"C'mon, Aggie, you're going to be late!"

The young mother was running through the parking lot, a duffel bag bouncing violently on her hip, her hand dragging a little boy behind her as she ran. He was about six, and panting as he used his tiny legs to their fullest capacity.

"Mommy I –" pant "-can't-" pant "keep up!"

Anna paused, and turned around with her lip caught between her teeth to hoist the little boy up on her hip. He was getting to be too big for her to carry, but she would be damned if she were late for the first meeting and practice. It had taken her a lot of negotiating and crying to get him onto this team, and she knew how bad it would look if she weren't on time.

When they got to the entrance to the park, she hastily scanned over the board to find out which field their team was practicing on.

"Okay... field... ten?! That's all the way in the back..." She sighed, shifted her son's weight to her other side and began her trek to the back of the park. After all was said and done, she found herself jogging up to the rest of the parents barely one minute before the meeting was scheduled to begin.

"Cutting it a little close there, aren't you?" The redhead glanced up to see a strange man approaching her, an unamused expression falling over his features. "You know, lots of people want on this team. If you make this a habit, they might give your spot to someone a little more dedicated."

"And who are you?" she asked, heat and stress causing her to be much more easily irritated than normal. Why would she need to explain herself to this guy?

He smirked at her. "Kristoff Bjorgman."

She remained looking unimpressed.

"The coach."

Features falling into a red flush of embarrassment, Anna dropped her face into her hands. "Oh, gosh. I'm sorry. I just... I overslept and then Agdar was nervous and -"

The blond laughed, shook his head and glanced down to the clipboard in front of him.

"What?"

"You're Anna Arne, yeah?"

She blinked a few times, propping a hand on her hip. "...Yes?"

A smirk pulled at his lips as he flipped to her paperwork. "You're the one who caused a huge fuss to get on this specific team, right? Who cried a lot and -"

He looked up just long enough to notice that her face was burning so brightly that she probably could fog up glass, and stopped his teasing. Letting out a heavy sigh, Kristoff dropped his hands to his sides when she moved to speak.

"Look, I know it's... totally embarrassing that I did that," Anna started, tugging on the bottom of her braids. "Aggie he... he's sensitive. He's been teased his whole life -" Freezing, her hands shot forward to grasp onto his arm. "- Did you know they had a kick a ginger day at his school? Kick a ginger day! How many little redheaded boys do you think go to his school?" When the blond just stared at her confused, she threw her hands up in the air. "Two! There are two!"

Noticing the other parents staring onward, Kristoff placed a warm hand on her back to lead her a little further away in order to gain some semblance of privacy. She crossed her arms protectively over her chest. "Plus... His dad isn't in the picture anymore. And... Well, he spread some rumors about me when he first left. But I can't afford to move and..."

She trailed off, biting her lip and shaking her head. "I'm sorry, you probably don't care about this." Chuckling, Anna swiped a hand under her eyes. "I know I was embarrassing and rude and I probably took the spot from some other little boy but I just... I heard that you were really supportive and didn't tolerate bullying and I wanted to make sure he was on the best team."

With a soft smile, Kristoff clapped his hand on her tiny shoulder. "I get it. I'm... well I'm not a dad, but my little brother looks at me like one." He moved to stand next to her, pointing his free hand out to the field where the kids were already playing and laughing. "The little one – right there... that's him. Gabe, his name is."

Anna was more than a little confused. The coach must have been close to his thirties, but his brother was maybe seven, at most.

"My ma adopted him pretty recently. I'm the one he clung to, apparently. But I love that kid."

That made more sense.

They turned to face one another again. "He gets teased about not having parents. So I get it. That's why I run this team the way I do. Zero tolerance." He shot her a grin, earning a warm smile back from the redhead. "I think it's amazing what you did for your son."

Swiping under her eyes again, Anna couldn't hold herself back. She darted forward, wrapped her arms tightly around his waist, and buried her nose into his chest. "Thank you," she mumbled, her words choked back by tears.

It was his turn to blush now, his arms awkwardly flying out to the side and barely patting her on top of her head. "U-uh, yeah... sure." He moved to push her away from him, completely averting his gaze. "A-anyway. Meeting. Practice. Thanks to you we're now five minutes behind schedule."

She smiled, laughed to herself and stood straight up and down. "Sorry, sorry. But thank you."

Kristoff turned to walk back towards the waiting parents and kids, waving a hand over his shoulder. "Don't mention it."

The meeting had been simple enough. Practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and games on Saturdays – and once a month there would be a meeting for the parents. When it came time for all the kids to get to know one another, and all the parents to chat about town gossip, Anna had stepped off to the side to sit alone on the bleachers.

All of the parents knew her, she was sure, and judging by their snickering glances in her direction, wanted nothing to do with her. She didn't care, though. It didn't matter what they thought, after all. She knew it wasn't true, and so did her son. That was what mattered.

She pulled a leather planner from her bag and started flipping through the pages, nibbling on the end of her pen. Was she really even going to have time for this? She had mentioned it to her boss before, and they said they would give her longer hours on Mondays and Wednesdays to make up for the lost time when there was practice. But then that meant she would have to pay for a sitter on those days, and she wasn't sure she could afford that and –

"Mind if I sit here?"

Almost jumping out of her skin, Anna's whole head darted up to look at the tall blond standing in front of her. "Oh, no, please. Be my guest."

He sat quietly, rubbing a hand at the back of his neck while she turned her eyes back down to her book.

"Not a fan of socializing?"

"More like not a fan of being made fun of." She gestured vaguely in the direction of the other parents, and shrugged. "They all," she paused to put her pen down and make small quotation marks with her fingers, "know me. And they don't like me."

Kristoff blushed, wondering silently to himself how anyone could not like her. She seemed sweet and kind and like she was willing to do anything for her son. That was... pretty admirable, he thought. He tried so hard to remember if he had heard anything about her. He was a bartender, after all... Hearing things kind of came with the job.

"Wait – was your husband -"

"Ex husband"

"... Ex husband... Was he that... Westergard guy?"

Stiffening under his gaze, she turned a sad eye towards him. "Ah, so you know me too."

His hair bounced around his ears as he shook his head. "No. I know of you. But I never really listen to rumors."

Anna took in a heavy breath as he smiled at her, and found herself getting lost in his gaze. He might be the first person who didn't judge her right off the bat because of what her lying, manipulative ex-husband had said. But before she had a chance to say something, she saw her son running up towards them.

"Mister B! Alex needs help!" He glanced up and shot his mom a beaming smile. "Hi mommy!"

Waving, the redhead sighed. "Hi baby. Having fun?"

"Lots!" He heard laughing on the field, and immediately ran up the bleachers to grab at Kristoff's shirt. "C'mon, Mister B!"

Anna waved at Kristoff as her son dragged him off, staring onward with impressed eyes as the blond scooped him up under his arm and ran out towards the field. Not many people around here were kind to her – much less Agdar... With a sigh, she turned back to her planner. She'd have to find some way to thank the coach.

The practice took about an hour and a half. All of the boys were just far too eager to get to know one another to play, and Kristoff could barely manage to get control of them long enough to teach them the proper way to hold a baseball and pitch. They mostly had just been throwing the ball back and forth, but Anna couldn't stop herself from tearing up on the bleachers.

It had been so long since she had seen her son smiling so brightly – even longer since she had seen him enjoy himself. Between being bullied at school and his father leaving, Agdar had dealt with a lot in just his short six years of life, and she could not have been happier that they finally found something he might love.

After giving a small pep talk, Kristoff moved to dismiss all the kids, giving them all high fives as they made their ways back to their respective parents. He waited for his brother to say farewell to all of his friends before hoisting him up on his shoulders. "All right bud, let's get home. You know ma hates when we're late."

Anna had stood to step down the bleachers and meet her son, who came barreling at her to wrap his arms around her legs. "Hi honey," she mumbled, her eyes glancing up from under her lashes to keep an eye on the blond coach (who was being stopped by all the mothers, who were obviously swooning over him). "Did you enjoy yourself? Do you want to come back?"

The little boy let go of her and jumped up and down in place, a huge smile stretching his cheeks. "Yeah! I loved it! I wanna do it all week!"

Placing a hand on his head, Anna smiled and knelt down beside him. "You have no idea how happy that makes me."

She risked one look upwards, and caught the coach staring at her, a grin on his lips.

She had to.

"Hang on one second, okay? Mommy will be right back."

He nodded and sat on the bleacher beside her bag, kicking his feet and smiling.

"Kristoff!" she hollered, jogging over to him and watching as he perked up and turned to face her fully.

"Hey there, Red." He used his free hand to push his bangs up and out of his eyes. "Agdar have a good time?"

She was breathing just a little heavier when she stopped in front of him, a dumb smile plastered on her face. "Yes, he loved it. Thank you." Anna paused, caught her lip in between her teeth, and let out a breathy laugh. "L-look... this is going to sound super presumptuous... But would you like to get a drink with me sometime?"

His shoulders relaxed, and he let out a soft laugh. "Yeah. Yes. I would like that a lot."

Pressing her lips together to stop her jaw from hurting, she nodded. "Great! That's... that's really great. Okay. Um..." She dug in her pockets to find her pen and a sheet of paper, and scribbled down her number. "Just... let me know."

The little boy atop his shoulders reached forward to accept the paper, and Kristoff waved as he walked off, his dopey grin still tearing at his cheeks.