by Josie Kerr
Dig looked around the room. “So . . . where is she?”
“Here I am. I wanted to let the most important men in my life have a moment.” Nanda leaned over and kissed Junior’s now stubbly head and then stepped back and looped her arm around Dig’s waist. “But I wanted to be close enough so if either of you put your asshats on, I could intervene.”
Both men seemed insulted.
“ ‘Asshat’?” Junior looked at Dig. “Did she just call me an asshat?”
“I think she might have called us both asshats.” Dig shrugged again. “I’ve been called worse.”
Epilogue
Ten months later
The fight official signed off on Dig’s wraps and wished him luck. Dig flexed his hands, inhaling and exhaling in time with the music that filled his head, blocking out all the distractions from the prefight room.
This was it. This was the culmination of ten years of hard work, the final stop on the road to the championship belt.
Dig looked up when a large figure blocked out the light and left him in the shadows. Junior stood before him, fight gloves in his hands. Dig pulled his headphones down and stood to face Junior.
“Hey, guys, I need a moment,” Junior said as he began to help Dig don the gloves. The room cleared quickly, and only the striker and the trainer remained.
Junior didn’t look up while he talked. “I know you’re ready for this fight. You’ve been ready for this fight for a long time. They just weren’t ready for you.” He fastened the strap on one glove before he continued to speak. “I want to know if you’re ready for what comes after.”
Dig waited for Junior to finish putting on the second glove before answering so that he could look Junior in the eye.
“I’m ready for what comes after. I’ve never been more ready for anything in my life.”
Junior looked hard at him and then his lip quirked into a smile, and he patted Dig’s face. “You fucking better be.”
Dig grinned and nodded toward the door. “So, let’s go.”
“And the winner by knockout, two minutes and forty-five seconds in the second round, is Dominic ‘Striker’ DiGiacomo!”
Dig and his opponent shook hands and traded slaps on the back while members of both of the fighters’ training teams and families milled around the edges of the octagon. Then the announcer moved in for the post-fight interview. After trading the usual post-fight platitudes, the interviewer asked the question that Dig had been waiting for.
“What’s next for Dominic DiGiacomo?”
Dig inhaled deeply. “My dad always said that the most important things to remember in life are one, to know when you have a good thing and two, to know how to keep it. Well, right now, I’ve got my health, and I really want to keep it. That’s why I am announcing my retirement from professional MMA and moving into a training capacity at DS Fight Club in Atlanta, Georgia.” Dig could hear the gasps and murmurs and a few boos from the packed arena. “And I’ve got one more thing, if you will humor me.”
The announcer raised his eyebrows but nodded. Dig rubbed his hands together and blew out a breath. “The other great thing I’ve got, and this is the most important thing in the world, is someone I couldn’t live without.”
Dig held his hand out to Nanda, who was standing next to Junior with a big grin on her face. She looked around, confused, and Junior nudged her, not so gently, to go to Dig. She took two steps toward him, and then he crossed the rest of the floor to meet her and got down on one knee.
Nanda’s eyes grew even wider when he plucked a velvet box from his jacket pocket.
“Fernanda Maldonado, you’re my best friend, my soul mate, and I’d be honored if you would let me be your husband. Will you marry me, Nanda?”
She blinked at him. Then a smile spread across her face, and her arms were around him. She was murmuring yes and nodding and kissing him for all she was worth. The crowd erupted into deafening cheers, but neither Dig nor Nanda heard them or the announcer.
And later, after the post-fight dinner and party that Nanda and Dig excused themselves from early, they lay in the bed, limbs tangled, and gazed out the open window at the lights of Las Vegas. Nanda rested her head on Dig’s chest and listened to his heartbeat, its rhythmic thumping steady and regular, while she stroked his beard. Dig grinned and kissed the top of her head and then sighed contentedly.
Nanda stretched, her back arched and breasts thrust out, rubbing up against his chest, and she crawled up his body to sit astride him.
Dig chuckled and wrapped his big hands around her waist.
“I like this view a lot better.” With a soft smile that threatened to break out into a laugh, he gazed at her appreciatively. “Thank you.”
“What are you thanking me for?”
“For being you. For agreeing to share your life with me.” He smiled, teeth white in his dark beard, eyes shining with tears of joy. “Come here and let me give you a kiss.”
Nanda complied with his wish, starting off soft and sweet, and then wrapping her fingers in his hair and deepening the kiss. She wiggled against his body, and Dig squeezed her bottom before pulling back.
“What?” Nanda was breathless. “What’s wrong?”
Dig shook his head. “Nothing’s wrong. Everything is perfect. You’re perfect.” He sighed and stroked her cheek. “God, I love you so much, Fernanda Maldonado.”
“I love you, too, Dom. I can’t begin to express how much.”
He rolled her over to where they both lay on their sides, face-to-face. Nanda slipped her arms around his shoulders and began to kiss him, nuzzling into his neck and nipping his jaw.
“Let’s get married tomorrow.”
Nanda stopped her smooching. “What?”
Dig shrugged. “We’re in Vegas. Let’s get married tomorrow.” He rubbed his hand over her back to cup her rump. “We can have a wedding whenever. I want you to be my wife before we get back to Atlanta.” He cleared his throat. “Because, yeah, Vegas.”
Nanda grinned. “Let’s do it.”
“Yeah?”
“Oh yeah.”
Dig & Nanda’s Playlist
Nessun Dorma – Luciano Pavarotti
Under Pressure – Queen and David Bowie
Got to Give It Up – Marvin Gaye
Opposites Attract – Paula Abdul
Battlefield – Jordin Sparks
Runaway – Bon Jovi
Want to Want Me – Jason Derulo
You Shook Me All Night Long – AC/DC
Amor del Bueno – Reyli Barba
I Have But One Heart – Dean Martin
A Girl Like You – The Smithereens
Because the Night – Patty Smith Group
Tunnel of Love – Bruce Springsteen
What About Love – Heart
Any Way You Want It – Journey
You can find the Striker playlist, along with the DS Fight Club playlists on Josie’s Spotify station
Also by Josie Kerr
The Second Chance Neighbors series
A Bad Bit Nice
The Best Ever
The DS Fight Club Series
Fighter
Kicker
Trainer
Striker
Brawler (Forthcoming February 2017)
Cutman (Forthcoming 2017)
Matchmaker (Forthcoming 2017)
Clincher (Forthcoming 2017)
Silver Fox Nights (with Author Vivienne Hunt)
Daybreak (Forthcoming May 2017)
About the Author
Josie Kerr is a transplanted West Texan living on the edge of semi-profoundly rural Georgia, a.k.a. the southernmost edge of the northernmost county in Metro Atlanta.
She has an M.Ed. in Secondary English Education, but discovered that she hated high school more the second time than she did the first, so she decided to meld her love of technology with her background in education and became an Instructional Designer. When not
writing articles about how to fire someone without getting sued or why you should really not apply for jobs using your [email protected] email address, she writes steamy romance novels that feature grown-up heroes and heroines.
Connect with Josie:
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