Change of Hart (14 page)

“Let’s say you and I were to try this,” she said. “When you date a mother, you date the whole family, right?”

I nodded.

“Fast forward to when it didn’t work out. You’d stop coming around as much. You wouldn’t call as often. Not only would I be heartbroken, but Jaxon would be, too.” She sat back and looked at me. “I’ve watched my little boy lose one hero. I’m not willing to watch it happen again. Not even for a really hot guy.”

She stood up to walk inside.

“Hey, Addison,” I said, looking up at her, “If I had met you first, would you have gone out with me? And maybe left Jaxon out of it until you trusted me more?”

She smiled. “Probably. But the thing is, you didn’t meet me first. And him being able to count on a hero is more important than me being able to date.”

With that, she turned around and walked in the house, gently closing the door behind her.

I sat on the steps thinking for a good ten minutes after she went inside, trying to come up with a way to make it all work. But I couldn’t. So as much as I didn’t want to, I got in my car and went home.

I
didn’t sleep worth a shit that night, which wasn’t good, considering I had a game to play the next day. My mind kept going over the conversation Addison and I had had. I wasn’t just pissed off at how Austin had treated her. I was also pissed off that he had wounded her so deeply, she was too scared to put herself out there again. It wasn’t fair to any of us . . . me, her or Jaxon.

At five-thirty I jumped in the car and headed to the weight room. Since we had a game, Deuce wasn’t meeting me. But I couldn’t sleep anyway, so I might as well find a few things to do on the machines by myself. Whatever it took to work off this negative energy I couldn’t get rid of.

“Incoming call from Mom,” my hands-free set said through the speakers.

I pressed the button on the steering wheel to answer. “Hey, Ma! When did you get back? Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

My mom and her new husband, Rick, had been on a month-long cruise of the Mediterranean and a few other places.

“Hi, honey! We got back last night. This jet lag is killing me. My body feels like I should be getting ready for lunch. I figured if anyone was up this early and would be willing to chat with me, it would be you.”

“Ah, the dreaded jet lag. It’s the curse of traveling to the other side of the globe for an extended vacation,” I chided. “Did you guys have fun?”

“Oh, it was wonderful!” she said. “The country, well, I guess countries, we went to were just beautiful. And the food is just amazing. You really need to go there on your honeymoon.”

“Still not getting married, ma.”

“Oh, I know,” she sighed. “But someday it’ll happen. So just keep it in mind.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said sarcastically. “Like I have kept in mind that beautiful venue you found at Rick’s Christmas party a few months ago. And the perfect non-denominational church you tried out at Easter. Oh . . . and that great DJ from Kimmie Sunandrum’s wedding last year. Yes . . . I remember it all.”

“I’m so glad to know you’re actually listening to me when I talk these days,” she ribbed. “You were such a little twerp in high school.”

“I know, Ma,” I laughed. “Speaking of high school, guess who I’ve been spending some time with?”

“Who?”

“Lindsay Miller.”

“Lindsay, who?”

“Miller. But you might remember her as Lindsay Nabours.”

“Oh! Little Lindsay Nabours?” she asked excitedly. “How is she? Is she still single? I always wanted you to date that girl!”

“Gross. That would be like dating my sister.” She scoffed. “Besides, she’s married and has a five-year-old daughter.”

“She does? Oh, that’s wonderful! When did you see her?”

“I’ve seen her a couple times, actually,” I told her. “She hasn’t changed a bit. Still her same sarcastic, witty self. And her daughter is exactly the same. It’s hilarious.”

“I’m so glad.”

I paused for a second. I had always been close to my mom, but I was nervous about broaching the next topic.

“Hey Ma, can I ask you a question about when dad died?”

She paused. “Well, that’s kind of unexpected. But sure, sweetie. You can ask me anything about him.”

“
Maybe it’s less about him and more about you.”

“Okay,” she said. “Is everything ok?”

“Yeah . . . I’m just wondering about some things.” I ran my hand over the top of my head, a little nervous about starting the conversation. “How come you didn’t date much after dad died?”

“Well, there are a couple reasons,” she started. “The big one is I just didn’t find anyone all that interesting until Rick came along. I went on a date here or there, but that was about it.”

“Were you ever worried about, ya know, me getting too attached to someone or anything like that?”

“Um, I think it may have crossed my mind,” she said. “But honestly, I don’t think I was interested enough in anyone to actually worry about it. Can I ask where these questions are coming from?”

“Ummmmm,” I tried dragging out my answer until I could come up with something good. She wasn’t having it.

“Don’t ‘ummmmm’ me, Jason Hart,” she reprimanded. “What’s up?”

I sighed. “I think I met someone.”

“Ok,” she said. “I’m remaining calm because I think there may be more to this story and I don’t wanna get my hopes up for grandbabies.”

I snickered. “Her husband died in a car accident about six months ago.”

“Oh, Jay,” she breathed.

“I know, but there are some seriously different circumstances than when dad died. At least I hope they are,” I muttered.

“Ok.”

“And she has a seven-year-old son.”

“Ah. Now I’m starting to see. And she’s concerned about her son getting attached to you.”

“It’s a little more complicated than that, but basically, yeah.”

“Well, let me ask you a question,” she said. “How did
you
feel when I went out on dates?”

I had to think about the answer. I really wasn’t sure. But as I thought, I realized it never really fazed me at all. I didn’t want anyone to replace my dad. But I never really thought too much about it when my mom went out. Even when I was old enough to realize what dates actually entail.

“I think,” she continued, “she probably likes you a lot more than she expected. And she’s probably scared of getting hurt.”

“What does that have to do with Jaxon?”

“Oh, you know his name,” she said. I just smiled. I didn’t have enough time to get into the rest of the story. “Sounds like you’re leaving some things out. But we’ll talk about that later. Anyway, as a mother, there is nothing you worry about more than your child.
Nothing
. Not your job, not your health, not your own love life. Do you already know this little boy pretty well?”

“Yeah, I do,” I admitted.

“Then it sounds like her concern is not whether or not she’s interested in you. It’s whether or not you’re going to stay interested in
him
if it doesn’t work out with
her
.”

I took a deep breath. “Ma, have I ever told you what a genius you are?”

She laughed. “Never. I think you should say it again.”

“You’re a genius!” I said with a smile. “Thanks for the chat, Mom, but I’m almost at the gym and I have one more phone call to make.”

“Ok. I’ll go wake Rick up and have him take me to breakfast. Jet lag doesn’t seem to affect him at all. Lucky bastard.” I chuckled. “Do you have a game tonight, honey? We’ve been gone for so long, I can’t remember your schedule.”

“Yeah. Kickoff is at seven-thirty. Do you want tickets? I can leave my regular seats at will call.”

“Oh no,” she said. “Not this time. By seven tonight, I’ll feel like I should have been asleep for several hours.”

“Yeah, maybe you should get over the jet lag first,” I agreed. “Well, enjoy your breakfast. Make him take you somewhere nice.”

“I will. Oh! One more thing,” she said. “This girl you’ve met?”

“Addison, yeah.”

“She’s not one of those football groupies, is she?”

I laughed. “Mom, I don’t think Addison could tell the different between a tackle and a high school wrestling match.”

“Good,” she said. “I like her already!”

“Me too. I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Ok sweetie. Have a nice workout and good luck tonight. I love you.”

“Love you, too, ma.” I hung up and immediately pressed the hands-free button on my steering wheel again.

“Jason’s phone,” it said.

“Call Adam.”

“Calling Adam.”

He finally answered after three rings, sounding groggy. I knew I was gonna wake him up, but I didn’t care. He made a good enough salary to answer an early morning call every once in a while.

“Jason? What’s up? Is everything ok?” he asked.

“Yeah. Quick question.”

“At five-forty-five in the morning I’m not sure my brain is working quick, but hit me,” he said with a yawn.

“Didn’t you say Santana was gonna be in town this week some time?” I asked as I pulled into the parking lot.

“Uh, hold on . . . yeah, I think they’re coming in town Thursday. It’s at Southside Ballroom if I remember correctly.”

“Perfect. Do you think you could get me two tickets to that? I need it set up with security, too, so we can slip in the back door and kind of stay hidden from the crowd.”

“I don’t see why that should be a problem,” he answered, sounding more awake now. “You want to have dinner before the show?”

“Check on what time it starts and if there’s an opening act first. It’s gonna take about forty minutes to get there so we may not have time to eat until afterwards.”

“Ok,” he said. I could hear his pen scribbling in the background. “I’ll check and make reservations somewhere good for either before or after the show, depending on the times. You got a hot date or something?”

I pulled into my parking space and put the gear into park. “I’m not sure yet. Keep your fingers crossed. Gotta go. I’m hitting the weights.”

“Later,” he said and the hands-free set beeped as it disconnected.

Before I got out of the car, I grabbed my phone and sent a text.

Me: Heading into practice but I’m giving you a heads up. I’m calling you after the game tonight about something important. We need to talk.

I spent the next fourteen hours concentrating on my job. Weights, running plays on the field, lunch with the coach, interviews, game.

One of the nice things about being a guy is I can compartmentalize my brain, so I didn’t think about my pending phone call much. Don’t get me wrong, Addison was never far from my brain. And she snuck in easily during some down time.

No one caught on that anything was different with me. No one except Deuce, that is. I finished showering after weight training when he approached me at the lockers and quietly chided me . . . grabbing his nuts and making a lewd gesture while saying, “She’s got you by the balls man! I can see it!”

I smacked him in the junk for that. Not hard, but hard enough that he crouched over, holding himself and said, “Don’t mess with my baby-makers,” without taking a breath.

The game was the easiest part of the day. There’s a lot of distraction and virtually no down time. There were always plays to review, fans waving things around, and of course tackling people. And we did it well. More than well. Blew out the Texans, 31-21. It was ugly. Well, not for me. For me it was awesome.

But once the game was over, there wasn’t much else for me to do except think about what I was going to say. I knew Jaxon would be asleep by the time I got home. But that last hour or so before I could get out of the stadium, past all the reporters and fans, were a killer. I didn’t have a choice, though. I needed to wait until we had no interruptions before having this conversation.

Before I knew it, I was home and it was late enough that I could call. I sat down on the couch, took a deep breath and dialed.

“I was starting to wonder if you ditched me,” she said when she picked up the phone.

I smiled at the sound of her voice. “Nah. I had a game so I didn’t get home until just now. And I wanted to make sure Jax was in bed before I took all your attention away.”

“That was really nice of you. It was a good game.”

“You guys watched it?” I asked, surprised.

“You think Jaxon would miss it?” she joked.

“Yeah . . . I guess he is the world’s biggest fan.”

We both paused for a few seconds. I was trying to get my nerves a little more under control.

“So, I wanted to talk to you a little more about our conversation last night.”

“Jason,” she started, sounding like she was pleading. “There’s nothing else to talk about.”

“Just hear me out, please?”

She sighed. “Ok. I’m listening.”

I smiled. This was my chance. “I know you’re worried about Jaxon. I know you’re worried because he and I are getting close and you’re afraid if you and I don’t work out, he’ll be the one to suffer. Am I right?”

“That’s exactly it,” she confirmed. “It doesn’t matter how attractive I find you. My first priority is my son. Over everything else.”

“I get that,” I said. “Because I
was
Jaxon. I was exactly where he’s at right now. My father was gone and I was left with just my mom. I’m so glad my Uncle Davis stepped in and took on that father figure role. But if he had left or changed his mind, I would have been devastated.”