Change Up Read online

  “I would love to Dad, I really would,” she replied, looking down and taking her phone out of pajama pocket, “but Amy invited me over to her place this morning. A bunch of us are getting together to hang out all day, play music, walk around town, you know, teenager stuff. Is that okay?”

  I thought about it for a second before I answered. I wanted to get some time with Izzy, time that we almost never get together, but I also promised her that I wasn’t going to disrupt her routine while I was here.

  “It’s fine, Izzy,” I said with a smile. I think she could see I was a little disappointed.

  “Let’s do something tomorrow, just you and me,” Izzy said as she came over and put her arms around my neck.

  “Okay, that sounds good. Think about what you might want to do, and we’ll do it, your choice,” I told Izzy.

  “Great! Thanks, Dad! I am going to go take a shower and get dressed. Do you think you could give me a ride down to town? We’re all going to meet at the diner for breakfast first.”

  “Sure,” I replied. “Just let me know when you are ready.”

  Izzy ran off down the hall, and I turned to face Dad.

  “That’s pretty much how weekends go around here, Wes,” Dad said to me. “She’s quite the social butterfly this year; it’s nice to see that she has a good group of friends. They’re all pretty good kids. I just wish one of them would get their license, so I didn’t have to drive them all over the place.”

  Dad got up to pour himself some more coffee and asked if I wanted another cup. I declined.

  “So what are you going to do with Ms. Arthur today then?” Dad asked as he poured the coffee.

  I thought for a moment, and then an idea came over me.

  “I think I just came up with a great idea for today since the weather is supposed to be nice. How’s the area around the pond looking right now?”

  “It looked pretty good when I was out that way yesterday,” Dad said as he sat back down. “The ground is dry, maybe a little firm. That pond water will be ice cold though,” he said to me.

  “I wasn’t thinking about going swimming there, Dad,” I said seriously, though when I looked over at him, I could see he was smiling, and I had missed the joke. There was a nice area on the farm where there was a natural pond. Once I had started making some money, we fixed the area up, cleared around it, cleaned it, and worked on the pond to make it a nice area ideal for outdoor parties or just as a secluded place to get away. I thought it would be a great spot to bring Kristin.

  I looked at my watch and saw it was still perhaps too early to reach out to Kristin on the weekend, but perhaps by the time I dropped Izzy off, I could have everything in place for a nice afternoon. It wasn’t long before Izzy was out of the shower and dressed, her backpack in tow, ready to head out to meet her girlfriends.

  “All set?” I said to her as she walked through the door. I could see that she had pulled her long brown hair back and put some makeup on. She was dressed in a simple purple t-shirt with a pair of jeans and had her favorite black sweatshirt tied around her waist. As I looked at her, she suddenly looked very grown up to me, even more than when I had left here just six weeks ago to go to spring training.

  “Dad? Are you paying attention?” Izzy said to me. I must have zoned out a bit and shook my head to bring me back to reality.

  “I’m fine,” I told her as I stood up from the table. “Let’s go.”

  “See you later Grandpa,” Izzy said as she headed out the door.

  “Have fun Izzy,” Dad said, picking up his newspaper. “I’ll see you later, Wes.”

  I waved to Dad as I followed Izzy out the door.

  “Where’s your car?” Izzy said to me, looking around.

  “It’s up at the house,” I said, pointing up the hill.

  “Why didn’t you drive down?” she said to me, looking surprised and disappointed.

  “Because we live 100 yards away and I wanted the exercise,” I told her.

  “But now we have to walk up the hill,” she whined.

  “Or we can run up the hill,” I said to her and quickly ran over to her and grabbed her hand, trying to make her run up the hill with me. She got about twenty yards and let go of my hand.

  “I’m not running,” she said to me.

  “Okay,” I told her, “but if you beat me up the hill, I’ll let you drive the SUV down to the end of the road.”

  “Really?” she said, suddenly taking an interest. Izzy had been driving Dad’s truck around the farm for a year or so for practice, so I knew she could handle it, but I had never let her drive one of my cars before.

  “Yep,” I said to her. “But I’m pretty confident I won’t lose, so don’t get your hopes up.”

  Izzy walked over to me and smiled. She then dropped her backpack on the side of the road and started sprinting up the hill. She was ten yards ahead of me before I could even get started.

  Even though I think of myself in really good shape, I was no match for her. Izzy had long, strong legs and a runner’s frame, much like my Dad’s. Running up the hill was a lot more of a challenge than I thought it would be. I came close to her, but she beat me.

  We were both a little out of breath when we reached the car.

  “When did you get so fast?” I said to her, still a bit surprised about her ability.

  “I forgot to tell you I’ve been working out too,” she said to me. “I’m running spring track this year at school.”

  “Well if I knew you were cheating…” I said as I caught my breath.

  “I didn’t cheat!” she shouted. “You’re just too old to keep up,” she said with a smile. I grinned back at her and tossed her the keys.

  “Take it slow,” I warned as I got in the passenger’s seat.

  Izzy excitedly got behind the wheel and dutifully clicked her seatbelt on first. She then adjusted the mirrors so she could see better and pressed the ignition button to start the car. She inched slowly at first to get the car going, and then more confidently began to work down the road. She stopped a bit abruptly so I could reach out and grab her backpack, and then started up once again to complete her drive. We reached the end of the road leading out onto Route 5 when she put the car in park.

  “Can I take it down Route 5?” she asked sweetly.

  “No way,” I said to her.

  “Come on, Dad. There’s no traffic on the road,” she said as she looked around.

  “Izzy, it’s not happening. You’re not sixteen, and you don’t even have a permit.”

  Izzy begrudgingly got out and walked around to the passenger’s side of the SUV while I slid over to the driver’s seat. She climbed in and closed the door, grinning an accomplished smile. I drove off and could see she was still smiling.

  In minutes I pulled up and parked in front of the diner. I could see Izzy’s friend Amy standing outside waiting for her along with two other girls that I did not know. There were also two boys in the group waiting for them.

  “Whoa,” I said to her. “You didn’t say anything about boys being here.”

  “Oh stop Dad,” Izzy said to me. “It’s Scott and Bradley. They are both in a bunch of my classes. It’s no big deal.”

  “it’s a big deal to me,” I said, looking out at the boys as they looked back into the SUV, wondering why it was taking Izzy so long to come out.

  “Dad, don’t embarrass me in front of my friends,” Izzy pleaded.

  “Fine, go ahead,” I said to her. “Do you need any money?”

  “Are you offering?” she asked me. I reached into my wallet and took out two twenty dollar bills and handed them to her.

  “I thought Grandpa paid you each week to do chores on the farm?” I asked her.

  “He does,” she said as she gave me a kiss on the cheek and got out of the car. “See you later, Dad!”

  After realizing I had been bamboozled twice this morning by a fifteen-year-old, all I could do was smile as I watched Izzy go into the diner with her friends. She was at the back of the g
roup and waited to go in until one of the boys motioned for her to go in just before him. She did and gave him a shy smile as she went in.

  One more thing to worry about, I told myself as I sighed.

  I took the opportunity while I was parked to pick up my phone and give Kristin a call. I waited nervously as the phone rang a couple of times before she answered.

  “Hello?” I heard her soft, Southern voice answer.

  “Hi, Kristin. It’s Wes. I hope I didn’t wake you.” I said to her.

  “Who is this?” she asked, sounding confused.

  “Wes… Wes Martin,” I said to her. “We… we had dinner last night.”

  I heard her start laughing. “I knew it was you, Wes,” she said with her laugh. “I was just messing with you.”

  Great, it must be pick-on-the-old-guy Day today, I thought.

  “It’s nice to hear from you this morning,” Kristin said to me sweetly.

  “I… I was just wondering if you wanted to get together today,” I said to her.

  “Sure,” she said to me. “What did you have in mind?”

  “Well, it’s kind of a surprise,” I said to her. “Can you be ready in about an hour?”

  “Ooh, a mystery date,” she said with some intrigue in her voice. “I like the way that sounds. Yes, I can be ready in an hour,” she told me. “Should I meet you somewhere?”

  “Nope,” I answered. “I’ll pick you up; Just make sure you wear something comfortable.”

  “Comfortable, got it,” she said to me. “See you in an hour.” I heard her hang up the phone.

  I climbed out of the SUV and walked over to Wally’s to pick up a few things. I slowly began to map out just what I wanted to get today and how I hoped it would go.

  Let’s see if you still know how to romance a girl, Wes, I told myself as I set out to do some shopping.

  16

  Wes

  I spent the hour I had before I picked up Kristin gathering everything I thought I might need to make the day special. I did some shopping at Wally’s and then went over to Fleming’s, the lone “department” store we had in town. I don’t know that Fleming’s qualifies as a department store, but they are the only place in Chandler that has a little bit of everything, and they were likely to have the items I was looking for. I found just the things I wanted without drawing a lot of attention to myself and then headed out to the liquor store before I made a quick stop at the florist.

  After I had gathered all my supplies, I made a quick phone call to Dad to see if he could arrange something for me. I let him know about my plan, and he was happy to oblige and said things would be ready when I got home. It was then on to Kristin’s place to pick her up.

  Since everything in Chandler seems nearby, it was just a short drive over to her apartment to get her. I was ready to walk up to her apartment to greet her, but when I pulled into the parking lot, there she was waiting for me. She had a blue denim jacket on to match the jeans she was wearing, with a simple white tank top on underneath. She didn’t see me in my SUV right away, so I got to look at her standing in the sunlight for a moment before she looked my way. Even dressed in a simple outfit, she looked radiant.

  I rolled down the window of my SUV and gave her a smile and wave as she headed over to the car. Kristin opened the passenger side door and climbed into the car.

  “Good morning,” she said to me with a smile as she put her seatbelt on.

  “Good morning to you,” I said happily. I pulled out of my parking spot and back onto Main Street to head out towards Route 5 and the farm.

  “So what are we doing today?” Kristin asked me.

  “I have some nice surprises planned,” I told her. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

  “I like surprises,” Kristin said with a mischievous grin. We drove along out towards Route 5 as Kristin watched.

  “I didn’t expect to hear from you this morning,” she said to me honestly.

  “Why not?” I asked her.

  “I thought maybe you would be doing something with your daughter since you just got back home.”

  “Well, I tried to get her involved in something today, but she had already made plans with her friends. I dropped her off at Harding’s this morning, and she said she would be with her friends all day. So it’s just you and me, I guess.” I looked over at Kristin to see her reaction, and she smiled at me.

  “That’s okay,” she said. “I don’t mind some alone time with you.”

  “Glad to hear it,” I said to her as I pulled onto Martin Road. Instead of driving up towards my place or my parent’s house, I made the left just onto the road and headed out towards the farm area.

  “Where are we going?” Kristin asked, watching the farmland as it went by. The road was more than a little bumpy out this way, and thankfully my SUV was four-wheel drive enough to handle it.

  “You’ll see in a minute,” I told her. I made another left onto another dirt road, and we pulled up to the small parking area before the stables. I turned the car off and hopped out, and then went over and opened the passenger door for Kristin, helping her out.

  Kristin took my hand as she stepped out of the SUV.

  “How chivalrous,” she commented as I closed the door to the car.

  We walked towards the rear of the car, where I picked up the bags I had in the trunk, and then we began the short walk over towards the barn. When we reached the barn doors, I slid the large door open to reveal the stable area. George Peters, Dad’s right-hand man with the stables, was already in there.

  I walked over to George and gave him a hearty handshake. Like my Dad, George had been working around horses his whole life. He was a bit older than Dad, a tad over sixty, but he was in better shape than many of the twenty-something that I would come across each day as a ballplayer. His hands were very strong, and he always had a deep tan, even in the winter months here in Pennsylvania.

  “How are you, George?” I said to him, not having seen him in a few months.

  “Doing great, Wes,” he said to me as he took his work gloves off. “I was sorry to hear that you were home. I was looking forward to seeing you play down at PNC again this year.”

  I was still getting used to everyone saying how sorry they were that I had been cut.

  “Well, we’ll see how things work out. I still have some options out there,” I told George, reassuring myself as much as him. I turned and looked at Kristin, who had stayed a few paces behind me as she looked around at the stables.

  “George,” I said to him, “This is Kristin Arthur. She’s the librarian in town.”

  George took his hat off and extended his hand to her. “Pleasure to meet you, Ms. Arthur,” he said politely.

  “Nice to meet you too, she said, shaking his hand. “Please, call me Kristin.”

  “Okay, Kristin it is,” he said with a smile. George turned to me. “I think I have everything ready for you,” George said to me. He looked down at the bags I had in my hands. “You want me to load those up for you?”

  “That would be great, thanks, George,” I said to him as he took the bags from me. George walked away towards the stables while Kristin walked over to me.

  “The barn is beautiful,” she said to me as she looked around at the ceiling and the surroundings.

  “Dad and George do an amazing job keeping up with everything, and they have a good team of people here helping them all the time.”

  “How many horses are here now?” Kristin asked as she peered back towards the stables.

  “Geez, I’m not even sure right now,” I told her. “Somewhere between ten and fifteen, I think. Most of them Dad owns, though he does board a few for some other people.”

  I gently took Kristin’s left hand, and we slowly walked down the stable area where the horses were. I could see the awe on her face as she saw the beautiful animals we had there. There were a couple of the workers milling about in the stables, caring for the horses, but for the most part, it was pretty quiet today.


  “The horses are beautiful,” she said to me as we walked. Just then, George walked over to us.

  “Are you ready?” George asked me.

  “Sure are,” I said to George as we followed him out the other end of the barn.

  “Ready for what?” Kristin asked with anticipation.

  We walked outside where George had two of the horses ready for us. Kristin and I walked over to the smaller horse, a chestnut brown filly named Bonnie. Kristin was gently petting her as we walked over to her face.