Excerpt 1:

Glancing around her small table beside a window in Pete’s café, Kelly noticed Cassie clearing tables close by. “Hi, Cassie. How’d you guys play against Wellington last night?”

Cassie looked over at Kelly and broke into a big smile. “Oh, we beat ‘em. Beat ‘em bad,” she bragged. “I hit a triple!”

Kelly laughed softly at the sound of young teenage exuberance. “That’s great. Steve and I were both working in Denver so we couldn’t see the game.”

“We’re playing Longmont tomorrow, Saturday morning at Rolland Moore Park.” Cassie gave the table a thorough wipe. “Where are you guys playing?”

“Steve’s playing a morning game at Rolland Moore, and my team will play in the afternoon game at City Park ball field. So I’ll definitely be able to catch your game. I’ll just hop between fields at Rolland Moore.”

Cassie emptied another table of dirty dishes onto her tray. “I love City Park. It is so pretty. I hope we play more games there. All those tall trees. Pete says they’re oak trees, and they’re really going to be pretty in the Fall.” She wiped this table then lifted the trayful of dishes.

“Can you carry all that?” Kelly asked, pointing to the tray. “It looks pretty heavy.”

“Oh, sure,” Cassie said. “Funny, but it doesn’t feel that heavy anymore. I remember last summer I couldn’t carry a tray like this, the way Jennifer and Julie do.” She shrugged. “I guess I’m stronger now.”

“That’s because you’ve had two summers and a fall worth of batting practice,” Kelly said with a grin. “You worked hard with the ball machine. You’re batting really well now because you’ve gotten stronger. Funny how that works together. No wonder you hit a triple.”

“Do you think I can ever hit a homer like you do?”

“Sure, you will. In time. You’ve got a lot more growing to do. Look how much you’ve grown in little over a year since you’ve been here. Must be three inches.”

“Three and a half,” Cassie corrected, wide smile lighting her deep blue eyes.

“Three and a half. And I predict you’ll probably grow another inch before this year is over.”

Cassie’s eyes popped wide. “You think so! Awesome! I hope you’re right.”

“Your legs have gotten a lot longer, too. That’s why you can run so fast. You run almost as fast as I do, I think.”

“No way!” Cassie scoffed.

“Oh, yeah. You’re like a jack rabbit racing around those bases.”

Cassie gave a giggling laugh that made Kelly laugh just hearing it. “Jack rabbit. I love it. I gotta tell Eric.”

“Well, you can tell him that he looks like a really tall, skinny jack rabbit. And he runs even faster.”

“He’ll love that,” Cassie said, shifting the tray. “Talk to you later, Kelly.”

“If it’s Friday, then you’re going with Lisa to the Sports Clinic. Bring back some of Lisa’s PT secrets, okay?”

“Lisa’s secret is she’s got magic hands,” Cassie said as she headed toward the kitchen area.

Magic hands, huh? Kelly recalled how skilled Lisa had been when she helped Kelly recuperate from a broken ankle years ago. Cassie was one smart kid, she thought, as she pulled her laptop from the briefcase bag.

*** Excerpt 2

“Hey, Eric. How’d your game turn out?” Steve called to the teenager.

Eric smiled. “We beat ‘em by five. I got a couple of doubles too.”

“Good job!” Kelly congratulated Curt Stackhouse’s grandson. Same age as Cassie but taller and skinnier. Fourteen going on high school.

“C’mon up here and join us,” Steve beckoned. “Cassie’s gonna bat next. Meanwhile, you can catch us up on what you’ve been doing.”

Kelly watched the even skinnier and faster jack rabbit Eric step effortlessly over the bleacher rows. Way longer legs. Clearly in a growth spurt like Cassie. “Your parents keeping you busy over at their ranch?”

“Oh, yeah. And I’ve been helping Grandpa Curt every day, too. Learning the cattle business, he says.” Eric settled on the bleacher bench beside Steve.

“Boy, you’re gonna be a heckuva rancher some day,” Steve said, grinning at Eric. “Alpaca and sheep business with your mom and dad, and the cattle business with your grandpa. I’d say that’s a dynamite combination.”

Eric flushed just a little with Steve’s praise. “I like it. Tell the truth, I like working with the cattle even more than sheep and alpaca. But they’re good too.”

Kelly thought she spotted Eric’s quick glance toward Steve’s pizza slices sitting on the plate. Steve must have noticed, too, she figured because he spoke up.

“Listen, Eric. I can’t finish that pizza. This hot dog is doing it for me. Why don’t you take the pizza?”

Eric’s eyes lit up. “Really? Wow, thanks! I’m getting pretty hungry but I wanted to see Cassie bat first.”

Steve handed over the plastic plate with pizza. “Go for it. You’re in a growth spurt, I can tell.”

Eric fairly inhaled the pizza, half a slice disappeared in ten seconds. The second half went like the first. Gone. Much to Steve’s and Kelly’s amusement.

“I was about to ask for a bite,” Kelly teased.

Eric stopped then swallowed. “Um, sorry. You want some?” He offered the last bite.

Steve held up his hand. “Nope. You’re a teenage boy in a growth spurt. You need it. Megan’s bringing Kelly a hot dog. Besides, she’s teasing you.”

Eric screwed up his face. “How can you tell? I can never tell when girls are teasing. They’re weird.” He wagged his head in the manner of boys growing to be men. It was an Age- old question.

“You’ll learn. And, yes, girls are definitely weird. They’re inscrutable.” Steve took a deep drink of soda to chase the last hot dog bite.

Kelly smiled and kept her mouth shut during this “mano a mano” exchange. Man talk. Also as ancient as Time.

Eric looked out toward the field. “Inscrutable. That was one of our vocabulary words. It means hard to figure out.”

Steve gave Eric a pat on the back. “That’s for sure. See Kelly, there?” He pointed. “She’s smiling. But you can’t tell if she’s smiling because she’s watching a starving teenager eat, or if she’s secretly laughing at us and our inability to figure out girls. Inscrutable.”

Kelly just held her inscrutable smile, and pointed to the field. “Cassie’s up. Let’s all hope for a triple.”