May was supposed to be my rematch with Thomlassen – the fight I forfeited while Kit was in the hospital – but schedules wouldn’t line up in time and the month came and went, so now everyone’s thinking December.
You’d think the fans would be getting impatient and losing interest in us, but in this case, it seems to be having the opposite effect. The longer everything takes to come together, the hungrier they’re getting.
Whenever the fightdoeshappen, the committee’s expecting a huge turnout and a hell of a pay packet for us all.
Whatever.
I wouldn’t even care if the fight never went ahead. I have other things to focus on these days, and a smack-talking heavyweight fighter who likes to talk aboutmygirl on national TV isn’t someone I want to help earn a ‘hell of a pay packet.’
So that’s our life in a nutshell. No fight date for me, but I am back at the gym – since Kit went back to work and won’t let me coddle her anymore. I’ve gone back to regular hours, PT sessions with my clients, class training, since that’s my job, and training for myself, since Idohave a big fight at some point this year.
Meanwhile, Jimmydoeshave a date: October twelfth. He has a little over three months until his fight, so we’re picking up slack for the classes he has to drop, and just like they all changed their schedules to get me ready last year, we do the same for him.
As brothers, we adapt, we prepare, we win.
I close the dishwasher and smile at my girl’s panic over her brother’s driving. I’m sure she’s overreacting. He’s responsible now. I bet he’s driving with his shoulders scrunched, his eyes on alert, and about thirty milesunderthe speed limit. He won’t risk hurting his Miss Daisy.
Me (to Kit):Yes, I can touch your boobs? Or??
Me (to Jack):Concentrate, kid. If you crash that car with my girl in it, I’ll hunt you down and feed you to my hamster. I’ll buy a hungry hamster while I’m hunting you.
Roughly twenty-three seconds later, my phone vibrates on the kitchen counter…
Kit:DON’T TEXT HIM!! Jesus, Bobby. His phone lit up and he was unlocking it in less than a second. WHILE he was driving!
Kit:Also, I love you. And yes, you can touch my boobs. We’ll be home soon.
Kit:Also again; we’re not getting a hamster. I don’t have time for that shit.
Me:I love you, baby. Drive safe (Jack!). See you soon.
And p.s. finishing up the dishwasher now. xx
Kit and I have an appointment at Inkalot this afternoon; coincidentally, the same tattoo place we’ve both used for years. It’s amazing how some parts of our lives ran parallel before we met. Same town, same school, same grocery store. Hell, I’ve even gotten drunk at the winery she works at. Her company was a sponsor in one of my smaller fights, and as part of the deal, we went to the cellar doorand posed with glasses of fancy wine.
You’re supposed to taste and spit.
Jimmy and I… did not.
I plan to add more dates to my chest, and Kit intends to get the design she’d planned for her dad. A long time ago – the night of our first date – she mentioned a sketch book that I needed to remind her to show me. At the time, she’d been exploring the ink on my chest, and when she came across the Peter Pan I’d had inked on – formydad – she turned emotional and told me she’d show me her notebook.
Turns out, she had her very own Peter Pan drawn up.
So close, so similar, we’ve had so much in common, yet it took until my twenty-sixth year until I met her.
What a waste of twenty-five years.
The roar of my old-as-hell car turns onto our street, so I shove my phone into my back pocket and brush the last crumbs off the counter. I walk through the living room and out onto the porch with a smile, and when the car bunny-hops, jerking its way up the driveway, with a white-knuckled Kit, and a white-faced Jack, I bite my lips closed and try not to laugh.
That poor Miss Daisy has been shaken to her core, and Jack has managed to complicate the easiest-to-drive car in the whole world.
He pulls up slowly with jerks and shudders, and just when I think he’s done, he hops it forward once more and sends the trash can spinning.
I jog down the front steps as Kit tugs on the handbrake, and stopping on her side, I open her door with a flourish and pull my shaking girl into my arms. I nuzzle her neck and ignore Jack’s rolling eyes. “Hey, baby. I missed you.”
Her cheeks move into a smile. “I saw you an hour ago…” I bite down gently on her scented skin. “Mmm, but yeah, I missed you, too.”
Jack dramatically gags. “Can you not do that shit in front of me? Or in public. Or, you know, ever?”