Casey at Bat, pt. 2

Remember - not edited!!

“You gonna sit there in the middle of the sidewalk like a damn speedbump all day?”

Nick looked up from where he had been contemplating her skinned knees. Casey stood over him, all 5’8 of her, hands fisted on hips that were a bit fuller than in youth, a frown flittering her face.

“You bit me ..”

“You laughed at me”

“Laughing did not in any way leave a mark. You have your rabbies shots?” Nick prided himself on his reflexes, but even he had to move quicker than expected to avoid the foot that shot out in his direction. Having lost what she had hoped to connect to caused Casey to overbalance again. Instinctively, he pushed to his knees and grabbed her waist to keep her from falling.

“Now now Casey, don’t want to land on that cute little butt again, do you?”

A withering glance, enough to sear his ears off, was her only response, but Nick found it interesting that she hadn’t pulled herself out of his grip. She stood there and stared down at him, hair framing her face, eyes … oh oh, Nick suddenly felt like he’d been caught in the corsairs of a snipers rifle as Casey’s eyes narrowed to slits. Slowly he pulled back, not taking his attention away from her. But slow was not the way to go this time, no a faster pace would have been much better as she reached out and latched on his ear, painfully twisting and pulling on it, tugging him up to stand.

“Shit woman.” Rubbing his ear, Nick took a couple of steps back. So did Jit for that matter. The other man still hovered however, because, you know, life was so exciting in Satchel. Nick noticed that a small crowd had begun to gather. Well, not exactly a crowd, but 10 people was a crowd by Satchel standards. If there were any such thing – standards in Satchel that is. He took special note that the town gossip, Edna Cambridge, was in the front of the group. Great, he’d just made the Satchel grapevine. Not that it mattered since as soon as he finished his business here, he was back to work, but still being the subject of gossip would not have made his mother happy. He could visualize her grave rolling now.

“You think you can just come back here, laughing, kissing and whatever and no one’s going to say anything.” Casey brushed off her shorts and looked around for her flip flop, which had landed in the gutter.

“Kissing?” Jit scratched his head and narrowed his eyes at Nick.

“What? You don’t think anybody wants to kiss me?” Nick felt a little less heat as Casey swung towards Jit.

“Hey now Casey, I, er, of course they’d want to kiss you. You’re very kissable.” Jit, ever conscious of impending work or danger, took two more steps backwards.

“You wanna kiss me Jit?”

It wasn’t often that Nick felt absolute pity for another man, but poor Jit was digging himself deeper and deeper into the shit pond.

“I, um, well … “ Jit’s face was turning a lovely tomato red as Casey towered over him. “I meant that other guys would find ya irresistible, yeah, that’s what I meant.”

“And you don’t?”

Nick was pretty sure that Wile E. Coyote felt much the same way as Jit did, as the Acme safe came down on him. Yeppers, not really a good day to die. He also noted that ol’ Edna had stepped away from the peanut gallery.

“You kissing a lot of men lately Cassandra?”

Casey jerked towards the newcomer in only what Nick could describe as a marionette gone wild, strings yanking arms and legs in staccato motions. Oh yeah, this was going to be a show.