by Aly Martinez
I spun around to look at Flint, who was watching us with an amused grin. “He works here?”
He shrugged and crossed his thick arms over his chest.
I looked back at Max. “You have a job?”
“Yep, your boyfriend there got me the gig not long after you left. Donna too.”
“Donna! Where is she?” I leaned to look around him.
“Oh, she’s not here, baby girl. She shacked up with Slate’s old boxing trainer. She lives in L.A. now.”
“No. Fucking. Way,” I breathed.
“Yep, Jimmy’s a good guy, dotes on her like she’s Queen of Sheba. She’s still cranky as hell, so brace yourself for when she finds out you’re back. Let’s just say she is not happy with you.”
I laughed. “Was she ever happy with me?”
“Nope.” He shook his head with a smile. “Listen, I’ve got to get back out there. I’m pulling security at the back door. We’ll catch up at dinner after the fight.”
“Okay.” I gave him another hug. “I’m so happy to see you.”
“You shouldn’t be. You and I are going to have a serious chat tonight about that running off bullshit.” He glared at me sternly.
I watched him leave then turned to find Flint had shifted to his chair.
“You,” was all I said as I approached him.
He flipped open his computer, not bothering to look at me. “Me?”
“Wheels, I’m not sure what to say.” He smiled at the screen. “You got Max and Donna jobs?”
“It’s no big deal, they helped me look for you when you left. We became friends.”
I teasingly gasped, spinning his chair to face me. “Judgey McGee became friends with two middle-aged homeless people?”
He shrugged. “They’re good people despite their situation. Some chick with a knack for running away told me that.”
“She sounds awesome.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “She sounds like I’m gonna make her ass red tonight.”
I climbed to straddle his lap, briefly taking his mouth. “She sounds like she would love that.” I smiled and his grew to match.
“Get out of here. I have work to do.”
“Does your work involve me riding you in this chair?”
He barked out a laugh. “In twenty-four hours, I’ve turned you into fiend.”
I latched on to his neck, trailing open-mouthed kisses up to his ear. “No, you keep doing sweet stuff that makes me all tingly. I show my appreciation in the same way I apologize.”
“Fuck,” he cursed as I circled my hips over his hardening dick.
I’d reached a hand down to his button when I heard Till’s angry voice behind me.
“You’re late! Oh. . . . Shit, sorry.”
Embarrassed, I buried my face in Flint’s neck, but he let out a loud laugh that quickly had me joining him.
“No, it’s okay. I was about to come find you.” He guided me off his lap. “Ash is on her way to find Eliza.” He pecked me on the lips and nudged me from behind the desk.
“Right. Yes. Find Eliza,” I mumbled, smoothing down my hair.
Till lifted his chin toward Flint as I walked toward the door. “You keeping that one in check?”
“I was trying,” I said sarcastically and he bit his lip to stifle a laugh.
“I can see.” He winked and shoved his hands in his pockets as I passed.
* * *
I made my way to the row of seats Eliza had pointed out earlier, finding them blissfully empty.
Ducking under the chain blocking them off, I heard, “Sorry, miss. Those are reserved for families of the fighters.” I spun to find a big guy with dark hair and an olive complexion leaning over the railing. As soon as we made eye contact his head snapped back and his eyes grew wide. “Holy. Shit.”
“I’m here with—”
“Flint,” he finished for me. “Hi. I’m Leo James, Slate and Till’s head of security.” He extended a hand.
“Hi, I’m—”
“Ash Mabie.” He once again filled in the blank. “I’ve spent a lot of time looking for you.” He crossed his thick arms over his chest. I wasn’t exactly sure how to react. Was he mad?
I went with attitude. “Funny, I’ve heard that a lot.”
“I’m not going to lie. I’m a big fan of yours.”
It was my turn to snap my head back in shock. “Huh?”
“I hated it for Flint, but I was seriously impressed with how long you were able to elude us. You have no idea how many times we missed you by mere minutes. You’re good. Really fucking good.”
I tipped my head at the strange compliment. “Thanks?”
“I heard they found you, but I didn’t expect to see you here tonight.”
I blew out a breath. “Well you aren’t the only one. Flint, however, can be quite persuasive.”
“He’s a good kid. Dealt a shit hand, but what all of those boys have done with their lives—” He paused and shook his head. “Anyway, it was great meeting you. Officially. Enjoy the fight.”
I groaned when I caught sight of Eliza approaching as he walked away. Leo paused to hug her before disappearing into the crowd.
“I see you’re making friends already,” Eliza noted, as we both sat down. “Can I please just tell you how much I both love and hate fight nights? You would think after all these years that the nerves would be gone. Nope. I want to puke right now.”
I turned my head and mentally groaned at her attempted conversation before reminding myself to be nice.
“You’re nervous? About the fight?”
“Yeah, I have no idea why. I could watch Till and Flint box all day long, but Quarry makes me anxious. It doesn’t matter that he’s six foot three and two hundred pounds. He’s still twelve in my book.”
“He’s six foot three?” I shrieked.
Eliza giggled. “I’m gathering that you haven’t seen Q yet.”
I shook my head.
“Yeah, he’s all grown up. Bigger than Till, smaller than Flint. Same foul mouth though. He graduates from high school in a few months.”
“No fucking way.”
Quarry was one person I was stoked about seeing again. I’d missed that kid almost as much as I did Flint. Well, not quite that much. But I thought about him a lot while I was gone.
“Listen, did Flint mention to you anything about Quarry’s condition?”
“Condition?”
“Yeah, he’s lost a good bit of his hearing over the years. He wears hearing aids when he’s out of the ring, and those seem to help, but we use a lot of sign language.”
“He’s deaf?” I gasped and my face must have paled, because she reached out and squeezed my hand.
“No! He’s . . . just . . . heading in that direction,” she amended quickly. “He can still hear some, and with his hearing aids, it’s significantly better. I’m only telling you this because tonight at dinner you’ll probably be the only one who doesn’t know sign. Sometimes, when the guys get going, they’ll forget to talk.”
I stared blankly ahead as the weight of running for the last three years really sank in. “I can’t believe I missed all this,” I told her without looking in her direction. “First, it was Flint’s first steps, now Q’s deaf.”
“Oh, Flint’s first steps were no big deal.”
“Why does everyone keep saying that?” I yelled, entirely too loudly. “He told me the exact same thing. I’m sorry, but walking is a huge deal!” She was sitting only a few inches away, but I’m relatively sure half of the gym heard me.
“Shhh . . . ,” she urged, looking over her shoulder to see how many people had witnessed my sudden outburst. “I didn’t mean it like that, Ash. It’s just . . . his first steps weren’t a big deal. It was the day that he put away the wheelchair for good that was so huge for him. That was the day he regained a part of his life. I went with him and Till when he donated his wheelchairs. I begged him to keep one, just in case, ya know? But he was adamant that he wanted them all gone. Wi
th the exception of this afternoon, I’ve never in my life seen Flint happier than that day when he walked back to the car, wheelchair-free.”
With the exception of this afternoon.
I looked down at my lap as my cheeks began to flush.
Yeah, I was pretty happy this afternoon too.
“Besides, you should never listen to anything Flint says is no big deal. He graduated college in two years.” She threw up a pair of air quotes then said, “No big deal. He landed one of the biggest professional boxers on the scene his first week on the job.” More air quotes. “No big deal. The kid used a lump sum of money Till gave him as a graduation present to buy a house at twenty-two.”
She looked at me.
“No big deal?” I guessed.
“Not to Flint.” She shrugged. “There has been exactly one ‘big deal’ as long as I’ve known him.” She leaned in close and reiterated. “One. Any guesses?”
Oh, I had a guess. I just wasn’t brave enough to utter it. I shook my head instead.
“You,” she whispered with a smile before her face shifted to serious. “Ash, you seem like a great girl, and I can’t wait to get to know you, but I’ll be very honest here. We’re all worried about how this is going to go down with you two. The reason we poured every resource we had into finding you is because if Flint thought you were a big deal then it was infinitely bigger than that. It was the enormous, life changing, forever kind of deal.”
My eyes glistened as I became fascinated with my shoes, hiding the emotion her words were causing.
“I don’t know what to say,” I told the ground.
“Say that you’re serious about him.”
I could have said that. It would have been the truth. But for some reason I had more important things to air out.
I lifted my head to stare into her kind eyes. “I hate you,” I told her bluntly.
“I know,” she replied, seemingly unfazed. “You made that pretty clear this afternoon.”
“Eliza, by all accounts, you’re only one step away from sainthood as far as the Page brothers are concerned. But knowing how he felt about you. . . . I can’t. I’m sorry.”
Her eyes filled with tears, but they were strange. She didn’t look like a woman who had just been injured by words. She looked . . . happy.
“And I’m completely okay with that as long as you love him.”
Forget the one step. Sainthood has been achieved.
“I. . . .” I opened my mouth just to close it again.
“Ash, when this conversation ends, I’m going back to pretending I don’t know how you feel about me. All I’m asking is that you truly consider how you feel about Flint before you shred him again over his misinterpreted feelings about me. I think of him as a son, and nothing more.”
“It was never about the way you felt for him!” I snapped.
She bit right back, “Then let it go! Don’t punish the man for the thoughts of a boy.” Pausing, she flipped her long brown hair, and looked around to make sure no one was watching our quiet altercation. “When you took off, Flint was a mess. He over-rationalized how he felt about you. He couldn’t possibly have fallen in love with a sixteen-year-old girl he’d only known for a month. That shit didn’t happen in his guarded and square existence. But it did, Ash. Now tell me that you share these feelings . . . even in the past. And you can go back to hating me all you want.”
I was taken aback by her honesty. I also respected the hell out of her for it.
And for that alone I answered, “I’ve always been in love with Flint. It’s present tense for me.”
“Good,” she drawled on a breath.
I dropped my head and watched her from the corner of my eye as I said, “Which is exactly why I’m not sure I can stay.”
“I’m gonna do a quick time-out on you hating me.” She smiled then threw her arms around me in an awkward side hug. “I know Flint and it’s present tense for him too.” She squeezed me tightly for several seconds then released me and reclined in her chair. “Time in,” she whispered.
Crossing her legs, she retrieved a sketchpad and pencil from her purse. She didn’t attempt to engage me in any further conversation as we waited for the fights to start. Instead she sat silently, drawing an elaborate pair of eyes. I watched in awe as Flint’s long black lashes came to life through the lines on her page. When she finished, she didn’t even lift her head to acknowledge me. She just tore the paper out and passed it over to me.
I eagerly took it. Those were Flint’s eyes, and they belonged to me—even if it was her hand that had drawn them.
Her kind, sweet, and saintly hand that I couldn’t even hate anymore.
Damn it!
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ash
“WELL WELL WELL! LOOK WHAT the gimp dragged in.” Quarry spoke and signed when we walked into the locker room after the fight—a fight he had easily won with a knockout in the third round.
“Oh my God, you’re huge,” I squealed as he lifted me off my feet in a bear hug. “Look, at you, all grown up.” I stepped away and teasingly raked my eyes up and down his body as he stood proudly flexing and striking different poses. “Damn, Q, if I had known you were gonna look like this, I might have let you feel my boobs all those times you tried.”
He busted out laughing. “Who says I didn’t? You’re a pretty deep sleeper.”
Smirking, he dodged the punch I halfheartedly threw at his shoulder. “You little perv.”
“Dude, where the hell have you been?” I watched his hands fluidly sign every word as he spoke. I hated every single second of it.
While we’d waited for Q to shower and change, Flint filled me in on Quarry’s hearing loss. He’d told me it started really going downhill around his sixteenth birthday. Thankfully, because of Till, they were all already fluent in sign language, and Quarry was already attending a private school for the deaf, so it wasn’t a very drastic change for him. To hear Flint tell it, though, it was “no big deal.” I had a sneaking suspicion that Quarry probably didn’t feel the same way.
“Well, I’ve spent the last three years in various mental health facilities trying to get over the horrifying images I saw of you getting out of the shower the night I left.”
“Shut the hell up.” He laughed.
“I’m serious, Quarry. I hear penile implants are all the rage these days. You should look into it.”
“You got jokes, huh?” he said without signing, but only because his hands were busy scooping me up off the ground and tossing me over his shoulder. I was howling with laughter as he spun in a circle.
“No,” Flint suddenly barked when one of Quarry’s hands disappeared. “Don’t you fucking dare,” he growled.
Q’s shoulders begin shaking with laughter beneath me before he placed me back on my feet.
He looked at Flint, but his words were directed at me out of the corner of his mouth. “Apparently, I’m not allowed to slap your ass anymore.”
“Anymore?” I asked, also staring at Flint who didn’t look amused in the least.
“Okay, so you’re a really deep sleeper.”
I turned and punched him in the shoulder, hurting my hand when he flexed just before it landed. “Son of a bitch.” I shook it out as Quarry laughed.
Abruptly his laughing stopped as I heard the door creaking open behind me. I was more focused on my poor knuckles than anything else though. It wasn’t until I saw the way the sound transformed Quarry’s bright hazel eyes into a deep sexy smolder that I decided to spin to see who had joined us.
An obviously excited girl came barreling into the room.
“Ash, move,” Flint urged but my eyes were glued to her as she all but flew toward us. Her short jet-black hair was cut into an adorable pixie cut, with a large chunk of pink covering her sweeping bang. Her jeans had holes in the knees that she no doubt bought that way and she was rocking skull-patterned Converse that I was immediately jealous of.
“Ash, move,” Flint repeated roughly.
“Uh. . . .” I turned to Flint. “Should we leave?”
“I’m not sure yet. Give it another minute to see if she goes for his pants. That’s usually my cue.” No sooner had he finished speaking than Quarry let out a loud groan and Flint’s eyes flashed over my shoulder. “Yep. We should go.”
I didn’t dare turn around as we rushed from the room.
“What the hell!” I laughed when we got outside.
“Don’t feel bad, that’s pretty much how we all met Mia.”
“And what? We just stand out here until they finish?”
“Oh God no. I’m not listening to that shit. They’ll meet us at the restaurant.” He popped out his elbow and I all too quickly accepted.
Till rounded the corner. “Yo, where’s Q?”
“Too slow, Mia got there first,” Flint replied.
Till curled his lip. “He got his hearing aids in?”
“Yeah, he was just talking to Ash.”
Till walked past us and banged his fist on the door. “You got two minutes, then I’m coming in. If I catch you with your dick out, I’m ripping it off.”
Flint erupted into laughter. “Good luck with that.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Till responded, then pounded on the door again. “One minute.”
“Come on.” Flint led me out the back door to his SUV. “You have fun tonight?”
“I really did.”
His lips twisted in a smirk. “Even the part where you had to sit with Eliza for three hours.”
“Well it wasn’t as fun as this next part is going to be, but yeah, it was good.” I pushed to my toes to take his mouth.
He raked his teeth over my bottom lip. “What’s the next part?”