“Trust me, AJ. There’s no way you wouldn’t have been discovered,” she said, squeezing his hand. “My dad’s said it many times. What you have is a gift. It was just a matter of time before someone else snatched you up. As a matter of fact, he said he wasn’t the only one inquiring about you at the time.”
AJ shook his head. “But I would’ve ended up somewhere else, possibly never met your dad and then Clair, which ultimately led me to you. I might still be as clueless about how good life can be when you find the one as I was before I met you.”
The sweetness and utterly genuine tenderness she heard in his voice and saw in his eyes choked her up.
“I hate to say it, but only because I know it’s not possible, but if I could go back and remove that tragedy in my life, I wouldn’t.” He winced, shaking his head, and then took another sip of his wine. “You remind me of my mother when you talk about stopping at nothing to protect your daughter. You’d probably sacrifice anything for her too.”
“Anything,” Addison whispered, still choked up and getting more so as the passion in his words continued. “I’d give my life for her.”
“Exactly,” he said. “It almost feels like it’s what my mom did for us. I know she couldn’t have known what her tragic death would mean for us, but a tiny part of me wants to believe she knew the moment she reached the other side and would gladly do it again—sacrifice her life for her kids. Because of her death and ultimately my dad’s too, we moved to California. My brothers and I got the careers we’d always dreamed of, and my sisters each met their soul mates. And I met you. Do you think I’m gonna let my parents’ sacrifices be wasted?”
Addison smiled, the tears blurring her vision now. “No,” she whispered.
“You bet your sweet ass I’m not,” he said, kissing her head. “Don’t worry about things feeling too perfect. Perfect is what it’s supposed to be, and trust me. I’ve been around long enough to know life doesn’t stay perfect forever, so if anything goes wrong, don’t panic. We got this. In the meantime, enjoy the perfect while it lasts.”
The band starting another song got his attention, and he sat up a bit. “Is that . . .?”
Addison listened to what she could only imagine he meant by that. The speakers were blasting someone strumming the guitar on stage, but she couldn’t make out what song it was.
“Oh shit, I think it is,” he said with a bigger smile, and Addison turned to him curiously as he stood up, placing his wine glass on the small table in their sitting area. He held out his hand to her. “Don’t laugh and don’t you dare breathe a word of this to anyone, especially my brothers.”
Warmed and grateful for his sudden silliness, Addison smiled as she took his hand and stood up. “I won’t. What is it?”
“Talk about Fate for them to play this song at this moment.” He smiled again as the guy began singing, and Addison knew immediately what song it was.
“Thinking Out Loud,” she said, nodding. “I love that song.”
“I don’t,” he said, taking her in his arms for a romantic dance right there under the light of a thousand stars. “Well, I never did anyway. I’ve never been into romantic slow songs, so I usually switch the channels on the radio when I hear something like this start up. And I certainly don’t go researching lyrics.” He smirked, looking down at her. “But I recently caught the tail end of the song and a few of the words, and my ass actually looked up the lyrics. Then I couldn’t get enough of hearing it because it made me think of us. What are the odds of them playing this right now?”
Breathing in deeply, Addison leaned her face against his chest, listening to the guy singing and hummed along.
People fall in love in mysterious ways. Maybe it’s all part of plan . . .
Maybe this did feel perfect because it was, and as AJ said, it probably wouldn’t always be, but she was done worrying about it. She’d have that talk with Clair soon, and she was certain her daughter would be elated. They’d be able to stop sneaking around, and she’d just enjoy the perfect as long as it lasted.
Hearing AJ say he believed many things in his life led him to her, she now thought about how depressed she’d been once upon a time: The awful time in her life when she thought she’d made the biggest mistake ever. The pain she’d gone through but rarely spoke of when she felt the rejection from someone she’d been so sure cared more about her. If she hadn’t gone through that, if things had been different and Clair’s donor had stuck around, she wouldn’t be here with AJ tonight either.
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.