“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.