All those years, despite the anguish she’d gone through, she always considered Clair such a blessing—the best thing to happen in her life. Addison had always known only good things could come from having had Clair, and this was further proof. If anything ever went wrong, she’d seen it in AJ’s eyes, heard it in his words, but most importantly felt it in his love for her; they did have this.

She listened quietly for a moment to the rest of the words of the song, smiling even bigger with each one. Then she looked up at her perfect boyfriend. How in the world she’d gotten so lucky she’d never know, but she was ready to accept it now. This was really happening.

AJ glanced down and smiled at her just as whimsically as she knew she was smiling at him. “I love you, Andrés Josiah Romero,” she whispered.

He groaned, hugging her even tighter and kissing the top of her head. “I love you too, baby.”

They danced for a little longer until he spoke again. “Okay, I have another confession to make.”

She glanced up at him, smiling. “What’s that?”

“Hearing you say you love me using my full name actually got me hard.”

Addison laughed out loud, but it secretly thrilled her. “Well, then maybe we should get out of here.”

“You see,” he said, taking her hand and already hurrying back toward the party. “I’m telling you it’s like we’re soul mates. You totally read my mind.”

Laughing even more, Addison felt her heart completely swell as they rushed back to say good-bye to everyone.

Chapter 19

AJ

“Are you my mom’s boyfriend now?”

AJ’s eyes flew open. He’d been taking a rest on the weight bench in the team’s gym, eyes closed, when Clair’s words startled him. She stood over him, holding her little notebook.

“W-what?” he asked, as he sat up slowly in an effort to stall and come up with the best way to respond to the unexpected question.

“Harrison assumed you were her boyfriend way back when he first met you, but I told him no because you weren’t.”

AJ stared at her, trying to figure out if she was upset or just curious.

“Then later I asked my mom a few times if you were because, even with all the parental controls on my tablet and phone, I can still read sports-related news. There’s been a lot of speculation about you two. My mom said, just like the bogus stories about you being my dad, all the other stories were made up too, for the sake of getting more subscribers. But Harrison sent me photos just now of you two last night at the awards show, holding hands and looking a lot more like a couple than just friends.” She shrugged. “It’s okay if you are. I just feel kind of dumb because all this time I’ve been setting him straight on this and pretty much everything else.” She put her little hand on her hip and frowned. “I don’t like being set straight, Andrés, especially not by a boy.”

AJ refrained from grinning. Her reprimanding expression was too adorable. He was relieved she was okay with it and appeared more aggravated about being set straight than freaked out about his relationship with her mom. For a second, he considered just telling her the truth but then decided not to. This was something Addison should tell her, not him. She said last night she’d be coming clean with Clair soon, but evidently she still hadn’t if Clair was questioning him about it.

AJ sat up now. “Your mom said she’d explained to you that since neither of us had a date to this thing last night we’d be each other’s dates,” he said as casually as he could. “Dates hold hands and, you know, act like they’re, well . . . dating.”

Clair was far too clever to not know the jig was up and he was still trying to deny the obvious. He could see it in her unimpressed reaction to his explanation. So he tried changing the subject. “Ask your mom when she gets off work. She’ll tell you. But, hey, since you mentioned Dad, have you heard anything else about Fred? Your mom talk to him lately?”

There was a noticeable change in her demeanor, and the playful near eye roll she’d given AJ’s previous response disappeared. AJ’s muscles were instantly tense. “I don’t know if I should be telling you this now.” She paused as if to think about then shook her head and continued. “It’s probably nothing bad, but I think that’s who she’s with now. She’s not at work like she told me she had to be. I heard her on the phone again this morning. She agreed to meet with him so they could talk.”

“Fred?” AJ asked, his insides lighting up fast.

Addison lied to him.

She’d specifically said she had something come up last minute at work and wouldn’t make it out to the ballpark with Clair and her dad, until later in the day when it got closer to the start of his game that afternoon.

“Yes.” Clair nodded. “Her saying his name is what got my attention in the first place. But you can’t tell her, AJ. I don’t want her to know I know. Just like with you two. It’s why I stopped asking her about it weeks ago. I’ve had a feeling you two were more than friends for a while now but figured she’d tell me when she was ready to. I only asked you now because I thought you might have a better response than your lame one and I could still try and counter Harrison’s text.”

Even her comment about his lame response didn’t make him laugh or even smirk like it normally would’ve. All he could think of was, after their near perfect night out last night, Addison lied to him and was somewhere meeting up with Fred at that very moment.

“Did you hear anything else?”

“No.” Clair shook her head; her troubled eyes spoke volumes. She was already regretting having told him. “She went outside to finish the call. Then when she came inside, she told me she’d have to go into the office but she’d meet me here later.”

In an attempt to appear unfazed by this, AJ tried lightening up his own demeanor. The last thing he wanted was to have Clair start keeping this kind of stuff from him out of fear that she was ratting out her mother. The expression on her face said she was worried she’d done just that.

“Yeah, it’s probably nothing bad. I’m sure she’ll tell you about it when she’s ready.” He forced a smirk. “And what are you talking about lame response? It’s the truth.”

“Oh, please,” she said, shaking her head, but he was glad her expression lost a little of its apprehension. “Your poker face is as bad as Harrison’s. You should’ve just gone with your first instinct and admitted it’s true but made me promise not to tell my mom you did. I could tell it was what you were thinking. But don’t worry. As long as you keep my secret, I’ll keep yours. For the record, I’m glad you and my mom are dating. She’s been in such a good mood lately, prancing around the house and singing all the time.” She shook her head again with a half roll of her eyes. “Such a dead giveaway. She’s also been much less uptight about all the little things she usually worries about. But hey”—she peered at him, her eyes going extra small as she pointed her pen at him—“don’t you dare hurt her. I may be a lot smaller than you, but remember, I read a lot. I know a lot more about things you’d never imagine I might.”

That made him laugh, despite the raw agitation he was still feeling about Addison lying to him. “I won’t, but you, hey,” he said, mimicking the menacing way she’d pointed her pen at him with his finger, “technically, I haven’t admitted anything.”

This time she gave him the full-blown eye roll but smiled. “The devil’s in the details, AJ.” She lifted her little notebook and shook it at him. “I gotta make my rounds. I’ll be back with the stats I think you need to know about for today’s game. But I gotta talk to Sly first.”

AJ watched her scurry away towards where Sabian was lifting weights. It still amazed him that this was a seven-year-old he had these conversations with. Most of the guys on the team weren’t as clever and on it as she was. He tried using her comment about her mom being in such a good mood lately to calm him. No way was Addison doing anything wrong with this guy. What she felt for AJ now was as palpable as what he felt for her.