Tamed V (2 page)

Shit.

“Adrian!” He’s standing in front of the girl, hands on his skinny hips. She’s smiling at him, rocking on her heels. Her eyes dart my way.

He looks over his shoulder, tucking his curly hair back under his cap. “Coming.”

As the kids spread out over the field, I catch myself looking back, looking for her. She’s moved to the bleachers, sitting away from the other moms, reading a book. The warm summer wind catches her dark hair and twice I catch her looking in my direction.

I push my chest out and throw the ball. Doing what I do best.

*

“Tucker, did you take out the trash?”

I’m sitting on the table helping Sophie force a doll arm into a fur coat. I manage to squeeze it in without breaking the elbow in half. “There. All dressed.”

“Tucker?!”

“Yeah, Mom, I’ve got it.”

I push open the screen door and grab the trashcan handle, dragging it down the street. It’s dusk and the air is summer-warm. I jog back to the house and grab my car keys.

I stop by the kitchen door. “I’m going out for a while.”

“Okay, honey.”

The screen door creaks when I’m at the car door. My mother stands at the door. From here, I can see the lines of worry on her face and the streaks of gray hair that weren’t there two years ago. “Can you bring back some milk?”

“Sure.”

After I park, I pull the bat out of the backseat and shove a fistful of quarters in the box of the first batting cage slot I come to. For the next twenty minutes I hit ball after ball, working out the frustration of the day—of my life. Trying to figure out how I got here and how to get away. Even outside, the world seems closing in. Tighter than the cage I’m currently in.

The ball machine runs out and I exit the cage to re-load. It’s then that I realize I’m not alone. There’s a girl sitting on the picnic table behind the batting cage. Big green eyes.

Bird.

“How long have you been here?” I ask.

“Just a minute or so.” I notice then that her face is a little red and the front of her shirt is wet. Her nipples press against the fabric. “I was jogging when I saw you.” She points to the water fountain. “I needed a drink.”

I nod because I’m not sure what to say to this girl. I can’t tell how old she is, but I think it’s older than me. Maybe twenty-two? Twenty-five? Her dark hair is pulled back in a ponytail except for several pieces stuck to her neck with sweat. Her pink, flushed cheeks give her a glow and I’ve always had a thing for female athletes, but before I can say anything she stands and stretches her arms behind her back, extending her chest. My fingers twitch.

“Well, see you around,” she says and runs off.

I stare at her ass going up the hill and then plug four quarters into the machine and slip back through the gate. I pull the batter’s helmet over my head and shake off the image of her tits and legs and sticky body.

Crack.

*

“I’m going to ask her out,” Adrian tells me at the next practice. He’s been staring at her the whole time. I know this because I’ve been watching him watch her. She sits in the same spot, the top corner of the bleachers.

“You should,” I tell him. I don’t care if he does even though my interest in her has piqued over the last couple of weeks.
Enough that I finally found out who she is and why she’s here with Felix. She’s his aunt.

Adrian glances away from her for a second. “You think she’ll go?”

“Why not?” I shrug. I don’t tell him that she seems to have free time,
and that I’ve seen her twice more jogging down the neighborhood streets at night. I don’t tell him that we’ve talked once again at the
batting cage. Only for a second because she’s friendly and nice but…aloof?

I’ve never experienced aloof.

Well, maybe once or twice by the super smart girls at school. The ones saving themselves for college or wearing promise rings. This is the Bible belt, after all. Those girls acted aloof but also flustered when I was around—ignoring me more than anything else. But Bird, she pays attention to me—just not in the way I’m used to.

“Maybe the movies?” he asks, like I have any clue. I haven’t asked a girl out in ages. Now, if he’d asked me where to fool around or how to make a girl pant your name I could tell him. A date? No freaking clue.

“Sure,” I say. “The movies are good.”

After practice Adrian corners Bird while I clean up the field, hanging bats on the racks and carrying the bucket of baseballs into the supply shed
. Adrian is the only one left around here full time. Everyone else went to college or enlisted. That’s what happens in a military town. The pressure to follow your father’s footsteps into the career is strong.

Unless you’re a baseball star. One with a professional career in your future. Unless your father was one of the men that never came back. Unless your family needs you.

I set the bucket on the floor of the shed and glance over at Adrian. He’s alright. We played together in school but he busted his knee in a car accident. Got him out of the military, and he’s not smart enough for college. So now we hang out. Coach this team. He works here, at the rec. Me? I’m a volunteer for now. While I figure it out.

Bird likes the attention from Adrian. I can tell by her smile. The way she sways hip to hip. I think about setting my hands there, on her hips, and pulling her close. She looks in my direction and I stare back, because even though I play it cool, I’m not going to be the first to look away. Ever.

We hold eye contact for a beat and through it all, Adrian never stops talking. I can’t hear him, but I see his mouth moving and I see her eyebrow arch just a little bit in my direction. I realize then that even though she’s nodding yes to Adrian, she’s staring at me.

*

“Can you give me a ride to Lindsay’s tonight?” Joe asks from my bedroom doorway, phone clutched in his hand.

“Yeah.”

Not for the first time, I consider that I’ve turned into a chauffeur. Or a stay-at-home Dad. I’m not even sure how it exactly started. Necessity, I guess. Mom kept it all together when Dad was on duty, but the minute he was gone, she, and everything else, fell apart.

Joe sits in the passenger seat of the Jeep. His knee bounces out of nervousness and he keeps messing with the door lock. He must like this girl. I keep my eyes forward and ask, “So, you have condoms, right?”

He looks at me in shock. I can see him from the corner of my eye. I sigh and rub the back of my neck. “Look, Dad’s not here so I have to ask because no way we’re having another Jensen baby.”

“It’s not like that,” is all he says, but I help with the laundry. I’ve seen his sheets. Fucking hormones.

“I know it’s not now and that’s cool—good even, but don’t be stupid.”

Joe nods and gives me directions to the house. I pull in the driveway. “Do you need me to pick you up?”

“I’ll text you, okay?”

“Okay,” I tell him. He hops out of the car and I stop him. “Joe, wait. Listen, there’s one other thing Dad would want me to tell you.”

He gives me a wary look. We don’t talk about Dad often, but now I’ve brought him up twice. “Treat her nice. Really nice. And don’t pressure her. Don’t be a dick.”

“I won’t,” he promises, looking at his shoes.

“Good,” I say. “Let me know if you need a ride.”

He’s still slack jawed from my advice so I shift the Jeep into gear and leave him standing on the sidewalk outside of his girl’s house.

*

Crack

Chink

Crack

Chink

“You’re pretty good.”

Whiff

Thud

I look back and there she is. Bird.

Easing back into position, I hit the remainder of the baseballs, connecting with each one in the sweet spot. When the machine slows, I take off the helmet and look back.

She’s still here.

“What’s up?” I ask, opening the door to the cage.

“Just watching you.”

I sit next to her on the picnic table. “Yeah?”

“You’re pretty accurate.”

“I should be,” I laugh. “I’ve been living and breathing this game since I was four.”

Bird has been running again. A thin layer of sweat covers her arms and chest. She has one some kind of running top, like a tank but no bra. Again her nipples poke through the purple fabric and it’s all I can do not to rub my thumb across. I wonder what her skin tastes like. “How many miles do you run?”

“Four or five. Depends on how I’m feeling. Today was a six-miler, though.”

I raise an eyebrow. “How come?”

“I like to push myself, I guess. You’re an athlete, I’m sure you know the feeling.”

We’re sitting close together and even her sweat smells good. I can’t tell if she’s flirting with me or not. If she was one of the sports groupies, my pants would be around my knees now, but she’s not. I don’t know what she is.

“I used to push myself, but not so much anymore.”

“How come?”

I rest the bat on its head and spin it in a circle. “No reason to. Coming here is just an old habit. Somewhere to go that’s not home.”

She lets my comment hang, which makes me feel self-conscious. Before I can do anything about it she stands up and grabs the bat. “Want to give me a lesson?”

“Batting?”

“Sure. You coach the kids. Coach me.”

“If you say so,” I laugh.

I open the gate, letting her go in first

“First you need to stand like this.” I demonstrate and she copies me.

“Like this?” she asks, sticking her ass out. Yes. Exactly.

“Elbows out,” I direct. “And feet spread apart.”

I stand behind her and touch her elbows. “Higher,” I say.
I can smell the shampoo in her hair and see the small bird tattoo on her neck. She shifts so our bodies touch. Damn.

“Okay, you need to wear this.”
Needing space, I reach for the helmet and place it on her head. I then shove a handful of quarters into the slot.

She whiffs the first three balls. “Move back a little, you’re too close to the plate.” She gets a little bit of wood on the next two. “Elbows up.”

I’m standing outside the cage but her form is all wrong. Between a break in the pitches I slip in behind her and adjust her body with my hands. She lets me manipulate her, and with my hands over hers, we connect the bat to the ball effortlessly.

“I did it!” she laughs, turning and missing the next pitch. It hits the fence with a loud clink.

“Watch out,” I say, pulling her out of the way. I get her repositioned and she settles her butt into my crotch.

Is she doing it on purpose? It seems like it, but again…aloof.

She takes a couple more pitches, hitting fifty-fifty. When the machine stops she removes the helmet, shaking out her hair. “That was awesome.”

“You did pretty well.” I tell her. “Maybe you can start helping during practice.”

“Yeah, right. I’d be useless out there. Plus, Felix would kill me. He idolizes you and Adrian.”

“He’s a good kid.” I think about it for a minute and then ask, “Is everything okay at home? I haven’t seen his mom in a while.”

“His dad, Jeff, is my brother. He got stationed overseas for six months, so I came to help. She’s pregnant and on bed rest, so I’ll be here for a couple months.”

The idea that she’ll be around for a while excites me. She excites me.

My phone buzzes in my pocket and I fish it out. “My brother,” I tell her, reading the message. “He’s on a date or something but I’ve got to pick him up.”

“Not the brother on the team?”

I laugh. “No, he’s not dating yet. Thank god. I’ve got another brother, he’s sixteen.”

“You take care of them a lot, don’t you?”

“Yeah, just helping out,” I shrug, downplaying my involvement. What girl wants to hang out with a quasi-stay-at-home-dad?

I gather my bat and helmet and we start walking toward the Jeep. “You need a ride or something?”

Any other girl would say yes. They’d say yes and I’d ditch Joe and we’d make out in my car. I’d take her back to my room and I’d tear that tiny tank off her chest and finally get my hands on her ass. I’d know every inch of her body by the end of the night, but not this one. She shakes her head. “No, I think I’ll just run,” she says. “Thanks for teaching me.”

“Any time.” I toss my stuff in the back seat and watch her, this enigma, run down the street.

*

After that I can’t get her out of my mind. I think about her when I wake up and before I go to sleep. I dream about her and wake up hard. In the shower, I jerk off thinking about that tattoo and how I want to scrape it with my teeth. I want to know what her tits would look like hanging over my body.

I know I’m good-looking. Attractive. Even when I was a kid people would comment on my looks. On my face. Girls love to run their hands down my jaw. Twist their fingers in my hair. Baseball kept me fit and I’ve spent a lifetime training for the pros, so even if I’ll never get there, the results are still visible. I see people looking at my body. My arms and my abs. Older women, younger. My mom’s friends. I’ve never met a girl I wanted that I couldn’t have. Didn’t have. But this one, Bird, with her big green eyes, has me stumped.

“How was the movie?” I ask Adrian. I’m nonchalant about it, like I don’t care. Like I’m just being polite. I
shouldn’t
care, but seeing her in the bleachers in a green tank top and cut off shorts stirs things I’m not used to feeling.

“Alright. Some artsy flick she picked out.”

I want to ask him if he kissed her but I’m not sure I want to know. “You going out again?”

He shrugs but I see the determination on his face. He’s not backing down, even if it didn’t go as well as he wanted. After practice, I herd Sophie and Owen to the car, passing Adrian and Bird in the parking lot.

I really should find out her name.

“Tucker will be there,” Adrian says, his eyes flashing between the two of us.

“Be where?” I say.

“The game tomorrow night.”

“The kids have a game?” she asks. “I didn’t see that on the schedule.”

Adrian shakes his head. “No,
our
game. Men’s league.”