His eyes meet mine, and he sees something more convincing in them than my words. “Okay, Mama. No more questions. I’m sorry. I just…what if you could be happy in a different way,withCoach Trent, and not just as friends?”
“Aiden, you’re only eight years old. You shouldn’t be worrying about this kind of thing at your age.”
“Papa says I’ve got an old soul.”
“Papa is right,” I say, relieved to be on safer ground. “But you’re still an eight-year-old boy. So you just worry about football and LEGOs, and remember that girls are gross, and put the seat up before you pee and down when you’re done.”
“Papa says if he can put it up, Grandma can put it down, because that’s only fair.”
I laugh. “Well, again, Grandma and Papa have been married longer than you and I have been alive combined, so they can make those kinds of compromises. But I think if you asked Grandma, she’d tell you a different story.”
Aiden laughs. “Grandma says half of what Papa says is bunk, the other half is nonsense, and theotherhalf is the rambling of a crazy old man.” He frowns. “But that’s too many halves, and Grandma just said that’s because Papa is so full of himself he has a whole ’nother half, and I said maybe that’s because he has a big belly, and Grandma just shushed me and said Papa is sensitive about his belly.”
“What else does Papa say?” I ask, eager to distract Aiden.
“Well…? He says a lot of stuff. He talks pretty much all the time. I guess I just only remember the funny stuff, or the really smart stuff.”
“Papaispretty funny,” I say. “And he likes to tease, so remember that he’s not always being serious.”
“I know when he’s teasing,” Aiden says. “He gets this look in his eye, which I think is a twinkle. I didn’t think eyes could actually twinkle, because stars twinkling is just something about the light taking a long time to reach us or something, but Papa’s eyesactuallytwinkle when he’s teasing.”
I laugh. “His eyestotallytwinkle! Especially when he thinks he’s being crafty and thinks we don’t know he’s teasing.”
“That’s when it’s easiest to tell he’s teasing!”
“I know!” I say. “I figured that out when I was…oh, about your age.”
“Aiden Thomas?” The nurse appears then, calling Aiden.
After a thorough examination of his ankle, Aiden gets the all clear to go back to sports, but with a caution to take it easy with the first few practices, but that he should be good to go for the game later this week.
As we leave the doctor’s office, Aiden wants to go to practice right then, since there’s still a good twenty minutes left.
So, being the sucker I am, we head to the field. His team is practicing a play, and while there’s not time for him to dress out in his gear and practice with them, at least he can watch from the side and chat with Coaches Barnhart and Trent.
Unfortunately, it also means I can’t escape Jamie, who walks Aiden over to me after the rest of the team ends the practice and heads for the equipment shed.
“So, our guy got the all clear to play?” Jamie asks.
I nod, offering him a tight smile. “Yeah. He needs to be a little cautious at first, but he should be fine.”
“Great—we’ll need him at the game this week. Our opponent is gonna be tough—they’ve got a really good running game and a solid defense.”
“Well, here he is, ready to go.”
Aiden is talking to his teammates, tossing a ball around. Jamie glances at him, and then back to me—making sure Aiden is out of earshot.
“Elyse, listen, what you saw this afternoon at José’s—”
“Jamie, stop, please.” I hold up both hands. “I meant what I said.”
“It wasn’t a date. I’m not interested in Debra like that. For one thing, I’m the principal where she’s a teacher. Intra-district dating is fine with me, but intra-school is not. I wouldn’t ever date anyone I directly work with, and especially not an employee of my own.” His gaze is open and truthful. “So, please, just—”
I close my eyes and back away. “Jamie,stop. Honestly, I just…it’s not worth wasting any more time talking about this.”
He winces. “So that’s it?”
“That was it before this afternoon, Jamie. I can’t…I can’t—God, I’ve already explained this half a dozen times. We can be friends, but that’s it.”
