Playing the Field: A Diamonds and Dugouts Novel Read Free Page A

confidence, and it made him one ballsy son of a bitch.
    Drake shoved up the brim of his cap and scratched at an itch, his eyes squinting against the sun’s glare. “Trying to convince JP here to play a game of phone numbers.”
    A grin full of bad intentions lit Pete’s face. “ Nice . Personally, I’m hoping that a hot single mom in need of some old-fashioned attention wins that raffle to have dinner with me.” The grin amped up a notch. “And breakfast in the morning.”
    Like magnets, JP’s eyes were drawn back to the woman with the bohemian vibe. Yeah, he’d settle for that too. It wouldn’t be a hardship to eat waffles with her in the morning. In fact, he bet he’d like it just fine.
    Aware that he was openly staring, JP noticed her cheeks suddenly seemed pinker than they had been before. Then he realized that she knew he was ogling her because she was blushing and trying hard to avoid looking at him in return.
    The boy, on the other hand, hadn’t been able to take his eyes off of JP. And it gave him the perfect excuse to approach her. “We best be getting back to it, ladies. They’re going to be starting the raffle soon.”
    There were three winning raffle tickets for the day’s event. The prize was an all-expense paid dinner with a Rush player. He’d volunteered for it, alongside Pete and the catcher, Mark Cutter. It had sounded like fun, and he liked kids, so he’d signed up. Coming from a family of six of them himself, he’d long ago gotten used to the odd shit they said and did.
    Speaking of . . . “I’m going to mingle. Make yourselves useful, old men, and hit the rounds.”
    Before they could rib him about calling them old, he was on the move. He’d made it four feet when a boy ran up asking for his autograph. Giving the kid his undivided attention, JP inked his signature and chatted up the freckle-faced redhead for a few as a photographer stood a few feet away and tried to capture the moment. When the parents arrived and ushered the boy off, he scanned the crowd.
    He spotted her and her son and set off again. By the time they’d reached each other, he’d been stopped a half dozen times. Each time he’d given the kids and their families his complete attention. They deserved as much. But each time he did, it took a few minutes to find the woman again in the shifting crowd.
    Now he was finally standing in front of her and his interest had doubled. She was even prettier up close, but with an approachable earthiness that hadn’t been apparent from the distance. Her eyes were the color of his favorite old blue jeans, and she had freckles smattered across the bridge of her nose. Her lips were soft, plump, and naked. Just the way he liked them. And she smelled fresh and natural, with just a hint of something citrus.
    He wanted to eat her up.
    He gave her his most disarming smile as she regarded him with hesitation in her eyes. Instinct told him to play it slow, so he shifted his focus from her to the blond-haired boy at her side. All elbows and boney knees now, the kid was going to be tall someday. For now, he was stuck with a body that didn’t quite coordinate. JP remembered the days. He’d been skinny and gangly with the best of them.
    The boy had the same look about him with the nose freckles, light hair, and blue eyes. He looked about ten, excited as a pig in a parlor, and he gripped a ratty ball glove tightly in his hand. He stared up at JP with a look of hero worship in its purest form. He remembered what it was like to meet his favorite ballplayers as a kid, how it lit his world from end to end.
    Now on this side of things, he knew he had a responsibility to be deserving of such high status. Which was why, even though his dream woman was standing right there, he gave the kid his all. It’s what he was there for—to put face time in with these kids. To help them understand that diabetes didn’t have to limit them, and that they could have full, active lives so long as they kept on top