A Great Catch by Lorna Seilstad Read Free Book Online Page B

over his head and pulled the tense muscles. The launch chugged into place at the dock. Unhurried, the captain closed the throttle and tossed a rope onto the dock. A dockworker caught it and secured the boat in place.
    Carter jumped to his feet but paused to let the ladies disembark.
    “Son, we understand you’re in a hurry.” The woman who’d been seated beside him stepped back. “You go ahead.”
    “Thank you, ma’am, but I couldn’t.” He took her elbow and helped her ever so slowly step out of the vessel. After assisting four other women from the launch, Carter raced down the path past the Kursaal and the restaurant toward the ball field. Sweat trickled from his brow. If they lost this game because of him, his team would never forgive him. More importantly, he’d never forgive himself, and it would ruin all his plans.
    Finally, red and white striped uniforms dotted the field in the distance. Good, they were still warming up. Since they were playing another local team, maybe he’d get lucky and his team would be able to bat first. Carter sprinted the last few yards onto the field and met Ducky at home plate.
    “Where have you been?” Ducky punched his catcher’s mitt.
    Carter sucked in a lungful of air. “It’s a long story.”
    “Hope she was worth it.”
    Carter shot his best friend a glare. “Just give me the ball.”
    “You haven’t warmed up.”
    “Ducky, we don’t have time.”
    “Now you’re worried about time? Don’t be a fool. You can’t pitch without warming up. Go on. Ned can keep pitching till you’re ready.” Ducky turned. “Pauly, go catch for Stockton.”
    Pauly trotted off the bleacher and met Carter on the outskirts of the field. He punched his thick leather glove. “Ready?”
    Carter nodded but stopped to watch the start of the game. Spinning his arm in a wagon wheel–sized circle, Ned sent the first pitch of the season toward the batter of the opposing team. Carter’s heart sank like an anchor when a crack echoed across the field as the bat made contact with the ball. Shielding his eyes from the sun, he watched the ball sail past Elwood Taylor in right field and land in the grass. Half the crowd cheered.
    He motioned to Pauly. “Step back. I’m mad as a hornet right now.”
    “At Ned?”
    “No. Myself.”

    “This is ridiculous.” Emily stepped over a puddle in the path leading from their camp along Lake Manawa’s south shore. “By the time we get there, the game will be over.”
    “Then you don’t have anything to complain about.” Grandma Kate gave her a half grin.
    Emily swatted a mosquito buzzing around her wide-brimmed straw hat. “There won’t be any seats left.”
    “We’ll see.”
    “Grandma, sometimes . . .”
    “I can be as stubborn as you? Where do you think you came by that trait, dear?”
    Emily smiled. If there was anyone she wanted to emulate, it was her grandmother. While she loved her own soft-spoken mother dearly, ever since she was a little girl she’d admired Grandma Kate—the fighter, the strong, independent woman who didn’t let anyone or anything stand in her way. Grandma didn’t need a man. She took care of herself, or at least she did now.
    “What was Grandpa like?” Emily’s grandfather had died before she was born, and she often wondered about the man. Every time she asked her mother about him, her mother would tear up and say they’d talk later. Fearing she’d upset her grandmother as well, Emily didn’t speak of him often.
    “Why do you ask?”
    “I was thinking about how you don’t seem to need a man.”
    They reached Louie’s French Restaurant, and Grandma Kate stopped by a thicket of burgundy peonies. “Emily, don’t confuse what I’ve had to do with what I want.”
    “I don’t understand.” Emily adjusted her sling and bent to sniff the honeyed perfume.
    “I can handle business matters without your grandfather, but I would much rather have him here.”
    “To do them for you?”
    Grandma Kate laughed.