After a good scrub, that included shaving her legs, Emily climbed out of the tub and heard the doorbell's distinct ring.

Through the door she listened as the dogs barked wildly and her father yelled at them while he answered the bell.  Her father bellowed, "Emily!"

She cracked the bathroom door and shouted back, "One minute!" before she slammed it shut again.

As quickly as she could, she applied deodorant and wriggled her still moist body into her under garments, khaki shorts, and a gauzy peasant blouse. Finally she twisted her sopping hair into a towel.

She snatched her phone and a tube of body lotion off the counter, before rushing to the foyer. There she found all 6'2" of Evan smiling broadly and towering over her 5'10" scowling father.

Imagine what Dad would have looked like if he cared enough to look in my bedroom last night...

Evan held two Wawa to-go cups in his hands. He held one out to her. She tucked her phone into her bra strap and accepted the coffee with a smile.

"That was fast."

John Sr. cleared his throat. "I'm going back to my coffee and paper now," he groused.

"Sorry for the interruption Mr. Randazzo," Evan apologized as he opened the screen door.

"Why don't we go into my backyard. So I don't bother your Dad anymore," he suggested.

They went around to the Murphys' side gate and then to the cushioned chairs on their patio.

Emily uncoiled her hair from the towel and laid it out on the back of the chair to dry. She uncapped the lotion bottle and squirted some on her leg.

Evan pulled his chair over. "Allow me."

He lifted her leg into his hands and began to rub lotion into her calf. Emily looked around nervously.

"What about your parents?"

"Ah there go those ears again."

Evan chuckled and leaned forward, walking his fingers up her thigh. He began to sneak them under the edge of her shorts. When Emily started to pull her leg away, Evan brought his hands back down to grab her ankle. He massaged some more lotion into her foot with a smirk.

"Don't worry, they're at work."

He rested her foot on his thigh, then lifted her other leg and squeezed lotion on it.

Emily wiggled the toes of her foot that was resting on his thigh and brought them closer to his lap.  "In that case..."

He lifted his eyebrows but didn't stop pressing firm circles into her calf.

He's calling my bluff...

Emily stopped wiggling her foot and Evan stopped rubbing her leg. He squinted his eyes at her while he picked up his cup and sipped his tea.

Emily finally tasted the coffee he brought her. She lifted her eyebrows in surprise.

It's exactly the way I like it...

Evan leaned back and drank his tea. "How is it?"

"It's perfect actually. Thanks." She beamed at him.

I'm impressed that he paid attention to such a small detail when we talked by the river yesterday... Evan is obviously a boy that really that listens...

He smiled back and began to massage her foot again.

"So Brooklyn, what should we do today? Especially since this is the last day I may ever get to spend time with you. Although, I assure you I intend on doing everything in my power to prevent that."

Emily lifted the cup of coffee up in salute.

"You're off to a very good start by the way, Jersey Boy."

"I didn't even plan the massage, just lucked out with that one." Evan laughed.

She took a visual inventory of the yard. There was a sizeable backyard batting cage with a pitching machine as well as a pitcher's mound and a couple different styles of nets that he could throw into.

"This is quite the set-up you have back here." She waved her hand at the assorted gear. "Why don't you show me what you do best?"

He stopped kneading her arch. "Really? You're sure that's what you want to do right now?"

She put her coffee on the table beside her. "Yep."

Evan looked toward the pitcher's mound. Then he placed her feet on the floor again. "Okay, if you say so."

Suddenly he leapt to his feet, grabbed Emily out of the chair and threw her over his shoulder.

Emily whooped in surprise and yelped, "What are you doing Evan?"

"As nice as the yard is, I prefer to show you in my bedroom." He walked toward the French doors, ignoring Emily's wriggling form.

She smacked at his back and called out, "I meant pitching Evan."

He slapped her bottom and replied, "I did too. Get your mind out of the gutter. I have video upstairs in my room. Although I suppose I can give you a live demonstration first."

Gently, he slid Emily down his front and made sure to maximize the contact of their bodies along the way. She stood looking up at him, chest heaving and ears burning.

It's so pleasant to have Evan hold me... He's so tall and strong... He makes me feel extra petite...

She stood on her tiptoes to try to kiss him, but she needed Evan to bend down.

He looked at her, smiling for a minute as she pressed into him. "As much as I enjoy you straining up against me, I guess I have to meet you halfway."

Then he bent down to indulge her in a small kiss, before he nuzzled her ear and whispered "Shortie."

His breath on her neck made the blush spread and her breath catch.

Maybe I should just let him carry me to his bedroom...

Emily composed herself while Evan prepared the yard. He positioned a chair for her to sit in so she could get a better view of the action. Then he went to the shed and took out a bucket of balls, a mitt and a baseball cap, which he placed on his head.

She observed that the cap transformed Evan's demeanor and he almost became a different person once it was on.

The last few days Evan has been charming, funny, open and mostly relaxed... Now he seems more of a stereotypical jock... More aggressive... A bit more swag in his step...

He winked at her. "Well I guess I should start with your typical stuff. First, a fastball."

When he stepped onto the mound the transformation was complete, a wall went up and he seemed more stone than boy. His face was devoid of expression until his lips pressed together in a grimace and his brow furrowed as he squinted at the net sixty feet away.

Emily held her breath, afraid she might break whatever spell he was under.

That's a ludicrous notion! You know that during baseball games the crowd can be deafening...

She exhaled as Evan lifted his leg high and watched while he became liquid. He flowed forward and all the power of his body surged into his hand as the ball released.

Emily had no idea how fast the pitch really was, but the ball spun furiously and rocketed into the net in what felt like one second.

Evan stepped from the mound again and instantly smiled at her.

Emily applauded. "That was remarkable Evan. I can't believe how fast that was!"

"That was probably only about 85mph," he said as though apologizing for a lackluster pitch.

He removed his hat, scratched at his head and wiped some sweat from his forehead. "I really should have stretched out. My coaches will kill me if I pull something."

"Well why don't you skip the other stuff and show me this infamous knuckleball you love so much."

Emily put one leg up on the chair and leaned forward to watch more closely. He nodded shyly and pulled the cap back down on his head as he stepped onto the mound again.

This time his face looked slightly more relaxed. He wasn't glaring at the strike zone of the net as intensely but seemed to be focused more on the ball in his hand.

When he did release the pitch, the ball went on a rollercoaster ride as it bumped and wiggled along the air and finally into the net.

The pitch appears almost lazy when compared to the fastball...

Evan stepped off the mound again and walked toward her. "Well? What do you think of it?"

She bit the inside of her cheek. "Honestly?"

Evan stopped in front of her and removed his cap again. "Of course. I want you to always be honest with me."

His eyebrows dipped low while he waited. Emily frowned for a second and looked down at the ground, as she did not want him to see the concern marring her face.

Always... I still don't know whether or not I'll be coming back, but Evan seems so sure that I will...

She lowered her leg and leaned back in the chair with her hands behind her head to look at him again.

This time she smiled. "Well in that case... the only thing that would have made it better would have been some tight baseball pants."

Evan leaned down and grasped the arms of her chair. His eyes swept back and forth over her, but he didn't say anything. Emily felt her pulse start to speed up as he hovered silently over her.

What is he looking for? What is he thinking?

She whispered, "I think I'd like to see those tapes now."

He raised his eyebrows at her. "I can do even better than that and model a pair for you."

They held hands as they climbed the stairs to his bedroom.

Evan opened his closet doors. "I'm pretty sweaty."

Emily stared at his back while he reached behind his head to grip the collar of his shirt. As he pulled it off she watched the muscles of his arms and shoulders ripple and flex. With his attention on the clothes in front of him, Emily had time to enjoy her first full view of Evan shirtless.

He looks as good as he felt under my hands yesterday...

Her ears went warm and her tongue felt too wet. She swallowed.

Evan wiped his neck and chest with the dirty shirt then tossed it into the laundry basket on the floor in front of him. He picked up a pair of baseball pants from the closet organizer and turned around.

He held the pants aloft, along with his eyebrows. "So you really want to see me in these things?"

Emily's ears went from warm to hot. She bit her top lip as she nodded.

Evan wiggled his index finger in a circle in the air. "Turn around then."

While she heard the soft sounds of fabric rustling behind her she looked at a shelf of his trophies and tried not to let the coffee in her stomach curdle with her nerves.

"Okay. Ready," he said.

Emily turned back around slowly.

The pants are better than I imagined!

They clearly showed the well-developed muscles of his legs which had unfortunately been hidden by his mesh shorts before. She whistled to show her appreciation. "You look like a calendar picture."

Did I really just say that? I need to think before I speak! But he's shirtless and those pants are tight in all the right places...

"Take one."

Did he really just say that? I'm not sure I heard him correctly over the noise of my indecent thoughts...

"What?"

Now it was Evan's turn to redden. "You can take a picture if you want. Of course I don't have a jock strap on right now."

He nervously cupped himself with his hands.

That pose accentuates his muscular arms... The ones that he used to throw me over his back before...

"I couldn't tell," she reassured him as she took her phone out and snapped a picture.

Then Emily was immobilized with trepidation. They stood there looking at each other silently for a minute.

Evan scratched his collarbone and cleared his throat. "Why don't I put on some music?"

He moved to his desk, cued up a song on his phone and plugged it into the speaker. A gently throbbing guitar was soon followed by Bono's sultry voice as "All I Want Is You" began to play.

Evan abruptly turned, took two long strides and grabbed Emily off the ground. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he walked them towards his bed. Then he turned and sat down with her astride him.

Edge's guitar and the strings section slowly joined into the song with more force as Evan carded his fingers through her still damp hair and kissed her softly. Emily ran her hands over his broad shoulders and raked her nails gently across his muscular back.

As the music swelled so did their urgency.

Evan sucked on her bottom lip and pulled her tongue into his mouth, while Emily started to rock her hips against him in time with the music. Evan grunted his appreciation and put his hands on her hips to help guide her for maximum effect.

"I'm glad I don't have a cup on now," he mumbled into her ear as he placed a trail of kisses from her neck back to her mouth.

Emily felt flushed all over and actually moaned, "Oh God I love this song."

Evan chuckled. "It's my new favorite too."

When she gently bit his earlobe, Evan groaned.

He started to lift Emily's shirt up along her abdomen. She startled at the contrast of the cool air against her heated skin. Evan stilled his hand.

He cleared his throat and asked, "Can we take this off?"

Emily paused, her forehead resting against his, trying to decide on her answer. She felt Evan's chest rise and fall with each breath he took.

Do I want to let this much happen?

"Yes please," Emily entreated.

Evan pulled it completely off and threw it to the floor. He rolled them over so he was on top of her and lifted himself up on his arms to look at her face.

She closed her eyes and heard him say, "You're so beautiful Emily."

She opened her eyes again. Evan's eyes trailed down her body. "And you have fantastic breasts." He palmed one gently and ran his thumb across the top of her bra.

Emily actually stopped breathing for a second and then moaned out "Oh God" again.

And I'm not even embarrassed about it....

Then Evan kissed her ceaselessly and pressed his hips deliciously against hers.

She suddenly felt frantic.

I want so much more! I feel greedy because I want to do everything with him... I want him to be all of my firsts... I want to come to Jersey over and over again... I want him to live in Brooklyn... I feel exuberant and need to laugh because I can't believe this is happening... I'm in this gorgeous boy's bedroom contemplating losing my virginity to him when I'd only ever kissed one other boy before four days ago...

His fingers fumbled with the clasp at the back of her bra. She arched her back and pressed her chest into his own to give his hand more room.

This is desire... I want him... I want this...

He successfully unclasped it. She felt a chill run up her spine as his hand splayed across her bare back.

I'm one step closer to edge of no return... This is fear...

Evan started to slowly trail a strap down her arm. She closed her eyes.

This feels so good and yet so wicked, which makes me angry and want to scream... Why can't I get out of my head and just enjoy this?

Emily squeezed her eyes shut harder and heard Evan ask, "Is this okay?" with something like desperation in his voice.

His hand was frozen, holding her bra strap by her elbow. Her breast was nearly exposed. She felt her eyes burn with forming tears.

Oh no... Am I going to cry? Am I truly such a mess that this is what I'm going to do right now? I know I want him... but I'm not ready for this... Damn it! I have to stop!

Emily opened her eyes and looked into Evan's blue ones. The she remembered an odd fact from when her class covered genetics in biology class.

They aren't actually blue. The colorless stroma of his eyes gathers all of the light that enters them and scatters it back into the atmosphere. This is known as the Tyndall effect, which has more to do with physics than biology, and gives them their blue hue. His eyes are a reflection... He is a mirror...

This thought was something that kept her eyes bonded to his. Emily couldn't look away.

This feels even more intimate than anything we've done so far... I'm so confused... I knew what I was supposed to do a moment ago, but now I can't remember what that was...

"Emily? Do you want to stop?" Evan's eyes were so soft and gentle while he waited for her answer.

I feel stupid because I can't find the answer to his question...

Evan's eyes shifted away as he looked at her lips and licked his own. "We don't have to do anything else."

He means it...

Then he looked back at her eyes and Emily felt herself searching them again for her answer.

Just one more kiss...

Emily pulled her arm from the strap and watched Evan's eyes grow wide as he slowly swept his hand along her arm towards her now exposed breast. Then he leaned back down to kiss her hungrily.

As his hand made contact, they heard a woman's voice call out from downstairs. "Evan honey? I left work early. Would you like me to make lunch for you?"

"Shit," Evan whispered as he leapt off of Emily.

He hurried to his bedroom door, which he hadn't bothered to close earlier since nobody was home. He stuck his head out into the hallway yelled back, "Hey Mom! Lunch sounds good."

While Emily struggled to fix her bra, Evan found her shirt on the floor and tossed it to her. When she heard his mother's feet ascending the stairs, Emily was too panicked to even form a coherent thought.

She got off his bed and hastily pulled on her blouse. Evan shut off the music.

"I... um... I have a friend over..." he called out while he grabbed a shirt from his dresser drawer.

But he didn't have enough time to put it on before his mother appeared in the doorway. He held it in front of his lap instead, to hide the fact that his baseball pants were indeed tighter now.

An attractive woman with graying red hair stood in the doorway with an amused expression on her face. "Baseball pants? Really Evan?"

Emily watched Evan's few freckles, partially hidden by the flush of desire, completely disappear now in front of his mother.

"Uh... I was... I showed some pitches to Emily and you know... um... I wanted to do it properly," he stammered.

His mother raised her eyebrows at him. "Indeed."

Then she turned her attention to Emily. "Hi. I'm Kate. You must be the infamous Emily. I've heard a lot about you from your father and stepmother."

His mother gestured toward her obviously embarrassed son. "And from Evan."

Kate stepped into the room and extended her hand to Emily.

"It's nice to meet you," Emily replied as they shook hands.

She felt her stomach twist as his mother looked at her neckline.

Can she see the hickeys? Did he give me anymore?

Kate let go of her hand and smiled. "I'm sorry I didn't meet you at the barbecue the other day. His father and I had to work, unfortunately. Ice cream is very popular on Memorial Day weekend."

Evan interrupted to explain, "My parents own some ice cream parlors."

Emily blurted, "I like ice cream."

You sound like an idiot!

Internally she rolled her eyes at herself but it was the only thing she could think of to say at the moment.

Evan snickered and Emily wanted to punch him.

His mother smiled though. "I'm going down to make a nice salad and we'll have a chance to chat more while we eat lunch. Evan, I expect you to be wearing a shirt by then."

Kate walked back out of the room but turned to casually add, "Oh and Emily dear, your shirt is inside out," before she disappeared down the hallway.

Evan was now shaking with suppressed laughter, so Emily did step over to punch him lightly in the stomach.

"I'm sorry," he wheezed out. He linked his hands behind her back to pin her arms down at her sides.

"You don't have to punch me though. The ache in my balls right now is punishment enough, trust me." He crushed his mouth down on her again in a rough kiss.

"Good," Emily growled back when he released her mouth and then bit his lower lip.

Evan excused himself to go to the bathroom to change. "Now that my Mom is home I shouldn't do it in front of you."

I suspect he's also going to do something about that ache he was complaining about...

While she was alone in his room, she went straight over to Evan's mirror. She fixed her shirt then sighed at her unkempt reflection.

My hair is a wreck...

Emily was cursed with a combination of her father's curly hair framing her face in a frizzled cloud, her mother's pin straight hair in a layer on top, and wavy hair underneath it all.

Unless I blow it dry, there's nothing I can do about it... At least there are no new hickeys on my neck... and the one from Kelly is hidden by my shirt...

She was able to pull most of her hair into a quick sloppy side braid to hide the one from Evan.

Then she had a chance to look around the room. "The things we love tell us what we are," she quoted St. Thomas Aquinas to herself as she tried to see who Evan was amongst his possessions.

He had quite a bit of baseball memorabilia.

Not surprising...

There was a dusty telescope folded in one corner. Then her eyes found an acoustic guitar tucked on a stand in the opposite corner and a stack of sheet music on his nightstand. She sifted through the pile.

The Animals, The Doors, The Cars, Tom Petty... a lot of my favorite classic rock songs...

Emily turned to his bookshelf. There was a photo album of pictures from his various teams. She flipped through, trying to find him in each one.

Next she picked up a framed news article about his pitching. The headline read, "Evan Eleven! 11 Strikeouts for #11 Evan Murphy!"

Evan returned from the bathroom and Emily could see that he had showered.

"Feel better?" she asked.

"Much," he confessed with a smirk.

He looked down at the frame in her hands. She turned the article around in her hands to show him what she was looking at.

"Number eleven?"

He walked over and took the article. "When I started playing ball and we had to pick our jersey numbers I wanted to be number one, of course. But the coach's son had already picked it. So my six-year old self decided that two number ones would be even better. Plus it rhymed with my name, so that clinched it."

He put the article back on the shelf.

Emily reached up to gently touch another framed photo and smiled. "Can't argue with that logic." She spoke to the picture of a very young and toothless Evan.

Evan put his hand on top of hers on the shelf. "Although when you told me what your birthday was the other day, I did take it as a sign. You know some of us ball players are very superstitious. You might be my lucky charm this year."

Emily pulled her hand from the shelf and ignored his comment about 'this year' as she walked over to the guitar.

"How long have you been playing for?" She picked it up and strummed it.

"Only about four years. It's a nice break from baseball." He took it from her to pluck a few notes.

"Although I'm not very good and my voice is worse," he apologized as he put it back on the stand.

She touched the stack of sheet music. "I played piano for a few years, until my mother couldn't afford the lessons anymore."

Her fingers played a couple imaginary chords on the nightstand. Then she stopped and gripped her hand at a fist by her side.

"Don't laugh... but I've always wanted to learn ukulele."

Evan took her hand and uncurled it to twine his fingers with hers. "Why would I laugh?"

He tugged her braid gently. "You're so tiny a ukulele seems perfect for you."

He kissed her and then led her downstairs for lunch with his mother.