Page 73 of Eye on the Ball

Jack repeated the news into the microphone, and everyone at the ballpark cheered. The elder witch de-magicked the trophy. Susan handed the trio off to Andy to take to jail, and Uncle Mike went back to the announcer’s booth.

And then we played ball and kicked Riverton’s assets in softball, fifteen to three.

Just after that final inning, when we were cheering wildly, Joe Bob Turner ran out onto the field, clutching a bullhorn and waving a familiar jewelry box around.

“Donna Portnoy! Will you marry me?”

She said yes.

The crowd went wild.

* * *

It was a great night. Everybody went to Connor’s Pub to celebrate, and the grand opening was a tremendous success. Unfortunately, Tina did a shift as a server that night and made as much money as she would in three days working for me, so she regretfully gave me her notice. I wished her well and then put myHelp Wantedad back in theDead End Gazette.

Maybe the next employee would stick.

Rose texted me pictures of the babies, and I showed them to everyone. When Jack came back from demolishing Dave Wolf at darts, I held my phone up to him.

“They’re gorgeous,” he said.

“Yes, they are. And yes,” I told him.

“Yes?” He looked up at me with those beautiful green eyes, puzzled.

“Yes, I think about babies.” I took a deep breath and stepped out onto the high wire. “Especially since falling in love with you.”

Connor had to send his new bouncer over to ask us to continue all the kissing activities outside.

EPILOGUE

Tess

In conclusion:

Aunt Ruby took the now non-magical trophy to city hall, where it will sit proudly until next year’s game. Sapphire wrote an in-depth article about the whole thing, and the circulation of theGazetteis way up.

Ace has already started the trash talk about how Riverton will win the trophy back next year. Few people pay attention to Ace these days, even though neither police department filed charges against him for the bad-luck charm incident. Susan said it was all too hard to prove. We also suspected he did something to jinx us in years past, too, but couldn’t prove that, either.

Celine said Karma would get him. I privately thought that was a little hypocritical, since she’d made the charm, but I let it go.

Jack and I started talking about funding a health clinic for Dead End, since he had the Atlantis money, and I had the gold from the Fae queen. I was so proud I’d helped Jasmine Tess Cardinal Vasquez come into the world, but I didn’t want anybody else in Dead End to be in that situation again.

A few days after the big game, Jack and I were hanging out on the couch watching yet another nature show—I told himSurvivorwas next—when Susan called.

“Hey, Susan.”

“I thought you’d love to hear this. Is Shepherd there?”

“Hey, sheriff,” Jack said.

I put the phone on speaker. “What’s up?”

“Sheriff Lawless was so furious that he couldn’t arrest anybody and had to let Probie go, he shot up the jail!”

“What? Is Probie okay?”

“He’s fine. Reynolds had released him earlier today. The jail was empty when Lawless went on his rampage.”