Beau's Redemption

by Royal Blue

  “Do you see yourself winning?”

  I hate it when they ask the same damn question, just another way. I clench my teeth and my jaw flexes. My father-in-law nods at me.

  The Hernández family has stepped in as my corner. Getting me ready to fight again has become a family thing. Although, I know this is Alejandro’s way of getting to spend time with Angel as well as helping Angel learn to cope with his PTSD.

  “I see myself stepping in the ring and doing what’s necessary,” I say.

  “Beau James, you walked away from boxing after a devastating fight. Do you feel like that unfortunate incident will play a factor in how you approach this fight?”

  My teeth are going to break from the tight hold I have on them. I knew they would go there. Doesn’t make it grate my nerves any less.

  “I’ve always approached each fight as an individual competition. I don’t take in one ring the experiences of another. Every fight is different,” I reply.

  “I’m sure killing your lover in the ring will play a factor in your performance,” someone in the back says.

  I fall back in my seat as if I’ve been dealt a blow. Heat surge to my ears. I clench my fists in front of me.

  “This interview is about the upcoming fight between Beau James Dalton and Gordon Norwack. We’re not going to rehash a fight from seven years ago,” Andres says as he sits to my right.

  Honestly, I’m done. I have nothing else to say. I want to get up and walk out to find my husband. We all decided that this room full of flashing lights and clamoring voices wasn’t for him.

  “Beau James, what’s next? Is this just one fight or are you here to stay?”

  “I can show you better than I can tell you. Stay tuned, folks, y’all have yourselves a good day,” I say and stand.

  “Beau James, Beau James….”

  I don’t look back. I said what I said. Truth is, that fight with Roman is haunting me in the ring. It’s just something that I’m working through.

  Angel

  I’m pacing the dressing room of the studio as I watch the interview on the screen. I’m frustrated that I couldn’t be out there with Beau. I hate the questions that they’re asking him.

  “Cabrón. Pasa a la siguiente pregunta, estúpido,” I snarl at the screen. “How many times are you going to ask him the same stupid shit?”

  My fists tighten as this garbage continues to go off the rails. Andres steps in exactly where I would have. I grumble under my breath, pissed as fuck as I see the look on Beau’s face. He looks like he wants to spit nails.

  I already know he’s about to end this bullshit. It’s written all over him. When Beau gets up out of his seat and walks out, I start for the door to meet him.

  “My bad,” I say as I run into some dude when I step out of the dressing room. My anxiety has me unfocused. I start a slow count in my head to clear it. It’s something Eric has me trying out.

  “That was on me,” the guy says.

  Now that my focus is homed in, I don’t like him. There’s something greasy about him. It causes me to pause and take a good look at him. He was headed for Beau’s dressing room.

  “Can I help you?”

  “I’m just here to see an old friend,” he says.

  “Well, this is Beau Dalton’s dressing room. I think you’re in the wrong place.”

  “No, I’ve got it right. Thanks, though.”

  I narrow my eyes. I really don’t like this guy. I’m ready to press his ass and find out what the hell he wants. My body is coiled with aggravation as I sense the bad vibes coming off him.

  “We have a problem here?” Beau’s voice booms as he appears, moving up the hallway toward us.

  This guy in front of me turns on a sleazy smile and shifts toward Beau. My husband stops in his tracks. His face changes, and his body becomes tense and ready to strike. I move quickly to place myself between this motherfucker and Beau.

  I’m just in time to wrap my arms around Beau to keep his fists from flying. I’ve never seen him like this. His eyes are wild, and rage is rolling off him. My father and brother rush to help me restrain him.

  “Calm down, Beau,” I say. “You hit this guy and you can kiss this fight and your career goodbye.”

  “Listen to your friend, Beau James,” the guy says.

  I round on the little bastard and get in his face. My father and Andres have Beau. I’m so close as I tower over this guy, I’m sure he can taste my breath. “I don’t know who the fuck you are, but you don’t want to fuck with me. I don’t have shit to worry about. I’ll fuck you up and won’t give two fucks. You want to try me?”

  The slimy asshole has enough good sense to take a few steps back. He looks me up and down, sizing me up, and rightfully errs on the side of caution. Beau may not be able to place a hand on him, but mine are itching to land on this dude.

  “You have a lot of fucking nerve showing your face here,” Beau barks.

  “I thought time would’ve smooth things over between us. You know what happened in that ring wasn’t my fault,” he says.

  “You knew I didn’t want to fight him. You switched the damn fights. You manipulated the whole fucking situation,” Beau snarls, his accent thickening. “He wasn’t ready to fight a fighter like me. It was always about the money for you. It never mattered how many lives or whose life you fucked up. You’re a piece of shit.”

  “So I guess that’s a no on us rekindling our work relationship,” he says.

  “Steve, if you don’t get the fuck out of my face, I’m gonna to say fuck boxing and I’m gonna beat the shit out of you,” Beau says in a deathly calm that sends a shiver through me.

  “And I’ll let him,” I say.

  Steve raises his hands in the air in surrender and moves around me. Andres and Papi glare at him as if they want to kick his ass too. I’m still debating on whether or not I should.

  “Good luck, Beau James. You’re going to need it,” Steve calls over his shoulder. “You’ll regret not having this talk with me.”

  I start for him, but Papi releases his hold on Beau to restrain me. I glare after the asshole, thinking of all the ways I can break him into pieces. Beau wraps an arm around my waist, tugging me into him.

  “He’s not worth it,” he says into my hair. “Just another ghost from the past. Fuck him.”

  Nah, I don’t do threats. This dude is going to get checked.

  Chapter 28

  Excluded Feelings

  Angel

  Everything around us seems to be moving at warp speed. Beau’s fight is still a few months away. We have three more months before the apartment is finished. That’s grinding on my nerves. It’s holding things up with the adoption.

  We’ve completed the parenting courses, we’ve moved to the home study evaluation, but our home isn’t ready for inspection. Beau has told me to be patient. The work he’s having done requires skill and time. Nothing can be rushed.

  Yet there are days like this. Days when I wish we had the right to take Billy home with us. She’s been in a mood all day. Something is off, and I don’t know what it is. It’s been eating at my nerves.

  “Hey, Billy,” I say as I walk over to the table she’s sitting at with her dinner.

  “What’s up, Angel?” she says.

  “I was going to ask you the same thing? Mind if I sit?”

  “You’re good.” She shrugs.

  “Why the long face?”

  She lifts those brown eyes to me, and I see a world of hurt. I want nothing more than to wrap her up in a hug and tell her it’s going to get better. To make a promise that it will.

  “A couple of families came in today. They were all looking for girls. They didn’t even look at me,” she says, reaching to brush a hand over her hair and tug at her shirt.

  I noticed a few weeks ago that we’re going to have to talk her into allowing someone to purchase her new clothes. She’s outgrowing her things on top of them being worn out. However, she’s still a cute little girl. I don’t see why
a family wouldn’t be drawn to her.

  I don’t know what to say. This has to be hard on all of the kids. Pickings are slim to begin with. From what I’ve learned about this place, Kyle and the others are extremely selective about opening the doors to families that want to adopt. The safety of these children is taken very seriously.

  “Can I tell you a secret?” I lean in and whisper.

  She eyes me warily for a moment but nods.

  “You’re the best kid here. You’re smart, you’ve got mad skills on the court, your skills on the mat are getting you talked about at the gym, you’re funny, and you’re a good friend. Mason and Aryanna talk about you all the time,” I say.

  “If I’m so great, why can’t I go home with you? You and Beau got married, right? Don’t you need a kid?” she says with all seriousness.

  I have to clamp my mouth shut to keep from telling her that we’re coming. As soon as we can, we’re taking her home for our three-month supervised period. Our lawyer informed us that because we know Billy and volunteer at the orphanage we’ll get a pass on the getting-to-know-her stage. We already know the kid we want.

  “See what I mean,” she whispers when I don’t say anything.

  “Hey, adoption isn’t as easy as walking in here and saying we want to take Billy home. There are steps that have to be taken. Most of all, you have to be fit to be a parent to begin with,” I try to explain.

  “Why wouldn’t you guys be fit? Because you’re gay? My abuela was bi. She had a girlfriend and a boyfriend. They let her keep me,” she says.

  Again, I’m speechless for a second. I blow out a breath and decide to tell her as much of the truth as I can. I don’t want her thinking we don’t want her.

  “You remember me telling you that I was a Marine, right?”

  “Yeah, I remember.”

  “Well, my head got a little messed up while I was away. Sometimes… I’m not able to handle things the way others can. I’m putting my life back together so I can have a full family,” I say.

  I watch her think over my words. The wheels turning to a point I swear I can hear them. She places an elbow on the table and cups her cheek.

  “You mean like what happened at the wedding?” she says softly.

  I purse my lips and nod. I had hoped that she didn’t notice what had happened that night. I’m so grateful she didn’t get hurt.

  “So you would want me if your head wasn’t messed up?”

  “Billy, in the perfect world, you would’ve come home with me a long time ago,” I reply.

  Her brown eyes are still sad, but I see a little bit of a smile return to them. I wish I could inject more hope, but I know it’s not wise. We have to stick to the plan so Billy doesn’t get hurt. If for some reason things turn south and we can’t adopt her, that would devastate me and Beau, but it would crush her more.

  “You know something?” she says.

  “What’s that?”

  “I didn’t like the way any of those families looked anyway. I’m better off here with the dads,” she says.

  I laugh. “The dads?”

  “Yeah, that’s what everyone’s starting to call Kyle and Andy,” she says.

  “Ah, okay.”

  “I might not be the lucky kid, but I hope you get your head fixed. You’d be a great dad,” she says with a look of longing in her eyes.

  My heart swells. I curse the three months we still have to wait for our home to be done. I’ll be talking to Beau again to make sure there isn’t a way we can bring that timeline in sooner.

  I’m not even allowed to go on site. Not that I would want to anyway. Construction and I don’t blend. I learned that after returning home and trying my hand at it. That didn’t go well at all.

  “Angel?” Billy calls, pulling me from my thoughts.

  “Yeah?”

  She pushes her plate away and starts to fidget with her fingers. Whatever she wants to say, I can see she’s warring for words. So unlike Billy.

  “Most of the boys hate balling with me because I’m small and I still kick their as… their butts. I know it’s time for you to go home, but will you play a game with me? I just want to shoot some hoops for a little bit,” she says.

  “Man, I’ll do one better than that. Let me make a call,” I say and grin.

  Beau

  “Yo, Billy.” I call out her name like she does mine all of the time.

  She turns from talking to Angel, and her eyes go wide. I walk in the gym with Kyle, Ray, and Chris. Mason and Andy are bringing up the rear. They didn’t want to miss this.

  “Yo, Beau,” Billy says with a beaming smile on her face.

  When Angel called me with Billy’s request to play a game of basketball, I was all over it. Mas has mentioned that the other boys don’t like to play with Billy anymore. Rumor is, she crossed over a few of the boys, and they’ve been too embarrassed to play her now.

  Well, they’ll be jealous after tonight. I had planned to go home, shower, and fall into bed, but now my mission is to make Billy smile. Angel also told me about their talk today. It hurt my heart that the little darlin’ is feeling excluded. The families, the games, all ways that Billy has been feeling just plain left out.

  I aim to fix that. All of the kids know Kyle used to play in the NBA, and Ray and Chris still do, but I don’t think any of them have gotten to play with all three at once. Not like Billy will this evening. Jordan has a big game we all plan to attend together tomorrow night. Every once in a blue moon we manage to make something like this work out. It’s the reason everyone happens to be in town tonight.

  “So I heard my best student wanted to play some hoops,” I say once we reach her.

  “You guys are here to play with me?” she says in awe. “No way.”

  “We sure are,” Chris says, giving her his megawatt smile.

  “Somebody pinch me,” she says.

  I punch her side and tickle her. Billy has opened up to me and Angel getting closer to her in the last few months. She’d probably punch someone else in the nuts for this kind of contact.

  “Beau, wait, wait, I can’t breathe,” she giggles.

  “All right, fine. Let’s break into teams. How about you and Mas be captains?” I suggest.

  “Yes,” the two say in unison, high-fiving each other.

  I’ve watched these two build their own bond. Mason has been rewarded for his patience. I didn’t think it would ever happen, but Billy let him in and they’re the best of friends.

  “You’re going down, Tyson,” Billy taunts.

  “You need to pick your teams first,” I say.

  “I’m taking Lionel,” she says, pointing to Chris.

  Mason twists his lips and thrusts his arm across his body as if to say, ah man. His eyes light up as he looks up at his uncle, the championship-winning MVP. Losing Chris to Billy is soon forgotten.

  “I’m taking Uncle Kyle,” he says.

  “Oh boy, that was my next one,” Billy pouts.

  She taps her chin as she looks at her choices, as if strategizing on the best picks. Her gaze bounces over Angel and me. Then to Ray.

  “I’m taking Beau,” she says.

  Mason snags Ray up quickly, but Billy isn’t fazed. She takes Angel, leaving Mason with Andy. With our teams in place, we huddle together for a pep talk. The excitement in Billy’s eyes is priceless.

  The gym starts to fill up with the after-dinner crowd, coming to check out this game. The other kids murmur as Billy and Mason get ready for the jump ball to get things started. We have a full game in swing in no time. I think Billy is showing off for the guys, but damn if she’s not balling.

  This was one of the first things we all learned about Billy when she came here. She likes to play, and she’s good at it. From what I read in Billy’s file, her biological father was headed up from the G League before he was murdered while going to get Billy milk from the store.

  Billy’s life just turned for the worse from there. One unfortunate event after the next until she a
rrived here. Billy didn’t come to us through Child Services like many of the others. A police officer friend of Andy’s brother begged Kyle to take her in. He’d known Billy from his very own neighborhood. He’d saved her from a nasty foster situation.

  “She can shoot,” Ray says with a huge grin. “That cross is sweet too.”

  “Man, I haven’t had this much fun in a long time,” Chris says. “Mason, you better watch out. She’s going to own them ankles.”

  Just then Billy crosses Mas, landing him on his ass. She passes the ball to Angel, and he goes for a layup. It goes in, and our extremely larger crowd cheers.

  “Oh yeah,” Billy woots and does a little duck-looking dance.

  “What’s that?” I laugh.

  “It’s my victory dance. Come on, do with me,” she says.

  “Yeah, Beau, do it with her,” Kyle says.

  Angel slaps him five while laughing. I glare at the both of them. However, when I see the expectant look on Billy’s face, I let her teach me the dance. Soon—even though his team just lost—Mason, Billy, and I are doing a dance that looks cute while they do it. Yet I’m sure I just lost any cool points I had. That is, until Billy wraps herself around my leg and looks up at me like I can do no wrong. As if in her eyes, I’m the greatest person in the world.

  “We make a great team. Don’t you think,” she says.

  “I sure do, darlin’. I sure do.”

  Chapter 29

  Shattered

  Beau

  “That’s what I’m talking about,” I shout, standing up out of my seat as Jordan sinks another goal. The box suite erupts with cheers as my friends and husband chant with me. This is one good damn game. Jordan is putting on a show out there.

  “Our boy is on fire tonight,” Daniel croons.

  Chris rushes over from the buffet with a wing hanging out of his mouth. “Damn, as soon as I turn my back,” he says around a mouthful of food.

  “Really, babe?” Joey says as he glares at Chris.