AN: Hello my lovely followers/readers of this story. I have decided to go through and make some changes to the base of the story that I have written so I can try to remember what route I was taking this story and continue on with it. It's been awhile since I've written for this so please leave whatever feedback you desire and keep looking for new updates.

AN: This is my first story on fanfiction. I'm doing my best and hopefully you'll all enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything and I wish I did.

For the Love of the Game—Prologue

Edward Cullen plays outfield for the Seattle Mariners. He is their star player. All of the boys want to be like him and all the girls want to be with him, but none of the girls have managed to do one thing. That is to catch his attention and capture his heart. To him there were more important things than just hooking up with some girl in whatever town he was in and forgetting about them in the morning. He was looking for someone that he could fall asleep to when he was home and call every night when he returned to the hotel when he was away. He wanted a love like the one his parents had. He was on the quest for love.

Bella Swan is an English teacher in Seattle. All of her students adore her, but even though she tries to fill her life with her work she feels like a part of her is missing. No man has ever found a way to break down the walls guarding her heart and fill it with the love she deserves and desires. Her childhood was devastated by her parent's divorce and she was just looking for someone to love her unconditionally and always be there for her. She didn't date much, but when she did she fell in love quickly and she fell hard only to get broken when the guy didn't want to be with her anymore. Heartbreak happened to her more than she wanted it to. She just wanted a romance novel type love story.

The more baseball he plays and the more time he spends away from his parents, Carlisle and Esme, the more it takes a toll on his heart. He is looking for someone to love him for him and not for his money or the fame that he has acquired with the few years that he has spent in the Majors. He wants to find his special someone, his other half, his soul-mate. His search for a soul-mate has been anything but easy and with each new city there is an new group of girls that want to be his and he isn't looking for a booty call.

Her father is a big baseball fan. He loves to follow those Mariners, they are his home team after all. Since she grew up watching the games on the flatscreen or live at the stadium she continued to follow them after she left the confines of her father's house. As of recently, her father had taken a liking to Edward Cullen, the super fast center fielder, with the best batting average of all the lead-off hitters in the league. Growing up with her dad, they weren't able to connect on many different topics. It was hard to give her the talk or handle the other issues that came when puberty came around, but they did share one thing and that thing was baseball. The more she watched the stronger the connection became to her father. And that was important. Now if only she could have someone that could sit with her and her father to watch the games.

Every person has a favorite day. Edward's favorite day of the year always changes. Why is that? Because Opening Day never falls on the same day. He loves Opening Day because the Seattle crowd is by far the best. He feeds off of all their positive energy, but when he woke up the day of the home opener, he couldn't shake the weird feeling in his gut. Was it bad? No. Was it his nerves? Probably not, he never gets nervous. Was it because something was about to turn his life upside down? Yes, a million times, yes.

All of Miss Swan's students knew of her fascination with the Mariners, so once Spring Training began they started their countdown until Opening Day. She made it a point to integrate baseball into her teaching style. It made the topics fun and the students also became fans of the sport in the process. All of her students knew that she wouldn't be teaching them on that particular day of the year. How she managed to have her principal be okay with her missing that day every single year was pretty crazy, but maybe because it was she never missed any other days of the school year and she could have one day off. Something about this year seemed different to her though, and she didn't have a clue that a normal day at the ballpark would affect her life so drastically.