I hooked a thumb at the kid, who continued to blow me away with his mad paper throwing skills. Wes laughed and hooked an arm around my shoulders. “Come on, city girl.”
“I’ll have you know I’m more of a desert and sin city girl.”
“They don’t deliver papers in Las Vegas? I think they do.”
Pursing my lips, I shrugged. “Never to my house or the houses in my neighborhood. Too poor. And yours magically appears on the table every morning. Do we have a paperboy on a bike?” My eyes lit up thinking about it.
He shook his head. “I don’t think so. We’d have to ask Ms. Croft. She handles those things. but I’ve never seen a boy hoofing it up our hill to toss a paper over the gate,” he snorted
I pouted. He had a point. An annoying one.
Shaking off my annoyance with my know-it-all boyfriend, I knocked on the large chocolate-colored door. David Ryan opened it and frowned. His tie dangled unknotted around his neck, his pinstripe dress shirt was untucked, and his feet were bare. “Um, can I help you?” he asked.
I frowned. “We’re here about the segment. This is Heidi Ryan’s home, correct?” I asked, feeling a bit uncertain. Behind me, Wes kept his hand at my lower back. Behind him was Wayne, the cameraman. I joked that he reminded me of the Wayne on Wayne’s World that cult classic from the early nineties. He had long hair and wore a cap, a plaid shirt, and pair of cargo shorts. The concept of a dress code was totally lost on him.
Behind David’s obviously surprised face, Heidi appeared. “Mia! Hey, come on in. I thought you guys would come later.”
Dave opened the door more to let us in, and Wayne flipped on the camera.
“Not yet,” I warned. “Let me chat with them a moment, make sure we’re not intruding too much. This is still their home and their life.”
I informed the couple what the plan was and left Heidi to confirm everything was on the up and up with her husband. When they returned a few minutes later, he actually held himself a little straighter and smiled. “Sorry, about that. She mentioned something about this last night, and I was a bit out of sorts after a long day in court.”
“So are you cool with us starting now? Not everything will make it into the segment as it’s only fifteen minutes, but we definitely want to get some shots of Heidi doing her normal routine, if you don’t mind.”
He smiled, and it went all the way to his bright blue eyes. His dark hair and gray of his suit really offset those eyes and gave him a very Clark Kent quality.
Wayne flicked on the camera, and we entered the kitchen where three children sat around a table made for six. Heidi was up to her elbows with cooking eggs and bacon and buttering toast. The children didn’t seem at all fazed by the three newcomers.
“Wayne, get some video of her cooking and feeding the children, and then let’s leave them to their breakfast, okay?” Wes was already entering the zone, his tone all business and action.
Heidi flittered around the kitchen in her robe, dishing out breakfast, feeding the baby a bottle and some type of thing she referred to as a biter biscuit, and shuffled away. Her movement was like poetry in motion. A practiced sonata. Seemingly out of nowhere, she prepared two lunches, one for her son who was school-age and another for her husband. Next to the lunch she placed the boy’s backpack and school necessities. Then it was a to-go coffee for David who left his plate on the table after scarfing down his meal to rush upstairs and finish getting ready.
Once father and son left together, Heidi proceeded to clean up the entire breakfast. After all that, she ate only a slice of toast. A meal fit for a king for her family, yet she only had time enough for a dry slice of bread and a sip of coffee.
“Gotta get Lynndy and Lisa ready for a playdate and Gymboree.” She gestured to her toddler who I surmised was about three and the baby only six months old or so.
For the rest of the day, we followed Heidi around. Her life was exhausting. She definitely did not give me the grand idea of wanting to bust out a bunch of mini-me's and start my own basketball team. Wes, on the other hand, was enamored with her, loved how efficient and selfless she was. He made sure that the best shots were captured—the sweet moments between mother and child, husband and wife—with an excitement I had previously only hoped he’d have today.
When we went back to the house after picking up her son from school, she set about doing homework with him. The math alone for a third grader was outrageous. Nothing like what I’d had at his age. Thank God I had someone like Wes who could take care of these types of things with our future children.