Sleepwalker

Chapter Eight

"We'll talk more about this back at the house, Clayton." He gave me a rough pat on the back with a serious expression. Then he turned towards Lucy. "Hello, Miss Lucy. Tell your dad we need to go bowling this weekend, please."

"Yes, sir. I will." She smiled sweetly.

Right then I wanted to tell Lucy Walker how charming she was. She wasn't even trying with her soft smiles and anxious rubbing of her hands, but she was.

Far left with a wink at the two of us, causing me to groan and throw my mitt at him. I expected Lucy to be mortified, but instead she was collected. She either understood far's obscure humor, or she did not see it as anything. Well, that was until I made it into something. The awkward silence following was as much as my fault as the loss was.

"So, uh, the game. Sorry to disappoint." My lips pressed into a thin line.

Her long hair was pulled up in braid of some sorts and she was busy messing with the tip of it. "No, don't apologize. It happens sometimes."

Another silence fell upon us. The crowd was dying down as the seconds passed.

"Could you see okay from your seats?" I asked stupidly. Of course she could. There was a reason why she sat around there every time.

She nodded as her teeth dug into her bottom lip.

Tonight was just a compilation of failures from the one and only Clayton Hugh. Now I suddenly couldn't talk to a pretty girl. What next? I would fail at driving and hit a tree head first?

"Are we allowed to go on the field right now even though it is over?" Lucy suddenly asked.

My brows rose with interest. "Uh, yeah. Why?"

What she did next was more surprising than the Stingers losing to the Bulls. She gestured towards my pitcher mitt sitting in my baseball bag, motioning for me to hand it to her.

Despite my confusion, I shook off the excess dirt it collected while in my bag then handed it off.

"Why don't I show you how to throw a pitch?"

- - - - - - - -

Lucy Walker was a girl full of surprises. Not only was she an avid scrapbooker and writer, she enjoyed baseball nearly as much as I did. Well, that might be stretching it, but she definitely respected the game and enjoyed throwing a ball.

"You throw pretty well," I stated aloud, catching yet another one of her pitch. The throws didn't hold much speed, but they were precise and accurate. The opposite of what I was that night. "Did your dad or brother get you into baseball or something?"

Lucy gleamed a little brighter with my compliment then smiled. "Actually, no. Neither of them are fans."

I threw the ball back to her. "Oh. Then where did you learn all the technique and stuff?"

She stepped off the mound with a sheepish grin peeking out. It was cute. "To be honest?"

"Yeah." I ushered, returning her shy smile.

"I was never a fan of baseball until I came to watch the school's team play freshman year." Lucy sighed in a dreamy sort of way. "You all were so good. Y'all still are." She loaded up to throw. "J.K. only goes to the games for the cute players, but I don't judge her for that. Mateo is a real cutie."

A part of me was flattered Lucy grew to like baseball from watching my baseball games, but the majority of my concentration was set on her thinking Mateo was cute. Real cute.