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.
Over the next few weeks, my life consisted of three major things . . . football, Addison and Jaxon. I had no idea how the two of them became constants in my life so quickly, especially since Addison was determined to keep the relationships separate, but they did.
Addison and I went out several more times. The longer we dated without her name making it into the papers, the more confident I felt that when it finally did, she’d be ready. I still tried to keep our relationship low-key. But there are so many things to do in Dallas, I needed Adam to help us stay behind the scenes a little bit.
The Texas Rangers were having a pretty good year so we were able to get a private box for one of the Divisional Playoff games. It was fun. Deuce and Vanessa met us there and we all enjoyed talking probably more than we enjoyed watching the game. Addison and Vanessa talked all about Vanessa’s pregnancy and even Jaxon’s birth. The look on Deuce’s face during that conversation was priceless. I made sure Vanessa knew she needed to take pictures in the delivery room. Not of the baby, but of Deuce’s reaction. I was wagering that he was going to pass out at some point.
Another time, Deuce and I rented out a private dining room at Abacus. It was fun seeing Addison get all dolled up and in a nice, fitted, sexy dress. It’s a good thing Deuce and Vanessa were there because I was seriously having trouble keeping my hands off of my date. I couldn’t help it. Heels show off those legs.
Every date got better, but it always ended the same way . . . with me kissing the hell out of her in her front room, trying to stay quiet so Jaxon didn’t wake up. And trying even harder to keep my hands in appropriate locations, knowing if they traveled south, I wasn’t leaving. I took a lot of cold showers. That part sucked. But I knew it would be worth it in the end.
Jaxon, on the other hand, came to all my home games with Mick. If I was out of town, he’d call me as soon as the game was over. Talking to him was, if nothing else, entertaining. I thought he could talk a lot about past football games. That was nothing compared to his short-term memory. And it appeared my little buddy was not just a fair-weather fan. He was the real deal. Even when we got pummeled in St. Louis. . . 27 – 10.
I would like to blame the sucky weather we had during that game. But the truth of it was, I was off my game. I missed several key tackles that kept letting the Rams get the first down. I have no idea why and I probably never will. It’s just one of those things that happen sometimes. And it sucked.
The locker room was relatively quiet after that game. No one really has much to say after a loss.
I picked up my phone and saw that I had a message. It was kind of unusual. Everyone who had my phone number knew I was on the field. Hell, they were probably watching. So it concerned me a bit that whatever was going on was important enough to leave a message.
I didn’t bother stripping my uniform off before typing in my password to get the voicemail.
“Hi Jason! It’s Jaxon. My mom and I were watching the game and it was AWESOME! When you jumped up and knocked that ball out of the way . . . you blocked the extra point! It was so cool! So, my mom says I can’t stay on the phone, but I wanted to tell you I watched it wearing my jersey and my mom even let me have a hot dog because Pee-paw gets them for me at the stadium so we needed to eat them when we watch TV games, too . . . I’ll see you at the next game! I love you! Bye!”
Leave it to my little buddy to not see all the missed tackles, but to see the one bright side of my game tonight. Is it possible to fall in love with a kid? Not in a creepy way. But in a he-is-so-awesome kind of way? Because I did with that voicemail. That was it. If there was a question about me ever losing interest in him, the answer was, “Not gonna happen.”
I showered, did my required interviews and sat down next to Deuce on the bus that was taking us back to the airport. Once settled in, I was finally able to call Addison.
“Hello,” she said in a groggy voice.
“I didn’t wake you, did I?” I asked, suddenly realizing it was after eleven in Texas.
She yawned. “I was just dozing off a little. I didn’t want to miss your phone call.”
“I missed Jaxon, though, didn’t I?”
She laughed softly. “Honey, he’s been in bed for hours. He jumped up and down so much during the game, I’m almost surprised he didn’t pass out earlier than he did.”
“I wish he would have fallen asleep during the game,” I said, still feeling the sting of our loss. “It was a terrible game.”