She paused for a minute, lips pursed. “Fine,” she said. “But only because I’m curious about the company you keep before letting you take him somewhere again.”
She walked out the door in front of me and I closed it behind us. That’s as far as we got before she really started laying into me.
“I can’t believe you let my son hang out with one of your . . . floozies!” she practically yelled.
“Floozy?” I asked. “What generation do you live in?”
She pointed her finger right into my chest. “Don’t change the subject, Jason. Why would you do that?”
“Listen,” I said, hands up defensively. “She’s a sad, pathetic woman who lives in my building. She’s a sad, pathetic, married woman.”
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?”
“No, but it should give you an idea of what I couldn’t say in front of Jaxon. She’s a whore, Addison.”
Her mouth dropped open.
“No, not my whore. Just in general. Every time her husband goes out of town, which is often, all the men in the building know it. She hits on all of them. Me included.” I took a step toward her. “She happened to be at the pool today and approached us. I politely turned her down and tried to avoid her. But she’s really stubborn and doesn’t give up easily.”
“So you accepted her invitation for anything you want,” she said matter-of-factly.
I scoffed. “Hardly. I have never gone there and never will. She’s not the first gold digger to sniff in my direction. And she won’t be the last. But I’m smarter than that. I’ve seen the damage they do once they chew you up and spit you back out.”
“You let her rub sunscreen all over you,” she said quietly, looking me square in the eye.
“No, I prevented her from rubbing anything on me,” I said. “I made her use the spray. And I only let her do it because protective gear on the field and sunburns don’t mix.”
Addison was looking at the ground, a little on the defeated side when a thought occurred to me.
“Addison,” I said, bending over to look her in the eye. “Are you . . . jealous?”
Her head whipped up. “What? No way! I’m just worried about my son.”
I barked a laugh. “I don’t think so. You’re jealous!”
“I am not!” Her arms dangled at her side in fists. She was getting feisty and starting to flush a little. It was a side of her I didn’t know she had.
“Yes you are,” I said with a smile. “So forget all this crap. Go out with me.”
“I am not going out with you!” she said incredulously.
“Why not? I know you think I’m hot.” If I was gonna push her buttons, I might as well go all the way.
“I do not think you’re hot, Jason Hart!”
“There ya go, lying again. I know you think I’m hot because I think you’re hot right back.”
“You . . . ,” she stammered, her feistiness deflating. “You think I’m hot?” she asked.
I smiled at her. “Not only do I think you’re hot, I think you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. And I like talking to you and hanging out with you.”
“Oh,” she said, looking stunned.
“I know it’s only been six months, and I know you’re still grieving over losing your husband . . .”
“I stopped grieving over that bastard a month before he died,” she interrupted. As soon as she said it, her eyes went wide like she had just mistakenly revealed some big secret.
I paused and cocked my head, trying to figure out what she was trying to say. “I’m sorry . . . what?”
“No . . . nothing,” she said nervously. “Just forget I even said it.”
“Um . . . that’s not gonna happen,” I said slowly. “The only way I know of that you can grieve someone before they die is if . . . you know they’re going to die.”
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “Ohmygod, Jason, you need to stop watching so many cop dramas. I didn’t kill Austin.”
“Then can you explain what you mean, please? Because that was weird.”
She sighed and shook her head. “I don’t like talking about it because it’s personal.”
“Yeah, well you already started, so you might as well finish the story,” I said.
She looked down and paused. It took her a few seconds to think about her words, but I gave her time. I felt like what she was about to tell me was important. “About a year before Austin died, we got a bill in the mail from some credit card company. I knew we didn’t have a card with this company so I started doing some digging. I was determined to figure out if someone had stolen our identity or what was going on. Instead, I found out that Austin had opened the account. So I started looking more closely at the charges. Hotels, florists, jewelry stores . . .”