Change of Hart(10)

When I thought about it, her answer didn’t really surprise me that much. Nor did her confusion about my offer.

“Oh, no, Mrs. Bryant,” I said. “This isn’t an invitation for a publicity stunt. My publicist doesn’t even know I’m calling you right now.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” I said. “There wouldn’t be any cameras there or anything. It would just be the three of us touring around the building.”

“Really?” she asked skeptically.

“Really,” I said with a smile. “I wanna do something for Jaxon. He deserves it.”

She paused for a few more seconds. “Well, then I guess that would be ok.”

I broke out into a broad grin. “Well great!”

We made plans over the next few minutes. Since she worked during the week, Saturday seemed to be the best time to meet up. Which was fine with me. The stadium would be buzzing with excitement with the season opener the next day. It would be fun.

When I hung up the phone, I was really excited about giving this tour. It was about time I started contributing to the wellbeing of others on a more personal level. And not just by attending events in a monkey suit.





I walked around the locker room, searching for dirty underwear or jock straps. Everyone had already gone home after the short practice we’d had. But with Jaxon and his mom on the way, I wasn’t taking any chances. There wasn’t a lot I could do about the smell, but I could at least make sure the place was cleaned up.

The phone in the locker room rang once before I picked it up.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“Hey, Mr. Hart! This is Ronald from security!” Ronald was always this pleasant. He resembled an older Wayne Brady and he greeted everyone with a smile. Every time.

“I have an Addison Bryant and her young man, Jaxon, here for you,” he said.

“Thanks, Ronald,” I said. “I’ll be right there.”

I hung up the phone and took one more glance around the room. It was as good as a professional locker room was going to get.

On my way to the west side door where the Bryant’s were waiting, I passed a few maintenance and administrative people in the halls. They didn’t really notice me and certainly didn’t seem surprised to see me. It seemed like I was always there. Some said I was too dedicated to my job, but like I had told Lindsay the other day . . . I have a very small window of time to be a professional football player. Especially since my job was to tackle people. Regularly. The minute other players got faster than me, my career was over. No one much older than thirty-five can keep up with twenty-two-year-old first round draft picks. That left me with about six more years playing the game I loved. And I would make the most of it.

But my world was starting to feel a little too small. So it was nice having Lindsay back in my life. And hopefully Jaxon and I would continue to hit it off. They were a nice reminder that once football was over, there was still lots of life left to live.

I rounded the corner and immediately caught sight of Jaxon.

“Jason Hart!” he yelled and ran toward me. I knew what was coming this time, so I squatted down for him to hug my neck instead of my legs. “I always wanted to come here and see a real football field! Are we going on the field? Are we gonna see a game?” he started launching rapid-fire questions in my direction.

“Slow down, buddy,” I said with a smile on my face. “Yes, we are going onto the field, but no, there’s not a game today. The season opener is tomorrow, so there’s gonna be a lot of people setting things up but not much else. Gives us a chance to check everything out. I figured you might like to see around the whole stadium.”

He started jumping up and down. “Yeah! And the locker room and the trainers and can I run out of the tunnel you come out of?”

“Sure!” I said. “We’ll make sure to go through the tunnel to get onto the field.”

“Alright!” he yelled, throwing his fist in the air while I stood up to introduce myself to his mom. I hadn’t really paid much attention to her once I caught sight of Jaxon. So when I turned my eyes to her, my steps faltered just a bit.

I was expecting someone in her mid to late 30’s. Maybe older. But she couldn’t have been older than 30. If that. And she was beautiful. Not in a tall and skinny super model way. But in a real woman way. Her dark brown hair came down just below her shoulders and when she looked at me and put out her hand for me to shake, her smile about knocked me on my ass.

“Hi, Mr. Hart,” she said. “I’m Addison Bryant. It’s really nice of you to invite us here.”

I grabbed her soft hand and smiled back, trying to keep my cool and praying I didn’t look like a stupid tongue-tied teenager. She didn’t seem to notice so I think I covered it well. “Thanks for coming, Mrs. Bryant. But please call me Jason. We’re not very formal around here.”