Hardball Quotes

“He looked as if he wanted to tear me open and crawl inside me. And I wanted him to. Fuck me. Fuck my identity. Fuck my own skin and soul.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“Were you feeling all right?"
"No, not at all."
"Bellyache?"
"Yeah, a two-month bellyache called Vivian-itis. Symptoms include desperate longing and inability to do anything but feel like a douchebag. Patient can't do shit on the field but stand there like an ass, wondering what the fuck he's doing with his life. It's chronic. No known cure.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“Love is an ever-fixed mark. Be my ever-fixed mark. Be my north star.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“That all you got?” “‘The very instant that I saw you, did my heart fly to your service.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“Love is an ever-fixed mark.’” “Be my ever-fixed mark. Be my north star.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“My sexual arousal had always been tightly tethered to love, romance, the promise of something more. A future.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“I watched him put his fingers to his lips and blow me a kiss before shaking his hand as if I was too hot to handle.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“There was nothing more offensive than a man blessed with looks where he should have been given courtesy.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“What mattered was the evolution of a relationship.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“I was a small man in a big world I didn’t understand. A fool and a fraud. A gambler whose luck had run out. I was a meaningless ball of thoughts and fears with no control over the way my life unfurled.
But with her, I wasn’t afraid.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“I bet I hit .400 with your pussy on my lips.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“He only said the one word. A prayer. A supplication. A breath from his heart to mine.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“My response burst out of the base of my throat without taking the usual route through my brain. “And you’re very handsome.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“I wasn't the demonstrative type. I didn't say I love you all the time, and I wasn't girlish or giggly. I hated shopping in pairs and preferred staying home with a good romance novel than a girls' night out. But I figured sometimes you have to meet someone halfway.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“I didn’t know how to exist inside my own contradictions.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“She was easily hurt and took it on herself to right any wrong she saw. Such a small body. So much weight.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“He was from upstate New York. Albany or something. A small city so buried in snow it looked flat white in satellite pictures for a third of the year.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“I want to fuck you on every base and eat you out in centerfield. I want to play every game with your pussy on me.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“Graze on my lips, and if those hills be dry, stray lower where the pleasant fountains lie”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“You taste like heaven, and I’m going to prove it to you.”
― C.D. Reiss, Hardball

“I hadn’t even wondered if I liked the house. It was the house I had grown up in, and when I left to live with Carl, the fact that it was there, and Dad was in it, was a comfort I took for granted.”
― C.D. Reiss, Hardball

“Love is an ever-fixed mark."
"Be my ever-fixed mark. Be my north star."
I didn't wait for her to answer. I just kissed her long and hard. I kissed her with everything I had, because I'd run out of words. Even Shakespeare had nothing to say I couldn't say better with that kiss.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“Forty thousand people in the stands couldn't distract me the way the absence of one could.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“My phone buzzed in the center console again.
"What's happening with this thing?" Dad grabbed it.
"Dad, really?" I didn't want him to see the texts between Dash and me. Awkward.
"He says he knew it."
The traffic opened up, and I went right on Sunset. "Please don't scroll."
"Knew what?"
"I have no idea, and I'm driving. So forget it for now."
"I'll ask him."

—Knew what?—

"Dad, really?" I snapped the phone away.
Ding ding.
I couldn't look. I was going thirty on Sunset and the lights were synchronized for a westward trip, so there would be no stopping at a red.
"Let me see," Dad said, hand out.
All I needed was for my father to see something about Dash's tongue on my pussy or the way I sounded when I came. So I pulled over.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“I was good. I was at home with baseball. But I set my routines, and I need them. I can't ... I can't play without them."

He didn't say anything else until we got to home plate and stepped on it at the same time. He put his hands on my face and looked at me directly, as if putting a tunnel of attention between us. His thumbs rested on my cheeks.

Why hadn't I seen it the night before? Or an hour ago? Why didn't I put it all together from the exhibition games and the spring training video? He was coming apart at the seams.

"You," he said. "You threw it all in the fire. Things started collapsing right before you, and when you came, everything went to hell. It's you. I denied it, because if I let you in, I had to start over. I tried to bend it around to not want you. But I can't deny it anymore. There's no center without you.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“The last time I'd felt right was when I was with Vivian. I had to go back. All the way back, before I'd built anything. I was running out of time. I had to accept that I was obsessed with her, ask for forgiveness, and rebuild around her. Without her, I'd not only be worthless all season, I'd be plain worthless.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“And I don't even know you. It's too soon for you to take me home. I'm scared of getting attached to you. Really scared."

"The feeling's mutual."

Mentally, I stopped dead in my tracks. Whatever train my thoughts had been on screeched to a halt between stations. I looked in his eyes, searching for a bit of guardedness, a little double meaning, but there was none. He wasn't lying.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“She wasn't completely broken or completely whole. She was guileless without being naïve. Vulnerable and strong at the same time. A locked box with a tiny window that let me see something shiny inside.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall

“God, I shouldn't have said anything. Because Dash's eyes had gone wide and his lips parted a little, then a lot, and his tongue was fidgeting with his teeth.

"Stop looking at me like that."

"I'm stuck," he said.

"Stuck? What does that mean?"

"Between wanting to punch him and wanting to eat you out until you scream. I don't think I can do both at the same time.”
― C.D. Reiss, HardBall