Change of Hart (17 page)

“It appears our good friend Ms. Gill was there last night.” I groaned. Of course she was. Most of the reporting she did was about the local entertainment scene. “She spotted you and . . . well, you know the rest.”

“That’s just fabulous. So what are you saying publicly?”

“The usual stuff,” he said, sounding like he was chewing. I may be too wired to eat right now, but Adam never skipped a meal. “Just that you enjoyed the concert with a friend last night and that there is nothing more to report.”

“Are they buying that?” I asked, pacing up and down the hall.

“I guess so,” he said nonchalantly. “I mean, there’s really nothing to report right now, right? Because if you’re officially off the market, I need to be prepared for a huge onslaught of calls.”

I sighed. “No, there’s nothing really to report right now. It was a date. I like her, but it was just a date.”

“So stop worrying then. It’ll blow over in a couple days. It always does.”

“Yeah,” I said, leaning against the wall. “Thanks Adam.”

“No problem,” he said, chewing again. “I’ll let you know if it looks like we’re in for more.”

“Ok. Enjoy your lunch.”

“Later.”

I knew I needed to make another phone call, but I was wasn’t sure she would even answer. I took a deep breath and dialed.

“Hello?” she said softly.

“Hey. You ok?”

“Yeah. Why?” She sounded surprised by my question.

“I just got off the phone with Adam,” I said. “I’m so sorry someone took pictures of us last night.”

“Oh. That,” she said. “I know you didn’t do it on purpose. I just don’t see what’s so interesting about watching someone watch a concert.”

“Yeah, I gave up trying to figure out the fascination a while ago.” I paused, tapping my fist against the wall. “So, has anyone tried contacting you yet? I mean, Adam said that the media doesn’t seem to know who you are. I just want to make sure you aren’t getting any harassing phone calls or anything.”

“No one I didn’t already know. I mean, a few friends have sent me texts. Samantha asked some pretty inappropriate questions, of course.” I chuckled. “And I’ve had more people come talk to me at work than normal. But it hasn’t been too bad.”

“Is this, um . . . ,” I stammered. “This isn’t gonna change your mind about going out with me again, is it?”

“I thought a lot about it this morning. But I don’t think so.” I exhaled the breath I’d been holding in. “I mean, I don’t really like the idea of my life being on public display or anything. But I guess there could be worse things. And we don’t have to answer any personal questions or anything, right?

I smiled. “You never ever have to answer anything you don’t want to answer.”

“Besides,” she said, “people will get bored when they don’t catch anything exciting happening.”

“Can I at least give you Adam’s number?” I asked. “If you
do
start getting calls from the media or anything, he can help you out. Talk you through what to do.”

“That’s really sweet of you. Thank you,” she said.

I gave her Adam’s number and we spoke for a few more minutes. She reassured me again that this glitch didn’t change the way she felt. When we hung up, I felt a whole lot better. I headed back into the locker room for a quick shower. My appetite was finally coming back.

“She ok?” Deuce asked as I walked up to the lockers. He had already dressed after his shower.

“Yeah,” I said, still feeling kind of surprised. “She took it really well. I mean, she’s still pretty anonymous, so that helps. I think we’re gonna go out again some time next week. I just have to figure out where.”

“Good,” he said, patting my shoulder as he headed toward the door. “I already have one emotional woman to deal with at home. I don’t need to deal with your pansy-ass, too.”

I peeled off my sweaty shirt and threw it at him, smiling as I did it.

“W
hy did you decide on football as a career?” Addison asked me while picking up a rock and trying to skip it in the lake. She failed miserably at it, but it was a solid effort.

Addison had a random day off of work a couple weeks after our first date, so I decided to take her on a picnic on the beach at Lake Grapevine. It wasn’t a swimming adventure. It was too cold for that, but hanging out near the water in the middle of October made for a really nice day.

“I’m not sure I really chose it as much as it chose me,” I replied, picking up my own rock and chucking it. “When I started playing in sixth grade, I just liked it. It wasn’t until high school that I realized I could get a scholarship to college. Once I got to college, my coaches kept telling me I was shooting for the pros. So here I am.”

“Your mom must be really proud of you,” she remarked, taking her shoes and socks off.

“Are you gonna stick your feet in that cold water?” I asked.

She smiled at me. “Of course! It’s a beautiful day! The water won’t be that cold.” She shoved her socks inside her shoes and dropped them on the sand before heading toward the water. “Are you coming?” she asked me over her shoulder.

I really didn’t want to, but what could I do? Addison wanted to put her feet in the water, so I was taking off my shoes because we were going to put our feet in the water.

“It feels good,” she called toward me, already in ankle deep. “Come on!”

I shook my head and grinned as I headed toward the water. “Aren’t you in a little bit too deep? What if there’s an alligator or something?” I asked as I stepped in. “Holy mother of all that is holy! That is cold!”

“It’s not that cold,” she said with amusement. “I think you’re just more worried about the alligators.”

“Are there really alligators in this lake?” I asked nervously. “Did you see one?”

She looked at me . . . and started laughing. “You’re not really afraid of alligators.”

“Don’t judge me,” I answered seriously. “Alligators kill people. I like being alive.”

“You’re right,” she said, holding her hands up in front of her. “I shouldn’t make fun of your totally irrational fear.”

“Thank you for your sincerity,” I said sarcastically.

We continued walking in the surf and talking, enjoying each other’s company.

“What about you?” I asked. “What made you decide on social work?”

She picked a small twig up out of the water. It still had a few leaves on it, so she started ripping them off mindlessly as she spoke.

“Um, I think it was always a no-brainer for me to take that career path.”

“How come?”

“Ever since I was little, it’s what my mom would do. She doesn’t have a degree in it or anything. But there’s not a person or creature out there my mom wouldn’t help if they needed it.”

I stuck my hands in my pockets and looked at her as she spoke.

“I remember after my dad’s company had bought out a smaller one, all of these people started being transferred to Kansas City, where we lived. They weren’t given a whole lot of time to find housing. So my parents would just bring them in and they’d live in our basement while they got themselves settled in town.”

“Really?” I asked. “Complete strangers?”

“They were strangers to me. But now that you say that, my dad probably knew them at least a little bit from work. One time, an entire family lived with us for about three months. The girl was my age. It was kind of cool having a live-in playmate.” She shrugged. “That’s just the way I was raised, ya know? If you have extra and someone needs help to get on their feet, you give that extra to them. Social work just seemed like a natural fit, I guess.”

“Wow,” I said, eyeing what I hoped was a piece of floating wood that had caught my eye. It made me nervous, but it was just a log. I was sure it was just a log. “Your parents sound pretty amazing.”

“Oh, they are,” she agreed. “They are just about the only thing I miss about Kansas. And my sister and her family, of course.”

“Of course,” I said, smiling at her. “Did you like your job?”

She thought for a second before answering. “I did. But the hard thing about social work is that a lot of people are perfectly content being in the ‘system,’” she said, making air-quotes. “It’s hard not to become jaded when seventy-five percent of your clients don’t really want to make a better life for themselves and their children. You know, as a fresh college-grad, I was out to change the world. Then I found out, it’s not that easy to do.”

“Then why did you do it?”

“Honestly,” she said with a wistful smile, “for the other twenty-five percent. My favorite clients were those ones that had been knocked down, but refused to give up. Seeing the pride on their faces when they could come to me and say, ‘Thank you for your help, but we’re back on track and don’t need you anymore.’ That was the best feeling in the world.”

We stopped walking and turned toward the lake, just watching the ripples in the water.

“So why don’t you do that part anymore?” I asked, genuinely curious why she wanted to be in the background at her job now instead of on the front lines.

She sighed. “I got knocked down. I found out that it’s not as easy to get back up as I thought.”

I gazed down at her as she got lost in her thoughts. I hoped I could help her get back up. She had so much love and kindness to give. I wanted her to find her way back to it.

“I’m getting kind of hungry,” I said, snapping us out of the moment. “Wanna head back toward our picnic?”

“Sure,” she said, smiling up at me.

“Are you still close with that family?” I asked as we walked back the way we came. “The one that lived with you?”

“Oh yeah! Tracy is my best friend.”

“Wait, did I meet her at Jaxon’s birthday party?” I asked, trying to remember meeting someone with that name.

“No, she lives in Nebraska with her husband, Aaron,” she said. “Their son Ryder is about Jaxon’s age. A little younger. I haven’t seen her in, gosh, probably a year. But we still talk on the phone every day.”

“Really,” I said with amusement in my voice. “What do you guys talk about? Do you talk about this hot guy you’re seeing?”

She smirked. “I don’t know. What do you and Deuce talk about every day?”

I snorted. “Don’t even compare Deuce with a normal best friend. I love the guy and all, but Deuce is not normal.”

She laughed. I, on the other hand, started growing nervous again as we started getting closer to that damn floating log. Addison didn’t seem to notice my mood change.

“How can you say that about your best friend?” she asked and then stopped as her eye caught the attention of something. “Hey, what’s this?” She bent down to pick something up out of the water before she jumped back and started screaming, “Alligator!”

“WHERE? WHERE IS IT?” I yelled as I darted for the safety of the sand.

Then I looked up and saw Addison laughing. No, not laughing. Full on holding her stomach, no sound coming out of her mouth, roaring with laughter.

“What’s so funny?” I asked with my eyes narrowed on hers.

“Ohmygod,” she finally said, trying to catch her breath. “You really are afraid of alligators!” At this point, tears were streaming down her face. “I thought you were, you know, afraid of them. But I had no idea you would run screaming like a little girl and leave me behind to be eaten!”

“You did that on purpose,” I said, finally catching on to her little joke.

She nodded and started laughing again.

“Oh you are gonna be sooooo sorry you did that,” I said with a menacing tone and started walking toward her.

She immediately perked up. “What are you doing, Jason?” she asked nervously and started walking backwards toward the picnic blanket, never taking her eyes off of me.

I stalked toward her until she turned around and started running, screaming with laughter.

It took me no time to catch her, but I didn’t have a plan on what I’d do when I caught her so I just grabbed her and spun her around once before putting her back down. I kept my arms around her, though.

“That wasn’t funny,” I said as I kissed the top of her head.

“Oh it was so funny,” she answered, still catching her breath.

We walked back over to the blanket and plopped down. Very quickly, we learned that sand and food don’t mix. Our sandwiches weren’t edible by the time the wind kicked up a notch.

I also realized something very important.

With her humor, her heart, her kindness - Addison was, in fact, my perfect woman. And she was making it really easy to fall in love with her.