Authors: Theresa Ragan
Nothing. Not a sound.
Ryan. Where was Ryan
?
She hadn’t spent this many hours away from him since he’d been born. It was no use. Panic hit her like lightning, swooshing through her insides as she shot through the door and ran to the family room.
Where was everyone
?
She ran to the baby’s room. Empty.
She ran to the kitchen and saw a note written in cursive.
Took Ryan for a stroll to the park. Hope you don’t mind.
—D
Derrick had taken her baby out of her apartment.
How could he
?
White-hot flames shot up from the tips of her toes, searing and blistering.
She ran to her bedroom and shook her feet until one slipper flew across the room. The other slipper disappeared under the bed. She shuffled through her closet until she found a pair of tennis shoes and quickly jammed them onto her feet. A glimpse at the mirror above her dresser caused her to make a quick trip to the bathroom where she splashed water on her face, brushed her teeth, and combed her hair back into a ponytail.
The last thing she did before running out the door was grab a sweatshirt from the pile of clean clothes on the wicker chair sitting in the corner of her room.
~~~
Derrick decided they couldn’t have picked a nicer day to visit the park. Chelsey was a character with her wide smile and enthusiastic spirit. Sandy, on the other hand, was proving to be a hard nut to crack. No matter how charming he was, she would not cave.
As Sandy and Chelsey passed out coupons to people so they could receive a discount on the
Food For All
magazine along with free samples of the chili, Derrick made small talk with strangers and signed autographs. A woman and her son walked his way. Derrick bent down on one knee so he could talk to the boy. “What’s your name?”
The kid blushed and handed him a jagged piece of paper ripped from a magazine. “Eddie.”
“How old are you, Eddie?”
“Eight.”
“Do you like to play football?”
He shook his head. “Mom says I can’t. I’m too thin. She thinks the other guys will break my bones.”
“Do you have a football at home?”
He shook his head again.
Derrick signed the piece of paper “Hollywood” and then scrawled his e-mail address beneath his signature. “E-mail me your address and I’ll send you a football. It won’t hurt you to practice throwing to your friends.”
The kid smiled and then looked over his shoulder at his mom to make sure it was okay. She nodded, prompting Eddie to take the slip of paper and run back to her with an energetic hop in his step.
An elderly woman had been waiting patiently for him to sign a coupon Sandy had given her for next month’s issue of
Food For All
. He signed it and then hooked his arm around the woman’s shoulders as her husband took a picture of the two of them. The couple then reversed positions and took another picture. After they walked away, he glanced at his watch. “It’s three o’clock,” he told Sandy and Chelsey as they passed out the last of the chili and coupons. “I should head back before Jill wakes up and finds the place empty.”
“Jill is going to love what we’ve done here,” Chelsey told him. “Thanks to you we passed out more than 250 twenty-percent-off coupons for next month’s issue. We also got the thumbs up from every person who tried the chili.”
“I must admit,” Sandy said. “This was a great idea. No offense, Derrick, but I had no idea so many people would go out of their way to meet a football player. Jill will be very pleased.”
“No offense taken,” he said.
Derrick leaned over the stroller to check on Ryan. After having everyone fawn over him for the past two hours, the little guy was worn out. The temperature hovered around the low eighties and high seventies—a perfect day for an outing with his son.
When Sandy and Chelsey had mentioned that they were going to pass out chili along with discount coupons at the mall, he’d suggested they keep it simple and take the chili and coupons to the park. So that’s what they did and it hadn’t taken long for word of mouth to get out that a pro football player was passing out free chili and taking pictures.
“You have some gall taking my baby without asking me.”
Derrick turned to the sound of Jill’s angry voice.
Chelsey put a hand on Jill’s shoulder. “This was my idea,” she said, trying to take any blame off of Derrick. “And you won’t be angry once you see what he’s done for the magazine. Hundreds of people found out that Hollywood was in town and they came by in droves—all from word of mouth. Once they heard that a celebrity was at the park handing out free chili and autographs, people streamed in and just kept coming. It was fascinating to watch.”
Derrick could see it coming, but poor Chelsey had yet to see the power of a woman’s hormones after having a baby. Unfortunately Chelsey was about to see the full effects first hand.
Jill pivoted so she was face-to-face with Chelsey, their noses inches apart. “Since this was your idea,” she said, “you’re fired. No need to return to the apartment. I’ll send you your termination papers along with a final paycheck.”
School must have gotten out, Derrick noticed, because a group of teenagers were huddled together a few feet away. They were pointing and laughing, talking about women’s underwear.
Derrick took a closer look at Jill. Sure enough, there was something pink and lacy sticking out from underneath her sweatshirt. He reached over and grabbed what turned out to be a pair of panties.
The kids laughed some more.
Jill swatted his hand without bothering to see what he was up to. She was too busy ripping Chelsey to shreds.
Derrick stuffed the panties into his front pants pocket.
“Are you kidding me?” Chelsey asked. “Look around you, Jill. We just passed out every coupon we had for next month’s issue. We also got high ratings on the taste test we did for the chili that you want to put on next month’s cover. Not only that, I took some amazing cover shots that I think you’re going to be thrilled with. That’s three items off of your to-do-list.”
Jill pointed toward the street. “Go.”
“But—”
“Nobody takes my baby without asking me. And, in case you haven’t noticed, I am the new editorial director.”
Derrick kept hoping Sandy would come to Chelsey’s rescue, but she was passing out coupons to a family out of earshot and missed the commotion. He was about to step in and try to help Chelsey out himself, but three women, all holding babies, were now surrounding him. Not wanting complete strangers to see Jill’s meltdown, he turned to the women and ushered them a few feet away.
“Would you mind if we had a picture taken with you, Mr. Baylor?”
“Not at all.” He situated himself in the middle of the women and they all looked toward the camera which was being operated by a man he guessed to be one of the ladies’ husband.
“We were watching you with your son earlier. He’s adorable.”
“I noticed he’s not wearing anything on his feet,” the curly haired woman said. “Even when it’s warm, he should have something covering his feet.”
“We also noticed a rash on his leg. I recommend cornstarch to take care of that.”
They all started giving him advice at once. He nodded his head as he tried to take it all in: what detergent to use for washing Ryan’s clothes, the best brand of diapers, and all the other essential baby items to purchase like carriers and swings.
A finger stabbed into the back of his arm, making him wince. He looked to his right and wasn’t surprised to see Jill holding Ryan and giving him a look that could very easily make the devil himself bend to his knees and grovel.
Instead of groveling, he threw an arm around Jill’s shoulder and pulled her in close. “This is Jill Garrison,” he told the ladies. “Ryan’s mom and editorial director of
Food For All
.”
“Really?” the lady with curly hair asked as she took inventory of Jill’s outfit: a pair of gray sweatpants and faded sweatshirt complete with big-eyed kitten wearing a blue frazzled bow around its neck. “This is your wife?”
The woman next to the curly haired lady blushed at her friend’s behavior and said to Jill, “We were just telling your husband what a darling baby boy you two have.”
“He’s not my husband,” Jill growled.
“Sorry. I just assumed.”
Jill opened her mouth to say something, but Ryan began to fuss before she could say another word, which Derrick figured was a good thing. No telling what might come out of Jill’s mouth. Judging by the deep furrows in her brow, it couldn’t have been good.
“He might be colicky,” the third woman said, speaking for the first time. “My little guy was colicky for the first three months. It was horrible because I was sleep deprived and for the longest time I didn’t think my little Nathan liked me.”
In the blink of an eye, Jill’s expression went from angry to curious. She looked from Ryan’s scrunched-up unhappy face to the woman who just spoke. “Colicky? What is that?”
“My doctor said that Nathan had too much gas, which caused painful cramping.”
Jill handed Derrick the baby so she could scoot in closer and hear what the woman had to say. “What did you do?”
Derrick held Ryan in the crook of his arm and smiled at his pitiful scrunched-up face.
“There are lots of things you can try,” the woman told Jill, “like keeping your baby’s arms close to his body and rocking him gently. Some babies are more comfortable if they are on their stomach and then you can gently rub their back. If all else failed, I used to turn on the radio or even the vacuum cleaner.”
“The vacuum cleaner?” Derrick asked.
She nodded. “Some babies are calmed by steady, consistent noises.”
“It’s true,” the curly haired lady said. “My baby loved the wind-up swing. If that didn’t work, I sometimes took her on a car ride until she fell asleep.”
Derrick watched Jill’s features soften. He could only guess she was relieved to know others had been there, done that…and they had survived.
“The most important thing,” one of the women added, “is not to take the crying personally. Take deep breaths and try to relax. I know it’s not easy, but you don’t want to lose yourself in the process. It will get better.”
Jill’s shoulders relaxed as she released some of that built-up tension the women were talking about.
“And don’t be afraid to accept or ask for help from friends and relatives.”
Derrick wanted to toss in an “amen” but he remained quiet.
“The doctor will tell you if your baby is colicky,” a woman said as she gave Jill a gentle tap on the arm. “When is your next appointment?”
Jill reached for Ryan and Derrick obliged by handing him over to her. “He goes for his first doctor’s appointment tomorrow.”
“Stay right here,” the woman said. “I’m going to ask my husband to scribble down my number so that you can call me if you ever have any questions or problems.”
The woman was off and running before Jill could protest.
Fifteen minutes later, Jill waved goodbye to her new-found friends while Derrick helped Sandy pack the dirty pot and unused cups and plastic spoons into the trunk of her car.
“I got a text from Chelsey. I can’t believe Jill fired her,” Sandy said. “We’re short employees as it is.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Chelsey is back on payroll before the end of the day,” he said.
“I hope you’re right. I also hope you realize that this is all your fault.”
“What did I do now?”
“Firing Chelsey had nothing to do with Ryan being brought to the park without her permission and everything to do with Chelsey flirting with you and
you
flirting back.”
Derrick shut the trunk and let out a long hearty laugh. “You must not know Jill as well as you think you do. She hates my guts.”
Sandy sighed. “I know Jill better than most and I know what I saw today.” Sandy peered into his eyes. “If you hurt her in any way, I will do everything in my power to help her keep you away for good.”
“I understand. But like I said, you’ve got it all wrong.” He turned toward Jill and watched her lay Ryan in the stroller and rearrange baby blankets until she seemed satisfied. When she finished, she looked his way and their eyes met. The corners of her mouth lifted, her face lighting up as she expressed pleasure and something else he hadn’t notice before.
Could Sandy be right
?
Chapter Ten
Once a week, Derrick and his brothers all met for a game of basketball, playing at his indoor basketball court at his home in Malibu. At the moment, Derrick stood beneath the basket and called for the ball…again. But Brad was a ball hog and instead of passing it like any good teammate would do, his brother dribbled the ball down to the three point line and took another shot.
“Air ball!” his sister Zoey yelled. Both of his sisters, Zoey and Rachel, had offered to take care of his place while he was living at his new apartment. Zoey enjoyed standing at the sidelines, hackling them whenever the opportunity arose.
Playing defense, Derrick ran back to the other end of the court and called “switch!” But he might as well be playing with his sisters because his teammates were not paying him any mind.
Fresh off the bench, his older brother, Lucas, a real life rocket scientist, went in for a layup and scored two points for the other team.
When Derrick finally had the ball and was dribbling down court toward the net, his other sister, Rachel, entered the basketball court and yelled, “Breakfast is ready.”
Within seconds the court was deserted. Derrick stopped at the three point line. “Hey! You people can at least wait for the play to be over, can’t you?”
Brad grabbed a clean towel from the pile near the door and wiped his face. “Go ahead. Take a shot. I’m watching.”
Derrick bent his legs, set his shoulders, and despite the fact that he’d been playing for the past two hours, he took his first
and
last shot of the day.
His form had never been better. The ball swished through the net.