“You too,” she said. I was relieved when she didn’t add anything else.
“Drive safe,” I said as he started to walk away.
“You too. I’ll see you Monday at my appointment?”
I smiled. “Do you need to change it to tomorrow?” I wondered if he was going to need it, since I was sure he would be sore tomorrow.
“I l
ike to spend Sundays with my daughter. Thank you though.” He smiled, and I had to hold back the question ready to escape my lips.
After he left, Ally elbowed me in the side. “You have it bad. You know that?”
“Let’s go. Traffic is going to be awful,” I said, ignoring her comment completely.
I made my way through the building and out to the parking lot with Ally in tow. She was ogling all the fighters who were making their way toward their cars. I just wanted to get out of there. It was getting late, and I was the one who had to drive. When we finally made it to the car and got inside, I looked at Ally and rolled my eyes.
“What?” she asked innocently.
“You’ve got some drool on your chin,” I teased.
She laughed, and we drove to my house. She was going to stay the night with me so I wouldn’t have to drive her all the way home, thank goodness. She lived on the other side of town, and it would have been a bigger pain in the ass to try to fight my way to her house and then back to mine.
“Thanks for taking me with you, sis. I think we had some quality sister bonding time,” she said as I pulled into my driveway thirty minutes later. The car ride had been mostly just listening to music and her talking about how hot all the fighters were.
“You’re welcome, even though you were a pain in my ass. I really thought you were going to say something to him.” I put the car in park and turned the ignition off.
“What would I tell him?” she asked, pretending like she had no idea what I was referring to you.
“You really are a pain in my ass, you know that?” I got out of the car, and she followed me.
“Yeah. But you love me.”
“Only because I have to.”
I got her set up in the spare bedroom and turned in for the night. I just wanted to go lay in bed and not have to deal with her asking me questions about how I felt about Justin. She was a good person and had been there for me through a lot of bullshit, but she was also really good at pushing my buttons.
We looked similar, but we were total opposites. She was confident and loud and knew what she wanted from life. She was a free spirit. I tried to be like her so many times before, but it was hard. Even though I was confident most of the time and I mostly knew what I wanted out of life (especially career wise), I didn’t know how to be free-spirited. I didn’t know how to just let go and shout my feelings out for the whole world to hear. Maybe that just came with the territory of being a business owner.
I fell asleep that night thinking about Justin’s fight. I thought about the way his chest looked with sweat glistening on his skin. I remembered the way he smiled at me when he first walked into the cage. My stomach fluttered just like it did at the arena. As I fell asleep, my thoughts drifted into dreams.
Chapter Three
Justin
I woke up the next morning to Margie climbing into my bed like she did almost every morning. She called it “morning snuggle time.” It was my favorite part of the day because I knew her interest in daddy-daughter time would fade as she got older.
She was in bed when I got home after the fight. My mom watched her for me, so I hadn’t been able to talk to her and tell her how the fight went.
“How was your fight, Daddy?” she asked as she scooted a little closer to me. I winced as I put my arm around her, and she gasped. Worry crept onto her young face. “Are you okay, Daddy?”
“I’m okay, sweetie. I’m just a little sore. I won my fight, though!”
“Yay! I just knew you could do it,” she said brightly. She threw her arms gently around my neck so she wouldn’t hurt me. I grinned and hugged her back. No matter what, she has always been my biggest supporter and my biggest fan.
We snuggled together for another ten minutes. She told me about how much fun she had with grandma the night before and that she wished grandma lived with us. I laughed at that because I wasn’t so sure my mother would like that very much.
“I love you to the moon and back,” I told Margie softly.