Black Belt Knockout

by Winter Travers

  “I love you, too,” I whispered. I hung up and hung my head. I couldn’t keep ignoring what my head kept telling me.

  My heart loved Roman.

  My head wasn’t so sure.

  *

  Roman

  “Trouble in paradise?”

  I turned around and glared at Lauren. “What the hell do you want? Last I checked, I gave all the time I needed for this weekend.”

  She shrugged and sat down in the chair next to me. “She’s not meant to be with you, Roman. All it took was one look to know that she can’t handle life on the circuit. It takes a certain kind of woman to.” She wrapped her hand around my arm, and I yanked it away.

  “Are you serious right now?” Bitch was crazy.

  She sat back in her chair and looked down at her nails. “I know it’s hard to hear, but come on, Roman. You can’t sit there and tell me she’s worth all of this. You’re distracted and not focusing like you should.”

  “Pretty sure I just won two fucking grand champion trophies.”

  “And it should have been three, but you dropped.”

  I leaned forward. “Drops fucking happen, Lauren. If you knew anything, you would know that.”

  “Not if you train like you should be.”

  I stood up and hitched my bag over my shoulder. “Don’t talk like you know me, Lauren. For as much as you try to tell me that everything you say is for the best, I know you’re full of shit.”

  “I can destroy you, Roman.”

  I shook my head. “Do your worst, Lauren, because I’m pretty sure I can destroy you too. Who knows, I might have already pushed that ball into motion.”

  I was over this bullshit.

  Sage was the only thing I cared about right now.

  *

  Chapter 34

  Sage

  I didn’t sleep.

  At. All.

  After I had dropped Sam off at daycare, I called Molly and told her I wouldn’t be in. I knew she had questions, but I just told her I was sick and would be in tomorrow.

  Breaking one's heart was exhausting.

  I was contemplating breaking out the caffeinated coffee when someone pounded on the door.

  “Sage, open up.”

  Roman.

  He was here much sooner than I thought he would have been. I figured I had at least two more hours before he showed up.

  “You have a key,” I called.

  “I only want to come in if I know you want me here.”

  Damn the man for being thoughtful even when I was pissed off at him. “Use it.” I was at the point in my exhaustion that I didn’t want to get off of the couch.

  The door opened, and I listened to him walk through the kitchen and stood over me. “Are you sick?”

  “No.”

  “Molly said you were.”

  “That’s because that’s what I told her.” A giggle bubbled from my lips.

  He tilted his head to the side. It really was too bad Roman and I were breaking up. He was so handsome.

  “Have you been drinking?”

  “Dude, I’m pregnant with your baby. Have you already forgotten?”

  “What are you talking about? Of course, I haven’t forgotten you’re pregnant.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’m not drunk, Roman, I’m just tired.”

  “Why are you tired?”

  Ugh, the man and his questions. “Because I didn’t sleep last night.”

  “Why wouldn’t you sleep? Did Sam keep you up?”

  I shook my head and smiled. “Nope. Sam slept like a baby.”

  “Then why didn’t you sleep, Sage?” He was getting irritated with me. The man had some nerve.

  I waved my hand at him. “I’m tired. We should end this another time.” A time where my eyelids didn’t weigh fifty pounds, and I was struggling to keep them open.

  He scooped me up off the couch, and I couldn’t help but rest my head on his shoulder. “Why do you smell so good?” I mumbled.

  “I spent the night on an airport floor, Sage. I don’t smell good.”

  I sighed. “Lies.”

  “You need to sleep, and then we need to talk.”

  “Yes on the sleep, no on the talk.”

  He kicked open my bedroom door and laid me in the middle of the bed. He wrapped the blanket around me and stood over me. “We’re talking, but I need you to be coherent.”

  “So you’re leaving now?”

  “No. You let me in, I’m never leaving. Sleep, Sage.” He walked out of the bedroom and closed the door behind him.

  I closed my eyes and sighed.

  How odd was it that with Roman back, I could finally sleep. Before he walked through the door, I never thought I would sleep again.

  Instead of figuring out why that was, I decided to sleep.

  That was much better than figuring out what my heart and brain wanted.

  *

  Roman

  “Hand me the screwdriver, bud.”

  “Which one is that?”

  “The one that looks like a star on the tip.”

  Sam slapped the handle into my hand. “Yup, that’s the one,” I replied.

  Sam and I were sitting in the middle Sage’s living room with the pieces of one of my trophies from Vegas around us. We had managed to put together the first one and were working on the second.

  I had checked on Sage throughout the day, but she hadn’t budged an inch. Robert Barnes had called me around ten o’clock and we had a very enlightening conversation. While Robert agreed with me having my head in the game, he didn’t think I needed to sacrifice my personal life. The fact that I had come home with two grand champion trophies the past weekend spoke well to the fact that I was doing what I should be.

  After I told Robert that I loved working with SKW, I told him I wouldn’t be able to continue with Lauren. I wasn’t out to get her fired, I was just looking to get her the hell away from me. He had agreed that Lauren wasn’t a great fit for me and would bring on another point of contact I could work with. I was still on the circuit, SKW was happy with my performance so far, and Lauren was out of the picture.

  Thank god.

  When three o’clock rolled around, I picked Sam up from daycare, and we had headed back to the apartment to get the trophies put back together before Sage woke up.

  “What are we having for dinner?”

  I ruffled Sam’s hair. “You’re always thinking about your tummy, aren’t you, bud?”

  He shrugged and picked up the karate guy that was supposed to go on the top of the trophy. “It tells me I’m hungry. I listen.”

  “You must have learned that from your mama. She’s the same way.”

  “Hey.”

  Both of our heads popped up to see Sage leaning against the wall. “I’m not sure if I should be offended by that.”

  “Mama,” Sam called. He jumped up and threw himself at Sage’s legs. “Ro and I were working on his trophies. He says he has two more coming in the mail I’m going to need to help put together.”

  “I see that. It looks like you already got one put together.”

  Sam nodded his head proudly. “Yup. Roman helped me.”

  “Oh, did he now?” she laughed. “Does this mean there isn’t any karate tonight?”

  “Nope. Roman said we were taking a night off.”

  Sage looked up at me confused. “What?”

  “Sam and I thought we needed to spend some time at home.”

  “With Mama!” Sam added.

  “Oh wow. That sounds, um, fun.”

  Even after sleeping all day, Sage still had some hair-brained idea in her head about us.

  “Hey, Sam. Why don’t you run to your room and play for a little bit while me and your mom figure out what to make for dinner.”

  Sam gave me a thumbs up and headed to his room.

  “What are you doing here?” Sage hissed.

  I stood up and brushed my hands down my pants. “Putting together the trophies with Sam like I said I would
.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You didn’t need to come over, Roman.”

  “Yeah, I did. I promised Sam we would do this together.”

  “Well, as soon as you are done, you can leave.”

  This was going to be harder than I thought. “You wanna tell me why I need to leave?”

  “Because this isn’t going to work.”

  I walked into the kitchen and pulled out a dozen eggs and milk. “I get that’s what you think, Sage, but I want to hear from you why this isn’t going to work.” I pulled a bowl down from the cabinet and started cracking eggs into it.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Breakfast for supper.”

  She opened the freezer and pulled out a pound of bacon. “I can do it.” She slapped the bacon into the microwave and leaned against the counter. She watched me crack the eggs with her arms crossed over her chest. “Thank you for putting me to bed.”

  “You’re welcome. You were delirious. I was worried about you and the baby.”

  “I just needed to sleep.”

  “I know, baby.”

  She huffed. “Don’t call me that.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because we’re breaking up.”

  I laughed and threw the broken shells into the garbage. “You may think we’re breaking up, but we’re not.”

  “That’s not how it works, Roman. I said we’re breaking up.”

  I shook my head. “If you give me a good reason why we should break up, then we’ll get divorced.”

  She grabbed a frying pan from the cabinet and set it on the stove. I grabbed the bacon from the microwave, flipped it over, and turned it back on for two more minutes. “We don’t work well together.”

  “Huh? Where the hell did you come up with that one, baby?”

  “Uh, you’re all ninja, and I’m not.”

  “Pretty sure that’s what I like about you. I don’t want to be with someone who is just like me. If that were the case, I would just stay single.”

  “See, you want to be single!”

  I rolled my eyes. “Err, wrong. Try to come up with some other excuse, Sage.”

  She stomped her foot. “This isn’t a game, Roman.”

  “Never said it was.” I grabbed another frying pan from the cabinet and set it on the stove. “You want french toast?”

  She shook her head. “No. Syrup made me gaggy the other day.”

  “Syrup, really? That’s a new one.”

  “Yeah,” she sighed. “Add it to the list.”

  The list of things Sage didn’t want to eat was growing daily. Before she wanted to eat everything, but now her love of food seemed to be turning on her. “Grab me the bread.”

  She handed me the bread and grabbed the butter. “I don’t want toast.”

  “Huh?”

  “I just got gaggy at the thought of it.”

  “What about a bagel?”

  She tilted her head back and forth. “I think I can do that.”

  I whisked the eggs while she grabbed the bagels and sprayed the pan for the eggs with pan spray. “You okay with a little garlic salt in the eggs?”

  “Lord yes. Garlic anything sounds amazing.”

  I mentally moved garlic over to the foods Sage would eat list.

  After I finished whisking the eggs, I poured them into the pan, and Sage started stirring them.

  “Hit me with another reason why you think we don’t work.” I grabbed the bacon from the microwave and laid a few pieces into the pan.

  “You fry bacon instead of baking it.”

  I grimaced. “Is that really an issue for you?” She was grasping at straws here.

  “Uh, does it matter if it is? Because if that’s a deal breaker for you, then I’m going with it.”

  I shook my head. “No. You’ll just have to deal with it. Now get to the main reason why you think we need to break up.” She had until we were done making dinner before I told her she was ridiculous and we weren’t breaking up.

  She slowly stirred the eggs, and I knew she was thinking hard. I made it through half of the bacon before she finally started talking.

  “You know how you didn’t make it to the doctor appointment Thursday?”

  I nodded my head. She was finally talking sanely. I wasn’t about to stop her.

  “And then you were supposed to be home yesterday, but you weren’t?”

  “There wasn’t anything I could do about that, baby.”

  She sighed. “I know. At least my brain knows.”

  “Then what is the problem?”

  “When Jack and I first got married, he made me all these promises. The biggest one was to love me forever.”

  I moved to hold her, but she held up her hand. “I know you’re not Jack, but I can’t help the way I feel. I’ve had too many empty promises in my life, Roman.”

  “Why do you think my promises are empty?”

  “It started out small. Every now and then, he would break a promise, and then it just kept getting worse. Then he deployed, and I was all alone. Even though we were married, I was alone. I had a baby all alone, and then he left me forever. I know in the end, he didn’t love Sam or me, but he still left me.”

  I knocked away her hand and pulled her into my arms. She wasn’t going to push me away from some other asshat’s mistakes. “I can’t promise you forever, Sage, but I can promise you I’ll love you as long as I live. As long as I’m breathing, I will be here for you, Sam, and our baby. There isn’t a damn thing in this world that can keep me away from you.”

  “Except for karate and airplanes that run out of gas.”

  “Gas?”

  She waved her hand at me. “Sorry, go on. I blame Sam.”

  “Karate won’t keep me away from you ever again because I’m more than likely going to be fired if Lauren has anything to do with it.”

  “Lauren?”

  “She wasn’t fond of the way I talked to her this weekend.”

  “Roman,” she scolded. “That’s your job, and working with SKW is helping Powerhouse.”

  “I know, but if the way Lauren is the way that SKW is, I don’t want anything to with them. And I know for damn sure neither will the guys.”

  “So what happens now?”

  “I wait for a phone call. I called Robert Barnes Saturday night to let him know I wasn’t happy, but I’m going to have to wait and see how Lauren spins this.”

  “I knew she was an evil wench,” she grumbled.

  “She is, but she’s not my problem right now.”

  “Oh, so I’m your problem?”

  Lord have mercy. If someone ever said mood swings while being pregnant wasn’t a thing, they needed to come hang out with Sage for a day. I loved the woman, but damn she could give you whiplash if you weren’t careful. “You know what I mean.”

  “Well, as soon as we’re done making dinner, you’re gonna have to go.” And she was back to wanting me gone.

  “Any other reason why we should break up?”

  She pursed her lips. “I think the bacon and not wanting you to break my heart are pretty good reasons.”

  “Sage, can we just knock this sh—”

  “And Sam. Sam loves you, Roman, and I can’t bear to see you break his heart. I can mend my own heart, but that little boy won’t be the same.”

  I grabbed her by the shoulders. “Tell me why you think I’m going to break each of your hearts?”

  A lone tear streaked down her face. “Because that’s how it goes. I can’t have it all. I thought I had it all with Jack, and then it was gone. All of it gone except for Sam.”

  “Sage, I don’t know what else to tell you. I’m. Not. Going. Anywhere. God damn Jackie Chan could dangle five million dollars in front of me to go join him on some fucking hill in China, and I’d still be here right here with you. There isn’t anything in this world more important than being here as a dad to Sam and your husband.”

  Her reserve wavered. “Sam could use a dad.”

&nbs
p; I threaded my fingers through her hair. “And you could use a husband.”

  “Don’t tell me what I need, Roman Yeck.” She sniffled and rested her head on my shoulder. “Although, this time, you may be right.”

  “I love you, Sage Yeck. I promise on everything, I am with you until my last breath.”

  “You have no idea how terrifying this is, Roman. I love you, and I know if you ever tell me you don’t want me anymore, I know I’ll never be the same.”

  “I haven’t been the same since that night you waltzed into my apartment, Sage, so I completely understand what you’re talking about.”

  “Yeah, but you’re life changed when I came into it. My life is going to suck when you leave.”

  “This is gonna take more than one conversation to get it through your head.” I shook my head. “I’m gonna need at least a lifetime with you Sage before you get it, aren’t I?”

  She sniffled and shrugged her shoulders. “I mean, a lifetime seems like a good place to start.”

  “Does that mean I can stay?”

  She wound her arms around my neck and sighed. “At least to wash the dishes.”

  “What if I promise to do the dishes every night? Can I stay for a while?”

  She fanned her face and smiled. “You know the way to a girl’s heart, Roman.”

  “If I would have known that was all it was going to take to win you over completely, I would have promised you that months ago.”

  “I’m not that easy, Mr. Yeck.”

  “I beg to differ, Mrs. Yeck.”

  She bit her lip. “Does this mean we can tell people we’re actually married?”

  “You don’t seem too excited about that.”

  “I’m good with it. I’m just worried about what Molly, Hadley, and Kennedy are going to say.”

  “Or Sam?”

  “Pfft, you and I both know Sam is going to freak out when he finds out you’re going to be his dad.” Her eyes bugged out, and she gulped. “I mean, I know you said you want to be his dad, but did you mean it? If you don’t want to, you don’t have to. I mean, it might be a little weird with the baby and everything, but I don’t want you too.”

  “Sage, would you just shut up,” I growled. “I want you. I want Sam. I want our baby. Is that clear enough for you?”