Page 69 of Risk

She marches up to the counter. “We’d like an hour in two of your batting cages, please.”

Be still my lonely heart. “You’re swinging too?”

“Hells yes, I am. And five bucks says I’m totally gonna smoke you.”

Happiness rips out of me. I think I’ve laughed more with Leah than I have in the past decade. “You’re on, Princess.”

We head to the batting cages and Leah takes off her heels. Dear god, she’s seriously going to do this.

We pick out our bats and get in our cages. The feel of the bat in my grip, its weight and shape, is both comforting and foreign. It’s been a long time since I’ve done this.

Leah blows me a kiss and twirls her bat around looking like she’s a goddam professional athlete.

The balls fly.

I swing and hit mine. She misses hers.

“Ohhh, fancy Big Tech Daddy knows how to hit it!”

“You have no idea.” I toss my bat in the air, letting it spin once before I catch it effortlessly.

The balls fly again. I swing and hit. She swings and misses.

“You can have a couple freebies,” I say, winking.

“I don’t need them. I’m just—ah!”

She dodges the next ball. “Holy crap, these things come quick!” Before I can tell her to get out of the cage and say this is a bad idea, she points her bat at me. “Stay over there, Mr. Finch. Worry about yourself. I’m not the kind of woman who lets a pair of balls scare her off.”

God love her.

Leah gets all serious as she grips her bat and chants, “See the ball, hit the ball. See the ball, hit the ball.”

They fly again and we both swing. She hits, I miss. “I get triple points for that.”

“Why?”

“Pretty privilege, obviously.”

In that case, she should be up by one million points.

We both swing again, and I miss. Leah hits hers but wasn’t holding the bat properly. “OUCH! SHIT!” She drops the bat and shakes her arm.

“Hold it at the base and extend your arm when you swing.” The balls fly again, and I hit a grand slam. “Out of the park, baby!”

Leah picks her bat up and tries again. “Full swing. Bat at the base. See the ball, hit the ball.” Bouncing on the balls of her feet, she hits the next five and tips the sixth. “This is so fun!”

Her joy consumes me. Being here with a bat in my hand and my girl next to me makes this the greatest moment I’ve had in forever. I didn’t realize how much I’ve been missing in my life until Leah came into it.

We have a blast taking turns trash talking, teasing, and hyping each other up. The hour blows by, and we finally hang our bats back up. Leah’s out of breath as she gathers her heels and puts them back on. “That was way fun!”

“You did amazing.” I kneel and put her foot on my knee so I can fasten the strap. “Total main character energy.”

Leah’s jaw drops and eyes widen. Clutching her chest, she leans in and says with all seriousness, “That’s the single greatest compliment of my fucking life.” Then she squeals and wraps her arms around my neck and kisses me.

With little effort, I lift her off the bench and keep kissing her even as I press her against the exit door. She runs her hands through my hair, devouring my mouth and my dick’s been hard for the past hour, which means it’s a throbbing, painful rod in my pants.

“Easy, Princess. There are kids around here.”