20
Reyes
My heart felt like it was going to fly right out of my chest, standing next to Jake. It didn’t matter that a few of the parents and kids were still nearby. I was almost giddy with an emotion I’dneverfelt before. Not for anyone.
Jake had come. Even though he’d said he’d be here, I still had my doubts when I’d woken up this morning, waiting for him to find some excuse not to show up. I would have been okay with that actually, since it was obvious how uneasy being around kids made him.
But he’d come. All because I’d asked him to. That alone meant more to me than his opinion about whether or not I should talk to Rome.
“I put the bag away, Coach,” Harrison said when he returned a few minutes later.
Jake took a small step back when he realized Harrison was so close but didn’t drop my hand.
“Gracias, por guardar la mochila a hora. La silla, por favor?”
Harrison scrunched his nose as he tried to remember. “I know that one! Ummmm…. Oh!Sillais chair, right?”
I nodded, giving him another high five.
“On it!” Harrison went to work folding the red chair I’d borrowed solely for Jake to use, then paused. “But where does it go?”
“In the office. Just set it by the desks.”
“Okay.” He heaved the chair under his arm and scurried off toward the office.
Jake was looking at me in awe. “You’re teaching him Spanish?”
“Not just him. All the kids. They like learning new words.”
Jake gave me a playful frown. “Well, I guess I suck, then. Not even trying, huh? I really do need to catch up. Okay. How do you say… ‘Let’s go to dinner.’”
“Vamos a cenar.”
“Vamos a cenar,”Jake repeated.
“Ah, bien.”
He shook his head. “No, not good. Your answer issí,Jake, I’d love to go to dinner with you.Except, in Spanish.”
I laughed.“Si, mi estrella.”
“Mi estrella?”Jake asked. “You’ve said that a few times. What does that mean?”
I wasn’t about to tell him here, so I squeezed his hand before letting go and began picking up the rest of the things. “I need to drive Harrison home. You can come with us, and we’ll go after that, or I can meet you at the docks after I stop at the inn to change.”
“The docks?” he asked in surprise.
“Yeah. Why not? It’s a nice evening. Figured we try out that little hot dog stand I always drive by and watch the sunset. It should be going down in about an hour.”
Jake was smiling when I turned back to him. “Sounds good.”
“Okay. I’ll meet you there in”—I glanced at my phone for the time—”thirty minutes?”
“Sure.”
* * *
Harrison waschatty on the way home, talking excitedly about how successfully he’d pulled off the Peas in The Pod maneuver. I reiterated over and over how proud of him I was and how much fun it was to watch him play. It filled me with a nervous kind of excitement that I might still be able to see him grow as a player if things worked out. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted it.
