Excerpt of The Blonde and the Ballplayer

Hi, everyone!

Hope everything's well with you.

As you've probably figured out,

The Blonde and the Ballplayer has not come out yet.

Therefore, here is an excerpt

to tide you over.

Of course, I'll let you know

when the book comes out.

XOXO,

Angie

The Blonde and the Ballplayer

For our date, Tommy takes me out to a cozy little place near his house.  He opens the door for me and guides me over to the bar with a hand in the small of my back.  The light pressure sends a chill down my spine, but I suppress it, because a couple of guys from the organization are here.  Everyone notices when we come in, of course, but to my surprise, no one comes to bother us. 

            Tommy looks good.  He’s wearing a grey sports jacket and a pink shirt, and I like the way those colors work to bring out the sky-blue of his eyes.  I’m wearing a black knit dress with a deep V in the back.  I know if he says something perverted, like I have it on backwards, that I’ll cringe and find some way to cut the date short, but he does nothing of the kind.  He’s sweet and gentlemanly throughout the date, and if he asks me out again, I’m definitely going.  He orders me a drink and I tease him a little.

            “I hear you’re a heartless womanizer,” I tell him.

            “Who’s telling you such lies?  I haven’t been on a date in weeks.”

            “They say you’re self-absorbed and unromantic is why, and all you care about is your niece and baseball.”

            “They’re right about that part.  Baseball and Miranda are everything to me.  They’re my whole world.”

            “So there’s no room left for dating a girl?”

            “I didn’t say that.  That’s just what they say, because a lot of them are jealous of the time I spend with her.  But hell, what do they want?  She’s my kid.”  

            “They say she’s an adult now.”

            “She is, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t need me.  Besides, it’s hard to get romantic when you work all the time.”

            And I know what he means, because I work a lot, too, so I just take a sip of my drink and smile.  The drink’s a little too strong, but it still tastes all right, so I drink up.  Better than coming across as one of those bitchy girls who sends everything back.  Tommy keeps an eye on me to see if I’m going to bust his chops some more or not, so I set my drink back down on the bar and smile.

            “I need your advice, Tommy.”

            “Sure.  About what?”

            “How does a girl worm her way into your heart?”

            He eyes me for a moment with a slow smile, and then he leans over and favors me with a short but somehow very erotic kiss.  When he’s done, he straightens up and says, “Keep being a good kisser, for one.”

            “No.  For real.”

            “That is for real.”

            “Then what do I do after that?”

            “You come home with me and meet my family.”

             “Isn’t it a little early to meet your family?”

            “It’s not that kind of family.  It’s just Miranda and her fiancé, my housekeeper and his boyfriend.”

            “They all live with you?” I ask.

            “Yep.”

            “You’re got a strange family, Tommy Wright.”

            “Yep.  A regular Addams Family.  If you come home with me and you’re real nice, I’ll even show you my mad dope robot skills.”