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Change of Hart(6)

By:M.E. Carter


Vanessa was this tiny little Hispanic woman. And I do mean tiny. At 6’ 3” and 6’ 5” respectively, Deuce and I towered over her. Even by average height standards, Vanessa still came in on the short side at 4’ 11”. But what she lacked in height, she made up for with her feisty Latina attitude. And her culinary skills.

“Don’t start going into details about her cooking,” I said as I lay down on the bench and adjusted my body so I didn’t fall off. “The season is just starting. The last thing I need is some of her enchiladas.”

I pressed the bar up with a grunt.

“Tell me about it,” Deuce replied while I counted my own reps. He always seemed to forget that was part of his job when he was the spotter. “Taking a couple weeks off to relax was nice, but I feel like I can’t catch back up to where I was. In muscle tone only, of course. I actually got in a lot of good endurance exercises while I was gone,” he said, waggling his eyebrows up and down. “What number are you on?”

“Twelve!” I grunted and kept pressing the bar skyward, trying not to laugh at his perverted joke.

“Vanessa wants me to invite you to dinner tomorrow night,” he continued. “She says she misses you. I don’t get why she misses you when she’s got this hunk of man to come home to.” Deuce grabbed the bar and spotted as I dropped it down on the rack.

I sat up and took a quick gulp of my water.

“Yeah,” I said. “I think I can do dinner. I already fulfilled my PR obligations for this month so I don’t think there’s anything on the schedule.”

“Oh yeah!” Deuce said. “I forgot about that school thing you had to do. How did it go, anyway?”

“It was . . . interesting.”

I filled Deuce in on how the media tracked me down and April Gill’s intrusion. Deuce made a face when I got to that part. Thankfully, he’d been smart enough to never fall victim to her deceptions, but that didn’t mean he was happy to see other people get sucked into her trap.

By the time I finished telling him about Jaxon’s reaction to seeing me, the barbell and our workout had been long forgotten.

“That’s really weird,” Deuce kept saying. “I get that the kid looks up to you, but . . . that’s really weird.”

“I thought so, too,” I said, wiping my face with my towel again. “But there’s something about this kid. I can’t stop thinking about him and wondering how he is.”

“Well, yeah,” Deuce agreed. “His dad just died, man. Of course you’re wondering about him. You’ve been there.”

“Yeah,” I said thoughtfully, resting my elbows on my knees.

“What?” Deuce asked.

I looked up, confused. “What, what?”

“You have that weird look on your face. Not the one that’s just your face. I’m used to that weirdness. The one that means you’re trying to decide something.”

I ignored his good-natured ribbing. “I don’t know. I just feel like I should be doing something for him.”

Deuce thought for a second before speaking. “Is this about your own dad?” he asked. “Are you feeling some sort of weird connection to this kid because he reminds you of yourself?”

I sat up and stretched out my back. “I don’t think so. I just . . . I don’t know. You should have seen his eyes light up when we talked about football. He was so animated. And he’s just this bundle of energy. It was so fun just watching him be excited about things.”

“Okkkaaaaay,” Deuce said crossing his arms. “I’m starting to get a little creeped out by your strange fascination with a little boy.”

“Shut up,” I replied, snapping him with my towel. “Maybe I just wanna help. Be his friend or something.”

“So invite him to the stadium. Take him on a personal tour of the locker room. Play catch with him on the field. He’d probably love it,” Deuce said, walking around the bench to spot me again.

“That’s not a bad idea, Deuce,” I said lying back down to resume our workout. “I’ll see if Lindsay can help me get in touch with him.” I pushed up the bar with a grunt and started counting.

We spent another thirty minutes lifting before getting in five miles on the treadmill. A two-hour workout wasn’t very long for us, but practice had been kicking our butts lately. And Deuce was still in that newlywed phase of his marriage and anxious to get back to Vanessa. Besides, I could come back to the weight room later if I wanted. There was always someone milling around looking for a spotter.

After a quick shower, I jumped in my black Range Rover and headed toward home. Once I got on the highway, I hit the hands-free button.