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know, a flashlight and some extra batteries would be great.”
    “All right.” Danny held out a hand for her to shake. When she took it, and the deal was cinched, he turned his palm up. “Where’s the money? You’ll have to pay us first.”
    Apparently, the two little wheeler-dealers didn’t trust her. But hey. She couldn’t really blame them. Like her, they’d probably been burned before.
    “You’ll never find anyone more honest than me,” she told them. She just hoped she could say the same thing about them when she was ready to move on.
    She reached into her pocket and withdrew a dollar bill and two quarters.
    She hoped her money wouldn’t run out before she landed a job and found a real place to live.
    If it did, she and the baby would be in a real fix.

Chapter 3
    As Craig dressed for his meeting at Parkside Community Church, he looked through the open bathroom door and scanned the Delacourts’ den, where he’d slept the night before.
    He’d been too tired to do anything other than give the room a cursory glance last night. But this morning, when he woke to the sunlight filtering through the cracks in the shutter, he took a better look at his surroundings and realized just how impressive the display of memorabilia actually was.
    There were framed shirts and photographs hanging on the walls, as well as autographed balls—one by Hank Aaron and another by Babe Ruth—lining a polished oak bookshelf.
    “I hope you like baseball,” Cassandra had said.
    Craig did. Or, rather, he used to. Ever since his injury, he’d been hard-pressed to even watch a game.
    A knock sounded lightly at the door.
    “Pastor Craig?” Cassandra asked.
    “Yes?”
    “Breakfast is ready.”
    “Thank you. I’ll be right out.” He tucked the tails of his pale blue dress shirt into his black slacks, then buckled and adjusted his belt. He also put on a tie, something he would have to get used to wearing.
    Before leaving the bathroom, he took one last look in the mirror, making sure that, other than the piece of toilet paperhe’d stuck to his chin to stop the bleeding of a razor cut, he would be putting his best foot forward today.
    His sports jacket was still hanging in the den closet, so he grabbed it and slipped it on. As he made his way to the door that led to the hall, he took time to make one last perusal of several old black-and-white photos, each matted and professionally framed, that were hanging on the wall. One picture in particular caught his eye, a shot of Lou Gehrig standing before a microphone at Yankee Stadium, giving his farewell speech.
    As a kid, Craig had watched Gary Cooper’s portrayal of the baseball great in
Pride of the Yankees
over and over again. He could recite the poignant words by heart.
    “People all say I’ve had a bad break,” Cooper as Lou Gehrig had told the solemn crowd back then. “Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”
    Shoving aside thoughts about bad breaks and sad endings, Craig let himself out of the room he’d slept in and made his way to the living room. There Daniel Delacourt, one of the partners at a local law firm, sat in a wingback chair, reading the newspaper.
    Upon hearing Craig’s footsteps, Daniel folded the paper, set it aside, and stood. “Good morning, Pastor. How’d you sleep?”
    “Great. Thanks.”
    “How about some breakfast?”
    “Sounds good.”
    As Daniel led the way to a modern kitchen with black granite counters and stainless steel appliances, he said, “My wife and I received some good news this morning. Our daughter, Shana, called to announce her engagement. She’ll be getting married in late summer.”
    Cassandra, who was dressed in a linen pantsuit, stood beside a trendy-style coffee pot. She looked up and smiled, her green eyes bright and expressive, her makeup highlighting the best of her features. “You can’t imagine how delighted weare. The young man is Brad Rensfield, and his parents are wonderful