by Alison Mello
"Thank God. I'd hate for you to tell me I didn't do my job." I chuckle. "I'm going to go clean up. I'll be right back." I press a kiss to her lips one last time before I put on some lounge pants and make a bee-line for the bathroom across the hall. I hear DJ snoring softly from the hall, and it causes me to smile not only because that means he didn't hear us, but because he's not letting what happened at school today get to him. I need to let Stella know. She'll feel better and hopefully will sleep as peacefully as he is.
As much as I hate to have Stella and DJ meet me at the park tonight, I need to check on Landon. The last thing Daisy needs is an entire family showing up at her door. I've picked Landon up for practice a few times now, and he always tells me the same thing. 'I'll meet you at the corner.' Well, tonight I'm going straight to his house. I even left work a few minutes early to ensure I would make it there before he leaves. I know exactly which house is his when I pull up outside. The lawn is overgrown, there are a few windows that need repairing, and the front storm door has a tear in it. It's worse than I thought. With a sigh, I climb from the truck and start up the walkway, watching to make sure nothing crawls out from the overgrown grass. You never know what you'll find here in West Virginia.
I put my hand through the hole in the storm door to knock, and then I stand back and wait. When the door swings open, a shocked Landon is standing there before me. "Coach, what are you doing here?" he asks, his voice hushed.
"Landon, who is it?" His mom comes to the door looking exhausted. “Trystan, what are you doing here. I feel bad because embarrassment is all over their faces.
"I’m here to pick up Landon, but I wanted to take a minute to talk to you two about what happened at school the other day."
“What do you care? It’s not like you can fix it.” Daisy surprises me with the bite in her voice.
My brows shoot up. “I care and I want to fix it not just for Landon, but for Ethan too. We need to figure out why he’s behaving the way he is or he is going to end up like Barney, the town bully. He now has no friends and is always at the bar drinking his life away. I know you don’t wish that on anyone.”
She shakes her head and opens the door for me to step inside. The house isn’t immaculate, but it isn’t disgusting either. “What happened at school?”
“I was walking down the hall the other day and I knew as soon as I saw Ethan and Colton with their crew, I was in trouble. Everyone is afraid of them because they’re cruel. If you’re not in their clique, they treat you like crap.” He sighs, “Anyway, this kid Bruce pushed my books out of my hands and said ‘Oh my bad,’ like he didn’t do it on purpose. That’s when DJ and Mason came over and started to help me pick up my stuff. Colton said ‘Oh look, low life Landon actually has friends,’ and then the rest of the crew started chanting it too.”
I shake my head. I’m fuming. I can’t believe these kids would treat him this way and his teammates to boot. “What did the vice principal say?”
“Not much. He just said if it happens again to let him know, but boys will be boys.”
My eyes go wide. “Are you serious?”
“He’s serious. I called the school when he told me what happened, and they told me that it’s typical boy behavior for this age and that Landon needs to not let it get to him.”
“I’ll deal with this at practice tonight. I have already spoken to Colton’s mom to ensure she’s going to be there tonight. I’m going to make the boys tell their parents what they did. They’re sitting the bench at this weekend’s game but will both be expected to be there.”
“Thank you, Trystan.” I can see the emotion in Daisy’s eyes as she says it.
“You’re welcome and, Landon, if this happens again I want to know.”
“Yes, Coach.”
“Good, let’s go so we’re not late for practice.”
My head is reeling all the way to the field because for starters Stella told me that Daisy doesn’t get home from work in time to bring him, but she wasn’t in any sort of work attire and clearly she was home. Not to mention, it looks like her lawn hasn’t been touched in months.
As soon as I park the truck, Landon runs onto the field and I stand back and watch for a second. We're the last ones here, and I have no doubt in my mind that Stella has explained to everyone why I’m running late. When I approach the field, everyone surrounds Landon and Stella comes over to me and wraps her arms around me. Staring off at the field, she asks, "Is everything okay?"
I shake my head. "No, but I'm hoping things will get better."
She sighs, "Anything I can do?"
I shrug. "I'm not sure yet, but I'm hoping we can come up with something together."
She looks up at me. "I'm sure we can. We're a team."
I laugh and walk over to the field where Billy, Briggs, and Vincent are waiting for me. "Briggs and Billy, can you get started on warming the boys up?”
“Sure, thing,” they both agree.
“Vincent, can you call your son and Colton over?”
He gets the boys while I grab Colton’s mom, Willow. I ask them to step around the dugout with me so the rest of the team doesn’t hear. “Okay, boys, which of you is going to tell your parents what happened at school the other day.” Their eyes go wide with panic. “That’s right, I heard.”
“Of course you did because DJ has to run his mouth.”
“Son, you better start talking,” Vincent growls.
He sighs, “We were messing with Landon in school and DJ got all bent about it.”
“What do you mean messing with him? Messing with him how?” his father asks.
I stand back with my arms crossed over my chest, waiting to see what he has to say. Ethan looks pissed, but Colton looks like he’s going shit himself. The two boys look at each other, but neither want to speak. “For the sake of time, I’m going to fill you in because I have a team of boys who want to practice. Your boys thought it would be funny to knock Landon’s books to the floor and then chant ‘Low life Landon,’ while he picked them up. You see, Landon doesn’t have the nice things that your two boys have, and apparently, they believe that puts him below them.”
“Coach, I’m so sorry,” Willow says, sounding astonished
“Me too because both boys are riding the bench this weekend, but they are expected to be here for the game and they will practice.”
“Oh, that is not punishment enough. I will deal with this at home as well,” Willow promises, narrowing her eyes at Colton.
“Get out on that field and run two laps before I do something I’ll regret,” Vincent growls at his son.
“Go, both of you.” The two boys take off running.
Willow closes her eyes. “I’m really sorry. I had no idea this was happening. Apparently, my husband and I need to pay more attention to what is going on. I promise you Colton will know what it’s like to go without.”
“As will Ethan,” Vincent adds.
“I have an idea, but I have to run it by Daisy first. The last thing I want is to embarrass her and Landon any further. However, if they agree, I would like the boys to help them clean up their yard. It looks like they don’t have a mower to take care of the grass, and I’m sure with Daisy being a single mom she has other things to deal with.” I shake my head. “I’m not sure if she’ll take the help of the two boys who are calling her son a low life.”
“We have a riding mower I can easily get there, and Ethan knows how to use it. He can ride the mower while Colton uses the weed wacker on the edges, and I’m happy to oversee the project.”
“You know, I think it would be good for my husband to be there as well. Maybe they can teach them a thing or two about helping those in need.”
“That’s kind of what I was thinking the lesson would be about. Helping those who need it, but I’ll let you know. For now, we have to get back to practice.
With last week’s loss, we need to make the best of what’s left of this practice. "Drink water," I shout in the tone my drill sergeants used. The boys run over to their w
ater and us coaches join them. "Okay, listen up, boys. My outfielders, you're going to go out with Coach Briggs. I want you to practice throwing the ball around. You need to work on being quick. As soon as the ball hits the glove, get rid of it. It needs to be out of your glove the second it hits, and your throws need to be accurate. Got it?"
"Yes, Coach." Four of the boys run off with Coach Briggs to get to work.
"DJ and Sam, you two are working with me. You’ll be pitching to Mason. We need to make sure they’re as clean as possible.” I send three boys to the bases and have everyone else grab a bat so they can hit off of DJ. Ethan and Colton aren’t thrilled when they’re two of the guys hitting a base, but they both hold their tongue.
Practice is going incredibly well until it starts to rain. I don't want any of the boys sick for this weekend so even though we have about twenty minutes of practice left, I call it a night and bring everyone in. We gather around in the shed we're going to rebuild on Saturday so I can fill everyone in on the plans. "Thanks to the rain, we’re going to finish practice early tonight. You’ve all worked incredibly hard, and I'm proud of you. Sunday is game two of the season, and we're playing right here on our home field again. However, we have a shed to build on Saturday, don't we?" Most of the boys cheer. It sounds like they're actually excited to be doing this. "Okay, when you all get here on Saturday morning, this shed will already be down and removed from the foundation it's standing on. My crew is going to handle that part because we only have the one day to get the rebuild done, and it's a lot of work. We will meet here at nine Saturday morning. Please be ready to work because when it's all done you're all invited to Stella's for a cookout in the backyard."
"Woohoo!" The boys cheer and clap.
"I'm glad you're all excited. Let's see how excited you are come Saturday when we have you working hard to finish this all in one day.”
"I'll bring the coffee," Lori announces.
"I'll have muffins and donuts for breakfast or snack." Haddie puts her hand up.
"I'll bring plenty of water," Vincent adds.
"Thank you all very much. That will be extremely helpful. It's supposed to be a gorgeous day and lucky for us, the shed sits in the shade so hopefully it won't be too hot. The plan is to break up into teams. The crew I work with is a four-man team. We will each work with a team of boys. One team will work on the floor, and the other three teams will work on building the walls. Any adults willing to help is appreciated as well. The more hands we have, the quicker we can get it done."
Ethan raises his hand.
"Yes, Ethan.”
“Who will work on the roof?"
"Because I don't want you boys up on ladders with tools, the adults will do the roof. I'm hoping to get the roof up and while we shingle it, you boys can be painting the shed. Any other questions?” I look around for a moment. "All right, well that's all I have for tonight. I'll see you all Saturday morning."
Everyone is leaving when I notice Briggs stays back. “Want me to drop Landon off?”
“Nah, I’ll drop him off. I need to talk to Daisy.”
I turn to Stella. “I’ll see you two back at the house.” She gives me a chaste kiss then she and DJ hurry off to the car.
“Come on, Landon.”
“Yes, Coach.”
He follows me back to the truck and once we’re settled I say, “Listen, I can’t promise that everything will be perfect, but both Ethan and Colton’s parents were not happy with the situation when I informed them of what was happening. The boys are being grounded and, as I told you, they’re benched for this weekend’s game.” I glance over to see him fidgeting. “What is it?”
“What if that just pisses them off more?”
“Then you let me know. I’m very serious about this, Landon. I will not tolerate bullying on my team. If they come at you again then I want to know, and I will speak with their parents and they will be benched another game.” I pull up outside his out. “You wanna know something?” He nods at me. “Between you and me.” He nods. “I pray we win this weekend, not just because I want the win for the team, but I want us to show them how a team plays. Show them what it’s like to be a team.”
A small smile plays at his lips. “We got this, Coach.”
“We sure do.” I hold my fist out, and he bumps with me. “Come on, I want to let your mom know that I worked on this situation.”
We both climb out of the truck and hurry up the steps. He calls out to his mom, who comes around the corner with her hair wet like she’s fresh from the shower.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I just wanted you to know that I worked on the situation between Landon and the boys tonight. I also plan to have them work together on Saturday. The three of them will be on one team with me. That way I’m sure it goes well. I also have another idea that I wanted to run by you.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, these two boys are show-offs. They think they’re better than everyone else because they’re the two richest boys on the team, and we want to bring them down a few notches. When I spoke to their parents tonight, they agreed that it was a good idea…” I stumble over my words because I’m really not sure how she’s going to take this.
“What is it, Trystan?”
“Well, I noticed your lawn needs cut.”
“Yeah, my mower died a while ago, and I can’t afford a new one.”
“We want the boys to mow it and weed whack it for you.”
She looks surprised. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. Doesn’t that give them more fuel to call Landon a low life? I mean, let’s be real—I’m the poor white girl who can’t afford a mower.”
“The intention is to teach them that you help the less fortunate, not break them down by verbally abusing them, but it’s up to you. Both fathers will oversee the project and work with them.”
She nods. I can see she’s really considering it “We could use the help.” She lets a heavy sigh. “Okay, they can do it. Should Landon help them?”
I shake my head. “No, this is their lesson to learn, not Landon’s.”
“Thank you. I really appreciate you stepping in to help.”
“Not a problem, and if there are any other issues, I’ve instructed Landon to let me know.”
“Thanks again.”
I nod. “Have a good night.” I walk out of the house feeling so much better. Now to get home so I can spend a little time with Stella and DJ before bed.
I just dropped DJ off at Misty’s house with the promise to have Mason over soon. I love that I have a place to drop my son off so he can have some fun and I can be an adult. Trystan and I have been discussing tonight this entire week. We were trying to figure out what we could do besides go to the range. I had a great time the last time we went, and I'm happy even if that’s all we do, but Trystan, being the gentleman that he is, wants to do something else too.
I get home expecting to see Trystan's truck in the yard, but he's not here yet. The poor guy has been working overtime, trying to stay ahead on the site he's at so they could take all day today to tear down the shed. I can't believe how hard my man works and how considerate he is. I truly realized how lucky I am when he told me about Landon and his mom, and how he was taking care of them. It just shows me how selfless he is.
Trystan comes running through the door. "I'm sorry I'm late. We just got done tearing the shed down and preparing for the new one."
My eyes light up. How can I be mad at a man who is putting so much time and effort into his team and this league? "It's fine. Go take your shower. I'll get you some clothes."
"I have some in my bag. I figured I was spending so much time here, I should bring a few more things over." He grabs his things from his bag and runs to the bathroom. He already has some of his things in there, but his comment makes me wonder where our relationship is going. I mean, we've only been seeing each other for a short time, but we love each other so why should we pay for two separate houses. I wonder how DJ would
feel about this. The two of them get along so well I would think the commitment would make him happy. I let out a slow breath. We also said we were going to take it slow and I feel like our relationship has gone a million miles an hour, but I’m the happiest I’ve been since losing Dylan. When he's not with me he's all I think about, but that doesn't mean he feels the same about me.
"What are you thinking about?"
I jump from my spot on the couch. "Holy shit. You scared the fuck out of me."
He laughs, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to but clearly you're deep in thought, and you have a look of concern etched on that beautiful face of yours." He takes a seat next to me. "Talk to me."
"You know it's funny. I'm a strong woman. I've had to be since I lost Dylan. I needed to be strong for DJ and be independent so I could care for him and give him the life he deserves."
"You've done an awesome job with that. Why is that funny?"
"Because when it comes to you..." My words trail off for a second. "I'm weak, shy, and nervous. I love you and don't want to lose you." I look at the floor.
"What makes you think you're going to lose me?"
She shrugs. "I don't know. I was sitting here thinking about the next step in our relationship and how it's silly we pay for two houses, and then I started to realize that I have a kid and he's not your responsibility but mine. It made me think, you may want to keep your place in case you need space." I can't believe how insecure I am with him.
"You're right. It's ridiculous for us to pay for two homes, but I didn't keep my place because it's an escape when I need space. I keep it because I own it, and I promised you we would move at your pace. We’ve only been dating about a month, and I know for me it feels a lot longer than that, but I don’t want to rush you. At some point yes, I would like to sell it and look into buying this one with you so that you don't have to move DJ. I’m not in a rush and not because I don’t want to or I’m not ready, but I want to make sure both you and DJ are ready."
"Really?" I'm so happy right now. "I can't believe how thoughtful you are. Not just because you’re not rushing me, but because you're willing to sell your house to keep DJ put?"