by Taylor Hart
He blinked and tugged her back into him, setting his chin softly on her head. He sighed. “Well, I’m still more grateful. Don’t forget that.”
“Is this a contest?”
“You should know, to a professional athlete, everything’s a contest.”
She let out a light laugh even though she didn’t understand why he had suddenly been brought into her life or why it felt like he was attracted to her to or what that meant. She smiled, feeling happier than she’d felt in a long time.
Later that night, she sat on the couch next to Jace and agreed to watch a crime show. “You’re going to love it,” he said as he turned on the episode.
The idea of only being friends with him had actually freed her. There was no need to worry about anything. She just wouldn’t overthink what being “friends” with a professional football player meant. Or the fact she was huge. Or the circumstance she was in. “Is that offer to rub my feet still on the table?”
“Absolutely.” He got up and grabbed a pillow off the other couch. “Here. Turn and put this behind you. Then I’ll rub them.”
Sinking back into the pillow, she watched as the show started. She sighed as she felt his hands work on her swollen feet. When she looked at him, he was staring back at her, and those stupid butterflies swarmed in her gut again.
She refocused on the television and told herself not to think about how it would feel when he left. Friend. Friend. Friend.
Chapter 13
Jace stared at Addison, his hands on her feet, and wondered how he’d become even more attracted to this woman. She was right in that she was huge, but that didn’t bother him in the slightest if he was honest. She was pregnant, for heaven’s sake, but having his hands on her feet felt intimate and good. He couldn’t stop the grinning. She had confessed she was attracted to him, too. A surge of happiness swept through him.
Then his mind switched to what Laura had said while giving him the look of death. If you hurt her, I’ll kill you.
Would he hurt her?
At the moment, it felt like he was the one in danger of getting hurt.
When she mentioned she thought he was cute, it did do a lot for his ego, which was stupid. Sure, Stacy had been a supermodel, but she’d never been warm, like sunshine. That was Addison. He thought of her laughing and chatting happily with his mother, teasing with his father.
It felt almost too easy.
He’d been leery of women since the divorce, especially since he’d gotten so much attention for catching the winning touchdown in the championship game. He’d avoided as many parties and photo ops as he could.
Addison was refreshing in more ways than he could ever explain to her. The feel of her poor swollen feet was strangely attractive to him. Just the goodness of her, the heartbreak of what she’d confessed about Tim not wanting the baby, made him sad for her. How could a man not want a baby? He’d never understood that.
Maybe it was because of the way he’d happily grown up. He wanted kids—a whole passel of them in fact.
He felt her foot jerk. Jolted back to realty, he finally paid attention to the show, just in time to see a guy with a knife in his heart and blood gushing. Disgusted, he picked up the remote and turned the show off.
“What?” she asked, surprised.
He continued rubbing her foot then patted the other. “The baby doesn’t need to hear that scary stuff.”
Giving him a skeptical look, she shrugged. “Okay. Then what should the baby hear?”
Taking a chance, he began humming “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
A small smile played at her lips, and she leaned her head back and closed her eyes. After a couple of minutes of massaging, he softly rubbed the tops and bottoms of her feet.
“That feels amazing.” She sighed.
When she put her hand to her stomach, he saw movement and stopped.
Opening her eyes, she frowned. “Why did you stop rubbing?”
He pointed to her stomach in awe. “Was that the baby?”
She smiled. “Well, unless it’s an alien, but I don’t think you’d let me watch that movie either.”
He continued watching what seriously looked like an alien push clear across her stomach. “She’s so active right now.” It was crazy.
“Want to feel her?”
Unsure, but wanting nothing else, he nodded.
“Give me your hand.”
He did, and she directed it to her belly. It wasn’t long before he felt the lump push against his hand, like a tight, tiny fist. “Oh my gosh.” He jumped a bit, but kept his hand on her stomach, delighted.
She laughed. “I know. It’s so cool.”
He kept his hand there again and felt another push that trailed across her tummy. When it stopped, he was disappointed. She moved his hand to the side and closer to her hip, where he felt another push. “Man, she’s going to be a soccer star or a MMA fighter.”
Their eyes met, and she let out a light laugh. “MMA fighter?”
“Hey, girls are getting into it these days.” When she giggled, he said, “Or a football player.”
“Yeah. I bet she’ll be fast with power like that. Oh no,” she said, backtracking quickly. “No football playing—too many injuries.”
“I’m fine.” He countered.
“You’re fast.” She smiled at him. “And lucky.”
He considered her words. “Well, once I might have thought lucky, but since meeting this woman who makes me count my blessings everyday, now I would probably say I’m blessed.”
Her face burned red. Putting her hand on her belly, she leaned back. “Hmm. This woman, she sounds pushy.”
“Oh, she is.” The desire to flirt with her was irresistible. “I mean, she always tells me what to do. She’s pushy, and she is totally selfless.”
“Sounds horrible.”
A smile twitched at his lips. “I can hardly stand her.” He shrugged. “I guess her redeeming quality is she’s kinda cute.”
He watched as the blush on her face deepened. He liked that she wasn’t like those women who fell all over him at parties and waited for him to ask if he would take them home. She was good. Fresh.
For a brief moment, their eyes held. Then she started to push up from the couch but fell back. “Okay, I think I should get to bed.”
“No,” he said immediately, not wanting his fun to be over.
She sighed. “Yes.” She turned to him. “Would you mind getting up and giving me a hand?”
He felt the urge to do the macho He-Man thing. “I’ll do more than that.” Without warning, he stood, pushed his hand beneath her bottom and legs, and scooped her up.
“No!” She squealed. “I’m too heavy.”
She wasn’t wrong, but his ego disagreed. “For me, you are but a feather in the wind,” he said with an Arnold Schwarzenegger accent.
She burst out laughing, and he laughed too, feeling silly but wonderful.
He got to the room and easily set her on her bed.
She sighed. “I wish I could stay in bed, but I have to pee.”
“Well, can’t help you there.” He winked at her and turned to leave.
She spoke up. “Jace?” He turned back to see a slow smile fill her face. “I do mean it. Thanks for staying.”
Her words made him go all warm and gooey inside. “Don’t mention it.”
Heading back to the front room, he locked the doors, checked the garage, and started the dishwasher. His eyes paused on the wedding picture of Addison and Tim in the living room. Of course, he’d noticed it before, but he’d never really looked at it. Had they been happy? All he really knew about Tim was that he’d been a computer programmer, whatever that meant, and he hadn’t wanted kids.
Staring up at the photo, he inspected Tim. He wasn’t a bad-looking dude. Okay, kind of geeky who was already balding even in their wedding picture, but not bad.
She looked happy. Her hair was the same. She still had that fresh look to her. Dang, she was beautiful.
Seeing her wedding picture made him think of his own wedding with Stacy at his parents’ ranch two years ago. It’d been big, with family friends and some of his football friends.
Thinking of how Addison was now having Tim’s baby suddenly made him angry. Not full-fledged, throw-stuff-around anger, but he did clench his hand into a fist. Tim hadn’t wanted all of this? That was ridiculous.
“Hey.” She spoke softly, but it still startled him.
He jumped a bit. “Hey.” He felt like he’d been caught looking at something he wasn’t supposed to look at. He knew he was turning red.
She was now in her nightgown, which fit snugly over her tummy. Between her soft pink slippers and braided hair, she looked even younger. “What are you doing?”
“Just looking.” He didn’t know what to say.
Staring up at herself, she sighed. “The therapist I saw a couple of times right after Tim passed away told me I should think of taking some of his stuff away.”
He didn’t know what to say. He’d noticed all Tim’s stuff still in the office and in her closet. Pretty much everywhere really. It annoyed him, but he would be leaving soon anyway.
The thought hit him hard. He would be leaving her and the baby.
She sighed. “Would you help me do that tomorrow?”
“Me?”
Reaching up and taking her braid between her fingers, she twirled it. “Unless that’s too weird. I can just do it.”
He knew she couldn’t do it alone. “Yeah, it’s too weird.” He agreed, feeling guilty, like it was too personal for him to deal with.
“Okay, that’s fine.”
“I’ll hire someone to help you.”
“No, that’s fine.” She nodded and shuffled back down the hall. “Good night.”
Sucking in a breath, he wondered what was wrong with him. He was living with a pregnant woman, attracted to her, and feeling guilty he couldn’t take out her husband’s things.
Yep, something was definitely wrong with him.
Two hours later, he was jolted out of bed when he heard her screams. Racing down the hall, he threw back her door expecting labor or maybe false labor. Maybe something was wrong with the baby.
But she wasn’t even awake. She was moaning, and as he got closer, he saw that her forehead was slick with sweat.
Putting his hand gently on her shoulder, he shook her. “Addison.”
She didn’t wake up. Her forehead creased, and she cried out. “Not the baby. Not the baby.”
“Addison.” He shook her harder.
Then she jerked awake, reaching out and putting her hand on her belly.
“Are you okay?” He knelt next to her, his hand still on her shoulder.
“Oh my gosh.” She started to adjust to a sitting position.
He helped her, pushing a pillow behind her and holding out the cup of water on her bedside table for her. “Take a drink.” He didn’t know why she needed a drink for a nightmare, but it was what his mother had always done for a nightmare or any kind of hurt.
After swallowing, she handed the cup back to him and sucked in a deep breath. “Thank you.”
He put it down, but didn’t move. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Scrunching her eyebrows together, she lay back, exhaling. “I have this reoccurring nightmare about the night Tim died.”
He didn’t move.
“It’s usually just a replay of the moments before the accident. We hadn’t been doing anything particular, just driving to Home Depot. He’d adjusted the radio, and I looked up and bam—the truck hit the car. It’s all I remember. Well, that’s not true. I remember sirens. I remember yelling for Tim. I remember a firefighter standing over me, his helmet on. That’s how I knew. I couldn’t really see him. Then I passed out. When I woke up twenty-four hours later, he was dead.” She blinked furiously, and a tear escaped down the side of her cheek.
Unable to do much else, he found her hand on her belly and held it like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Tonight I dreamed I was laying there, the fireman looking down at me, and I was feeling for the baby in my belly, but she wasn’t there. I wasn’t pregnant, and I was screaming.”
He put his other hand on her forehead, smoothing back her hair. “It’s okay. She’s right here.” He squeezed her hand on her belly. “Right here.”
At that moment, the baby kicked right where their hands were.
He couldn’t help being delighted and breaking into a grin. She hiccupped a little laugh in response.
The incredible thing about this moment was that it was sad, but it was beautiful. She was dazzling. The more he was around her the more he liked her, and not just as a friend. The protective side of him had kicked into gear. Not to mention the fact she was beautiful, warm, and fun.
She sighed and closed her eyes.
After a few moments, he stood, not knowing what to do.
“I’m scared,” she whispered, not letting his hand go.
His heart raced, and he thought about her nightmare. “I’ll get the rocker from the baby room.”
Patting the side of the bed, she said, “I know it’s weird. I know it’s all weird. I got that tonight when I thought about what I asked you to do—clean out my dead husband’s things. But I don’t care. Will you just lay by me?”
The reflection of her blue eyes caught the hallway light, and he felt something else—desire? He pushed it away. “Yes.” He went to the hall and shut off the light. Carefully, he crossed to the other side of the bed, ignoring more of Tim’s things and scooting closer to her.
“Just get in.”
“No.” He pulled up a throw blanket she had at the bottom of the bed. “This works.”
He edged closer to her then took her hand. “Is this good?”
She sighed. “It’s good.”
Before he knew it, he was rubbing circles into her hand with his thumb.
She giggled and pulled away.
“What?”
“It feels intimate, the circles in my palm.”
This made him laugh, and he took her hand back. “It’s not that intimate.” But he could kind of feel it too. He was just denying it. He turned on his side and stared at her, her other hand over her tummy.
Grunting, she turned away from him. “I need to readjust.”
Now she was facing away from him. He didn’t feel like he was comforting her at all, and it would be awkward to take her hand. It felt like she was too far away. So he took a chance and scooted closer.
“What are you doing?” She turned to look at him.
He was already closer to her, gently pushing his chest to her back, his chin on her head. “Just hold still.”
Stiffening, she let out a breath. “I’m huge,” she whispered.
“Shh.” Gently, he skimmed his fingertips down her arm. “Just relax.”
Slowly, she did. He kept running his hand softly down her arm, and started humming a song his mother had sung to them as kids.
“What is that?”
He quietly began to sing it. “If I could find a baby by the shore, I’d pick her up and carry her aboard. The people on the ship might faint, but I’d carry the baby too far away and let the baby cry. Let the baby cry.”
“Why is the baby crying?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Why do babies fall from trees and then get caught in other nursery rhyme songs?”
“True.”
He continued humming.
“Jace?” she said softly.
“Yeah?”
“Laura might have had a reason to be upset the other night.”
This intrigued him. “Why?”
She sighed. “Well, I know it’s stupid, but when you lived across the street, I kind of got involved in what was happening over there. Then, after Tim passed … I kept tabs on you.”
He stopped rubbing. “Okay.”
She let out a light laugh. “I wasn’t crazy. I was just. I don’t know.”
He felt like sh
e wasn’t saying something. “Keep telling me what you need to tell me.” He insisted.
“I just felt so bad that Stacy had cheated on you. That day I brought you cookies, I remember wondering would Tim look that bad if I left him?”
It was strange to hear Addison saying how bad he looked when Stacy left because he could say, with a fair amount of certainty; it would hurt worse to have Addison leave him.
That realization startled him.
“Jace, you’re not getting weirded out, right?”
“No,” he said quickly.
“Well.”
“Well, what?”
He chose his words carefully. “Addison, I think any man who got left by you would fall apart.”
For a few moments, neither of them spoke, and he wondered at how quickly he’d fallen for her. But this situation. Him leaving. His thoughts were jumbled.
Then they got even more jumbled.
Addison put her hand over his. “Would you go to Lamaze class with me tomorrow?”
That was intense. He hadn’t expected this question.
“Never mind,” she said.
He felt the baby moving beneath his hand. “Yes.”
She let out a little laugh. “Really?”
“Yes.” He put his hand back on what must be a foot or hand. He wasn’t sure. “I’d be happy to go to class with you.” It felt like everything got stranger each day with Addison. At the same time, nothing had ever felt more right in his life.
Chapter 14
The next day, when Addison came out for breakfast, Jace was on the floor in the living room doing push-ups.
She walked over and watched him pump out a sizable number of them in a short amount of time. He didn’t even seem to be breathing hard.
“Hey.” He glanced up at her. “Your breakfast is on the table. I’ll just finish up a couple more exercises.”
“Have you been doing all these things everyday?”
Getting to his feet, he started doing up and downs, and she noticed a sheen of sweat on him. “Sweetheart, I’ve been up since five and gone for a ten-mile run on that crappy treadmill downstairs by the time you get up.”
