“Ye made me stew. We’re square. T’was only a bad sparkplug. Didn’t take more than twenty minutes.”
“Still, I appreciate it.” I looked around at the people milling about, filling in the empty spots on the bleachers with anticipatory gleams in their eyes. “How’d you know about this place? I thought you were new to the area.”
He started biting his thumbnail, looking younger and impossibly cuter. “I do security for Antonio Garcia. Tha’s who owns this place, and the one upstairs. I fight sometimes on the weekends when the crowd’s bigger.”
My jaw dropped at the information Dan had hinted at. I would have commented on it earlier, if I wasn’t always so distracted by Eli’s beauty. “What? No. No, no. I don’t want you fighting.”
Eli chuckled at my attempt to boss him. “Ye don’t have to worry. I always win. Plus, now Dan’s got it coming. He’s been annoying me for a few weeks, now. Shouldn’t be a long match.”
“Well, obviously. But still no. I don’t want anyone taking a swing at you. It’s too dangerous. I’m putting my foot down.”
“Your foot? This wee thing?” He reached down and squeezed my ankle with a tease on his perfectly sculpted lips. I could watch him talk forever, zoning in and out with a dreamy “tell me more” if I didn’t monitor myself. “You’re the one with the shiner, if ye recall.”
“I’m serious, Eli. I’ll lose my shiz if you get in that ring.”
Eli straightened and smiled down at me, as if he thought I was adorable, telling him I believed in world peace and unicorns. “Not tonight, Mouse. Ye can relax.”
I shot him a dubious look. “That you think I can relax when you’re this close shows how little you understand my affliction.”
“Ye don’t like me being this close?” He tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear again, giving me the guilty chills. Then he leaned in, lighting every nerve in my body with a fire I knew would never burn out. His arm encircled me in a loose embrace that made me melt and simultaneously want to buck like a bronco to get out of there before I said something stupid. He bent down and took his time brushing the scruff around his mouth across the exposed and naked skin of my neck. “How about this? Is this better?”
My entire body was ablaze with the simple sentence that felt laced with intent. I gripped his knee with a vice-like punishment, my spine stiff, and sweat breaking out on my forehead. “I… I… I…” I stammered, completely horrified that I might devolve into a puddle of hormones in the middle of the thickening crowd. He pulled away after a few seconds where I wasn’t sure if I was going to cry or moan like a cat in heat.
He chuckled, loving that it was so easy to toy with me. “Best roommate ever.”
I whirled on him the second I collected my bearings after he removed his face from my neck, and pointed my finger in his face. “Listen to me, Lucky Charms, I’ll straight up punch you if you keep this up. I’m barely holding it together, here. Do you want all your little friends to hear me panting for you like a hooker?”
A dark lust crossed over his face, clouding his eyes with desire that let me know I was either saying the wrong thing, or the very right one. “Aye. Alright, Mouse. Do me a favor? If ye don’t want my face in your neck, don’t blush so much around me. There’s only so much a man can be expected to resist.”
My mouth fell open in shock, but before I could make heads or tails of his confession, Brady showed up with three beers. I shot up out of my seat, narrowly missing knocking Eli in the jaw. “You’re sitting in the middle. My Hot Guy Blurts is flaring up.”
Brady grinned at me and sat down in the middle, which lowered my blood pressure by a noticeable degree. “Here you go, V. Pace yourself. I’ll finish it off it you can’t.”
“Thanks.”
After Eli collected himself, he pointed to the boxer in the far corner who was lacing up his gloves. “See those few seats behind tha lad’s corner? Tha’s the family box. I don’t have anyone to sit there, except my boss, which is pathetic. Plus, he can’t be seen choosing favorites. Tomorrow night, I wouldn’t mind it if the two of ye came to watch me fight, and sat in the family section.”
Brady tipped his bottle to Eli’s with a smile. “Sure, man. Thanks. Wouldn’t miss it.”
“Grand. How about ye, Mouse? Will ye watch me fight?” Eli rested his elbows on his knees and shot me a smile with too much charm in it. I had to look away, or else risk being liquefied into a pool of pheromones in the next seven seconds.
“No,” I admitted. “I can’t watch someone try to hurt you. But I’ll close my eyes and cheer you on from the family box, sure.”
Eli snorted as he took a drink. Then he leaned forward again to look around Brady so he could smile at me. “Cheers. This whole having a family thing is nicer than I thought it would be.”
9
Number 26 – High-Stakes Betting
Eleven.
Number 26 – High-Stakes Betting
Eli took his time explaining who the guys were that would take the ring, and what the odds were on which one would win. “Would ye call a hundred dollars high-stakes betting, Mouse?”
I nodded. “Anything over fifty’s too rich for my blood. I’m not much of a gambler.”
“Aye. I gathered tha about ye. Ye seem like a planner, a look before ye leap kinda lass.”
“And what kind of a lass are you, Lucky Charms?” I asked with a smirk. I was so proud of myself for cracking a joke. He grinned at me, no doubt thinking, just as I was, that we were both grateful I wasn’t being such a freak of nature around him. I was settling back into my normal personality, slowly but surely. Having Brady in between us was a good buffer.
“I’m not much of a gambler, either, but I think it’s time I started. Number 26 on your fridge list is to win a high-stakes bet. Do ye think a hundred dollars counts for tha if we each put in a bet on this match?”
I watched the thoughtful smile play on the edges of his full lips, and mused to myself for the millionth time that day that Eli was the best-looking guy I’d ever seen in real life. He was trying to be part of our little family, including himself in our odd traditions and games. It was one thing when he was just sexy, but add having an adorable personality to the mix? Forget about it; I was toast. “I think it’d have to be higher. Like five hundred, or a thousand, or something. What’s your vote, Brady?”
Brady tipped his beer to Eli’s. “A thousand would be high stakes. I’ll text Caty and see if she’s in for a grand.”
My head whipped so fast in Brady’s direction, my neck hurt. “What? Wait, are you serious? We’re really doing this? I dunno, Brady. Maybe Eli was closer with a hundred bucks.”
Brady squinted at me. “That’s not high stakes. That’s not even a day’s wages. High stakes is your rent, or something big. Something you can’t make back in a day or two. I think this is perfect.”
My palms were sweating. “It’s too much!”
Eli sipped his beer. “I can cover ye, if ye don’t have it.”
I gaped at him. “You can cover me for a grand? You don’t even know my last name! I could be a huge criminal, or a knife-wielding pickpocket or something, and you just offered to put up a thousand dollars for me.”
Eli kept his eyes on the empty ring. “Violetta Maria Rodriquez. Brown eyes tha make men confess all their secrets. Works long hours at McCale’s Rehab Clinic. Picks up gloves on the street for vets. Sleeps with her lips pouted, like she’s kissing the air. Loves ginger ice cream and Lucky Charms.” He ended his sentence with a wink and a small, sneaky smirk.
I couldn’t help but smile back, though I was still a ball of nerves. “I’ve got the money. Thanks, though. I just… I mean, it’s a thousand dollars, Brady.”
Brady was unperturbed, an excited grin playing on his lips. “I know. Don’t you feel the rush? I mean, we could totally lose a grand inside twenty minutes! This is what we made the list for, V. We wanted to feel alive. Feel that adrenaline kicking in?”
“I feel the vomit churning in my gut, yeah.�
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“Vomit’s good,” Brady reminded me. “It means we’re alive.” I remembered him saying something similar through his bouts with chemo. Brady turned to Eli with a look of determination. “We’re in.”
“Who are ye betting your life’s savings on, Brady?” Eli asked.
Brady typed hurriedly on his phone with one hand. He sipped his beer and shrugged as Caty’s enthusiastic “I’m in!” chirped. “You pick our guy, Vi. Here,” he said, taking out his debit card and handing it to Eli. “For me and Caty. Two grand total on my card. Pick whoever Vi says for all three of us.”
I handed over my card with shaking fingers, and then took a few beats to compose myself. I watched the two contenders interact in the last minutes before the match with hawk-like eyes that tried to catch every movement. I loved diagnosing what underlying issues would hinder both opponents, and who might come out on top as a result. It was a game I never tired of playing when a new patient would come in. Without looking at their charts, I would secretly try and guess at each of their surgeries, treatments and complete medical histories before I glanced down to confirm that I was awesome. I was usually eighty-five percent accurate, only missing the things that couldn’t be detected by a simple meet and greet alone. “That one,” I said, nodding to the dude with red silk boxing shorts. “He’s our guy. Unless he wusses out and gets too in his head, he’s winning.”
“Is tha so?” Eli asked with a tease to his tone. “What makes ye so sure, Mouse? I thought ye said ye didn’t know much about boxing.”
I tipped my bottle to my lips and held the beer in my mouth for five seconds before swallowing. It took about that long to sift through all the stupid, irrelevant things I wanted to blurt out at Eli, and let me choose only the correct response. “He’s had knee surgery. That’s a rough one to come back from, especially where I can see his incision was. Judging by the way he leans to the left when he stands, he didn’t do his rehab correctly, if at all. If he’s not taking the time to heal from something as serious as a surgery, then he’s most likely not taking care of himself the way he should with smaller injuries, as well. People think if they can muscle through the pain, it won’t affect them. Not true. Damage accumulates over time, and sooner or later, you have to pay the piper. He’s a quick results guy, which doesn’t make for a good fighter. Makes for a spark plug that fizzles out too soon. Unless there’s something seriously defunct in the other dude’s psyche, it’s a done deal who’s winning the match.”
Eli craned his neck around Brady to gape at me. Neither of us had expected me to conjure up a response that was even remotely intelligent, but there it was. I wasn’t good at flirting, or getting the hot guy to like me, but I was good at my job. “Well, after tha, I don’t see how I can go with the other lad. Ye got all tha from this distance? Ye sure ye don’t know him?”
I shrugged, taking another long sip to steady my nerves before conversing with Eli, even with Brady as a buffer. The beer was doing its job of relaxing me. “Well, I slept with him last week, so there’s that. Nothing better than a head-to-toe physical.”
Eli squinted at me, trying to figure out if I was joking or not. “You’re pulling my leg. Ye didn’t sleep with Turling. I would’ve heard about tha.”
“You think Turling kisses and tells?”
“About bagging a top shelf lass like yourself? I’ve no doubt any lad that got ye into his bed would be shouting it from the rooftops, and I ain’t heard no shouting from Turling.”
I did the unthinkable and met Eli’s gaze for a solid seven seconds, drinking in his compliment and getting a heavy dose of his rough around the edges, yet completely intoxicating features. His lips were fuller than I remembered, pinker, probably from the beer. The notch taken from his hairline and eyebrow from his scar drew me in like a sexy come hither. It made me want to run and hide, lest I fall into the abyss of his deep, knowing eyes forever. I thrust the rest of my beer at Brady, breaking eye contact before I had a clumsy moment from Hot Guy overload. “Here, you can finish the rest.”
Brady swirled the liquid in the bottle and frowned. “You’ve barely had any.”
I lowered my voice and shifted in my seat. “Quitting while I’m ahead. A thousand bucks is a big bet to put on my shoulders, guys. Feel free to choose the other man. I’m freaking out that I’m going to lose us all four grand.” I covered my face with my hands and squeaked into my palms. “Four grand!”
Eli placed the bets for us, and sat back down on Brady’s other side, handing our cards back with a grin. “I’ve never put down tha much on a match before,” he admitted. “You’re right. Crossing something off the bucket list gives a decent rush.”
My fingers were twisting nervously. “What if I picked the wrong guy?”
Brady was unruffled by the high stakes, enjoying the high of it all. “If we lose, so what? So we’re a couple months behind on our master plan. Big deal.”
“Master plan?” Eli inquired.
“Vi and I have a plan to pay off all our student loans by the end of the year. No car payments, no credit card debt. Debt-free by the end of the year.”
“Tha’s ambitious. So a big win would get ye closer?”
“Much closer,” Brady said with a nod. “I’ve been hitting mine pretty hard. I went pre-med, so I’ve got the big bills. Vi’s aren’t as scary as mine. Her debt was mostly medical. But now she’s just got the student loans, lucky girl.”
“Ye went pre-med, but you’re a truck driver? How’d that shake down?”
“Cancer,” Brady answered simply. “After being in and out of hospitals that much, I realized I didn’t want to spend my whole work life inside of one, giving people bad news and watching my patients die. I couldn’t stomach it. I like driving a truck; it suits me far better than telling people they’ve got cancer, and that I’ll have to take one of their balls.” He kept his eyes on the empty ring and swallowed hard, trying to force his words to sound lighter than the bricks they were.
I wrapped my arm around his back and rested my head on his shoulder. Though I knew he was grateful the cancer was gone, it was a hard hit for any man to forfeit a testicle. Eli was hesitant, but eventually his large hand found Brady’s other shoulder, gripping in solidarity that stirred emotion in my breast. Brady needed a solid guy friend, and I hoped Eli would become that for him.
A woman in a miniskirt that shimmered when she walked sauntered up to Eli and Brady, flashing her smile in time with the swoosh of her hips. “You ready for tomorrow, Eli? I’ve already got a hundred down that says you’re the champ.”
“Aye.” He gave her a tight, polite nod, but no smile. It was as if a shade of distance closed off the better parts of his personality that usually sparked on his gorgeous face.
“Looks like I found the best seat in the house right here.” She gripped his thighs and parted them, making her slim hips at home on his lap. White noise took over my hearing, and I didn’t catch what he said that made her laugh like a hyena.
I leaned back in my chair, treating everything on the other side of Brady as if it didn’t exist, unattainable in its grandeur. It’s good that Eli found some company, I told myself. He should date. He should do what makes him happy. Only, when I caught sight of him in my periphery, he didn’t look happy. He looked moody and bored. That’s not how he usually seemed around us.
I sunk into the one-armed embrace Brady offered, knowing it was my turn to need the boost. “You want to get out of here?” he offered.
I plastered on a smile that I tried to feel deep down. “Why? The fight hasn’t started yet. Everything’s as it should be.”
He kissed my forehead and squeezed me lightly. “You’re a good person, you know. I’m proud of you for not being petty.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do. I’m sorry you’re not getting what you want.”
I shot him half a smile. “Why would you say that? I’m exactly where I want to be. I’m hanging out with my best friend on a Friday night
. What better life could a girl hope for?”
When the fight started, I was torn between looking away from the future injuries in action, and diagnosing what sort of therapy they might need afterwards. I focused solely on the fight, knowing that if I caught sight of the woman’s breasts shaking in Eli’s face when she laughed, I might lose the cool façade I’d been carefully constructing. This was why I’d run from Jason McVey – my college crush. I couldn’t summon up the courage to say word one to him, and here I was a decade later, climbing some mountains while hiding from others.
My guy won the fight, but I didn’t take any huge pride in having predicted the correct victor. I was only relieved I hadn’t lost us all four grand. Eli went home with the miniskirt, leaving me with a bland smile plastered on my face. I’d finally had a decent conversation with Eli, where I managed to be smart, a medium amount of witty, and hadn’t spilled anything on myself or him, and it hadn’t counted for a thing. But in the back of my mind, through my lowered chin, I felt the glimmer of pride that I’d moved beyond a portion of my Hot Guy Blurts. I wasn’t a walking caricature anymore – I was me, and I decided that was a beautiful thing.
10
Number 17 – Skydiving
I slept at Dennis and Caty’s place that night, claiming I wanted to help with wedding stuff in the morning before we went skydiving. Caty ate up the lie with glee, happy that she had a girlfriend in the house, and that we could lounge around, like old times.
Dennis was less enthused to see me, though truly, I wondered what kind of natural disaster would invoke a reaction out of him. He was always either staring at himself or staring at his phone. He carried the thing around with him as if it was his opiate. “Hey, Vi. Good to see you,” Dennis said while looking in the mirror and messing with his hair. He was a magnet for mirrors, his perfectly coifed white-blond hair always needing the occasional primp.
Violet’s Bucket List Page 8