Gerri Hill: One Summer Night

unlike her to have such an instant attraction to someone, especially someone she had yet to meet. Besides, she doubted she would even like her. Women like her had girls falling over them all the time. Kelly probably had a string of women littering the streets of San Antonio at this very moment.

The next two batters struck out, and Kelly still stood at third, clapping her hands, urging Deb to bring her home.

Deb hit the first pitch, and it rolled between first and second, just out of the other team’s reach, and Kelly trotted home, stepped on the plate and picked up Deb's discarded bat.

"Way to go, Sambino," someone yelled from the dugout, and Jo watched as Kelly walked in front of them, still smiling. For a second, she looked their way. Jo froze as dark eyes settled on her briefly. Then Kelly went into the dugout, accepting handslaps from her teammates, now out of Jo's view, who turned her attention, with effort, back to the field.

The game ended twenty minutes later, and Jo stood to stretch her legs. The heat she hadn’t even thought about during the game now settled around her again. Grabbing another beer from her cooler, she took a long swallow and wiped her brow. The teams were on the field shaking hands and talking. She forced her eyes away from Kelly Sambino and settled them on Kay, who was walking toward the fence.

"Jo! Glad you came," Kay called.

"Hi. You had a good game, Kay."

"Thanks. We've got another one at three. Are you staying?"

"Yes," she said immediately.

"Good. I'll talk to you in a minute," Kay said and walked to the dugout.

Jo waved at Deb as she walked back to the dugout and realized that she had not spoken to Deb since Christmas. Or was it New Year’s? They had been good friends once, sharing meals and movies. When they had both been single, they’d 8

spent many an evening together. But then Jo had started seeing Nancy and Deb had disappeared from her life, except for group holidays, it seemed. She sighed. Wasn’t that how it always was? Give up your friends for a lover, and when the lover leaves, your friends are gone, too. Jo sighed again.

It was as if they were strangers now, and Jo made a mental note to invite her to dinner some night soon.

Feeling a tap on her shoulder, she realized where she was, looked away from the field, and followed Betsy and Janis as they went to meet the players. Johanna was acutely aware of her nervousness as her eyes searched for Kelly Sambino. She spotted her talking to Christy and knew that Betsy and Janis were heading that way. She briefly hung back, almost afraid to meet her, but Betsy turned around and motioned for her to follow.

"Are you kidding? I was lucky to make it to third," Kelly was saying to Christy with a smile, and Jo caught her breath as Kelly looked around and rested those dark eyes on her again.

"Great game!" Betsy applauded. "A shutout."

"Yeah. They were picked to win the tournament, too,"

Christy grinned. She turned to Johanna then. "Jo, this is Kelly Sambino, a friend of mine from San Antonio.” She turned to Kelly and pointed at Jo. "Johanna Marshall."

"Hi," Kelly said and stuck out her hand.

Jo was forced to take it, to feel Kelly’s fingers wrap around her hand, to feel her firm grip. She kept her eyes down as their hands clasped, then raised them to meet Kelly’s deep brown eyes directly.

"Nice to meet you. You had a good game," she said.

Kelly released her hand slowly and smiled. "Thanks, but those were lucky hits. My softball days ended years ago."

"Oh, please," Christy groaned. "I had to practically beg her to play and look what she does."

9

Kelly grinned, showing off even, white teeth. "It's been a lot of years, Christy."

"You're far from the oldest one on this team."

"I think you hold that honor, don't you?" Betsy asked, and they all laughed.

"And you're not too far behind me, cousin," Christy shot back.

Jo smiled and raised her eyes again, only to find Kelly Sambino looking at her. She met her eyes briefly, and then looked away, back toward the field where another team was warming up.

"I've got to get something to drink," Kelly said, and to Johanna, "Listen, it was nice to meet you. I hope you hang around for the next game."

"I will," she said and smiled.

"Good.” Kelly turned to the others. "See you later," she said and left them.

"She's good, Christy," Janis commented, when Kelly had walked off. "Where did you find her?"

"She teaches at St. Peter's. Well, for the last year anyway.

She's from California originally and used to play for Stanford when she was in college."

"So where did you meet her?" Betsy asked.

"Out at a party awhile back. She's very nice. I really like her."

Jo listened to the conversation, her eyes following Kelly Sambino as she walked toward the parking lot. She was intrigued with her, to say the least. Actually, infatuated would be a better word.

They stood in the shade, visiting, and Jo was glad she had come. Kay came over to catch up, as they had not seen each other in a couple of months. She also got reacquainted with the other players she hadn’t seen in awhile, but she 10

couldn’t keep herself from scanning the parking lot for Kelly, waiting for her return.

“Jo?”

Jo turned around and smiled at Deb, giving her a quick hug in greeting.

“It’s been so long, Deb. How are you?”

“I’m good. You?”

“Fine,” she said. “We haven’t seen each other in ages.

Why did we let that happen?”

“Well, we just sort of lost touch when you started dating Nancy,” Deb said, “and never seemed to connect again after you two broke up.”

“It was my fault,” Jo agreed. “Why don’t we have dinner some night? Or is that not a good idea?” Jo looked around to see if someone were watching them. “Are you seeing someone?”

“No, no. You know me, always single,” Deb reassured her. “Dinner sounds good.”

“Terrific. We’ll get together and catch up,” Jo said.

Deb left her and Jo turned around, looking for Betsy, but aware that she was searching for Kelly Sambino, as well.

Oh, she was acting like a teenager with a huge crush. She purposefully strode back to her lawn chair, thinking she really did need to get out more.

Kelly did not reappear until just before the start of the next game. The others were already warming up when she hurried on to the field, carrying her bat and glove and a bottle of water.

Despite telling herself how foolish she was being, Jo watched closely. She stared as Kelly picked up a ball and began throwing with Christy, her lean body angling into every throw. She smiled often and chatted with the player next to her as she absently tossed the softball back and forth.

Jo was mesmerized. She couldn't tear her eyes away.

11

"Hey," Betsy said to her, bringing her around.

"Yeah?"

"What are you looking at?" she asked with a smile.

Jo blushed and cursed silently to herself. "Nothing."

"Yeah," she said, punching her arm. "Nice to know something's still alive in there."

Jo ignored her and took another beer from her cooler.

Their team was in the third base dugout this time and although she had a perfect view of the bench, she purposely refrained from staring. Instead, she pretended interest in the other team as they warmed up, trying to find someone to hold her attention as Kelly Sambino had done. No one did.

The game started, and her eyes never traveled far from third base. Kelly played her position expertly, grabbing every ground ball that came her way and throwing a bullet to first base each time. Jo was impressed, to say the least. But it was Kelly’s hitting that won the game. Her first time up, with two runners on, she smashed the ball to center field, and Jo smiled as it sailed to the fence. Then she watched as Kelly ran the bases, her long legs gracefully touching each one as she hurried to home before the ball ever made it back to the infield.