I learned that Mark worked with Jayden’s father, and Savannah and Liz were two of Jayden’s music students.
I was then introduced to Tim and Patti Davis. Tim was really nice and we talked for a few minutes about baseball. It was hard to believe Chris was his son because of how friendly he was. Maybe he and Cali shared more of the same genes instead. I met Chris and Cali’s oldest sibling, Contessa (Tessa). She introduced me to her husband Nate, and their two young boys, Nathan and Zach.
Lunch went fairly well. It was a typical barbecue with lots of food and several conversations going on, but it was so family-oriented it was a little different than what I was used to. However, I did find myself in the middle of a whiffle ball game with all of the kids out in the yard. Once Savannah and Liz manufactured the bases, we were set to play. I pitched while Nate helped his two little boys bat. We needed a few more people though, so Liz dragged Jayden over, and Jayden encourage all the dads to come and play.
During the game Jayden joined me at the pitcher’s plate. She slid her arms around me from behind and whispered, “Savannah thinks you’re pretty hot. Will I have to fight her for you?”
I chuckled and glanced at the girl that was trying to push her brother off the base.
“What is she, fifteen? I think she’s a little young for me.”
Jayden laughed at the same time Levi screeched, “Jayden! Get on your base! Ty could tag you out!”
She dramatically returned to her base and the game resumed.
After another fifteen minutes, Jayden and I eased out of the game with Tim taking over as the pitcher. Most everyone was playing except Sheila, Cali, Patti, and Chris. When we sat down, Jayden tried encouraging Chris to take her spot, but he wasn’t interested.
“Whatever! You play with them all the time,” she told him. “Nathan and Zach love your physical comedy and your funny voices.”
“I’ll play if Cali plays,” he replied smugly.
Cali snorted. “Yeah, right.”
“She might break a nail,” Jayden teased her.
“Exactly,” she agreed, holding up her nicely manicured nails.
“Oh, come on, Cals,” Jayden pleaded. “Why don’t you shock us all and show us what you can do?”
Cali laughed. “I’ll play, but only if you let me do what we talked about,” she said to Jayden. “With your hair.”
“Oh, no way! That’s not even a fair trade.”
“Why not? You want me to do something I would never do, so why can’t you do something that you would never do?”
I had no idea what they were talking about, but Jayden looked worried as she considered Cali’s words. Finally she answered, “Fine. Even though doing something new to my hair is gonna last a lot longer than you playing whiffle ball! But you have to at least play an entire inning,” she added.
Cali looked horrified, but then asked, “Really? You’ll really let me highlight it?”
Jayden sighed and replied, “Sure.”
“You’re crazy,” Chris told her. “You’d better be clear on what she’s allowed to do.”
“True,” Jayden said, “but if I look like a freak, our friendship is over.”
Cali laughed and replied, “Yeah, right.”
Cali and Chris did end up playing whiffle ball, and even more than just an inning. Patti was pretty surprised, but joked that Cali better not break a nail because if she did, they would never hear the end of it. While Patti was immersed in conversation with Sheila, Jayden scooted closer to me and ran her fingers along the nape of my neck.
“Cali wants to know who highlights your hair,” she smiled.
“Who does what? I don’t even know what a highlight is. You mean if it’s lightened?”
“I’m not even sure I know what it means. She thinks your hair is really interesting.”
“Interesting? Is that a good thing?” I took my hat off and ran my hand through my hair.
“Definitely. I love your hair. It’s kind of…golden on the top, but darker underneath.”
“Golden? Your hair is golden. Do we have the same hair color? Great, am I a blonde?”
She laughed at the tease and lightly punched my arm. “Nah, I’d call you…golden brown. Besides, I’m a dark blonde,” she smiled. She held up a portion of her hair to mine. “The majority of yours is brown, I guess, but I think I match your ‘highlights,’ ” she kidded. “Tell me who your stylist is.”
With a smile I replied, “The sun.”
She got even closer to me and wrapped her arms around my neck. “Well the sun works well for you. So do those sexy chocolate brown eyes,” she added, studying them carefully before she kissed me.
The rest of the afternoon went fairly well, but then the guests began to gradually leave until it was just Jayden and her dad, Tim, Patti, Chris, and Cali. I was somewhat on the outside of a conversation when Chris looked at me with a smirk.
“How’s Lou’s Garage?” he asked. His tone was condescending.
Jayden was busy talking to Cali about a concert they had been to a few months ago and I was hoping she missed the remark.
“Pretty good,” I replied casually.
“Is that where you’ll be working the rest of your life?”
With a smile I shook my head. “No, I have other plans.”
“Like what?”
I really didn’t care to discuss my future with him so I only replied, “That’s for me to know, I guess. Thanks for the concern, though.”
He scoffed at my sarcasm. “I don’t care about you at all, but if you—”
“That’s enough,” Jayden told him. “He doesn’t have to report to you. Our future is our business, not yours.”
He looked between the two of us, seeming a little surprised. We hadn’t told anyone about our plans to get married. We had only known each other for two-and-a-half months, and we both agreed we’d rather keep it to ourselves for now. Jayden didn’t exactly reveal anything specific, but all eyes were watching us carefully.
“You don’t need to know Ty’s life plan,” she added.
“I do if it means dragging you down with him,” Chris answered.
“Christopher,” his father warned from across the patio. He was sitting with Joe and neither one of them looked very happy.
I could tell Jayden was frustrated. She released a very heavy sigh as she began cleaning up the table. Everyone just watched her for a few seconds until she gathered an armful and disappeared into the house.
Finally Joe said, “Ty,” and nodded for me to go follow. I gladly left the group to find her.
She was in the kitchen rinsing off the plates, and when she saw me she frowned.
“I’m so sorry. He flusters me and I just… I just left you out there to be ravaged by the wolves, didn’t I?”
I smiled and shook my head. “Your dad sent me away. I’m not sure if he wanted to get me out of his sight, or if Chris was going to hear some words.”
She dried her hands on a towel and wrapped her arms around me. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I really thought…”
“No worries,” I told her. “What he says doesn’t matter. I just wish you wouldn’t get upset about it. It doesn’t bother me, Jay. You don’t need to fret, I promise.”
“Okay,” she sighed. “He just…said he would be nice.”
“He didn’t say anything bad. I’m sure he’s said worse behind my back.” I raised my eyebrows at her knowingly and she looked guilty, letting me know I was right. “And as long as you don’t think I’m dragging you down—”
“No! Of course not—”
“Then there’s nothing to worry about. What we have is…ours. We don’t have to consult the world on it, okay? I mean…I think it’s important to be considerate when the time comes. When you want to talk to your dad about us getting married I’ll—”
“I already did,” she replied.
I looked at her with surprise. “Oh.”
“It came up this morning. I’m sorry, I—”
“No, it’s fine. I just thought…I thought you wanted to wait until we had something definite.”
“I only mentioned that I wanted to marry you,” she said. “I told him we had talked about it and decided to take some time with it.”
I paused before asking, “And how did that go?”
With a smile she answered, “He said, ‘Well, waiting is at least wise.’ ”
I nodded my head with my own smile.
“Sorry I took away the whole ‘ask-the-dad’ thing. That was pretty rotten of me.”
“Nah. When we decide to make it official I can still do that. But by then he’ll have had lots of time to come up with a really good rejection to the whole idea.”
She laughed and laid her head against me. “I love you, Ty.”
I kissed her head and replied, “I love you, too. And I always will, no matter what.”
We returned to the patio a few minutes later. It wasn’t a surprise that Chris was gone and his parents and sister were getting ready to leave, as well. Not a word was mentioned about what had happened; I guessed it was going to be one of those things that didn’t get brought up again.
We talked to Cali for a few minutes before she left. She had already planned what she wanted to do with Jayden’s hair. Jayden still looked a little apprehensive and I was worried for her; I loved her hair the way it was. I had no idea what Cali was so excited about.
When everyone had left, Joe returned to his seat on the patio and told us to join him. I wondered if it was my turn to be lectured.
“I’m kind of impressed with your patience, Ty.” He looked at me with an expressionless face. “If I had to deal with Chris I think I’d either refuse to be around him, or knock his lights out.”
I was completely surprised.
“But you choose to keep the peace, time and again, and I appreciate that. I’ve heard a lot of what he’s said or done, and, even though I can see where he’s coming from, he tends to get a bit controlling of my daughter’s life. He’s just a younger version of me.” He actually smiled.
“Dad, what happened? You didn’t chew him out, did you?”
With a small chuckle he said, “No. Not when his own father did. But I did explain what this was doing to you. I think he wanted to understand, but he’s a little too frustrated to see clearly right now. Just give him some time.” He stood up and sighed. “Thank you for all the incredible food, honey. It was great. I had a lot of fun today. I’m going to go inside and watch some TV for a bit.”
Jayden stood up and gave her dad a hug. “I love you, Dad.”
“I love you too, sweetie.”
He gave me a nod before entering the house.
Jayden released a breath of air and sat on my lap. She laid her head against mine and asked, “What do you feel like doing?”
“Well, I’m thinking about going inside to hang out with your dad. I think we’re pretty tight, now.”
She laughed and said, “It’s a tiny little milestone, dear. You still have your work cut out for you.”
“I know, but you’re worth it.”
Chapter Eighteen
A week later I received a wedding invitation for Jack and Megan. When I showed it to Jayden she was really happy for them, but I could tell she might have been a bit envious. I wished I could give her what she wanted, but I still felt I needed more time. If I couldn’t give her the best, I wasn’t ready to subject her to an entire life with me.
When I told her that she said, “I don’t need the best, I only need your best. I don’t care where we live or work, only that you love me unconditionally.” Loving her wasn’t a problem. But I did care where we lived and worked because I couldn’t bear to take her away from her dad and all her friends. She had some serious roots in her hometown, and although I knew she was a strong, independent girl and could probably adapt to almost anywhere, I was so afraid of making her unhappy. I saw how close she was to her father. They were the only family each other had. How could I separate them? And Cali was her very best friend. I was positive Jayden would have a hard time with that as well.
I was convinced that staying in town was the right thing to do.
“What do you mean?” Jayden asked when I told her I turned down the job in Olympia.
“It’s not for me,” I replied honestly. “It’s good pay, but I can make a decent amount of money staying here with Lou and the other companies I’ve worked for. I like the variety and it’s more flexible. It just…works better for me.”
“Okay,” she said. “I want whatever you want. What did you decide about baseball? You chose not to do tryouts,” she reminded me.
I really didn’t want to get into a discussion about baseball. It had only been a month since my college career ended, and I was already having a hard time with it. But all I said was, “Let’s focus on us for now, and maybe I’ll think about it for next year.”
She was happy to hear about trying out for a team, even though I knew my window of opportunity had most likely closed. Turning down meetings with major league teams had probably taken my name off the list for good. I truly wanted my relationship with Jayden to come first, and I was so afraid throwing baseball in the mix was going to ruin that somehow. I wasn’t sure if my fears had any merit, but I was still worried about playing ball and having a family. My father barely came to anything of mine, but for entirely different reasons. But Jayden (as smart and comprehensive as she is) researched dozens of ball players, proving that so many of them had wives and families.
“So?” I challenged. “Does it say how often the women get tired of their husbands being gone so much? Or how badly the kids wished their fathers were around more often to see some of their own games and school activities?”
“It just comes with the territory,” she replied. “There are probably dozens of careers that take a person away from their family. I barely saw my dad sometimes when he worked certain cases as district attorney. But when he was around, we did all kinds of things together. He made the time with me count. It’s quality, Ty, not quantity.”
Well, I ended up losing that argument. She had me so convinced that we could make it work. My only problem (if I were to make a team) was where I might end up, and how often I could be bounced around to different teams. And the other issue—the important one that I was trying desperately to avoid—was the people I could forever be associated with.
But Jayden had me really excited again for the possibility of playing professional baseball. I’d have to climb my way up from a lower rung on the ladder now, but I was willing to try. She was inspiring, and she not only made me feel the eager energy to play again, but her positive encouragements made me feel it even more.
Two days later my life took a turn for the worst. I was locking up the garage for the night and he was there, waiting for me when I arrived at my truck.
“Tyler,” his soft, accented voice greeted me. “It is nice to see you again.” He motioned for me to get in the car with him.
I clenched my jaw and reluctantly did as he instructed.
“You don’t seem very happy to see me,” he smiled. When I didn’t respond he said, “Anyhow, I like what you did for your father. He is a worthless piece of refuse, but I do like to see he is cleaning up his act.”
I had no idea what he was talking about. I hadn’t talked to my father since the last time I saw him.
“I know you don’t keep in touch,” he continued, “but I am happy to relay that he has quit using. He has not purchased a single thing since your last visit. I’m very impressed with your persuasion, Tyler. I’m beginning to wonder if I’m neglecting some of your talents.”
“If I’ve convinced my dad of anything, it’s because I’m finally too fed up to care.”
He softly laughed. “Actually I do believe that. I’m really impressed with how much you care, though. I’m surprised it has taken this long for you to finally give up on him. You certainly are a compassionate young man.”
“I’m tired,” I sighed. “What do you
want so I can go home?”
“Are you not enjoying our time together? I’m sorry. Maybe I’m not interesting enough. Let’s get to the interesting parts, shall we? I have a very important vehicle that needs…a little makeover. This car is going to be separated from the pack to assure that it’s kept confidential. I don’t have a set of hands that I can trust right now to help me out, and I’m on a deadline. This is a very special job for a very special client, and I want only the best. Your father has kind of disappeared… So that leaves you.”
No way. There was no way I was going to go down the road my father went down. “You know what? I don’t owe you anything. I’ve done more than my share of ‘favors’ for you. I’m done with my father. I don’t want anything to do with him.”
“I don’t care about your father. If he can get clean and stay out of my hair, good for him. I don’t want anything to do with him, either.”
“Then why am I sitting here? I’m done.” I reached for the door handle to leave.
“It’s Jayden, right?”
A sick feeling washed through me. Time seemed to freeze. I could almost feel fate squeezing the life out of me.
“Isn’t that her name? Jayden. She’s very pretty, Tyler. Probably the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen a lot,” he laughed lightly.
I swallowed and slowly turned to look at him.
“I have to admit,” he said, shaking his head with a smile. “You’re either very brave or very foolish. Dating the daughter of Judge Joseph Adams? Whether it be brave or foolish, I’m impressed both ways.”
My entire body was paralyzed with fear. I couldn’t move and I couldn’t speak… I couldn’t even think straight. So he knew about Jayden… Why was he bringing her up?
“Don’t look so terrified, Tyler. I don’t want to harm her. I’m actually rooting for the two of you. You make a stunning couple. But… I do have my ways to come between people. I’d really hate for that to happen to the two of you. It would be so tragic—”
“Leave her out of this.”
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