CHAPTER 33 KAYLEE
I’m exhausted and it’s only noon.
The Jump-A-Thon will get underway shortly.
It’s officially scheduled from one to four with the jumping portion first followed by the party, but we have vendors all along the perimeter of the room giving away freebies starting at noon.
Families will mingle with the vendors before the event gets underway as well as during the event itself.
The kids will be divided by age group, and they raise money by getting pledges for how many jumps they complete on a jump rope in one minute. So if someone pledged a dollar a jump and the child jumps the rope thirty times, that’s thirty dollars.
Whoever raises the most money wins the grand prize—a bike, a baseball signed by a bunch of Dodgers, and a four-pack of annual passes to Sea World San Diego. There are also prizes for the top jumper in each age group.
We spent the week working with a local high school to find student volunteers in need of service hours to count the jumps for each of our registered jumpers, and then we had to double check all the details for the party afterward.
Cooper and I are the emcees, and I’m trying to pump myself full of energy when all I really want to do is be home in my pajamas on the couch taking a nap.
When I think of home, though, it’s not the corporate apartment here in San Diego.
For some reason, when I picture home, I still see Ben’s house in Montana.
I sigh and shake out the thought.
I haven’t heard from him since right after his MRI. I haven’t texted him, either, but I’ve been exhausted each night by the time I’ve gotten home from work. Planning a charity event is no small task, and apparently neither is growing two children inside your body.
We’re holding our event at a local recreational facility, and we are more than ready.
Cooper and I go over our opening speech one more time, and then we check in with our volunteers.
We’re all set to welcome over a hundred jumpers and their families plus the twenty-five high school students who will be counting the jumps.
Our jumpers today are the those who won in each grade level from the fifteen participating elementary schools in the district after each school held their own summer school fundraisers and competitions.
Today’s event determines the best kid jumpers in all of San Diego.
A deejay is set up on a stage up front, and he’s playing kids music as our guests start to arrive. Cooper and I check in one last time with each of the StrongFitKids staff members located in different areas around the room as well as all of our volunteers.
We introduce ourselves and greet the families as they arrive with their jumpers.
Each kid jumping today gets a bib to secure to their shirts with their first name and grade level.
There’s excitement in the air, and I wish my family was here to see this.
I wish Jack was here with Kate and JJ. I wish Luke was here with Ellie and Nolan.
I wish I could watch my nephews imitate the older kids as they jump along with them.
I miss my family.
I miss home.
I miss Ben.
“Ready?” Cooper asks with a smile, and I attempt to shake off the sudden wave of homesickness that seems to wash over me.
I nod and smile, and we move toward the deejay booth. He hands us both microphones and cuts the music, and we’re on.
“Welcome to the StrongFitKids Jump-A-Thon championship!” Cooper yells, and the crowd gathered cheers. “I’m Cooper Noah.”
“I’m Kaylee Dalton, and we’re your cohosts for today’s event. Our fundraising efforts here today will benefit both StrongFitKids and the American Heart Association, two organizations that work hard to promote fitness and health,” I say, reciting my lines from memory.
“We’re so excited to get the jumpers started, but first we want to thank all the volunteers and staff members who worked so hard to make this happen. I’d like to introduce Carla Washington, CEO of StrongFitKids!” Cooper says.
Carla smiles and waves as she makes her way toward Cooper.
She takes the microphone from him. “Thank you all for supporting our Jump-A-Thon. We couldn’t have launched today’s event without the tireless work of Kaylee and Cooper, so let’s give it up for them!
” She waits while the audience cheers, and Coop and I wave and grin.
“Now let’s get jumping!” She hands Cooper his microphone back at the end of her speech.
“We need all of our kindergarten jumpers up on the stage,” he says, and we give the families a moment to get situated as they send their cute little kids to the stairs by the side of the stage.
Our volunteers help usher them into place, and our high school students are amazing as they help the small kids get ready by handing them the jump ropes.
Once everybody is in place, I nod toward Jamie, who’s running the clock projected on the wall.
She nods back, signaling that she’s ready on my go.
“On your mark, get set, go!” I yell, and the clock starts counting down from one minute while the kindergarteners jump jump jump and the high school kids count count count.
This is it. It’s everything we’ve worked so hard on over the last few weeks, and it’s happening.
I should feel a rush of relief at that, or excitement to be here, or something other than what I’m feeling.
But all I feel is sadness.
I look at these kids and wonder what my own kids will be like. In five or six years, when they’re this age, will they even know their dad? Will I be with somebody else? Will they have a stepdad?
I need to tell him. I can’t put it off forever. I thought I was protecting him from the fears he has, but maybe it isn’t my place to do that.
I suddenly feel like I shouldn’t even be here. Taking this job was a desperate attempt to escape my life, but that didn’t happen.
Instead, my life followed me here, and I’m dealing with everything by myself. Thank God for my friendship with Cooper, but he doesn’t replace the family I left behind in Vegas. He doesn’t replace Ben.
I’ve ignored all of them so I could try to move forward, but that’s the thing.
I can’t move forward. Not when I’m carrying his babies.
I wish he was here right now, that I could just finally tell him…
but even as I have that thought, I realize that if we were still together, I probably wouldn’t have taken this job and I wouldn’t be here.
Or if by some twist of fate I took the job and we were still together, he’s in season anyway and he’s busy at training camp.
Still, though, I can’t seem to stop thinking about him, and it’s not just because I’m literally carrying a piece of him inside me right now.
Coop and I agreed to wear jeans and StrongFitKids t-shirts today, and my shirt is a little on the big side.
It hides the forming bump well enough, but it won’t be long before I can’t hide it anymore.
For now, my puffy face sort of just makes me look like I’ve been indulging in more pizza than usual.
The timer buzzes and I take my microphone to the first kid in line, a little boy named Aiden. “How many jumps did Aiden have?” I ask the high school girl who counted.
“Twenty-six,” she says, and the crowd cheers.
I move down the line and we get a count for each of the kids, and our winner is a girl named Olivia with fifty-two jumps.
We transition to first grade next, and then second and so on until we have our winners from each age bracket, and while a few of the staff members of StrongFitKids tally up the total pledges and multiply by the number of jumps completed, Cooper and I present the prizes to each grade level winner.
I’m on the last one, the sixth grader, when movement near the doorway catches my attention.
My eyes widen as I watch who walks through those doors, and it’s so distracting that I forget what I was about to say.
A few people turn to look at who I’m looking at, and that’s when I hear his name whispered through the crowd. “Oh my God, it’s Derek Gibson!”
Derek Gibson, the man who played shortstop for the Dodgers for his entire seventeen-year career before retiring a few years ago, is a baseball legend and a huge celebrity.
And he’s here at our event.
“Kay,” Cooper says, trying to get my attention back to what I was doing.
I clear my throat before more people turn around and see him standing there. “Uh, congratulations, Jayden!”
Cooper hands him his prize, which is a set of soccer balls and goals.
“We have lots of entertainment lined up for you before we announce our grand prize winner a little later. Don’t miss it!” Cooper says, and he hands Carla the microphone.
“We’re starting today’s entertainment with a special guest speaker,” she begins, and since Derek Gibson just walked in the room, it’s not really that much of a surprise. “Please welcome former Dodgers shortstop Derek Gibson!”
The room erupts with applause, and he takes the stage.
Cooper and I stand to the side.
“One of your guests?” I whisper to him.
He nods.
“Ass-kisser.”
He laughs, and we listen to Derek talk about the benefits of exercise for kids and how doing cardiovascular activities as a kid helped propel him into playing sports professionally.
After his speech, our guests mingle a while with the vendors while the deejay blasts the music and the kids dance the way only kids dance.
All in all, it’s a fun event…but I’m ready for it to be over.
I’m ready to announce the winner.
I’m ready to go home. It’s time to call Ben and see how he’s doing.
It’s time to open that door back up so I can tell him the truth.