Undefeated

Home > Other > Undefeated > Page 23
Undefeated Page 23

by Melissa Cutler


  Chuckling and puffing his chest, Gabe balanced his wallet on the counter and pinched a twenty dollar bill between the rubberized pads of two prosthetic fingers.

  Oh, yeah. She was hustling him like a shark.

  It took a while for all eighteen Bomb Squad members to order and pay. Marlena and Gabe exchanged mock-menacing glares across the table where they’d arranged alternating cups of hot sauce and fresh jalapeños in a line and waited not so patiently for their audience to gather around them.

  “This is going to hurt you, Querida. You can still back out. I won’t think less of you.”

  Instead of slinging smack talk back at him, Marlena reached into her purse, then slapped a twenty dollar bill on the table. “How about we make this even more interesting?”

  Will hooted. “Damn, Marlena, you’ve got some balls.”

  Everyone laughed at that except the woman herself, who thrummed her fingers on the cash as she waited for her audience’s undivided attention again. “Twenty bucks says that not only will I win, but you’ll be crying when you tap out.”

  Bold. Liam tried to catch her eye to let her know without words how much he approved of this badass side of her, but she was wholly focused on the task at hand.

  Gabe leaned back, looking smug and macho. “You’re making a bet like that with a Mexican? You’re crazy. But if you want me to take your money as well as your pride, then you got it. I’m in.”

  From his wallet, Liam pulled a twenty and sailed it onto the table. “My money’s on Marlena.”

  In no time, cash was flying all over the table as the rest of the guys added to the betting pool and made side bets of their own.

  Marlena lifted the first cup of hot sauce in her line. “Let’s get started. Pancho Pete’s salsa caliente.”

  They tipped the cups back as though they were shot glasses. Marlena darted her tongue out and licked the residual sauce out of the cup, humming in the same way most women did when they ate chocolate.

  Gabe opened his fingers and dropped the cup on the table, not impressed. “As weak as ketchup. Time for our first jalapeño.”

  Gabe ate his in one huge bite while Marlena nibbled. Neither displayed a hint of tears or pain, not even after they each downed their cups of habanero hot sauce. For their second jalapeño, Gabe took three bites, while Marlena once again nibbled. And then it happened. Gabe sniffled. Just once, but the whole room hushed.

  “That doesn’t mean nothing,” Gabe said. His voice was husky, as though the hot sauces and peppers were affecting him more than he was letting on.

  Marlena lifted the last remaining cup and swirled the thin, brick-red sauce inside. “Have you ever tasted Pancho Pete’s Death by Fire sauce?”

  “I bet it has nothing on what my abuela makes.”

  She brought it to her nose and took a long, overly dramatic sniff. Not a second later, a tear rolled down her cheek. Liam didn’t blame her; he could smell the pepper and vinegar fumes from where he stood. The man who’d taken their orders—Orlando, Marlena had called him—tottered on tiptoe to peer over Theo’s and Brandon’s shoulders at the spectacle.

  “You’re crying,” Gabe said.

  “The bet didn’t say anything about me not crying.” It was her turn to sniffle. She wiped her nose with the back of her hand like a guy might. “You know what’s going to hurt the most?”

  “What’s that, Querida?”

  She tipped her head back and splashed the Death by Fire sauce into her mouth. Everyone gasped. Orlando made the sign of the cross on his chest.

  When Marlena returned her gaze to Gabe, her eyes were red-rimmed, her cheeks wet with the tracks of her tears. She panted through parted lips and Liam could practically see the flames coming out of her mouth. His throat tightened with sympathy pain.

  “What’s going to hurt the most,” she said in a low, phlegmy voice, “is having to get my own beer out of the fridge tomorrow while you’re busy scrubbing my bathroom.”

  There were a few chuckles at that, but for the most part, a tense silence had descended over the restaurant. Gabe eyed his cup of Death by Fire sauce. After a huff, as though psyching himself up, he closed his prosthetic fingers around the cup and lifted it to his lips. The second the sauce rolled into his mouth, he coughed and nearly spluttered it out. Mashing his lips together, he coughed again, his cheeks puffing. He stood, his eyes closed and his head quirked at an odd angle. Everyone’s eyes watched his Adam’s apple bob when he swallowed.

  Then he stood as still as a statue, his eyes closed. Veins popped on his neck and a drop of sweat dislodged itself from his forehead.

  “Shit,” he muttered under his breath.

  Marlena leaned against her seatback, a cruel smile teasing the corners of her lips. “Open your eyes, Gabe.”

  Gabe peeled his eyes open, which looked more like the opening of a floodgate given the volume of tears that rained down his face. Liam would have expected the guys to cheer, but the only sound in the place was a low hum of fascination and shock.

  Marlena plucked Gabe’s jalapeño from the table and held it out to him. “Time for the last one.”

  He tried to take it, but he couldn’t get his fingers to close around it, as though the pain of the hot sauces had short-circuited his nerve endings. With another curse under his breath, he flipped the palm of the prosthetic up for her set the pepper on.

  Marlena took hers in hand and held it in front of her lips. “On the count of three. One . . . two . . .”

  “Fuck.” Gabe chucked the pepper against the far wall, then rapped the side of his hand on the table twice, tapping out of the contest.

  Standing, Marlena made a show of sliding the whole jalapeño into her mouth and biting it off the stem. A couple chews later, she swallowed, a fresh onslaught of tears cascading over her cheeks.

  Brandon initiated a slow clap of respect for Marlena’s win that grew louder as all the guys joined in. Gabe pushed through the cheering group and walked to the counter, then wordlessly motioned to the horchata dispenser.

  Their food had been staged on trays next to the cash register. As the winners collected on their bets, Liam found Marlena’s rolled taco plate along with the bottle of beer she’d ordered and delivered them to her.

  “Nicely done,” he said.

  “Thank you.” She drank deeply on the beer. “Now you have to come move my wicker furniture tomorrow. A bet’s a bet.”

  Liam slid his wet burrito grande plate onto the table next to her food and squeezed between her and Will. He was opting to believe she was merely taking the opportunity to harass him about his hatred of wicker rather than think she harbored the idea that he hadn’t already been planning to help her.

  “I think I’ll stick to kitchenware,” he said.

  The way he calculated it, it was going to be at least another month before the bed set he was building her would be done. Then, maybe they could hack up the wicker set into little pieces and have a bonfire the way he’d heard that Allison and Theo had done with the old bed at their landing house earlier that year.

  When they were all seated at a cluster of tables and were chowing down, Theo tapped the side of his beer bottle with his fork to get everyone’s attention. “I have a good feeling about next week’s game,” he said. “I think the yoga is helping, and I’d like to propose a toast to Marlena.”

  A few guys clapped again and everyone raised their glasses, but Marlena gestured for silence. “Thank you. I think the yoga’s helping, too. You all looked great tonight in there. But how about we hold off on the thanks until Bomb Squad starts winning again?”

  “It’s coming,” Brandon said. “I can feel it in the air.”

  Liam agreed. He sensed a unity among them that hadn’t been present on the night at Locks when Duke announced their plan to try yoga. After a few more minutes of eating, Will piped up. “You think the Iceplex would let us practice tonight? I’m feeling it in the air, too.”

  Brandon finished the last bite of his nachos, then pulled his phone from
his pocket. “They close to the public at ten. I’ll call them to let them know we’re on our way.”

  “As long as you boys are at my apartment tomorrow morning at ten, ready to go. No copping out because you’re tired from a late-night practice.”

  “We’re good for it,” Gabe said. “You won, fair and square.”

  Liam finished his burrito while Brandon talked on the phone, clearing an impromptu practice with the Iceplex staff, then waited until Marlena had finished her food before gearing up to make his big move. His pulse sped and his stomach churned at the idea of laying his cards on the table, but it was time. “I can’t go tonight,” he said to the group. “I have plans.”

  “You never have plans,” Brandon said.

  “Tonight, I do.”

  Will grinned. “Is she hot?”

  “Yeah. Hottest girl I’ve ever been with.”

  Theo scoffed. “How hot could she be if she puts up with your shit?”

  Easy answer. “That’s the thing. She calls me on it every time. She doesn’t let me get away with nothin’.”

  Theo reached behind Will to slug Liam on the back. “I like her already.”

  “You’re smiling like an idiot, so it must be pretty serious,” Brandon said.

  Liam hadn’t even been aware he was smiling, he was so nervous. “It is, actually. Very serious.”

  Gabe whistled. “I’ve never seen you like this. You must have it bad for this girl.”

  “I do.” He pushed out his chair and stood, his heart racing with a burst of adrenaline. “In fact, I’m late getting started with the date I promised her tonight.” He held his hand out to Marlena. “You ready?”

  With a shy smile, she placed her hand in his and stood.

  “Wait, what?” Gabe muttered.

  Liam held Marlena’s gaze, feigning a cool confidence to mask his pounding pulse, and threaded his fingers with hers, then pulled her toward the door. A chorus of astonished gasps and whispered words followed them. Once in the parking lot and out of view of the team, Marlena threw her head back and laughed. Liam dropped his cool act and smiled at her as they walked along the sidewalk to his truck.

  “That was epic,” she said, squeezing his hand.

  He squeezed hers right back. “I was thinking the same thing about the way you hustled Gabe. That was sexy as hell.”

  All this time and he’d never held her hand before. It felt good. It felt like something they should have been doing all along, which had been his same thought the first time she’d kissed him back.

  “How’d I do?” he said. “Better than last night at Locks?”

  She tugged him nearer and nuzzled her cheek on his shoulder. “Way better.”

  He stopped walking and cradled the side of her face in his free hand, then kissed her, just because he could. Because she was his and he loved that he could kiss her any damn time he wanted.

  A wolf whistle echoed across the parking lot, followed by a round of cheers.

  Liam ended the kiss, smiling and shaking his head. “What a bunch of clowns.”

  “Yeah, but they’re our clowns.”

  That they were, and he wouldn’t trade them for the world, even if, at the moment, all he wanted was to be alone with Marlena. “Let’s pick up the pace. My tongue has a hot date with your body, then I’m going to take you dancing.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Marlena’s seven-hundred-square-foot apartment was way too small to accommodate this many people. Any minute, she expected a fire marshal at her door to break up the party. By the time Olivia, Presley, and Harper arrived, all eighteen Bomb Squad players were already hard at work, trekking furniture to their trucks, washing windows, and scrubbing down the bathroom.

  When her girlfriends walked in and saw the guys hard at work, all three of their jaws dropped.

  “This is incredible. How’d you convince them to help? All of them, no less,” Olivia asked.

  Marlena crossed her arms over her chest. “I can be very persuasive.”

  Theo ducked his head around the corner of the refrigerator he was cleaning out. “She won a bet. This is her prize. Moving men.”

  “Don’t forget housekeepers!” Marlena added.

  The guys in the bathroom groaned.

  Presley gave her a slow nod. “Nice work. What was the bet?”

  “She challenged Gabe to a hot-sauce-eating contest at Pancho Pete’s last night,” Theo said.

  Olivia burst out laughing. “And he took her up on it? What a sucker!”

  Gabe walked into the room holding a broom. “I had no idea she had hot chili superpowers. Liam could’ve helped a guy out and filled me in.”

  From the bedroom, Liam called, “I feel an allegiance to you because we’re brothers-in-arms, man. But you’re not nearly as hot as Marlena.”

  Gabe’s cheeks turned splotchy red at that. “You shouldn’t have let me flirt with you last night,” he said to Marlena. “I didn’t know you and Liam were dating. If I’d won that bet . . .” He shook his head, cringing.

  Liam walked in the room holding a large cardboard box. “No harm was done,” he said to Gabe. “I knew she’d win.”

  “Thanks a lot,” Dante and Brandon said as they stomped out from the bedroom with her wicker headboard.

  Marlena gave Gabe a light slug on the shoulder. “I liked flirting with you.”

  Snickering, Liam stacked the box by the door. “She liked kicking your ass with hot sauce is really what she means.”

  She walked to Liam, looped her arm around his waist, and hugged him. “That, too.”

  He flinched a little at her initial contact, but she figured that the best way to get him used to the idea of public displays of affection was for her to keep at it—like her own mini-version of positive prolonged exposure therapy.

  Brandon walked to the middle of the room, got Olivia, Harper, and Presley’s attention, then motioned to Liam and Marlena. “Did you three know about this?”

  “Yes,” Olivia said, a cautious smile playing on her lips.

  “Okay, because they didn’t tell us until last night, so I feel kind of left out.”

  “Aw, poor Brandon,” Liam said.

  “Seriously, though. You two are great together. It’s nice to know why Liam’s been in such a good mood lately.”

  Marlena tightened her hug of Liam’s waist. “I’ll gladly take full credit for that.”

  Brandon gave them an exaggerated bow. “You two have my blessing.”

  Liam wrapped an arm around Marlena’s shoulders and placed his other hand over his heart. “I would love to tell you how much your blessing means to me, but I can’t.”

  Gabe and Theo chuckled. Olivia blinked a lot as she studied Liam, as though she couldn’t quite believe her eyes and ears that he was capable of joking with his friends.

  Brandon commanded everyone’s attention again. “So far, we’ve helped Theo’s woman move in, and now Liam’s. I just want to say, with all of you as witnesses, that if and when I have a girlfriend, you all don’t have to help her move. That’s a promise.”

  Will wadded his window washing rag in his hand. “Gee, that’s real big of you considering you don’t date exclusively.”

  “I could date. You don’t know.”

  “We know,” a handful of guys chorused.

  Liam held his cell phone to his ear. “Hey, Harper,” he faked. “You planning to move anytime soon?”

  Brandon wagged his finger at Liam. “That’s not funny.”

  Liam grinned mischievously. “It was a little funny.” Then he kissed Marlena’s temple, just like that. Right in front of his sister.

  Olivia’s shocked expression finally gave way to a cautious smile. Though Liam had yet to acknowledge Olivia’s presence in the apartment, he also hadn’t made any snide remarks or purposefully avoided her, either. For her part, Olivia had kept her distance and held her tongue, another first. They still had a long way to go, but Marlena couldn’t help believing that the twins had made a baby step toward reconcil
iation.

  Marlena clapped her hands. “I hate to be a taskmaster, but my housekeepers-slash-moving men are doing an awful lot of talking and not a whole lot of working. Since the girls are here, how about we load up their cars.” She turned her focus to Olivia, Presley, and Allison. “Would you mind driving over to my new place and starting to unpack? I think the guys have it covered here.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain,” Presley said. “Follow me, boys. You can load my truck up first.”

  ***

  As dusk approached on Saturday night, Marlena and Olivia finished sliding the last of her tea cup collection onto a shelf in her newly refinished kitchen cabinets, having sent everyone else home more than an hour earlier. Brandon had rallied the guys to go for drinks at the VFW, Allison and Theo had picked Katie up at the babysitter, and Presley had skipped out to spend the evening with her fiancé.

  “This place is nice,” Olivia said, smoothing her hand over the lightly stained wood finish of the nearest cabinet. “I hadn’t been in here since you signed your lease. I didn’t think it was possible, but the apartment doesn’t seem haunted anymore. Liam’s done an incredible job.”

  “I still sense an eerie sadness in the bathroom.” Several times that week when she’d stopped by with loads of her stuff and had used the restroom, a dull, ambiguous swirl of pain and disquiet had floated around her like particles of dust. The cosmic memory of trauma, she’d come to think of it as. Like in the kitchen at her parents’ house.

  Despite the disquiet in the room, she wasn’t afraid. Apartment 710 wasn’t haunted. She had to believe that there was a more exhilarating purpose to the afterlife than remaining tethered to the place of your greatest pain and fear. That design flaw, she hoped, was reserved for the living.

  “Does it bother you, that feeling in the bathroom?” Olivia asked.

  Marlena collapsed the now-empty cardboard packing box. “No.”

  “No? Seriously?”

  “Because even though there’s a tinge of sadness, there’s even more happiness in here, to me.” Her eyes touched on the crown molding, the celery green walls, the new carpet. In the bedroom were brand new built-in bookshelves, specially made for her. On the patio, Olivia had already started bringing over potted flowers and herbs. “I feel loved here.”

 

‹ Prev