She was locked in his eyes for a moment until the sheath of lashes draped over his eyes when he looked down at the tablet after Clair hit play on another video. He watched silently as Clair narrated, pointing out the pitcher’s killer sinker ball in the video and what AJ should keep an eye out for the next time he was up against him.
It gave Addison a few minutes to contemplate his last statement and how to respond to it. She hadn’t known AJ for long, but already he’d said enough things to her that confused the heck out of her. Yesterday there seemed to be more behind his words and the way he stared at her when he said them.
When he finally pulled his eyes away from the tablet and met Addison’s again, she felt that familiar weakness she always did when he gazed at her that way. “At my age,” he said before she’d been able to string even two words together, “you’d be surprised how many other firsts I’ve only recently experienced and how many others I still haven’t.”
His comments felt like a riddle. His playful gaze—something so unlike him—practically dared her to ask him to elaborate. It couldn’t possibly be the obvious first he might be referring to. He wouldn’t dare mention that, not in front of Clair. Addison wouldn’t buy it for a second anyway, not with the slew of Mirandas he likely had throwing themselves at him on a daily basis.
Everything about the man exuded sensuality. An air of sultriness infused every one of the gazes he’d indulged her with so far, even the hardened ones—especially the hardened ones. The darker, more censorious, the more breathtaking. With AJ’s legendary temper, Addison could only imagine the kind of unabashed passion a man like him would unleash in the bedroom. The very thought had made her body tremble even the first time she’d laid eyes on him in person. Then again the following day, when she’d been so close to him, the temptation to reach out and touch those incredible muscled arms was unreal. She’d been admiring those arms in photos and on television for years.
“Are you, Mom?”
Addison felt her face flush when she realized she’d zoned out, staring at AJ’s muscular arms and chest, and the twinkle in his eyes said he knew it. Fortunately, Clair was busy setting up the cards for whatever game it appeared they were getting ready to play.
“Am I what now?” she asked, taking a much-needed long gulp of her water.
“In?” Clair said, still too engrossed in her cards to look up.
“Sure,” Addison said, praying her face wasn’t as beet red as it felt.
She refused to look at AJ for a few moments, focusing instead on Clair’s shuffling. “It’s the truth, right?” Clair said, still not looking up. Addison stared at her daughter, not sure what she meant. That’s when Clair finally glanced up at her. “This would be a first for me.” She grinned. “Losing a game of Gigs.”
Addison nodded, feeling relieved. So that’s how the subject of firsts had come to this.
“Yes, it would.” Taking a deep breath, she finally glanced back and met AJ’s eyes. He was eyeing her smugly. “It’s one of the many games she learned from her schoolmates back on her Mathletes team in Chicago. But it’s her favorite because she never loses.”
“Math’s never been my strongest subject, but I’ll give it a shot,” AJ said, finally having a little mercy on Addison and turning his attention to Clair instead.
“I learned it on my Mathletes team, but it doesn’t involve math,” Clair explained. “Just a lot of strategy. Not as much as chess, but it’s similar as far as formalizing computation. Only this moves faster.”
Addison saw the expression on AJ’s face go from amused to impressed to disbelieving. It was the same reaction most people had who spoke with her little genius about something she felt very passionate about.
Once Addison’s dad joined them there were no more moments of turning beet red. It seemed AJ wouldn’t be making any obscure comments in front of her dad. Thank God. It’d likely be the case for the rest of the day, given that her parents would be with them all day. That gave Addison some time to get it together and try to relax around him.
By the time they reached the state park, her nerves had calmed considerably. Their time in the shuttle had served as a bit of an ice breaker. The man was still bigger than life and breathtaking in every way, but she was able to at least convince herself he was just human.
Talking to him felt easier, especially with everyone around; though they still had plenty of moments when their eyes had met that left her breathless. It happened so often she had to wonder if he just caught her every time she was unable to stop glancing at him or if what she thought she’d noticed could possibly be true. She had to be imagining it. Was he feeling just as incapable of keeping his eyes off her?
Determined to not do what she’d done in the past and jump to delusional conclusions, she decided to focus on their trip. Just as she remembered, the falls were spectacular. Thankfully, most of the day, they were too engrossed in the sights, the boat rides, and other attractions for there to be too many butterfly-inducing moments of anxiety.
Fortunately, she’d also finally begun to feel much more comfortable around him. Addison knew her daughter could talk nonstop about the things she loved, but on the tour she’d been quieter than normal as she listened intently to the tour guide talking about the history of all the different points of interest they drove by. With Clair sitting between them on the tram, there hadn’t been any heart-stopping moments for a while.
Something else had begun to gnaw at her. As they exited the tram, their eyes met once again, and damn it if every moment she spent around him wasn’t making it harder and harder for her to keep the mindset and rule she’d moved out here with—no falling for baseball players! Especially one who would likely be a huge distraction from her number one priority—Clair’s well-being.
Despite Addison’s protest that her parents had already given Clair enough for her birthday, they insisted on letting her pick something out from the gift shop where the tour so conveniently ended.
AJ waited outside with Addison while her parents continued to spoil Clair. “So I guess that Jet Ski the coach bought Clair is his way of trying to make sure you and Clair stay in California,” AJ said with a smirk. “He mentioned when you two first moved back you weren’t entirely sure about making it a permanent move.”
Addison smiled, annoyed that, despite having managed to calm her heart considerably, she was still so easily caught up in his gaze. She nodded. “Yes, I told them that in case I changed my mind. Technically, if I ever want to, I can always transfer back.”
“Any particular reason why you moved so far away from your parents in the first place?”
Glancing away from his inquisitive eyes, Addison gulped in an effort to think of how best to answer that. “Not really,” she said as he watched her intently. “I just got offered the position out there and it was a good one. I’ve never liked my parents thinking just because I was so young when I had Clair that she was their responsibility.”
AJ was doing what he’d done so often all day. He had this way of staring at her, so acutely concentrating. She’d observed it even on television when she watched him play. But she’d always thought it was just his game face. No one could be that intense all that time. Right? Yet, here he was doing it again, and it made her strangely nervous. She swiped at a strand of hair as she glanced away from him before she continued.
“I made my bed, and I was determined to be the one to lie in it. Not them. They helped me enough by watching her while I finished college. Once I did and had a good enough job where I could afford to support us without their help, I wanted to.”