by Abby Tyler
The Eagles had just used their last time out.
Carter glanced back at the stands.
Ginny stood at the fence with Toby’s parents and her friend Carly. Carly’s distended belly glowed like a moon in a white shirt. Her baby was due before the Harvest Dance. He had noticed how often Ginny looked longingly at her friend.
Win or lose, he would do it tonight.
Carter turned back to the field.
A roar rose from the stands. He tuned it out and focused on the players. Robbie bent over the ball, ready to snap. They were running down the play clock a bit. The ball was on the seventeen. At worst, if this play didn’t work, they could kick and end the game in a tie.
But if Toby could punch it through, the Eagles could actually win this thing.
Carter gripped his clipboard. The evening was warm for autumn and a trickle of sweat ran down his back. It was just the third game of the season and things were looking awfully good. Even if they didn’t win this one, there would be more chances. The team had never worked together better.
Robbie snapped, and Toby took control of the ball. He handed off to Jason, a new addition to the team, who had signed up based on Ginny’s suggestion after his improvements last year. He was a solid running back, sometimes bludgeoning his way down the field out of pure will. He circled past a loose defender and crossed back to Toby, invisibly returning the ball to the quarterback.
Nobody would see that.
Jason had brought down enough linemen during the game that they raced for him, anxious to tackle him in negative yard territory.
Toby slipped right through the hole in the line.
A safety noticed—too late—that the quarterback was headed toward the end zone. The race went on, and right at the one yard line, a fast player managed to catch up and leap through the air to bring Toby down.
But it wasn’t enough. Toby’s shoulders—and, more importantly, the ball—crossed the goal line.
The refs signaled the touchdown.
The noise was tremendous. A funny feeling washed over Carter. It wasn’t pride. Or even the thrill of the score.
It was connectedness.
He felt like a part of those boys, an instrument within the team, not in charge of it.
The players converged on Toby, slapping him on the back and lifting him in the air. This was their moment.
Carter glanced back at Ginny. She was crying, the backs of her hands swiping at her eyes.
The cheerleaders were going wild, and the band scrambled to pull themselves together enough to play the fight song.
“Okay, boys!” he called out. “We still have an extra point to kick.”
Some of them laughed, as if just realizing they were still in the game.
They set up for the play. Josh had gotten a lot better since last season. Carter still couldn’t expect him to do much past the thirty-yard line, but he could handle an extra point.
They lined up, made a clean snap, and Josh sliced it through the uprights.
Another cheer rose up, and the band began the fight song a second time. Carter didn’t think he’d ever heard it twice in a row.
He glanced back over at Ginny. She and Carly were both crying now. A lot of the football parents were.
He glanced at the clock. One minute and five seconds.
The offense ran off the field, and the defense went out. There was enough time for the other team to score again, although Carter doubted they had a hurry-up offense good enough to pull it off.
Still, he shouted instructions, gave hand signals, and reminded the team to hang on to their lead.
The defensive line held them through all four downs and into the punt. With only ten seconds left on the clock, Carter instructed Toby to just hang onto the ball and let the clock run out.
Ten seconds until his big moment. And not just the win.
He glanced up at the press box. His friend Archie was up there. He’d been calling the plays as the announcer since 1990. He’d just missed the heyday of the Applebottom Eagles golden football years. He had repeatedly told Carter at Old Man Football that he thought they were about to get there again.
Maybe he was right. Regardless, Carter had ten seconds until Archie would help him out.
The ball snapped, and Toby hung on to it. The entire stadium on the home side counted down the clock seconds. When the buzzer sounded, Toby dropped the ball, and the team all jumped on each other again.
Carter ran out to be with them. A forty-five-game losing streak had come to an end. The teams lined up to shake hands, and Carter went out to greet the coach for the other team.
Harold congratulated him, seeming pleased even though his team had lost.
As the opponents filtered off the field and into their dressing room, the Eagle team turned around for the school song.
No one had left the stands. The bleachers were filled to the brim with students, faculty, and the townspeople of Applebottom.
Carter took it all in. Everyone was right here. This was it.
As the song wound down, Carter walked up to one of the refs. “I need to borrow your microphone,” he said.
Jonathan, the ref, had been working Applebottom’s games all four years since Carter had been coach.
“Is this for what I think it’s for?” he asked.
“Probably so.”
He unclipped the radio pack and handed it over. “Good luck.”
The announcer stopped everyone from leaving the stands. “Hold on, folks. We have a special presentation on the field. Everybody look toward the fifty-yard line.”
Toby ran up. “You doing it, Coach?” he asked.
Carter nodded and flipped on the mic. “This thing on?” he asked. His voice reverberated from the speakers.
Toby motioned a bunch of his teammates over to the fence where Ginny stood. It was a long way down and around to get onto the football field, so a bunch of them quickly climbed the side and jumped over. The fence was only chest high.
Carter took a deep breath and spoke into the mic. “Boys, could you help my lady onto the field?”
Ginny let out a little squeal as four of the boys lifted her up and passed her over to the other side, where the rest of the team brought her back down.
They escorted her to the fifty-yard line, where Carter stood, not sure his voice was going to work.
He took another steadying breath.
“Come on over here,” he said, holding out his hand.
Ginny broke away from the boys, her head tilted as if to ask, What are you up to?
Soon they stood next to each other, square in the center of the field.
She leaned in. “Are you about to credit me for this win? Because it was all you.”
Carter hesitated for a moment, trying to get past the lump in his throat. She looked so happy, loose bits of hair blowing out of her ponytail, bright and supportive in her red Eagle sweatshirt. He shook his head and cleared his throat.
“Ginny, win or lose, tonight was the night I was determined to do this.”
She looked at him with a puzzled expression.
He pulled a ring box from his jacket pocket.
When he got down on one knee, the entire stadium jumped to their feet.
“Carter?” she whispered.
The crowd all started shushing each other so they could hear. Carter waited for the silence.
“Ginny, you’re one of the best things that has happened to Applebottom, and definitely the best thing that has ever happened to me. I know I’m just a lowly football coach, but I’m the football coach of the greatest team in the United States of America.”
The crowd roared at that, and it took another minute of shushing before they quieted down again.
Ginny laughed and nodded in agreement, although he could see tears in her eyes.
“Ginny Page, would you do me the honor of being my wife?”
For a moment, she just looked at him, and he thought the moment would stretch out forever. Had he been wrong? W
as she not ready yet?
But then she held out her hand. “Yes,” she said, her voice quivery. The mic couldn’t quite pick her up, so the only one who heard it was Carter.
He slid the ring on her finger, and that was when everyone knew her answer.
The crowd went nuts again, and Carter stood up to pull her into his arms.
Flashes went off, and he knew a thousand cell phones were trained on the two of them. But he lifted her chin so that he could look her straight into her eyes.
“We are going to be so happy,” he said.
“We already are.”
And despite the fact that they were probably going to go viral on social media tomorrow, he kissed her. And not a chaste little kiss as he had done on the steps of the Titanic at last year’s Harvest Dance. But a real kiss. The kiss of a husband, sealing a decision to make a woman his wife. A kiss that says forever, for better or for worse, for wins or for losses, as long as they both would live.
Carter did it!
I hope that no matter how big a mistake or overreaction you might make in life, you’re ready to find the Hail Mary play that makes things right again, even if it’s a long shot.
Don’t miss the wedding of Carter and Ginny, as witnessed by hard-talking, curmudgeonly Gertrude! Fans who receive text or email messages from Abby receive an exclusive bonus epilogue of the wedding for every book!
Sign up on her web site for email or text ABBYT to 77948 (US only) for text!
Love Applebottom?
See some of the characters you met here again:
Delilah, the owner of the doggy bakery that Roscoe trashes, expands her shop in Mistletoe Summer, leading to a Christmas in July puppy parade that brings together her military veteran son Cody, and the town’s pep squad coach, Melody.
Micah, the town lawyer, gave Carter advice at Old Man Football. Read all about the romance between Micah (hint: he’s a volunteer fire fighter!) and Lorelei in The Irresistible Spark.
Gertrude writes ALL the meeting minutes at the beginning of every Applebottom book, and she also narrates the weddings of all the Applebottom couples, which are bonus epilogues sent to newsletter and text subscribers. (Hint: There might be something getting started between Gertrude and Alfred Felmont in the epilogues only!) Make sure you get those, as she’s a HOOT! Join her email or text list to sign up.
Gertrude and Maude’s Red Slice Pie
(Perfect for a Harvest Dance.)
CRUST
• Your best top and bottom pie crust, unbaked
(Gertrude, aren’t you going to give them your secret pie crust recipe?)
(No.)
(But, Gertrude, what will they do?)
(That’s why God made the Internet.)
(But Gertie, it won’t be YOUR pie crust.)
(Exactly, Maude. My recipe is mine. Why don’t you give them YOUR secret pie crust recipe?)
(Ladies and Gentlemen, I suggest you Google a flour-based two-crust pie.)
(Ha, I thought so.)
FILLING
• 1 1/3 cup brown sugar
* * *
• 3 tablespoons flour
(But Gertie, last time you made this pie, it was a little runny. Shouldn’t we suggest a bit more flour?)
(Only if it’s raining out.)
(Oh, right. It was rather humid that day.)
(Carry on.)
* * *
• 1 tsp cinnamon
(I actually just shake it over the fruit until it feels right. You can’t go wrong with cinnamon so have at it.)
* * *
• 7 normal-sized plums
(Gertrude, what is normal sized?)
(I don’t know. Not stingy tiny ones, and not great giant ones. It doesn’t matter. Cut them until it looks like it will fill your pie plate.)
(Oh, that’s a good idea. You can always add more.)
* * *
• 10 ounces cranberries
(But Gertrude, a normal bag is 12 ounces. Shouldn’t they just dump them all in?)
(Maude, you’re making me as bitter as cranberries with your questions. Sure, they can dump extras in if they want. They can leave them out if they want. It’s their pie!)
* * *
• 1 tsp orange zest (I just zest straight into the bowl, three one-inch sections.)
(Finally, a sensible instruction from Gertrude.)
(Run for the hills, everyone. Maude just paid me a compliment and the sky is coming DOWN.)
* * *
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
For the crust: Lay the bottom crust into the pie pan. Place a half-dozen small cuts in the bottom so it will cook evenly.
For the filling: Remove the pits from the plums and slice them. (I leave the skins on but this is a great debate. You bet it is.) Place the sliced plums in a bowl.
Add in the cranberries. (10 oz or the whole bag, whatever suits you.)
Mix the fruit with the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, lemon juice, and orange zest.
Spread the filling onto the crust in the pie plate.
Layer the top crust over the pie, cutting slits for ventilation. For our pie, we cut hearts out and place the removed heart pieces on the edges at Valentine’s Day. We change the design to stars for Fourth of July or Christmas trees for December. It’s a terrific pie for any holiday that needs something red. We brush the top of the pie with egg whites before baking.
Bake the pie at 375 degrees for 20 minutes, then cover the edges of the pie to avoid burning. Bake an additional 20 minutes. Depending on how you decorated your crust, you may need to bake it slightly longer or shorter to avoid over browning.
Enjoy your pie and don’t miss more of Gertrude and Maude in the next Applebottom book: The Irresistible Spark !
About Abby Tyler
Abby Tyler loves puppy dogs, pie, and small towns (she grew up in one!) Her Applebottom Matchmaker Society books combine the sweet and wholesome style of romance she loves with the funny, sometimes a-little-too-truthful characters she remembers from growing up in a place where everyone knew everybody’s business.
Join her email or text list for a bonus epilogue for every book, a wedding scene narrated by Gertrude!
* * *
The Applebottom Matchmaker Society books include:
The Sweetest Match
The Perfect Disaster
The Irresistible Spark
The Unexpected Shelter
Mistletoe Summer
The Special Delivery
Belated Kiss
with many more planned!