Sharon was soon keeping track of James' keys and wallet and doing the talking when he felt uncomfortable. James kept Sharon calm in chaotic moments.
"We balance each other out," Sharon said.
"I felt safe with her, and like we could do anything when we were together," James said.
They kissed for the first time a year after they met. He continued to work, she went to school, and they enjoyed concerts and pay-per-view wrestling matches together.
On Halloween 2002, the couple got news that truly frightened them: Sharon was pregnant.
Overwhelmed by their impending parenthood, their relationship was strained until it broke, two months into the pregnancy.
Sharon graduated and did her student teaching in spring 2003.
That July 9, James rushed from his second produce job to the hospital, but Sharon did not want him in the delivery room. Baby boy Ryley's parents were madly in love with him, but they barely spoke to each other.
Sharon became a special-education teacher at Overbrook High in Pine Hill, where she still works. Eventually, she began dating again. So did James, who left the supermarket industry to become a middle-school custodian.
In spring 2008, Ryley was 4, and Sharon, who had purchased a house in her hometown, signed him up for Blackwood's T-ball program. James was not happy. James had dreamed of his son playing in nearby Erial, in the same baseball program that gave him his start.
But that didn't keep him, his parents John and Sue, and other family members from turning up for Ryley's first game. The little guy had an entourage: Sharon's parents, Tom and Susan, and her other family members also attended.
