Acting Up (30 page)

Seth's expression softened. “She's special, and you're scared.”

“Terrified…” Ethan rested his hands on his knees, breathing deeply. “How do you
do
this? How do you look at Julia without being ripped apart by guilt? If Julia was different from Beth, Addison is like an alien species compared to Jenny.”

“I think I finally learned to love both women.”

“Both?”

“I still miss Beth every day,” Seth said, his voice growing thick. “She was my first love, but I can't compare her to Julia. They're part of different lives. I'm not the same person who was married to Beth. Julia is right for me now. We're right for each other because of everything we've been through. From what I understand, Addison hasn't had an easy life, and I'm not talking about only the last few months.”

“I know,” Ethan said, thinking about the little girl who'd lost her father and mother in the same afternoon. The woman whose husband had told her to get rid of their baby. “She's told me a little.”

“I'm guessing she doesn't open up with many people.”

“Probably not.”

“The thing is, you can only judge by who you are now.”

“I can't imagine Addison being right for me. She'll never stay here.”

“Oh, so you know God's plan now?” Seth challenged. “If Addison had the right incentive, maybe she would.”

“And maybe she wouldn't,” Ethan said. “Besides, it's not just me I have to worry about. I've got two little boys who could be hurt, too.”

“I know you want to protect them, but consider this… What if by opening your heart again, you can teach your sons to reach for love, no matter what? What if you can teach them life can still bring joy even when devastating things happen? Maybe that's more important than protecting them from being hurt.”

Ethan groaned and wiped a hand across his face. “I hate it when you make sense.”

A knowing chuckle escaped. “Do you remember when the three of you ganged up on me over Julia?” Seth asked. “You said maybe it was time for me to let go.”

“Yes… and I'm sorry I ever tried to give you advice,” Ethan said. “What did I know?”

“You knew what I needed to hear,” Seth said. “I'm just returning the favor because I think maybe it's time for you to let go now.”

Ethan couldn't shake the conversation as he drove home to shower and change. Could Seth be right? Was it time? Maybe the renewed feelings of grief weren't simply over Addison, but another sign of his heart healing.

He needed to pick up his sons. Dealing with twin, eight-year-old boys left no room for deep thoughts. He drove to his mother's house. The boys burst out the door before Ethan could even turn off the car. They crowded around him as he got out.

“Dad, Dad! Can we?” Carson asked.

Jason echoed his brother, of course. “Yeah, can we?”

“Can you what?” Ethan asked. As usual with his boys, he felt as if he'd dropped into the conversation at the midway point.

By now his mother had joined the greeting party. “Hello, dear.”

“Ah, an interpreter,” Ethan drawled. “What's got them so keyed up?”

Instead of answering, his mother nodded at the twins. They jerked their heads in response and turned.

“Can we ask Miss Addison to take us to the bowling tournament?” Carson asked.

“Yeah,” Jason seconded. “It's tomorrow.”

“What bowling tournament?”

“The mother-son one,” Jason said.

Carson finished the explanation. “You know, Dad… they do it every year.”

Startled, Ethan swung around to stare at his mother.

“Don't look at me,” she said, all innocence. “It was all their idea.”

Deep down, Ethan's gut twisted. The mother-son bowling tournament. His sons wanted Addison Covington to stand in as their mother.

Addison returned home from rehearsal and discovered she had visitors. Jason and Carson were perched on either arm of her aunt's recliner, while Caroline Thomas sat a few feet away on the sofa. The twins jumped up when Addison walked in and rushed over to throw their arms around her middle.

“What a great welcome,” Addison said, kissing the top of their heads. “Did you come to visit with Mimi Ruth?”

“Yeah,” Jason said.

“She's better now,” Carson reported.

Addison sent her aunt a warm smile. “She's getting there.”

Caroline cleared her throat. “Actually, the twins had one other reason for coming over.”

The boys shared a secret twin glance. Carson jerked his head toward Addison, but Jason shook his head.

“You do it,” Carson implored.

“No, you.”

Caroline coughed to cover a laugh.

“What's going on?” Addison asked in confusion.

“The boys wanted to ask if you would take them to the Mother-Son Bowling Bonanza,” Caroline said.

“Yeah!” Jason and Carson cried in unison.

The explanation did little to clear up Addison's confusion. “A what?”

“The church has an annual mother-son event,” Caroline explained. “Last year it was a minor league baseball game. This year they're having a bowling tournament.”

“A mother-son…” Understanding dawned. “Oh!”

Addison glanced at Aunt Ruth, who put a hand to her heart in a gesture of sympathy.

Caroline held her smile, but her eyes were shadowed. “Jenny's mother and I took them last year.”

Addison gazed down at the boys, who suddenly seemed smaller and much more fragile. “Are you sure you want me to go with you?”

Their expressions were serious as they nodded.

“I'd be honored.”

The corners of their mouths turned up. “Cool…” they chorused together.

Caroline clapped her hands. “Boys, your dad will be here soon to pick you up. Why don't you go get your things?”

They gave Addison one last squeeze before racing out the door. Caroline waited until they were gone and then walked over to wrap Addison in a fierce hug. “Thank you.”

Trailing after the boys, Addison had the strangest urge to weep. She turned back to Aunt Ruth, who was observing the proceedings with obvious enjoyment. Her chin rested in her hand, and she was smiling like she had a secret.

Addison frowned. “What?”

“Nothing,” Aunt Ruth said, waving a hand in the air.

Yeah, right
. “That grin doesn't say ‘nothing'.”

“Honey, if I told you now, you'd only get your back up,” she said.

Addison stared before letting out a sigh of bemusement. “Whatever you say.” She turned to go up to her room, the sound of her aunt's laughter following her up the stairs. “Hey?” she called back. “What does one wear to a Mother-Son Bowling Bonanza anyway?”

Sound exploded around her as Addison stepped inside the bowling alley. Jangling bells and beeps from video games mixed with the ear-splitting crashes of pins scattering. A number of the lanes were occupied. There were families, as well as professional-looking types wearing matching button-down shirts. Cheers went up around the building along with the crashing pins.

Aaron stared in astonishment. “People do this for fun?”

“Welcome to real life,” she said, patting his back.

The comment earned her a baleful expression. “Like you do this every week.”

“I've gone bowling before,” Addison said with a haughty smile.

“When?”

She had to think about it.

Aaron chuckled like the evil child he was. “I'm not the one who bought my own shoes.”

No sense denying the accusation. Humiliating herself playing a game she hadn't attempted since childhood was one thing, but Addison balked at putting on shoes worn by hundreds of other feet.

“You didn't have to bring me along, you know,” Aaron said.

“Of course I did,” she said, hooking an arm around his shoulders. “You're my de facto son. Besides, Elizabeth and Diana told me there are usually a lot of teenagers at these things.”

“They're coming, too?”

“Mm-hmm. Bringing their boys.”

A voice reached her above the cacophony of noise. Elizabeth was waving from a few lanes down. The twins had spotted Addison, too. They raced over, talking a mile a minute about the bowling balls they'd picked out and their super cool red and blue shoes. Their excitement became even more palpable when they noticed Aaron.

“You gotta get shoes,” Jason told them.

Addison held up her brand new purchase.

“She's got her own pair,” Carson said in a reverent tone.

“Aaron needs some, though,” Addison said.

Jason grabbed Aaron's hand. “I can take him!”

The teenager gave her a put-upon glare as he was dragged away, but went along without protest.

Carson grinned up at her. “Did ya bring your own ball, too?”

“No.”

“I'll help you look.” He led her over to a waist-high wall, filled with racks of bowling balls. Addison picked up a pretty purple one, only to have her arm make like a boat anchor and drop like a stone.

“You need a lighter one,” Carson said.

A prolonged search did no good. Addison couldn't find one less than fourteen pounds. Finally, Carson led her to a smaller rack featuring plain blue, pink, and green balls.

“These are the ones we use,” Carson said.

Of course. Since picking up one didn't cause Addison's shoulder to dislocate, she kept it. Aaron and Jason were already at their assigned lane. She noticed her stepson had a cool, multi-colored green bowling ball.

Aaron rolled his eyes when he spotted her puny pink one. “Raided the kiddie shelf?”

“Shut up.”

Elizabeth had already divided their group. Aaron, Jason, Carson, and Addison were in one lane and Elizabeth, Diana, Matty, and JJ were in the next.

Addison noticed two other mother-son teams were also with them. One woman was short with blond hair and a nicely rounded figure. The other was nearly six feet tall and skinny as a rail. Their expressions were cool. Addison wasn't sure what she'd done to earn such looks. Had she overdressed for the occasion? She'd worn jeans and a red tank top with a long-sleeved white shirt. Sure, the jeans were designer label, but those mothers didn't know how much she'd paid for them.

Her smile of greeting was met with cold expressions. Stung, Addison walked over to an empty seat and sat down to put on her shoes. Being treated like a monster out to crush the little village was getting tiresome. What had she ever done to warrant such distrust?

Elizabeth plopped into the chair next to her.

“I think I've managed to tick off our teammates without saying a word,” Addison said, careful to keep her face averted from the other women.

“Did you look in a mirror tonight?”

“I'm sure I did at some point,” she said, slipping on the first shoe and lacing it up. “Why?”

“A Hollywood star comes waltzing into a bowling alley looking like she just stepped off the pages of a magazine—”

“I'm wearing jeans and a shirt, the same as they are,” Addison said, stung at yet more criticism. If only they all knew how long she'd spent arguing with herself over what to wear tonight. The decision had taken literally hours, and yet she'd still somehow made the wrong choice.

“Honey, you could wear a burlap sack and still look like a movie star,” Elizabeth said, unaware of Addison's roiling discomfort. “I think you sometimes forget how beautiful you are. It can be intimidating to us regular women.”

“Oh—” Her anger evaporated.

“Don't worry,” Elizabeth said. “They'll warm up to you soon. Just give them time.”

Nope. I'm tired of waiting.

Addison finished lacing her shoes and stood up. “Introduce me.”

Elizabeth gave a puzzled glance, but shrugged. “Okay.”

As they approached the two mothers, their shoulders stiffened and they pasted on the kind of smile people used with someone they didn't like but couldn't afford to offend.

“Hi, ladies, have you met our other teammate?” Elizabeth asked.

They shook their heads silently.

“Addison, this is Jan Brown and Franny Miller,” Elizabeth said, indicating the blonde and the tall woman respectively. “The redhead, arm-wrestling with my son, is Jan's son, Chris. And Franny's son is named Bryce. He's the one playing referee.”

“Wonderful to meet you,” Addison said, flashing a thousand-watt smile. “This is such a great idea.”

The women nodded their agreement but still acted as though they expected some kind of mean girl attack.

“Have you ever bowled before?” Franny asked.

It was the opening Addison had been hoping for.

“I'm sure I went bowling when I was a kid, but it's been so long I'll probably be horrible,” she said, letting out an embarrassed chuckle. “Please don't laugh when I screw up.”

“We wouldn't,” Jan said, unbending a little.

“Promises, promises,” Addison said. “Anyway, I couldn't say no when the twins asked. Poor things.”