“That’s how you do it! Good job.” Darren beamed at Jacob, who was staring at him proudly as he waved his catcher’s mitt in the air. He had finally caught a ball.
“I can’t believe it!” he said, beaming up at Darren.
Darren smiled. To be honest, he was pretty surprised that the boy had done it too. The kid was not particularly athletic, but he had been taking him out to the park for the past few weeks and doing everything he could to try and help him learn and grow comfortable. Confidence was something a man truly needed in life, and for some reason, trying to teach this little man how to embody it gave Darren a sense of purpose.
“It just goes to show you that practice makes perfect,” Darren said to the child.
His eyes scanned the park to where Jacob’s foster parents were sitting and watching them darkly. Nobody in the town trusted Darren anymore. Not after what had happened with Michael. They all thought he was too much of a loose cannon. But he had a pretty high rank in their society, so nobody felt courageous enough to keep him from doing what he wanted to do. And what he wanted to do was teach this little boy how to play ball.
“I didn’t know I would ever be able to do it. So, I guess you’re right. Practice! I want to practice everything until I’m great at everything!”
Darren chuckled and ruffled the boy’s hair. “If you practice everything, then you will become good at everything. But you should probably try to take it one step at a time. If you overwork yourself then it’s going to be a lot harder for you.”
“I thought work was a good thing!” Jacob exclaimed, throwing the ball in the air, and trying to catch it again. He missed, and it rolled away.
“Work is a very good thing,” Darren agreed. “You just need to make sure you are not spreading yourself too thin.”
“What?” Jacob asked, looking at him with a funny frown on his face. Darren chuckled. Children could be so literal sometimes.
“I’m just trying to say that sometimes, you have to focus on one thing at a time until you’re done and then move on to the next. Don’t try to do too much at once or you won’t do things as well as you should have in the first place.”
Jacob nodded thoughtfully. “Okay,” he said.
The casual way the child spoke caused another chuckled to rumble through Darren’s body. He was such a special little boy. If Darren ever had a son, he would want one just like Jacob.
“Come on, Jacob. It is time for us to get out of here now. We have to go to your lessons now.”
Jacob whined in protest, and Darren flashed him a smile, gently nudging the little boy’s chin with his fist. “Remember what I told you. We don’t show other people when we are unhappy. If we do, that could make us a target. It is better to figure out how you feel and express it when you are calm. That is true of all things at all times. Always act from a place of calm. Right?”
Jacob nodded as well. “Right.”
But he was still frowning as he jogged reluctantly to his foster parents.
This kid was something special, but sometimes, it seemed like his foster parents treated him as if he was nothing but a giant burden. Darren couldn’t stand it.
And he couldn’t stand the parents in general. They were self-serving and shallow, and gave Darren the impression that the only thing they cared about was money. Money and power. What they were doing with a child to mold, he had no idea.
But it was too late for him to worry about it now. He had already taken Jacob under his wing and that was the way it was going to be. Jacob might go from foster home to foster home throughout his young life, but he was absolutely never going to lose Darren.
He wandered back home, wondering to himself what the human might be up to. She had been left alone to her own devices, after having made it very clear that she did not appreciate being trapped indoors or carted around like some sort of prize. Of course, she understood more about the dangers of wandering around Oakland by herself, but that didn’t make it any easier for her to submit to Darren’s extreme protective streak. He was grateful she was compliant at all.
“Where have you been?” she asked, when he finally returned.
Darren paused, frowning as he considered how to respond. “There’s this kid I kind of like to check in on sometimes. We meet at the park and I show him things here and there about baseball. It’s the only good thing humans have offered to bear shifter culture, just in case you were wondering.”
Kelly chuckled and shook her head. “I guess so. You don’t think there’s anything else that we have to offer you?”
Darren looked at her firmly. “No,” he said
She laughed again. “I didn’t picture you as the kind of guy to go out and mentor somebody.”
“Well, I do my best to try to make up for the needless violence in the world.”
Thoughts of Matthew suddenly plagued him, and he shook his head. He didn’t want to think about it anymore. He had already done whatever he could to make up for it. Now, the rest was up to his ability to forget. He probably never would fully, but at least he could drive the thoughts away in the moment.
“That’s pretty noble of you,” Kelly said. “It’s surprising that you had to resort to answering a newspaper ad to get someone into this house. You seem like a really standup kind of person.”
Darren looked at her scornfully. He wasn’t a standup person. He had made major mistakes in his life. Things he would never be able to make up for. He didn’t blame the women of Oak Mountain for not trusting him. Especially, when he was so difficult to be in a relationship with. “You would think so. But, apparently, the women here just aren’t impressed.”
“I guess that’s good news for me,” Kelly said, smiling. “At least, if things end up working out. Who knows?”
She hurried up the stairs, as if she were embarrassed by her words. Darren watched to go, his mouth agape. But she just admitted she liked being here? It seemed like she had.
He moved into the kitchen to prepare their next meal, a small surge of elation thundering through his body. She had said she wanted to stay. In her own way, at least. That was what he chose to take out of this interaction. And now, everything was going to fall into place.