphery. The ball was falling toward him now as he heard thewhooshof dirt rush toward his feet. Rae had slid into home base a fraction of a second before the ball landed in his glove.

"Safe!" Quinn shouted, arms out to his sides, signaling the call.

Rae leaned her head back onto the ground, eyes closed in a sigh of relief. Her signature bright smile lit up her face as she extended her hand out to Quinn and he helped her up to her feet. She pulled him into a tight hug and he immediately wrapped his arms around her, too. He liked how she felt in his arms and concentrated on every sensation. Her warm skin, dewy with summer heat and sweat, her hair thatsmelled like coconuts and vanilla, her breath was hot on his neck as her breathing came in heavy after her run around the bases.

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