Page 5 of Small Town CEO Grump

I couldn’t understand why Ed was so nervous. He was an excellent agent, and I knew that our office was one of the top performers in the company. I also knew enough of Mr. Jackson’s reputation to know that if he was unhappy with what was going on here, we would have heard about it.

Ed nodded slowly. “Well, okay,” he said. “That is quite a change. I’m sure he gave you a hefty list of things to take care of before he moves here.”

I nodded. “Yes, he absolutely did.”

“Then I’ll let you get to it. Have you told anyone else?”

“No. I came here as soon as I got off the phone with him.”

“Okay,” Ed said. “I will tell everyone else. You go ahead and get started on making sure that everything goes smoothly for this transition.”

I went back to the office and pulled out the list of things that I had jotted down while I was on the phone with Ryan. It was a lot to do, but it wasn’t overwhelming. The first thing I was going to do was schedule a special cleaning of his office to make sure that everything was in pristine condition.

The rest of the day was a blur of activity, and I could feel the nervous tension in the air.

Before I knew it, it was time for me to go and pick Tyler up from school.

My mood immediately lifted, and all thoughts of work left my mind as I walked out of the office and got into my car. Tyler had his first practice with his new baseball team that night, and he was so excited. My son absolutely loved baseball, and the night before he had not been able to talk about anything other than what his new team was going to be like. Although at seven years old he was younger than the rest of his teammates, he truly was a gifted ballplayer, and he had been moved up in the leagues a year early.

I smiled as I remembered a comment that he had made about getting to pitch with the big kids. He had been throwing pitches and hitting pitches since he was three years old, and I knew that he would have no trouble making the transition.

Three minutes later I pulled into the school parking lot and joined the line of cars with the other parents whose children were in the after school clubs. Four days a week Tyler had the opportunity to participate in after school enrichment clubs. That day’s activity was science club, but he also took art lessons, music lessons, and computer coding classes. He liked having extra time with his friends and learning more, and I liked the fact that it allowed me to work at the office a little bit longer without having to put him into childcare.

I couldn’t help but smile as I watched Tyler burst out of the doors and run towards my car. His blonde hair glistened in the sun, and his big brown eyes were full of excitement. His eyes seemed to be the only trait that he had gotten from his father, as in every other way he resembled me. He would sometimes look in the mirror and try to convince himself that he saw green in those eyes, since my eyes were green, but they were clearly a beautiful, pale brown.

Every once in a while I would feel a surge of anger as I thought about Tyler‘s dad and the fact that he packed up and left the minute I told him that I was pregnant.

On my wedding day I could never have imagined that I would be single before our first anniversary. I had gotten married young, having only graduated from college a month before the wedding. I had seen glimpses of things with him that concerned me, and although he was five years older than me he seemed to be really immature, I convinced myself that everything would be okay. I figured that we would learn and grow together, and, although I knew it wouldn’t be easy, I was convinced we would have a happy and successful marriage.

We both had talked about wanting children, but neither one of us thought it would happen as quickly as it did. The day I found out I was pregnant I told him, and he didn’t say a word. The next day I went to work, when I came home, all of his stuff was gone. From that point forward, he only communicated through his divorce attorneys and then the family law attorney notifying me he was surrendering his parental rights. I had not heard from him since.

It had not been easy going about it alone, but now, despite the occasional feelings of anger, I mostly just felt pity for him. He was missing out on being part of Tyler‘s life.

Tyler was a sweet, energetic, and fun child, and he always had been. He loved to learn, was very inquisitive, and was just a joy to be around.

I giggled as Tyler excitedly opened the back door and jumped in.

“Hey Mama!” he said.

“Hey Bubba! How was school?”

“It was super good! I got to learn about acids and bases, and we got to do this experiment thing where we made stuff bubble. It was really fun. Science is really cool.”

“Yes, it is!”

“But that wasn’t the best thing. Try to guess what the best thing was,” he said. “It was really, really great.”

I had no idea where to even begin to guess since Tyler loved every part of school.

“Can you give me a hint?”

“It happened in PE,” Tyler said.

“Hmmmm… Did you get to be the exercise leader again?” I knew that Tyler loved being able to lead the class through warm-ups and exercises.

“No, not today. Matthew is the exercise leader this week and today he missed three of the exercises. I did them anyway, because I know what to do.”

“Gotcha. So then what was the best part of the day in PE?”