Ch. 6 – Look alike
~Zach’s POV~
“You ready for school?” I knelt down and asked Cameron.
He had the biggest brightest smile on his face, and I was afraid he would nod his head off for how quickly he was nodding. “Yep! All my class is going to be so jealous!”
I ruffled his hair and stood back up. “Thanks for letting me do this.” I told Kelsey.
Wow, I still couldn’t believe this was the Kelsey that I grew up with for those three years. I knew there was something familiar about her from before, but with the tattoos and the blonde hair, I just couldn’t figure it out. She had grown up to be stunning, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. She bit her lip and gave me a nervous look. “I still don’t feel right about this.”
“Come on, what’s the harm? So I’m not really his dad, but it’s at least something, right?” I told her.
She looked lost in thought for a minute before I could see the defeat in her eyes. “Yeah, I guess so. Just make sure to have him back by 5:30. You’re lucky I’m letting him spend the day with you. He generally stays with my mom for the afternoon while I’m at work.”
“Thanks. We’ll have a blast.” There was just something about this kid that drew me to him. Ever since that first day that I signed his book, he just seemed so cool and made me want to hang out with him. Okay, that sounded really stupid considering all the other little kids are cool too, but something about him, though, made me want to spend more time with him. It was so strange. “Alright, come on.” I nodded my head towards my car telling Cameron to follow me. I stopped after taking a couple steps and turned back around, “Hey, why don’t you meet up with us for dinner?”
“Come on, Zach. Now I know your fiancé wouldn’t want that. I don’t think that’s a good idea either.” She said. “I’ll just come back here and see you when you drop Cam off.”
“I mean all of us, including my fiancé.” I told her.
I know I wasn’t supposed to see the look, but I still knew her as well as I did from before. I saw the slight disappointment that went through her eyes when I mention my fiancé. Of course, she tried to cover it up and act like it didn’t matter, but I knew it did. “Come on, mom. Please!!” Cam begged.
I smirked down at him and then back up at Kelsey, “Yeah, please, mom?” I begged in a little kid voice.
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t you two start ganging up on me, now.” But she sighed and was defeated. “Fine. Just text me later as to where I’m meeting you. Bye Cam, love you. Have a good day.”
“Alright! Love you too.” He took off to my red Audi Locus and stopped dead in his tracks. “WHOOOAAAA!!!” The look on his face was absolutely priceless. His eyes looked like they were ready to pop out of their sockets and he was frozen to the spot. “That’s your car?”
“It sure is.” I opened up the passenger door for him to hop in.
“Awesome!” He said and climbed in. He tossed his backpack onto the floor and bounced happily in the seat. “This is so cool!”
“I’m glad you like it.” I said and shut his door, walking over to the driver side and climbed in.
As I figured, everyone at the school stared at me as we walked into the building and all the way to Cam’s classroom. Even when we got into the classroom, half of the dads’ faces were comical. Some were dropping their jaws; others were widening their eyes until they couldn’t go anymore. The teacher, who just happened to be female, was basically swooning the instant she walked through the door frame.
“Alright kids, who wants to go first today?” Cam’s teacher asked the class and everyone looked over at him, waiting for him to volunteer.
He looked back at me with a nervous look on his face. I don’t really know where that came from, but it worried me a little. Cam turned back to his teacher, “I guess I will.”
“Okay, so, what I want you to do is introduce your dad, tell us what he does and then you can stand up here with him while he talks if you’d like.” The teacher explained.
Cam bit his lip nervously before looking at all of his classmates. “Well…” He started and fidgeted with his fingers. “He’s not really my dad; he’s just my Uncles friend, but…”
I jumped in before he could go any further. “I’m just filling in for his dad who couldn’t be here.” I walked through the tables up to the front of the class and knelt down by Cam, “Isn’t that right?”
He gave me a half smile, “Yep, that’s it.”
“Hi, I’m sure you all know me, but in case you don’t, I’m Zach Woods. I play baseball for my college right now, but I plan to go on and become a doctor…” I went on and told more facts about myself and received a large round of applause from everyone in the classroom. I bowed, playfully, and went back to stand in the back of the classroom with all of the other dads.
One by one, everyone went and before you knew it, Cam’s class was over and we were free to leave. “Thank you for coming today.” Cam said as we walked out to the car.
“It was my pleasure.” I told him. “What did you want to do for the day?”
He shrugged, “I don’t know.”
“Zach Woods?” Someone called from behind us, right when I opened up the passenger door for Cameron. I turned around to see one of the fathers come running up to me. “I’m a huge fan and I just wanted to say it was amazing getting to stand there and talk to you. You’re an amazing baseball player.”
“Thanks.” I nodded once at him.
He returned the nod, “No problem. Keep up the good work.” He started to walk away, but he turned back after a few steps. “Oh, I just wanted to say that I know you’re not the kid’s father, but you two look so much alike. It’s weird. Is he any family relation?”
I shook my head, “No not at all.”
“Hmm.” He hummed. “Well, you do look a lot alike.”
I just awkwardly nodded back to him, not really knowing what to say, before ushering Cam into the car. I had an idea of something I thought he would find fun, so I headed off in the direction quickly. We pulled up in front of the batting cages about ten minutes later. “You want to swing a bat in the batting cages?”
“Sure!” He said and nearly jumped out of the car.
All I could see was hi door slamming into the car beside us, so before anything could happen, I stopped him. “Wait!” He jumped, clearly not expecting to hear me yell that loud. “I’ve got you. Don’t open up the door.”
I walked around and let him out, making sure his door didn’t hit the car beside us. Can’t have that happening now. I made sure he was ahead of me as we walked in the doors so that I could keep an eye on him. I went up and asked the lady if they had anything for Cam’s age group, just to make sure he could come in.
“Sure, we have a slow speed on the machine and if he can hold a bat and wear a helmet then he can get in. If the machine is too intimidating then we have a tee that he can practice on.” She informed me.
She was younger, maybe around my age. I saw the subtle glance that she made to my left hand while it was perched on the countertop. It took everything I had not to chuckle at her. “Alright, how much to I owe you?”
She gave me the fee and everything and then asked, “So, is this like, father-son bonding day? That’s too cute.”
“I’m not his dad.” I said, and got a worried look from her for a moment. “I mean, he’s my best friend’s nephew. That still sounds wrong. I took him to school today to be a fill in father. That’s all.”
She gave me a really confused look. “Nephew, then?”
I shook my head. “Nope. I just told you, friend of the family.”
“Any family relation?” She proceeded on.
“Are you not listening to what I’m saying?” I really wish she would stop spouting out things to talk about to keep me from leaving.
“Well, he looks so much like you, you could have fooled me.” She batted her eyelashes at me.
That’s the second time we’ve gotten that today. For one, we don’t even share the same DNA, and two, we didn’t look anything alike. Three, that’s just impossible. I looked over at Cam, only to find out he was nowhere in sight. Oh. Crap. How could this happen? “Cameron!?” I yelled turning away from the desk. I ran in the direction of the front door. “Cameron, where are you?”
There was still no sight of him. Dang it! The stupid lady at the desk distracted me and allowed me to lose sight of Cameron. He couldn’t have gone far, as long as he’s still in this area. As long as no one took him. No. I instantly shook that thought from my head. That’s not going to happen. Not on my watch. I ran towards where the batting cages were in hopes that he just got curious to everything going on. “Have you seen a little boy about this height,” I held my hand up a certain height from the ground. “Dark blonde hair?” I asked some random guy I saw.
He shook his head, “Sorry, I haven’t been paying much attention.”
I groaned and kept on with my search. There was still absolutely no sign of Cameron. Where the heck did he go? Kelsey is going to kill me for this, not that I blame her because I just lost her kid, but still! I mean, seriously, I don’t just go around losing kids all the time! I don’t even misplace my material things, let alone a human being. “Missing something?” A guy said behind me.
I whipped around and saw a tall really buff guy who apparently worked here, and trailed my eyes down to Cam, who was standing beside this man with a smirk on his face. I let out a deep breath, trying to relieve my screaming nerves. “Thank the heavens you’re okay!” I said. “Where did you go?”
“I got bored standing there so I decided to go look around.” He shrugged like it was no big deal. “Then I got stopped by him and he said I couldn’t be wondering alone without a parent. When we went to look for you, you weren’t at the counter anymore.”
I waved my hand to him telling him to come to me, “Come on, don’t walk off again without telling me.” I scolded him, “I thought that I completely lost you. Don’t scare me like that again.” My heart was still racing a bit but it was slowly calming down. I looked up at the guy who made sure Cam found me. “Sorry about that.”
“Don’t let it happen again. Kid could get hurt if he walks into the wrong spot.” The guy said gruffly. Well, he seemed friendly. Not.
“Right. Understood.” I said and turned around, turning Cameron with me. “So, you ready to practice hitting some baseballs?”
“You mean you’re not mad at me for going off?” he looked confused.
“I’m not mad at you, but I’m not happy about it either. That doesn’t mean that we still can’t have a little fun, though. We have all day together. What good is that if I was mad at you all day?” I ruffled his hair again, teasing him.
The rest of the day pretty much went the same. We went out and enjoyed some ice cream and went to the park and ran around. Of course, I couldn’t do too much since I was supposed to be resting my shoulder, but I at least took Cam out to do things. I just made sure that I took it easy. Well, as easy as I can take it without getting frustrated. It’s hard to keep an athlete out of sports. Especially if they’ve been playing for basically their whole life.
We made it to the restaurant just in time to where we beat the ladies. We decided to eat at an amazing place called Thurman’s. It’s literally a hole-in-the-wall place, but the food, I found out, is amazing. Sure, your waiting time is roughly an hour no matter when you go, especially in football season, though, but it’s so worth it. “I’ve never been here before!” Cameron said as we sat on the bench outside, waiting for Kelsey and my fiancé.
“You’ll love it. The food is amazing!” I enthusiastically told him. “And, if you want, I’ll let you write something on a dollar and tape it to the wall in there.”
He scrunched up his nose. “Why would you do that?”
I laughed, “Because, silly, it’s what people do here. There are dollar bills everywhere that people leave. You leave a note on the dollar and then tape it onto the wall when you’re finished.”
“Where do the dollars go later?” He asked.
I shrugged, “You know, that’s a good question. Maybe to a local charity or something? I’m not really sure about that one.”
“Hey babe.” Christy said, walking over to us. I got up and hugged her, also giving her a quick kiss on the lips. “This must be Cameron.” She said after pulling away.
“Sure is.” I said. “Cameron, meet my fiancé, Christy.”
“Hi.” He bashfully waved at her.
The look she gave him at first threw me off. She looked…almost confused or something. I wasn’t sure. I shrugged it off though. “Are we ready?” She asked.
“Not quite. We’re waiting on Kelsey to get here.” I sat back down, pulling Christy onto my lap.
She scoffed, “Who’s Kelsey?”
“My mom.” Cameron answered for me.
~Kelsey POV~
“I’m Kelsey, if you must know.” I said when I heard the girl who was perched on Zach’s lap say my name.
She almost sounded disgusted that another woman was coming to have dinner with them. I was already so over this and it hadn’t even started yet. I don’t even know who this chick is, but she sure didn’t seem to like me. She turned and I stopped in my tracks. Are you serious right now? This was his fiancé? Oh, we were going to have some problems already. I can see it now. I went to high school with her and she hated me. Likewise with her, anyway. We never got along. She was always picking on me, trying to be the boss of me, and I was the girl who stood up to her. So, it was a mutual hate and here she was, all lovey-dovey on Zach. My Zach.
Wait…did I just think that? He’s not my anything. I don’t own him. We haven’t even stayed in contact and he didn’t even know who I really was until last night. He was hers now. She didn’t deserve him, but I guess to each their own. It seems she hasn’t changed much. I saw the sneer on her face as I walked closer, “Oh, it’s you.”
“Nice to see you again, Chris.” I nodded at her, making Zach look beyond confused. I knew that she hated when people shortened her name to Chris, so I had to use it.
He kept looking between the two of us, only he didn’t have time to ask anything before Christy jumped up. “Don’t call me that you little…”
“Watch what you say in front of my son!” I yelled before she could throw out the word I knew she was going to use. “And also, get out of my face.” I shoved her backwards a little.
She stumbled over her stilettos and could hardly keep her balance because her skirt was skin tight. The only reason she didn’t fall was because Zach wrapped an arm around her waist. Gross. It was sick to me to see those two together. They seemed like total opposites anyway, so I’m not really sure how they’re even engaged. “Come on, Cam. We’re going home.”
I changed my mind. I’m not staying here with her being here. “But mommy I don’t want to go home. I want to eat here. Zach said that it’s really good!”
“Well, we’ll just have to try it another time.” I tried to keep my patience with him. He didn’t deserve for me to take out my anger on him.
I grabbed his hand and started pulling him towards the way that I parked. He pulled back against my hand as hard as he could. “No! I want to stay!”
“Cameron, I said we’re leaving.” I turned around and faced him. He sniffled and tears started forming in his eyes. I sighed, “Fine, if you want to stay, you can. Just have Zach bring you home afterwards.”
“But I want you to stay, too.” He said through his tears.
I shook my head, “I can’t, sweety.” I used the palms of my hands to wipe the fallen tears from his face. “I’m sorry for yelling at you. I’m not mad at you, I promise.” I kissed him on the forehead. “Go on, go have some more fun.”
“Please stay?” He begged.
“No, baby. I’m not staying.” I told him more firmly, but not angrily.
“Please, stay.” Hearing Zach’s voice made me jump since I wasn’t expecting it at all. “I’ll make sure she behaves. I didn’t know you two knew each other.”
“Sadly, we do, but no. I can’t stay. I have…I have things to do.” It was the lamest excuse but I really couldn’t think of anything to say. “Cam can stay with you, if you don’t mind, and then you can drop him off after you’re done.”
“Come on, please stay. We’ve got some catching up to do, now that I know who you really are.” Zach pleaded with me.
I rolled my eyes, “Fine, but one wrong thing said by your fiancé and I’m out of here.” I stood up and grabbed Cam’s hand, leading him back to the building.
“She’ll behave. I promise.” Zach said, looking back at us over his shoulder.
Christy completely avoided looking at me as we walked up to where she was. This was going to be an interesting night, to say the least. I was willing to at least be civil as long as she stayed out of my face and kept her potty mouth closed around my son. Not that I don’t use words like that, but I don’t want him to catch on, so I don’t use them around him.
“Hey Baby.” She purred to Zach. “They said the table is ready.”
Someone please gag me right now. The way she was clinging onto him was just…nearing the point of not being appropriate. Zach ever so gently pushed her off of him and simply grabbed her hand. I couldn’t help but smile at their backs. I knew he was never one for a whole lot of PDA and she was completely crossing the line right there. She looked so disappointed when he rejected her moves, but followed him anyway.
We sat in one of the booths against the wall, not that there were many to choose from in the beginning. Zach was across from me and Cam was across from Christy. I made sure I wasn’t directly across from her. We barely started looking over the menu before our waitress came over and introduced herself before taking out drink order.
“I want a sprite!” Cameron loved feeling like a big boy and ordering his own drinks. He always made the cutest faces when it came to ordering.
She took mind and then Christy’s drink order before turning to Zach. “Oh wow. Your son looks so much like you.”
My eyes widened. “Oh he’s not….” Zach and I started at the same time, but were so rudely interrupted by his fiancé.
“To hell he’s his son!” She spat at the waitress. “She’s his mom.” She pointed at me with a disgusted look on her face. “And he is my fiancé. No relation there what-so-ever.”
It took everything inside me not to snap at her for how rude she just was. I gave the waitress an apologetic look. She didn’t deserve to be snapped at like that, it’s not like she really knew better. I looked over at Cam and then at Zach. Zach looked lost in thought as he stared at Cameron. A few more times I looked between the two and I didn’t really see it. But that’s the second person to tell me they looked alike. “I’m so sorry. I’ll be right back with those drinks.” With that, the poor lady took off for the back. She might as well have sprinted back there, she was going so fast.
“That was uncalled for.” Zach turned to Christy. “You could have been so much nicer to her.”
Christy put on a look I knew oh so well. She stuck out her bottom lip and pouted, “But, baby… she was making it seem like you were with her and not with me, your fiancé.” She whined, but then she smirked and glared at me. “But you’re right. It’s not like I should freak out or anything. It’s not like you’d really sleep with that trash.”
I bit my tongue on arguing back with her, even though all I wanted to do right now was punch her in her face; but since Cameron was sitting right here, I wasn’t going to set a bad example. Instead, I changed the subject. “Sooo….” I looked over at Cam with a smile, “How was class today?”
“It was really fun! Then we went to the batting cages after and we went to the park. And got some ice cream!” He bantered on and on about his day, and I listened to every word he carried on about.
Once he was finished, I glanced up at Zach and a wicked smile came onto my face. If I couldn’t fight back with Christy, I would just annoy the hell out of her. “Keeping that shoulder rested while doing all of this, I hope.” I winked at him.
Christy looked between the two of us with a glare. “What?”
“Oh, he didn’t tell you?” I asked sweetly. “I’m his physical therapist to get his shoulder back to normal so he can get back into baseball.”
“You are…..and she is…..UGH!” She yelled. “Move! I’m not staying here with her anymore.”
With all the energy she had, she shoved Zach out of the booth. I knew he had moved himself, knowing she was too weak to actually force him out of the booth, but he let her think whatever and who was I to take that away from her. It was quite comical that she actually felt powerful by acting like that. I chuckled and looked back up at Zach who wiped the smile from my face instantly. “Thanks so much for that. I wasn’t going to tell her about that because she didn’t need to know. Now that’s all I’m going to hear in my ear all night.”
“Sorry.” I mumbled.