by Emilia Finn
Gotta keep her safe and all that.
I jog past my mom and Aunt Kit with a wild grin, I low-five my cousin Bry, and then I burst into the dreary, struggling sunlight to find Cam rushing straight back in my direction with a white face.
I catch her when she moves too fast, prepared to make a joke about clumsiness, but then I come eye-to-eye with a fighter — a heavyweight with a feral sneer and pumped muscles, who ducks away the moment our eyes meet, and loses himself in the crowd standing around the cars.
“Let me go. I gotta go back inside.” Cam fights my hands, and turns from slapping palms to digging nails. “Get off me! I have to go back inside.”
“What’s the problem?” I was coming out here to tease her, to goad her some more and beg for a date at the lake, but the way my heart thumps now has nothing to do with stolen kisses, and everything to do with adrenaline. “Cameron? What’s the problem?”
“I have to stay where Will can see me.”
She spins out of my hands when Miles Walker, a fighter I met for two seconds earlier this week, passes us. She grabs onto his sleeves, and herds him inside at an almost sprint past my mom and aunt.
They watch on with lifted brows and curious eyes, and stretch their necks to follow Cam’s back as she races away.
When the couple have cleared the room and escaped the hall, Mom turns to me with a frown. “Is there a problem, baby?”
“No… I dunno. I don’t think so.”
I move in and press a kiss to her cheek, then I head back into the hall and search for those long legs, the beautiful, silky hair, the eyes that sucked me in and have yet to release me.
Cam stands alone again in the exact spot she began, but she stands in socks, her sneakers tossed to the floor by the wall. Will is still in the octagon, and twenty feet away, Miles spars with another middleweight, but his eyes are on Cam like he has some kind of claim.
Narrowing my eyes, I make my way across the mats and take Cam’s elbow until she spins with a startled gasp. “What the fuck just happened?”
“What?” She yanks her arm from my grasp and turns back to watch Will. “Go away.”
“You refused to remove your shoes, you raced outside, you raced straight back in with another guy, and now you have the shoes off, exactly like I asked you to do no more than three fucking minutes ago. What gives?”
“It’s too cold outside,” she answers. She lies. “I changed my mind, decided I’d rather tinea over pneumonia.”
“Who’s that guy over there?” I nod toward Miles. “He your brother too?”
“He’s a family friend. Mind your business.”
“Will forbids you from being near every single dude in the universe except Iowa? That’s what you’re telling me?”
She turns and meets my eyes with a frown. “Who’s Iowa?”
“Miles.” I tip my head in his direction. “I know who he is. I’m just surprised you do too.”
“He’s our hotel neighbor,” she huffs. “He proved himself to Will. That’s the end of it. I’m still not allowed to hang out with him alone, though, so don’t get jealous over there, Secretary.”
“Jealousy is a healthy emotion.”
“No, it’s poison. More so when I literally have no effing clue who you are.”
I extend a hand. “I’m Ja–”
She slaps my hand so hard that I almost smack the guy next to us and end up in a brawl. “I didn’t say I wanted to know,” she growls. “I said I don’t know you. If I wanted to, I’d have asked. I took my shoes off, so please, can you go away?”
“I don’t wanna go away.” Instead of arrogance, or obnoxiousness, or pestering annoyance, I go with honesty. “I don’t know why you wanna fight me on this. I think you’re pretty, so why the hell can’t you give me two seconds of your time?”
“Because looks fade. You’re pretty, too, Secretary. But that’ll last a minute, then the truth comes out.”
“What truth?”
She throws her hands up. “I don’t know! But there’s always something. You like to shoot up?”
I frown. “No.”
“You like to hit women?”
“Not the way you think.”
She shakes her head. “You’re unemployed. You’re a deadbeat. You’re on a fast track to becoming a douchebag. You have mommy issues and can’t think for yourself.” She shrugs. “There’s something in there, Secretary. There always is. And seeing as I’m leaving town in seventy-two or so hours, I suggest you move along and try to be someone else’s wifebeater.”
“You are too fucking young to be this bitter. Seriously, Cam. Is the world really that ugly in your eyes?”
“Yup. Now beat it, deadbeat. You’ve got babies to make, and child support to dodge.”
“Jesus Christ. You are seventeen, not a thirty-two-year-old divorcee with two kids, and a broken-down Subaru. What the hell happened to you?”
“Life happened to me. So just— Aw fuck.”
“What?” I glance over my shoulder when her face turns pale, and see the guy from outside. The heavyweight that sent her barreling back in. “What is your problem with him?”
“You know that guy?” Her voice actually cracks and brings my shoulders up in defense. “Secretary? Do you know him?”
“I mean, I know his name.” I turn back to her. “He’s not my pal, but I know who he is. Who is he to you?”
“He’s nobody.” She turns back to Will, but I swear, she stands closer to me, so close, so in line, that she’s using me to hide from the guy across the room. “Stop talking now. You have, like, three full minutes of standing this close to me. Once that buzzer sounds,” she nods toward the clock timing Will’s fight, “you gotta step away and leave me alone.”
“Meet me at the lake. One hour.”
“It’d only take two minutes to get knocked up and ruin a life. No thanks.”
“Knocked up?” I snap. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Oh, so you don’t wanna fuck me?” She turns and speaks quiet enough that only I can hear. “Are you honestly trying to make me believe that you’re going to all this trouble to get my attention, but your endgame has nothing to do with removing my panties?”
“I mean…”
As though I’ve proved her point, she scoffs and turns back to watch Will.
“No, wait. Listen.” I spin her back. “I’m saying that the endgame isn’t to have sex with you. I think, eventually, it might be a side hobby for us, but first, I just wanna kiss you.”
“Kiss me?” Her eyes warm, widen, deepen. “You wanna kiss me?”
“Just one time, and we’ll know. Just five minutes anywhere. It doesn’t have to be at the lake. We can go to the Lookout, or go out for ice cream. We can do it right here, if you want. I know enough fighters here that I probably won’t die when your brother sees.”
“You wanna kiss me…” she repeats. “And then fuck me?”
“No, I wanna kiss you, and the results of the kissing would decide our next step.”
“Our next step?”
“Yeah, like, if you’re who I think you are, then we would take the next step. And if you’re not, then no harm, no foul.” I brush my hands together. “I’ll leave you alone.”
“And who do you think I am?” she asks hesitantly. “We don’t run in the same circles, we have no mutual relations. Whoever you think I am, you’re wrong. So I can save you a trip to the lake. I’m not her.”
“I think…” I swallow my nerves and cast a fast glance to the timer on the wall. Ten seconds.
“Secretary?” she pushes. “Who am I?”
“Well… my future wife.”
“Your…” She bounces back like I hit her. “What?”
“My soulmate.”
The buzzer sounds, and only a single second later, a shouted, “Cam!” makes her jump.
“You’re insane,” she whispers. “There it is.” She looks me up and down. “There’s always something. Woman beater, junkie, bum… but you are clini
cally fucking insane.”
She ducks to her sneakers as Will slams the cage door open. I follow her to the wall, but she spins fast and snaps, “Stay away from me. I don’t have the time, the patience, or the legal flexibility to deal with you.”
“Cam.” Will hooks his hand around his sister’s arm and yanks her to his sweaty body. Dirty blonde hair hangs over his forehead, and those blue eyes study me and somehow make blue seem fiery. “You were warned, kid.”
I lift my hands and take a step back. “I didn’t touch.” I hook a thumb over my shoulder and lift a brow. “What’s her problem with that fighter?”
He looks over my shoulder and locks eyes with the man I know as Kyle Baker. Kyle just so happens to be Reid Baker’s brother, and Reid happens to fancy himself in love with Evie… the chick dating Ben.
“What did he do?” Will demands on a low, warning rumble. “Cameron?”
“He did nothing.” She trips into her shoe with hurried movements, using his hand as balance. “I went outside for some air, but he was out there, so I came back in again.”
“I told you not to go outside,” Will snaps. “I fucking told you, Cam.”
“It was fine.” She trips into her second shoe and huffs. “It’s hot as hell in here with all these people. I went out, saw him, came back in again. We literally didn’t even speak.”
Will’s eyes come to me. “You were out there too?”
“I followed her out.” I stand taller and broaden my shoulders. “I would have taken care of it for her, but she bolted in and latched onto Iowa.”
A vein grows and throbs in his forehead. “Who the fuck is Iowa? Dammit, Cam. Are you trying to hurt me?”
“Iowa is Miles,” she answers impatiently. “I don’t get the nickname, but that’s what the secretary calls him. He was walking by, Three was nearby, so I grabbed on and came back inside again.”
“That dude is fuckin’ trouble.” Will leans closer and gets in my face. “He’s poison on your event. And if your people don’t keep him under control, I’ll do it for you.”
“Your event?” Cam looks between me and her brother. “His event? His people?”
“We’re going for a run,” Will growls. “This place is too fuckin’ crowded.” He looks to Cam. “We’ll swing by our room so you can get changed, then we’re running.” Then he looks back at me. “I’ve told you already. Stay away from her. The only reason I haven’t broken your neck already is because you’re her age. That makes this a normal schoolyard infatuation, and not a sick obsession like it could be for some of the older guys. But I’m here to tell you, this romance ain’t happening. Move the fuck on, kid. Find a different prom date.”
“Prom is still a few months away.” I smile for the man who’d get off on strangling me to death. “Circumstances might change.”
“They won’t.”
He tugs Cam around the second she finishes tying her laces, and slams his way through the crowd with no concern for the fact most of these guys have rage problems. Not Rollin On Gym guys, but the guys visiting for the tournament. They come here this week to train, they try their damnedest to get noticed, and when they think my family isn’t watching, they pick fights with each other.
The championship purse is worth half a million dollars, and to almost every single person competing, that half a million is the difference between having somewhere to live or not. Between having something to eat or not.
Memories of Cam picking her way through the samples at Jonah’s Store play through my mind; the way she unashamedly worked her way through each offering. The way she tossed crackers into her throat, and left me to pay for the box.
Cam and Will have a brother-sister relationship that reminds me of my mom and uncle. My mom and uncle were children of abusers. Homeless more often than not, hungry enough to stunt their growth, traumatized enough to struggle to create healthy relationships.
“Shit.”
“What’s up, handsome?” My Aunt Tink slides her way through the grumbling crowd and wraps her delicate arm through mine to trap me in what she’d have me believe is a hug. In reality, it’s her way of keeping me by her side and not chasing an angry fighter into the street.
This is the woman who married my Uncle Jon, and together, they created the devil twins. But before that, she was just Tink, and the man she was desperately in love with was a child of abuse and hunger. Jon was emotionally fucked, and mentally unable to accept love, since he’d been convinced all his life that he was unworthy.
“Aunt T.” I turn and wrap her tiny five feet, two inches into a crushing hug that ends on her laugh. She’s my aunt, but all of the kids outgrew her by the time we were ten. “It feels like I haven’t seen you in weeks.”
“I saw you at breakfast, honey.” She rests her cheek against my chest and squeezes. “But I missed you too. Life is crazy busy right now. But hey, only seventy-two hours until they all go home, and life goes back to normal.”
“Yeah…” I draw in a deep sigh until it fills my chest, then I let it out again and close my eyes. “Seventy-two hours until they go home.”
“Wanna go out on a date with me next week?”
I pull back and study her forest green eyes. “Best offer I’ve had all day. Count me in.”
Cam
The End is Nigh
“I’m heading over to Jonah’s Store,” I shout, since Will is in the shower, but when he doesn’t answer, I cross our room and knock on the bathroom door. “Will?”
The sound of running water makes it hard to hear when he calls back, “What?”
“I’m heading to Jonah’s,” I reply. “I’ll be back in twenty.”
“Cam! No.”
The shower cuts off, just like that. The plastic shower door parading as glass slams open, and then the towel rack squeaks. A second later, the door swings open, and Will stands over me with water dripping from the end of his nose.
“I feel like a broken record, Cam. What don’t you understand when I say to stay here?”
“We’ve run out of food. And look,” I wave a hand toward our room door.
There just so happens to be a brown-haired toddler standing there with a dolly clutched in her arms, and a wide smile plastered across her face.
“Miles was heading over to grab groceries.”
“Oh…” Will’s eyes transform from anger to mild acceptance. “Okay. I guess that would be okay. You’ll stay with him and Lyss, right?”
“Promise. I’ll grab groceries, and then we’ll be home.”
Will leans in closer, studies me for a moment, then whispers, “You’re not into him, are you? He’s a decent dude. I’d hate to have to slam his head against the wall.”
“No.” I spin away on a laugh and head toward the little girl who might be my new best friend. “That’s a negative, big chief. Just friendly. And since you trust him…”
He holds onto his towel at his hips and nods. “I guess.”
As soon as Miles pulls his door closed and appears behind Lyss, Will nods again. “You’ve got her, Iowa?”
“I’ve got her. We’ll be thirty minutes, max. Then Lyss and I are coming back and heading to bed.”
“Sun barely went down!” Will laughs. “It’s like…” He looks at the bedside alarm clock, then back to Miles. “It’s six-thirty, dude. What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Gotta catch sleep when I can. You ready, Cam? I don’t wanna be out too long.”
“Yep.” I move to the door and take Lyss’ hand when she offers it. “It would seem I now have two big brothers.” I look into Lyss’ eyes, and cheer. “Yippee!”
“Smarty pants.”
Will goes to Herculean efforts to not cuss now that we have our new little friend. I’m fairly sure that, before meeting her, my brother has never said ‘smarty pants,’ but I guess stranger things have happened.
“I wonder what kind of desserts we can find that aren’t full of the yucky foods?” I muse.
“Maybe I can get a sucker.” Lyss spins to
Miles. “Can I get a sucker, Daddy?”
“Yes please!” I pull the door closed behind us and smile as we head along the balcony. “I love suckers. They’re my favorite candy.”
“Mine too,” Lyss replies.
“Keep walking,” Miles growls as we approach room three. “If you slow, I’m taking you straight back to your brother and letting him belt you for not listening.”
“Good lord, your daddy is mean.” Though of course I walk faster as we pass room three. “Lyssy Poo, how do you tolerate his barbaric ways, huh?”
She shrugs and sing-songs, “He’s not mean to me.”
“Just wait until you’re seventeen,” he quips as we move down the steps without running into trouble. “If, in your teen years, you say I’m the meanest person you’ve ever met, then I’ll have done my job.”
“It’s cold as balls out here, huh?” I tuck my hands into my coat pockets, and since I still hold Lyss’, I pull hers in too. “Is it getting colder each year, or am I just getting old?”
“Drama.” Miles rolls his eyes. “So much drama. You are seventeen, Cameron. Don’t start with the arthritis talks yet.”
I snort. “You ready for tomorrow night?” We slow our walk as we step off the hotel property, and meander along the sidewalk toward Main Street. “Big night tomorrow night.”
“Mm.”
I frown at the tone I hear in his voice. “You nervous?”
“Nah, I don’t get nervous. I just…” He shrugs and sends his heavy jacket lifting like stiff armor. “I dunno. Got things on my mind, I guess. Story of my life.”
“Things like what?”
“Like, the tournament kicks off at six, right?”
“Right…?” I shake my head when snow flurries fall and settle in my hair. “Reasonable time.”
“Yeah, for a seventeen-year-old with nowhere else to be. But I can’t take Lyss to that, Cam. I can’t keep her up all night, and even if I was gonna be the dad that completely disregards his daughter’s bedtime, where would I keep her? In the corner of the octagon?”
“You don’t, like…” I let my breath out on a ‘huh’. “You don’t have a babysitter?”