Let Love Win

Chapter 10 - Zeek

We pulled around the back of a tall, yellow brick building which I assumed was the school. She parked her car in a parking space that backed up to the grass which lead out to the soccer field. In the distance, I could see a sea of red and blue bodies running around after a ball. Hadley jumped out of her car and I followed suit. We went and stood at the end of the field on the spectators' side.

We watched the closing minutes of the game and by the celebrations at the end, I figured the blue team had won. They did their little handshake thing and made their way back over to their parents. 4 kids, all wearing red jerseys started walking over, looking around the crowd. by process of elimination of all the other kids having found their parents and guardians, I guessed that these were the kids that Hadley was babysitting for the night.

"Hey guys! Heads up, yeah?" Hadley called. The 4 kids looked in out direction and their faces lit up.

"Hadley!" they screamed.

Though they just finished playing a game of soccer, they all ran over full speed at her and tackled her legs. Hadley caught all the boys and their force as well as herself with ease and started asking them questions about the game. The score ended 2-1 for the blue team and one of the boys that was holding onto Hadley said they were the one to score the goal for their team.

"Who is the big guy?" one of the smaller boys asked looking at me.

Hadley giggled and picked him up in her arms. "This is one of my co-workers and his name is Zeek."

"So he's like Austin Senior?" one of the kids still on the ground asked.

"Yes, he's like Austin Senior Why don't you guys introduce yourselves?"

One that looked older stepped up first. "I'm Michael," he said.

"I'm Braydon," a second one said.

"My name is Austin, but I'm the junior," the third said.

"And I'm Ty," the last one said from Hadley's arms.

"Well its' great to meet all of you. Hadley here, was showing me around the town, so would you mind if I hung out with you today?"

I got a couple of questioning looks which then turned on Hadley. "We're gonna go to the park, ok guys? And I brought my white car today," she bargained.

They all cheered and ran towards the car, screaming out who got to sit shotgun. "Looks like they love the car as much as I do," I commented.

"At least they get to ride in it, huh Zeek?"

"Real funny."

"Do I sense jealousy? Zeek, they're only 8-10 years old, you can't seriously be jealous of an 8 year old."

I could hear teasing in her voice and decided it was best to keep the choice words I had for her at bay in the presence of the young ears. "Whatever, where is this park we're going to?"

She didn't answer me but climbed into the driver's seat of her car and started the engine. I followed her and her blasting music through the streets until we came up to a small park that had a jungle gym in the middle of a wide green space and a splash pad. There were a couple kids running around paying with all of their toys and friends, but other than that, it was pretty quiet.

I got out and walked to the trunk of my car and brought out the Frisbee and football I told Hadley I had in there and brought them over to where they were all sitting. The boys jumped up in excitement and ran over to me. they asked if they could take the Frisbee over to the green space and throw it between each other and I happily obliged. I went to sit down beside Hadley so we could somewhat continue our date, but she had her eyes closed.