Out of Her League Read Online Free Page B

little boys and even less about coach ing T-ball. As he stared out at the team he ’ d been watching, he noticed another redheaded kid in the outfield.
    “ That your brother? ” Joe pointed to the milling crowd of players.
    “ I ’ ve got a big brother. Adam. He ’ s on the Big League team. Over there. ” Danny shot a thumb over his shoulder toward the field where Joe had last seen Toni. “ Hey, mister, what about bein ’ my coach? ”
    The kid wasn ’ t going to be sidetracked. “ Did you ask your mom? I ’ m sure if you explained your prob lem, she ’ d help you out. Moms are like that. ”
    “ Can ’ t. She ’ s already coachin ’ my big brother ’ s team. ”
    “ Oh. ” Joe frowned. Now what? The kid kept staring at him, big blue eyes full of hope. Joe tried one more time. “ I ’ m sorry, Danny. But I don ’ t know anything about T-ball. ”
    “ That ’ s okay. Neither do we. ” Danny fixed Joe with a smile that was all the sweeter because of the two empty spaces in his bottom row of teeth. “ I ’ ll get my mom. She ’ s in charge of the coaches, too. You can talk to her. ”
    Before Joe could stop him, the redheaded imp raced off. Joe had been bamboozled by a pint-size sharpie. He couldn ’ t remember saying yes, but somehow he felt as though he had. Well, he ’ d just have to find a way to extricate himself from the situation once he talked to Coach Mom.
    “ Here she is, mister. ” Danny ’ s voice piped above the shouts of the other children.
    Joe turned and froze. “ You. ”
    “ I think we ’ ve had this conversation before, ” Evelyn Vaughn said. “ Why is it I can ’ t seem to take a step without running into you or your offspring, Mr. Scalotta? ”
    In the midst of admiring the legs of the lovely Mrs. Vaughn—he ’ d never had a teacher who looked that good in shorts; heck, he ’ d never had a teacher who wore shorts—Joe frowned and glanced up. “ You ’ ve met my daughter? ”
    She raised her eyebrows at his perusal but didn ’ t comment.
    “ She seems to have ended up on my team. ”
    “ How did that happen? ”
    “ I was short a player, so the next kid who signed up was mine. I ’ m sure the other coaches think it ’ s a riot I got a girl. ” She grinned, and there was a bit of wolf around the edges. “Are they gonna be sur prised. ”
    “ You teach, coach Big League and manage all the coaches? ”
    The smile hovering on her lips froze. “ Do you have a problem with that? ”
    The way she asked the question, chin up, a little defensive, made Joe think of his ex-wife. Karen had always met any hint of conflict head-on, sometimes before any conflict appeared, just so she could be on top of the situation. And she had been forever on the go, taking any job or volunteer position in order to climb higher up the ladder. Why should Evelyn Vaughn be any different?
    “ I don ’ t have a problem with your multitude of jobs. Do your children? Seems to me a mom should be with her kids. ”
    Someone on a nearby diamond shouted, “ Hey, Evie! How ’ s it going? ”
    She waved and nodded. They all seemed to know her in this town, and why wouldn ’ t they? She looked to be involved in just about everything.
    Evie turned back to Joe with a scowl. “ My kids are none of your business. So you can keep your outdated, chauvinistic attitude to yourself. ”
    She was right, and Joe realized it. He couldn ’ t help how he ’ d been raised or what he believed. He was a fifties man living in a new-millennium world. What he needed to do was keep his thoughts to him self. Most of the time they just got him into trouble.
    Evie took a deep breath, as if for patience, and when she spoke he r voice held a professional dis tance that matched the expression on her face. “ Danny tells me you ’ d like to coach T-ball. ”
    “ Well, I didn ’ t exactly say so. ”
    “ That ’ s what I figured. ” A sharp sigh blew her bangs upward. She went down on one knee next to her son