Change of Hart

by M. E. Carter

  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.”

  I stopped for a minute and let that sink in while carefully coming up with my next words.

  “Addison,” I said gently, “I’m not the guy who is gonna change his mind. I can’t guarantee that you and I will work out. Hell, maybe we’ll go on one date and decide we hate each other.”

  She snickered softly.

  “But meeting Jaxon first means something. My friendship with him doesn’t have anything to do with whatever is going on between me and you.”

  “Jason,” she said quietly, “If you and I don’t work out . . . I just . . . I can’t watch him lose another man he idolizes. I just can’t.”

  “I don’t want to see that either,” I said. “So I have an idea.”

  “Ok,” she said. “Still listening.”

  “What if we keep the two relationships separate?” I asked hopefully. I knew this was a good idea. I just had to convince Addison it was.

  “How?”

  “Easy. When you and I go on dates, he doesn’t know. We either meet up, or I don’t come to the door, or whatever. I still have my one-on-one time with Jax, that won’t change,” I stood up and started pacing the room. I was talking fast, but I couldn’t seem to slow down. “And when I call, I’m either calling for Jaxon or for you, not both. If I talk to him, when I’m done, I hang up and call you later when you’re not busy. We don’t lie to him. If he asks, we tell him the truth. But we don’t make it out to be this big deal. We just kind of . . . downplay it in front of him. Until we both feel confident in where this is headed.”

  I stopped walking and held my breath.

  “I . . . ,” she stammered, “I . . . I’m just so scared, Jason.”

  “I know,” I said, dropping back down onto the couch. “I’m kind of scared, too.”

  “What are you afraid of?”

  “Well,” I said, rubbing my hand across my head, “If we try this and it doesn’t work, not only do I lose you, I run the risk of losing him, too.”

  I paused, holding my breath, waiting for her to say something. Anything.

  “That was one of the sexiest things I’ve ever heard a man say,” she said.

  I started laughing. “Well thank you. I wasn’t going for sexy, though. I was going for honesty, I promise.”

  “I know,” she said. “What do we do if there are things that overlap?”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know, like recitals or plays or something?”

  “What, are you putting him in ballet or something girly like that?” I asked. “You’re not gonna make him wear a tutu or anything, right? I mean. . . unless he wants to wear a tutu. Then I’ll, uh, be totally on board.”

  “Shut up,” she said jokingly. “I’m just throwing out examples. I can’t think of anything right now.”

  “I think we just take it as it comes. We do our best to not go on ‘family dates’ or whatever you want to call them. But I’m not gonna tell you not to come to Emma’s next birthday party or something. We can make decisions on a case-by-case basis.” />
  She took a deep breath. “I think,” she said, “If you can promise me, guarantee Jaxon won’t be affected by fluctuations in our . . . ‘relationship’, or whatever it’s called . . . I think I might like to go out on a date with you.”

  A wide smile crossed my face. “Really?” I asked. I had heard her just fine. I just wanted to give her one last chance to back out of it.

  “Really,” she said, sounding much more confident than she had even a few seconds before.

  I punched my fist in the air in victory quietly so she wouldn’t hear and flopped back on the couch. “Good. Because I actually have tickets to see Santana on Thursday night and I was hoping you’d go with me.”

  “How did you know I liked Santana?” she asked.

  “I didn’t,” I said. “But that man is a legacy. We can’t miss seeing him while he’s in town! Who knows how many shows he has left?”

  “That sounds fun. But,” she said. My heart dropped when I heard that last word. “I mean, I’m a little worried about going out in public with you. You know how I feel about having the spotlight on us right now.”

  I relaxed when I heard her concerns. Adam had already taken care of that for me. “Don’t even worry about that. My manager always contacts security when I go to things like this. They already have it planned for us to slide on in through the back door and sit in a more secluded area. I can’t guarantee no one will recognize me, but it cuts down a lot on being seen.”

  “Wow. You’ve got it all worked out, don’t you,” she said.

  I smiled. “I’ve done this once or twice before. I’ve learned how to be stealth.”

  “Well, in that case,” she said, “let’s do it.”

  I couldn’t stop smiling as we worked out the details. In the course of a few short weeks, what I thought could be the perfect woman had fallen into my lap and now she had finally agreed to go out with me. It was time to put aside my self-imposed bachelorhood and see where this was about to go.

  Three days isn’t really a long period of time, but waiting three days for my first date with Addison seemed a lot longer. I felt like such a pansy, but I was really excited about spending some time alone with her. When I thought about it, we really had only seen each other a couple times. The most time we’d spent talking was on the phone and by text. Except at Jaxon’s birthday party.

  I really, really hoped I could get a repeat of that kiss. Minus her freaking out, of course.

  I decided to get a car and driver for the night. It would be a heck of a lot easier for a driver to drop us off in the back of the venue than it would for me to try to figure out where to park. Plus, the driver could go to the door to pick her up, meaning neither Jaxon nor the babysitter would see me.

  As a bonus, I could stare at Addison the whole drive there without crashing the car.

  I gave the driver final directions through the neighborhood. When we pulled up in front of her house and he got out, I started feeling my stomach get that nervous excitement. It was the same feeling I got before every game. Learning how to channel it had made me a better player. I had no idea how to channel it for a date. I’d never been nervous on a date before.

  I watched as the door opened and Addison walked out. Damn, she was beautiful. She was wearing a red sleeveless shirt that scooped down in the front, not too low, and had some lacy shit on the back. On bottom was a fitted black skirt that stopped just above her knee. And some black sandals. I think they were called wedges. The skirt combined with shoes highlighted those thick, curvy legs. Those sexy, sexy legs.

  I was in so much trouble.

  “Hey, Jason,” she said as she climbed in the back with me. “Nice ride. Trying to make a good impression on me?”

  “Always,” I laughed. “But actually, I figured we’d probably have a few drinks tonight and I would rather not try to hail a cab in downtown Dallas after the concert.”

  “Ah, smart man,” she said, smiling at me. That smile took my breath away once again.

  I smiled back.

  “So, what did you tell Jaxon, anyway?” I asked. “Since we’re being stealth and all, I wanna make sure we have our stories straight.”

  “Actually, I didn’t tell him much. He’s still at that self-absorbed age where he doesn’t really notice what’s going on in my life. As long as I’m still making his dinner and giving him lots of love, he doesn’t really pay attention to what happens around me.”

  “Well, that makes it easy.”

  “Sorry,” she said, patting my leg. “I know how much you were looking forward to being stealth.”

  I really wanted to hold her hand and keep it on my leg. But it took three weeks to get a date. That’s three weeks longer than I’ve ever waited before. I didn’t want to mess it up.

  “He keeps asking me when he’s going swimming at your house again,” she added. “So be prepared. You’ll probably be getting a phone call from him soon.”

  “He can call me any time,” I said. “We had so much fun that day. He wore me out.”

  “He’ll do that to ya.”

  “You know,” I started reaching my arm around the back of the seat. Yeah, it was an eighth grade move but I didn’t care. “You could always come with us next time.”

  She looked at me like she knew what I was up to. “Jason, that’s not exactly keeping things separate.”

  “I know, I know,” I conceded. “You can’t blame me for trying. I think you’d have fun. Plus, it would be nice to have a female buffer from Danielle.” I made a face when I said her name.

  “Have you seen her since then?” she asked nonchalantly. I was glad the topic didn’t piss her off this time.

  “I ran into her once in the lobby. She was with her husband, who is apparently in town for a couple weeks. I wanted to hug the man for being there to keep her off the rest of us.”

  Addison giggled. “Is she really that bad?”

  I looked at her with wide eyes. “Worse. She picks out the rich guys to target. That’s the only way I can describe it. Doesn’t matter if they’re married or single.”

  “Seriously? Ugh. I hate women like that,” Addison remarked with a grimace.

  “I know. Me too,” I answered. “One of the married guys in our building ended up having an affair with her. It was awful. Not only did she seduce him into the affair, or so he claims, but whenever she would run into him in the lobby she would approach him and make remarks about it. Even when he was with his wife.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, I know. So obviously his wife found out and she was pissed. Really pissed. They fought all the time. And not just in their apartment . . . on the balcony, in the hallway, in the community rooms. It didn’t help that Danielle just kept poking the bear,” I said, poking my finger in front of me in imitation. “Every time she saw them. It got so bad, they were finally kicked out of the complex.”

  “Ohmygod, that poor wife,” Addison said, fully engaged in the story.

  “I know. I didn’t feel bad for Jim - that’s the husband - at first, because, well, he made his bed. But after watching Danielle just continually try to make his life a living hell, even when he was trying to rectify what he had done,” I shook my head, “it just showed me that she wasn’t out for companionship or just a little fun. She was truly out to just play with someone’s life. And when she set her sights on him, the poor bastard didn’t stand a chance.”

  “Women like that really piss me off,” Addison said, her eyes narrowed as she stared straight ahead. “You know I called the woman Austin was having an affair with?”

  “You did?” I asked. For a second I felt bad I had brought up Danielle’s prowess around the complex, but I quickly realized Addison wasn’t all that fazed by the topic. I’m not sure if I was relieved or pissed that she dealt with her douchebag of a dead husband for so long that talking about marital affairs with me didn’t bother her.

  “Yep. I called her, introduced myself and let her know I was aware she was sleeping with my husband. You know what th
at bitch said to me?” she asked, looking me in the eyes. I shook my head. “She had the nerve to say, ‘Well if you kept him happier at home, he wouldn’t be coming to me.’”

  My jaw dropped open. “She actually said that?”

  “Oh yeah,” she shook her head. “Here I was, thinking I was being nice by letting her know that he didn’t just screw me over. He screwed her over, too. But karma ended up biting her in the ass in the end.”

  “How so?”

  “See, that’s the funny thing about a mistress. They think they have all the benefits that the married woman doesn’t have. But they’re wrong,” her lips quirked in a slightly menacing smile. “When Austin died, we were in marriage counseling, but we weren’t even legally separated. So as much as the entire situation sucked, after the shock wore off and the funeral was over, I got all the life insurance money and she got . . .”

  “Nothing,” I answered for her.

  “Not even recognition that she had been part of his life for almost three years,” she continued. “At that point, I was so pissed off at her and Austin both, I made sure she wasn’t allowed access into the funeral home. She didn’t get to come to the wake or the funeral to say goodbye.

  “Wow,” I said with a smile. “I didn’t know you had it in you to be such a bitch.”

  “I’ve got no sympathy. If you’ve been duped into an affair without knowing a man is married, I can feel for you. But if you knowingly have an affair with a married man, you deserve what you get. Especially after you’ve been caught and have a chance to make it right,” she said with a wave of her hand like the woman was right here and she was dismissing her. “Anyway, this is depressing. Let’s talk about something else. When did your mom get remarried?”

  I smiled at her change of topic. “Only a couple of years ago, actually.”

  “Really?” she asked, her eyebrows raised. “That recently?”

  “Yeah, I asked her about that, actually,” I said, looking out the front window as we made our way down the highway. “She said she just never met anyone that interested her until Rick came along.”

  “Wow,” Addison said. “What’s Rick like?”