by Laney Smith
“Hey, it’s OK. You said that stuff because that’s how you felt. It was true, right? So, I’m not mad at you.”
“Ryan, I didn’t mean to call you those names. I’m so mad. You should have said you were the real Ryan Priest. You didn’t have to let me say all of that stuff. You didn’t tell me.”
“You know what? You were partially right.”
“What?” Nathan asked through his tears.
Ryan stared into Nathan’s curious face as the tears streamed down. “You were right. I should’ve caught that damn ball. You’re also right that I blamed missing that catch on an injury that didn’t happen until after I missed that catch. You were right. I lost that game. I’m not proud of it, but I did. Part of screwing up is hearing the criticism. I hate that I let so many people down. I hate that I let you down. But, I’m glad at the same time. If I had been able to get out of my own head that day, my life would be very different right now. I wouldn’t have met you, right?”
“Why didn’t you just catch that ball?”
Ryan silently stared at his little friend for a moment before he shook his head. “Can you keep a secret?”
“Yes.”
“I was scared. Everybody was watching me. Everybody was waiting for me to get those bases out. That whole game was on me. I forgot how to play for fun. If I would’ve remembered that, the game would’ve ended the way you wanted. I psyched myself out, thinking about the interviews and the endorsements. I wanted to be the guy that won that game. I was being a jerk and forgetting all the guys beside me that helped us get to that point. I wanted to win. I wanted it bad, but for all the wrong reasons. But, it was not because I bet on that game.”
“Well, why didn’t you tell them you didn’t bet on the game?”
Ryan shrugged. “I messed up and I did the wrong thing. It made it a little difficult for people to believe me when I was telling the truth.
“You should’ve forgot all the reasons you wanted to win. You should’ve just caught the ball. I wanted you to catch it and to get those guys out.”
Ryan smiled as he looked at Nathan’s face. “If I had that moment back, you know what I’d do?”
“What?”
“I’d say, Nathan, this one’s for you. I’d catch the ball and tag the runner. Then, we’d go find the biggest banana split in the world.”
“Really?”
“Sure. If I had it to do over again. Unfortunately, I don’t get that chance back. I’m sorry I let you down. Other than the betting thing, you didn’t say anything that wasn’t true. Don’t ever be sorry for saying what needs to be said.”
“Ryan, I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings.”
Ryan smiled. “I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings. I am glad that we get to be friends now, though. Well, if you’ll still let me be your friend.”
“I’m not mad at you, anymore. I won’t tell anyone that you were scared. I won’t tell anyone your secret,” Nathan said as he hugged Ryan.
After a few seconds of surprise, Ryan hugged Nathan back. “Are you still my friend?”
“Just don’t ever not tell me stuff, again.”
Ryan chuckled. “Alright. But, I’ve gotta ask you a question. You thought you were lying to your friends about me being the real Ryan Priest? Can we talk about that?”
“They are not my friends,” Nathan insisted as he backed away from Ryan and dragged the back of his hand across his nose. “You’re my only friend. You’re my best friend.”
“You know you can’t lie to people, right?”
“I know,” Nathan conceded.
Ryan stared at the boy for a moment. “Nathan, you’re my best friend, too.”
“I know,” Nathan proudly smiled. “So, can you throw the baseball from here, all the way back to home plate.”
Nathan pointed across the field toward the back stop. Ryan looked, calculating whether he thought he could do it. He looked down at Nathan and shook his head.
“Nah. I don’t think so. If only I had a bat, though . . .”
“You could use my bat,” Nathan excitedly offered.
“It won’t be the same. I could try it. But, you know who’s running for that ball, right?”
Nathan giggled. “You!”
Ryan rolled his eyes, smiling in amusement. “Not me. You.”
“No, you,” Nathan teased as Ryan picked the bat up off the ground.
Ryan circled the small bat through the air. Then, as though a pitch had been thrown, he swung. Without feeling as much as a pinch in his shoulder, he decided to amuse his little friend. He pointed the bat toward the fenced cage behind home plate.
“Nathan, little man, you better start truckin’.”
Nathan laughed as he started running toward home plate. Excitedly, he kept looking over his shoulder, wanting to watch Ryan hit the ball. The boy stopped running about half the distance between Ryan and home plate. He turned and watched as Ryan tossed the ball into the air and swung the bat, sending the ball whizzing to the caged back stop.
“Whoa! Geez,” Nathan laughed as he ran toward the ball, spinning on the ground. “That was intense!”
Ryan was debating on sending another ball when his phone rang from the pocket of his jeans. He watched Nathan scrambling to retrieve the ball as he answered the call.
“What can I do for you?” he said into the phone, recognizing the incoming number.
“Mmm . . . What will you do for me? That’s the question,” Scottie flirted.
“All good things. So, what’re you up to?”
“I’m calling to see if you want to come look at this house.”
“Uh, I’ve got Nathan, so it would have to be just looking at a house.”
“Again? Where are his parents?”
“Is it a good house?” Ryan asked, avoiding the question.
“I think you’ll like it. There’s a pool.”
“So? Does it have property?”
“Some. Come see it.”
“Alright. Let me round up the rug rat and we’ll come take a look. You wanna text me the address?”
“No time to talk, huh?”
“Not if you want us to come look today. We have a lot of stuff to gather up.”
“Fine. I’ll text you. You know one of these days, it would be fun to be able to spend time with you, where I get you all to myself.”
“Last night . . . You know what? Text me the address.”
“You don’t have an argument, do you?” she jokingly taunted.
“It’s irrelevant. You get what you came for, and so do I. So, there’s no point in locking into a war of words.”
“So, is there some rule that I can’t have anything more?”
Ryan watched as Nathan chugged toward him. “No. Not really.”
“Want to see what happens?”
“Uh, sure,” Ryan sighed.
“You sure know how to make a girl feel special.”
“Nathan’s ready to get gathered up. Let us get gathered up, give us a time and an address. We’ll be there.”
“See you in a bit,” she replied with boredom in her tone.
Though Nathan was disappointed that their playtime was over, he was happy to get to go with Ryan. He was excited to see where Ryan might be living. As Ryan and Nathan made their way to the car, their arms loaded with baseball equipment, Ryan’s phone pinged. He smiled at Nathan with a proud nod.
“That’s probably where we need to be, next.”
“I want you to live by me,” Nathan insisted.
“We need a lot of room. We can’t play baseball over where you live, or else we would break windows,” Ryan said, raising his eyebrows. “Remember that?”
“Will you still come to my house when you have a house?”
“Of course. You’re my best friend, remember?”
“Ryan, I just thought of what we could be. We could be the home team since we are a team and we are looking for a house for you to live in.”
Ryan nodded. “That’s pretty clever. You’re r
eally smart. You’ve got a lot of good ideas.”
“I know,” Nathan proudly offered.
Ryan tousled his hair before the two took their seats in the car. Ryan opened his text messages to get the address. In addition to the address, there was a photo of Scottie’s breasts. Ryan rolled his eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Nathan asked.
“Girls are goofy,” Ryan sighed. “No. That’s not true. We’re all goofy.”
“I can be goofy,” Nathan offered.
The boy sat in the seat beside him making funny faces. Ryan playfully made a few funny faces in return. He tapped the address, activating his GPS. The two were off to see the latest home Scottie wanted Ryan to view.
~SIXTEEN~
As Ryan and Nathan pulled up to the address, Ryan liked the brick columns and wrought iron fencing that bordered the property, right away. As he drove up the driveway, he saw the familiar red sports car parked at the top of the driveway.
“Somebody is here,” Nathan said as he strained to see out the windshield.
Ryan scoffed. “Yeah, I know.”
After they parked and got out, Scottie opened the door, stepping out onto the steps leading up to the intricately detailed double doors. She barely flashed a glance at Nathan. However, she stretched her body, reaching around Ryan’s neck and kissing his lips. She attempted to pass her tongue into Ryan’s mouth. He put his hands on her hips, pushing her away.
“Hey,” he chuckled. He motioned toward Nathan with his head. “Not the story I want him telling his mom about the day’s events.”
Scottie sighed, rolling her eyes as she passed Nathan a faked, sarcastic smile.
“You must be Nathan,” she said with a hint of bitterness.
“You look pretty with your lipstick,” Nathan sweetly offered.
Ryan chuckled, pulling Nathan close to him.
“Ryan’s teaching you well, isn’t he?” Scottie teased.
“He came up with that on his own. I didn’t . . .”
“OK, you two flirts, let’s go have a look.”
As Nathan walked through the door, he looked around in amazement as his eyes fed him images of rose marble floors, oak stairs and railings, and crown molding topped walls. He gasped as his eyes focused on the wall sized television screen, built into the wall. With his mouth agape, he walked in a trancelike state toward the television.
“Oh, Ryan, you’re never gonna believe this,” the boy beamed.
Ryan followed him, amused by his reactions. “We could play some video games on that screen, huh?”
“That’s the biggest TV I’ve ever seen.”
“Meh, the picture sucks,” Ryan shrugged. “Your neck gets real tired from looking from side to side, just to watch a show.”
“Have you had a TV like this before?”
“Me? No. But, I’ve known some guys . . .” he smiled.
“Oh yeah!” Nathan concurred as though he were privy to some special secret.
Within a few seconds, something else caught Nathan’s eye and he tore off to inspect whatever had distracted him. Ryan went the opposite direction, looking around the home. He enjoyed the fact that he was actually able to survey the home without Scottie’s rambling of obvious information. In fact, he contemplated bringing Nathan with him every time Scottie wanted to show him a house.
As Ryan looked around, Scottie followed Nathan. She leaned against an arched opening between the living room and kitchen. She crossed her arms over her chest and watched Nathan as he studied the buttons on the state of the art refrigerator.
“Pretty cool, isn’t it?” Scottie asked.
“What do all of these buttons do?”
“All kinds of things,” she answered. “Don’t touch anything.”
“Can you show me what this one does?” he asked as he pointed to one of the options on the touchscreen.
“No,” she snapped. “I said don’t touch.”
“OK,” Nathan conceded as he cautiously looked at her.
“Don’t you think Ryan should buy this house?” Scottie pushed.
“This house is awesome.”
“You should tell Ryan to buy it.”
Nathan looked past her, as though he were looking for his friend.
“He’s upstairs,” she sharply offered. “Nathan, can I ask you for a favor?”
“Sure,” Nathan happily agreed.
“When you call Ryan at night, you wake us up. He doesn’t get to sleep very much. So, will you do me a favor and not call him after the sun goes down? Can you do that for me?”
“Ryan said it’s OK.”
“He doesn’t want to hurt your feelings, but he really hates it when you call him. It really bothers him when you call him at night. Can you try to stop calling him? If you keep calling him so much, he’s going to get really mad and then he won’t be your friend anymore. If you keep calling him, I’m going to tell him he’s not allowed to hang out with you anymore. You can’t call him all the time.”
“He lives with you?”
“Yes.”
“You’re his girlfriend?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Wrong. He told me he doesn’t have a girlfriend.”
Scottie smirked and shrugged her shoulders. “You’re a kid. He doesn’t want to tell you too much. Didn’t you see us kiss? I am his girlfriend. I’m just trying to make sure you get to keep him as a friend. If you keep calling him, he’s going to get really mad and he’ll never talk to you, again.”
“OK. I won’t call him ever again,” Nathan said with a fake smile and a cocky twitch of his head.
“Very smart,” Scottie offered.
Nathan looked past her, again, to see if he could see Ryan. “I better get goin’” he said. “Ryan wants me to see the house with him.”
“Nathan, don’t tell him what we talked about. He has enough stress, right now. Our secret, OK?” she said, draping her finger across her lips.
“Oh, sure.”
Nathan skipped toward the stairs, climbing them two at a time.
“Ryan, where are you?” the boy called.
Scottie followed him up the stairs. When Nathan found Ryan, he went to Ryan’s side, hugging him as he glared at Scottie. Scottie returned the glare before batting her eyes in a “We’ll just see about that,” sort of way.
“How’re you doing, buddy?”
“Are you going to look at this house for a long time?”
“I’ve probably seen all I need to see. Are you hungry?”
Nathan smiled up at him. “A little, I guess.”
“A little, you guess?”
“You guys could be my lunch date,” Scottie suggested. “We could go to Burrito Bonita’s.”
“No thanks,” Nathan replied with a smirk. “I don’t like burritos.”
“They have other stuff. I’m sure you could find something,” Scottie responded. “Margaritas! Mm!”
“If you drink and drive, that’s really bad,” Nathan jabbed.
“OK, OK!” Ryan chuckled. “Where do you want to go, Nathan? What sounds good to you?”
“Why don’t you pick, Ryan? He’s a kid. He needs to do what adults say.”
“I’m not a stinkin’ kid,” Nathan spouted. “I’m Ryan’s best friend.”
“You are a kid,” Scottie pushed.
Ryan glared at her with warning in his expression. “Hey! We can find a place where we can all get what we want.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever get what I want,” Scottie retorted.
“Hey, Nate, can you go jump in the car? We’ll figure out what to do after we get outside.”
“Are you coming with me?”
“I’ll be right there. I just need to talk to Scottie for a second.”
Scottie rolled her eyes, watching Nathan with a wicked glare as he shoved past her.
“Seriously, Ryan, what is with that little brat? Did you see that?”
“He’s not used to sharing my time.”
“I want a margarita and no ch
ild is going to make me feel bad for that. I’m an adult, dammit.”
“I’m really glad you are,” Ryan flirted. “We can do whatever you want for dinner. Come have fun with us. We can let him pick lunch. He’s probably grumpy because he’s hungry. Come on. He’s got a rough life.”
“I can see why. He’s disrespectful. He needs his butt paddled and his smart mouth slapped.”
“Take it from a guy, having your butt paddled and getting slapped by a hot woman is not the punishment you would think,” Ryan teased.
“That’s too bad because I’m ready to paddle your butt, too. I can’t believe you let that kid run his mouth like that.”
“Scottie, I’m not sure what has him riled up. I’ll talk to him. But, you could give a little, too.”
“Every time he interrupts our time, I give a little, OK?”
“I’m not going to be a prize,” Ryan boldly announced. “He’s part of my life. If you want to be, you’re going to have to figure out how to co-exist with him.”
“Why do we always part ways like this?’
“Are we parting ways?”
“Yes. I’m not sitting at lunch with that ungrateful runt. I’m sorry. Maybe he and I should just not be around each other.”
“Well, alright. Then, smile, kiss me, and part ways on a good note.”
Ryan slid his arms around Scottie’s waist and smiled sweetly.
“So,” she timidly started, “what do you think about this house?”
“It’s getting there.”
“You don’t love this house?” she impatiently demanded.
Ryan shook his head as he lowered his mouth to hers. “Not especially,” he whispered, his lips brushing against hers.
“Then, what do you want?”
“I want to take you to lunch.”
“Ryan, focus!” she spouted.
“It doesn’t matter what I do, does it? We part ways, ripping into each other because that’s the way you need it to be. I think you have separation anxiety.”
Ryan released her from his arms. Scottie massaged her forehead as she looked at Ryan with a look of desperation. She threw her hands down, fists clenched.
“I really don’t want to argue. That little boy just irritated me. I really need a drink.”
“OK, let’s go somewhere where you can get a drink.”