It’s time for another excerpt! Woo-hoo! This week is one of my favorites, Beyond the Game. True story – I came up with the entire plot and all the characters for this book as I was driving from Houston to Fort Worth en route to run the Cowtown Marathon. When I got to Fort Worth and could write some of my ideas down, I realized that I’d forgotten to pack my journal and only had ONE sheet of paper in my purse (an old grocery list) to write all the ideas down on. I pulled out my teeniest tiniest handwriting and got the main plot sketched out, along with a good portion of this scene. (And I’ve never left my journal behind since!) The problem areas in the plot were worked out the next day as I ran the marathon, and I jotted those down (on that same sad piece of paper) after I crossed the finish line. It came together faster than any book I’ve ever written and is one of my favorites!
I hope it’ll be one of your favorites, too. You can read it for FREE with Kindle Unlimited or buy it here on Amazon for just $3.99…
So, here they are, Trent and Sadie…
“I can’t believe you talked me into this,” she said two weeks later, as she stood before him and shimmied out of the T-shirt and shorts she was wearing.
Trent watched her with great interest. “I can’t believe you wear a swimsuit that covers just as much as… well, as the clothes you wear over it,” he said from where he was treading water in the pool.
She shot him a look, and he smiled in return.
“This was a bad idea,” she said. “And this suit? Is functional. Not fashionable.”
“Amen to that,” he said. “Although functional is debatable since you don’t swim.”
“But you’re going to change that,” she said, putting her feet in. “Or so you say.”
“I do say,” he said. “And I know the only reason you’ve consented to it is because you can count this as good therapy for my joints. Gets you out of rubbing down the other guys out in the gym afterhours.”
“That it does,” she nodded.
“And you enjoy my company,” he said, reaching out his hands for her waist, stopping when she put her hand on his chest.
“Hold up,” she said. “I’ve gotta psych myself out for this.”
“Really?” he asked, his hands still on her waist. “The water’s not even that deep. Look, I can stand and still not go underwater.”
“That’s not saying much,” she murmured. “I have a bit of… aquaphobia. Is that what you’d call it? Or is it hydrophobia?”
“I don’t know what you’d call it,” he said, “but it’s completely silly. Especially given my awesome skills as a swimming instructor.”
“Skills?” she asked, frowning at him.
“Yeah,” he said, smiling, putting her arms around his neck and pulling her in with him. “Lifeguard during the summers when I was a teenager. And I may have had recent experience teaching another novice swimmer how to –“
“I can’t feel the bottom of the pool,” she hissed at him, pulling him closer.
“You’re okay, though,” he said. “Tell me about Christmas. How was your Christmas?”
“Just trying to distract me,” she said, noticing that she was pressing her entire body to his chest… and not retreating at all because she could imagine herself falling beneath the water and –
“Sure am,” he said. “What did you get for Christmas?”
She took a deep breath. “Socks. Lots of socks.”
“Well, that’s boring.”
“No, these socks are better than your standard socks. Running socks. Extra padding, cushioning, little flaps and edges at the back so that I can’t get blisters if my shoes slip, and… Trent, this water is too deep. Take me back to the side, and –“
“Socks,” he said, ignoring her. “Know what I got?”
“No,” she sighed, struggling for bravery, “what did you get?”
“A puppy,” he grinned. “A chocolate lab. He’s awesome.”
“Aww, Santa brought you a puppy,” Sadie said, smiling at the way he laughed at her mock condescension. “What did you name him?”
“Prince,” he said. “Isn’t that a manly name?”
“Not really manly,” she sighed. “But a nice name, all the same.”
“Yeah,” he smiled. “He’s been crying late every night. Not sure he’s so excited about being Prince Patterson and all, but he’ll come around.”
“Surely,” she murmured. Then, after a moment, she loosened her grip on him, just fractionally. “How are your knees feeling?”
“Just fine,” he answered. “Thank you for asking, so that we can keep pretending that you’re in here for my health instead of your own very, very belated first swimming lesson –“
“Hush,” she chided. “So, what first? Teach me how to swim.”
“It’s going to take some time,” he said.
“That’s what I’m worried about,” she said. “How many days are we going to be stuck here together before I’m able to jump in a pool without drowning?”
“It depends on how long it takes you to put your head under,” he said. “How long has it been since you’ve put your head under the water, Morales? Apart from my mistake earlier in the season –“
“Yes, when you tried to drown me,” she frowned.
“Yeah. How long?”
“Well… when I was baptized.”
“And that was….???”
“I was six,” she said.
“Six,” he said. “Wow. That’s young.”
She smiled at this. “Yeah. What about you? When were you baptized, Mr. King of FCA?”
“Once upon a time, huh?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“I was twenty-eight,” he said. “Right after I gave my life to Christ.”
She considered this for a moment. “But you… you were the…”
“The King of FCA before then, yes, I know,” he said, a sad smile on his face. “Good for my image, for endorsements, for the love of the people of this city, honestly. Jesus didn’t much figure into it.”
Sadie swallowed at this. She and her family had loved him for being so vocal about walking with Christ, living for God… and had been so disappointed when he stopped being FCA’s poster boy four years ago.
When, by his own admission, he came to know Christ.
“Well,” she said, wondering at this.
“It’s a long story, but the answer is that I was baptized four years ago,” he said. “Of course, that wasn’t the last time I put my head under. Because I’m a normal person, Morales, who isn’t aquaphobic.”
“Hydrophobic. And you have no idea,” she said, shaking her head free of all the questions that were now rushing through her mind, “how much I had to pray to go underwater all those years ago. I literally had my knees shaking in the baptistry, begging Jesus to make me brave. My dad saw the panic there in my eyes and ended up dunking me before I could start screaming, just to save us all the spectacle and humiliation, God bless him.”
Trent laughed out loud at this. “He did the honors?”
“He was my pastor,” she said. “He led me to Christ, he baptized me, he discipled me. He was a great father, in every sense of the word.”
“The kind of man we should all strive to be,” Trent said. “I’d love to meet him some day.”
“Yeah, well,” she sighed. “I just might introduce you to him one day, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to drown in this pool as soon as my head goes under.”
“I’ll introduce myself to him at your funeral,” he said, “which – hey! – he’ll probably officiate himself since he’s the pastor and all.”
“Shut up, Patterson,” she laughed. “You’re only making me more and more scared –“
“Maybe you should pray now,” he said. “Maybe we should both beg Jesus for a little bravery on your part.” He took a deep breath and pulled her down to her chin teasingly, as she shrieked and threw her arms around him even tighter.
“Stop that! Good grief, stop that!”
“Jesus!” he called out, dipping her lower again. “Help her! Help her! Make her brave!”
“I’ll kill you, Trent Patterson,” she swore, burying her face in his neck, her hands knotted in his hair. “Even if I lose my job over it, and –“
“Whoa, talking about your job. That was a serious threat,” he said, laughing with her. “So, I’ll behave. If you can promise me that before you get out of this pool, you’ll put your head underwater.”
She sighed, pulling her face back to look him in the eyes. “Okay, okay,” she said. “But you do it with me, okay?”
“I can do that,” he said. “On the count of three?”
“Wait,” she said. “Hold onto me, okay? Don’t let me go.”
He grinned, lifting one hand from around her waist and up to her face where he brushed a strand of her hair back. “I don’t plan on ever letting you go, Morales.”
Before she could wonder at the sincerity in his eyes, he was counting, and she began scrambling to take a deep breath and pinch her nose closed. “One, two, three…”
Jenn Faulk 