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Really, Lizzie should have known not to turn away, not even for a fraction of a second. Especially whilst they’re at a public park. It’s not her smartest move as a parent, but honestly, she’s been stretching herself pretty thin this past week, so she’s not surprised it happened. Just annoyed that it did in the first place. She thought she’d gotten better about that with two kids now.
She momentarily considers racing around the park in desperate search of him but ultimately decides to stay where she is in case he wanders back. And then immediately mentally berates herself for not instantly getting up to look for him, knowing that all it takes is mere seconds for something to go wrong. So she grabs her phone and has her fingers ready to dial the police if it comes down to that as she starts across the park in search of him. He’s still so small, and innocent, she can’t lose him. Not at a park.
“Mummy!”
She turns at the familiar call, a relieved breath of air passing through as her eyes lock onto Archie walking toward her. She’s in front of him in an instant, pulling him into her and hugging him tightly, cradling the back of his head. “Oh, my darling, you can’t just disappear like that, do you hear me?” She pulls back to check him over for injuries. “Are you alright? Are you hurt?”
“No,” Archie says, shaking his head. “I made a new friend. She’s named after shoes.”
It’s then that Lizzie notices the woman standing not too far away, an amused smile on her lips. “Who are you?”
The woman with the buzz cut moves closer. “I’m Boots.”
“See, Mummy?” Archie says quietly, leaning against her. “She’s named after shoes.”
Boots smiles down at Archie. “Well, technically speaking, it’s just a nickname. My real name’s Katie, but I think I prefer Boots.”
Archie giggles. “Me too. It’s funny.”
“Yeah, it is pretty funny. And unique.”
Archie tilts his head. “What’s that?”
“It’s uh, it’s something that usually only one person or only a few people have.”
“Oh. Okay. Can we go play now?”
Boots chuckles. “Let me talk to your mum for a minute, yeah?”
Archie just smiles and wanders over to their picnic blanket, immediately digging through his small backpack filled with various toys and other things to keep him entertained while they’re out.
Lizzie lets out a heavy breath and stands, pushing her hair back. “I’m sorry about him dragging you away from whatever you were doing.”
Boots waves her off. “Nah, don’t worry about it. I was nearly done there anyway; nobody knows how to play football properly.”
Lizzie perks up a bit at the mention of the sport. “Oh, you play?”
“Yeah, you?”
Lizzie shakes her head, shifting on her feet. “No, not in a long time. Not since my kids.”
“You’ve got more than just Archie?”
Lizzie nods. “Yeah. Other one’s at a friend’s house right now.”
“Ah. Well, I–”
“Boots,” Archie practically whines from the picnic blanket, several toys already spread out around him and a couple more in his hands. “Are we gonna play?”
Boots chuckles. “Sorry. I uh, I told him I’d play with him so he’d come back over here. But I get it if you don’t want some rando hanging around your kid.”
Lizzie hesitates, because Boots is absolutely right. She doesn’t want random people hanging around either of her children. But if they stay on the blanket, they’ll be close, and she really doesn’t want to deal with any kind of meltdown from Archie if Boots leaves now, even though the four-year-old’s not too prone to them anymore. It’s still something she’d rather not risk. Especially in public.
Plus, there’s something about this woman, something she can’t quite put her finger on. But she doesn’t set off any of Lizzie’s internal mother’s-instinct alarm bells.
So she smiles. “No, that’s alright. As long as you stay nearby if you’re gonna leave the blanket.”
Boots smiles back. “Not a problem.” She jogs lightly over to the blanket and falls next to Archie, lying stretched out on her side, and smiling a little bigger. “Right then, what are we playing?”
Lizzie hangs back where she is for a moment longer, simply observing her son playing with this random woman he met in a park. It’s something she should probably discourage, because she really doesn’t know a single thing about this woman except for her name and that she likes to play football. But Archie’s smiling so brightly and laughing his full-bellied laugh that Lizzie loves hearing so much.
As she finally makes her way over to join the pair on the blanket, she prays to whoever might be listening that she’s not a terrible mother for letting this happen, and that it doesn’t come back to bite her.
.
.
.
Genuinely speaking, Lizzie doesn’t expect to see Boots again after that day in the park. Maybe if they happen to go by the park again, she, just for a moment, searches for her among the crowds of people. But she never sees her. She figures it was just a one-off and she’s clearly never meant to see Boots again.
So she’s only mildly surprised when she sees Boots at the open tryouts for AFC Richmond’s Lady Greyhounds. Of course, Boots is already on the team and Lizzie’s the one trying out, but it does stir something deep inside of her when the other woman smiles brightly at her the first time they make eye contact. Something she desperately tries to ignore for the sake of her headspace during tryouts.
She’d be lying if she said she hasn’t thought about Boots in the quiet moments since the park. She’s never thought about someone this much after only one interaction, and it was genuinely starting to concern her. She figured it was simply because Archie took to the woman so quickly.
But given that she can’t take her eyes off the goalkeeper as she dives and stretches to keep balls out of the net, Lizzie’s not so sure that’s all it was. Quite the revelation to have later in life after two kids and an epically failed marriage. It does make much of her younger years make more sense, though. And puts a lot of moments throughout her life into perspective.
The rest of tryouts go fairly well, she likes to think, and she only has to go into Mom Mode once to deal with Niamh and Shioban. It’s not as if she ever really leaves it, though; it merely lessens a bit when she’s not around her kids. It’s always lingering, though.
By the end of tryouts, she’s feeling absolutely great about herself, still riding a bit of a high of getting to play football again, even if it was just for one afternoon. And that high only gets higher when she finds out she’s actually made the team, something she never dreamed she’d actually get to do again. And it’s made that much sweeter by getting to celebrate in the moment with Archie, that little smile of his never failing to make her smile too.
“Now, should we go get something to celebrate before we have to pick up your brother?” she asks her youngest son.
Archie smiles and nods. “Yeah. And maybe we could get something for him too.”
Lizzie smiles. “That’s a wonderful idea, darling. Come on.” She stands and takes his hand, leading him out of the stadium and toward their car in the lot, still half-expecting all of this to be a dream that she’ll wake up from at any moment.
“Oi!”
Turning, Lizzie smiles at Boots jogging over, sports bag slung over her shoulder. “Hi.”
Boots stops directly in front of them, smiling brightly. “Hi.” Her gaze shifts to Archie. “Hey, Archie.”
Archie smiles up at her and waves. “Hello. Mummy made the team.”
Boots’ smile shifts back to her. “You did?”
“Yeah. I was surprised, to be honest. Didn’t think they’d actually want me.”
Boots shakes her head. “Nah. I saw you playing out there, they’d have been mental not to take you. You’re brilliant.”
Lizzie can feel her cheeks getting warmer but prays it’s not noticeable. “Oh. Well, thanks. I don’t know if I’ve fully wrapped my head around it yet. It all feels a bit surreal.”
“You’ll get there, eventually.”
“Boots!” Archie shouts to get the woman’s attention, preventing Lizzie from responding to Boots, which is probably a good thing.
“Yeah, mate?”
Archie shuffles from foot to foot, still holding onto Lizzie’s hand. “Me and Mummy are gonna go get ice cream. Do you want to come too?”
“Whoa, hang on,” Lizzie starts, looking at her son. “I never said ice cream.”
Archie just smiles up at her.
Lizzie sighs. “Fine, alright. We’ll get ice cream.” She turns her attention to Boots. “I understand if you’ve got other plans and—”
“No plans,” Boots says with a smile. “And I love ice cream.”
Lizzie smiles. “Great. So um, do you just want to meet us there, then? It’s not far from here and–” She looks down when there’s a familiar tug against her hand. “Yes, my darling?”
“Mummy, I want Boots to come in our car too. I want her to sit next to me.”
“Oh, um, I don’t think that’s a good idea, sweetheart. It’s better if Boots takes her own car so then she can go straight to her home after, and we can go get your brother then go to our home.”
Archie’s gaze drifts to Boots. “You can come to our house too.”
Lizzie’s eyes go wide. “No, Archie, that’s not…”
Boots laughs. “Maybe another time. Let’s start with ice cream, yeah?”
Archie sighs. “Okay.”
“But…” Boots continues. “I’ll race you to your car. Just tell me which one it is.”
Archie turns and points directly at their car. “It’s that one.”
Boots grins. “Excellent.” She sets her bag down and crouches. “You ready, then?”
Archie smiles brightly and crouches next to Boots, mirroring her starting position the best that he can. “I’m ready. Mummy, can you start the race for us?”
Lizzie fights back the grin that’s wanting to take over and shifts on her feet, adjusting the strap of her bag on her shoulder. “Alright. On your marks, get set, go!”
In an instant they’re both off, though it’s clear to anyone who might be watching that Boots is considerably holding back on her speed to at least give Archie a sense of a fighting chance of beating her to the car. And when Archie starts jumping around and laughing because he won the race, Lizzie lets herself grin, something inside of her swirling and swelling in a way it hasn’t ever done before. And she doesn’t entirely hate it.
Picking up Boots’ bag, she makes her way over to the duo that’s still celebrating, unable to stop the quiet laugh that escapes her at their enthusiasm.
Archie turns toward her, smiling wide. “Mummy, I won.”
“I saw that.” She wordlessly holds Boots’ bag out to her and then digs in her own bag for her car keys. “Now hop in and get yourself strapped in, yeah?”
Archie smiles and waves at Boots as he climbs up into the car. “I’ll see you at ice cream.” The door slides shut behind him with a soft click.
“You’re sure you don’t mind me coming to ice cream?” Boots asks, swinging her bag onto her shoulder.
Lizzie shakes her head. “No, I don’t mind. Besides, if we’re gonna be playing on the same team, might as well start getting to know each other, yeah?”
Boots smiles. “Exactly.” She shifts on her feet. “Well, uh, I’ll see you there, then.”
Lizzie nods. “Yeah.” She waits for Boots to be well enough away before she climbs into her own car, tossing her bag into the passenger seat. She glances through the rearview mirror. “You all buckled up back there?”
Archie smiles at her and gives her a thumbs up.
She turns enough in her seat to reach back and give the straps of his booster seat a quick tug to make sure it’s secure, and then smiles at her son. “Right then, let’s go get some ice cream.” She turns back and starts the car, securing her own seatbelt.
“I’m glad Boots is coming with us for ice cream, Mummy,” Archie tells her. “I really like her.”
Lizzie can’t help the smile that tugs at her lips as she sets the car into reverse. “Yeah? I think I like her too.”