Bottom of the Ninth

Fed up with cheating women, Dan Alexander, star pitcher for the New York Nighthawks, grew restless. Searching for something more than a bar babe, he zeroed in on a girl in the stands. He never expected to see a beautiful chick pushing frankfurters. But the hot dog girl looked as smokin’ as the food she was selling. Holly Merrill found a place to hide in plain sight, as a vendor at Nighthawks’ stadium. Keeping her secret safe and simply happy to stay alive, she never considered finding love an option. After all, a bad girl doesn’t deserve a decent guy, does she?

Matt Jackson, clutch hitter, fielder extraordinaire, and team captain, is dynamite on the baseball field, but a loser with women. Or is he? He makes a show of coming on to chicks in bars, but always strikes out. Convinced being dateless is safer, Matt keeps his distance from women. Is he simply an insensitive chauvinist, or a crafty man hiding a secret? Everything he believes in is challenged the day he walks in on a beautiful woman in the locker room. Dusty, the sharp-tongued spitfire, cuts the all-star pro down to size.

An off-season adventure, driving his expensive, new car from LA to New York got Jake Lawrence’s motor running. Free from his snooty Park Avenue girlfriend, the third baseman hit the highway, ready for anything. Or so he thought. Kate MacKenzie, aspiring musical theater star, sneaked out of her motel room after her mother had gambled away all the young woman’s money. In the middle of nowhere, with less than four dollars to her name, the plucky actress planned to waitress her way to New York for a Broadway audition.

What would you do if the hottest new female country music singer asked you to come up to her place? Nat Owen, formerly nobody from nowhere, now World Series MVP, followed his instincts. The star first baseman fell under the spell of the singer the minute she batted her eyelashes at him. What about Nicki? Were they only friends, or about to become more? The female pro softball catcher and the first baseman had chemistry. Just as Nat made his move on Nicki, Lucy strutted into his life, offering stardom, glitter, and a lifestyle he could only dream about. What’s a man to do?