Chapter 1

Sam Archer looked at the two envelopes lying on the kitchen table. Two very different reactions warring in his heart. The first he had been handed at the ballpark just a few hours ago when his bosses, Hal Gladstone, and Jimmy (Fish) Troutman, had called him into the main office. “You asked to see me, Mister Gladstone, Fish?”

“There he is, the man of the hour!” Hal Gladstone beamed. “You need to get packed up, son. You’re leaving us, come spring.”

Sam frowned. “You’re trading me? But Mr. Gladstone, this is my home. I grew up here in Phantom Horse. My family is here. All I’ve ever wanted was to play for the home team.”

Fish smiled. “Told you, Hal, that’s what his reaction would be. You really need to lead with the good news.” He looked at Sam and smiled. “We aren’t trading you, Sam. You got the call, boy. The Big Club is calling you up. Rickman is on the injured list for the next season, maybe gonna have to retire. Blew out his elbow last night. That leaves them down a pitcher, and they asked us to send you up.”

Hal beamed. “You’re going to the Big Show, boy!! Here’s your new contract. Get your agent to look it over. It ain’t a lot, just the league minimum, but there is a clause that says if you can close 90% of your games with wins they’ll give you a bonus equal to your seven hundred thousand dollars yearly salary and resign you for a five year, twenty-two million dollar contract. So stay fit and win. That’s four point two million a year. Now go clear out your locker. You have two months to get everything settled here. You report to the Ball Park in Clearwater on February 15th. Congratulations Sam, you made it. We’ll be able to say we knew you when.”

Both men shook his hand, and he left the office feeling on top of the world. His second most important dream was about to become a reality. Little Sam Archer had just been called up to be a closing picture for the Denver Dragons. Only one thing would be better than that. Maybe now he could work up the courage to let Teressa know what she meant to him. He’d even ask her to come with him.

The feeling lasted until he saw the fancy invitation with his name on it sitting on his family’s kitchen table. He picked it up, and that’s when the world ended for Sam. She was announcing her engagement. He’d lost his chance. His best friend, Teressa Fleming, the only girl he’d ever loved, wanted to get married. He didn’t begrudge her that.

After all, it had been her biggest dream since he’d met her at eight. She had it all planned out. Her Grandpa would conduct the service. They’d hold it over at Phantom Horse Bridge. With the reception at the Gladstone Inn, and catered by Leanne at Minuette’s Fine Dining. She had a scrapbook she’d put together over the years with everything she wanted. The only problem was her choice of groom.

Sam had always assumed that one day she’d realize they were the perfect couple. That he was more than her next-door neighbor and best friend. She was the love of his life and he always thought she’d realize that he was hers, too. But it wasn’t his name in the groom’s place on the invitation. No, it was her long-time boyfriend and Sam’s old football teammate Leroy Taggert. The quarterback and hometown hero. The guy who beat him to her all those years ago. Sam collapsed into the chair. He was crushed. She’d made her choice. Teressa was getting married, but not to him. As his dream burned out in his heart, he couldn’t help but remember the first time he saw her. The day he knew she was special and meant for him. The day she forced him to marry her for the first time.

~~~~~

14 years ago

He’d just come home from little league practice when he saw a bunch of stuffed animals under the tree that sat in the little strip of yard between his backyard and the empty house next door. He rushed inside. “Mom, what’s with all the stuffies under my tree?”

Sam had always called it his tree. Pastor Fleming, the new preacher at Greatest Endeavor Outreach Ministries Church, and Sam’s dad had helped him last summer build his tree house in it and told him that since the tree sat on both their properties, they were giving it to him and the preacher’s granddaughter but she lived back East and would only be around for a couple of weeks during the summer.

“Oh, I think that Pastor Flemings’s granddaughter must be having a stuffie party under the tree. She and her dad just moved in with the Preacher and his wife. The little girl’s mom got sick and went to heaven and her dad needed some help with her. He’s the new principal at the high school.” His mom told him. “You should go over and introduce yourself and let her know that the tree house is half hers, don’t you think?”

Sam frowned. “I guess, but I don’t want a bunch of sissy stuff in my tree house.”

“Samuel Eugene Archer! What was the deal you made with the preacher and your father? When they helped you build the tree house?”

Sam sighed. “That I’d share it with the preacher’s granddaughter. But mom, she was only supposed to be here two weeks every summer. Not live next door and put a bunch of stuffies all over everything. Next, she’ll be wanting me to play house or some other dolly girl game.”

“Sam, honey, that little girl has to be sad her mommy just died and went to heaven. I want you to be nice to her. It won’t kill you to be her friend and play some games she wants to play. Who knows, she might like baseball and football as much as you do.”

“Oh, alright, but I ain’t gonna like it none.”

His mom smiled and patted his arm. “Well, not with that attitude. You won’t. But if you let yourself, I think you’ll find that she’s a nice girl and the two of you could be good friends. Besides, she’ll need someone to show her around Gladstone and explain about Grandpa Harold’s ghost. That would be a good job for you and Casey to do. Be her friend and help her make other friends here.”

He sighed. He knew when his mom got like this, he’d better obey her. “Yes, Ma’am. I’ll go say hi and play whatever she’s playing under the tree.”

His mom beamed. “Thank you. I appreciate your being willing to help her fit in around here.”

Sam went upstairs to get out of his baseball uniform and into some play clothes. That’s when he got his first glimpse of the girl. She was wearing a white shirt, a white tutu, and tie-dyed leggings. With a lacy cloth over her head, her face was hidden from him, but he could still catch a peek of her dark brown hair and curls from his window.

The biggest stuffed bunny Sam had ever seen was being dragged by her. The stuffie was as big as she was. What kind of game was she playing? It didn’t look like house, not with that cloth over her head and face. Well, there was only one way to find out. Maybe he should get Casey to go with him. They’d probably have a lot more in common than he’d have with her.

He knocked on his twin sister’s door. While he was sporty and all boy, his twin was his polar opposite in every way. She was as girly as they come. That was obvious from just one look at her room. It had as many dolls and stuffies as was under his tree, and everything was pink or purple. She even had one of those princess beds with the cloth hanging off the top of it. A canopy Casey and his mom called it.