Change of Hart(11)

“Only if you call me Addison,” she said, her lips turned upward as she removed her hand from mine and tucked it in her back jeans pocket.

“Addison it is,” I said, still smiling. Damn. I’ve never seen a smile light up a face like that before. She looked like someone who enjoyed laughing a lot. I could get used to being around that, I thought to myself.

“Sorry he’s so . . . ,” she started, waving her hand in the direction of Jaxon who was still jumping up and down. This time he was talking animatedly to Ronald about something football-related. I wasn’t really sure what and didn’t really care at that moment.

“Nah, he’s fine,” I said with a chuckle. “Ronald is the most talkative and friendly man I’ve met in my life. I’m sure they’ll keep each other entertained for a while.”

She looked over as I said it and sure enough, Ronald was clearly just as engaged in the conversation as Jaxon was.

“Did you find the entrance ok?” I asked. Obviously she had since she was standing right in front of me. But I wanted a few more minutes to talk to her. I was intrigued by her and wanted to see if I could figure out why.

She shuffled in front of me. Clearly a little nervous. Could she be intrigued by me, too?

I quickly put the thought out of my brain. The woman had lost her husband and father of her son six months ago. There would be no intrigue on her end of it. So I chalked up the nerves to meeting her first professional football player.

“Oh, your directions were great,” she said. “Thanks for making sure Ronald knew we were coming. The last thing we needed was security thinking Jaxon was gonna make an unauthorized break for it. He’s been jumping around the hallway for ten minutes now.”

I grimaced. “Sorry about that. I was in the locker room and it’s a small hike to get over here from that side of the building.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she started, blushing just slightly. “I didn’t mean to imply that waiting was a problem. Jaxon can just be overwhelming sometimes.”

“I know what you meant. I just feel bad that I kept him waiting so long. Speaking of which. . . ,” I began, “Hey Jaxon! Are you ready to get this tour started?” I yelled in his direction. Jaxon turned and started running toward us.

“Yeah!” he yelled, bouncing on his toes. I could relate. Being in the stadium before a game always gave me enormous amounts of energy, too. “Are we going on the field first?”

I looked up at Addison, not for any other reason than to look at her. That’s when I noticed her clear hazel eyes. They were just so bright and . . . I don’t know, joyful, maybe?

“I thought we’d hit the locker room and trainers first. Maybe even see if my coaches are still in. If we want to get to the field through the tunnel, we need to be on that side of the building. Is that alright with you, Addison?”

I swear I saw her bat her eyelashes just slightly. “Sounds good to me,” she said softly.

“Then lead the way.” I motioned for them to start walking ahead of me. As they headed in the general direction of the locker room, I made no effort to hide that I was checking out her backside. A man could get used to seeing that every day. She wasn’t model skinny. Nope. She was the size of a normal woman. With some hips and quite a bit of junk in that trunk being shown off by some very flattering, sparkly jeans. Nice.

I heard a snicker off to my side and looked over to see Ronald watching my every move. I winked at him and smiled as I jogged to catch up to my guests.

An hour later, Jaxon had seen every square inch of the locker room and training room. He had met every single person in the building who happened to be on the training and coaching staff, as well as learned what every single piece of equipment does. He even stuck his feet in the ice bath, while my teammate Matt was sitting in it nursing a groin injury, because he wanted to see how cold it was. His conclusion? “That’s cooooold!”

The kid was like a hurricane. Except he didn’t leave any destruction behind. His energy was just contagious. I couldn’t help but wonder how Addison survived the energy overload all by herself. Which got me thinking about my own mom and wondering how she dealt with my energy overload when she was single. Because truth be told, Jaxon really did remind me a bit of myself at that age. Always curious about everything. Not afraid to ask questions. Never met a stranger. My poor mom. She needed a bigger bouquet of flowers on Mother’s Day next year. The biggest one the florist could make her. And maybe a trip to Hawaii.

As soon as Jaxon had seen everything and talked to everyone, we found the tunnel. He wanted us all to run through it together as we headed toward the field. So we did. Jaxon threw his little fists up in the air and yelled, “GO COWBOYS!” the entire way. It made Addison and I both laugh. He, of course, beat us out to the field with Addison a close second. I could have smoked them both. But I’ve seen the view down the tunnel before. The view from behind Addison was much better.