Page 48 of Batter Up!

“Thank you,” I said in awe and a little speechless. “Where did all these people come from?”

“The power of social media,” Lilly answered with a grin. “Do you know who Kim is? I know she comes in everyday around 8:45, before she opens her store.”

“Yeah, a strawberry scone and a coffee with two creams and two Splenda,” I said. “The owner of The Lilly Pad flower shop.” I looked around to see if one of my favorite regular customers was in the shop.

“That’s my mom. I’m who the shop is named after,” she said proudly.

“What a small world,” I said. “Your mom is the sweetest.”

“Well, she is the one who gave your baseball player the purple flowers the other day and said it was one of the sweetest things ever.”

I walked over to the register and began checking customers out as Lilly talked. It seemed like she couldn’t multi-task very well, but I was appreciative of her coming in.

“He really did good,” I smiled, thinking of the awesome day and couldn’t believe it was only a few days ago.

“Anyway, Phoebe over here was telling my mom all about raising money for one of the players who is having a family emergency, and Mom said she wanted to help. She said she’s going to give 10% of her profits to the player and had me put it on the flower shop’s social media page.”

“That is so awesome of her!” I said and looked at Penelope and mouthed, “Phoebe?” Penelope just shrugged her shoulders with a smile and whispered to me, “She might not be the brightest, but she’s good with social media and really sweet.”

I nodded and saw on top of the counter was a big glass jar. I walked to the other side where the customers were lined up and saw in Penelope’s handwriting:

The jar was overflowing, and there were several five, ten, and even twenty-dollar bills in the jar. I felt tears well up in my eyes. The community was really coming through for Ivan, and they didn’t even know which player needed help or why.

“And that’s not all,” Lilly exclaimed. “I do social media for Sugar Scoops Ice Cream Parlor and The Bookshelf used bookstore. I talked to their managers, and they agreed to let me post on their sites and to make donations as well. They will give a percentage from today’s sales too.”

“Wow. I had no idea social media could do all this,” I exclaimed as the line was still out the door. I was now glad I had plenty of baked goods to sell.

“I know you didn’t hire me for the store, and I have no hard feelings,” Lilly said while she waved her hands around. “But if you wanted to hire me to do your social media, that's what I’m going to school for.” I was glad that social media had nothing to do with her math skills.

“I would definitely be interested in that,” I responded and waved at a few regulars who were coming in the door. I saw one of my favorite regulars was about to order from Cash, so I began to make his coffee how I knew he liked it. “Hi, Dr. Sebastian. How are you?” I asked.

Dr. Sebastian was the only doctor in town and was very well-liked. Every day, he came into the bakery for a small black coffee and a blueberry muffin. He never changed his order and always sat at one of the tables to do the newspaper crossword puzzle while he ate. He definitely was a creature of habit.

“Ms. Green, may I have a word?” he asked.

“Of course,” I said and went to sit with him at the cafe table as soon as he paid for his order. “I am so sorry the line was extra long today.”

“Oh, dear, that’s not the problem,” he responded as he took a sip of his coffee. “Do you know my last name?”

“Isn’t it Dr. Sebastian?” I asked.

He let out a chuckle, “No, that’s my first name. My full name is Sebastian Campbell.” I nodded and wondered if his last name should mean something to me. The only Campbell I could think of was the soup. “As in Campbell Field, home of the Raptors,” he said when he must have noticed I wasn’t connecting the dots. “I own the Raptors.”

“OH!” I exclaimed. “Oh. I am so sorry, Dr. Campbell. I should have asked if it was against the rules or something to raise money for a player. I just really wanted to help.”

He held up his hand to stop me. “No, no. It’s your business, and you can do what you want with your money. I don’t even want to know which player is having a family emergency, but I think it’s very commendable what you are doing and that the community is coming together to help. I would like to match whatever amount you are able to pull together. This is strictly off the record, and if anyone finds out I donated, I will deny it because it would be favoritism, but I want to encourage this. This is exactly why I wanted to build a stadium in this small town.”

You should move in together when you feel that this step is symbolic of becoming more committed to each other.

It had been a long night talking with Ivan. He had been ready to just leave baseball to go to his family. Camila was the one to talk him out of that. She said she was surrounded by her family and wasn’t alone. We could all tell she would rather have him there and was trying to be strong. I knew that if that was Molly in a different country and about to have our baby, I’d do anything to get to her.

“How is he going to pitch today?” Hayden asked as we were jogging together the next morning.

“He’ll find a way. He’s a professional,” I said with confidence.

“How’d the date go yesterday? Other than having to cut it short?”

“That part sucked, but she’s amazing. My ex would have scoffed about having a picnic for a date, but Molly loved it. She’s so easy to talk to, and we have this special connection.”

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