Page 51 of Eye on the Ball

Rose’s smile shone like the sun, but she motioned for Alejandro to take the baby. “I still have work to do. Tess, are you up for delivering the next one?”

I swallowed hard. “You bet. Pawnshop owner, softball player, and baby deliverer. I’m a Renaissance woman.”

“Luckily, we’ve got somebody to pinch hit,” Jack said, running up behind me with the doctor and nurse. He’d grabbed an old flannel shirt out of the back of his truck after giving me the clean one he’d worn to church for the baby, so he wasn’t running around shirtless, at least.

I didn’t think he was going to want the baby shirt back.

I’d vaguely heard the chopper approaching, but I’d been too busy to pay it any attention.

“I’ve never been so grateful to hand something off to an expert,” I said, moving out of the way.

“Good job, Mom,” the doctor said, her gloved hands already reaching for the baby. She handed it to the nurse, who placed her in a plastic carrier. Probably a special portable incubator.

The nurse grinned at me through his bushy red beard. “Good job to you, too. Delivered many babies before?”

“My first,” I said faintly, feeling suddenly dizzy.

“You did great.”

“Okay, Mom,” the doctor said cheerfully. “We have a minute, so these nice strong men are going to carry you on the stretcher over to the chopper, where all our equipment is. Let’s get that stretcher.”

Jack spoke up. “No need. Alejandro, you keep hold of Rose’s hand.”

My tiger gently lifted Rose like she weighed nothing, which to him she probably didn’t, and he and Alejandro got her to the helicopter. The nurse followed behind with the baby I’d just delivered—I’d justdelivered a baby!—and I stood there and grinned so hard I thought my face might crack open.

Just before they shut the door to take off, Rose grimaced like she smelled something bad. “Tess! There’s still something magically active down there!”

“What?”

She hunched forward against another contraction, and the nurse started to pull the door shut. Just before he did, though, Rose threw one hand out in a motion like she was tossing something at me.

I didn’t know what magic she’d thrown, but only a little hit me directly. My left leg and foot suddenly felt like a swarm of stinging insects were biting me, and I yelped.

“What did you do?” I shouted, but it was too late. The chopper was lifting into the air.

Suddenly, a wave of vertigo smashed into me, and I stumbled to one knee on the pitcher’s mound. Jack leapt across the last six feet toward me and caught me before I could face plant in the dirt.

“Tess, what happened?”

“Jack?”

“Yes, sweetheart?”

“Why is there a dead body under the pitcher’s mound?”

27

Jack

It wasn’t just any random body. It was Ace Truckman.

And he was still alive.

Barely.

“He’s alive.”

Tess sat up, shaking her head as if dizzy. “What? No way he’s alive. Look at him!”