Page 2 of The Perfect Hit

I nodded, thinking about that. Nate and I were juniors, and Logan was a sophomore. John Miller, Kyle Sharp, and Will Johnson were all the good freshmen who’d be playing with us this year. Sure, we'd have one more chance, but then we'd be without Jake, Dax, and Ben, who were the core of our team.

“How are things going with you and Hazel?” Logan asked with a sly grin.

Hazel. The one girl I could say my insides went gooey for.

My only problem: I was stuck in the friend zone.

She was into drama and theater, something foreign to a kid who’d grown up around explosions and crazy jumps, but she made it look like a lot of fun. Secretly, I wanted to try it out, just to see what it was like. The biggest part of why I hadn’t acted on it was because the play would be during baseball season, and I didn’t want to jeopardize my time when we were coming together as a team to accomplish our goals.

“We’re just friends,” I said, closing my eyes. I didn't want to talk about it with any of the guys. Between the baseball team and my brothers, they already gave me plenty of crap for liking a girl who wasn't sporty. Why they didn’t tease Dax, since his girlfriend, Kate, was into dance, I wasn’t sure. Then again, he hadn’t said too much to me about it.

Hazel was the definition of a theater diva without the level-X drama. She'd even put in a Broadway song as my ringtone, and I probably couldn't remember which show it was from. She was the happiest, bubbliest, most adventurous girl I'd ever met, all very different from living in a house of brothers. Even though I’d tried to avoid liking her, my attraction grew every time we were together.

“I think you two would be good together,” Logan said.

I cracked open one of my eyes to see if he would give me his signature grin that signaled he was teasing, but for a second time, he surprised me with a serious expression.

“What about you? Any girl caught your eye?” As I thought about the other guys on the team, most of the ones I hung out with now had girlfriends. Jake and Penny had been dating since last spring, Ben and Serena got together after her ankle injury last summer, and Dax and Kate started hanging out in the fall.

The newest couple in our friend group was Nate and Brynn, and in a surprising turn of events, their relationship was even stronger since they'd already been through a lot of trauma together. Finding out my guy best friend was a childhood genius, which he’d been hiding from all of us, and Brynn’s mother walking out on them over New Year’s had been a lot for both of them. But it had been several weeks, and it seemed like things were working well.

Logan shook his head. “No, there are a lot of fun girls, but I can't really date yet.”

“What do you mean you can't date yet?” I said, shifting to a sitting position.

“My parents have this weird rule where we can't technically date until we're sixteen. I think it's my mom's way to survive raising three boys and three girls.”

I laughed, thinking about my mother. She'd had four boys, and while sometimes she bemoaned the fact that she didn't have any girls, she did a good job with the rules and regulations in our home while still giving us room to grow.

“Okay, so when do you turn sixteen?” I should have probably known this already, but I wasn't all that great with dates and numbers.

“June 10th. It feels like forever. I’ve been driving the tractor since I was, like, five, and my dad would love to send me to school in our truck.”

I nodded. “There is definitely a lot of freedom once you can drive. Who do you want to take on your first date?”

“I'll have to think about that one,” Logan said, grinning.

“Well, maybe Hazel has a friend you can date. Then we could hang out in a group.” It was different having Nate so busy with Brynn lately, and I knew he’d been bugged that I hung out with Hazel a lot more when he was single, but the tables had turned. I guess the fact that I was on the other side now made me realize how much he’d been missing things.

Logan nodded. “I’d be up for that. Right now, it’s time to crush baseball season, and then we can get to the dating part. It might help to have a title to talk about too.”

I shook my head. “Logan, even when we take it, don’t go telling the world about it. IF they ask, you can tell them, but you don’t want to be an arrogant jerk who only talks about himself.” Just one more thing I’d learned from Hazel. She’d been the star of the fall musical, surprising the kids who thought they’d waited long enough for their turn to be cast in the leading roles. But through all of it, she’d stayed surprisingly humble, not trying to boast about it at every chance.

“You’re probably right.” He leaned closer and whispered, “That kid from Groveton, the first baseman? That was all he did for most of the camp.”

I glanced around the bus, pinpointing where the guy sat several rows ahead of us. “Yeah, just be chill. Girls like it when guys aren’t arrogant.”

Except for Hazel. It seemed like no matter how much I did to support her, it didn’t faze her. But I had a feeling there was something she held back from her time in New York that she hadn’t talked to me about, even after several months.

The bus was silent for a while, and I dozed off here and there, waking up every time the bus hit a rough spot in the road.

With my phone lacking charge, I pulled out the small medallion I kept on a chain around my neck. The round metal piece was from my grandfather, and it was one of my most prized possessions. He’d given it to me a couple years ago, saying it meant valor and honor. I loved having fun, but this seemed to keep any crazy ideas in check.

An intercom sounded, and the coach from camp spoke.

“Okay, men,” he said, “we’re about thirty minutes out from Pecan Flatts. Make sure you call home if you need a ride. I prefer not to sit at the bus stop all night.”

He laughed, and a few of us returned it. This guy reminded me a lot of our high school coach, Coach Maddox, who seemed to never leave Rosemont High.

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