The Rookie (Part 3 of 5)
“Boyer, don’t just stand there, damn it! Are you stupid?!” the so-called team captain yelled at his sweet Beth.
As though it was her fault she had no one covering her. The ass put all his weakest players in one clump in the outfield, creating a hole the size of the Grand Canyon. Then he screamed at them when they didn’t catch line drives professionals would flub.
The verbal abuse continued. Mike’s grip tightened on the three bats he was swinging, limbering up. He was tempted to use one on the captain. The wooden one. His thick head would dent the metal bats.
He dropped two of the bats, striding up to the plate. The hole was the obvious place to put the ball. But that would mean Beth getting more profanities dumped on her cute head. And his homer wouldn’t make much of a difference to the score.
His team would lose. They were all exhausted from too many late nights. He had thought about canceling.
Now he was glad he didn’t. Some of the men, himself included, needed the physical release. And he had met Beth.
Although she clearly disliked baseball, was adorably afraid of the ball, he liked how she didn’t let her team down, offering to play, facing her fear. He liked how she had enough self confidence to ignore the ass right now yelling at her. He liked the way she cheered for everyone, no matter what team they were on.
He liked how she cheered for him.
The pitcher must have been tired, releasing a lazy lob over the plate. He made a solid connection. The ball sailed over the fence. Mike laughed as he jogged around the bases. Winning the State Championship was nothing compared to how he felt now, with Beth doing a crazy sort of victory dance for him in the outfield.
