The Bad Baller Collection

by Kiss, Tabatha

“Suit yourself.” She throws her purse over her shoulder. “Let’s go.”

  We step out and she locks the door behind us. We head down the balcony and round the corner toward the stairs but a head of long, red hair in front of my door stops us in our tracks.

  Daisy hops back. “Oh, shhh—”

  She grabs my hand and yanks me with her. We disappear behind the corner before Trisha notices we’re here. Daisy covers her mouth to silence her chuckles and I lay a finger over my lips as I peek around with one eye.

  Trisha knocks on my door, posing elegantly with her cleavage arranged in just the right way. After a few seconds of impatience, she knocks again, this time louder and faster. Finally, she rolls her big, painted eyes and marches away, stomping down the stairs to her own room on the first floor.

  “Wow…” Daisy mutters. “She wants it.”

  “Oh, I am flattered,” I joke.

  She pokes her head around the corner. “Is she gone?”

  I nod, looking down at Daisy’s playful face. “Why are we hiding?”

  “Do you want to piss off the woman writing an article about you?”

  “Fair point.”

  “And I don’t want to piss off my new boss when she’s trying to mark her territory,” she adds.

  “Another fair point.”

  “Also, I figured you would have told her you weren’t single if you wanted her to know about us.”

  I bite my lip. “She caught me off-guard, Daisy. I wasn’t expecting her to ask stuff like that right off the bat… or at all, really.”

  Daisy pushes off the wall and rounds the corner toward the stairs. “It’s okay,” she says. “It’s not like we labeled this or anything.”

  I catch up to her and we walk side-by-side. “Should we?”

  “Maybe,” she whispers as we glide down the stairs, “but not before the first date.”

  We move the rest of the way in silence, staying light on our feet as we pass by Trisha’s door and through the parking lot.

  The motel drifts off behind us and disappears from sight as we reach the park nearby.

  Daisy loosens up and we slow our stride as we enter the grounds. Several people pass us by on the sidewalk, including couples young and old, linked by the arms and completely unaware of others around them. This must be a popular late-night hangout for local lovers. My hand twitches, wondering if we should do the same but I keep my hands at my sides.

  “So, where are we going?” she asks.

  “You’ll see,” I say. Her face flinches. Daisy Hawthorne obviously isn’t the type that likes surprises. “It’s not far. Just another minute and you’ll know exactly where we are.”

  The baseball stadium comes into view and I glance at her as confusion sets in.

  I say nothing, filling my lungs with the familiar scent. They all smell like this. The air is still heavy with the lingering scent of popcorn and hot dogs. I can almost hear the announcer off in the distance, calling out every play as they happen.

  “What the hell are we doing back here?” she asks me as I lead her around the dark, abandoned building.

  “Well… if I’ve still got my skills from a misspent youth…” I pause by the side exit and yank the door open, “then we’re breaking into a baseball diamond.”

  She raises a brow, her little eyes sparkling toward the pitch-black hallways. “We are?”

  I gesture her in. “After you, Daisy.”

  Hesitation claims her for a short moment as she glances around for spying eyes. We rush inside and I let the door latch behind us. I take hold of her arm in the dark and guide her, pretending that I know exactly where we’re going.

  “Why are we breaking into a baseball diamond?” she whispers.

  I match her volume. “Because it’s fun.”

  “Isn’t it also illegal?”

  “That’s what makes it fun.”

  “Misspent youth, huh?” she teases. “Were you a bad boy?”

  “I might have been.”

  She chuckles as we round the dim corner and step outside onto the field. Our path is barely illuminated by the towering buildings nearby and the bright moon above our heads.

  “Okay…” I lead her to home plate. “Stand here.”

  “Hunter, what—”

  The stadium lights pop on and I grin.

  She jolts with the slightest rush of adrenaline. “Okay, how did we really get in here? Who’s up there?”

  I turn and wave toward the media room at the top of the bleachers. “I bribed a janitor.”

  “You bribed a janitor? With what?”

  “I told him you’d blow him.”

  Her jaw drops in horror. “Hunter.”

  I crack up. “I’m kidding. I signed a few baseballs for his kids… and then I blew him.”

  She laughs. “Oh, that’s okay.”

  “Good.”

  “Jeez,” she says, scanning the stadium. “Is this really what it’s like out here?”

  I keep my gaze on her, admiring the light as it brightens her eyes. “Yeah, it is.”

  “I can only imagine what it’s like when this place is packed.”

  “It’s…” I break away to look around. “It’s something else, that’s for sure.”

  “Now it’s just extra crazy that you hit me with that baseball,” she says. “Of all the seats in the stadium.”

  “Yeah, no kidding.”

  We start walking around the diamond, taking the straight path toward first base.

  “So,” she says, looking at me. “Baseball.”

  “Baseball,” I repeat.

  “How long have you been playing?”

  “Since I was a kid. I played little league and then high school ball and then went right into the minors after that.”

  “Hence why you never went to college,” she recalls.

  “Precisely. It didn’t take long to recruit up from the rookie leagues. I played Double-A for Hartford for the last two seasons but I got traded to New Jersey this year mid-season.”

  “Interesting…” She hums softly.

  “So,” I say, spinning around and walking backwards down the white line in front of her. “Photography.”

  “Photography,” she repeats.

  “How long have you been snapping pictures?”

  She grins. “Ever since my dad let me play with his old Polaroid camera when I was ten.”

  “Really?”

  “It didn’t take long before I ran out of film,” she says, “but my mother didn’t like me messing with it so she refused to buy me more — not that Polaroid film was easy to find in the first place at that point.”

  “Why didn’t she like you messing with it?”

  “Because he gave it to me.” She shrugs. “They divorced when Rose and I were five and disagreeing with each other was more of a principle than anything else.”

  “Right…”

  “She’s never been a big fan of me pursuing art.”

  “What did she want you to do instead?”

  She stops and laughs at her feet. “She wanted me to be a lawyer, like her.”

  I wince. “Boring.”

  “That’s what I said!” She shakes her head. “She wanted Rose to be one, too, but she chose to go into Chemistry instead and Rose can do no wrong anyway, so…” Her shoulders bounce. “Mom let it slide.”

  “You don’t seem to have a lot in common with your twin,” I note.

  “And you’d be correct. Rose is more or less the perfect daughter and I’m…” she inhales a deep breath, holding it for a long moment before finally letting it out, “not.”

  “Well, you seem just fine to me so far.”

  It brings a quick smile to her face, but it doesn’t last long. “I left home at eighteen,” she says, “came out to the east coast to be on my own and prove her wrong but… that hasn’t really panned out.”

  “Hence why you haven’t told her about the baby yet.”

  “Ha!” She grins. “Oh, she’s going to have a field day on that
one, let me tell ya. There will be I told you so parades flooding the streets from here to California until the day it’s born.”

  I chuckle. “It can’t be that bad.”

  “It’ll be bad enough.” She looks up at me. “So, what about you? Are you a big failure for Mommy, too?”

  “Not really,” I answer. “My parents are my biggest fans.”

  “Cool.”

  She starts again, walking slowly along the diamond and I trail beside her from base to base. After a few moments of silence, she turns to me.

  “Was that true?” she asks.

  “Was what true?”

  “What you told Trisha earlier. About how you think about me a lot… or, you know, I assume you were talking about me, anyway…”

  I pause, smiling. “Yeah, that was true.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah.”

  She looks down at her feet. “Really?”

  “Does that surprise you?”

  “Kind of.”

  “Why?”

  She hesitates. “I guess I never thought of myself as someone people think about if that makes sense.”

  “You were the first thing I thought of when we arrived in Hartford the other day,” I tell her. “We drove by the bar as we went through downtown and I wondered what you were doing, who you were with. If you were happy.”

  Her eyes pop up. “You did?”

  “After that night, I wanted to get to know you better, but I was leaving and…” I shake my head. “I don’t know, maybe a part of me knew that this wasn’t over.”

  “Well, I definitely didn’t have that part in me.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Yeah, I forgot all about you the second I stepped outside of your building,” she jokes.

  “Well, I don’t doubt that.”

  She licks her lips. “Okay, maybe I thought about you a little here and there. Once or twice.”

  I smile and come to a quick stop on first base. “So…” I lean in closer, “do you kiss on the first date?”

  “Depends on how it’s going.”

  “And how is this one going?”

  She shrugs. “Meh.”

  “Meh?”

  “Meh.”

  “There is just no pleasing some women…” I smirk.

  She chuckles. “I guess it’s not bad, so far…”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good enough for me to safely go for it?”

  “It might be worth a shot.” She looks down. “We are technically standing on first base.”

  I laugh, biting my inner cheek, and stalling to gauge that look in her blue eyes. Expectant and wild, there’s nothing about her at all that tells me not to do it.

  I reach out and graze her cheek with my fingertips, drawing her face up to mine as I lean in.

  She stiffens and plants her hard palm against my chest.

  “What?” I ask, stopping.

  Her face turns a pale white and she spins away from me, bending over as she heaves onto the dirt below.

  “Yep,” I say, resting a hand on her back. “That’s vomit.”

  “Sorry…” she says, taking a deep breath between her knees before spitting again.

  “It’s okay…” I rub between her shoulders, glancing around the deserted stadium for prying eyes. “Let it out…”

  “Ahh, shit…” After a few seconds, she stands back up, wiping her mouth with the edge of her hand. “That’s a moment-killer right there.”

  “A little.” I smile. “You all right?”

  “Yeah…” She can barely even look at me. “Sorry. That was both gross and unexpected.”

  I shake my head at her pink, embarrassed cheeks. This kid is a troublemaker already. The last thing I want is for her to feel shitty about something she can’t control.

  “It’s fine,” I say, drawing attention away from it. “I wouldn’t want to kiss me, either. I’m disgusting.”

  She gives an awkward laugh. “Morning sickness has a really misleading name.”

  “Hey, I get it.” I hold up my hands. “You don’t have to invent an illness to get out of kissing me. I can handle rejection…”

  She looks up at me and smiles. “Hunter…”

  “No, it’s cool. Really. I can take a hint.”

  “Thank you.”

  I grin and hold out my hand. “Do you want to head back?”

  She rests her palm against mine and I pull it up to kiss the back of her hand. The embarrassment fades from her face but the red stays behind, along with the smiling stretching from ear-to-ear.

  “No, we can stay out a little longer,” she says.

  We continue around the bases, walking together hand-in-hand and, honestly, this feels far more satisfying than a kiss.

  Chapter 15

  Daisy

  I drop Hunter’s hand to search for my room key in my purse.

  I don’t want this night to end yet but nearly purging on his shoes certainly puts a damper on things. There’s no way he’d want to kiss me now but, then again, he never lost that look in his eye that says he wants to either.

  We pause in front of my door as I fish a little deeper into the purse.

  “Did you lose it?” he asks.

  “No…” I pull out my wallet. “I think I just— yep!” I slide it free from between a few dollar bills. “I found it.”

  “Bummer,” he says, leaning against the wall. “Thought you’d have to bunk up with me tonight.”

  “And that would violate our whole agreement.” I slide the key into the lock and twist it open.

  “I suppose it would.”

  I step inside and Hunter lingers in the doorway, no doubt waiting for an invite. Not that I don’t want to — I definitely would — but we agreed to take things slow.

  I lean over the bathroom sink and turn on the water, filling my palm to drink out of. There’s still a bit of that stale taste in my mouth. I swish and spit before grabbing the tiny bottle of motel mouthwash to use as well.

  “You feeling better?” he asks, craning his neck to peek into the bathroom.

  “Yeah,” I answer after spitting. I wipe my mouth dry and rejoin him by the door. Even through that, he still looks interested. I guess that’s something. “I think I’ll take a shower and head to bed.”

  He nods. “Well, despite what you may think, tonight was nice.”

  “It was,” I agree.

  “We should do it again tomorrow night.”

  “Sure. If you’re not too wiped out from the game.”

  “Daisy, I could never be too wiped out for you.”

  I smile. “I’m gonna hold you to that.”

  “Please do.” He points to the left. “I’ll be down the hall if you need… anything.”

  “Thanks.”

  His eyes fall to my lips. “You know, I was really looking forward to that kiss.”

  My toes curl in my shoes. “So was I.”

  He takes a short step into the room and his hand grazes my chin, just like it did before. I pause, waiting for my guts to shift and kill the moment again, and he does, too. We wait, staring longingly at each other in sweet anticipation.

  “We good?” he asks, smiling.

  “Yeah.”

  He kisses me softly, gently pursing his lips with a light, innocent peck. I kiss him back, holding on a little longer and he slides his thumb along my cheek, sparking fire down my face and back.

  We pull away and I press my lips together. I want more. I want to invite him in and keep this night going but Hunter takes a step back.

  “Goodnight, Daisy.”

  I sigh. “Goodnight, Hunter.”

  He walks away, glancing back at me over his shoulder as I watch him go. It’s hard to look away from him but I somehow manage to close the door. I lean against it, taking a deep breath to calm my trembling nerves.

  Hunter Novak. He keeps surprising me in new ways and I’m not sure if it’s morning sickness or straight-up whiplash knocking me around he
re.

  A soft knock taps the door.

  I turn around slowly and twist the knob to peek outside.

  Hunter stands on the walkway with his hands in his pockets. “So, I was thinking…” he whispers.

  “Thinking what?”

  “Hunter and Daisy should definitely take it slow. I mean…” He blows out his cheeks. “Those two are in pretty deep.”

  I raise a brow. “… Okay.”

  He rests his head against the door frame, lingering a few inches away from mine with playful eyes. “But Joey and Jenny…” he smirks, “they’re in their own little world, right?”

  My lips curl. “That’s quite the loophole you’ve concocted.”

  “If she’s not up for it, I totally get it, but Joey… He’s definitely up for it.”

  I bite my lip, losing myself in the fantasy and he knows it. “Joey and Jenny, huh?”

  He shrugs and says nothing.

  Fuck it.

  I take a step back and hold the door open for him.

  He steps inside, keeping his eyes on me the entire time until I close the door behind him. He lays his hands on my waist and guides me against the wall. His lips find my neck fast, gliding over my skin as he lays hard kisses along my collarbone. I sink into the embrace, forgetting everything else about tonight and trapping us in this moment.

  He pushes my jacket back over my shoulders and it tumbles to the floor beneath us as he flicks the buttons open on my shirt. Our lips crush together, eager and wild, as he slips his fingers around my back and holds me against him.

  He sinks to his knees, kissing down my body, and all I can do is pretend like I can stand. I lay a hand on the shelf beside me and another on his strong shoulders, gripping both to hold me up as my senses quiver with his tongue. He cups my breasts as he descends, pausing for a moment to kiss just below my navel.

  He pulls my jeans down my legs, hooking his fingers into my panties to take them off, too. I close my eyes, feeling every touch spread along my skin as he lifts my right knee and settles it on his shoulder.

  I inhale a sharp breath as his tongue taps my clit. He slides between the folds, lapping slowly as I comb my fingers through his hair. I draw him closer and he pushes in deeper, eating away at me and it takes all my focus not to collapse on him. I moan, biting my lips to keep quiet as he slithers my clit over and over again.