by Joanne Pence
He hung up the phone, and shut his eyes a moment. Then he went in search of his father to make the happy trip home.
o0o
It was late when Lee returned to her apartment. She could scarcely believe the continuing praise she'd been receiving about the baseball segment. People were saying it had more emotion and more heart than anything they’d seen on One Hour Report in the four months it’d been on the air--and, they liked it. They liked it a lot.
She took out her cell phone and turned it on. She’d had to turn it off to do some interviews for her next show. It kept beeping and interrupting her.
She went through her messages one by one. When she heard Tony’s tape, she played it again.
She sat on the sofa, the phone with his message in her hand. Right before she left the studio that evening, her agent show up, irritated he couldn’t get through by phone, but so ecstatic he could scarcely contain his serious, cautious, legalistic self and let her know he’d received an inquiry from 60 Minutes. A major milestone in her goal toward becoming a lead network news anchor was to get a reporter’s position on a network news show. Now, one of the Big Three news organizations was actually making inquiries about her.
It was everything she’d always wanted. She should be proud. She was proud, in fact.
She walked to the windows and looked out on Central Park. It was a beautiful bit of nature in the middle of one of the most dynamic, exciting cities in the entire world. To live overlooking Central Park, and to work on a major network news program were her goals, her dream. And it was within reach, finally within reach.
If Judith could see her now, what would she say?
Would Judith finally say, "Good job, daughter?" Or would she find something else to criticize?
She felt as if she’d spent a lifetime scaling an enormous tree. Out on a narrow bough was an apple of solid gold. After much climbing and backsliding and scraping of knees, she’d finally reached that apple. She had her fingers around it, and all she had to do was pluck it and it would be hers. Everyone told her she should want that golden apple, and eventually, she'd even convinced herself. But far below her, at the tree’s trunk, she saw a man, and a loving little boy...
She raised her eyes to the Manhattan skyline, as thrilling to her today as it was the first time she saw it. These past months since Judith’s death had forced her to look back on her life, to remember her years of trying to make up for her mother’s disappointment in her, and to face things about herself that she’d been unwilling to face before. Finally, she’d come to understand, and with understanding, to forgive or at least accept, the way she had lived her life.
She’d achieved a lot. She could be proud of the national prominence and wealth she’d acquired by strength of will, hard work, and a bit of dumb luck.
And yet, one thing about the past stood out with crystal clarity. As she pondered it, it told her everything she needed to know. It was simply that, despite all her success, she had never been quite so happy, or her days quite so filled with the joy of simply being alive, as she was many years ago in a small town called Miwok, as she was when Tony loved her.
Chapter 30
Spring training had come to Miwok in the pale green and pink pastels of lawns and flowers, and the white pants and colorful jersey tops of Little League teams. Watching his team, Tony felt as if he, too, had been reborn. He slid the outfielder's mitt onto his hand, pounded his fist into the pocket a couple of times, then ran onto the sweet-smelling grass. Time for fielding practice, teaching the best way to scoop up a grounder and use two hands on a fly ball. No Willie Mays' style "basket" catches allowed. The coaches started with the fundamentals, getting the ball from second base to first, or third to first, throwing, batting, base running. Nobody had to teach base stealing--the boys did that naturally. The ability to hit a small sphere with a thin, cylindrical club has been said to be one of the most difficult feats in all sports. Tony didn't know about difficult. To him, it was heaven.
This day, everything learned at the team's earlier practice sessions would be tested. It was their first spring training game. The season opener was only three weeks away.
The Tigers, Ben’s new "major league" team, was warming up in the infield. Suddenly, Ben left short stop and ran over to his father.
"What're you doing?" Tony yelled, waving his arms in exasperation. "You belong back there. The batter's at the plate. He's going to hit the ball any minute now!"
"Dad, look." Ben pointed to the stands.
High in the bleachers, a woman sat, a hot dog in one hand, a coke in the other, and a Tigers baseball cap on her head.
"Holy Christ," Tony said, staring at her, unbelieving. He peeled off his gloved, tossed it into the dugout and started to walk toward her, then he started to run. She put down her coke and hotdog and scrambled over the seats down to him.
Just seeing him again was enough to make her head spin and her face break into a broad smile. She was on the second step from the bottom as he reached the stands. He stopped running and looked up. She stopped crawling over benches, and looked down.
He pushed back his cap. "Hi, there."
She lifted her cap off, nearly crushing the bill in her fingers. Her hair was in a French braid, and she wore a light blue blouse and white slacks. "Hello, Tony."
"This is sure a surprise. I guess you're here to see how Miriam's doing, right? I run into her now and then. She's sure proud of you."
"She's part of the reason." Her breath was short and shallow. "Isn't today the start of the spring training games?"
He looked over his shoulder at the kids on the field as if having to check that they were still there. "Yeah, as a matter of fact."
Her heart thrummed so loudly she was sure he could hear
it. "Well, then."
"Then...?" He waited. "I don't get it."
She tried her best to act nonchalant. "I can't remember when I enjoyed anything as much as I enjoyed baseball with you and Ben last spring." Her blue eyes searched his face for understanding. "I didn't want to miss a second of it this year."
His heart leaped, but then he frowned, refusing to let himself believe the words he was hearing her say. "But baseball goes on for months."
"I know." Her gaze didn't leave his. "That's the best part about it."
His throat felt dry. "You can't mean you'll be staying all that time."
Somewhere she found the strength to step down one more stair and lift her hands to his shoulders. "I’m not working in New York City anymore. I asked for a transfer to San Francisco, to be a West Coast correspondent, and they gave it to me. So, you see, I’ll have plenty of time."
He placed his hands on her waist. "You transferred out here?"
"Yes."
Disbelief and more than a little confusion filled the dark brown eyes she loved. "You've left it? Your dream?"
Understand, her mind pleaded. "There are other things, I've learned, that mean more to me."
His hands gripped her tighter at the look in her eyes. "Are you sure?"
"Yes. I’m sure," she whispered. "I just hope I’m not too late."
He moved closer to her, his hands spread wide against her back. She swayed closer at his touch. "I watched you walk away from me three times in my life," he said. "If you’re here with me, it's for keeps."
"I know."
His eyes narrowed. "I mean, year 'round. Even in winter when there's nothing but," he shuddered, "basketball."
She laughed. Her eyes grew moist as she slowly ran her fingers against his thick, straight hair, watching the way it shimmered in the sunlight. "I like basketball."
He jerked his head away, studying her hard, his expression solemn. "I need all of it, Lisa. Marriage, kids, Miwok. I'm too old for half way deals. I'd rather have no deal."
"I know."
He frowned, still not able to believe her. "There are times I can scarcely breathe I get so full of feelings for you, but I've had to learn to live without you."
She knew this
side of him, the caution, the fear of trusting. Teaching him to trust again had to start with her. "I love you, Tony Santos. I've spent a lifetime growing up without you, and I think it’s time to change that."
She could see the hope growing in his eyes.
He shook his head as if he were afraid to believe her, afraid to trust. "I'm a has been ball player, I run a postage stamp size ranch, I've got a kid who's almost a teenager, an old car, no frills and lots and lots of baseball. That's it. No fame, no fortune."
Her eyes slowly took in every inch of his face, the face that had haunted her memory for so many years. Then she smiled. "You’ve got something else."
"Oh?"
"My heart, and I can’t live without it any longer. It’s been a long journey finding my way back to you, Tony Santos. But I’m here, and if you’ll have me, I want to stay."
His expression was solemn. Her Tony, who had always been the one to laugh so easily, to smile, to touch, stared at her as if he was afraid to hope. "I think I've loved you from the first day we talked, so many years ago," he said. "The hell of it, Lisa, is that I still do."
"Like old times?" she asked.
"No." Slowly, his face crinkled into the smile she knew, and he said, "Much, much better."
His arms tightened around her, lifting her off the bench as their lips met. Slowly, he let her slide down the length of him until her toes touched the ground, their kiss never breaking.
The sun was high in the sky as the Red Sox players gave a shout and ran onto the field. The first batter for the Tigers walked up to the plate, tapped it with his bat, wiggled his butt, then lifted the bat high over his head.
The umpire shouted, "Play ball," and a new season began.
--The End—
About the Author
Visit www.JoannePence.com
Joanne Pence was born and raised in northern California. She has been an award-winning, USA Today best-selling author of mysteries for many years, but she has also written historical fiction, contemporary romance, romantic suspense, a fantasy, and most recently, a paranormal thriller. Her historical and romance novels were first released under the pseudonym "JoMarie Lodge." All of her books are now available as e-books, and most are also in print. Joanne hopes you'll enjoy her books, which will bring you a variety of times, places, and reading experiences, from mysterious to thrilling, emotional to lightly humorous, as powerful tales of times long past.
Ancient Echoes – Coming soon!
Over two hundred years ago, a covert expedition shadowing Lewis and Clark disappeared in the wilderness of Central Idaho. Now, seven anthropology students and their professor vanish in the same area. The key to finding them lies in an ancient secret, one that men throughout history have sought to unveil.
Michael Rempart is a brilliant archeologist with a colorful and controversial career, but he is plagued by a sense of the supernatural and a spiritual intuitiveness. Joining Michael are a CIA consultant on paranormal phenomena, a washed-up local sheriff, and a former scholar of Egyptology. All must overcome their personal demons as they attempt to save the students and learn the expedition's terrible secret....
The Ghost of Squire House
For decades, the home built by reclusive artist, Paul Squire, has stood empty on a windswept cliff overlooking the ocean. Those who attempted to live in the home soon fled in terror. Jennifer Barrett knows nothing of the history of the house she inherited. All she knows is she's glad for the chance to make a new life for herself.
It's Paul Squire's duty to rid his home of intruders, but something about this latest newcomer's vulnerable status...and resemblance of someone from his past...dulls his resolve. Jennifer would like to find a real flesh-and-blood man to liven her days and nights--someone to share her life with—but living in the artist's house, studying his paintings, she is surprised at how close she feels to him.
A compelling, prickly ghost with a tortured, guilt-ridden past, and a lonely heroine determined to start fresh, find themselves in a battle of wills and emotion in this ghostly fantasy of love, time, and chance.
Seems Like Old Times
When Lee Reynolds, nationally known television news anchor, returns to the small town where she was born to sell her now-vacant childhood home, little does she expect to find that her first love has moved back to town. Nor does she expect that her feelings for him are still so strong.
Tony Santos had been a major league baseball player, but now finds his days of glory gone. He's gone back home to raise his young son as a single dad.
Both Tony and Lee have changed a lot. Yet, being with him, she finds that in her heart, it seems like old times...
Gold Mountain
Against the background of San Francisco at the time of the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906 comes a tale of love and loss. Ruth Greer, wealthy daughter of a shipping magnate, finds a young boy who has run away from his home in Chinatown—an area of gambling parlors, opium dens, sing-song girls, as well as families trying to eke out a living. It is also home to a number of highbinder tongs, the infamous “hatchet men” of Chinese lore.
There, Ruth meets the boy’s father, Li Han-lin, the handsome, enigmatic leader of one such tong, and discovers he is neither as frightening, cruel, or wanton as reputation would have her believe. As Ruth’s fascination with the area grows, she finds herself pulled deeper into the intrigue of the lawless area, and Han-lin’s life. But the two are from completely different worlds, and when both worlds are shattered by the earthquake and fire that destroys San Francisco, they face their ultimate test.
Dance With A Gunfighter
The Price of Vengeance
Gabriella Devere wants vengeance. She grows up quickly when she witnesses the murder of her family by a gang of outlaws, and vows to make them pay for their crime. When the law won't help her, she takes matters into her own hands.
Jess McLowry left his war-torn Southern home to head West, where he hired out his gun. When he learns what happened to Gabriella's family, and what she plans, he knows a young woman like her will have no chance against the outlaws, and vows to save her the way he couldn't save his own family.
But the price of vengeance is high and Gabriella's willingness to sacrifice everything ultimately leads to the book's deadly and startling conclusion.
This is a harsh and gritty tale of the old West, in the tradition of Charles Portis' True Grit and Nancy Turner's These is My Words.
Dangerous Journey
C.J. Perkins is trying to find her brother who went missing while on a Peace Corps assignment in Asia. All she knows is that the disappearance has something to do with a "White Dragon." Darius Kane, adventurer and bounty hunter, seems to be her only hope, and she practically shanghais him into helping her.
With a touch of the romantic adventure film Romancing the Stone, C.J. and Darius follow a trail that takes them through the narrow streets of Hong Kong, the backrooms of San Francisco's Chinatown, and the wild jungles of Borneo as they pursue both her brother and the White Dragon. The closer C.J. gets to them, the more danger she finds herself in—and it's not just danger of losing her life, but also of losing her heart.
[This is a completely revised edition of novel previously published as Armed and Dangerous.]
The Angie Amalfi Mysteries
Gourmet cook, sometime food columnist, sometime restaurant critic, and generally "underemployed" person Angelina Amalfi burst upon the mystery scene in SOMETHING'S COOKING, in which she met San Francisco Homicide Inspector Paavo Smith. Since that time she's wanted two things in life, a good job...and Paavo.
"Joanne Pence shows her talent as a mighty good mystery writer." -- BookBrowser Review
"Pence's tongue-in-cheek humor keeps us grinning." -- San Francisco Chronicle
"Will have readers rapidly turning the pages...snatches of humor, real life intrigue and sparks of passion." -- Rendezvous
Here are the Angie mysteries in the order written:
SOMETHING'S COOKING
TOO MANY C
OOKS
COOKING UP TROUBLE
COOKING MOST DEADLY
COOK'S NIGHT OUT
COOKS OVERBOARD
A COOK IN TIME
TO CATCH A COOK
BELL, COOK, AND CANDLE
IF COOKS COULD KILL
TWO COOKS A-KILLING
COURTING DISASTER
RED HOT MURDER
THE DA VINCI COOK
Plus a Christmas novella: The Thirteenth Santa