Jessie

Her smell was on his shirt, his hands, his brain. He would have walked her home, but she lived at the store.

Jessie made damn sure Ashling locked up and stole several more kisses from her before she shooed him out the door.

His senses were alert and buzzing. It was almost like a fight, that high, after a victory. But this was better. A thousand times better.

Jessie knew he wanted Ashling from the second he saw her, but instead of being satisfied by their mind-blowing encounter, he only wanted more. He walked to his car and barely registered the drive home.

When he finally calmed down and managed a few hours of sleep Ash’s image floated in. He may have only gotten a few winks, but she was there in his dreams, so he wasn’t complaining.

Jessie imagined what it would be like to wake up next to Ashling, to feel her soft skin next to him at night, and it required a cold morning shower before heading back to the GWG.

He had a busy day ahead. Not only training, but business, that was the new part now that he’d achieved a high level of professional MMA fighting.

He had to handle endorsement offers, appearances, and all kinds of details leading up to the main event. He knew from Craddock’s experience handling the business side of things would be a major time commitment before he even stepped into the Octagon on fight night.

Meantime he also had to come up with a date worthy of the Irish nymph who had shockingly agreed to spend time with him.

Jessie got in early, despite the lack of sleep, and he’d had a third of his workout done before Sam Bosque even showed up.

Bosque was from Arm Up Management. Craddock and his friend Zeke Powell were both represented by Arm Up, and they were doing pretty well. They were millionaires, Craddock dozens of times over. Zeke, well, he was just starting, but the former preacher’s son was earning big money.

“I don’t know about no agents, only fighting, but if this fancy agency can get you good money, good deals, great. You got an hour.” Whitey wasn’t thrilled about Jessie taking a break for a meeting, but there were plenty of fighters who needed his attention, so his grandpa would be busy while Jessie took care of business.

He showered off and popped on sweats. Sam was going to meet him here, and they’d get started.

Grand City Great Wolves Gym was converted to a gym back in the sixties. It was essentially a huge warehouse in a once bad part of town that was now packed with hard bodies and fighters. The front of the building had store windows along the street and a reception area with a rotating cast of cute as hell receptionists who greeted visitors and prospective new members. Jessie looked into the reception area. There was a lanky brunette standing in the reception area tapping her high-heeled shoe.

Must be pissed that her boyfriend is late or something, Jessie thought. The simmering brunette was the only one there though, so Sam Bosque must be late. He’d never met his new agent, but the agency said it would be a good fit. He’d heard Bosque was hungry and had shark-like tendencies. Those were good things in an agent.

“Hoolihan, are you going to continue to make me wait?” the brunette said.

“Uh, do I know you?” The woman took two confident strides toward him and put out a hand.

“Sam Bosque, I’m your new agent.”

“You aren’t what I expected.” She was quite pretty, Jessie realized, now that she wasn’t stomping her feet.

“Yeah? I get that a lot in this business, but trust me. I’m going to do a great job for you. That is, if you aren’t late for our appointments. I hate that.”

“The agency said nine, it’s five after. Not a huge gap there.”

“Time’s money, Hoolihan.”

“Well, I guess next time I won’t go the extra mile and shower. You can smell the natural me.”

“Ugh. Great. Okay, let’s go get some coffee and talk business. We’ll talk about your aromas once I get you a body spray deal.”

Sam Bosque was sharp. Jessie hoped that meant she’d get him some big money endorsements.

They walked to a nearby coffee shop, and she laid out a rigorous schedule and how it played into his career.

“Your name recognition needs to be sky-high by the time of the title bout. When you step in that ring to take the belt, the fans have to be on your side. The belt will be the icing. We’ll be baking the cake in the next few weeks.”

“So how do we do that?” He listened intently to this hard-charging agent.

“I’ve got social media handled, your hashtag is HooliClinch.”

“Hooli-what?”

“I’ve got the social media people at 21C on board; they’re increasing your profile. A lot of the guys come up through those reality shows, and you don’t have that.”

“But I have this.” Jessie made a fist and flexed a bicep.

“Exactly right.” Sam laid out a schedule of appearances, events, interviews, and activities. It was going to make Whitey crazy. None of it included training.

“This isn’t going to work.” He was going to try to do what he could to explain this to Whitey, but first, he’d have to make his case.

“Excuse me?” Sam looked up from her coffee, and her brown eyes flew open.

“I have to train, and I have to train a lot.”

“There’s time in there.” Sam slid her calendar in front of Jessie.

“I need six hours a day training and ten hours of sleep a day. Whether I’m traveling or not. This is non-negotiable. I’ll give you the other eight, more or less.”

“More, and everything’s negotiable.” Jessie gave her his badass stare, and the two sat there for an uncomfortable few seconds and then Sam blinked.

“Fine, Hoolihan, I’ll adjust. But keep in mind this is for you. For your bottom line.”

“Well, and your ten percent.”

“True. And I’m going to work my ass off for it and earn it, but you better give me full-on Jessie Hoolihan, I want the funny quips, the winks, the flirting, and that same badass stare I just got. Full tilt when you’re at an event I set up.”

“Full tilt, sweetheart.” Jessie deployed a wink at Sam.

“That’s what I’m talking about, Bruiser. Exactly.” Jessie liked Sam’s hard-driving personality and thought she’d be just what he needed to handle the stuff he had no clue about. Jessie cared about fighting, training, and coaching other fighters. The rest? That was all gravy.

And when it came to gravy he had no idea what he was going to do with Ash for dinner that night.

After his meeting with Sam, he’d done a session of weight lifting and was putting on his “date clothes.” He had about an hour before he had to pick her up and no idea what to do to impress Ash.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Craddock was assessing his wardrobe, clearly.

“What? Not up to your Hollywood standards?” Jessie had chosen flat front pants, a dress shirt, tucked in, with a belt and his nice shoes. He also had a jacket. He knew how to put it together when he had to.

“Not at all, very fancy.” Craddock Flynn could afford the best, so Jessie supposed that was a good endorsement.

“Well, well, Jessie Hoolihan, you got a role in this asshole’s next flick?” Craddock’s number-one rival, Zeke Powell, entered the locker room.

Great, now Zeke Powell was in on giving him shit about his date. Zeke and Craddock were mortal enemies at one point, but they’d mended their fences. More or less. They weren’t best friends, but at least they could be in the same room together without a brawl breaking out.

This was a good development, but new.

“He wishes I was in his next picture. I’m Oscar material,” Jessie said and adjusted his collar in the mirror.

“Oscar Meyer for sure,” Craddock said.

Behind him, both Craddock and Zeke were locked and loaded for something. They’d either go at each other, or him.

Though both fighters were in love with the women of their dreams these days, at one point that was the same woman. And shit was very ugly. Lucky for everyone at the Great Wolves Gym Powell seemed to be over the mess they’d all lived through. Jessie decided he may as well ask them; they both had quality women now, and the clock was ticking until the big date.

“Okay, Flynn here can take his girl to tropical islands and Las Vegas and shit. I don’t have that kind of cash. Or the time. Powell, I need a suggestion for a date night.”

“What? Jessie needs help? Is this woman help we’re talking about?” Zeke and Craddock were enjoying torturing him.

“Yes, he’s falling for that pretty redhead at the flower shop. In my experience, redheads need a firm hand.” Craddock’s woman had dark red hair. Ash’s was light.

“Keep your mind off this particular redhead.” Jessie felt his temper rise. He realized it wasn’t rational, but the idea of any man in this gym, other than him, with Ash made him sweat.

“Redheaded florist? Well, that’s not what I would have predicted for you. I thought you liked bleach blonde ring girls,” Zeke chimed in. Powell had his own hands full these days with his gorgeous new wife and daughter.

“So you’re not psychic, big surprise. This one is different. I’m taking her out in less than an hour. I promised her a real date, and I got nothing.”

“Ah, a real date. I usually book a private jet. You could do that.” Craddock scratched his head. Cocky bastard. It was true, the man had a glamorous life now, and a real, local, Grand City date was clearly not in Craddock Flynn’s wheelhouse.

“I got it. I got it.” Zeke came up and put an arm around his shoulders.

“Don’t get your sweat on my shirt,” Jessie said and separated himself as best he could.

“You take her the places I suggest, and you’ll be perfect. You’ll have her begging for you.” Zeke winked at Craddock and Craddock stifled a laugh.

The two of them teaming up was dangerous.

“I think I liked it better when you two were trying to beat the shit out of each other.”

“That’s because we were ignoring your ass. Now you have our full attention.” Craddock said, and Jessie listened as they laid out their best advice for giving Ash a great night out.

Jessie was coachable, in all things, so he listened well. And by the time he left the GWG he had a plan for showing Ashling that he wanted more than just the moment against the wall of her store.

Though doing that again would also be fan-fucking-tastic as well.