by Ryan Michele
She grabs a cup and fills it with water. I take a few sips. She grabs the pad from Huck. “You scared me to death.”
“I know. Sorry,” I say as I pull her in for a hug.
The doctor comes in a few minutes later to tell me I have to stay overnight due to hitting my head. Other than that, I should be able to go home in the morning and hopefully my hearing will return to normal in a few days. Until then, I’m off work. Which sucks.
~*~
A few days later, I’m going stir crazy in my apartment. My sister Gia is being a mother hen. She has her issues, but she means well. We found out a couple of years ago that she’s bi-polar, something she got from our birth mother. She almost turned our brother’s entire gym upside down in the process, but we got her help. As long as she stays on her meds, she’s fine, but she feels safer living with me. It doesn’t bother me, normally I’m not here much. It means the fridge always has food when I come in, and my laundry stays caught up. Right now, though, I wish I was here by myself.
My hearing is almost back 100%, so I hear her trying to tell me what to do. “Gia, I love you, okay? But I’m a grown man.”
“Eli, I’m just looking out for you. You don’t have to be such a shit about it,” she sasses, walking back into our small kitchen. She’s pretty much the only person left that calls me Eli. After meeting Sly and Huck, Sly started calling me Mox, for my last name Moxen, and it just kind of stuck. To be honest, after all the changes I went through in college and meeting brothers we never knew about, I didn’t feel like Eli anymore, but Mox did feel like it fit.
I gotta get out of here for a bit. Standing up, I grab my keys and wallet. “I’m going to the gym.”
“Wait. No, you don’t need to be driving. I’ll take you.”
“Gia, I’m fine. My hearing is back, I go back to work in three days. For that matter, deaf people do drive you know.” I pull her into a hug. “I appreciate you wanting to take care of me, but I need to leave this apartment. Alone.”
She smiles up at me. “Okay. Just be careful and don’t let our brothers talk you into sparring.”
I grin before walking out the door to my truck.
~*~
“So how did you get away from Florence Nightinghell?” My brother, Sly, jokes about Gia as we spar in the MMA gym he owns part of.
They all know she’s kept me locked up since the explosion. “I just told her I had to go. I had to get the hell out of that apartment. She did tell me not to let you guys talk me into sparring, though.”
Sly shoves me. “So that’s the first thing you ask to do when you come in here. Jackass.”
I hear a bunch of commotion in the room next door. “What are they doing in there today? Old ladies frisking your twin?” Huck sometimes teaches a Senior Citizens Self-Defense Class. To say an old lady or two has copped a feel is a complete understatement.
He laughs. “No, not today. Women’s Kickboxing is in there now.” He glances at his watch. “Should be getting out anytime.”
“When did you guys start kickboxing classes?” I question as I swing at him again.
“Um, a few months ago. All our wives’ idea. Something about getting off baby weight and kicking ass. I’ve learned not to question.”
We go back to trying to hit each other when the classroom door opens and out walks about a dozen women. Several I’m basically related to, but one that looks as beautiful as she did at sixteen. I don’t think she knows who I am, I never went out of my way back then to introduce myself. We had a couple of classes together since I was advanced, but she was a year older. Then she got pregnant and left school.
Chelsea comes running over to me, full-on speed and takes me down. “Shit, Chels. Get off of him,” I hear her husband, Huck, say. “He was almost blown up a couple of days ago.”
Chelsea pins me to the floor. “Yeah, about that. I’m not sure I like you being on the SWAT team now.”
I continue to let her think I can’t get out of her hold. “Chelsea, I’ll be fine. The other day was something freak and you know it.”
“Yeah, but I also know what else can happen.” Chelsea’s dad was on the force, he was shot when he and Mack arrived at a call about a bank robbery. She was working at the hospital at the time. It was a mess, I hate stressing her out.
“Chels, I promise to be more careful. Okay?”
She shoves me in the chest, climbing up off me. “Okay, but if you so much as break a nail, I’m calling Mack and telling him to take you off the squad.”
I shake my head. “Okay. Whatever.”
Sly’s wife comes over and I excuse myself to the locker room to change. Walking down the hall, I wipe my face with the towel I placed around my neck, when a pile of red hair comes barreling out of the women’s locker room, running straight into my chest. “Omph.”
“Oops, sorry,” the young girl says shyly.
I chuckle. “It’s okay. Just watch where you are going, don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Carrie, come on!” I hear shouted behind me.
I turn around to see her, “She was coming, we accidentally bumped into each other. I was apologizing,” I explain, not wanting the little ball of fire to get into trouble.
“Oh. Sorry.” She walks down the hall to me. “I’m Amber. You look familiar, like I should know you, more than just from in here.” She shakes her head “I just can’t quite place it.”
I nod. “We went to high school together.”
“Oh.” She blushes a little.
I wave her off, “Don’t sweat it, I was about fifty pounds lighter and a year younger than you. We did have a few classes together, though.” Shit, I sound like a damn love struck teen. “Anyway.” I point to the locker room. “I need to get changed.”
“Okay. Sorry again about her running into you.” She turns and then snaps back. “Your name?”
“Huh?”
“You didn’t say your name,” she replies.
“Oh. Eli Moxen. Mox.”
She smiles. “Well, it was good to see you, Eli. Come on, Carrie, I can’t be late.”
She turns, leaving me in the hallway and like an idiot I just stand there. I can’t help but watch her ass as she walks away. I’d love to see that ass naked, preferably while driving into it from behind. She’s that girl, the one from your past that you’ve always wondered about.
Fuck. I need a shower. A cold one.
* * *
Find out more HERE