Change of Hart (26 page)

She tried not to grin at me by biting her lip. But I wasn’t fooled. Addison was obviously a lot more relaxed since I left her house yesterday. And she was in a playful mood. I liked seeing this side of her.

“Come on. Let’s go eat. I’m starving,” I said, grabbing her hand. I wasn’t sure how she would react to my touch, but at this point, I was willing to take my chances. I needed my hands on her, Jaxon or no Jaxon.

Once we were seated and the waitress took our drink order, Jaxon took off for the lobster aquarium, just like I knew he would.

“So?” I asked, taking a drink of my water. “What did you think of watching the game from the stands?”

“It’s much more exciting watching it in the stadium than it is watching on TV,” she said with a smile on her face. “There’s so much to see. I had a lot of fun.”

“Now you know why I’ve been bugging you to come. The experience is totally different.”

“I’m glad Vanessa came,” she said while looking at the menu. I didn’t need to look. I already knew it by heart. And today was buffet day. “I was nervous about having all the cameras there, but she’s so relaxed. It made it a lot easier.”

“Yeah, she’s a pro at being a football wife,” I agreed. “I don’t know how she puts up with Deuce. But she really knows how to balance the fame from reality.”

“She really does.” She put the menu down and leaned forward on her elbows. “Ok, so tell me something. What is that thing you do where you smack your helmet and point at us?”

I sat back and laughed. “I honestly don’t know,” I said. “I guess I just got excited when I saw you guys sitting there and it just sort of . . . happened.”

She smirked at me. “Well, whatever it was, it was really sweet.”

We sat there just looking in each other’s eyes and having a moment when Jaxon came running up.

“Jason, there’s a buffet here. Can we eat the buffet? I’m starving!”

“How are you starving?” Addison asked incredulously. “You had a hot dog and popcorn during the game.”

“Leave him alone,” I joked. “He’s turning into a man! He needs his food.”

She just rolled her eyes as Jaxon and I wandered over to the buffet, filling up several plates. I even brought one back for her.

As we ate, we chatted more about the game and Jaxon talked about school.

“Mom, is Jason your boyfriend?”

Addison and I froze. I looked over and saw her looking at me. The question had come out of nowhere and I honestly didn’t know how she wanted us to respond.

I leaned back and finished chewing the bite I had just taken.

“What makes you ask that, buddy?” I asked slowly while wiping off my mouth with a napkin.

He shrugged. “One of those people outside our house yelled, ‘How does it feel to have Jason Hart as your boyfriend,’ when you were there yesterday. I heard them.” He turned to look at Addison. “So is he? Is Jason your boyfriend?”

She took a deep breath before answering. “Well. I mean . . . uh, yes. Yes, Jason is my boyfriend. Is that ok with you?”

I could see she was really nervous about his pending answer. But in true Jaxon fashion, he didn’t disappoint.

“Well, yeah, duh,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I gave him permission to take you on dates.”

I stifled a laugh and tried to sound commanding when I reprimanded him. “Don’t roll your eyes at your mom, Jax. It’s disrespectful.”

“Sorry,” he said and continued on. “Is that why all those people keep coming to our house?”

I smirked at the fact that none of this really fazed him at all. I had known Addison was worried for nothing. But I wasn’t about to tell her that. She needed to process all of this in her own way. She was a worrier by nature and I wasn’t about to try and change who she was.

“You know how there are lots of cameras at the football games, Jax, and how I have to do lots of interviews and stuff?” I asked. Trying to explain the fascination with celebrity to a seven-year-old wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.

“Yeah . . . cause you’re famous,” he said matter-of-factly. Ok, so maybe he understood better than I thought.

“Right,” I continued. “So sometimes when someone who is famous starts dating, it makes people really, really curious about the girlfriend.”

“So people wanna know things about my mom?” he asked, trying to understand what I was getting at.

I nodded. “That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.”

“Oh,” he looked at his plate and picked up his fork again, spearing some mac and cheese. “Ok.”

“That’s it?” Addison asked. “You don’t have any more questions?” I think she was surprised that he didn’t freak out over this new revelation.

Jaxon shrugged and changed topics, telling me all about some guy who had apparently painted the entire front of his body for the game, and danced around the stands like a fool.

I looked at Addison and smirked. She shook her head and continued on with her meal.

The entire conversation took only a small amount of time. But to me, it felt like a huge boulder had been moved out of the way of my relationship with Addison. More than anything in the world, she was worried about Jaxon. And if he was ok with this, it meant she didn’t have to sneak around anymore. Or make up excuses when we spent time together. Yes, we would still keep our time spent together separate. But I knew it also meant I would be incorporated into their lives more. And that was an awesome feeling.

Even better than making my first touchdown.

H
aving Addison at the game seemed to do the trick. By the next morning, news crews stopped showing up at the house and Adam stopped getting inquires about our relationship. By Wednesday, Jaxon was able to go back to school and Addison went back to work. Just as predicted, something interesting happened to another local celebrity, so we were old news. And it was perfectly fine with us.

“Did you know, when a woman is pregnant, her entire areola and nipple gets bigger and darker on her breast?” Deuce asked as we were showering after practice. “Like it’s turning into a big target for the baby’s mouth.”

“Are you really talking to me about your wife’s nipples while we’re in the shower?” I asked as I rinsed the shampoo out of my hair and off my body.

“I was talking about pregnancy in general, asshole,” he responded. “I read it in my pregnancy book last night.”

I just shook my head. He had been reading at least one chapter in that book every day for the past week and the next day I always got to hear about some new, random bit of information I never wanted to know.

“Although, when she was saving a horse and riding this cowboy last night, her nipple was a giant target for
my
mouth.”

“And I’m out,” I said, shutting off the water and grabbing a towel to leave as fast as I could. “I don’t need to know this stuff,” I said over my shoulder.

“It’s a beautiful and natural part of marriage,” he yelled after me, laughing at my exit.

“Fucking Deuce,” I muttered with a chuckle as I opened my locker and started getting dressed. I glanced down at my phone and saw the blue light flashing, indicating I had a missed text.

And three missed calls. All from Addison.

Addison: Call me as soon as you can.

That’s all the text said. I didn’t bother listening to the voice messages, I just called her back.

“Jason,” she said after answering on the first ring, “are you done with practice for the day?”

“We just got done,” I said, grabbing my clothes and yanking my boxer briefs over my hips. “What’s wrong? Are you ok?”

“Yeah. There was just . . . I don’t know . . . some sort of incident at the school,” she said, sounding worried.

My blood ran cold as all the possibilities ran through my mind. “What kind of incident? Is Jax ok?”

“As far as I know,” she said softly. “He was in a fight.”

“What?” I asked, stopping dead in my tracks. My body relaxed, but I still didn’t believe what I was hearing. “Jaxon . . . our Jaxon . . . was in a fight?”

I heard Deuce snicker next to me. I hadn’t heard him walk up.

“What happened?”

She sighed. “I don’t know. All I know is he was in a fight at lunch with another little boy and now he has to be taken home for the day.”

“Ok.”

“But I can’t take off another day of work, I just got back,” she said. “And Mick is just as far behind on work as I am.” She paused. “Can you possibly pick him up?”

I pulled my jeans up as I talked, grabbing my wallet and shoving it in my back pocket. “Of course I can. We’re done for the day. Did you let the school know I’m coming for him?”

“Yeah. I gave them authorization over the phone.” She sounded like the entire situation made her uncomfortable when she said, “I’m so sorry to put this on you, Jason. I just don’t know what else to do.”

“Babe,” I said quietly, “this is what you’re supposed to do. You’re supposed to call me when things like this happen so I can help.”

“I know,” she said. I could hear the small smile in her voice. “This is just all new to me. I’ll get used to it.”

“I know you will. Listen, I need to finish getting dressed and then I’m headed in that direction. Shouldn’t take me longer than forty-five minutes to get there.”

“Ok. Thanks Jason. I so, so appreciate you.”

“Any time, babe. I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Ok, bye.”

We hung up and I put the phone down long enough to pull my t-shirt over my head and grab my shoes.

“Jaxon’s already getting in schoolyard fights?” Deuce asked as I put my socks and shoes on. “Did he win?”

“I hope so,” I answered with a smile. “But before I pat him on the back, I need to figure out what started the fight in the first place.”

I grabbed my keys and slammed my locker door, heading toward the exit. “Later,” I said to Deuce over my shoulder.

“See ya. And tell the little Mike Tyson I said hi.”

It took me thirty-five minutes to get there, door-to-door.

From the look on the receptionist’s face as I signed in, they were expecting me. When the principal, Mrs. Teske, came to escort me into the building, I could tell they weren’t nearly as happy to see me as they were last time I was here. But I guess they wouldn’t be since I was here to take a rabble-rouser off their hands.

She led me through the office and around the corner to a small hallway with an “Employees Only” placard on the wall. We passed a door on the left before she led me through the second door into what I assumed was her office. On the right was a circular table and a few chairs.

And there was Jaxon sitting in one of those chairs.

“Have a seat, Mr. Hart,” Mrs. Teske said. I grabbed the chair next to Jaxon and pulled it around so I was sitting in front of him.

“Thanks,” I said to Mrs. Teske and then turned my attention to Jaxon. “Hey Jax.”

“Hi,” he mumbled, arms crossed over his chest, feet dangling off the chair. “Where’s my mom.”

He didn’t say it like a question. It was more of a statement. A statement that meant whatever was going on made him really angry and I wasn’t the person he wanted to see right now.

“She’s at work, buddy,” I said gently, wishing he would make eye contact with me. “And so’s your Pee-paw. She called and asked if I would come pick you up since I was finished with practice for the day. Is that ok with you?”

He paused briefly before he nodded once.

“You wanna tell me what happened?” I asked, leaning my elbows on my knees and clasping my hands in front of me.

“No,” he mumbled into his chest. His brows were furrowed and he wouldn’t look up at me. I’d never seen Jaxon like this before. And frankly, I wasn’t sure how to handle his defiance. Fortunately, Mrs. Teske dealt with kids all the time and had no problem jumping in.

“Well, Mr. Hart, Jaxon and another student got in a fight during lunch,” she said, pausing to give Jaxon a chance to say something. He didn’t.

“Is that true, Jaxon?” I knew the answer, but I wanted him to tell me what was going on. When he didn’t respond, Mrs. Teske kept on with her version of the story.

“From what the other little boy says, he was just sitting there eating lunch when Jaxon attacked him for no reason.”

Jaxon whipped his head up in disbelief. “Nuh uh! That meany buttholehead Vincent Parker said Jason was my mom’s boyfriend!”

I cocked my head and looked at Mrs. Teske, not quite sure how to proceed.

“Ok, Jax,” she said, putting a hand gently on his arm. “I know you’re angry, but we need to not call people names, ok?”

He slumped back down in his chair in defeat.

“Jax,” I said, clearing my throat. “Buddy, I am your mom’s boyfriend. We talked about this the other day. You said you were ok with it. I’m not understanding what changed.”

We sat silently, waiting for him to tell us more, but he didn’t.

“Mr. Hart,” Mrs. Teske said gently, “I’m not sure what happened between the boys. I suspect there’s more going on than what Jaxon will tell us. But he knocked the other boy’s front tooth out. He’s on the way to the dentist now.”

I looked back over at Jaxon, still sitting with his arms over his chest.

“Jax,” I said, “I don’t care what this kid said about your mom and me. You can’t go around punching people when they do it. Words are just words, buddy. And people are gonna say mean things.”