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poorly?” she asked with a teasing smile.
    I looked at her and returned the smile. “No.”
    “Are you afraid you’ll be showing off?”
    “Maybe, ” I chuckled.
    “Then let’s see what you got. I want to see how many you can hit.”
              “ All of them ,” I replied.
    She cocked her head. “Prove it.”
    I shook my head with a smile and said, “If you insist.” I set th e machine and selected a bat. After taking a deep breath to calm my heart, I was done a minute and a half later , hitting every one of them.
    When I looked at her she was smiling. “Wow. You almost look mechanical yourself.”
    I laughed and said, “Yeah, but it’s a little different on the field. But I can set it up to throw different pitches too, to make it more challenging . You want to go again ?”
    “Not that fast!” she exclaimed. “I wouldn’t even be able to see them coming.”
    “No, I’ll set it for whatever you want.”
    “Okay, I’ll try different pitches. But nothing faster than what I was hitting, ” she added .
    “Sure. Step in there.”
    I reset the machine and waited for her okay to start. She still did very well, even though she laughed any time a series of slow pitches would come in, and then a fastball would surprise her. She got the hang of it with the last few, and wanted me to start it again. She did better the second time around.
    I’ d never had so much fun with batting practice. Jayden was so enjoyable to be around , and I lo ved her sense of humor. She made me smile at anything she said, especially because she was so witty. And the most obvious bonus… she was way hotter than any of my teammates.
    “Okay, I think I’m done,” she said.
    “Are you sure? You can go as long as you like.” I almost admitted to how much I liked watching her, but I figured that might be admitting a little too much.
    “Nah, I’m done,” she replied, taking off the helmet. “ I don’t want to get too good and show you up,” she teased.
    With a laugh I replied, “That’d be fine with me. I would just take the credit for being a great coach.”
    “You are a great coach. And I could easily see myself playing for you again, so I’ll save some for next time.”
    That made my entire year. I looked forward to “next time,” or any other “next times” there might be. I took the helmet from her and put it away, and stuck the bat in my bag.
    “Do you need to get back to your friends and, uh, your dad?” I asked her.
    She shook her head. “Nah, I have a few more hours if you do.”
    “Uh, yeah. Definitely. Are you hungry?”
    “I’m starving.”
    “What do you feel like eating?”
    She shrugged. “Well, I had so much fun here, I ’ll let you choose where we eat as well.”
    I was a little unsure about that. I hated picking restaurants…
    “What’s the matter?” she asked.
    She was studying me curiously and her eyes seemed to try and read me. I wasn’t sure what to say, but I decided to just be honest and let her know how unsophisticated I really was. I wasn’t exactly a charmer, and I knew she already picked up on that. It was evident when she had watched me squirm, trying to explain what I meant about her hips looking nice (for batting, I meant!)
    “I’m…n ot good at picking restaurants. I just…really can’t read your mind and choose where you would want to go.”
    She stared at me for a few seconds before she smiled and said, “You can’t read my mind? Thank goodness for that,” she sort of murmured . “ Well I’ll make it easy on you. I’m not very picky . I’m even fine with fast food. In fact, I’m kind of addicted to it. All the drive- thru restaurants recognize my voice when I order. ”
    It made me chuckle, but I couldn’t help but glance over her body again. If she ate stuff like that often you would never be able to tell. She was slim, but definitely athletic. I didn’t know how toned the rest of her was, but I could see the definition in her arms when she