I sighed.

"Fine," I said. "But you have to buy me nachos while we're there."

"Deal!" Mia cried, holding out her hand.

I took it and shook, making her laugh.

"Now, I want to throw your trash away so we can go," she said laughingly.

I rolled my eyes and handed her my trash.

Mia had been my best friend for a very long time, but there were times that I couldn't handle her exuberance.

Although, had she not been exuberant, I probably wouldn't be where I am today.

She'd pulled me out of a lot of my delinquent activities, before they went too far, making sure I never got into too much trouble.

"Let's go already, we're going to be late," she ordered, grabbing my hand.

I sighed, following her out to my Jeep.

It was pretty.

And old. But still pretty.

Well, to me anyway.

Mia didn't like it because it made her hair blow all over the place due to the top being off.

Me, I liked it. Mostly because the air had gone out in it a few months back.

The only problem I had was when it rained.

Which in Texas, in the dead of summer, didn't happen all that often.

"Where am I going, exactly?" I asked.

I'd never been outside of Kilgore driving by myself yet.

Mostly because I couldn't afford the gas, and my parents didn't help me with gas at all.

They couldn't.

And my job paid for my insurance and car payment.

So, once a week, I put ten dollars into it, and prayed it'd last me the rest of the week.

"Stop there first, and I'll fill your tank up," she said.

I pulled into the gas station thankfully.

I didn't want to even contemplate how I was going to pay for the gas, but I was willing to do it for my friend, even if I had to walk to school for the rest of the week.

After filling up the tank and grabbing a few snacks, we headed to the baseball field.

"I've never been on the South Side before," I said, looking warily around at all the people on their front porches.

"Turn here and pull into the first parking lot," Mia ordered.

I did as directed, pulling into a parking spot that was nearly a quarter mile away from the entrance to the park.

"Wow, it's busy," I observed as I got out.

I didn't bother locking the Jeep.

There was no point without the doors and windows.

Mia jumped out her side and came around the vehicle to grab my hand.

She led me all the way to the front before she dropped it and pointed.

"Those are the ones we're rooting for," she said, pointing to the ones in yellow.

I nodded.

"Okay," I said. "Where's Jeff at?"

She pointed to the boy man that she was currently crushing on.

He was okay, I guess, but he wasn't that great. At least not as great as she was making it seem like.

In my honest opinion, he wasn't even that nice, but who was I to argue?

Then my eyes lit on the sexiest man I'd ever had the pleasure of seeing.

He was in tight white baseball pants that stopped at the knee, a yellow shirt that molded to his body, yellow socks and black baseball cleats.

His ball cap was in his hand as he rubbed the top of his shaved head with one hand.

The other arm was clutched tightly to his side where he was holding his baseball glove between his body and arm.

He was talking to, who I assumed was Jeff's brother, seeing as Jeff was standing right beside them.

Mia pulled me forward, and the movement caught the attention of the man I'd been ogling.

His eyes ran up and down my body, and I blushed.

I had on short shorts, a black tank top, and cute flip flops.

My hair was styled perfectly. Well, as perfectly as driving 50 mph in an open top Jeep would allow.

What had me embarrassed, though, was the ketchup stain on my shorts from where I'd dropped some from my earlier burger.

Which he zeroed in on almost instantly.

His mouth kicked up as he turned away, and I blushed beet red.

"Wanna sit here?" Mia asked.

I looked at the bleachers, which happened to be only inches away from the man, and nodded.

"Yeah," I said, clearing my throat.

The man's body tightened, and I looked down, nervous now.

Mia sat down on the inside, making me sit down on the part of the open bleacher that was closest to the man.

Oh, God. He smelled good.

"Your shoe's untied, man," Jeff's brother said to the other man.

"Thanks," he said, dropping down to one knee beside me.

He placed his ball glove on the bleachers next to my leg, and I started to hyperventilate slightly when I saw how close his fingers had come to touching me.

I tried to look at something else-anything else-but my gaze was mesmerized by the play of muscles that were working in his arms and back by the simple task of tying his shoe.

Then a man on the other team came up to the guy tying his shoe and knocked his hat off his head.

I caught it in my hands almost out of instinct and handed it back to him.

His eyes, then, turned to me.

He was nearly eye to eye with me, giving me my first close up view of his face.

"Thanks," he rumbled, sending shivers down my spine.

I smiled at him.

"You're welcome," I replied softly.

Whistles blew and he got up, grabbed his hat, and then his glove.

This time his fingers did touch me.

Chills spread out along the path that his fingers had touched.

It'd only been a quick brush of his fingers but it'd been enough that I could still feel the warmth. in their wake "Whoa, Mase. What the hell was that?" Mia asked, bumping me with her shoulder.

I shook my head. "I have no earthly idea."

He played third base.

Which meant I got to see him the entire time. Well, his ass anyway.

And what a spectacular ass it was.

I'd been staring at it for three hours now, completely ignoring everyone else on the field but him.

They were calling him 'Mike.'

Well, someone would say 'Mike' and the rest of the crowd would say, 'Who?'

I snickered as someone said it again.

Thunder rumbled overhead, and I looked up at the sky and frowned.

I didn't think it was supposed to rain today, but Texas was notorious for heat storms.

Lighting and thunder followed the heat, lighting the sky up with them.

Maybe it was one of those, I thought.

Except it wasn't.

I couldn't be that lucky.

"Strike!" The umpire called.

"Yeah, boy!"

I giggled as the team started to jump up and down, excitement thrumming through their veins at the win.

A fat droplet hit me on the leg, and I looked up at the sky once again.

"Hey," I said, poking Mia with my elbow.

She ignored me and instead continued to talk to Jeff's brother, leaving me to wonder what I should do.