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Yeah, bring on this season. I’d be there, with a toned, agile body, a keen focused mind and a powerful warrior spirit. I jogged out onto the practice field with a shout to “Go Bills! Go Bills!” that made the other guys, including Bryce, turn around and greet me back. Loads of backslapping and high-fiving later, we were ready to tear it up with the drills and exercises.
I worked really hard and kept my focus, and Coach was impressed. After training, Bryce stayed out on the field with me to do a little more abs-focused stuff.
“So, you know that place you said I should one hundred percent not go?” I grunted, as we hit a set of sit-ups. “You called it a hornet’s nest, I think.”
“Too young, your best friend’s daughter, your employee. Yeah, I’m not gonna forget that one in a hurry, dawg,” Bryce grunted back.
“Yeah, well, I went there.”
Bryce shoved into me playfully and I rolled sideways. “You badass, old man!”
“Hey, you’re only five years younger than me!”
“Yeah, and Julie’s my age, man! This Mary-Beth, right? She’s what, twenty-two? Our Tansy is eighteen in three months. If any man your age looked at her, I’d… well, yeah, he wouldn’t be walking out of that meeting, I can tell you.”
I bristled, but I knew I’d say the same about Kayla in a few years. “This is different,” I snapped.
We continued the sit-ups in silence, breathing hard, and I admit I got a little competitive, because I felt so frustrated. If Bryce didn’t understand, and he was my best bud on the team, how the hell would Jason understand, or Elaine, or Clarissa… Caleb… and the big one, the one that mattered the most by a mile - Kayla.
I leapt to my feet and fixed him with a glare. “Let’s run around the field again.”
“Fine by me.”
As we jogged along side by side, I kept pulling ahead, trying to outrun Bryce, but he just upped his pace and easily kept up with me. It was at that point that I realized what a jerk I was being. If I wanted him to understand, I had to really open up to him, not try and outcompete him like some caveman to try and, what? Impress him? Prove my superiority?
I stopped suddenly, letting my breath go ragged, hands on my shins.
He stopped too. “What’s gotten into you today, dawg?”
I slapped him on the back. “Let’s walk the rest, huh? I’d like to talk, if that works for you.”
“Sure thing.”
“Me and Mary-Beth, it’s… we have this connection. It’s really deep, like she knows me on a level that’s…” I reached for words to describe it. There weren’t any, but I tried to get close. “It’s like, she’s there, in my heart and in my soul. I know she’s young, but that doesn’t seem to matter. We’re both parents so we understand that the kids come first, and we’re down with that. She’s a great mom, Bry. And she’s been brilliant with Kayla, really got her to open up, and she’s helping her get her confidence back too – Kayla’s had a rough time with friends at school. And we’re such a good team – this renovation has been flying along since she’s been involved, and she brings out my creativity, getting me involved in the design stuff…”
Bryce stopped still and looked at me. “Oh, my God, man – you’re in love with her!”
I knew at that moment that he was right. “Yeah,” I said, letting it sink in. “You know what, I think you’re, well, I know… It’s true. I am. I’m in love with her. I’m in love with Mary-Beth.”
The words hung in the air between us.
Bryce slapped me on the back. “If you love her, then that’s all that matters. The rest of the stuff is just stuff. So long as she feels the same…”
A huge smile burst onto my face. “You know what, we haven’t said anything to one another yet, but I feel like she does. That connection we have – she feels it too.”
“Well then, good luck to you, dawg, and I’m happy for you,” Bryce said then. ‘And it’s great that Kayla’s on board. That’s going to make things much easier for you guys.”
I grimaced. “We haven’t told her yet,” I said. “We were surprised ourselves, neither of us was looking for anything. We were giving ourselves some time for it to settle in, and then I was away…”
“You’re gonna wanna get that shit dealt with,” Bryce said sternly. “Otherwise, Kayla’s gonna feel like you lied to her when she finds out.”
I knew he was right. I’d tried to do the responsible parent thing by seeing how it went first, before making a big announcement that might rock Kayla’s world. Again. She’d been through enough with the divorce, and with me and Clarissa still struggling to get along.
I’d thought it was the right thing to do – to hold off for a while. But now it seemed like every time in the past week we’d all been having fun together – me, Kayla, Mary-Beth and Maddy – we’d been lying to her.
“I will,” I told him. “Why does it never feel like you’re doing the right thing with kids, no matter how hard you try?”
“At least you’re trying,” he said. “That’s what matters. Just tell her now, get it out in the open.”
