Love Inspired August 2014 – Bundle 1 of 2 (19 page)

Jack stepped up to the middle of the field, keyed the mike and drew the crowd’s attention
with a quick “Good morning.”

“Mornin’, Jack!” The Shoemaker girls waved as a unit, openly flirting with Liv’s Jack.
Except he
wasn’t
hers, so she couldn’t exactly march onto that field and stake a claim even the Shoemaker
girls couldn’t miss. Instead, she folded her arms, refused to glare in their direction
and listened as Jack addressed the crowd.

He introduced the players from both teams. Some of the guys took a ribbing for being
stouter than they used to be, but it was all in fun until Jack had Sonny haul out
two boxes of uniform shirts. As the players lined up along the first-base and third-base
sides, Sonny and Coach Randolph handed out the just-arrived Old-timers’ “Player” shirts.

And when they had the shirts in hand on both sides of home plate, Jack held one aloft.
“Today we want to join Major League Baseball in raising awareness of a rough disease,
a disease that’s affected several families in our town.” He pointed out the deep purple
ribbon on the left sleeve, then the Raising Alzheimer’s Awareness logo on the right-hand
sleeve. “As our population ages, it’s good for us to become more aware of the signs
and treatments available for folks struggling with Alzheimer’s disease.” He made eye
contact with Liv but didn’t lift his gaze to her grandfather or Lulu Jensen, showing
the sensitivity she loved about him. He smiled at her and then the crowd in general.
“The proceeds from these shirts will go to help research a cure for Alzheimer’s. And
the proceeds from your ticket sales and purchases today will help fund our new Jasper
Gulch Historical Museum. Rusty?” He called the ninety-six-year-old off the bench,
and handed him the ball. “Rusty Zidek, will you do us the honor of throwing the first
pitch?”

Rusty’s hand shook as he accepted the ball.

The crowd went still, all eyes on the aged man they knew so well. A man who exemplified
the West, a cowboy, a wrangler, a sage and baseball player. It didn’t get more all-American
than Rusty Zidek, and the people of Jasper Gulch knew it. They stayed hushed and expectant,
waiting while Rusty took a spot just in front of the pitcher’s mound, wound up and
threw.

A strike, dead-on
.

The catcher caught the ball, sprang up and strode to the mound to congratulate Rusty.
The old man’s smile cragged a wealth of wrinkles beneath two shaggy brows and an overgrown
handlebar mustache. “I say we get this game goin’!”

The crowd surged to its feet as the high school band marched forward to play an emotion-charged
rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” In true baseball form, the fans anticipated
the final notes and cheered the players, the day and the town in a show of hometown
spirit that made Liv smile.

Robin was right. Jasper Gulch
was
special; she hadn’t valued that the way she should have. God and good strong parents
had given her room to spread her wings while staying quietly rooted to her hometown.

She might not have treasured that as a younger woman. Now? She understood more, much
more.

The game began, a heated battle of strong pitching and well-placed batting. She watched
the game but kept her eye on Jack. Would he be all right? Could he handle being back
on the field, in front of the crowds, knowing his dream was gone forever? She’d learned
the hard way that even old dreams packed a punch, a two-edged sword of reality.

Jack paced the Jasper Gulch Bobcats team dugout, jaw tight, eyes on the field. When
he wasn’t pacing, he was standing, staring straight out, clenching the rail in front
of him. Her heart went out to him, despite years of spurning baseball. She’d blamed
him and the sport, avoiding both, much as Jack had done. Seeing him, watching the
tension darken his gaze, narrow his eyes...

No matter what happened...or didn’t happen...between them, she wanted him happy.

The game rolled on, tight and tied with a score of 2–2, right up until the end of
the fifth inning when a shout from the stands drew the attention of the Bobcat approaching
the batter’s box.

“Hey, Ben! I’m afraid you’re going to miss this at bat.” The very pregnant woman in
the stands made a face that said no words were necessary.

“Now?” The thirtysomething outfielder looked at her, then the bat as if weighing his
options, and he might have looked at the bat longer if Jack hadn’t stepped to the
plate and taken it out of his hands.

“Call me later, tell me if it’s a boy or a girl.”

Reason seemed to grab hold of Ben once Jack took the bat, and the expectant father
bounded across the grass to the bleachers while Sam Douglas and his wife helped the
laboring woman down.

Jack turned as if about to call someone off the bench, but there was no one to call.
The sight of him there, in the batter’s box, ready to hit, pushed Liv to action. She
didn’t pause to consider the outcome, good or bad. She didn’t weigh up how her action
might affect the man she loved, she simply knew that Jack was right where he belonged,
at long last. Standing at home plate, bat in hand, squared up in the batter’s box.

She moved forward, rallying the crowd, fist-pumping the air. “We want Jack! We want
Jack! We want Jack!”

The crowd didn’t waste a moment. Within seconds, both bleachers were on their feet,
cheering and waving Jasper Gulch banners, shouting Jack’s name.

He turned. Looked at Liv. And the look she saw on his face, in his gaze, said that
despite years of misgiving, he’d never forget this moment, a moment she gave him.

She smiled, fist-pumped the air, jerked her head toward home plate and mouthed, “Go
get ’em.”

When the first pitch sailed in for a fastball strike down the center, Jack eyed the
ball, then his bat as if reacquainting himself. The second ball arced away from him,
a called “ball.” The third pitch, a cutter, came dead-on then dived low, but did that
stop Jack McGuire?

No way.

A low-ball hitter from way back, Jack dug down, swinging hard and fast, driving the
ball with the quintessential crack of a home run.

The crowd went wild on both bleachers. Shouts of joy and cheers of laughter filled
the park as Jack rounded the bases in his typical calm fashion, but when he crossed
home plate, did he stay calm?

He did not!

With all the energy of an athlete at the top of his game, Jack ran to the field’s
edge, grabbed up Liv and kissed her soundly in front of nearly twelve hundred people.

And she kissed him right back, delighted and unafraid to stake her own personal claim
on the tall, green-eyed rancher.

The crowd cheered again, and they didn’t start to calm until Jack raised a hand in
the air. It took a long moment for things to wind down, but when they did, Jack McGuire
smiled and took a knee on the dusty ground.

The crowd’s quiet gasp echoed Liv’s.

“Liv, I’ve loved you a long time and I can’t think of anything nicer or more wonderful
than making you my wife, raisin’ a family with you on the Double M. What do you think,
Livvie Franklin? Will you do this cowboy the honor of becoming my wife?”

Would she?

Jack’s sweet proposal required no thought, but he didn’t know that. Livvie pretended
to think the question over, playing the crowd, but in the end she met his gaze, the
true-and-trusty smile of a born rancher, and nodded. “It would be my pleasure, cowboy.”

Jack jumped up and kissed her again, and by the time they got the romance of the day
settled, it was time to play ball again.

He trotted back onto the field, tall and strong, as if baseball was the only thing
on his mind, while Liv’s heart skip-jumped in her chest. Thoughts of what could be
filled her head—the ranch, a home, a house full of little McGuires. She couldn’t be
happier, and a glance up to her parents said she had their full approval. Grandma
fist-pumped the air and Mert’s grin from the third-base bleachers said she had them
pegged right all along.

The game ended four innings later with the Senior Bobcats losing by one to the Senior
Bombers, but no one cared. As the afternoon of fun wore on, the entire town seemed
energized by the success of the day. Happy smiles and joyous high fives were the norm
along Main Street and the ball fields.

And when Jack approached Liv’s family after the game, he made a face of apology to
her father. “I should have asked you first, sir.”

“You did,” Dave replied. “Ten years ago. Woulda answered the same now as then.”

Jack slung an arm around Liv, drew her close and planted a kiss to her right temple
as Grandma and Grandpa drew closer.

“That was some game, young man!” The old man gripped the cane in his right hand and
gave it a notable
thump!
“Half the time I didn’t know who was winning or who was playing for who, but it didn’t
matter. I haven’t been to a ball game that good in years, although I don’t know about
purple shirts and ribbons for ballplayers.” His face said someone had gone astray,
sissifying the players’ shirts like that.

Jack met the old man’s gaze. “I can’t imagine what they were thinking, sir.”

He’d said just the right thing. The old man’s smile accepted the words, and as Grandma
Mason hugged Grandpa’s arm, Liv knew that’s how she wanted to spend her days, all
of her days. For better or worse, in sickness and in health...

From this day forward.

Epilogue

“C
arrie, are you really making a basket for the country fair?” Liv aimed a teasing look
toward Mick and Jack as they worked to replace the shed roof abutting the near barn
in early September. “I thought once we caught the guy, we could ignore things like
that.”

“It does negate the point, doesn’t it?” Carrie laughed when Mick aimed an amused look
from his vantage point on the roof. “Mick would just as soon stay out here and work,
so I’m making one to encourage his presence. If he doesn’t come to town, I’ll be having
lunch with some other spit-shined cowboy that day.”

“That’s not likely to happen,” Jack called down as he finished the final corner along
the drip edge. “I’ve been instructed to outbid anyone who bids on your basket if Dad’s
tied up here.”

“Mick McGuire!” Carrie leaned back on her arms and laughed up at Jack’s father while
Livvie turned the potatoes roasting in the fire-pit coals. “That’s kind of romantic,
you staking a claim and all.”

“I think that rock on your hand oughta be claim enough, but just in case one of those
youngsters gets an idea in his head, I made sure Jack’s got things covered.”

“Like father like son,” Liv muttered just loud enough for Carrie to hear. “Apple didn’t
fall far from the tree in this case, and you know what?”

Carrie hiked one eyebrow, waiting.

“I’d say that’s all right and we’re the two most blessed women in Jasper Gulch right
now.”

“I can’t disagree, although that house is going to be a mite crowded come spring.”

“No, it won’t.” Jack swung off the roof and landed solid, looking just as good nailing
shingles as he did riding herd, and Jack McGuire looked mighty fine on the back of
a horse. “Liv and I saw Ben over at the lumber works. We were going to wait until
spring, but I decided there’s no time like the present to start the new house. If
we get the outside up and weather-tight before the snow hits, we’re golden. That would
have us in before calving season.”

“Having that twenty-thousand-dollar check clear the bank a few weeks back made the
prospect of building more manageable.”

Jack stared at his father. “You knew about that?”

“Ayuh. I saw the transfer from your account online. And figured I’d watch and see
how you handled things, and you did just fine. After going a little stupid for a few
days. But I figured a few days was way better than a bunch of years, so let me just
say—” Mick raised his hammer in salute “—you’ve gotten better, son.”

Liv cleared her throat.

Carrie laughed.

“It seems the bank had applied Henry’s funds to someone else’s account,” Jack explained.
“So when the bank bounced our check, they sent Henry a notice and he stormed into
the bank ready to do battle because he figured we’d been denied our money. He called
me personally to apologize the night of the Old-timers’ Baseball Game.”

“Wilbur said he felt bad, calling you, giving you the news,” Mick added. “But in business,
things happen. Best we can do is move on.”

The kids came bounding from the house wearing hoodies and sweatpants, the cooler nights
a reminder of a new time, a new season. “Mom, is the food ready yet?”

“Liv, I’m starving!”

They raced toward them, two faces, smiling, hungry and absolutely adorable. Blue followed
right along, a four-legged bundle of happy energy, as cute and ravenous as his masters.

She’d gone from the prospect of being an assistant professor to an about-to-be-married
woman, surrounded by cattle, horses, jobs, tasks, kids, dogs and a new family, filled
with faith, hope and love.

Jack caught her eye from across the fire and his expression said he was just as delighted
and amazed. And the thought of being here, with Jack, in their new home under the
banquet of Big Sky country stars?

Made Livvie Franklin the happiest woman in the world.

* * * * *

If you liked this
BIG SKY CENTENNIAL
novel,
watch for the next book, HER MONTANA TWINS
by Carolyne Aarsen, available September 2014.

And don’t miss a single story in the
BIG SKY CENTENNIAL
miniseries:

Book #1: HER MONTANA COWBOY
by Valerie Hansen

Book #2: HIS MONTANA SWEETHEART
by Ruth Logan Herne

Book #3: HER MONTANA TWINS
by Carolyne Aarsen

Book #4: HIS MONTANA BRIDE
by Brenda Minton

Book #5: HIS MONTANA HOMECOMING
by Jenna Mindel

Book #6: HER MONTANA CHRISTMAS
by Arlene James

Keep reading for an excerpt from THE AMISH NANNY by Patricia Davids.