Picture Perfect Family, page 11
“I’m thinking our first lesson is going to be base running,” Daniel mused. “And perhaps the order of occurrence in bases.” He looked to Mandy obviously expecting to get a laugh, but that wasn’t what he found.
Mandy blinked a few times to try to stop the tears. She sure didn’t want Kaden to see her cry. So she turned her head the other direction, shielding her eyes as though she were looking at the older child on the minor league field.
But Daniel had seen her and knew better.
“I miss them, too,” he said, his words right beside her ear as he moved closer. “But we can’t keep Kaden away from what he wants to do because we’re battling memories. Besides, those are good memories. Great memories. Jacob and I had some of our best times as a kid on this very field.”
She looked up at him and saw that she wasn’t the only one with watery eyes.
“I’ll be here for you,” he said, his rich baritone warming her like butter in the sun. He tenderly pushed a wayward lock of hair behind her ear and wiped yet another tear away. “Tell me you’ll be okay, Mandy, because I really don’t like seeing you upset.”
She nodded, while Kaden crossed home plate from the wrong direction and began yelling “Home run! Home run!” Then she brushed the dampness from her cheeks and smiled. “I’ll be okay.”
“That a promise?” he asked gruffly.
“Yes, that’s a promise,” she said.
“Okay, then, let’s make this day a good one for Kaden.”
Mandy nodded. “Yes, let’s do.”
He nodded then turned toward Kaden. “I’ve got three more things for you in my bucket, hiding at the bottom.”
“Surprises?” Kaden asked hopefully.
“Yep.” Daniel dropped to one knee beside the old white bucket and started tossing baseballs and dropping them on the ground. The bat followed. And then came some plastic bases.
“Is that the surprises?” Kaden asked.
“No, these are bases to use when you practice somewhere else. We won’t need them today, since we’re at the real field.”
“But, like, if there was a game going here, we’d have to go somewhere else and make our own bases and field, right?” Kaden asked, drinking in every word.
“That’s right,” Daniel said. “But here are your surprises.” He withdrew a small square of royal blue fabric and unfolded it to reveal a boys’ baseball jersey with a red Rangers logo on the front. Daniel turned it, and the back made Mandy’s throat clench tight. Number ten, and above the number the name Brantley so big on the tiny shirt that it started halfway down the left side then curved and ended halfway down the right like a rainbow.
“Is that for me?” Kaden asked.
Daniel nodded. “It took me a little digging around in your Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw’s attic to find it, but yes, it’s for you. This was the one your daddy wore when he was your age. We were on the Rangers for T-ball.”
“Wow!” Kaden exclaimed. “Can I put it on now?”
Daniel blinked hard, and Mandy was afraid emotion was getting the best of him. She moved beside him and knelt down by Kaden.
“Sure you can,” she said. “I think it’s going to fit perfectly.” She helped him change shirts and thought she knew why Daniel wasn’t speaking; Kaden was the spitting image of Jacob and Daniel when they were his age. Another Brantley boy ready to take on the world.
“How’s that?” Kaden asked Daniel.
He nodded, lower lip rolled in.
“Good?” Kaden questioned.
“Very good,” Daniel finally said, his voice raw. “And two more surprises.”
“Wow! You’ve brought a bunch!” Kaden looked awestruck as he moved closer.
Daniel withdrew a hat that matched the jersey, put it on Kaden’s head and shifted it back and forth until it sat just right. “You’ll get a hat at sign-ups Saturday with your team’s logo, but this was the one your dad wore.”
“Cool!” he said and jumped into Daniel’s arms. “Thanks, Uncle Daniel!”
“You’re welcome.”
Then Kaden wiggled to peer over Daniel’s shoulder and see into the bucket. “You gave me two more surprise, but you said three more surprises.”
“Yes, I did.” Daniel placed Kaden back on the ground, then turned and pulled the last item out of the bucket. A worn leather glove.
“Hey, is that one for me? I thought I was going to use that.” He pointed to the glove Daniel had been toting.
“That one’s mine and big for you, but this one should be just right. Let’s try it.” Daniel held out the glove and waited for Kaden to slide his hand inside. “That looks good from here. Can you wiggle your fingers and make those fingers move, too?”
Kaden stuck his tongue out the side of his mouth and moved the fingers in the glove. Mandy clapped, thrilled to see him so undeniably happy.
“Good job. How do you like it?” Daniel asked.
“It’s awesome!”
“Well, it’s already broken in and I know for a fact that many a center field ball was caught with that glove.”
Kaden gave him a toothy grin and then looked at the palm, where a name was scrawled in black marker. “What’s that say?”
Daniel smiled. “That says Jacob. Your Daddy wrote his name there because that was his glove.”
Another jump into Daniel’s arms. “I’m sure I’m gonna catch a bunch, too, just like he did.”
“I have no doubt you will, but first let’s learn a thing or two about running bases and hitting the ball off the tee. Mandy, you know the route for base running, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” she said.
“Okay, Kaden, Aunt Mandy is going to show you how to run the bases.”
Mandy cocked her head. “I’m going to show him?”
“I’m trying to pick something you can do for your part of the teaching,” Daniel said with a smirk.
“Oh, that was low. Come on, Kaden, I’ll show you.” She took Kaden’s hand and purposefully led him to home plate. “After you hit the ball, you’re going to run as fast as you can to first base.” She and Kaden ran toward the first base, and Mandy pointed to the cream-colored base. “This is first, okay?”
“Okay!” Kaden yelled and jumped on the base with both feet.
“You will have a coach standing over here,” Mandy explained pointing to her right. Then she yelled back at Daniel. “The coach tells him whether to stay or keep going, right?”
He nodded. “And to think I never thought you were paying attention when you came to all of those games.”
“Oh, I was paying attention,” she said. Not always to the game itself but definitely to the player that was now coaching her and Kaden. She looked at her nephew. “You listen to what the coach says, and if he says go, you’ll run to second base, but if he says stay, then you stop right here until he says to go again. Got it?”
“Got it!” Kaden said, scrunching down in a ready position and leaning toward second. “I’m gonna run fast.”
“Okay, so let’s pretend he said go. Go!” Mandy took his hand and they ran to second with Kaden jumping again on the base with both feet. “And here you look at another coach, and he’ll be standing down that way, past third base, kind of by that dugout there. You see?”
Kaden bobbed his helmet-heavy head.
“And that coach will tell you whether to run or whether to stay,” she said.
“Hey, Mandy,” Daniel called from behind home plate.
“Yeah?”
“I really just planned on you showing him the order to run around the bases. We can probably wait for his coach to teach him who to look at along the way.”
Well, why didn’t he say that to start with? She thought she was here to teach, and this happened to be something she’d noticed during all her years in the stands. “He could’ve told us that, huh?” she mumbled to Kaden, who laughed.
“So are we just running now?” Kaden asked.
“I guess so,” Mandy said glumly.
“Cool. I’m gonna beat ya!” he yelled and took off toward third.
“Why you little stinker!” She started after him but didn’t run full speed and let him round third and head to home, where Daniel waited with two palms stretched out for Kaden’s celebratory high five.
“That’s a home run!” Kaden yelled.
“Yep, it certainly is,” Daniel said. “Except when you do it for real, you won’t be stopping to talk to Aunt Mandy at every base.”
“Very funny,” she said, slightly winded.
“You gonna make it, old lady?” Daniel asked.
“Hey, now, watch it,” she said.
“You let me win, Aunt Mandy, didn’t you?”
“I was running,” she protested.
Kaden shook his head. “You weren’t running very fast, ’cause I could’ve gone faster.”
“Next time, I’m running fast,” she said, pointing a finger at him.
“Good, ’cause I am, too!”
Daniel tapped the top of Kaden’s helmet. “Okay, little man, let’s take a few tries at hitting the ball off the tee. Mandy, can you grab my glove and field them for us?”
She looked at her jeweled wedge sandals, then at the dirty field. Her feet already looked three shades darker than the rest of her skin, and it’d probably get worse.
“Would you rather show him how to bat and let me field?” Daniel asked.
“No,” she said, reaching down and unlacing her sandals, then tossing them toward the dugout. “I don’t know a thing about how to bat, but I can chase baseballs. You should have told me to wear different shoes, though.”
“You knew we were practicing,” Daniel reminded her.
“Didn’t know I was going to be the entire outfield,” she said, but she couldn’t hold back her smile. The grass and dirt felt good against her feet, and she truthfully enjoyed every minute of this time with Kaden and Daniel.
“You’re loving it,” he mumbled, but Mandy heard, and she didn’t disagree.
An hour later, after Kaden had mastered the art of hitting the ball instead of the tee, they decided to call it a day. Since Kaden had gotten in some pretty decent hits, Mandy was exhausted from fielding. Sweat dampened her neck and caused her hair to curl beneath the baseball cap. She could only imagine what her face looked like and knew better than to try to find a mirror. She wiped the back of her hand across her forehead. “I’m beat,” she admitted, flopping down on the ground beside Daniel and Kaden.
“You’re a good player, Aunt Mandy,” Kaden said, and just like that, every hot and sweaty minute was worth it.
“Thanks, sweetie.”
“There’s a vending area over there near the playground.” Daniel pointed toward the brick concessions building that centered the ball fields. “Why don’t we go grab some bottles of water?”
“Sounds good to me,” Mandy said.
“Can I play on the playground while you drink your water?”
Mandy had brought a big Gatorade for Kaden, so he wasn’t nearly as parched as Mandy and Daniel. “Sure,” she said with a tired smile.
Daniel and Mandy walked to the vending area and purchased two waters, then took a seat at a nearby park bench while Kaden moved promptly to a big tunnel slide and wasted no time shooting through it headfirst.
“What do you think?” she asked, watching Kaden run from the slide to the merry-go-round. “Is he going to be okay? Am, I doing a good job with him?” She hated that she sounded uncertain, but the truth was that raising a little boy was unchartered waters for Mandy, and though she’d been doing her best for the past nine months, sometimes she still wondered if her best was good enough, if her love alone was good enough. And she wondered if Daniel really thought that he could do a better job.
Daniel eyed his nephew then looked at Mandy. “I don’t think anyone could be doing a better job, and that includes yours truly. Kaden still thinks about Mia and Jacob, still loves them and mentions them often, but that’s what we want, right?” He sighed deeply. “I mean, if he didn’t say anything about them at all, we’d be concerned. I think the way you’re handling it—the way we’re handling it—is just right. We’re letting him adjust to the fact that they’re gone, but we’re also reminding him that they were special and that they loved him more than anything.” He took a sip of water, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Is that what you wanted to know?”
“Yeah.” She had something else to ask him, but she couldn’t decide whether now was the right time or place.
“Go ahead,” he said.
“Go ahead with what?”
“Something’s on your mind, Mandy. You might as well tell me.”
How did he know her so well? “Okay. I do want to know something, and I want you to give me an honest answer.”
“I try to always give honest answers. It helps with my chosen profession,” he added with a grin.
“Okay, then this one won’t be hard. Tell me, do you still think I’m going to leave? That I can’t be happy and satisfied living in Claremont long-term?”
He gave Kaden a thumbs-up as he spun around on the merry-go-round, then took another long drink of his water, his neck pulsing with each swallow. When he finished, he looked at Kaden thoughtfully then turned to Mandy. “I don’t know.”
“But—” she started, and he held up a hand.
“Let me explain,” he said, and she reluctantly closed her mouth and stopped her argument. “I want to make sure I explain this right,” he said. “I see you with Kaden now, and you’re doing an amazing job. You’re the type of mother figure every boy needs. Perfect, I’d say. Your love for him shows with everything you do, there’s no denying that. The way you look at him, the way you care for him. But I can’t help but remember that you are the same person who couldn’t wait to leave Claremont and see the world.”
She released a long frustrated breath but allowed him to continue.
“And let’s face it, Mandy, you haven’t seen much of the world at all. I’m not certain someone as young as you, someone as beautiful as you, would be able to give up on that dream forever.”
Mandy wanted to argue, truly she did. But unfortunately there was one portion of his diatribe that claimed dominion over everything else. Daniel thought she was a perfect mother figure. And even more stirring than that, he thought she was beautiful.
She cleared her throat. “I’m not leaving Claremont, because I’m not leaving Kaden. You might as well believe me, Daniel. I’m here to stay.”
He’d been watching Kaden again, but he shifted on the park bench and put every bit of his attention on Mandy. She saw those exquisite blue eyes roam her face and she couldn’t be certain, but it seemed he glanced a little longer at her lips.
“Daniel, I mean it,” she said, and couldn’t control the quiver in her voice. “I’m staying.”
This time she was certain his attention was on her lips. And this time he said, “Well, for the record, I think you should know that I’m really hoping you do.”
That caught her off guard, bringing up a whole new batch of questions. “And if I stay, then what does that do to you wanting custody? Does it change anything?”
He breathed in, eased it out and seemed to contemplate exactly what he wanted to say.
Mandy waited. And waited. She wasn’t known for patience, and now proved no different. “Well? Does it?”
“All I can say for certain is—” He paused for a moment, then finished “—that would totally depend on you.”
Chapter Ten
Mandy knew Daniel and Kaden were probably at the Little League field again, but she had too much going on at work Friday afternoon to take off again, even though she was dying to find out what Daniel’s odd remark meant yesterday afternoon. If she stayed in Claremont—and Daniel said he hoped she did—then Kaden’s custody depended on Mandy.
Right after Daniel’s peculiar statement, Kaden had finished playing on the merry-go-round and declared he was starving, and Mandy never got another chance to ask for clarification. But a whisper of hope had kept a smile on her face all day.
Did Kaden’s custody depend on Mandy because Daniel was experiencing the same feelings as Mandy when they were together? Was he thinking about a future with her? A future where custody wouldn’t matter because they would be together—really together—in every sense of the word? Was he maybe even thinking about spending his life with Mandy?
She closed her eyes and easily pictured her mouth on his, kissing Daniel the way she’d often kissed him in her dreams, with affection and love. And she just as easily pictured that kiss in a church with Mandy in a white gown, Daniel in a black tuxedo and all of Claremont cheering them on as they began a new life together with that one perfect kiss.
“Miss Carter?”
The timid sound of her name caused her eyes to open and the dream to evaporate. She’d called Nadia Berry last night and offered her a job working three hours after school each day at the studio. Today was her first day, which was one reason Mandy couldn’t go to the Little League field. She needed to train her new employee. Now that employee stood at the entrance to the studio room where Mandy had been working and looked like she shouldn’t have intruded.
“I’m sorry,” Nadia said with a soft smile. “I finished sorting the photos in the front and wanted to know what you needed me to do next. I didn’t realize you were praying.”
“No, I—” Mandy shook her head “—I wasn’t praying.” What an odd thing for the girl to assume. But Mandy supposed some people prayed throughout the day. Daniel probably did. But at Nadia’s confused expression, she added, “I was just…thinking.”
