Change of Hart

by M. E. Carter

  When I finally dialed and put my phone to my ear, I was half expecting her to just not answer. Once again, I was wrong.

  “Hello?” I was surprised when she answered and I realized how much I had missed hearing her voice.

  “Hey.”

  We both paused for a few seconds. With all the strange emotions coursing through me, I honestly had forgotten what I had called about.

  “So, um . . . you wanted to see about picking up Jaxon on Sunday?” she asked nervously.

  “Oh . . . yeah,” I said, finally remembering. “My apartment has this really awesome pool with a slide and a high dive. I was hoping I might be able to take him swimming. I mean, does he swim? Maybe I should have asked that part first.” It was strange feeling so nervous talking to Addison. I didn’t like it.

  “Yeah, he swims,” she said. “He was on the neighborhood swim team last summer. He’s pretty good.”

  “Yeah?” I said with a smile. “Did he have to wear a little bitty speedo and shave his legs and all that?”

  She giggled. “They actually have jammers now. They’re like biking shorts. It’s what most of the little boys wear these days. And no . . . he didn’t have to shave his legs. The neighborhood team isn’t that competitive.”

  “Oh. Good,” I said. “I wouldn’t want to have to call him a pansy to his face or anything.”

  “Yeah, that probably wouldn’t help his ego,” she joked. “Especially considering their jammers don’t exactly fill out at this age yet.”

  I laughed. And then we paused again. It’s like there was a lot we wanted to say, but I was the only one willing to say it. It made it hard to keep the conversation going at times.

  “You know, Addison,” I said, clearing my throat, “you’re welcome to come swimming with us. I mean, if that would make you more comfortable. I know you don’t know me that well yet.”

  “Oh, I trust you, Jason,” she said, ignoring the invitation. “Mick seems to like you and you’re friends with Mrs. Mill—Lindsay—so I’m sure Jaxon will be fine with you.”

  “You could come anyway,” I pitched. And held my breath, waiting for the rejection.

  “Um . . . I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said, confirming what I knew was coming. It didn’t make it sting any less though. But I wasn’t about to admit it.

  “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right,” I said. “It’ll be nice to hang out one-on-one with him. The further we get into the season, the more my schedule gets packed so it’ll be harder to see him.”

  We paused again. I assumed she was trying to figure out what to say. I was just trying to save face by giving her the next move.

  “So,” she finally began, “do you wanna pick him up here at about eleven? Or I mean, I could bring him to you . . .”

  “No, no,” I interrupted. “I can pick him up. It’s only like a thirty-five minute drive and I’ll be coming from working out, so it’s no problem.”

  “Wait, you work out on Sundays, too?”

  “Oh yeah,” I said with a smile. She was finally making conversation. This was good. “I usually work out seven days a week. Except on the Sundays when we have a game. But yeah, we work out a lot. That doesn’t include practice either.”

  “I didn’t know that,” she said. “I never really paid attention to sports. But with Austin gone, I guess I’m gonna have to learn a little more to keep up with Jaxon.”

  “Yeah,” I said, hoping what she meant was she was learning more to keep up with Jaxon and me. Then I heard her yawn. “Well, it’s getting late. I just wanted to run those details by you.”

  “Thanks, Jason,” she said softly. “I really appreciate you taking an interest in Jaxon.”

  “You’re welcome. I’ll see you Sunday?”

  “See you then,” she said. And she hung up.

  I stared at the phone for a while, just running the conversation through my head. I still wasn’t sure where she and I were at, but at least we weren’t going backwards anymore. At this point, if that’s all I could have, I’d take it.

  The next few days was more of the same . . . practice, work out¸ listen to Deuce talk about what a stud he was.

  Except now Addison and I were texting again. It was little stuff here and there. But I was being cautious. I’m not really sure if it’s because I was protecting her or myself.

  I was a little nervous when I pulled up into their driveway on Sunday. Although we’d been in contact, I hadn’t seen her since Jaxon’s party and I wasn’t sure how comfortable we’d be around each other.

  Just seconds after knocking on the front door, it swung open and a brown-haired force of nature flew into my arms.

  “Jason!” he yelled, wrapping his arms around my neck as I scooped him up. “My mom said we’re going swimming! Are we really going swimming at your house?”

  “We sure are,” I said, smiling at him, still holding him up so we were at eye level. “Where’s your mom? We need to tell her I’m here.”

  “I’m right here,” she said, walking through the door with a beach bag. When she looked up, I swear I stopped breathing. Just the sight of her made me forget all the conflict we’d had and want to stay right here.

  But I had a seven-year-old boy who was dying to get to the pool, so there would be no sticking around.

  “I packed his towel, some sunscreen and a change of clothes for when you’re done,” she said, digging through the bag. “Oh! I put some snacks and bottles of water in here, too.”

  “I could have done that,” I said, smiling at her. That’s when she looked up at me and about knocked me on my ass again. I was starting to look forward to that feeling.

  “I know,” she said. “But he’ll probably start asking for a snack on the drive back. I figured it was better to be prepared.”

  “Can we go now?” Jaxon asked, wiggling down to the floor. “I wanna see if they have a slide. Do they have a slide?”

  I smiled down at him. “Yeah they do, buddy. Hey, why don’t you run to the bathroom one last time since we have about a thirty-minute drive, ok? I’ll be ready to go as soon as you’re done.”

  His shoulders slumped. “Ok,” he grumbled and meandered around the corner.

  “He’s been looking forward to this since, oh, about six o’clock this morning,” Addison said with a smile.

  “I’ve been looking forward to it since about that time, too,” I said, smiling back. “Deuce got tired of me talking about jumping off the high dive and playing Marco Polo.”

  She crossed her arms, one eyebrow raised, looking skeptical. “Really?”

  “Really. He’s been driving me crazy all week talking about how awesome his swimmers are. I figured I could return the favor and keep telling him how awesome this swimmer is,” I said, pointing a thumb back at myself.

  She just shook her head at me and smiled as Jaxon came running back.

  “I’m ready!” He grunted as he grabbed the beach bag, which was about twice his size.

  “Why don’t you let me carry that to the car,” I said, grabbing it from him. “Six, right?” I turned to double check with Addison.

  “Yep,” she confirmed as she walked us the rest of the way to the door. “That’ll give us time to take a bath and get to bed on time.”

  “Come on!” Jaxon said impatiently, throwing his hands in the air. “Let’s go already!”

  “That’s my cue,” I said, following Jaxon out the door.

  Once we got on the road, Jaxon was a non-stop chatterbox. He talked about everything . . . his birthday presents, the turtle he found in his backyard, the time he woke up when his mom was trying to steal his tooth fairy money from right under his pillow. I found myself surprisingly entertained. I knew I enjoyed Jaxon, but it still surprised me how much he and I clicked.

  When we got to my apartment complex, we headed straight out to the pool. I figured Jaxon wasn’t going to be patient if we had to go upstairs for me to change, so I was already in my trunks. It was a good guess on my part. He could barely contain himsel
f riding the elevator up from the parking garage.

  “Whoooa!” he said with wide eyes when we finally made it poolside. I understood where his seven-year-old fascination was coming from. Even as an adult, I knew it was a pretty sweet setup. It was a large L-shaped pool with a beachfront entry in the shallow end complete with those rain shower structures for the smaller kids to play under. The deep end was split into two sections. One side had two different diving boards, each a different height. The other side of the deep end had an awesome slide. It was at least fifteen feet up and was shaped like a corkscrew. I had never been on it before, but had a feeling I would be today.

  “Can we go now?” he asked, bouncing up and down.

  “Let’s grab a couple chairs for our stuff first and put on some sunscreen, ok?”

  We found a place to drop our bag and towels and I started slathering him down. I tried to make sure I didn’t miss any spots, but it wasn’t easy with Jaxon wiggling around the whole time.

  “Hey there, handsome,” a sultry voice said behind me. Jax and I both turned to see a bikini-clad redhead standing next to us, eyeing me up and down.

  “Hey, Danielle.” I didn’t need more than a glance before getting back to the task at hand.

  Danielle lived a couple floors below mine. With her husband. I learned pretty quickly that having a ring on a woman’s finger doesn’t always mean she is off the market. Especially when that woman is twenty-five years old and married to her fifty-seven-year-old former computer science professor, who also happens to be a highly sought-out consultant for some of the biggest companies in the world. Apparently traveling three weeks out of the month doesn’t always make for a happy marriage.

  “Who is this handsome little man?” she cooed at Jaxon, putting her hands on her knees and bending over, giving us a both an eyeful of cleavage as she practically fell out of her top. As soon as I realized what she was doing, I looked back at Jaxon, whose eyes kept shifting from her chest to her eyes and back again.

  I kind of wanted to high-five Jaxon for keeping his cool as much as he did with that much boob in his face. It’s not an easy thing for any man to do. Even the ones in elementary school.

  “My . . . my name is Jaxon,” he stammered. “I’m Jason’s friend.”

  “Well hi there, Jaxon. My name is Danielle. I’m a friend of Jason’s, too.”

  I grimaced momentarily, but caught myself before she saw. I wouldn’t classify her as a friend at all. More like a gold digger. And a dangerous one at that. I could spot them a mile away.

  “I haven’t seen you around lately, Jason,” she said, picking up the bottle of sunscreen and squirting some on her fingers.

  “Yeah . . . I’ve been working a lot,” I said nonchalantly. “Ok, Jax, I think you’re done. Let me get some sunscreen on, too, and we’ll go swimming.”

  “Yeah!” he yelled and jumped up in the air.

  “Here,” Danielle said, walking toward me seductively. “Let me get your back.”

  Before she touched me, I grabbed her wrist. “Why don’t you use the spray sunscreen instead? It doesn’t have to be rubbed in.”

  Her smile faltered for just a second, but I caught it. “Sure, Jason,” she said, picking up the bottle. “Whatever you want.” I didn’t really want her anywhere near me, not even to spray sunscreen on me. But my other option was having Jaxon do it and frankly, the last thing I needed was to have to wear pads over a major sunburn. So I let it slide this time. Once she was done, I took over the rest as Jaxon waited impatiently for me to be finished.

  “Ok, thanks Danielle,” I said, trying to dismiss her. “I’ll see you around.”

  “Oh, I’ll be around,” she said. “You know where to find me if you need anything from me.” I wasn’t sure if her innuendo made me want to grimace or roll my eyes. I didn’t need a woman like that near me. She was dangerous in so many ways and I knew it.

  “Ok Jax, let’s go!” I yelled, racing to the deep end and cannonballing in. Jax didn’t even hesitate. He kept up and followed me right into the water.

  At first I was nervous about him being in the deep end. But it turns out he’s a really good swimmer, which made it really fun. We spent hours jumping off both diving boards and seeing who could make the biggest splash. It wasn’t much of a contest but he had fun trying to beat me. I got a nice arm workout in when he realized how far I could throw him across the pool. I did that over and over and over.

  Despite looking fun, the slide wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. It was fully enclosed and not much bigger around than I am. I honestly thought I was gonna get stuck on the way down. I didn’t, but I could feel the entire thing moving as I slid my way down and I knew the rest of the swimmers could hear the creaks of the plastic. It was more fun watching Jaxon go down than it was worrying I was going to get stuck face down on the inside and drown. So I opted to sit that one out the rest of the day.

  Danielle didn’t leave the entire time we were there. She didn’t even try to hide the fact that she had her eyes glued to me the whole time. So as we were drying off, getting ready to head out, it didn’t surprise me at all when she approached again.

  “Are you having a good time, Jaxon?” she asked sweetly. Out popped the cleavage again when she bent over.

  “It was awesome,” Jaxon said, a little less enthusiastically than normal. Hopefully I had worn him out. “Can we come back again, Jason?”

  I smiled at him, trying my best to ignore Danielle. “Sure, buddy. We’ll have to talk to your mom but I’m sure we’ll come back soon.”

  “So, Jason,” Danielle said, putting her hands on her hips and shifting her attention to me, “what do you have planned for the evening?”

  I started packing up our stuff, refusing to make eye contact. “Oh, ya know . . . I’m dropping Jaxon off and then heading back to my place. I’ve got a game tomorrow night so I need to rest up.”

  “I can come over and cook for you,” she said. “A man your size needs to get a good meal in him to keep his strength up on the field.”

  “That’s a nice offer,” I said, not quite sure how to brush her off politely. “But I don’t know how long I’ll be gone. Thanks, though.” I slung the beach bag over my shoulder. “See ya. Come on, Jaxon.”

  He waved goodbye to Danielle and grabbed my hand. As we strolled to the parking lot he asked, “Is she your girlfriend?”

  I snorted. “Not even close, buddy.”

  “Why not?” he asked.

  “Well, there are three different kinds of women,” I told him as he clamored into the backseat of my car. “The kind you date, the kind you marry, and the kind you stay far, far away from.”

  “Which one is she?” Jaxon asked innocently.

  “The kind you don’t touch with a ten-foot pole,” I answered, shutting the door and walking around to climb inside the driver’s seat.

  Jaxon talked non-stop for all of five minutes. Then it got quiet. I snuck a peek in the back to find him passed out cold . . . head back, mouth open. Just like a true little man. I chuckled and focused on the road ahead of me, enjoying the silence.

  When we drove up into his driveway, I expected to have to carry him inside. But in true Jaxon fashion, he woke up like a shot and bounded out of the car.

  “Mom!” he yelled as we walked in the door. Addison came walking around the corner from the kitchen.

  “You’re home,” she said with a smile. “Did you have a good time?”

  “Yeah! There was two diving boards and a slide and Jason threw me across the pool, just picked me up and threw me!” he said, mimicking all the motions like he was playing charades.

  “Oh!” Addison said. “That sounds fun!”

  “Yeah, it was. Can me and Jason go swimming again, Mom? Pretty please?” he begged, looking at her with puppy dog eyes.

  “Not tonight,” she started. “But we’ll talk about doing it another day, ok?”

  “Yeah!” Jaxon said, throwing his arm in the air.

  “Why don’t you take the bea
ch bag in the other room and start unloading it while I talk to Jason, ok?

  “Ok,” he said, dragging the bag behind him.

  She turned to look directly at me. “So, how was he?”

  “Exhausting,” I said truthfully. “I have not played that hard in a pool in years.”

  She giggled. “I should have warned you that even the water doesn’t slow him down.”

  “Yes, you should have,” I agreed. “I might have asked you to give him a dose of Benadryl before we left. He sounded a little sniffly, ya know.”

  “I bet,” she said with amusement. “But just so you know, Benadryl makes him even more hyper, if that’s possible.”

  “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me. Did you enjoy having a few hours to yourself?”

  “Yeah, it was nice,” she said, flipping her hair back from her shoulder and putting her hands in her back pockets. “I cleaned up a little and then sat down and read a book,” she emphasized the word “book.” “Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve been able to do that?”

  “Mmmm,” I said, bobbling my head back and forth, “Maybe seven years or so.”

  “Yeah,” she laughed. “I bet you guys are hungry now. Would you like to stay for dinner?”

  Nothing could shock me more than the invitation she had just extended. Except for the little tornado that blew in right at that moment.

  “He can’t, Mom,” Jax answered for me. “Danielle is cooking Jason dinner at his place. She said he could have anything he wanted.”

  My eyes widened as Addison’s head whipped up to glare at me. “Who is Danielle?” she asked through narrowed eyes. Once again, Jax answered before I could even put my thoughts together.

  “She’s this lady at the pool. She’s really pretty, Mom. She had on this green bathing suit that did this,” he cupped his pecks like he was holding up breasts. At that point, I couldn’t look anymore. I just rubbed my hand over my face, praying he would stop. But he didn’t. “And she helped Jason put sunscreen on his back because he couldn’t do it and watched us the whoooole time we played! She was really nice.”

  The silence after his revelation was deafening. When I finally pulled together the nerve to look up at Addison, I almost looked away. I could see the fury in her eyes.