Change of Hart(73)

Even better than making my first touchdown.





Having Addison at the game seemed to do the trick. By the next morning, news crews stopped showing up at the house and Adam stopped getting inquires about our relationship. By Wednesday, Jaxon was able to go back to school and Addison went back to work. Just as predicted, something interesting happened to another local celebrity, so we were old news. And it was perfectly fine with us.

“Did you know, when a woman is pregnant, her entire areola and nipple gets bigger and darker on her breast?” Deuce asked as we were showering after practice. “Like it’s turning into a big target for the baby’s mouth.”

“Are you really talking to me about your wife’s nipples while we’re in the shower?” I asked as I rinsed the shampoo out of my hair and off my body.

“I was talking about pregnancy in general, asshole,” he responded. “I read it in my pregnancy book last night.”

I just shook my head. He had been reading at least one chapter in that book every day for the past week and the next day I always got to hear about some new, random bit of information I never wanted to know.

“Although, when she was saving a horse and riding this cowboy last night, her nipple was a giant target for my mouth.”

“And I’m out,” I said, shutting off the water and grabbing a towel to leave as fast as I could. “I don’t need to know this stuff,” I said over my shoulder.

“It’s a beautiful and natural part of marriage,” he yelled after me, laughing at my exit.

“Fucking Deuce,” I muttered with a chuckle as I opened my locker and started getting dressed. I glanced down at my phone and saw the blue light flashing, indicating I had a missed text.

And three missed calls. All from Addison.

Addison: Call me as soon as you can.

That’s all the text said. I didn’t bother listening to the voice messages, I just called her back.

“Jason,” she said after answering on the first ring, “are you done with practice for the day?”

“We just got done,” I said, grabbing my clothes and yanking my boxer briefs over my hips. “What’s wrong? Are you ok?”

“Yeah. There was just . . . I don’t know . . . some sort of incident at the school,” she said, sounding worried.

My blood ran cold as all the possibilities ran through my mind. “What kind of incident? Is Jax ok?”

“As far as I know,” she said softly. “He was in a fight.”

“What?” I asked, stopping dead in my tracks. My body relaxed, but I still didn’t believe what I was hearing. “Jaxon . . . our Jaxon . . . was in a fight?”

I heard Deuce snicker next to me. I hadn’t heard him walk up.

“What happened?”

She sighed. “I don’t know. All I know is he was in a fight at lunch with another little boy and now he has to be taken home for the day.”

“Ok.”

“But I can’t take off another day of work, I just got back,” she said. “And Mick is just as far behind on work as I am.” She paused. “Can you possibly pick him up?”

I pulled my jeans up as I talked, grabbing my wallet and shoving it in my back pocket. “Of course I can. We’re done for the day. Did you let the school know I’m coming for him?”

“Yeah. I gave them authorization over the phone.” She sounded like the entire situation made her uncomfortable when she said, “I’m so sorry to put this on you, Jason. I just don’t know what else to do.”

“Babe,” I said quietly, “this is what you’re supposed to do. You’re supposed to call me when things like this happen so I can help.”

“I know,” she said. I could hear the small smile in her voice. “This is just all new to me. I’ll get used to it.”

“I know you will. Listen, I need to finish getting dressed and then I’m headed in that direction. Shouldn’t take me longer than forty-five minutes to get there.”

“Ok. Thanks Jason. I so, so appreciate you.”

“Any time, babe. I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Ok, bye.”

We hung up and I put the phone down long enough to pull my t-shirt over my head and grab my shoes.

“Jaxon’s already getting in schoolyard fights?” Deuce asked as I put my socks and shoes on. “Did he win?”

“I hope so,” I answered with a smile. “But before I pat him on the back, I need to figure out what started the fight in the first place.”

I grabbed my keys and slammed my locker door, heading toward the exit. “Later,” I said to Deuce over my shoulder.

“See ya. And tell the little Mike Tyson I said hi.”