6. Jett

Chapter 6

I follow Wyla back to her house after we finish up breakfast. We pick up Stevie's pink bike and load up in her car. Wyla is doing her best to appear calm and normal for Stevie, but I can tell the last twenty-four hours have taken a big toll on her. It definitely has for me, but I know it's different. I'm gaining something incredible, and I know Wyla's scared she's losing it.

I don't know how to reassure her that I would never take Stevie away from her. Hell, if we're being honest, I'd take them both back home with me at the end of these two weeks if they'd let me. Stevie may hold priority here in how this unfolds but it doesn't change the fact I've wanted to be with Wyla for years now.

But she can barely look at me without this painful look. I want it to fucking disappear. I want her damn smile and laugh all the time .

When we get to the track, I take Stevie's bike out while Wyla gets her out of her car seat. Before we start, Wyla puts on Stevie's pink helmet. How? I don't know. Because Stevie was bouncing all over the place.

I can't help but grin watching them together. When I saw them this morning, I thought my heart was going to explode.

"Let's go!" Stevie cheers as she takes off on her bike. I glance at Wyla, and she shrugs with a soft smile playing at her lips before following Stevie.

We walk in silence for a bit, watching Stevie in front of us. "So, what else does she like to do? Tell me more about her."

Wyla lets that hint of a smile grow. "She literally does not know a stranger. She will talk to any and every one. Going to the grocery store with her is a nightmare because she won't let anyone pass without saying hello."

I chuckle. "I imagine that slows the process down a bit."

"She ropes us into at least a half hour conversation with an old lady every time." Wyla shakes her head, then continues. "She likes to play with her babies. Her favorite movie is Tangled. I've watched it hundreds of times. Anything pink or princess, she will absolutely lose her mind over. She takes a tumbling class once a week. Um, she loves art. Coloring, painting, you name it, she loves it. I know I'm biased but she's pretty good at it too. It's the only time she has any sort of patience. I suppose she got that gene from Anna… honestly, I guess a few things come from Anna. The blonde curly hair, blue eyes, and freckles really seem to match, now that…" She trails off and that painful look comes back to her face.

I. Want. It. Gone.

"Yeah, it's kind of hard to miss the resemblance," I tease her.

Wyla tosses her hands up. "Well, she always calls you J. How was I supposed to know that my sister's friend's brother was my one-night stand who knocked me up when we were in a completely different state?"

I laugh. "I get it, not exactly a topic you can just grasp at straws for. It's okay, Wy."

We continue to follow Stevie's lead. As we come up on a veer of two paths, Stevie curves left, and we follow behind her. "So, what about you?"

Wyla cocks an eyebrow. "What about me?"

"What do you like to do? Still sing karaoke and believe that Jack isn't a bourbon?"

She holds back a laugh then shrugs. "I'm a mom. My days consist of working and keeping the child alive. Not really a ton of time outside of that. My drunk karaoke days have been put to the side for now. "

I look over at her. I remember her seeming younger when we met, but she was drinking at the bar, so I knew she was over twenty-one, but I can't remember if we even talked about our age difference. "This probably seems like a question I should have asked five years ago. How old are you?"

This time, Wyla actually does laugh, and it's everything I remember it to be. "I'm twenty-seven, you?"

"Thirty-four." I remind myself of the time lost. "So, you had Stevie at twenty-two?" Fuck, she didn't even really get to enjoy her twenties without any major responsibilities.

"Technically, twenty-three. I was twenty-two that night in Nashville, but my birthday is in February. It was my last year of college too. Since Stevie was born mid-April, I still had a month left and had a certification test to pass. Thankfully, everyone was really accommodating. But for my certification test, my mom had to sit with Stevie in the car because she refused to take a bottle for the longest. So, I had to feed her, go take a two and half hour test, then race out and feed her again."

"Damn. I'm sorry, Wy." All I can think about now is how it should've been me sitting in the car with Stevie. I missed out on so many things with her, but Wyla had to miss out on stuff too.

"Don't be. I'm not saying it's been easy, but I wouldn't trade it. Despite how it happened, having Stevie was my choice. I don't regret it."

We come up to a part on the track next to a big open field with rows of spring flowers scattered about. Stevie stops and practically jumps off her bike. "Mommy, can I go pick some flowers?" she squeals.

Wyla smiles down at her. "Yeah, baby, but you remember the rules?"

"Pick the flowers, don't crush them."

"Good job. Okay, you can go." She squeals again and races into the field. Wyla turns to me. "Come on, there's a bench over here. She'll be doing this for a good minute."

I pick up the tiny pink bike and follow Wyla over to one of the wood benches off the track.

"When my mom retired, she joined this gardening group to give her something to do. She really took to it. For years, this track had been so run down and she sweet-talked my dad into getting the mayor to put some money back into this place and let her gardening group have this field to plant whatever they wanted. She took it upon herself to name it too." Wyla points to the sign next to another bench.

The Stevie Rose Flower Field. Free seasonal flowers.

"Is that her middle name? Rose?" I ask with a pull in my chest.

"Yeah, it's my mom's favorite flower." Wyla shrugs. "I thought it sounded good together."

"It's my mom's name."

Wyla sighs. "This is about to sound awful, but I know. Well, I didn't know she was your mom at the time, but when I talked to Anna about the name, she said it was her mom's name too."

The guilty look Wyla has been giving me off and on is currently taking over her face. I hate it so fucking much. "Wy, you know this isn't your fault, right?"

Wyla doesn't answer right away. I can almost see her battling thoughts in her head as she contemplates what to say back. "I just don't know how I didn't see it or even think about it, really."

"You know I don't either." I chuckle, and she gives me a puzzled look. "I mean, it wasn't like you came home from a city that is what? Seven… eight hours away? Find out you got pregnant from this asshole who didn't give you his full name or phone number. So then you decide to have the baby—while still going to college, mind you. Then give birth and take home this tiny baby, with no one to truly help you, and figure it all out by yourself. Keep the child alive every day, work, and take care of yourself too. I mean… really, Wyla, it's not like you were even busy," I say, jokingly.

Wyla lets out a small laugh and a very contained smile. She shakes her head.

I take her hand in mine. "It's like you said. We could worry about the ‘what ifs' all day, but it won't change where we are now."

Wyla looks down at my hand holding hers and sucks in a breath I don't think she'll ever let out until Stevie bounces over with a pink flower in her hand.

"Can you hold this for me, Mommy?" She drops the flower in Wyla's lap before she can even answer and runs back to the flowers.

I pull my hand back, and Wyla seems to relax a little bit. We sit on the bench and watch as Stevie buzzes like a little bee from flower to flower. Every few minutes she comes up and gives Wyla another flower for her to hold. She's very meticulous in her choices. The flowers have to be just right for her to pick them.

After her tenth flower, she comes back up. "Okay, that's all I want. We can finish the loop now." Stevie hops back on her bike and takes off again. I look at Wyla, and she just shakes her head and smiles.

For the rest of the walk, Wyla opens up a little more. She tells me about her job as a vet tech and tells me more about Stevie growing up. I feel her relaxing. It just reminds me of how easy it was to fall for her that night in Nashville.

"So, Seattle… You're only in town for two weeks, right? What do you do there?" Wyla asks, hesitantly.

Oh yeah… is it bad that I had completely forgotten that I'm supposed to be leaving at the end of these two weeks? "Well, um, I play professional baseball for the Mavericks."

Wyla pauses, looking at me with disbelief in her gaze. "Baseball? Like the Major Leagues?"

I scratch the back of my neck. "Yeah, it's actually why the hotel said they didn't have me in their books. I was in town with a couple of other players to help one of my old buddies with a fundraiser. Since it was technically work related, our team manager booked the hotels, and he always books everything with aliases."

"Of course he does. I cried to that receptionist for like half an hour." Wyla starts walking again. "That's certainly not a boring job. What do you do… play?"

I smile down at her and laugh. "I'm a pitcher… or well, was."

"Was?" Wyla parrots .

"Yeah, I've technically been out for this first half of the season because of a rotator cuff injury." Which reminds me, at some point I need to try to go do those workouts at that shitty gym, but they may have to wait another day. "I'm hoping I can start pitching some in a few weeks, but I have to be cleared first."

Wyla goes silent again. Processing. "Do you enjoy it?" she asks.

"Yeah… I do." Now guilt is starting to eat at me. I had planned on playing for a couple more years, but now that kind of feels… wrong.

Wyla clears her throat as she speaks. "You know… this feels like a conversation for the end of the week."

"Wyla…" I want to tell her to come with me, but I know how unfair that is. We reach the beginning of the track and Stevie waits for us to catch up.

Wyla takes a deep breath and checks her watch. "It's almost eleven, Stevie. Are you hungry or do you want to keep going, or—"

"Keep going!" Stevie shouts then takes off again.

I chuckle. "Great, then we'll keep going."

Wyla looks at me for a moment before starting again. "Yeah, I guess so."