4. Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Jenna
“There,” I said aloud, happily closing out the report that I had finished. I glanced at my watch and realized I still had ten minutes before it was time to leave. The morning had flown by and it had been the type of day at work that I absolutely loved. I had been busy from the moment I got there, and I was able to work on a wide variety of projects.
I decided that I would go and see if there was anything Ryan needed me to know before the next day, or any urgent matters he needed me to take care of in the morning.
I smoothed down the front of my pencil skirt, and made sure my blouse was straight. I still couldn’t believe that he had run into me in the office the night before, and that the first time he realized who I was I was dressed in my old college clothes. He hadn’t seemed to mind, and had also been dressed very casually, but I had still been embarrassed. I was always very particular about what I wore, wanting to make sure that I was always projecting an air of professionalism, as well as competence and respectability.
I approached his office and noticed that his door was closed. I peaked in the window, but he was not meeting with anyone. I figured that he probably closed his door to get some peace and quiet after having spent the entire day meeting new people, answering questions and trying to reassure everyone that he wasn’t coming into the office for any reason other than the one he stated.
I knocked on the door and heard him tell me to go ahead and come on in.
“Hello Mr., uh, Ryan,” I said, still trying to get used to the informality of calling him by his first name.
Ryan smiled. “Close, he said. “Just drop the mister all together, and you’ll be good. You can either call me, Ryan, or if you want you can call me Jackson. Several people just call me by my last name. But we don’t need the mister.”
“I promise I will work on it,”I said.
“Sounds good,” he answered. “I know you probably didn’t come to talk about names. Did you need something?”
“I was just checking in,” I explained. “I will be heading out to my son's game in about 10 minutes, so I was wondering if there’s anything you need me to know before I leave, or something you would like me to get started on first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Well, there’s one thing you can maybe help me with right now,” he said, picking up one of the reports that I had placed on his desk to help familiarize him with everything that was happening in this particular community. It detailed our top clients, our top properties, and some of the events on the horizon. “Can you possibly tell me who wrote this report? It is exceptional, and I was wondering who authored it.”
I felt my cheeks blushing.
“I wrote it,” I said, simply. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself, but I also knew that I couldn’t deny it. He was going to find out sooner or later that I was the one who wrote all of the materials for this office.
“You wrote this?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yes, I wrote it. I actually have a masters degree in journalism, and writing is my greatest passion. However, working as the office manager allows me the schedule that I need and the freedom I need to take care of my son or support him and whatever he’s doing, so I work here, but then write whenever I can.”
Ryan slowly nodded his head. “ I see. Well, that makes sense. Would you like to write more for our other offices? Because I know that what we have in the Manhattan office isn’t nearly as well-written as this, and although I haven’t seen what Orlando or Boston are putting out, I’m sure those offices don’t have someone with a masters in journalism writing there.”
My heart started pounding, and I was so excited about the opportunity of getting to write more, but I didn’t want to appear overager or flattered. I steadied myself and took a deep breath before responding.
“Thank you for the compliment. I would be very interested in writing more for the other offices.”
“Excellent,” Ryan said, smiling. “What is your schedule? Are you free to travel? If you could take your son with you?”
“Travel?” I asked, confused.
“Yes,” Ryan said. “Travel. I know this idea just came to me and I’ll have to work it out some more, but I think it would be beneficial for you to travel to those other locations to see the properties and neighborhoods before you write. You can only see so much through looking at pictures online.”
“You’re right,” I said. “That definitely would help. I could find a way to make that work, especially if my son could come with me.”
“Great. Let me work on this some more and get some potential dates on paper. And then we can talk about it more tomorrow?”
I nodded, trying to contain my excitement. I loved the thought of getting to travel and write more, and having Tyler with me would just make everything better.
“Sounds good,” I said, glancing at my watch. “But I’m going to head out now. There is a big game coming up.”
Ryan smiled. “Indeed,” he said. “What is your son's name?”
“Tyler.”
“Tell Tyler good luck.”
“Will do,” I said. I turned and left his office, closing the door behind me.
I said goodbye to the rest of my coworkers, picked Tyler up from school, and we rushed home so he could eat something and then get ready for his game.
An hour and a half later we got to the ballpark, and Tyler was so full of nervous energy that he could barely sit still. He had not stopped smiling the whole day.
“Grams and Gramps aren’t going to be at this game, right?” he asked.
“Right,” I answered. “They had to go to Pennsylvania for this week to help your Aunt Susie take care of the kids and new baby.”
My brother’s wife had recently had their third child, but two days before she gave birth she had fallen and broken her ankle. The baby was fine, and she was recovering well, but it was very difficult for her to take care of a newborn and two other little ones while being in a cast. My brother had been able to stay home with her for two weeks, her parents were there for two weeks, and now my parents were going for a week. After that, she would be able to get the cast off and have a walking boot, which would make things easier.
“Are we going to see all of them again soon?” Tyler asked.
We had gone to visit the weekend after the baby was born. Tyler had a great time with his cousins, and I always loved being around my brother and his family. It was fun to hold a little newborn, and I knew we would get back there as soon as we could.
“Yes,” I said. “We will probably wait until after baseball season is over, but we’ll get there.”
“Good,” Tyler said. “And Grams and Gramps will be at the rest of my games after they get back from Aunt Susie?”
“Of course!” I said. “And you know that they are thinking about you.”
Just then my phone buzzed, and I looked down to see that my mom had sent a text.
I smiled and showed it to Tyler, and his face lit up as he read:
This is for Tyler: Good luck at your game Tyler! Gramps and I are so excited for you, and we know that you will do great. We are proud of you, and we love you! Love, Grams
Tyler grabbed his gear out of the trunk of the car, I grabbed my outdoor chair, and we headed into the park. He found his team and went to warm up with them while I found my spot and settled in.
I pulled out a book that I had brought with me, and I read while I waited for the game to start. 20 minutes later, I was distracted by the conversation around me.
“Who is that out talking to the coach? He is one handsome man.”
“Seriously! He's so tall and chiseled. He looks like an athlete.”
“He wasn't at the parent meeting, that's for sure. I would've remembered him.”
“I know, right? And we've never seen him here before!”
I smiled as I glanced over to the two moms who were sitting near me, excitedly talking and giggling. I had only briefly met them at the parent meeting, but they were clearly very good friends whose sons had been playing together since they started t-ball.
I looked out to the field to see who they were talking about, and I was astonished to see that I knew the tall, handsome man.
Why on Earth is Ryan at this game? I thought. And why is he on the field?
I watched for a moment as the head coach introduced Ryan to the other coaches, and they all gathered around, excited to hear what Ryan had to say. I resisted the temptation to pull out my phone and search Ryan's name to see if I could find out more about his history with baseball. The thought had come to mind a few times, but I felt it would be an invasion of his privacy, and I did not do it. However, this was a very interesting development.
I tried to turn my attention back to my book, but to no avail. The conversation around me was too entertaining. The moms kept gushing about the handsome stranger on the ballfield, and the dads tried to pretend they didn't hear what their wives were saying.
A little while later the team cleared the field and went to the dugout. I watched as Ryan shook hands with the coaches, then picked up an outdoor chair of his own, and started walking over towards where we were all sitting. He spotted me, waved and smiled, and came over to me.
“Hey,” he said, opening his chair. “Is it alright if I sit here with you?”
“Of course,” I said, scooting my chair down a bit to make room for him.
I glanced over to see the moms next to me staring at us, their expressions a mixture of confusion and a tinge of jealousy.
Once Ryan was settled I turned to him and asked the obvious question.
“I don't want this to sound rude, but I can't think of a nice way to say it. What are you doing here?”
Ryan laughed, and I realized he was even more handsome when he smiled.
“That's a fair question,” he said. “And I can see how it might look a little creepy. I knew you were coming here to this game, and suddenly I showed up to it.”
I shook my head. “No, I didn't think it was anything creepy. I am just confused.”
“Really?” Ryan said. “Not at all creepy?” His eyes were sparkling, and I could see that he was teasing me.
“Okay, fine,” I admitted. “Just a bit creepy.”
“I knew it,” Ryan said, laughing once again. “But, the coach and I are friends. We played together at Penn State.”
“Oh, wow,” I said. “What a small world!”
“Yep. When he heard I was coming to town to be here semi-permanently, he invited me to come and check out one of his games. I figured I might see you here at the ballpark, but I didn't realize that your son is actually on his team. This is a fun coincidence.”
“Indeed!”
Our team took the field, and I felt a surge of pride as I watched Tyler run to his position. He was tall for his age, and no one would have been able to tell that he was a year or two younger than the rest of the guys on his team.
“So he’s a middle infielder, too?” Ryan asked, motioning towards Tyler and second base.
“Yes,” I said slowly, confused as to how Ryan knew which one was my son.
“I met Tyler before the game,” he said, almost as if reading my mind.
“Oh!” I said, “That makes sense.”
“Yes, the coach introduced me to the whole team, and Tyler came up and shook my hand and said ‘Hello, Sir. I’m Tyler.’ I knew he had to be your son since he looks just like you.”
I smiled. “I can picture him saying that. When Tyler was just three years old my dad taught him how to properly greet someone, and he has been doing it ever since. It was absolutely hilarious to watch a little three year old walk up to someone and shake hands and call them Sir or Ma’am.”
Ryan laughed. “I can imagine.”
We settled back and watched the game. Tyler made a good play, and I beamed with pride.
“He knows what he’s doing out there,” Ryan said.
I nodded. “Yeah, not only does he play, but he also watches a ton of baseball.”
“I can tell.”
When Tyler came up for his first at bat, I sat up nervously on the edge of my seat. I had pitched to him countless times, and I knew he could hit, but this was a completely new situation for him.
I was thrilled when he swung and connected, sending the ball into deep center field. He easily got to second, and smiled over at me with a grin that completely melted my heart and brought tears to my eyes.
“That was awesome,” Ryan said. “He clearly loves the game, and he loves his Mama.”
I couldn’t speak because I didn’t want to start crying. I just smiled, nodded, and blinked back the tears. I knew Tyler would do just fine playing at this level.
The game went by quickly, and we won handily. Ryan and I packed up our chairs, and he smiled down at me.
“That was a great game,” he said. “Your son is very talented, and I can see that you worked with him a lot. Great job.”
I was taken aback by his compliment, and I didn’t know quite how to respond. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to want a response.
We stood and waited for the team to come off the field, and I could see all of the parents watching both of us, trying to figure out what was going on, but I did not go and talk to any of them. I wasn’t in the mood for chitchat.
Finally Tyler came off the field. He made a beeline for me and hugged me. I loved that he was not ashamed to hug me in public, and I hoped that it would never change.
“Excellent job, Bubba,” I said. “How did it feel?”
“It was great!” Tyler said. “I had so much fun.”
Ryan had stepped away a bit while I was talking to Tyler, but now he walked up to him.
“Great job out there, Tyler,” Ryan said, shaking Tyler’s hand.
“Thank you, Sir,” Tyler said. He turned towards me. “Mom, this is my coach's friend.”
I smiled. “I know. But remember what I told you the other day about the man who is coming to work in our office? This is him.”
Tyler’s eyes widened. “The one from New York?”
I nodded.
Tyler turned to Ryan. “Have you seen the Yankees play?”
Ryan chuckled, clearly amused and caught off-guard by the question. “Why yes, I have. Several times.”
“Wow,” Tyler answered, in awe.
Coach came up and said hello to me, and then talked with Ryan some more. We all walked towards the parking lot together, and Tyler just kept staring at Ryan.
When we got to the car we said goodbye to the coach and Tyler thanked him. Ryan said goodbye to his friend and then turned towards us.
“Well, Tyler, it was wonderful to meet you and watch you play. You’re a good little ball player. Stick with it.”
“Oh, thank you, Sir,” Tyler said, his voice barely above a whisper.
Ryan smiled and turned to me. “And Jenna, it was great to watch the game with you. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I answered.
Once we were settled in the car, Tyler finally spoke again.
“Did you hear what he said?” he asked. “Did you hear what he said?”
I smiled. “That you’re a good little ball player?”
“Yes,” Tyler said.” Somebody who has seen the Yankees play thinks that I am a good ball player. He knows what he’s talking about. I need to keep practicing.”
I felt a surge of emotion, and I couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the night.