Page 48 of Small Town CEO Grump

“They said that too? When did they say this?”

“They say it a lot.”

“Oh,” I said, looking out at the park.

“Yeah. They say that they see Ryan looking at you a lot, and always seems to be nicer when you’re around. They also said that he’s always standing close to you and talking to you.”

“I took a deep breath, and decided just to dive in again.

“What do you think about that?”

“I think that the boys are always teasing each other, and so they’re teasing me.”

I nodded. “ Yeah, they’re going to do that.”

“Yep,” he said. “Ryan told me that I just need to keep playing and become the best ball player ever. He said that one day they will stop teasing me because they are going to realize that no matter how much they tease me they will never be as good of a ball player as me, and so they will just stop. He said it might take a long time for it to happen, but to not give up or get upset by them.”

“You talk to Ryan about your teammates teasing you?” I asked, surprised. I knew that Tyler liked and trusted Ryan, I just hadn’t realized that he had opened up to him like this.

“Yeah,” Tyler said. “When we have our pitching lessons, I talk to him. I talk to him about a lot of things.”

“Did you talk to him about the reason why the boys are teasing you?”

Tyler’s eyes widened. “No! Of course not! That would be really strange, Mom. No, he heard them teasing me about the way that I run.”

“They tease you about the way that you run?”

“Yeah, just because I’m not as fast as them. Ryan told me not to worry about it. He told me that I am like three years younger than some of them and so of course I’m not going to run as fast. He told me to not even worry about it, and just keep getting better.”

“That’s good advice,” I said.

“Yeah,” Tyler said, simply. “So I don’t really care what they say. I’m going to listen to Ryan instead.”

“Excellen plan,” I answered, smiling. “Okay, so here’s my question. What do you think about the fact that the guys on your team think that Ryan might have a crush on me? Or that I might have a crush on him?”

“I think they are telling the truth,” Tyler said, giggling.

“What?” I asked, shocked.

“Yeah, mom, it’s pretty obvious.”

“Oh my goodness! You noticed more than I thought you did,” I said.

“Yeah, I’m not a baby.”

“Okay, so what do you think about that?” I asked, again.

“About you guys having a crush on each other?”

“Yes,” I said.

Tyler shrugged his shoulders. “I think it’s kind of cool, actually.”

“Oh, you do?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. “I mean he’s like really cool. So if you have to have a crush on somebody, I’m glad he's super cool.”

“He is super cool,” I said.

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