Maid to Fit (15 page)

Kayla had a lot going on in her life and he did what he could to help. Recently, though,
it felt like he couldn’t do everything he wanted to do for Kayla—because he couldn’t
be there. He felt like Kayla’s dirty little secret. Some men might be fine with being
a woman’s booty call, proud even, but he really liked Kayla and wanted to be there
for her as a boyfriend, not just as a lover.

As he entered Mary’s room, the older woman sat on the small sofa staring out the window.
As he approached, she turned to him and said, “Can I help you?”

He stopped. Most days she didn’t speak at all, either because she was unable to figure
out who she was or who other people were. The nurses said that over time she might
even lose the ability to speak. Alzheimer’s was a disabling disease he wouldn’t wish
on his worst enemy. It didn’t just destroy the patient, but was a living grief for
the family, as well. They lost a little more of their loved one every day.

“I’m Sergeant First Class Ronald Brown, ma’am. I’m friends with your daughter, Kayla.
She sent me over to check and see if you need anything.”

“A girl after my own heart. Her dad was a military man, too. Air force. He was something
to see in that uniform,” Mary said with a smile. “Did she tell you that?”

“No, ma’am, she hasn’t mentioned it before. I’ll have to ask her about it the next
time I see her,” he replied, sitting down next to her on the small sofa.

“Are you two dating? If I’m being nosy just say so.” Mary smiled again.

Unsure about what to say since this was the most lucid he’d ever seen Mary, he decided
honesty was the best policy. “I’d like to be her boyfriend, but I’m not sure she’s
ready for that.”

Mary laughed and nodded her head. “That sounds like my Kayla. Never know if she’s
coming or going. She’s like a whirlwind, out of control but amazing. Just be patient
with her. Any man willing to visit her mother in the old folks’ home deserves a chance.
She’ll see that eventually, and then you better brace yourself for when that whirlwind
blows your way.

“I think she always thought she let me down when Addie came along, but to be honest
I couldn’t be prouder of her if she’d done things the ‘right’ way from the start.
So when she does give you that chance, you jump on it. Storm the beach and don’t quit
until she’s yours.”

Mary reached over and patted his hand. After a few minutes he said, “Is there anything
I can bring you?”

She looked back at him with tears glistening in her eyes, “I’d like to see my little
Addie. I can’t say how or when but I know Kayla visits…and I know that Addie doesn’t.”

The cheerleading team had been practicing in any locale they could because they needed
as much practice as they could get before the competition. There wasn’t any reason
they couldn’t practice here, for Mary. They might not be able to do the stunts but
they could do the cheer and the dance moves. The more he thought about it, the better
it sounded. What good was winning a competition if you didn’t use that talent for
a higher purpose, such as entertaining old people?

“I’ll see what I can do,” he replied, patting her frail hand in return.

He sat with Mary for a while longer. When he noticed that she was dozing off he went
in search of the nurse to help Mary get ready for bed. He also asked permission for
the kids to do their routine for some of the residents, especially for Mary. Several
of the boys on the team could drive so they should be able to squeeze sixteen kids
into four vehicles. They set up a time for the following day—two days before competition.
In his eyes, this was more important than fitting in an extra practice.

He called Addie on his way home and told her to tell the team that they had a field
trip the following day after school, an opportunity to see if they were really ready
to compete. Perhaps it was wrong not to tell her his plan, but it didn’t feel right
to explain over the phone. After hanging up, he texted Kayla and asked her to call
him after her meeting, and then he headed over to see Buck.

Pulling into the driveway at Rusty’s house, something hit him. Sergeant Buck was about
Mary’s age, if not older, in dog years. Maybe, like Mary, he had moments of clarity.
Maybe he realized that he was no longer in the service and wondered about
his
purpose now. It would explain why the old dog enjoyed going to cheerleading practice.
Training was familiar, even if the kids were training for cheer competition rather
than war.

When they’d watched some of the videos, Chase had even pointed out that it looked
like Buck was doing his own version of their routine. He would sit sometimes, stand
sometimes, and turn in circles and even bark. The boys swore there was a sequence
to it but Ronnie hadn’t paid any attention to them. He’d just chalked it up to the
imaginings of teenagers.

But now? Maybe they were right. And maybe there was something he could do for Buck
with that information. He’d have to think it over.

He visited with Rusty and Buck for a little while but headed out the door when Kayla
called. He listened to her talk about her new position and all the benefits that her
new company offered. Not only would she be spending less time in the office, but she’d
also have the ability to work from home when necessary. Eventually, her whirlwind
of excitement dissipated a little and she asked, “How was my mom?”

“She was great. She was actually pretty coherent today and talked to me a little bit
while I was there. She even made sense. The nurse said she took a shower without being
coaxed into it and even ate a little better than she normally does,” he replied.

“That’s so great,” Kayla said. “This has been a great day for me, for my mother and
hopefully for Addie, too. How was your day?”

“It was good. The only thing that would make it better was if I could kiss you good-night,”
he said.

“Just a kiss? That’s all you want?” she teased.

“I didn’t say
where
I wanted to kiss you,” he said. After a moment of silence, he continued, “Make sure
you want to know the answer before you ask a question like that, beautiful.”

“Thanks for today, Ronnie. I’ll let you have that kiss the next time I get you alone.
I might even kiss you back…but I won’t say
where
either.” She laughed.

He smiled all the way back to the apartment. At least he was the one she called on
a good day…a really good day. He would work on being happy with that instead of begrudging
the times he couldn’t be with her.

* * *

The following day, he and the boys loaded the practice mats into the back of his truck
and then they all piled into the various vehicles. Addie, Kaitlyn and Chase rode with
him. When they’d settled in for the ride, Kaitlyn asked the question he knew he couldn’t
avoid.

“Where are we headed, Sergeant Brown?”

“We are going to the nursing home where Addie’s grandmother lives. She asked me yesterday
to bring Addie for a visit and I thought we could multitask. I called your principal
and he gave me a paper for the staff at the nursing home to sign. The time you spend
practicing for the residents at the home today will count toward your community service
hours required for graduation,” he said.

“That isn’t very nice, Ronnie,” Addie said with a frown. “She doesn’t even know who
I am anymore, so it is doubtful she asked for me to visit. Don’t lie.”

“I am telling you, with God as my witness, she asked me to bring you to visit her.
I got the impression that somehow she knows when you’re there and when you’re not.
I know that sounds completely jacked, but it’s true. I think she knows and I think
she misses you. So you can do your routine for her today,” he said.

“I don’t want to do this, Ronnie. It’s hard to see her when she won’t remember I’m
there. You may think otherwise, but she won’t. Don’t make me go. I’ll be too worked
up to do the routine anyways,” Addie said.

“Don’t you think you’re going to be a nervous wreck on Saturday? Consider this anxiety
practice for the competition. As for your grandmother not remembering you were there,
does it really matter? Take the time to do this for her, whether she knows what is
going on or not. Trust me. Someday you’ll thank me for making you do this,” he said
with finality.

Addie sat back against the seat with an angry look on her face and crossed her arms.

Chase bumped her with his shoulder and said, “It won’t be so bad. Old people rule.
They’ve seen and done all kinds of cool shit. My neighbor is old but he’s awesome.”

“My grandmother has Alzheimer’s disease. She doesn’t remember anything, including
the fact that she has a daughter and a granddaughter, let alone what cool things she
may or may not have done in the past,” Addie said sarcastically. “She won’t remember
that I was there, who I am, anything I might have said to her…
nothing
.”

“Well, maybe that’s a good thing. You can say whatever you want,” Kaitlyn offered.

“That’s the problem. She
won’t
remember,” Addie replied softly.

“She remembered that your grandfather was in the air force and that he was handsome
in his uniform. Sometimes things have a bigger impact than you give them credit for,”
Ronnie said.

The rest of the trip was fairly quiet. After a while, Addie seemed to relax a bit
and she lost a little of her angry vibe. They unloaded the practice mats and set them
up in a large room where several old people sat around tables at the far end watching
with interest. Pulling out Ian’s portable stereo that Ronnie had borrowed, which contained
a CD player and the CD he’d ordered off the internet, he plugged it in while the kids
began stretching and warming up.

When they took their positions and he pressed play, the looks on their faces were
worth the three hundred bucks he’d spent on the custom CD. Their team was announced
and their mascot was mentioned overtop the tracks they had worked with during practices.
His sisters
were
good for something other than butting into his personal life.

“Where did you get that?” Kaitlyn and Addie said almost in unison.

“Addie’s grandmother Mary paid a pretty penny for this CD and I went online and ordered
it, so now you kids have two days to match the routine up to it. It should fit pretty
well already, may just need a little work here and there,” he said.

Addie looked to where Mary sat staring off into space. If dudes cried, Ronnie would
have become a little misty-eyed when Addie walked over to her grandmother, crouched
down in front of her and patted her hand to get the woman’s attention. He couldn’t
hear what Addie said but Mary knew it was her granddaughter—a look of recognition
flashed in her eyes right before the normal look of confusion took its place. Addie
hugged Mary briefly and then walked back over to the group and took her position.
Mary went back to staring off into space but Addie gave her best performance yet.

When they finished the routine Ronnie said, “You asked me to tell you honestly what
I thought of the routine you came up with for this competition, Addison. Well that
right there was pretty damn good. Hell, I think Sergeant Buck would even be impressed.”

The kids performed the routine again several times, including the flips—everything
but the stunts that they had worked on nearly every other practice. The residents
enjoyed the show, and the kids even appeared to be enjoying showing off for their
audience. Tomorrow they would put everything together and hope that it all fit into
something that would allow the team to place in the competition. From the performances
he’d seen online, if they could pull off the stunts, they stood a good chance.

* * *

Saturday morning found Ronnie sitting on a bleacher seat next to Kayla in a large
high school gym watching Addie and her teammates warm up. Looking around, he did not
see any boys on the other teams, but there were a few in the stands cheering for other
schools. He was also pleased to see many members of the football team from Addie’s
school, though their coach was absent.

There were around twenty school districts represented, which made the gym pretty crowded
by the time the event started. Addie’s school was set to do their routine somewhere
in the middle. Ronnie grew a little alarmed when the announcer for the event started
calling out each team, including the names of the cheer advisors. Maybe the announcement
of Addie’s team—or at least the part about him being the coach—would go unnoticed
by Kayla and the parents of the other kids on the team.

After the sixth team in a row finished without doing nearly half of the complicated
stunts that Addie and Kaitlyn had insisted they needed to be able to do, he felt the
telltale signs of being taken for a fool settling within his stomach.

He had watched videos online through ESPN coverage of high school cheer competitions,
but he hadn’t specifically asked about what
this
competition required. Addie and Kaitlyn wouldn’t look at him now that he knew the
truth, but at this point it didn’t really matter. Addie wanted to win, and based on
what he was seeing so far, they should. Only one other team did anything close to
the complicated stunts they had been practicing for weeks now.

Watching the kids’ excitement as it got closer to their time, he couldn’t stay mad
at the two girls. Much like his sisters had always done, Addie had simply left out
key facts when explaining things to him. She had effectively manipulated him into
doing her bidding. He felt like a dog at the end of a short leash with the kid, but
for whatever reason, it didn’t bother him any more than when his own family manipulated
him. At least until he watched Rusty step inside the doorway at the far end of the
gym with Sergeant Buck muzzled and on a leash next to him, followed by Seth and Ian.

Holy hell
…
what were they doing here?

Ronnie was so focused on the sight of his army buddies that he nearly jumped out of
his chair when Kayla said, “Addie asked me to invite them. She said to tell you that
someday you would thank her for this.”