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The Perfect Catch
The Perfect Catch
The Perfect Catch
Ebook224 pages3 hoursTexas Playmakers

The Perfect Catch

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He didn't think coming home would mean falling in love

Outfielder Calvin Ramsey returns to his Texas farm home after being released from his team, an unexpected surprise sure to tarnish the family baseball legacy. But when he finds a sexy stranger acting as the temporary caretaker for his childhood home, all thoughts of baseball disappear.

She won't fall for another player

After losing her savings to a swindler ex-boyfriend, Josie Vance moves to Last Stand to start fresh where no one knows her unhappy past or the con that bankrupted her. But her peaceful healing time evaporates when the homeowner’s son arrives and throws himself into life on the farm—and charming Josie. She can’t risk an affair that draws attention to her or her past. Especially not when the public's fascination with the baseball-playing Ramsey clan is at an all-time high. Can she keep her secrets, her low profile, and her heart too?
LanguageEnglish
PublisherTule Publishing
Release dateMay 9, 2019
ISBN9781949707908
The Perfect Catch
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Author

Joanne Rock

USA TODAY bestselling author Joanne Rock credits her decision to write romance to a book she picked up during a flight delay that engrossed her so thoroughly, she didn't mind at all when her flight was delayed two more times. Giving her readers the chance to escape into another world has motivated her to write over one hundred books for a variety of Harlequin series. 

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5

    Sep 3, 2020

    Thank you to NetGalley and Tule Publishing for allowing me to review The Perfect Catch by Joanne Rock. A caretaker job in peaceful Last Chance, Texas seems like the perfect escape to Josie Vance who wants to make a new start after being swindled by a con man and taken for granted by her unstable mother. She settles into her new role looking after the gardens and home of one of the wealthy Ramsey family members and finds contentment as she plans how to keep employed after the summer job is over. Life has promise and order until an unwanted house guest shows up - Cal Ramsey, the MLB star son of her employer. Just cut from his team, his career prospects bleak, Cal has more than enough time on his hands to discover what secrets the attractive caretaker is holding so dear. Determined to protect the family he’s neglected for his career from whatever Josie is hiding, Cal is also determined she’s affair-worthy material while he’s stuck in career limbo with nothing to do but watch the attractive caretaker’s every move. This is the first book I have read by Joanne Rock and I would be happy to read more. Her dialogue is effortless, natural, effective, and keeps the story going. Lovable, believable characters that make the reader wonder what’s coming next. The Perfect Catch is a fun, page-turning flirtation with an eye-opening look into the life of professional baseball players. While the romantic relationship isn’t greatly developed, The Perfect Catch is still delightfully light and airy, good for an afternoon distraction from reality. The scenic details and minute actions of the characters transport the reader to the idyllic town of Last Chance and the Ramsey homestead. Fans of Diane Palmer will enjoy Joanne Rock and the foreshadowing of what’s to come for the Ramsey brothers in the Texas Playmakers series.

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The Perfect Catch - Joanne Rock

Prologue

Calvin Ramsey had experienced some surreal moments in his career as a professional baseball player.

Getting drafted in the first round and snagging a signing bonus that a wise investor could live off for decades.

Playing for half a season with one of his brothers in the minors before reaching the bigs, where he would don the same number his father wore as a pitcher in the major leagues.

Advancing his team in the playoffs with a walk-off homer two years into his career.

He wasn’t an everyday starter, but he’d been a difference maker. A utility player who could fill in at five positions admirably, and provide some pop off the bench with a clutch pinch-hit.

But this afternoon, seated in the sports car he’d rewarded himself with after five years in the majors, Cal wasn’t sure if he’d ever felt anything quite so surreal as this. He stared out over the half-empty players’ parking lot while the guys who’d been his teammates just yesterday were starting to enter the building for another day’s work. They would be facing division rivals again tonight, the second game in a week-long homestand. And they’d be suiting up without him.

After arriving at the stadium, he’d been told to report to the general manager’s office. And every second since then had felt like an out-of-body experience. He hadn’t been sent down to the minors, which considering his slow start and tweaked hamstring would have been understandable.

Nope.

He’d been released. Designated for assignment and put on waivers for any one of twenty-nine other teams to claim. In the weeks to come, he could be picked up by any other team for next to nothing. As of today, he was the special of the week—the player put on the major league clearance rack, so to speak. Though uncertain if another team would pick him up, he was certain that at best his future would be as a journeyman utility guy.

But right now, with his batting average the worst it had been in his entire career, there was a chance he’d be out of baseball for good.

Calvin Ramsey, son of a storied baseball family with a pitching legend for a father, first of his name to lock down a seven-figure signing bonus, had just been given the boot. The kicker was that he hadn’t even been remotely worried about his roster spot. He was only a spot starter, but for a half-decade he was a proven commodity off the bench, a fan favorite for timely pinch-hits, and perhaps most importantly, well liked in the locker room. He was the teammate most likely to dump the Gatorade bucket on that day’s hero after a win, accepting of his role in the dugout, and genuinely supportive of all his teammates, regardless if their struggles meant more playing time for him.

He’d worked his ass off to gain a roster position. He’d won his arbitration case in the off-season and locked down a bigger contract after a career year. But, as his father always said, it wasn’t about what you did last season. A team needed you to perform now. And he hadn’t. In baseball, there was always someone younger, stronger and faster ready to take your spot. Cheaper, too. Some wet-behind-the-ears rookie would get his first major league at-bat tonight, courtesy of Cal’s hitting slump.

If he sat here much longer, he would hear the sounds of batting practice getting underway. The crack of the brand-new Louisville Sluggers as they launched balls into the still-empty outfield seats. The occasional clink of a ball off the batting cage while the hitting coach worked with someone new on going with the pitch. The usual shouts and ribbing of the twenty-four other…make that twenty-five other guys, who were on the field.

Sounds he wasn’t ready to hear.

Tipping back against the headrest, Cal couldn’t even wrap his head around where to go next. After devoting every summer of his life to baseball since he was old enough to run the bases, he seriously considered just walking away from the game. For good. He’d collect his salary this year either way.

At almost thirty years old, he didn’t much feel like jumping through hoops to impress a new team anymore. Maybe he needed to take a summer for himself. Help his grandfather out with the farm that had been in the family for generations—a business doomed to die with the old man since Everett Ramsey’s descendants had gone into baseball instead of farming. How many times had Gramp asked him to take over Rough Hollow Farm and Orchards?

It was too soon to make that call though. Because underneath the sense of surreal floating around him, Cal was seriously rattled. Right now, he was going to drive home and put his house on the market. Pack up his things and put them in storage since his time in Atlanta was done. After that? He was not the kind of guy to sit by the phone and wait for a call that might not come. There was a good chance he’d toss his phone out the window and just keep driving. His agent would track him down one way or another if any offers came through.

Sooner or later though, he needed to return home. His real home in Last Stand, Texas, where a dose of the Hill Country would remind him of his roots. Because in Last Stand, the Ramseys were first and foremost a farm family, most notable because they traced their local heritage back to 1856 when Virgil Ramsey built a home and barn and called it Rough Hollow Ranch.

Cal needed that brand of reality in a life gone off the rails. He just hadn’t known how much he needed it until today. For now, he shut down his phone because he damn well wasn’t ready to talk to anyone. Or maybe it was to prevent himself from seeing any sports news about his career going down in flames.

Turning over the engine, he cranked the tunes and lit out of the parking lot like his ass was on fire. He had a house to sell. And, in time, a life to resurrect once the wrecking ball finished tearing down the old one.

Chapter One

My oldest son may stop by the house sometime this spring.

Seated on the porch swing at dusk, Josie Vance reread the text message thread that had sent her into panic mode earlier that week. Ever since she’d taken the job as a caretaker for this mammoth old farmhouse in Last Stand, Texas, she liked sitting outside to watch the fireflies come out as a reward for a hard day’s work on the property. At those times, she could almost forget this place didn’t belong to her. Like the fluffy little dog on her lap—Kungfu the Maltipoo—and the two Lab mixes snoozing at her feet, the things around her were borrowed pleasures. But when the world all around her was quiet, she simply enjoyed it and didn’t care that it was temporary. All week she’d been too frazzled by her employer’s messages—the threat of an oldest son stopping by—to enjoy the usual twilight ritual.

He has been out of touch, so I can’t be sure. It’s just maternal intuition!

Hailey Decker, the author of the texts and the home resident who’d hired her, was an unusual sort of woman to say the least. She was divorced from a famous ballplayer, apparently, some pitcher that Josie had never heard of. After her divorce, Hailey had moved back into the first home she’d lived in as a married woman, a place next door to her ex-father-in-law, because she still looked out for the older man, Everett Ramsey. That had been Josie’s first indication that Hailey was unique. Because who moved back into a house long owned by a divorced spouse’s family, let alone cared for an ex-in-law? Add to the mix that Hailey was a local beekeeper who thought nothing of dropping everything to lead a church mission to Ecuador for three months or going mushing with a team of sled dogs in Alaska for a winter holiday, and you came up with an intriguing human.

Tucking her bare toes under her on the worn green seat cushion, Josie cupped her mug of tea tighter in response to the cooling breeze that came after the hard spring rain that had driven her indoors late that afternoon. Just now, as she listened to the katydids sing, the crickets chirp, and the swing gently creak, she could almost convince herself that her employer’s texts had been all for naught. Despite Hailey’s maternal intuition, Josie hadn’t seen any sign of the sons around the property. Which was just as well since she needed to be anonymous for a while. When she’d agreed to the caretaking gig, she’d signed on for overseeing the house, the dogs, a cottage garden and several beehives.

Strange men showing up at the house had not been mentioned.

If you see Calvin, please mention he is welcome to stay with his ailing grandfather. Thank you!

Josie set the phone down again, hoping she never saw the mysterious Calvin for a variety of reasons, but also because she knew Everett Ramsey was hell-bent on looking out for himself. The cantankerous old farmer next door had been sideswiped by a tourist bus a month ago and was lucky to be alive. When he’d first come home from the hospital, Josie had hardly seen him. But over the last two weeks, she’d spotted him outside using his walker on the pitted dirt road that separated his place from hers. He swore a lot about not being able to do as much as he used to, and when she tried to assist him, he’d sworn even more about the nurses who paraded through his house night and day like he was an invalid.

They’d reached a reasonable peace when Josie discovered she could help him if she distracted him with farming questions. When Everett thought she needed his help, he was far more gracious about accepting hers. She was having fun getting to know him, in fact. And he’d invited her to sell some of Hailey’s peaches at the Rough Hollow Orchards farm stand next weekend, insisting Hailey would want her to keep the money since she’d be doing all the picking herself.

Josie looked forward to that. And she didn’t feel like sharing her new friend with an outsider grandson who hadn’t been bothered to come home before now. She needed the peace this place offered to overcome a betrayal of trust that had left a significant dent in her confidence.

She closed her eyes and breathed in deep, focusing on the scents of a world washed clean around her so she could ignore the anxiety she felt about anyone imposing on the peaceful haven she’d found in Last Stand, Texas. She felt safe here.

She’d ignored her instincts the last time a stranger came calling—back in her old life, where her mother laughed at her for having too many irrational fears. She’d let herself be wooed by a handsome swindler who sweet-talked his way past her defenses, and painted a picture of a life for the two of them on the other side of the globe, where they would protect the whales, clean the waters, and make fish safe again. He hadn’t realized how thoroughly ready she’d been to escape her life in the first place, and the daily strain of working for her emotionally unstable mother.

But the money and the man both vanished the moment she’d clicked send at Western Union. The local news outlets who’d gotten wind of her folly all agreed she’d fallen for a classic con. Her naïveté had made for a handful of entertaining headlines in her Florida hometown. She was a cautionary tale now. A caretaker for three months because she had nothing left of her own.

Not even her job, since her mother had fired Josie from the work she’d done—for a pittance—since she was a teen, acting as property manager for the low-income housing building her mom had inherited from a relative. The job had always put Josie between a rock and a hard place with tenants who needed things fixed and a building owner who refused to invest a nickel in repairs. She’d wanted out of that position for years, and that had been the real reason she’d risked everything to trust the swindler. She’d seen the life he offered her as a better option. And when her mother realized how serious she’d been about leaving the job, all hell had broken loose.

In her tirade, her mom had threatened to turn Josie in for doing contracting work without a license. Grossly unfair, considering her mother had been the one who’d always told her to find a way to fix things herself if she wanted better conditions for the tenants. But Josie looked up the penalty for that kind of charge, and it could be serious.

Although right now, she was a world away from all that stress and anger. She’d bought a new cell phone and no one knew where to find her. She hoped, in time, the argument would blow over.

Sipping her cooling tea from the dark brown stoneware mug, she stroked Kungfu’s fur and reminded herself she was okay. Sure her bank account was empty, but she was free now. Away from the toxic relationship she had with her mom. On her own, she could experience perfect moments like this one—seated on a porch swing after a rainstorm, counting fireflies while the moon rose high.

Still, she hoped the universe didn’t test her any more this year. Because she really, really wasn’t ready to deal with a stranger showing up at the door.

* *

Long past midnight, Cal slid his key into the back door of the old country farmhouse where he’d been raised. A house now occupied solely by his mother since she’d divorced his dad and vacated the over-the-top mansion Clint Ramsey had built after retiring from baseball. Like his siblings, Cal felt far more at home here, next door to his grandfather’s farm, on the property where Ramseys had lived since Last Stand became a town.

He’d driven straight to Last Stand from the airport in Houston once he’d made his mind up to come home after spending the last two weeks in Mexico. Only one of them sober.

Since he’d never been a drinker as a professional athlete, he’d felt entitled to all the tequila he could handle to toast the end of his career. He’d cleared waivers and remained unclaimed three weeks after he’d been designated for assignment. Barring a miracle, he was out of baseball for good. Now, stepping silently onto the braid rug inside the kitchen, he was just about to help himself to whatever leftovers were in his mother’s refrigerator when the barking started.

Deep-throated woofs mingled with high-pitched yaps. Nails scrambled on hardwood as the race was on to see who was at the door. Cal cursed himself for not remembering that his mother kept a pack of dogs around at all times. So much for not waking her.

Would any of the mutts remember him from the last time he’d visited her here? Two years ago, he guessed.

Probably not when he hadn’t recalled them either.

The pack descended the stairs and skidded around the corner, a little tornado of white fluff leading the way. Two excited Lab mixes galloped behind it. Relieved his mom hadn’t taken in any super protective guard breeds, he relaxed a fraction.

Take it easy, guys, Cal cautioned them,

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