Pulling his duffle bag with him, Tim got out of his truck. He arched his back, feeling every muscle as they bent back into place. He had been sitting for way too long. The last stretch of drive Tim had done had been a grueling ten hours and his body was protesting. He knew he shouldn't have pushed himself so hard, but he was tired of being on the road and was eager to reunite with his sister and nephew.

Tim grabbed some of the fast food wrappers from his passenger seat and threw them in a nearby garbage can. He had parked in the parking lot of a Little League baseball complex complete with two baseball and two softball fields with a concessions stand and bathrooms in the middle. The parking lot was full of cars, mostly SUVs and minivans, Tim noted. It was the address his sister had given him, but the complex was a decent size and he had no idea where he was actually going. Locking his truck, Tim wandered through the parking lot.

"Come on, bud, we're going to be late," a female voice said.

Tim glanced over and saw a pretty woman with her dark hark in a bun at the base of her neck standing at the back of her CRV. She was ushering a boy out of the backseat. Tim wondered for a brief moment what it would be like to take her hair out of that bun. As quickly as the thought came, though, he shook it out of his mind. She was a stranger just trying to get her kid to baseball practice and it wasn't like Tim to lust after someone.

"I can't find my shoe!" A boy's voice called out.

"Why aren't you already wearing your shoe?" The woman asked back.

Tim spotted a child size black and white cleat about a foot under the car. The boy must have dropped it and it somehow rolled away. Tim walked over to the CRV. He got down on his hands and knees and pulled the shoe out.

"Here you go, slugger," Tim said.

At the sound of a man's voice, the woman came out from behind the vehicle. She was clearly startled by the presence of an adult male and went immediately into defensive mom mode. The woman was petite, but Tim had a feeling she could hold her own.

When Lucy heard a man's voice, her first instinct was to protect her son. But when she saw the man standing a few feet in front of her, holding Alex's shoe, she relaxed. He had a calming presence. He was tall, in good shape, and had a handsome face. He seemed a little older than Lucy, but he was most definitely attractive.

"Thanks!" Alex exclaimed, taking the shoe from Tim.

"Thank you," Lucy said to Tim. "I swear he'd lose his head if it wasn't attached."

"You're welcome."

She smiled at him and Tim was struck by how beautiful she was. He smiled back.

"We…ah…we have to get going," Lucy stuttered wondering why she suddenly felt nervous around the stranger.

"Right, don't want to be late," Tim replied. "Good luck out there, kid."

"It's just a practice," Alex explained.

"Don't be rude," Lucy said. "Thanks again for finding his shoe."

"Don't mention it."

Tim began to walk away. He turned back just long enough to see the license plate of the car as Lucy shut the hatchback. New York plates. Interesting, Tim thought. Trying to shake the vibe that there was some sort of story there, Tim walked off towards the fields. He quickly texted Genny and she immediately responded with which field to go. He walked over and saw her sitting in the stands.

"Tim! Hi!" Genny shrieked, running down the metal bleachers to fling herself into Tim's arms.

"Hey, sis," Tim said, wrapping his arms around his sister. It felt better than he expected to be in the arms of someone he really cared about. He had been missing that for a long time.

"I'm really glad you decided to come," Genny said.

"Yeah, me too."

"I can't believe you chose to drive all that way by yourself. How was it?"

"It was ok," Tim answered. "It was nice to be out on the road. I'm supposed to be clearing my head so that's what I did."

"I'm glad. And I'm really glad you're here."

"Where's Tyler?" Tim asked.

"He's out in left field. He's really excited to see you."

Shielding his eyes from the sun, Tim looked out onto the field. He could just about make out his nephew standing in the grass concentrating more on some bird flying overhead than what the coach was yelling from home plate.

As Tim and Genny settled next to each other on the bleachers, chatting about Tim's drive cross-country, Tim saw the woman from the parking lot walking to the field with her son behind her. She walked right up to the fence that surrounded the field.

"Excuse me," Lucy called over to the coach.

The coach stopped showing the child in front of him how to hold the bat and walked over to Lucy. He was an older man with wrinkles on his face and a bit of a gut that hung over his Jeans. He had kind eyes, though. Kind eyes that Lucy would hope would cut her a break.

"Can I help you?" The coach asked.

"I hope so. My name is Lucy Chen. This is my son Alex. He just turned seven. We were hoping to sign up for a team."

"I'm sorry. Sign ups were two weeks ago. We're starting practice now."

"I saw that online," Lucy explained. "The trouble is, we just moved here about five days ago so I didn't know about sign ups."

"Those are the rules, ma'am. I'm sorry. Maybe he can find a town league to play in somewhere nearby."

Before the coach could walk away, Lucy kept talking.

"But those aren't the official rules," Lucy said. "I read the official Little League rulebook and it doesn't say anything about having to sign up a certain number of weeks in advance. Look, he's been playing in Little League since he was four. And I have all of the paperwork filled out including a physical from the doctor. And I have a check ready to go to pay for his spot. Please."

"I'm sorry. Maybe next year," the coach said.

"Look, sir," Lucy stated with more of an authoritative tone in her voice. "We're new here. My son needs to make friends and be part of a team. I am asking you to please reconsider and…and I'll volunteer!"

"We don't need any more coaches."

Lucy racked her brain. She was not going to let this man say no to her.

"I'll…run concessions during games," she continued. "Or I can bring a healthy snack for the kids every week. Please…"

"Is there a problem, Chuck?" Genny asked.

Lucy looked as she saw a tall, pretty, redheaded woman walking towards her from the bleachers.

"This doesn't concern you, Genny," the coach, whose name apparently was Chuck, said to her.

"Why won't you help this poor lady and her son out?" Genny asked. "Isn't Little League all about sportsmanship and camaraderie? She just wants her kid to play baseball."

"It wouldn't be fair to the other players who get denied because they try to sign up late."

"What other players?" Genny asked, looking around. "I don't see anyone else trying to sign up. Let the kid play. Be a rebel, Chuck. Otherwise I might just have to talk to Cindy on Monday at school and tell her that her husband is trying to deny children a proper physical education."

"Fine!" Chuck exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. "The kids like watermelon and orange slices. At least that'll be one less thing I have to do."

"I got it," Lucy replied. "Watermelon and orange slices. I'll have them here for the next practice."

Huffing, Chuck walked back onto the field.

"Come on, kid!" He called back at Alex.

Alex grabbed his bat and, with a huge smile on his face, raced after the coach. Seeing her son happy made Lucy smile.

"Thank you," Lucy said to Genny.

"Don't mention it. Chuck isn't a bad guy. He's been volunteering to coach since his kids were young. Now he's got two grandkids on the team. He's just a rule follower."

"Well, I appreciate the assist," Lucy said.

"I work with his wife at the elementary school in town. I'm a kindergarten teacher there. His wife is the phys ed teacher. She takes physical fitness very seriously. She should probably retire, but I don't think she wants to be home with Chuck all day."

Lucy laughed.

"I'm Genny, by the way," Genny continued. "Genny…Bradford. Sorry, I'm just getting used to going back to my maiden name."

"I'm Lucy. Lucy Chen."

"It's nice to meet you, Lucy. So, you just moved here?"

"Yeah. Over on Baker street."

"Not into Crazy Mae's house?"

"Mae was my aunt," Lucy answered with a chuckle.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have…"

"No, it's ok. She was a bit eccentric. After she passed a few months ago, she left everything to me. And it turned out I needed a bit of a fresh start after a breakup and wanting to get out of the city so…here I am."

"Here you are. Well, I've lived here for almost fifteen years and just finalized a divorce so I know the breakup story all too well."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Lucy said.

"Don't be. It was amicable and for the best. My son Tyler is out there in the field. He's seven."

"Alex just turned seven. When I finally get the house all cleaned up, we'll have you and your son over for a playdate. Although that might take a while considering the condition it's in."

"Well, we'll just have to have you over to our place in the meantime," Genny offered. "Come sit with us."

Tim had remained on the bleachers, watching and listening to what was going on. It now made sense why the woman had New York plates. And he knew she was newly single. Not that he should be thinking about that. He also knew that she was willing to stand up for herself and her son. And he knew that she was gorgeous.

"Lucy, I want you to meet Tim, my brother," Genny introduced as she made her way up to where Tim was sitting. Lucy followed her. "Tim, this is Lucy."

"We sorta met already," Lucy said, recognizing him. "It's nice to meet you officially."

"It's nice to meet you too," Tim replied.

Genny turned to Tim. "Wait, you've been in Connecticut for what? Five minutes? And you've met the new girl before I did?"

"I'm visiting," Tim explained to Lucy, hoping to fill in the gaps. "I just drove in today."

"Where from?" Lucy asked, feeling a small twinge of disappointment that the handsome man wasn't going to be sticking around.

"Los Angeles," Tim answered. "But I'll be here for a while."

"That's quite a drive," Lucy commented.

"Wait, how did you two meet in the parking lot?" Genny asked. "He wasn't hitting on you, was he?"

"Genny!" Tim snapped.

Lucy smiled. "No. He helped find my son's shoe."

"Ah…the detective strikes again," Genny remarked. "He always was good at finding stuff when we were kids."

"I'm not a detective," Tim added quickly. "I'm a sergeant."

"So, you mean, you're outranked by detectives?" Genny teased.

"No," Lucy answered before Tim could. "It's really more a matter of what kind of police work you want to do. Detectives are assigned to specialized divisions. A sergeant often still works a beat, but helps organize and monitor the other officers on that beat." Lucy noticed the way Tim was looking at her. It was as if he was amazed. She was sure her cheeks grew a little pink. "At least, that's how it's been in my experience."

"Your experience?" Tim asked. Normally someone didn't know something like that unless they or a close family member were involved with the police department in some way. Tim was fascinated by how much she knew.

"I…"

Lucy was interrupted when a tall, blond woman in high heels and a white tracksuit plopped down on the bleachers next to Genny.

"Can you believe it's baseball season again?" The woman asked. "I feel like we just finished up last year's season. Don't tell anyone I said this, but I hope the team is awful this year. I do not want to do any championships or playoffs or anything to make the season longer. I tried to convince Cora to do something girly like dance or gymnastics, but that girl loves baseball for some reason." The woman locked eyes on Tim. "Oh, hello."

"Ah…everyone, this is Ashley. Ashley's daughter plays on the team, too. Ashley, this is my brother, Tim and my new friend Lucy. Her son, Alex, is on the team, too."

Ashley extended her hand to Tim. "Nice to meet you, Tim. Aren't you handsome?"

Lucy nearly choked on her own spit. She wondered if a line like that ever really worked on anyone. Focusing her eyes on the field, Lucy listened as Ashley went on and on about some event that was going on at the school in the future. Lucy once glanced over at Tim and saw that he was looking at her. They both looked away, sheepishly. Feeling a little warm, Lucy took off her sweatshirt, leaving it on the bench beside her, and tried to concentrate on watching her son at practice. She had to try really hard not to look at the handsome man nearby.