Since baseball’s come up this week how about a little more? This is from BARK TO THE FUTURE, a recent Chet and Bernie mystery in a series that can be read in any order, thanks to our secret recipe. (Bernie pitched for Chisholm High, high school also being important in this story):

“The girls must have loved you,” Weatherly said.
“Huh? What girls?”
“The Chisholm girls, of course. They had a reputation back in the day.”
“Oh? Like what?”
“A reputation, Bernie,” Weatherly said. She ran her bare foot under the hem of his jeans. “Capisce?”
“Um,” said Bernie. “I, uh … well, in retrospect, maybe …” His voice got strangely thick and he came to a halt.
“Plus what with you being the big flamethrower and all, dot dot dot,” Weatherly said. She seemed to be having lots of fun all of a sudden, for reasons I didn’t know but felt quite nearby, possibly even in my eventual grasp. And that didn’t happen often! All of a sudden I was having lots of fun, too! Imagine that! Just lounging on the patio and doing zip could be a tip top experience.
“Flamethrower?” said Bernie.
“Up there on the mound,” Weatherly went on. Then came a long pause, “mound” somehow staying around for a bit. “Dishing out the heat,” she added after a while. “What did you like better? A windup or pitching out of the stretch?”
“Stop,” Bernie said.
“Stop?” Weatherly’s eyes, deep and dark, opened wide. “Stop what? Stop with the inside baseball?”
Bernie laughed. Weatherly joined in. They laughed together, laughed and laughed. It turned into a kind of music. I came very close to prancing around before the laughter died out.