An emotional, slow-burn, grumpy/sunshine, queer mid-century romance for fans of Evvie Drake Starts Over, about grief and found family, between the new star shortstop stuck in a batting slump and the reporter assigned to (reluctantly) cover his first seasonâset in the same universe as We Could Be So Good.
The 1960 baseball season is shaping up to be the worst year of Eddie OâLearyâs life. He canât manage to hit the ball, his new teammates hate him, heâs living out of a suitcase, and heâs homesick. When the teamâs owner orders him to give a bunch of interviews to some snobby reporter, heâs ready to call it quits. He can barely manage to behave himself for the length of a game, let alone an entire season. But heâs already on thin ice, so he has no choice but to agree.
Mark Bailey is not a sports reporter. He writes for the arts page, and these days heâs barely even managing to do that much. Heâs had a rough year and just wants to be left alone in his too-empty apartment, mourning a partner heâd never been able to be public about. The last thing he needs is to spend a season writing about New Yorkâs obnoxious new shortstop in a stunt to get the struggling newspaper more readers.
Isolated together within the crush of an anonymous city, these two lonely souls orbit each other as they slowly give in to the inevitable gravity of their attraction. But Mark has vowed that heâll never be someoneâs secret ever again, and Eddie canât be out as a professional athlete. Itâs just them against the world, and theyâll both have to decide if thatâs enough.