The Players (TP4)

38 - One emotional visit

Ryan

It had been two weeks since he had the knock on the door. He spent Saturday night with Will because he was leaving the next day for football practice. They walked back from the beach together. "You better update me on your season. I want to know all my training helped."

"Man, I'll text you every day."

"You do know that thing attached to your hand makes phone calls. We could talk once in a while."

"Yeah okay, old man."

"Hey, I thought I was your QB!"

Will smiled. "The best!"

Ryan felt sad, because he was cooking Will his last burger. He must have fed the kid thirty of them over the course of the summer. When he headed out to go meet his friends on the beach, he hugged him. Ryan felt a thickening in his chest. It hadn't escaped him Will was close to the age his son, Aidan, would have been if he had lived. Would he have liked football? Would Ryan have spent his summer evenings playing pass and his entire fall on the sidelines?

Like an idiot, he did something he knew he shouldn't. He went on Facebook. He had an account, but didn't use it and didn't follow anyone. He ignored friend requests. He typed in her name and saw pictures. He stared at a picture of her smiling with two children about the same age as Peter's twins. He liked to see she looked happy, but it was always the picture of her son that drew him in. He imagined Aidan might have looked like him, although obviously they had only shared the same mother. He was glad she found happiness with new babies. He knew she hadn't forgotten about her first one. A few years before, she started leaving him private messages on Aidan's birthday. He only replied once and wrote, I'll never forget.

Sunday was rainy, which was fine because it matched his mood. He watched as Will packed his things into the car, dashing back and forth into the cottage. They had said their goodbye, and he didn't expect to see him. He did text him to say he was leaving, which made Ryan smile. Ryan replied, wishing him a safe drive. He sat down and tried to focus on the Dan Brown book which he had been reading all summer. He had the game on for a while, but his team was being shut out by the Rays and did nothing to improve his mood.

He was trying to doze off when he heard a car. Jumping up, it surprised him to see his mother at the door. Opening it, Kelly breezed past him stopping to plant a kiss on his cheek.

She looked around. "What's wrong?"

Ryan followed her eyes and realized his surroundings looked like they had when he first arrived in May and Lana cleaned the first time. He didn't respond but slumped like he was a seventeen-year-old.

"Ryan honey, I thought you were having a good summer and were a lot happier than when you first arrived."

"You know me... always the screw-up."

"Sweetheart, you are not. Talk to me."

"Everything is fine now, well except... um... Lana's mad at me."

She sighed. "What did you do?"

"Funny thing is I did nothing which she views as the problem, but the real villain in this story was Adam."

"Aren't they dating?"

"Not anymore and she blames me, but Adam was the one who was seeing a girl in Boston this whole time. Jack and I..." He would not take his mother's heat alone. "... We both knew he was seeing the other girl when he showed up Memorial Day weekend. I also suspected he was still seeing her after, but he and Lana were casual. I assumed he stopped with the one in Boston until she showed up here two weeks ago. Mom, you should have seen Lana's face when she saw the girl throw herself into Adam's arms. She is madder at me than Adam."