by Caryl McAdoo
He laughed. “You want me to call Jeff up here so you can explain all this to him?”
“Well, for sure. Get him up here, and I’ll straighten him out.”
He half stood, but she grabbed his waistband and pulled him back into his seat. “Don’t you dare!”
As though she had anything to worry about, the Rangers blew into Detroit and swept the Tigers off their plate—and without Gij throwing a pitch. Almost as soon as she unpacked, time came to throw everything back in, zip it up, and head home to Texas.
Oh, how she did love sitting in the catbird seat, though it did seem a little strange rooting for Oakland so that the Rangers would have home field advantage instead of Boston. But alas, the Red Sox won game five, so off to Massachusetts the team flew.
Fenway Park. She could hardly believe she was there. What a great job. The fabled green monster in left field didn’t seem to matter one little bit to her Gij. Other than him nibbling too much on the corners.
When would he quit walking batters? Every time anyone got on base, her heart took such a beating. He pitched almost perfect, twenty-nine up, twenty-seven out.
The man simply amazed her. Forget the curse of the Bambino. Boston best beware Ruth’s namesake. With the extra travel days’ rest, the Red Sox could be seeing Sammi Dan’s own personal flame thrower two more times.
Sunday’s game two proved a different animal.
Instead of great pitching, the Rangers’ bats showed up and pounded out twelve runs to win six to three. What fun coming home two games up! The outrageous idea of actually getting to the World Series bonked her brain and rocked her core.
With Johnson in his hip pocket, Jeff seemed almost giddy. Sammi Dan loved it. Even her mother inviting herself to all three of the Rangers’ home games and dragging Freddie along to mooch on Gij’s generosity didn’t dampen her plane ride home.
Well, not all that much. But only because she intentionally changed her thoughts any time they rolled around to the pair.
Everything kept happening exactly like his Pappaw said. The easy part, seven shutouts, stood proudly behind him. And now, almost beyond belief, four no-hitters decorated his page in the books.
Could he really throw three more before the end? What were the odds? The end echoed in her brain. How could he walk away from such an awesome career?
No-hitters seemed especially hard against the best teams in baseball, and with the whole world watching. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what the celebrations might look like when the Rangers put the Red Sox to bed for the season.
And the thought of it kept getting more and more believable.
Then they’d face the NL’s best. And for PawPaw’s predictions to come true, just beating them wouldn’t be enough. That alone would shake the rafters. But not allowing a hit—in three more games? Too much!
Like he knew exactly what she needed, he let her sleep late that Monday. Maybe something could be said for not drinking, but then, what fun would life be without a bit of liquid libation now and then? Especially when she had to sleep by herself!
After the second cup of coffee, her lubed mental wheels got to turning. She leaned forward on the kitchen table and stretched to see his Kindle. “What’cha reading?”
“Dallas Morning News.”
“Oh.” She nodded at the electronic marvel. “Say anything in there about Jeff pitching you tomorrow?”
He put the thing down. “Not an official word, but that’s the general consensus among all the sportswriters.”
“What do you think?”
He shrugged.
“What’s wrong?”
“You.”
“Me? What’d I do, sugar booger?”
“Nothing. But that’s the point. Nothing’s getting anything settled. We need to be planning our wedding.”
“I’d love to. Want to set a date?”
“We can’t, not yet,”
“Oh, yeah.” Her gaze fell to her mug and she studied the fast cooling brew. “Not until I buy into the fairy tale.”
“Samantha Danielle, don’t say that. It’s real.”
She looked up and ever so slightly shook her head. “How can you say that, Gij? You’re an intelligent man, and you don’t know. You can’t, not for sure.”
“But, Baby, I do.”
“Then tell me, how do you know?”
“If you’d only known me then. My heart so broke, and my life so messed up, then Jesus saved me. I knew, because for the first time in my life, I was clean on the inside. Nothing else mattered anymore. My own mother wanting to abort me, or hurting my arm, nothing mattered but God…and what He’d done for me.”
That all sounded so good. Her heart hurt all the time. Her past continually plagued her. What would being clean on the inside feel like? “So what do I have to do? I mean, I’m willing to try, but… ”
“Call on the name of the Lord. The Bible says all who call on His name will be saved.”
“Do I have to get on my knees?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Okay.” She closed her eyes. Someone somewhere required that, right? “Jesus, I want to believe in You like Gij does. I love him so much. But I’m having trouble. If You’re really there, could you help me? I know… ”
Something came over her. She didn’t know exactly what it was, but she liked it. But it was weird—and sweet. Could it be true? “Okay, God, I’m calling on Your name and telling you that I want You. Okay? Will you save me, please?”
Her chest grew so full of warmth that it pushed tears to her eyes and they overflowed. Was that a good thing? Should she be crying? Was Jesus really real? How could a virgin have a baby?
She’d been so bad, made so many horrible choices in her life. She didn’t deserve His love or His forgiveness or salvation.
How can a harlot be made pure as snow?
She opened her eyes. Tears streamed down his cheeks as well. She loved him so much it might kill her. “What did you just say?”
“Nothing, baby. You’re doing great.”
“But, no. You just said something, didn’t you? I know I heard someone.”
“What’d you hear?”
“I was asking—I guess you’d call it praying—and I was asking Jesus if he was really real. Then I was wondering how could a virgin have a baby.” She looked away.
Gij would never call her a whore, but that’s what she’d been, except she didn’t get paid. She just gave herself away for free, jumped into bed with every guy who turned her head, for half her life now. That had to be worse than a whore. How could she even ask for a Holy God to accept her?
She looked back. “Then you talking to me, except it wasn’t your voice. I heard…” She was so ashamed. Gij wouldn’t love her anymore now. He’d know the truth about her, how black she really was, but maybe it was for the best. Cut him loose, let him find a nice girl. “I didn’t really hear it with my ears though. Someone said, ‘How can a harlot be made pure as snow’?”
“The answer is by His blood. He died on the cross and shed His blood, gave His life to cleanse us all from sin. We’ve all sinned and fallen short, you’re no different. But your sins are no worse than mine.”
He reached out and took her hand. “Give ’em all to him. Accept His sacrifice, and you’ll see. You’ll be pure as a newborn baby. Your past will be forgiven and every sin blotted from His memory, put under His precious blood.”
Tears streamed. She wanted that, wanted to be forgiven. “Help me, Lord. I’m so sorry I’ve been so wicked, so evil. I’m such a sinner, but I’m sorry. Please, Lord.” Her chin fell, and she sobbed. “Help me believe, Jesus. Help me. Forgive me. Save me.”
For a few beats of her heart, nothing seemed to happen, although that peace from before—that’s what it was, peace—remained. Then a warm blanket of liquid love fell over her and covered her. It warmed her through and through and filled her heart to the overflow. She sniffed, and the tears stopped.
She looked up at Gij and smiled. Something i
ndescribable was happening to her. It all made sense now, but how? God was real, and Jesus… Her nose tickled and goosebumps rose. Sweet, wonderful, precious Jesus—her Lord, her very own Savior—loved her. He had accepted her just like she was and washed her clean.
“I’m…”
He laughed and patted her hand, crying openly. “I know, Baby. I can see it in your eyes.”
“I’m saved. I know I am, Gij. You’re right. It isn’t a fairy tale at all. It’s real, and I know it now. I mean I know that I know it. She jumped up and somehow he got to his feet before she reached him. She threw her arms around his neck and laid her cheek on his chest. “Oh, thank you. Thank you, my love.” The tears started anew.
“For what? I didn’t do anything.” He hugged her back like he’d never let go, and that’s exactly what she wanted.
She swiped at her wet cheeks and laughter bubbled up from her deepest inside part. “For loving me.” She giggled. “For not giving up on me.” She squeezed him tighter. “Oh, chocolate éclairs! I feel so good. Praise God!”
He held her out a little, and she looked into those eyes that she so loved. His face split into a huge grin. “So when do you want to get married?”
“Tonight? No! Right now!”
“Can’t.”
What? She pushed further back and glared. “Why? Now what?”
“The law. Texas has a three-day waiting period. We can go today, right now this morning, and get a license. Plus, we both have to work.”
“But I want to marry you, Johnson. I don’t want to wait another minute. You’re killing me.”
“Now you know how I’ve felt since that first night in Mexico City.”
“Come on, Gij. Jeff will give you the night off, you know he will. We could be in Vegas in what? Three hours?”
Gij held both hands up, his heart so full that he could hardly stand it, but one of them had to be practical.
“Easy, girl. Let’s do this right, okay? You only get married once. We’ve already got you that killer dress. There’s the church and the flowers and the food for a reception.”
“Oh, you’re no fun.” She grinned and stepped back a step. “I can put Cate on the cake and reception, and Mom wanted to help. She can order the flowers. We can get married at the Botanical Gardens in Fort Worth. I loved walking with you there, and it’ll be so beautiful.”
“What about invitations? There’s about three hundred folks or so I’d like to be there, and I would like not to have to pitch after we get married.”
“Are you saying you want to wait until after the World Series? I don’t think I can, Gij. That’s just out of the question.” She grinned at him. “See? This is the problem. You don’t know what you’re missing…” She raised her eyebrows.
He nodded and smiled back. “Yeah, I know. And I’m getting it soooo good once we’re legal, but I’d have to turn in my man card if I didn’t take care of business first.”
“Okay, so when?”
“How does Saturday, November the second sound?”
“But that’s like two weeks!” She pouted her bottom lip and did the mental math. “And four days! I’ll be totally crazy by then.”
“Naw, we’ll be too busy to go crazy. You’ll see, the time will fly. You do remember we’ve got some baseball to play and now plenty of planning to do.”
“Okay, what’s first?”
“I like the Gardens idea, but what if it rained? We wouldn’t want to postpone! Let’s go church shopping, maybe get you baptized while we’re at it.”
CHAPTER
thirty-six
“In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
The minister put his hand behind Sammi Dan’s head, stuck out his hand for her to grab, eased her backwards into the water, then brought her right back up.
Gij held his hand out, grinning. She let him pull her out of the baptistery. How’d she know that word? Oh well, that didn’t matter.
What did practically enveloped her, no it completely consumed her. A brand new creature in Christ, Gij had said, and that exactly described her life now. Born again, fresh and light, with no burden of guilt or shame.
What a great idea her God came up with, getting to start all over. Crazy maybe, but she somehow knew her slate had been wiped clean, leaving her pure and clean and in love with Jesus and that most wonderful man He’d sent her.
And why? She certainly didn’t deserve Gij, but God brought him into her life simply because He loved her.
Thank You, Lord.
Once dry and changed, she found the love of her life—after Christ—outside the preacher’s office.
“Okay, what’s next?”
“How about we go upgrade your ring?”
She held her hand out. “No, I love her. Any bigger, she’d be gaudy, but I suppose we’ll need to pick out a couple of bands for the ceremony. You know, for with this ring, I thee wed.” She giggled and performed a twisty shiver from her feet to her shoulders. “Oooo, I cannot wait to marry you. I can’t believe it’s all true and happening. I’m so not walking on the ground!”
“Okay, off to the jewelry store, then we’ll head to the ballpark. Have a game tomorrow, remember?”
Yes, he was right, but she didn’t want to go to work now. She had so much to do and barely two weeks to get everything done. She loved the idea of a big wedding, but how could she pull it off with no more allotted time than fifteen days?
“Fine, okay, but only because I love you and don’t want you to have to turn in your man card, we can go work some.”
With the gold bands secured and him off doing whatever he needed to get done, she made her way to the media room and tried to study the handouts; to no avail though as the scouting reports blurred and melded into the million other issues she needed to handle.
Then on the second page, it hit her. Jeff listed Martinez for game four. She turned back to the first page, and blew out a deep breath she’d been holding. For a minute there, she thought they were fixing to make him pitch tomorrow.
Then a worse consideration hit her. What if the Rangers swept Boston? Then Pappaw’s prediction would be almost impossible.
How could Gij ever pitch three more no-hitters in the World Series? Just beating a team three times straight was hard enough, but… She tapped her phone to life and keyed in At Bat, her MLB App.
The Series started a week from Wednesday, and if it went a full seven games, would end eight days later.
Well, it’d be feasible that he could pitch the first, fourth, and seventh game. Talk about a miracle.
“Okay, Lord, none of that matters. You’ll get us through all this exactly how it’s supposed to be.” She closed her eyes. “But then, do You really want us to go to Africa? I mean because that’s a long ways away, and you know how much I love Texas.”
No answer came, but in the scheme of things, popcorn! It didn’t make one bit of difference, not really.
Whatever Gij wanted to do or wherever he went in the wide world, that’s exactly where she wanted to be. Maybe not playing baseball after this year was for the best, too.
Once the babies started coming—babies, everything else in her head sped away, and she cuddled into the thought for a spell, spending a few blissful moments with her offspring-to-be.
Anyway though, after they came, she wouldn’t want to be running all over the country chasing the Rangers’ schedule. And she’d definitely hate him going off by himself.
The afternoon rolled by like an ever growing snowball picking up a layer of baseball then a layer of wedding plans. By evening, it plowed into more plans, plans, plans. Forget the game! She was getting married!
Then after one more lonely night—at least the end of those was in sight—it started all over again. Except now she had help. The troops had been summoned.
Her mother and Fred showed first, then her dad and Cate arrived within minutes, as though the parental forms planned it all out. The hen party was on; the mothers started a list then another.
&n
bsp; In no time, Sammi Dan went over a list of the lists. It was wonderful having help, and a wedding planner had been chosen, called, and was on her way. With professional help, maybe it could actually get done.
Of course, the ballgame got all up in the way. A part of her yearned to watch from the new luxury box and keep on with the planning between innings, but she didn’t want to abandon Gij or Fox and KBTL, so needed to keep at it. She took her place in the camera well and did her best to focus.
Ask intelligent questions of whoever Meadows got, but it sure seemed to her that she only made a fool of herself. Then like Boston never got the memo, the Sox scored two in the ninth and sent the game into extra innings.
And they had the audacity to not allow the Rangers a run through five extra frames. What were these guys thinking? She did not have time for this.
Finally, the Rangers scored in the fifteenth. Okay, maybe she could squeeze in a little list-making time tonight, but that didn’t happen. Even the ladies wanted to talk about the game, before, during, and after the late late supper. Then even more once the parade got back home.
She finally gave up and followed Cate to bed. Well, she wouldn’t be sleeping alone, but pumpernickel, she wanted the real deal, not her soon-to-be stepmother.
The next morning, both eyes popped open. The lump next to her surprised her almost as much as her left eye working properly without coffee. Then it hit her, and she smiled—her second morning without any kind of hangover.
Slipping out, she found Gij in the kitchen reading his Kindle.
He looked up. “Good morning, my prize.”
“Your prize?”
“Yes, ma’am. God rewarded me with you.”
Giggling, she tousled his hair on her way by then grabbed herself a cup of coffee and joined him. “F.Y.I.” She patted his hand. “I stopped taking my pills.”
A puzzled look clouded his eyes, then his mouth spread into a knowing grin. “Good, glad to hear it.”
