Page 30 of Despite It All
Wyla stands back up after fixing Stevie’s hair. “Dad, this is Jett. Jett, this is my dad, Griffin.”
“Mr. Bennett,” he corrects. Yup, off to a great start.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Bennett.” I hold out my hand for a shake but he doesn’t return it. Cool, so it gets worse.
Awkward tension fills the air as Wyla’s dad stares me down. Fuck, I think I’m sweating everywhere now.
Wyla shuffles in between us. “Okay, Stevie, class is starting. Go on out to Ms. Hailey. We’ll watch you from the bleachers, okay?”
“All of you?” Stevie asks, while bouncing up and down.
“Yes, baby.Allof us.” Wyla glances at her dad with a look that sayscut it out now.
“Yay!” She gives each of us a quick hug then runs to the middle of the mat with the other girls.
“Dad, be nice.” Wyla chastises as she turns to walk to the bleachers on the opposite end of the room. He only huffs in a response. Great. This is going great.
I walk in Anna’s house, tossing the keys on her kitchen table. Looks like my plans to win Wyla over will now be extending to her dad too. He didn’t speak a word to me the entire time we were at the gym. If I tried saying anything even if I said it to Wyla, he’d grunt or huff in irritation.
Part of me gets it. He’s watched his daughter do everything herself. I know I’ve been a father for two whole days, but I couldn’t imagine Anna being put in the position to be a mom and shoulder that responsibility all by herself.
Not to mention, I’m leaving at the end of these two weeks. Of course, I’ll be back every second I get, but baseball is my career. It’s how I’ll be able to give Wy and Stevie everything they could possibly dream of.
I’m sure to Wyla’s dad it seems like I’m skipping out on them. They could come back to Seattle with me, thatwould make seeing them a hell a lot easier. But convincing Wyla of that seems downright impossible at this point. I run my hands over my face.
“Hey, bro, how was Stevie’s tumbling class?” Anna walks in with her laptop and sits down at the table.
“Besides getting the third degree from Wyla’s dad? Good. I took a shit ton of pictures of her doing absolutely nothing. Is that normal?”
Anna laughs. “Yeah, she’s adorable. Your whole camera roll is about to be that blondie.”
Yeah, her and her mom if she would just give me a chance.
“So, I know you said you already got one dose of a cold shoulder today, but… Mom and Dad are wanting to FaceTime us,” Anna says sheepishly.
Fucking hell. “Would you cover for your loving brother and say I’m at the gym?”
Anna gives me a pointed look. “J, you have to tell them. They’ll be shocked, but it’s going to be fine.”
“I’m going to get a speech. You know I will.”
My dad lives for fucking speeches. Oh no, is it a dad thing? Am I going to start giving speeches to Stevie? Fuck, I probably will.
“You’re thirty-four Jett, put your big boy pants on. You’re a dad now, time to tell your parents they’re old.”
I sigh. “You better have my back during this call. I mean it, I'm cashing in one of my back-up calls.” When Anna was seventeen, she loved to take Dad’s Jeep out for little joy rides. One time she took it mudding and scratched the fuck out of on some bushes. She begged me to take the blame, as Dad already threatened to not let her go to prom if she didn’t stop. I told her I would but she owed me fifteen favors. I’ve only cashed in eight over the past ten years, I use them sparingly but today is one of those days.
Anna rolls her eyes. “Obviously. I was going to back you up anyway but I’ll gladly take this off my tab.”
I take the seat next to her. “Alright, let’s get this over with.”
Anna clicks on Mom’s contact to FaceTime her. It rings a few times, but then both of our parents show up on the screen.
“Oh, hey guys. Sorry, I get all tripped up when your father makes us do it on the computer,” Mom says.
“I want them to see us both.” Dad adjusts the camera angle so they are centered.
“We can see you both fine, Dad,” Anna says, knowing he’ll fidget with it for another five minutes if she doesn’t.
