Page 69 of Forbidden Love

“That would be cool,” Delaney said.

Maggie nodded before asking, “What’s a mascot?”

I dipped my roller into the paint tray. “It’s what the team is represented by, like a lion or an eagle.”

There was something calming and soothing about painting. It was a hard thing to mess up, so I could relax and go through the motions.

Although I had a feeling we might need to do some cleanup work where Maggie was currently working. The grass had white specks scattered over it, and her nose had one large white dollop on it. I took a few steps back so I could take a picture and send it to Alice.

“Do you know anyone who could paint a mural?” Kylie asked me.

“I don’t know any painters.”

She bit her lip. “Maybe I could put some feelers out. See if anyone would be able and willing to offer their talents.”

“There has to be someone,” I said, knowing Kylie was skilled at getting whatever it was that she wanted.

“The reporter left a message last night saying that she wanted to return when these two were complete and do a bigger story. She wanted to dive into our motivation for the charity.”

“That’s great,” I said.

“The motivation for both of us is a little different. I grew up feeling like girls’ sports didn’t have what the boys did, but you come from baseball and wanted to help fellow baseball players.”

“I think both are good reasons. There’s no one judging us. We’re helping the community. Why do our motivations matter?” I asked her.

“With the ski equipment fundraiser, I just wanted to help people, and it’s really the same motivation for this one. But is that enough?”

“Why wouldn’t it be? Wanting to help others is a good thing.”

“I guess I was thinking it should be something more.”

“You want to give back to the community and create something lasting and beautiful. Now every time someone sees one of our dugouts, they’ll know it’s the one you built,” Delaney said.

Kylie lowered her roller and took a step back. “Will they? There’s nothing on the building to show that it was our project. Should we have a plaque on it, designating it as one of ours?”

“It should have a name. What do you call the organization?” Delaney asked.

“We never officially named it. We just call it the dugout project.”

“We need a name,” I said.

The girls threw out a few—Kylie’s Dugouts, Dugout Dens, Fletchers’ Dugouts—but none of them sounded right, and we couldn’t seem to find a way to honor both Kylie’s and the Fletchers’ contributions.

“I don’t think it should say our names. It should just have a cute name that people can remember and easily identify as ours.”

“Dugouts for Kids!” Maggie randomly cheered as she jumped around, paint flying everywhere.

“That’s not a bad idea, but what if we eventually wanted to expand and do more to maintain the fields? Eventually, everyone will have dugouts, and I don’t see us stopping there. We could still raise money to maintain the fields, providing the paint and chalk for the lines and equipment for the kids.”

I grinned. “That’s easy. Fields for Kids.”

“I love both,” Kylie said.

“What if our initial project is Dugouts for Kids because I like that it describes exactly what we’re doing now? And if we want to expand down the road, we can call that project Fields for Kids?”

“I love it so much.” Kylie hugged Maggie and then Delaney. “Thanks for brainstorming with us.”

Delaney shrugged. “It was fun.”

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