Hard Love: A Bad Boy Fighter Romance

by Flowers, Kristen

  Kurt side stepped the two men to greet whoever had just entered, but it wasn’t long until he recognized them.

  “Aunt Madge!” Kurt called out with a boom. He held his arms wide open to hug her and then looked down at her with a smile. “I didn't expect to see you!” It was true. It had been countless years since he had spoken to his aunt Madge. She had moved out of the state during his final year of high school. That in combination with him leaving home and rarely returning meant it had been almost a whole decade since he had last seen her. This struck him even more when he saw her husband, his uncle Bob, holding the hand of a little girl that appeared to be about eight years old.

  Kurt crouched down to be closer to eye level with her. She looked just like his aunt Madge. “Hi there,” he said in a gentle voice, much like the one he used with his mother. “I'm Kurt,” he smiled.

  Much to his surprise the little girl broke out into a grin and stuck out her hand. He took her hand and gave it a shake.

  “I'm Midge,” she barked out in a slightly high-pitched voice. “I know who you are! Mommy has shown me pictures. You're a soldier.” She looked at him with admiration and Kurt felt something he could only describe as his heart fluttering. Little Midge would be the closest he would get to having a niece and she already seemed like a delight. Plus, it was sweet to know his aunt Madge still held him in high enough esteem to dedicate time talking about him to her.

  Kurt stood up and rubbed his hand over her hair to give it a playful ruffle before reaching out to finally greet his uncle Bob with a handshake. Just as he was about to comment on how odd it was that they had a child about eight years old that he was only meeting just now, the front door opened up once again. It was another aunt of his, one he wasn’t as close to and had seen much more recently.

  Nonetheless he greeted her warmly before going around to give the appearance he was mingling without actually doing so. His mother was a fan of these kinds of events. She was very much the type to think big celebrations with family and friends were the best and warmest things in life. Kurt, of course, was much more of a loner. As much as he liked to be in control and make his own choices, he generally chose to make his mother happy with these small gatherings because he loved seeing her filled with joy. Plus, it didn’t exactly hurt to see family and old friends from years back.

  As he reached for one of his favorite finger foods, his mother’s specialty triangle-shaped ham sandwiches, the door opened yet again. Kurt stopped, hand hovering over the sandwich platter.

  There she was.

  She stood in front of the door with the sunlight gently falling around her like a glow. Her long, auburn hair fell in waves over her shoulder and ended just below her large, but perky breasts. She looked tall even though she was wearing flat shoes and her tan looked especially pretty around her shining, hazel eyes.

  It was Claradeene, who everyone always just called Claire. And she had actually come to his party. Kurt gulped. Never had he fallen for another woman the way he had fallen for Claire.

  It all started senior year of high school when the two of them started to grow closer. The more they talked and spent time together, the harder he fell for her. But then she got with Tyler and completely extinguished any thoughts Kurt had of romance between them. Still, even after so many years, Kurt found himself mesmerized by the very sight of her. She was even more beautiful now. Quickly, he looked over her shoulder, but Tyler was nowhere in sight.

  “Claradeene,” he said as he walked up to her with a smile he was working to control.

  She grimaced. “Since when do you call me that, Kurt?”

  He chuckled and shrugged. “Didn't know if you preferred the formal version of your name now.”

  She scoffed. “As if I'd ever choose being called Claradeene over Claire! Come one now, I know you know better than that. It doesn't matter how many years have passed.”

  “And how have they passed? Last I heard, you were engaged to Tyler.” His eyes instinctively flicked up to look over her shoulder again even though the front door had long since closed behind her. Even saying the words about her being engaged still made his stomach churn. He didn’t want to think of her actually married to the guy, but that was inevitable given how much time had elapsed since he had heard the news of their engagement.

  He saw her face fall slightly, but she tried to play it off.

  “We were engaged,” she mumbled. Kurt could tell the past tense was because it had been broken off and not because it had turned into a marriage. He was eager to know more, but thought it would be tactless to pry further. Despite her sadness he couldn’t help but feel something akin to excitement inside. It was knowing she was no longer tied down to Tyler that made him feel it because, after all this time, he still felt a draw to her that he had never felt with another woman. Not even his ex-girlfriend, the girl he had been in a relationship with for three years. Not even she ever elicited such a reaction from him. He had loved her, but was never in love and that was part of the reason he decided to end things.

  “Oh,” he said somberly.

  He knew the standard was to say he was sorry to hear that, but that would have been a blatant lie. He was only sorry she was hurting from it. He wanted to reach out and pat her on the shoulder, but then figured that would probably end up being more awkward than comforting. He cleared his throat and asked, “Are you hungry?”

  Claire nodded. He made a sweeping motion with his hand toward the table covered out in drinks and finger foods, stepping in line to walk behind her as she made her way to it.

  Kurt watched as she reached for a paper plate and then looked at all the options in front of her. The first thing she reached for was one of the ham sandwiches.

  “Excuse me,” he said sternly, “Those are mine.”

  Claire glared at him and snatched it up quickly. “They're here with all the other food so I think they're fair game.” She smirked and stuck her arm out as if she were going to reach for another ham sandwich triangle. Kurt frowned at her and narrowed his eyes, trying to look as seriously threatening as possible, but this only made her giggle.

  And her giggle made his stomach clench. It was a charming sound. It was even better than he remembered it being. What else about her had only become more charming and likeable with age? That was something he really wanted to find out. He reached out to grab a paper plate of his own and swiftly took up a couple of the small ham sandwich triangles before looking over what else his mother had prepared. The two of them fixed their plates in silence and grabbed a drink, before turning to look at each other. It was somewhat awkward but there was a look in Claire’s eyes that was reeling him in and making him wonder what it meant.

  “Why are you being weird? It’s making this awkward,” she said suddenly. Her tone was light, but he knew she was being serious.

  Kurt gulped. This was unlike him. Despite the fact that he preferred smaller gatherings or even being alone, he was great at talking to people and entertaining. He never had trouble talking to women. But there was something about Claire that put a bit of a kink in that system and made him run like an old sputtering car.

  “Just been a while,” he replied simply. He nodded toward the kitchen where he knew the breakfast table was unoccupied save for a small vase of flowers his mother had set in the middle in case someone went in there.

  “Want to eat at the table in the breakfast nook?”

  “Sure,” she said before turning around and heading straight toward it. Kurt watched her ample hips sway from side to side as she walked. She was wearing a simple thigh-length sundress that was loose fitting, but clung to her attractive curves. He admired her long, toned legs as she walked and the way she looked when she sat down. At first he thought it would be best if she didn’t catch him staring, but then he figured it might be okay.

  He wanted to see her again after the party. He wanted to explore avenues with her he hadn’t been able to do back when he was in love with her. Setting aside, he had no clue how long ago she had ac
tually broken up with Tyler or if she was even single. Not to mention, the fact remained that he lived far from this place now. Whatever happened between them would have to be a passing thing.

  As he sat across her and chewed on his ham sandwich triangle as she chatted about her job, he wondered how she would feel about it.

  And if he was honest with himself, a small part of him wanted to stay in his hometown, just so he could be with her.

  Chapter Three

  “Oh, honey, why don’t you wear something a bit more dressy?” Kurt’s mother asked as he walked across the hall from his bedroom to the bathroom. He groaned. He knew his mom was going to say something about his outfit, but he saw absolutely nothing wrong with it. He was going somewhere casual, after all, and he didn’t want to seem like he was trying too hard to impress someone.

  His mother, on the other hand, knew exactly who he was going out with and why. That made her inclined to think he should look a bit more ‘fixed up’ for her no matter how much he pointed out he was only going out with Claire as old friends catching up.

  “This is fine,” he told her casually as he ran his fingers through his hair and fixed a few strays before deciding he was ready to go pick her up. His stomach clenched at the thought of what she might be wearing and how she would look. He knew he would find her beautiful and attractive no matter what, but he was also aware of the fact that this would be the first time they would be hanging out as adults.

  Kurt turned to look at is mother and placed his hands on her shoulders, looking her right in the eyes. “Really.” His mother sighed and turned around to walk downstairs. He swiped his keys and wallet from the dresser in his bedroom and called out to his mom before walking out the front door.

  He climbed into his rental car, something his father said was unnecessary, and pulled out of the driveway to drive over to Claire’s house.

  As he pulled up in front of it a mere ten minutes later he smiled. It looked just the way he remembered it. The little wooden swing still hung from the branches of the tree in front and the old swinging bench was still on the porch, only now it had been reupholstered and some more modern looking throw pillows rested at its corners. He remembered the times he had sat on that swing with her. His mind couldn’t help but ponder on the handful of times he had decided to make a move, only to be interrupted right at the moment.

  One of those interruptions had been by Tyler just days before he got with Claire. Kurt sighed. If only he had been as courageous back then as he was now, things might have gone differently. But then he had to wonder how that would have affected his life. This was definitely not the place he wanted to stay long term, much less for the rest of his life.

  He called Claire and she was outside in less than a few minutes. As she approached the passenger door, Kurt was too caught up in admiring how stunning she looked to even think about stepping out to open the door for her. She was wearing a casual dress, only this one was much tighter than the one she had worn to the party.

  It was a soft pink color with thick straps and a square neckline that did a great job of showing a good amount cleavage. Her breasts, tanned like the rest of her, looked especially alluring against the soft pink fabric of the dress. It hugged the curves of her small waist and ample hips. Being a bit shorter than the dress she had worn to his party, it revealed even more of her long, toned legs. It was a plain dress made of cotton, but damn did she look hot in it. And she had paired it with simple white wedge sandals.

  When Claire opened the door and leaned forward to place her purse in the space between the driver’s seat and passenger’s seat it took all Kurt’s self-control not to keep his eyes glued to her breasts, and her legs, and every other part of her. She gave him a wide smile before slipping in the passenger’s seat.

  “Nice ride,” she said with a giggle. His stomach churned.

  He started driving toward the town’s biggest square. He knew it was the best bet for them to find something to do. Plus, he hadn’t been there in years so he figured it would be fun to take a stroll around the area with Claire. He parked the square’s central parking lot and met her at the front of the car. He looked into her eyes and chuckled somewhat nervously.

  “What’s up?” she asked.

  The smile hadn’t disappeared from her face since she had gotten in the car, but he still wasn’t that used to seeing it. She was absolutely stunning from head to toe and he kept recalling old times and how much fun they had together.

  It was no surprise he had fallen in love, really.

  “It’s just weird. It’s weird to be here with you,” Kurt said, eyes quickly glancing down.

  “I hope only because it had been so many years?” Kurt nodded and ruffled the hair at the back of his head. She reached out and placed her hand on his forearm.

  “Just think of it like old times!” she said enthusiastically.

  His stomach tightened as soon as the soft skin of her fingers made contact with his arm. He chuckled and turned to start walking aimlessly, but his mind was stuck on the same spot. It wasn’t as easy for him to think of it like old times.

  He had been in love with her and that had made everything more difficult. Old times together were much different from his perspective than they were from hers.

  “Kurt, why has it been so long?”

  “I don’t know,” it was an automatic response. It was almost as if he was running on autopilot when that sort of question came up, something that had happened more than a few times at his party.

  “I like where I live. I like what I do. I don’t know why, but I don’t much like coming back here,” he said. Then he turned to look at her, hair gleaming under the glow of the streetlamps. “At least I didn’t,” he added as his eyes remained fixed on her. Claire turned to look up at him and their eyes met. There was electricity between them for a brief second before she turned away and kept looking forward.

  “I see,” she muttered.

  Kurt could tell she was wrapped up in her own thoughts. He wanted to ask what she was thinking, but decided against it. There were still other lingering questions he hadn’t asked her at the party. Maybe they weren’t the best questions to ask, but he couldn’t stop his curiosity enough to ignore them.

  “Claire,” he started. He could feel her turn to look at him as he stared at the ground. “Can I- I mean; would you mind if I ask you something?”

  “About Tyler?”

  Kurt turned to look at her surprised. She gave a single laugh and shrugged. “First of all, you didn’t say or ask anything when you found out. Second of all, I can’t even begin to tell you how many times people have started off like that.”

  “Sorry,” he said, genuinely feeling like he should have waited or at least started in a better way. He couldn’t even imagine how tiring it must have been to answer an endless sea of questions after things ended with Tyler, especially since they were actually engaged.

  “It’s okay,” she said. “You can ask me pretty much anything.”

  He stopped walking for a second before quickly starting up again. He didn’t understand why she emphasized the word ‘you’ or what she could even mean by doing so. He let it go.

  “When did it end?”

  “I’ll give you the basics,” she said, but then she stopped talking. She also stopped walking. Kurt turned around to face her with an eyebrow raised in question. Claire reached out and grabbed his hand to pull him in to a little park area with benches they had been walking by. There was nobody there. She pulled him onto a bench and he felt her knee knock against his before she moved away just a couple inches and turned to face him, one of her legs draped over the other.

  “You know we were together since senior year. Well, it was after five years of being together that he proposed. We had fights, of course, but nothing major. We loved each other and that was the direction our relationship was heading. It all made sense.” She paused and looked at Kurt before neatly placing one of her hands over the other and resting them on her thigh. “But,
I don’t know, after some time it started to make sense that was about all there was to it. And I wanted more out of life.”

  “What do you mean that was all there was to it?”

  “You know, like it was what made sense so we were doing it. We loved each other, but there was no intensity, no craving. It sometimes didn’t feel like I was in love, at least not after the first year. It just felt like we got used to each other, cared for one another, had really good sex… It was like two really close friends who had gone intimate and weren’t sure how to go back? So we just kept going. Neither of us were unhappy, but I don’t think we were entirely happy either. We were just going through the motions.”

  “Oh,” Kurt said, trying to push the idea of her enjoying sex with Tyler as far out of his mind as possible. “Did he feel the same way?”