“He’s your uncle, too, and he’s going to love you. Come on. I’ll try to get in touch with Dad on the way.”
********
Kevin and I were both half asleep in the waiting room at the hospital two hours later when Dad finally got there. He’d been in the cage sparring all morning and hadn’t heard his phone. He came as soon as he got the messages. He glanced at Kevin, and then looked at me and said, “Hey, how is he?”
I sat up straight and shrugged. “The doctor was with him when we got here, but so far, they haven’t told us anything at all.” He looked at Kevin again.
“Thank you for coming, son.”
Kevin sat up straight, too. He looked surprised. I didn’t blame him. “Sure, you’re welcome.”
Dad started pacing the room. Other than me, Uncle Lenny was the most important person in Dad’s life. Their mother died giving birth to Lenny when Dad was eight years old. Lenny was premature, and the doctors didn’t expect him to make it.
Dad said that his father tried caring for them until Lenny was about two and Dad was ten, but Lenny required a lot of special care and he just couldn’t do it on his own. They moved in with his mother’s parents, and sometime over the next year, their Dad just quit coming home at all. My dad said he got letters and money from him from time to time, but by the time he was fourteen, that all stopped, too.
He helped his grandma with Lenny as much as he could, so they grew up close in spite of the age difference. Dad always told me that was why he was so intent on giving me a good life after Mom left. Parents aren’t supposed to abandon their children. I looked at Kevin and wondered why he was Dad’s exception.
“Mr. Henderson?” A tall, thin, middle-aged man in green scrubs stepped out of the back. He had dark hair that looked almost too thick for a man his age and a dark tan. He wore gold-rimmed glasses perched on the end of his nose and a black stethoscope around his neck.
“Yes, I’m Charlie Henderson. Lenny is my brother.”
“Mr. Henderson had a pulmonary embolism. That’s what stopped his breathing. The lack of oxygen caused him to go into cardiac arrest.”
“Is he going to be okay?”
“He’s stable for now, but he hasn’t woken up yet. The nurse that was with him thought he was taking a nap, and she has no real idea how long he was without oxygen before she realized that he wasn’t breathing. We won’t be able to really tell any more until he wakes up.”
“So this doesn’t have anything to do with the cancer?”
“No, it actually does. People with cancer are at high risk for blood clots. This particular one is called a deep vein thrombosis, and it can often be deadly. The chemotherapy he’s been receiving can also increase his risk. Did his oncologist talk to you about any of this, or tell you what the signs and symptoms of a DVT are?”
Dad looked at me. I was standing next to him. “I’m Karli Henderson, doctor. I’m Lenny’s niece. To be honest, his nurses are the ones that take him back and forth to all of his doctor’s appointments. We’ve just been assuming they were telling us everything. I guess that wasn’t a good idea.”
“I’m sure you both have lives outside of being care providers,” he said, probably just to be nice. I didn’t know about Dad, but I was feeling as guilty as hell for not being there more. “You’re welcome to go back and see him now, one at a time. He’s breathing on his own and his ECG shows normal brain activity, so right now, we’re optimistic. Hopefully, he will wake up soon.”
I opened my mouth. I was going to say something, or ask a question, but it stuck in my throat. Nick was standing in the doorway holding a flat box filled with take-out containers. His blue eyes were on my face like he was trying to read it. My mouth was completely dry, and I couldn’t speak. Thank God for Kevin once again, because he took the lead.
“Hey, Nick, is that food for us?”
Nick smiled at him and held out the box. Kevin went over and took it, but before he walked away, he and Nick exchanged a half-assed bro hug. I looked at Dad. He didn’t seem surprised that Nick was there. “I’m going to go back and see him, if no one minds me going first?”
“No, go ahead,” I told him.
“Yeah,” Kevin said. “I think I’ll wait until he wakes up before I see him. At least then I can introduce myself.” Dad walked over toward the door, and Nick’s hand came out and patted him on the back. Dad gave him a little smile. What the hell is going on? “I’m going to take a little walk before I eat,” Kevin said as he sat the food down on the round table in the corner. “Maybe get a soda. Does anyone else need anything?”
Nick and I both said no. Dad had already gone to the back to see Uncle Lenny. Suddenly, I was alone in the room with Nick, and he was sucking out all of the oxygen out of it. “What are you doing here?”
“Your dad needed a ride. I dropped him off and went to pick up lunch. He hasn’t eaten all day.”
“Oh, well, that was nice of you.”
“Let’s sit down.” He reached out for my hand, and I almost automatically gave it to him. I decided against touching him at the moment and just slipped ahead of him instead. We went and sat down near where Kevin had sat the box full of food. “Is your uncle going to be okay?”
“The doctor is optimistic,” I said.
“That’s good.”
“Yeah.”
We sat there in silence for several long minutes. Nick stared at the television on the wall. The news was on, but the sound was muted. I stared at a poster about getting checked for STDs. It was awkward, to say the least. I had no idea what to say to him. Finally, he broke the silence. “I missed you, Karli.”
I tore my eyes from the poster and looked at him. God, why does he have to be so perfect? I didn’t know what to say. Should I admit that I missed him, too, or did that just make me look like one of his pathetic groupies?
“Dad really asked you to bring him here?” was what I settled on.
He smiled and that only made my speech problems worse. “He didn’t ask me; I volunteered.”
“Hmm.”
“Hmm because I volunteered or because Charlie accepted?”
“Both.”
“I volunteered because he was obviously upset and I didn’t think he needed to be driving across town. He accepted because he knew I was right. On the way over here, he asked me what was going on between you and me. I was surprised he didn’t already know.”
“He and I haven’t done much talking lately. I’m still so angry with him about Kevin that things have been kind of awkward between us.” I cringed as I asked him, “What did you tell him?”
“I told him how I feel, and I told him he’d have to ask you if he wanted to know your thoughts. I wasn’t going to pretend to know how you feel.”
I was afraid to ask the next question, but too curious not to. “How do you feel?”
He reached down to run his fingers lightly through my hair as he tucked it behind my ear. I shivered and didn’t try to hide it.
“I miss you. I feel like an idiot for letting you walk out the door. No, for pushing you out that door. I’m sorry that I handled that so badly. I panicked, Karli. I saw that note from Kevin, and I heard you on the phone with your dad, and I thought about comforting you and worrying about him, and suddenly, I felt like I was drowning. This past week I have wanted to call you about a hundred times, but I didn’t because I wanted to be sure – absolutely sure of how I felt before I talked to you.”
“And, you’re sure now of how you feel?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. I’m positive. I had you in my life for just a little while and those few weeks were the happiest of my life. I hadn’t ever felt that way before, so I was afraid of it. Change is not easy for me. But I think you’re worth it, Karli. I think we’re worth it. I want you in my life, and I want us to take this one day at a time to see where it goes without either of us letting preconceived ideas in our heads get in the way of that.”
I felt tears stinging the corners of my eyes. My hand was shaking as I lifted it up and rested it on the side of his face. “That’s what I want, too, Nick.”
He smiled and ran his lips across mine softly. “I won’t hurt you again, Karli,” he whispered.
I smiled, too. “I don’t think it’s possible for two people to have a relationship without hurting each other. But it takes a big person to say they’re sorry, and I forgive you. I’m sorry, too. I should have stayed and talked this out instead of walking out that door. Can I ask you what my dad said when you told him how you felt?”
“Well, he listened while I talked and didn’t say anything snide or sarcastic, which was nice and unexpected. When I finished telling him pretty much what I just told you, he calmly looked over at me and said, ‘If you hurt her, I will fucking kill you with my bare hands.’”
I couldn’t help it, I laughed. “Oh, you think that’s funny do you?” he asked with a smirk on his handsome face.
“A little bit, yeah.”
“You know, I’m not even a little bit worried about it.” I raised an eyebrow and he smiled. “Don’t look all cocky over there. I’m well aware that Charlie can kick my ass. What I meant was, I don’t plan on ever hurting you, so he won’t need to.”
I used my grip on the front of his shirt and pulled him down into my lips. No matter how many times I kissed him, it was always like the first time. Skyrockets had nothing on the explosions in my head and the vibrations that rocked my body.
I’m falling in love with him, but I know it’s too soon to tell for sure. I was willing to take a wait and see approach as long as it involved lots of kisses and lots of touching and…
Dad cleared his throat, again. Shit. I never knew what an astute cock-blocker my own father could be.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
NICK
I got some stern looks from Charlie while Karli was back visiting her uncle, but no lectures and no threats. We were making progress. After Karli came out, Kevin reluctantly went in. Half an hour later, he came out smiling from ear to ear – Lenny had woken up. After Karli saw him once more, she and I left. She tried to talk Kevin into going with us, but he wouldn’t leave, so she asked me to take her home and left him her car.
I was completely okay with that. I’d missed her like crazy over the past week. I was dying for some time alone with her.
“Kevin says he’s going to have this out with Dad tonight once and for all.”
“The kid has a brass set, I’ll give him that.”
She laughed and reached across the seat for my right hand. Holding her soft one only made me want more. I drove way too fast, especially after she said,
“Maybe I could stay with you tonight and give them some space?”
“Hell, yeah!”
As soon as we got to my house, I closed the door behind her and pushed her up against the wall. Our kiss was slow and sweet at first, but it quickly escalated until we were clinging to each other like our bodies couldn’t get close enough.
I finally picked her up and carried her into the living room. I wanted her in the bedroom but at the moment, it just seemed too fucking far away. I stopped in the living room and sat down on the couch, pulling her down onto my lap. She sat sideways on top of my raging hard-on and we made out like two horny teenagers. My hands were everywhere that I could touch her, underneath her shirt, against her warm, soft skin. She smelled and felt so fucking good I thought I might just blow in my pants.
We kissed like that until we were forced to pull back and take a breath. We locked eyes as we both gasped and panted, and I could see the excitement, the burning intensity, and lust in hers.
She looked at me like that for a long time before I felt those soft, sexy hands travel down my chest and to grab onto the bulge in my pants. I groaned, which only encouraged her. She ran her hands up and down the length of me, and with a sexy smile, she dropped to her knees on the carpet and her hands went to the waistband of my jeans.
I sucked in another hard breath as she unbuttoned and unzipped them, and then she teased me again by cupping my balls through my underwear. I moaned and cursed as she smiled up at me with that simmering, sexy look just before she reached into the front of my shorts and pulled me out. She held my erection in her hand and looked at it like she was committing it to memory.
I felt it throb against her palm. She began stroking me slowly from base to tip. My breath caught in my chest, and I held it for a long time as I watched her. She was so fucking sexy.
She parted her lips, and I could see a pool of saliva in the center of her tongue. She let it slide off of her tongue and onto the head of my cock, and then she used her tongue to coat the entire head with it. She had her eyes half closed, and she looked like she was savoring the taste of me as she licked the length of me, running her tongue across my balls before she made her way back up to the tip.
Then she took a deep breath, exhaled, and sucked my cock as far into her mouth as she could get it. I could feel it touching the back of her throat. I moved her hair so I could watch her. I was so fucking tempted to just come in her mouth, but the urge to be inside of her was stronger.
I held back, letting her continue licking and sucking until, suddenly, she slid her right hand down between her legs and underneath the waistband of her pants. The look of ecstasy she already had on her pretty face became even more lustful as she rubbed her clit and sucked me hard and fast, bobbing her head up and down and moaning around its girth.
“God, Karli, I can’t take anymore, baby!” I pulled her off my cock and stood her up in front of me. I unbuttoned her pants and pushed them down to her knees, along with the little, lace panties she was wearing, and then I dove into that pussy.
I loved the way she smelled and tasted. I loved the way she moved her hips and moaned when I hit the right places. I loved the way she wrapped her fingers up in my hair to pull it, using it to move my face where she wanted it. I licked and sucked and nibbled until she was shaking so hard, I was afraid she would collapse.
I reached for her right hand and moved it so that her fingers were pressing into her clit, and while she rubbed herself, I reached up and pulled her face down to mine. She started licking my face and my lips and sucking on them. The taste of herself on me seemed to fuel her lust, and she rubbed herself harder and faster.
I reached up to slip a finger into her pussy. She was dripping wet, and I moved my fingers in and out of her while she masturbated her clit. Suddenly, her left hand was in my hair and she was pulling on it, hard. Her hard body began to tense and the smooth walls of her pussy clamped down tight around my fingers as she cried out. So fucking sexy.
I worked her through her orgasm and then I stood up and finished stripping off the rest of her clothes so that I could get a taste of those hard, delicious nipples. When I finished teasing and tantalizing her nipples, I stripped off the rest of my clothes and said,
“Turn around.”
She turned and rested her hands on the back of the couch. I pressed on her lower back and she instinctively lifted her sexy ass. I gripped her cheeks and massaged them before I ran one hand between her legs and coated it with her juices. I brought it up to my face to breathe her in, and then I gripped my cock with my wet hand and pushed it against her opening. I wanted to slide it into her like this so badly…skin to skin…but we hadn’t discussed birth control and I knew I wasn’t ready for a baby.
I said, “Hold on,” and got a condom out of my wallet and put it on. I got back into position and when she felt me press into her again, she moaned loudly and pressed back into me. I let my cock slide in about halfway, feeling her soft but tight muscles stretch to accommodate me a little at a time.
I leaned down to take one of her luscious tits in my hand and pressed my lips into her ear. I whispered to her about how sexy she was and how good she felt as I pushed into her deeper. The words, the feel of my breath against her ear, or the rough groping of her breast produced another rush of her hot fluids all over my cock and the feel of it sent me over the edge.
I couldn’t go slowly any longer. I grabbed her hips with both hands and I fucked her until she screamed. She was still whimpering and shaking when I reached my peak. So fucking good. So fucking hot.
********
“How many women have you had sex with?” The sound of Karli’s sexy, sleepy voice startled me. We were lying in bed, tangled up in each other’s limbs. We’d made love again once we made it to the bedroom, and I’d thought that she’d passed out.
“What?” I hoped that I heard the question wrong. She wiggled around and turned over onto her back so that she could look at my face.
“In the interest of getting to know each other better, I was just curious, how many women have you slept with?”
I chuckled nervously. I wondered if the question was less about how many I’d been with and more about whether I’d be honest about it or not. I tried doing calculations in my head, but the numbers were too large. “Two or three a week, on average, for about six years…”
She propped herself up on her elbow. “Seriously? That’s like…almost… Jesus, Nick, really?”
“On average…” Fuck. She was looking at me like I was a slut. “But now you get to reap all the rewards of that practice.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “Nice way to take the heat off of you and refocus on me.”
“Is that what I was doing?” I ran my fingers down her arm and felt the goosebumps follow.
She shivered and said, “You knew exactly what you were doing and you know exactly what those fingers do to me.”
“So…” I raked them up the opposite way. “How many for you, beautiful?”
It was her turn for a nervous laugh. “Nowhere near eight hundred.”
“Eight hundred?”
“Yeah, I just did the math. Well, not quite eight hundred, 780 to be exact.”
“Wow.”
She poked me in the ribs. “Don’t sound so proud of yourself, you…” She stopped there.
“Slut?”
She giggled. “No, I wasn’t going to be so harsh. Man-whore maybe.”
I chuckled. “I think you might be the one deflecting now. How many, babe?”
“Three.”
I nearly choked. “Three? Including me?”
“Yes, including you.”
“Wow…really?”
“Yes, really. Did you think I seemed like the one-night-stand type or what?”
I pulled her against me tighter and kissed the side of her face. “Nope, not at all. It’s just hard to believe.”
“Why?”
“Seriously, babe? Have you seen you?”
She snuggled deeper into me. I was irrationally happy that she’d only been with two other men besides me. I had no right to be considering the near thousand women I’d been with…but regardless, I was. I hated thinking about anyone else touching her. Mostly, I hated the thought of anyone else being intimate with her. I could get used to sleeping with one woman – this woman to be exact.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
KARLI
Halloween came and went and we were barreling toward Thanksgiving at a break-neck speed. I usually liked Thanksgiving.
Dad and I always cooked a huge dinner and invited all the guys from the gym and their wives and girlfriends or temporary dates, whatever the case might be. Michaela would come and bring whomever she was with at the time. Last year, it was Trent. Thank God that asshole was out of her life. She and Ethan were getting closer by the day, and I’d never seen her so happy. She’d even begun teasing me about us becoming sisters-in-law someday.
But I was digressing, letting myself revel in the memories of cooking turkey with Dad trying to peel and eat the skin and peeling potatoes by the dozens. Instead, I should have been focusing on what I was going to wear to Gregory Grant’s huge, fucking mansion when I sat down to Thanksgiving dinner with my boyfriend, his dad, and his brother. I was a nervous wreck about it, but I couldn’t very well tell Nick no.
The craziest part was that he’d asked me at the gym right in front of Dad and instead of telling me or Nick he couldn’t stand the thought of having Thanksgiving without me, he had said,
“That sounds nice, Karli; you should go.”
“But what about our dinner, Dad?”
“I was thinking about taking a step back from all of that this year, anyways.” That was the point where Nick excused himself and left us alone to talk.
“Really?” I pulled my eyebrows together. “You love our Thanksgiving dinners.”
“I do, baby girl, but maybe this year we’ll do a Christmas dinner, instead. See, the thing is…Kevin asked me to fly out to Philadelphia with him.”
Dad and Kevin had had a heart to heart the night Uncle Lenny was in the hospital. I don’t know what all was said, but the next time I saw them was when I got home from Nick’s the next day. They were watching football in our living room and Kevin had moved back in. The next thing I knew Kevin, was looking after Uncle Lenny during the day and Dad was calling him son more often.
“So, are you going as a family friend?”
He reached for my hand and said, “I know you lost a lot of respect for me over all of this. I’m not making excuses because there really is none. But I will tell you what I told Kevin. Linda and I did something horrible. We were attracted to each other and we acted on it.
“At the time, we rationalized it. Linda and Frank weren’t getting along. Frank was losing a lot of fights and always in a bad mood. Linda wanted to have a baby, but Frank wasn’t doing his part. I told myself that as long as Frank never found out, we weren’t hurting anyone. It was a lie so that I could do what I wanted to do without the guilt I should be feeling.
“Three months after that first time we were together, Linda called and told me she was pregnant and not only did she know it was my baby…but Frank did, too.”
“Oh my God. All this time, Frank has known?”
“Yeah. I left you with the neighbors and flew from Minnesota to Philly. The first thing Frank did when he saw me was punch me in the face. I didn’t hit back. I let him punch me several more times until he was finished and then the three of us sat down and talked.
“I wanted my son, and I was sure that’s what Frank would want. I had thought about it on the flight, and I expected him to want a divorce and to never want to see me again, or the baby. As it turned out, that was far from what he wanted. He wanted Linda as long as she promised to never cheat again, and he wanted the baby.
“He had a secret of his own. He was sterile, and he’d known about it for years. I said no at first, but Karli, I was in my mid-twenties with a four-year-old daughter to think about. I’d betrayed my best friend and this was what he wanted in return for that betrayal. I felt like shit every day of the past nineteen years, but I knew my son was being well taken care of. I knew he was safe and happy, and I knew I’d given my best friend the most precious gift in the world.”
“Why didn’t you tell Kevin this when he first started asking?”
“Because I promised his parents that I would never tell anyone. I talked to them finally and told them how badly this was tearing him up and then I told him.”
“Wow.”
“That a good wow or a bad one? I mean…can you forgive your old man?”
“I don’t have anything to forgive you for, Dad. All you ever did was take care of me. It seems like Kevin has forgiven you, though, so that’s good.”
He nodded. “Yeah, he’s a good kid. Frank and Linda did a great job with him.”
“I do have one other question, Dad.”
“What’s that, honey?”
“What about what Kevin saw that day when he was eleven? You said you promised Frank it would never happen again.”
He sighed. “They wanted another baby. That trip was about trying to make one.”
I almost fell out of my chair when he said that. “Are you serious? Frank wanted you to…I’m sorry, but that’s just…wow.”
“That was the last time we tried. It was too weird for all of us. That’s why we didn’t go back to Philly, too. It was awkward, to say the least.”
“But it was Frank’s idea to send Kevin out here for you to train?”
“Yeah, I told you he’s a good father. He would sacrifice anything, even his own dignity, for his son.”
I had thought about that a lot over the next few days and came to the conclusion that both of our parents had made a decision years ago, and no amount of anger, embarrassment, or regret by any of us was going to change that. Kevin had two good men who loved him, he had his mother, and he and I both had a sibling now.
Maybe being so happy with Nick had given me a new outlook on life, but I was enjoying my happiness and I wasn’t going to rummage around in the past in the hopes of finding something to screw it up.
Besides, the idea of sitting down to dinner with Nick’s family was enough stress to deal with at one time.
********
My biggest fear about Thanksgiving with Nick’s family was that his father would actually remember me from the masquerade ball. That fear was realized almost as soon as the maid led us into the dining room.
Ethan was there and he’d brought Michaela, who was more subdued than I’d ever seen her. Nick had taken his time getting ready, and we were almost an hour late, which was probably what the dark atmosphere was all about to begin with, but once Nick’s father laid eyes on me, the darkness shifted. It was in his eyes, and he was projecting it in my direction.
“Nicholas, if you’re going to continue to be late for every event this family is involved with, perhaps I should stop extending the invitation in the first place.”
Nick pulled out a chair for me and I sat down. He turned the chair next to me around and straddled it. I cringed. “Perhaps you should,” was his reply to his father. Then he looked at Michaela and Ethan and said, “Hey, you two, Happy Thanksgiving.”
Michaela smiled at him, but gave me a look I recognized as, “Get me the hell out of here.” “Happy Thanksgiving, Nick, Karli.”
“Karli?” His father said before I had a chance to say anything. “That’s an unusual name. I was just wondering why my son was so rude not to introduce you, but I realize it’s because we’ve already met. You were my other son’s date for the masquerade ball, right?”
I forced a smile through the nausea I was feeling. “Yes, sir, we did meet that night. Thank you for letting me join in on your holiday dinner—”
“Letting you? Seriously? I don’t recall inviting you to either event.”
“Dad—”
Nick tried to interrupt, but his father had something to say and he was going to say it, “Somehow, in spite of that, you’ve managed to finagle an invitation from not one, but both of my sons.”
“Dad, don’t,” Nick said in a low voice and threatening tone.
“Don’t what, Nicholas? I was simply going to point out the obvious, which is this young lady seems determined to have one or the other of you. I have to say that with all the women available to two young, wealthy men, that it’s confusing why you would each want the same woman.”
“That’s enough!” Ethan said. Nick looked at his brother, shocked. I guess it was safe to assume Ethan didn’t fight back often. “Leave her alone. You were already cold and practically rude to Michaela and now you want to pick on Karli. What is wrong with you?”
Ethan’s father looked as shocked by his outburst as Nick was. He cleared his throat and said, “I see that hanging around gold-digging trash has made you both forget your manners.” Nick was on his feet before his father finished talking. I reached for his arm, but he shook me off.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” he said to his father.
Gregory Grant very calmly put his napkin down on his plate and stood up. He took the time to adjust his suit jacket before saying,
“You know who I am. I’m the man that gave you everything. I could have sent you to Italy to live with your grandparents when your mother died, but instead, I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the best schools—”
“No, Dad, instead of letting us live with people that would have actually loved and cared for us, you sent us away to a school full of strangers and you made us beg to come home even for fucking Christmas. You separated us so that we hardly knew each other and you kept us away from our grandparents. Now they’re both dead, so we’ll never know them, and that’s all your fucking fault.
“So, you do not get to say anything about who I choose to be with. But since you brought the subject up, I will tell you this: Karli and Michaela have more class in the tips of their little fingers than you have in your entire body.
“Karli knows what it means to be a part of a family that loves each other and takes care of each other. She and her father serve Thanksgiving dinner every year to the young fighters far away from their home and family. They open up their home and hearts to these people and don’t ask for anything in return.
“Today, she gave up her warm, comfortable Thanksgiving to come to this fucking cold mausoleum with me, and I’m sure Michaela had a lot of other options as well, but they both chose us. Neither of them chose us because we belong to this fucked up family. Neither of them chose us because you’re fucking rich. They chose us because they care about us, and in spite of everything you’ve ever tried to teach us about money being the most important thing in the world, we’re finally seeing things from a different perspective.
“So thanks, Dad, you’ve finally snapped whatever piece of invisible string that still tied me to you and this fucking family.” He reached out for my hand, and I took it and stood up.
“You can kiss that house and anything else I’ve ever bought you goodbye if you walk out of here, Nicholas. I’ll take back that big house you live in and anything else you’ve acquired in my name or with my money.”
“Save it, Dad. I don’t give a fuck about any of that. All I ever wanted from you was the one thing you refused to give me: a father I could look up to. A parent that would love me and teach me how to be a man. As it is, I’m having to figure that shit out myself, and it’s not easy.
“But I’m doing it, and guess what? You can strip every material thing I own away from me, and I’ll still be okay. You know why? Because the one thing I have figured out about being a man is that it has nothing to do with money or things, but everything to do with how you treat people and who you love and who loves you in return. So fuck you and your trust fund, Dad.”
Nick’s dad was still saying something as we walked away, but Nick didn’t stop. He was almost pulling me as we walked through the expansive living room and down the hallway to the front door. We were outside, and he was about to close the door behind us when we heard Ethan say,
“We’ve got that.” I looked and saw him and Michaela following us. He was gripping her hand tightly. As soon as we were all outside, he looked at Nick and said, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For all of the years I sat back and let you deal with him. I’ve always enjoyed listening to you put him in his place, but I never had the balls to back you up. I’m sorry I put that on you.” He looked at me then and said, “And, Karli, I’m sorry for what he said to you. I hope you know that it’s his black heart talking and no reflection on how the rest of us feel about you.” Michaela was still quiet, which was surprising.
“You two don’t have to be sorry. I’m okay. What he thinks of me doesn’t matter. I’m sorry that the two of you have to put up with that.” I reached up and put my arms around Nick and hugged him tightly. “Thank you for sticking up for us.”
He kissed the top of my head. “Always,” he said. “And as far as putting up with him, I’m done. I’ll sell the house and my truck and tap out my savings and give him back every penny he’s ever given me. I don’t want it.”
“Me, too,” Ethan said. That was when Michaela finally broke her silence and reminded my why she was my BFF.
“Give it all away, you’re both still hot as fuck,” she said. “Now, who’s hungry?”
Nick and Ethan both smiled as I turned and hugged my friend. When I let her go, I said, “I’m starving.”
“You know, I was in the market the other day and saw that they do full Thanksgiving dinners. Maybe we could pick up one of those if they still have any and go back to my house,” Nick said. “Or, you know, the house that I’m putting on the market come Monday morning. We can pick up Lenny, if you want.”
Since Dad and Kevin were out of town I’d told Uncle Lenny that I’d bring him dinner this afternoon. I’d felt guilty about him being alone with his nurses. I had tears in my eyes as I told Nick, “He would love that.”
“Good.” He opened his wallet and pulled out several hundred dollar bills. He saw Michaela and I both looking at him and he smiled and said, “I earned this money by letting sponsors take pictures of my pretty face.” Michaela and I laughed. Ethan rolled his eyes. “Ethan, will you and Michaela go by the market and get the food ordered? Order as much as this money will buy, the works, pies, and everything, okay?”
“Absolutely,” Ethan said, taking the money out of Nick’s hand.
“Karli and I have to make one more stop on our way home. Come on, babe, let’s blow this shack.”
Nick helped me in the truck and once he got in his side, I scooted over next to him. He drove with one hand on the wheel and the other across my shoulders. He surprised me by getting off the highway and stopping at the gym.
“You’re not going to work-out today, are you?”
He smiled. “Nope, but even though Charlie ordered a dinner for the guys that usually spend Thanksgiving with you and him to be delivered here, I thought they might feel more like Thanksgiving eating it at the house with us. I hope you don’t mind?”
“You just keep surprising me, Nicholas Storelli.”
“Just you wait, Karli Henderson. You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
NICK
“You think it will fit in my living room?” Karli and I were standing in the center of The Winter Wonderland, looking up at the fifty-foot Christmas tree.
Winter Wonderland was a huge venue set up every year across from The Container Park in downtown Vegas. I loved the way it smelled underneath the ginormous tent. It was a combination of pine, cinnamon, apple cider, and hot chocolate.
Christmas never used to mean that much to me. I had either spent it at school with the rest of the rejects whose rich parents couldn’t be bothered or I went home and spent it with my father, the original Grinch.
This year, I was having a blast. Karli, Michaela, Ethan, and I went shopping at four a.m. on Black Friday, the morning after the best Thanksgiving I’d ever had. Then the following Friday night, I took Karli to see the Nutcracker. I’d never seen it and I wasn’t looking forward to the ballet, but I have to admit that I liked it. Tonight would be my last big activity before my fight next Friday night.
Charlie and I agreed that for the duration of the week, I’d stick to light strength training and endurance, eat right, sleep a lot, and no alcohol. Charlie tried to throw in no sex, but I’m just guessing that’s because my main squeeze happens to be his daughter. I chose to ignore that one. What Charlie didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.
“I don’t think so,” Karli said with a laugh. “But there’s a whole lot out back with normal-sized trees.”
“Normal sized? We’ve been going out for over a month now. Haven’t you noticed that there’s nothing ‘normal sized’ about me?”
She patted my arm. “So arrogant,” she said.
“Yes, but you love it, right?”
Putting her hand in mine and lacing our fingers together, she said, “I actually do. I love everything about you. Oh! Let’s get our face painted.”
I laughed. “Um, no…I don’t think so.”
“Fine,” she said. “Bounce house?”
“Not unless you want to watch it collapse.”
She sighed. “Fine, let’s go find Michaela and Ethan and see if they want to do some shopping.”
“Shopping I can get on board with. I still need to finish my Christmas shopping.” Hand in hand, we walked toward where the craft kiosks were. I saw Karli eyeing the ice skating rink, so I tried to pull her a little faster so she wouldn’t get any ideas, but to no avail.
“Let’s go ice skating!”
“Um…no.”
She laughed. “Why not? Come on; you said no about face painting and the bounce house.”
“I did say yes about shopping. Shopping is nice and safe, and you get to keep your tennis shoes on.”
“Aw, is my big, bad fighter afraid to put on a pair of skates?”
“Skates? The kind with four wheels, no. The kind with a blade the size of my pocket knife that’s supposed to support my nearly three hundred pounds on a slippery, cold, wet surface? Yes. Yes, I am.”
She laughed again and then she turned on the cuteness. “Please,” she said, actually batting her eyes. You’ve got to be kidding me. She reached up and put her hands behind my neck and pressed her sexy body into me. “I don’t ask for much, do I? I want to hold your hand and skate around the Christmas tree…pretty please.”
Three hundred pounds of muscle was no match for a hundred and twenty-five pounds of feminine hotness. Damn. “Okay, but if I break an ankle or a leg before my big fight, you’re telling Charlie.”
“Oh…you’re right, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have even asked. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
I felt bad. She was right. She never asked for anything. “Hey.” I tipped her face up to mine. “I was kidding, babe. I’m an athletic wizard. I’ll ace this shit in no time.”
“You’ve never done it before?”
“Nope, but I’m sure it’s not as hard as it looks.”
She smiled. “Actually, it is. But if you really want to try it, I’ll hold your hand.”
I grinned down at her. “How could I refuse that offer? Come on, let’s do this.”
It was as hard as it looked. Thank goodness I was used to large fists pounding every part of my body or falling six times on solid ice might have hurt. When Karli was finally satisfied that I’d taken enough abuse, we did some Christmas shopping with Ethan and Michaela and finally agreed on a Christmas tree we both thought would fit in my living room.
When we got back to the house, Karli made cookies and hot chocolate while I dragged the tree in and set it up. When that was finally done, I collapsed down on the couch to rest my poor, tired body that felt like it just went three rounds with the world champion.
“Hey,” Karli sat down next to me and handed me a mug of hot chocolate. She’d just sat a warm plate of homemade cookies on the table down in front of me.
“Hey.” I took a sip of the chocolate and was left with a mustache of whipped cream. I started to lick it off, but she said,
“Wait! Let me.” She leaned in and used her tongue to clean off my lips and face. It was hot and I felt it in every part of my body.
“Mm, thanks. And, thank you for today. You know, I’ve never done all of this.”
“All of what?”
I waved my arm at the tree and the bags of decorations we’d bought. “All of this Christmas stuff. If I got to go home for Christmas, there would be a tree and presents that the staff set up and bought. The house was always decorated to a T and Christmas music played constantly.
“But it was all for show. Ethan and I never got to be a part of it. These past few years, living on my own, I considered doing this,” I said, waving my arm again. “But it just never seemed right…or worth it, by myself. Today was amazing – you’re amazing. Thank you.”
She sat her cup down and picked up my arm and snuggled into me. “Thank you for letting me be a part of your first time.”
“You popped my Christmas cherry,” I said with a laugh. She poked me in the ribs and said,
“How is it you can make anything dirty?”
“It’s a gift.” I pulled her in tighter, and we sat there like that for a long time. Karli was the one that finally broke the silence by asking,
“Are you nervous? About the fight?”
The biggest fight of my career was just over a week away. Physically, I was ready. Mentally, I was at a better place than I’d ever been in my life. But psychologically, there was still a part of me that refused to believe I deserved all of this. Part of me expected it to all come crashing down in front of the 17,000 people in the arena and the millions watching from home, and then what would I do? I’d lose my endorsements and I’d have to get a real job – but doing what?
“I guess I’m always a little bit nervous before every fight.”
She looked up at me and smiled. “A little bit?”
I smiled back at her and kissed her forehead. “Okay, maybe more than a little. I shouldn’t be. I know I’ve got this. I’m in better shape than I’ve ever been in and I’ve studied Chavez’s YouTube videos until I couldn’t see straight.”
“So, nothing to be nervous about,” she said. I could tell by the way she said it that she was trying to coax me into a conversation. It was another thing I was having a hard time getting used to: talking about my feelings. That was brand new, like so many other things in my life lately.
“Okay, I’ll admit that I am a little bit more nervous about this one. I just keep thinking if I lose this, what am I going to do?”
She pulled out of my arms and sat up. “First of all, from what I’ve seen and what Dad says, you are not going to lose. But if you do by some crazy fluke, babe, you have a whole world of opportunity. You can go to school-”
“For what?”
She laughed. “I don’t know. You would have to figure that out. What do you like to do?”
“Fight and fuck.”
She hit me in the shoulder. “Stop it, I’m serious.”
“Me, too. It’s what I’m good at.”
“You think so?”
“You don’t?” I shot her a look.
She laughed again. “Yes, I have to admit that you’re the best I’ve ever known at both. You could always train.”
“Fighters or fuckers?”
“Stop it!” she was laughing. When she stopped, I said,
“I’m not sure I have the patience to be a trainer. They might all hate me.”
“Do you like my father?”
I cleared my throat. “Um…”
“It’s okay. I know Dad is an acquired taste, and I know you have respect for him. But my point is that you don’t have to like him to learn from him, right?”
“Your dad is the best trainer I ever had and worth every penny of money I pay him. And yes, I do respect him. I guess you’re right…”
“You don’t like my dad!” She said it so seriously that I hesitated for a second until her face broke out in a smile.
I grabbed her and started tickling her. We took that to the next step and suddenly the Christmas tree and the fight were forgotten. I was falling in love with her, but I hadn’t been able to work up the nerve to tell her yet. It was just one more brand-new thing.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
KARLI
It was finally Nick’s big night and I was a complete wreck, as if I would be the one in the cage with Chavez. The fight was sold out, and the crowd was a force to be reckoned with. They were more amped up individually than any fighter I’d ever seen. Collectively, they were a little scary.
Ethan, Michaela, and I took our seats in the front row to wait for it to start. I’d left Nick at the door of the locker room a little over an hour ago. I kissed him and wished him luck and for a few minutes, he held onto me like I was his lifeline. I wanted to hold onto him, too, to keep him safe.
For the first time in my life, I was scared to death of what the outcome of a fight would be. I wondered how he would handle it if he lost. I was finding out as I spent more and more time with him that his cocky exterior didn’t penetrate all the way through his bones. He knew he was good-looking and he knew he was a good fighter, but he’d kind of boxed himself into thinking that was all he was.
I knew he was also smart enough to go back to school and become anything he wanted to be. He was willing to work hard enough that he could make a living doing whatever he decided to do, but I was sure that he thought if he lost this fight, he’d be seen as a failure by everyone.
That couldn’t be further from the truth where I was concerned. I was crazy about everything about him and one fight wouldn’t change my opinion of him at all. I watched him every day as he revealed just a little more of his heart to me, and I was beginning to have a hard time imagining life without him.
He’d taken Kevin under his wing and between Dad’s training and the patience that Nick didn’t think he had, Kevin’s performance in the cage improved phenomenally in only a few months’ time. He didn’t take any credit for that, though; he just said that Kevin always had it in him and just needed someone to help him bring it to the surface.
The question I had predominantly in my mind tonight was how could I convince Nick that, win or lose, he would go on to someday do even bigger and better things? Michaela kept telling me to just keep loving him, and eventually, he’ll see what I see.
The funny thing was that I hadn’t even been able to tell him that I did love him yet. As happy as we’d been the past few months, there was still that nagging little fear in the back of my mind. I trusted Nick, but in spite of that and falling in love with him, I was still holding onto some of the PTSD from my past relationships.
The other reason I had been holding back on telling him was that I was a little bit afraid still of scaring him away. I stay at his house a lot. We do almost everything together. He’s gone from being a player and a party animal to a guy that cuddles on the couch with me and watches movies on Friday night in a very short time. He seemed comfortable with it, but I worried – maybe irrationally – that telling him how I feel aloud was going to make him realize just how fast things changed, and that maybe he missed his old life, but he’d been so caught up in this one he hadn’t noticed yet.
It was all terrifying, but for tonight, I resolved to put it all away in a box and focus on nothing but the big, sexy, incredibly hot fighter about to dance down the aisle and climb in that cage and kick some ass.
“This place is insane; these people are crazy!” Michaela yelled to me although I was sitting right next to her. The place was packed and the tempo was loud. Television cameras were everywhere and people were holding up the signs they’d made for their favorite fighter, trying to get their fifteen seconds of fame.
“Yeah, and funny how many women are here,” I said with a roll of my eyes and a smile.
She smiled, too. “Don’t worry, honey, they only get to look. You get to touch.”
Ethan was the one that rolled his eyes now, and when I said, “Mm, I’m looking forward to some heavy touching with the heavy-weight champ tonight,” she laughed.
“Do you two mind? This is my brother you’re talking about.”
“Aw, sorry, baby,” Michaela told him. Then she turned back to me and said, “I think Tricky Nicky is rubbing off on you. I’ve never heard you admit to being horny so easily.” Ethan groaned and I laughed.
“I didn’t say anything about being horny.”
“I saw it in your eyes,” she said with a wink. She reached for Ethan’s hand, and he shook his head, but gave it to her. She smiled sweetly at him and then leaned in close to my ear and said, “I’m kind of horny myself; can you see it in my eyes?”
I laughed. “I never have to worry about searching your eyes for anything. I’m sure that you’ll tell me whatever is on your mind.” Michaela giggled just as I realized there was a shadow blocking out the bright lights that shone down on me only moments before. I looked up and saw Kevin. Sweet, little, blue-haired Elaine was standing behind him, clutching onto his shirt like a child that might get lost if left alone. I keep meaning to ask what brought her to that fight where they met in the first place. Even when Kevin is not the one in the cage, she doesn’t seem to be comfortable with any of it.
“Hi, guys!” I had to yell again. The lights had begun to dim so the roar of the crowd was becoming even louder.
“Hey!” Kevin’s face was beaming. “It looks like our boy is the fan favorite, judging from all the signs and people dressed in dark green.” I had noticed that, especially all the woman in skimpy tank tops and micro-minis with the “Tricky Nicky” logos on them.
I pushed those thoughts away again and smiled back up at Kevin. “Well, he’s going to win, so it makes sense.” Kevin and Eileen sat on the other side of Ethan. There was one other empty seat in the row. The seats all belonged to Nick. The venue had given him the front row on the right for his family, and Chavez had the one on the left.
I glanced down at the empty seat and thought about Nick’s father. Nick hadn’t spoken to him since Thanksgiving. Michaela said that Ethan gave in and started taking his calls again, but swore he wasn’t going to let things go back the way that they used to be.
The arena went completely black, just for an instant. Then, Manuel Chavez’s theme song began playing loudly. The colored lights in the octagon started flashing and the row between the seats lit up as the beams of light seemed to be dancing in time with the music.
The whole place vibrated as the announcer said, “Ladies and Gentleman, the fight you’ve all been waiting for is about to begin. Get on your feet and put those hands together and welcome the three-time world heavyweight champion, Manuel “Bone Crusher” Chavez!”
I had thought the crowd was wild before, but now they went ballistic. Yells, screams, cat-calls, and raucous applause rocked the house so loudly that the almost deafening music could hardly be heard. Chavez’s trainer, a guy my dad despised named Nathan Wright, jogged down the aisle first. Behind him came a circle of huge security officers in black polo shirts, and in the center of them was Chavez.
He was a big guy, at least as tall as Kevin, and his biceps were the size of an average person’s thighs. Chavez started underground fighting in Mexico when he was just a teenager. Nathan “discovered” him on a vacation to Ensenada and brought him back to the U.S. He started fighting in the MMA matches within a year, and that was six years ago. His head was shaved and that and his face were the only exposed skin on his body not showing ink. His tattoos were as dark and frightening as his eyes and I actually felt short of breath at the thought of Nick being locked in that cage with him.
Chavez had never lost a single fight, which gave him and Nick something in common, at least. Neither man intended to lose this one, either, and as I watched Chavez step into the cage, I shuddered slightly and said a silent prayer that if Nick didn’t win, it wouldn’t be because this giant man incapacitated him.
Once Chavez was pacing and preening around the inside of the cage, Nick’s theme song began playing. I could actually feel my heart speed up as I listened. “Now, ladies and gentlemen, we have our home-grown hero. This young man started fighting at the age of twenty. He’s been fighting for the MMA for three years now. He’s worked his way up to the spot he’s in quickly, without a single loss…and today he’s here to challenge the big man for the big title. Fighting for the title of world heavyweight champion, please welcome Tricky Nicky Storelli!”
We all got to our feet as the colored lights began to swirl around overhead and the spotlight searched the arena until it landed on my beautiful man as he came out the doors that led from the locker room area to the arena.
My Dad was in front of him and his entourage, but I had to admit that I barely saw him. It was like Nick’s body held some kind of magnetic power that my eyes couldn’t resist.
He was wearing his green, satin shorts and a black hoodie pulled up over his head, but unzipped so his beautiful, ripped abs and hard pecs were showing. I looked up at the television monitor because I knew they’d be doing a close-up as soon as he walked out. Sure enough, his beautiful, blue eyes were looking down at me, and he smiled, just slightly. I smiled back, like he could see me and blew the monitor a kiss. Security surrounded him and kept him just out of reach of the screaming, grasping women as they escorted him up the aisle.
They all stopped at the end of our row and surprisingly, two of the men stepped aside to make a small path. Nick crooked his finger at me and grinned. I moved through the path and as soon as I was inside, they closed it back up. Nick kissed me then, hard and passionate, taking my breath away.
When he broke the kiss, he looked me in the eyes and said, “I love you, Karli.” I was in shock and I couldn’t speak. I reached up and touched his face as I heard one of the security officers say, “Nick, we have to get in there.”
He winked at me and before I knew it, I was once again on the outside of the protective ring and Nick was being let into the octagon. I looked up at the television monitors again. They were speculating about what Nick stopped for and someone had gotten a close-up of my face as they led him away. Even to myself, I looked shocked and shaky. Damn…I should have told him I loved him, too. Just as I had that thought, I heard a male voice saying,
“Excuse me.” I looked up into a pair of the same color eyes Nick had been looking at me with only moments ago.
“Mr. Grant.”
“Hi, Karli.” He looked at Michaela and then Ethan, and his features softened. I would have sworn that judging by the look on his face, he was considering an apology. Instead, he cleared his throat after a few seconds and said, “Would it be okay if I take the empty seat there on the end?”
“Of course,” I said. Michaela looked at Ethan, who nodded numbly. Mr. Grant gave me a half smile and made his way past Michaela, Ethan, Kevin, and Elaine to take the seat on the end of the row.
I looked back up at Nick and wondered if he could see him. The bright lights had come back on, so I doubted it. That was probably a good thing – it might make him nervous. I’d hate for him to have one more thing to resent his dad for.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
NICK
I was buzzing with adrenaline anticipating this fight and still tasting that kiss with Karli. She looked shocked when I told her that I loved her. I couldn’t blame her; it was something I would have doubted I’d ever say to a woman myself. She didn’t say it back, but I wasn’t overly worried about that.
I could see that she loved me when she looked at me. I could feel it when she touched me. I was sure the only thing that either of us hadn’t done yet was say it aloud. She probably just needed time.
“You ready, kid?” Charlie asked me as he handed me my mouth guard and squeezed water from the plastic bottle he was holding into my mouth.
I grinned at him. “I’m ready. What do you say I make this a one-round knock-out?”
He raised his eye-brow in a classic Charlie move and said, “Don’t go out there cocky. Go out there and remember everything you’ve learned from me and remember that no one has ever beat this guy. Look at him; he’s an animal. This is all he knows and he’s not looking to lose it anytime soon.”
I looked across at Chavez. He would be without a doubt the biggest man I’d ever fought and obviously the one with the best record. My record was as good as his, but this was my first title fight. I thought about what Charlie said about this being all Chavez knows. I guessed we had that in common, too. My sponsors were counting on me winning this thing. They’d been grooming me for this for years. I wanted this win so badly, I could taste it, for so many different reasons.
“Okay,” I told Charlie in all seriousness, “I won’t be cocky, and I’ll listen to every word you say.”
“Good, don’t let it go to the mat, because your wrestling skills still suck.”
I chuckled and popped in my mouth guard. The referee called us to the middle, did his spiel, and told us both good-luck. I knocked fists with Chavez; his felt like steel. I went back to Charlie and took a few deep breaths and blew them out while I waited for the buzzer.
I looked out into the audience hoping to get one more look at Karli’s face…and my eyes landed on my father. My dad was sitting at the end of the front row and the thought of that made my heart race and my breaths grow short. I’d wanted him to come to one of my fights for so long, but now that he was here, I wasn’t absolutely certain that it was a good idea.
I moved my eyes down the row until they landed on my brother. He must have seen the question there because he shrugged. Finally, I looked at Karli. She smiled and blew me a kiss. It was almost like taking a sedative. My heartrate slowed down and I was able to breathe normally. I smiled back at her just as the buzzer rang.
Distracted, I flew out to the middle…right into Chavez’s huge fist. It caught me dead in the center of my face and blood spurted out from my nose, spraying the mat below us. It hurt like hell, but when he came at me with the other fist, I was ready.
I blocked his left hook and then realized he knew that’s what I would do. As I blocked it, I leaned back slightly, and his big tree-trunk leg swept out and he hooked the backs of my calves with his foot.
I could hear Charlie’s voice calling out to me, giving me direction, but the crowd was too loud for me to hear what he was saying. I tried to spin away, but his legs were too heavy and all my own motion did was knock me to the mat on my ass. He lifted his leg up and that giant foot was headed for my neck. I grabbed and twisted it, hard. As I twisted, I rolled my body to the side so when the giant crashed down to the mat, he didn’t land on top of me.
He did a belly flop that might have just shaken the entire building. For just a second, the wind was knocked out of him. It gave me time to jump up on his back. I straddled him and wrapped my arm around his neck, pulling up on his head to the sounds of the audience cheering, hissing, booing, and screaming. I pulled hard, hoping that he would tap out and this would be over in the first round.
It was a crazy thought. In six years, this man had never tapped out, not once.
He didn’t tap and he didn’t pass out. He took it until the buzzer sounded and the referee broke us up. I got off of him and headed toward Charlie.
The first thing he said when I got close enough was, “I told you not to go to the mat.” I sat down and accepted the sports drink he squirted in my mouth. After I swallowed it, I said,
“Thanks for the reminder; I won’t trip again.”
“Go ahead and be a sarcastic asshole. You’re losing this fight, either way.”
I shook my head. “I’m not going to lose.”
“Good, get your ass out there and act like it this round.”
When the buzzer rang, Chavez came out throwing punches again. He moved like lightning for a giant. I was trying to get close enough for my fist to reach him when he threw out a jab and a cross with his left. Neither of them made contact because I was moving, too, but he threw out an elbow next and it landed right between my eyes and against my already swollen nose.
My head was filled with stars for just a second. I could feel blood slowly running down my face and then I felt the son of a bitch throw a jab the landed right on the open cut. It hurt like hell, but it ignited the rage inside of me, and that’s what I’d been lacking.
Maybe having such a happy life hadn’t been all that good for my career, after all. Now I was pissed, though, and I hammered a fist underneath his jaw that caused his head to snap back, hard.
He stumbled back with a stunned expression on his face. I moved in while he was still completely out of it and wrapped him up in my arms and drove my forehead into his. We were struggling for hip position. I hated the mat. I hated the floor. But, the only way I was going to beat this big son of a bitch was if I could manage to get him to tap out.
He moved and wiggled until he was able to press his back into the mesh and plant his feet far enough apart to get some stability. We stayed wrapped up like that for a long time before the referee broke us up.
I went back over and Charlie pushed me down onto the stool and rubbed my cut with Eswell to close it up before slapping on a piece of gel foam. Fuck, it hurt! At least if Chavez went for it again, I’d have a slight bit of cushion.
“Stay on your feet. You don’t want to be on the mat with him.”
“I can’t knock him out, Charlie.”
“Sure you can. You have power in that fist of yours; use it. You go down with him, you give him the full advantage of his body weight. Stay on your feet.”
“Okay…okay, I’ll do my best.”
When the buzzer sounded, we met in the middle and after a few seconds of dancing around with each other, I threw out a roundhouse kick that landed hard on his upper thigh. He staggered back, so I did it again and again, pushing him back into the mesh.
My plan was to hammer him with my fists while I had him pinned with my body, but before I could get close enough to pin him, he managed to get his leg up and that size-fifteen foot collided with my knee and I felt it explode with pain. I was focused on that when he came at me with his fists.
I could hear screams in the crowd, and once again the sound of Charlie’s voice trying to be heard over it all. Chavez was throwing punch after punch and sweat was rolling off of us both, mixing with the splatters of blood and making the mats underneath our feet so slippery that it was hard to get any traction.
I knew it was going to piss Charlie off, but I felt like I had to take him down and somehow get him to tap out. He was too fucking strong and my punches barely fazed him. I lunged at him and the S.O.B. slid in the mess on the floor, but he still didn’t fall. How in the hell someone so big could have such good balance was beyond me.
He grabbed onto me, and I was the one that slipped. I didn’t let go of him, though, and we both hit the mat, hard. He was on top, and I lost control. He straddled me and started a ground and pound that I was sure was going to knock me out. I told myself, this was it. He wasn’t just using his fists, he was using his elbows, as well.
I’d never been in a fight where I took so many hard hits to my face. I was sure my nose was broken and maybe even a cheekbone or two. I was actually wondering if this big bastard was doing permanent damage to my face, and I almost heard Karli laughing inside my head at how conceited I was.
The thought of Karli, sitting out there in the audience watching me get my face pounded in, maybe watching me lose this fight, gave me a renewed sense of energy and somehow, I managed to harness it and use it to buck my hips up as wildly as the mechanical bull that I’d ridden at Gilley’s. The giant flew off of me and landed on his chest.
He was already using his arms to push himself up off of the floor by the time I got to him. I jumped on his back, dropping my full weight down onto him. I wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled back hard. He grunted, cussed, twisted, and turned, and just about the time I thought he was going to scream, he slowly lifted his hand and let it drop to the mat.
I just became the heavy-weight champion. I’ll be damned.
“Winner by tap-out…‘Tricky Nicky’ Nick Storelli! Ladies and Gentlemen…your new heavy-weight champion!” The level of noise in the event center hurt my head. The lights as I squinted out through the mesh and tried to find Karli hurt my eyes. Charlie was hugging me and pounding my sore body with his big, meaty hands, and then I was handed a belt that weighed more than I cared to lift at the moment and paraded around the ring with my arm in the air. I hurt all over, and I felt dazed and slightly confused. I physically shook my head to clear the fog out of it.
When the ref finally let go of my arm, I looked over and saw Chavez getting to his feet with the help of his trainer. I thought about how my life was going to be different now, and so was his. He’d put up a hell of a fight and right up to the end, it could have gone either way.
I went over and when I saw his face, I wondered if I was making a mistake, but I had to at least try to show him some respect. I put out my right hand and said,
“I hope I can do this title as much justice as you did.” Chavez stared at me for a few minutes like he either couldn’t focus, or he wasn’t sure if he wanted to and at last, he smiled. It wasn’t his scary, “I’m going to break you,” smile. It was a genuine, warm smile. He put his big hand out and shook mine.
“Anyone that can beat me the way you just did is going to be one hell of a champion. Congratulations, boy. I know you’ll do us proud.”
I was floating on cloud nine. Charlie was proud of me. The former heavyweight champion was proud of me. The only thing I could imagine would be better was finding Karli. When I turned away from Chavez, they had opened the door to the cage and Charlie was standing at the entrance with Karli just outside.
She was looking at my face with evidence of a wince on hers. I could only imagine what I must have looked like. I limped over to her and as soon as I got past the blood and sweat on the mat, she threw her arms around me. She tried to pull back when I grunted, but I held onto her tightly. “Are you okay?”
I smiled. It hurt like hell. “I’m better than okay, babe.”
“I’m so proud of you, but that was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to watch.”
I kissed the side of her face. That hurt like hell, too. “I’m sorry, babe.”
“Don’t be sorry. My boyfriend is a champion. I guess I’ll just have to get used to it. I love you, Nick.”
I squeezed her tighter and this time, she grunted. “I love you, Karli. So fucking much.”
“There’s someone else here who wants to see you.” She stepped to the side next to Charlie then, and I saw my dad. He was frowning. I just stared at him. I was at a loss for words. I would have never suspected in a million years that he would show up here of all places. What he did next completely blew me away. He held out his right hand and said,
“I don’t think I can watch another one of these, son, so I want you to know here and now that I’m proud of you…and I’m sorry.”
I ignored his hand and pulled his three-thousand-dollar suit up against my sweaty, bloody chest. He could afford a new one, and it had been over twenty years since I had a hug from my dad. He stiffened at first, but after a few seconds, he hugged me back. “Thank you, Dad. You have no idea how much it means to me that you came.”
“I do, actually, but you can thank your brother and his intervention for getting me to see the light.”
“Ethan’s intervention?”
“There are a lot of people and reporters that want to see you. We’ll talk about it later. I should go change my suit.”
I was still smiling hours later after I got untangled from fans, press, and other fighters who wanted to congratulate me. By the time I showered and limped out the side door with Charlie, it was really late and I had no expectations that Karli had waited for me. When I got to my truck with my heavy ass belt slung over my shoulder and saw her standing there, I felt like the fucking king of the world.
CHAPTER THIRTY
KARLI
It was hard to put into words, but as hard as looking at the bandages on my beautiful man’s face and the way his perfect nose was all crooked now was…I felt like somehow we were driving away from that arena with our entire future ahead of us.
When we got back to his place, I tried fussing over him with pain medications and hot tea. He seemed amused and took it for as long as he could before finally reaching out and pulling me down into his lap where he sat on the edge of the bed. “I’m so afraid of hurting you, babe.”
“It hurts worse not to touch you. I need you, baby.” He brushed his lips softly against my forehead. My eyes fluttered closed and I felt him nuzzle his face against my hair. “You’re mine, Karli, right?”
I pulled back, opened my eyes, and looked at him. I had tears in my eyes as I nodded. “I’m yours, Nick. I love you so much it hurts inside sometimes.”
He leaned his head into my chest and closed his eyes, and I held him there for the longest time before he looked at me again and said, “I want to marry you.”
I nearly choked. Maybe moving in with him, I was expecting, but not that. “What?”
He smiled and then winced. My poor baby. “I want to be with you forever. I can’t even begin to tell you how much better my life has been with you in it. I never want to have to live without you.”
I kissed his forehead in one of the few spots he wasn’t bruised or bandaged. “My life is better with you in it, too, but you’re on medication. We’ll talk about the future when you’re sober.”
He chuckled. “Fine, but my thoughts on that subject aren’t going to change – ever. I need you. I want you. I love you.”
He brushed his lips against my eyelids and then finally moved them down to hover over mine before saying, “I’m going to marry you, and we’re going to have an amazing life.”
He didn’t give me time to respond before covering my lips with his. I hated to admit it, but all thoughts of him being in pain were gone as soon as he did. I immediately opened up to him and he slid his tongue against mine with gentle, sweet strokes.
His hands moved up and he wound my hair up in his fingers. He tipped my head back and let his tongue delve in deeper. His kisses went straight to my head. Nothing in the world was more delicious than the taste of him. I moaned into his mouth as he pulled me in tighter. He kissed me until I didn’t have any breath left and my strength was waning, as well. When he finally let me breathe, he said, “Take off these clothes.”
I kissed him once more and then stood up, and he watched me with worship in his eyes as I stripped off my clothes. He kept his fists balled up like he was trying hard not to touch me. “Now you,” I told him as I bent over to touch my lips to his. He stood and I could see how hard it was for him. “Maybe we should wait…”
“Huh uh, that would kill me,” he said. “Please, baby, I need this.”
I reached for the hem of his shirt and helped him take it off. As soon as I saw the bruises on his chest again, I shivered. I leaned in and kissed each one softly as I used my hands to slide down the jogging pants he was wearing, taking his boxers down with them. I went down on my knees as I did and kissed the huge bruise on his upper thigh. God, he has to be in so much pain.
I almost felt guilty about giving in to this, but I wanted him so fucking bad. I reached out and took his big, raging erection between my hands. I held onto him tightly and began to slowly stroke him up and down. He groaned and reached down to take my nipples between his fingers. He pinched softly and ran the tips of his fingers the all the way around the outside, making them stand up even harder than they already were. Waves of pleasure raced up and down my spine and goosebumps covered my arms and legs.
I stroked him harder and watched as the muscles in his tight stomach rolled and contracted. I leaned in closer to take him in my mouth, but before I could, he pulled me back up on his lap. His soft, wet lips were on my neck and his big, hard cock pressed into my already soaking wet pussy, and he ground up into me as he sucked on the supple skin on the side of my neck. He kissed it from one side to the other and then with another, loud grunt, he flipped me over onto my back on the bed and lifted me, moving me up until my head was on the pillow and I was in the center of the bed.
His big body was suddenly above mine, covering me with his hot flesh and muscle. He covered my face with kisses, sucked and nibbled some more on my neck, and worked his mouth down to my breasts. He kissed and sucked around the outside of my nipples. I arched my back, forcing them up harder into his face, against his lips.
He put his tongue out and licked one of my nipples, making me shudder, and then he sucked it into his mouth. He held that hard nipple between his lips and flicked it hard with his tongue. I felt light-headed. He was so good…so fucking good.
He bit down on it slightly, and I cried out before he moved over and started on the other one – sucking, licking, and nibbling until I felt like my head would explode. He didn’t stop there, though; he kissed down the rest of my chest and when he reached my stomach he began to kiss and lick and suck there. My pussy was drenched, and I was writhing and moaning. I felt like if he didn’t touch me between my legs soon, I would die.
He used one finger to trace down my slit and set any part of my body that wasn’t already on fire ablaze. He smiled up at me before diving in with his face. He slid his hands underneath me and cupped my butt, holding me there while he sucked on my clit. I clamped my thighs on either side of his head while he licked and sucked and even bit down on my clit. It was pure ecstasy, almost more than I could take.
I was whimpering, moaning, and crying out his name. I opened my thighs far enough that I could reach down and put both of my hands in his hair and pulled hard, trying to pull him in even tighter. Passion, need, love…it all combined like a combustible cocktail and when he looked up at me and pinned me with those dark-blue eyes, the orgasm raced from my core and exploded in a way I’d never felt anything leave my body before.
He didn’t stop. He didn’t pull back. He nursed me through that incredible orgasm and my whole body shook as I came.
I was covered in a light sheen of sweat when he finished and it was the only reason I was able to wiggle out of his grasp. I got down on the floor and without warning, I sucked him into my mouth. He groaned out my name and put his hands in my hair.
I looked up at him and he began to thrust in and out of my mouth. I watched his muscles contract and reveled in the sounds he was making. It was a picture that was almost enough to make me come again. His body was responding to every soft or hard flick of my tongue.
I started sucking harder, bobbing my head up and down faster. I felt his huge cock swell and harden even more, and that was when he pulled me off and said, “Stop, baby. I need to be inside of you.”
I lifted my head and he hauled me back up to my feet. This time, he lay back in the center of the bed. I climbed up on top of him and straddled his hips. He wasn’t wearing a condom and neither of us mentioned it. As he reached up to cup my breasts, squeeze, and massage them lightly while tweaking the nipples, I forgot how to have a rational thought.
I leaned down and kissed him, hard, wet, sexy. He groaned out my name as I pulled out of the kiss and lifted my hips. I used my hand to guide his erection up against me and then I slid down onto that incredible cock, taking him all in one thrust.
“Oh, fuck!” he groaned.
He reached up and put his hands back in my hair and pulled me back down into another, deep kiss. I rolled my hips against him and he lifted his and matched my every move.
I had to use my arms to brace myself against his chest. Pleasure beyond anything I’d ever experienced coiled in my belly as his thrusts became more powerful and urgent. My body was begging me for another release, and I broke the kiss and sat straight up on top of him.
His cock was buried inside of me as deeply as it could possibly go and that was when sparks of electricity began to fire from my core and throughout the rest of my body. I felt like I was on fire from the inside out as I came in waves and buckets. I was gasping for breath or even some kind of hold on reality as he flipped me over and began his ride to his own release.
He wasn’t gentle about it – and that made it all that much better. I wanted to be his body and soul. I wanted him to take everything I had and use it to give himself pleasure. I watched him, entranced as the muscles in his body rolled and flexed, and his face colored with pure ecstasy. He grabbed my hips, dug his fingers into them, and I watched as his own orgasm claimed him. It took him a long time to finish and when he did, he leaned down to softly and sweetly kiss my lips.
I shoved my tongue into his mouth and kissed him back. That passionate kiss lasted only seconds before turning into a soft, sweet exploration. Finally, Nick collapsed down next to me and we lay tangled up in each other’s sweaty bodies, and I wanted to be right there…forever.
“I love you so much, Nick.”
“I never imagined how happy those words could make me. I love you, Karli…so fucking much.” I snuggled into his warm arms and thanked God that I’d given Nick a chance, that I’d trusted him. Life from this point on was going to be unlike anything I ever imagined for my future and I couldn’t wait.
EPILOGUE
KARLI
TWO YEARS LATER
My husband had been the heavyweight champion for just over two years. I was going to start my internship at his brother’s law firm after the first of the year, and we were celebrating not only our third Christmas together, but our child’s second.
Life was awesome, and even though I know it won’t always be perfect, I’ve learned a lot about family, as well as gained a lot of it over the past year and a half. I knew that no matter what life threw at us from here on out, we would get through it.
The biggest blessing in my life was conceived the night Nick won his first title. His name was Gregory Grant Storelli, but his daddy called him Champ. He’s just over a year old and already up to thirty pounds. I didn’t doubt that I’d be staring up into the blue eyes of my son one day just the way I have to look up to see his father’s.
My brother and one of Nick’s best friends, Kevin, was on track to fight for the title. That means that someday soon, he’ll be in the cage with the love of my life, struggling for domination. I’m a little worried, to say the least.
Dad had handed Kevin off to the only other trainer in Vegas that he trusted just about a month ago. His name was Chavez, and once upon a time, he held onto that same title for three years.
This all started not long before Thanksgiving in the gym one day as I was working in the office. I’ll admit that I went so far as to step out into the doorway when I heard what Dad and Kevin were talking about. I was blatantly eavesdropping, but the conversation involved every man that I loved, so I felt like I had a right.
“I’d have to be crazy to go up against Nick for his title.” Those were the words I heard Kevin speak that drew my attention.
“You’d be crazy not to,” Dad told him.
“He’s better than me, a lot better. And, he’s my brother-in-law.”
“If he wasn’t, would you do it?”
“Maybe, if you thought I was good enough…”
I watched my dad put his hand on Kevin’s shoulder and say, “It doesn’t matter what I think, or anyone else, for that matter. Look inside of yourself, Kevin. Are you good enough? Could you beat Nick?”
“I honestly don’t know. I feel like I can beat anyone when I’m in that cage. I just never thought about fighting Nick before.”
“Nick’s not going to hand you that title. Someday, it will be the only fight you have left to move forward in your career and then you’ll have to choose between fighting him and stagnation.”
“Do I have to choose right now?”
Dad smiled. “No, son. But the fight is up for grabs right now, and if you don’t take it, someone else will.”
I could see the agony of indecision on Kevin’s face. I went back into the office of the gym and called Nick. It was right before Thanksgiving, and he was at his Dad’s house. He and his father had struggled over the past two years to have some semblance of a relationship. It wasn’t perfect, but they were both trying. He answered the call on the first ring, and I told him about Dad and Kevin’s conversation. He listened quietly and then said,
“I’ll be there soon.”
I had no idea what he was thinking. I couldn’t imagine getting into that cage and pummeling my best friend. I thought about Michaela, engaged to Ethan now, and smiled. Soon my best friend would also be my sister by marriage. It is incredible how life works out.
Nick had arrived at the gym in half an hour. He and Dad talked for a while first. It was amazing to me how far the two of them had come. They not only had an incredible, mutual respect for each other, but they actually seemed to like each other now. Their competitiveness did come out over me sometimes, and I’m sure it will rear its head over our son someday, but we will always be a family, and that’s always going to be the bottom line.
After Dad and Nick spoke, I saw Nick take Kevin into the back. Dad came over to where I was standing near the office and put his arm around me. “Are they going to fight each other?” I asked him.
He kissed the top of my head and said, “Yes, but you know it won’t change the way they feel about each other. This is just like those autographs Nick signs for his adoring fans. It’s just work.”
I nodded. I really hoped so.
By Thanksgiving, Dad had already spoken to Chavez and talked Kevin into training with him. He told me that it broke his heart to give him up, but he couldn’t train both men headed for a title fight. Nick had volunteered to be the one Dad gave up, but Kevin wouldn’t hear of it. Kevin insisted since Nick had him first, he should be the one to go.
As it turned out, Chavez was a nice guy – unless you were the one in the cage with him at the time. We even invited him and his wife to Thanksgiving dinner…at the mansion. It was almost surreal watching the collection of fighters and trainers gathering around Nick’s father’s fancy table. Gregory was amazingly cordial to them all. It was just one more reason my faith in family was restored. The other one came in the form of a gush of water between my legs just as Nick’s father cut the turkey.
“Um…baby, I think I need to go to the hospital.” Our baby wasn’t due until Christmas Day. Nick’s face was pale as he got to his feet and said,
“Why? What’s wrong?”
I felt my own face color as the attention of some thirty people at the table was suddenly on me. “Nothing’s wrong,” I told Nick and then looked around the table and smiled. My new sister-in-law, Elaine was newly pregnant, and I saw actual terror in her eyes. “Really, I’m fine. It’s just that…my water broke.”
“Oh, thank God!” Michaela was sitting to the left of me. “I thought you peed in the floor.” That lightened the mood at the table somewhat, but Dad, Gregory, and Nick were all three trying to usher me out the door.
Gregory told Ethan to make sure everyone got their fill of dinner and he’d keep them posted. I was loaded into the backseat of one of Gregory’s luxury cars, and with Nick squeezing my hand almost to the point of breaking it and the two potential grandfathers staring at me like I might break any second, I was driven to the hospital.
It took eight hours for the new love of my life to come into the world. During that time, I’d sweated and cried and even cussed Nick out, but the second they put my son into my arms and he looked up at me with his handsome, dark-blue eyes, nothing was wrong in the universe.
I had never thought I had to capacity to love anything so much. I loved my family, and I loved Nick so much that I’d die for him. But the kind of love I felt for my son far surpassed all of that with one look. The missing pieces of my life were finally all in place and there was nowhere to go but up from there.
I also found out just how much everyone in my life loved us that day. The nurse came in while Nick and I were crooning over our son and showed us pictures that she’d taken in the lobby. Dad and Gregory had posed with little, hand-written signs, begging us to let them see their grandson.
Nick and I laughed at those and then the rest of the pictures brought tears to our eyes. No one had stayed to finish their meal. Instead, it had been boxed up and wrapped up and they’d brought it with them to the hospital. They had the spread set out on a table in the waiting room and while strangers waited to be seen by doctors, they shared a Thanksgiving meal with some of the most generous people in Las Vegas – our people.
Gregory and I got to go home from the hospital the next day. I was resting, and Nick was tending to the baby when his father stopped by. I heard the men’s voices and got up to see who was there. As I got to the end of the hall next to where Nick had put a huge Christmas tree the night before, I saw my husband. He was looking at something on the other side of the room and his eyes were filled with tears. I’ve never seen Nick cry, not even when our baby was born. I stepped further into the room and saw why.
His father was sitting in the recliner with his feet up. He had stripped off his suit jacket and unbuttoned his shirt and he had our son lying on his chest. His eyes were closed and they both looked like they were sleeping. I went over and sat down next to Nick. He wiped his eyes quickly and smiled at me.
“What is he doing?” I whispered.
“He says this is what he did with Ethan and me when we were babies…to bond with us.” His voice sounded strangled like he was doing everything he could to keep from crying. He lifted his arm and I snuggled in next to him and we both watched the older man and the baby sleep – and bond. Maybe the cracks left in Nick and his father’s relationship would finally be cemented by their common love of our son.
********
Christmas came and went and while Nick continued to spoil both me and our son, he got ready for the fight against my brother. I was working with Ethan now, so I was not in the gym every day to watch as Nick and my dad trained. That was a good thing, that way I didn’t have to think every day about watching him and Kevin beat on each other. The fight was scheduled for June, and I was worried that meant it would be a really, long, hot summer.
The time flew by and the night before the fight when I got home from work, I found my husband and son sitting in the backyard on a blanket. Nick was pointing out the constellations to his little champ. Gregory was lying on his back looking up, but instead of looking at the stars, he was looking adoringly at his father. I didn’t worry about those two at all. I had no doubt that they would have the kind of relationship that Nick had always hoped he could have with his dad.
I sat down next to them and both my husband and my son smiled at me with sparkling, blue eyes and dimples creased. I was the luckiest woman in the world.
“What are you guys doing?”
“I was just teaching the little man about the stars. You know, he and I were talking, and he thinks I should go to college.”
“He does?”
“Yeah. He says that he’d like for his dad to set a good example for him. We talked about what I should do.”
I smiled. I was sure it was true since Nick talks to the baby all the time like he can understand every word. Greggie babbles back at him, and they both seem to think they’re having a conversation. “So, what did our wise son say about what you should do?”
“He thinks I should look into sports medicine. He says he thinks I’d be a good trainer since I am a champion,” he winked at me. “But he thinks I’m ready for even more of a challenge. I wasn’t sure I’d be smart enough to pull it off, but he seems to have faith in me.”
I picked my baby up and kissed his fat cheek. He grinned at me and my heart swelled. “Well, since he is the most perceptive person I know, I think you’d be wise to take his advice.”
Nick put his arm around us. “You think I can do it?”
I pointed up to the sky to the biggest star over head and said, “If you ever wonder what I think of you, find that star and remind yourself that as far as I’m concerned, if you wanted to reach that star, you could. I think you can do anything, and I will always be right here, rooting you on.”
He kissed the side of my face and then kissed the baby and said, “What if I beat Kevin tomorrow night? Will you two still love me then?”
Gregory and Kevin were so cute together. You might think being so small would make him wary of all of these huge men in his life. Instead, he was drawn to them and they were like his private collection of giant teddy bears. His Uncle Kevin loved him so much and spoiled him like crazy.
“Nothing you ever did could make either of us stop loving you.”
“Nothing?”
“Do you love your dad, Nick?”
He sighed. “Yeah, I do.”
“And, you never stopped, right? No matter what he did.”
“No, it was where all of that anger came from.”
“I know. Gregory will always love you, and so will I. Life won’t always be exactly what we want it to be, but it will always be easier with each other.”
“I would just hand the title to Kevin if I could, but he wouldn’t want it that way.”
“I know, and so does he. Kevin will still love you if you beat him.”
“Good…because I’m not sure he’s ready this time, but he will be the next.”
I smiled. “Or you might be surprised. I wasn’t sure either of us were ready for this relationship when it first started, but look at us now.”
Tomorrow night could be another day in our life that might possibly change everything, but the difference between now and two years ago was that change is now something I not only no longer fear, but often look forward to.
I could live with the idea of my husband setting sprains and taping ankles instead of being the one getting patched up for a change…
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STINGRAY BILLIONAIRE: THE COMPLETE SERIES
By Alexa Davis
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Rory’s Treasures
Ellie
“The Louis XV-style double-mirrored armoire is your best bet if you’re looking to impress your guests, and you’ll have more than enough room to store your knick-knacks in the display area,” I tell Mrs. Taber as she’s glancing through the furniture section of the shop.
Welcome to Rory’s Treasures.
It would be a thrift store if they created thrift stores for the sole purpose of supporting the owner’s unwillingness to pick up a marketable skill. This shop is Troy’s dream.
Troy Kramer is my boss and the owner/founder of Rory’s Treasures. To this day, I don’t know who Rory is. Every time I ask, Troy’s only answer is, “He’s the guy I named the shop after,” and then he’ll lock himself in the office the rest of the day.
That’s why I’m here on the floor when I should be up near the register. Of course, when there’s only one customer, that customer tends to grow in importance fast.
“This was owned by Louis XV?” Mrs. Taber asks.
Every time I talk about this armoire, I get the same question. Troy’s been telling me just to say yes so we can get the thing out of here.
“No,” I answer. “It’s in a style named for him, but don’t let that discourage you. From what I hear, these pieces are highly prized.” Of course, Troy’s the one I heard that from, so who knows?
“Yeah,” she says, opening one of the doors to the armoire. She says, “I think I saw one in Wal-Mart a while ago.”
“No, you didn’t,” I say.
She glances up at me.
Here is my problem: Honesty’s great, but correcting people is said to be impolite. I’ve read How to Win Friends and Influence People. I fall asleep to it at night. Still, old Dale Carnegie hasn’t quite convinced me about everything.
“I could have sworn,” Mrs. Taber says.
“You may have seen a reproduction or something done in the style, but it’s not authentic,” I tell her. “This armoire comes with a certificate of authenticity.”
I try not to think too hard about the fact that the certificates of authenticity all showed up on the same day. I try even harder not to think about the fact that it was the day after I asked Troy why we didn’t have any for our genuine antiques. The signatures on each certificate do look surprisingly similar.
“Okay,” she says. “I’m just looking for an armoire, though. Do I need something ‘authentic?’?”
I know what I’m supposed to say; Troy’s been over it a thousand times like the problem is I just didn’t hear him.
“You don’t need something authentic, no,” I answer. “Modern, less expensive armoires will look just as beautiful and work just as well. That said, this is a real conversation piece.”
When there’s no plausible deniability, there’s no plausible reason to deny the truth.
“In that case, I think I’ll just keep looking,” she says.
“Ellie!” Troy’s voice comes from the office.
I don’t know how it is that he always knows, but he does.
Leaving Mrs. Taber, I make my way to the office doorway, saying, “Yeah?”
“You did it again, didn’t you?” he asks.
I shrug and widen my eyes to puppy-dog-levels, saying, “Did what?”
He lets out a long sigh, and for the first time, I’m noticing that there’s a line of flattened hair on the top of his head, going from ear to ear. “Do you know how long I’ve been trying to sell that stupid thing?”
“You have microphones around the store so you can listen to what I’m telling customers, don’t you?” I ask.
Tactfulness has never been my strong suit.
“How many times am I going to have to go over this?” he asks. “Yes, the customer needs the armoire. You can’t find anything like it anywhere. I’m surprised we got one here.”
“Now, just so I’m clear,” I say, “Louis XV originally commissioned the armoire, but there was a problem with Amazon’s shipping service, and so it got sent to his friend, The Duke of Troy, to sell in his shop in the middle of nowhere, right?”
“People don’t come in for antiques because they’re cheap; they come here because they can’t find this stuff anywhere else,” Troy says.
I look behind me at the barren store. Mrs. Taber must have gone after I left her.
“Troy, people don’t come in here,” I tell him.
He’s leaning forward as if he’s expecting me to say more on the topic, but my point finally starts sinking in. “So your contention is that because we don’t get a lot of customers, it’s okay if we lose the few we do get?”
He’s running his fingers through his hair with little, flicking motions, trying to add body to the depressed line of hair where his headphones were. It occurs to me he might not have been spying. Could be he was just looking at porn.
“That’s not what I’m saying,” I tell him. “I just don’t think we should try to push expensive stuff on people we know can’t afford it.”
“How do you know she couldn’t afford it?” Troy asks.
“First off,” I tell him, “the armoire is almost two grand. Second,” I continue, “I know Mrs. Taber. She was my third-grade teacher. Troy, I know you want to think we live in some large town where everybody doesn’t already know everything about everybody else, but—”
The bell above the shop’s door rings.
“Why don’t you get out there and see if we can sell something today,” he says. “That’s how businesses stay open: they sell things.”
I roll my eyes, saying, “Oh, now you tell me.”
“If you’re not going to bother with what I’ve asked you to do on the sales floor, maybe it’d be best if you just sit up front or do some dusting or something,” he says. “Or are you going to have trouble ringing this guy up if he wants to buy something?”
With a sigh, I slink from the office doorway. I wonder who I’m going to strong-arm next.
The shop’s not all questionable antiques. Pretty much anything you’d imagine would be in a thrift store, pawn shop, or antique emporium is in this shop.
The problem in this town, Mulholland, is that it’s so small, everyone has a job, but it’s hardly ever a job they would have wanted. When people here reach the age of eighteen, they either move away, or they fill out a form with the local job broker, Grant. That’s what I did.
I’m still not sure if Grant is the man’s first or last name, but I do know that he’s as good as HR for every shop, store, and company in Mulholland. Nobody gets a job without his approval because there aren’t any jobs to be had.
I guess he’s the only one who knows where to put people where they’ll do the least amount of damage.
When someone like me does the stupid thing and decides to stick around Mulholland after graduating high school, Grant’s got to look for somewhere to put them. So, here I am.
If I didn’t live in the village proper, I wouldn’t have been able to get anything in town at all. I guess I should feel lucky or proud or something, but Troy and I have never seen eye-to-eye when it comes to sales or business strategy or advertising or ethics.
I don’t know that we’ve ever agreed on anything, now that I think about it.
Grabbing the feather duster Naomi, my sister, got me on my eighteenth birthday as a gag gift, I set about prettying up the shop. I’m not going to lie to this guy, and Troy’s going to get after me again if I go up to the man and start telling him the truth, so I just keep my distance.
After a while, though, I come to about where the man is standing, only the next aisle over, and I can’t help but say something. “Are you looking for anything particular today, or just browsing?” I ask.
“Actually,” the man says, keeping his back to me, “I was hoping you could help me.”
Oh dear. “Sure,” I answer. “What is it that you’re looking for?”
“I’m looking for a few things,” he says. “First, I wanted to see if you had anything Fabergé.”
I hate it when this happens. It’s only ever happened a couple of times since I’ve been here, but this guy seems like someone with an interest in actual antiques.
“I haven’t seen anything like that around, but let me check with my boss,” I say.
Troy will never forgive me if I let a big fish out of the shop without telling him.
“I was holding out some vague hope that you might be able to help me,” the man says.
“I’d be happy to,” I say, “but I really should check with my boss on the Fabergé. If we have anything like that, he’d—”
“You don’t have any Fabergé,” he says. “That’s fine, though. I’ve always found his pieces to be frightfully pretentious, though I will admit to having coveted more than one of them in the past. Unfortunately, those pieces are not for sale.”
What this guy’s doing, it isn’t about antiques. This guy just wants me to know that he has money and a lot of it. More likely, he just wants me to think he has a lot of money.
A real-life connoisseur coming in here is a special occasion: It’s only happened a couple of times. Some random guy walking in here with a bloated ego, saying he might buy something here if there was anything “expensive enough” for him: that happens in here at least once a month.
I’ve never known anyone like that to buy anything. They’re the type who love the mini-prestige that comes from convincing someone that he’s got more money than the Pope. They’re the ones that’ll buy a beaten down, used and abused Porche body, have some guy put a lawnmower engine in it, and tell everyone how much he loves taking it on “ze Autobahn.”
“Okay,” I say, trying to hide the annoyed tension from my voice. “Is there something that you were looking for?”
“Yeah,” he says. “I was hoping I might get your number and take you out to dinner sometime.”
I lean a little to one side, trying to see the man’s face. It’s probably Mr. Simpkins again. He’s been in here to ask me out on a date at least once a week since I started here. If the man ever bought anything, he’d be our best customer.
Mr. Simpkins is a nice enough man; I just prefer dating a little closer to my age range. At sixty-four, Mr. Simpkins is a bit—what’s the nice way to say it?—mature for me.
“Mr. Simpkins, I appreciate the disguise and all, but I just don’t think you and I would have anything in common,” I say.
“I take it this Mr. Simpkins is my competition,” the man says.
“Come on,” I say. “Turn around and face the music.”
The man turns around, but it’s not Mr. Simpkins. The man’s looking at me, but I don’t have any words.
The man’s tall, probably 5’10” or thereabouts. His short, dark, immaculately groomed hair provides the perfect compliment to his tan skin and dark brown eyes, and yeah: I recognize him all right.
The next thing I know, I’m on the floor, and the man is crouched over me, saying something my addled brain can’t even begin to decipher.
“You’re Nikolai Scipio,” I mutter when I finally find my voice.
“Call me Nick,” he says. “Are you all right? You fainted.”
I sit up, almost headbutting him in the process. “You’re Nick Scipio,” I repeat.
He smiles. “So, I was thinking a nice, quiet place with plenty of candles, a friendly atmosphere—that is, if you don’t think that’s too forward of me.”
I was voted most outgoing in high school, but the only thing I can think to say to this stranger is, “Uh…”
“Or,” he says, “if you’d prefer something where there’s not so much pressure on the conversation, we could always go paintballing.”
Nikolai—Nick Scipio isn’t a local, but I’d recognize him anywhere. He’s been on the news enough over the last year or so; I can’t imagine anyone with a TV wouldn’t know who he is.
“Paintballing?” I ask.
“Just checking to see if you’re still paying attention,” he says and smiles. “So, Ellie—”
I interrupt, “How do you know my name?”
“I had you followed,” he says. “I bribed a guy from the DOJ to have a team keep an eye on you, let me know any sordid details, that sort of thing.”
The reason I’m not laughing is that Nick Scipio, along with being particularly recognizable, is also one of the richest men in the country. After Stingray Next Generation Technologies—his company—went public, he went from being a college dropout to being a billionaire overnight.
They’re making a movie about it.
It was the biggest thing like that since Zuckerberg. I wonder if the two know each other. Of course, they do. All those guys know each other.
“Ellie?” Nick Scipio asks. “Are you okay? You’ve been staring off into space awhile.”
“What are you doing here?” I blurt.
“I was just joking about having you followed,” he says. “I got your name off your nametag.”
I look down. Upside down, my badge says 31773. Troy’s label maker only does numbers. I look up again.
“You know, you should probably get a new one of those made,” he says. “I got it pretty quick, but I imagine it’s the kind of thing that’ll give unscrupulous men an ostensibly justifiable reason to stare at your chest.”
“And you’re not one of those ‘unscrupulous men,’ I take it?” I ask.
“Scruples can be overrated,” he says. “No, I wasn’t staring at your chest.”
“Mr. Scipio …” I start.
What the hell is Nick Scipio doing in my store asking me on a date?
“Mr. Scipio,” I repeat.
“Please,” he says, “call me Nick. Let me help you up off the ground, or are you still feeling lightheaded?”
I rise, a hand which has to be worth at least a few hundred million helping me. “Nick,” I say. “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what’s supposed to be happening here. If this is one of those hidden camera shows, I think you already got your footage when I saw who you were and hit the ground.”
“No cameras,” he says. “I honestly just wanted to stop in and see if you might like to go out sometime.”
It’s exactly my luck that the only time in my life I’d meet a billionaire, he’d screw with me like this. What’s worse, and I know this is silly, but the most persistent thought in my head right now is that if I don’t sell half the store before this man leaves, it’ll be my head.
“Like I said, we don’t have any Fabergé,” I speak, “but I’m sure we could find something in here to suit you.”
“Really,” he says, “I’m not here to look at your wares. I came by a Spanish restaurant on my way to town. I haven’t been inside of it yet, but it looks nice enough.”
“I don’t get it,” I tell him.
“You’ve never been there?” he asks. “I think the place was called Carne Celeste. If I remember accurately, I believe that’s ‘Heavenly Meat.' I don’t know; I guess it’s better before you translate it. What do you think?”
What do I think? I think someone’s screwing with me. Only, I don’t know anyone with the kind of connections to get a call through to this man’s office, much less convince him to come all the way up to Mulholland just to mess with my head.
I think, if anything, the guy’s just cruising through town on his way somewhere else, saw something he liked in the window, and thought he’d try it on. No, I’m not flattered that I’m the thing.
If the man’s serious at all, he’s looking for a groupie. I’m not a groupie.
You see all the time how celebrities, especially moneyed business tycoons, will descend on a poor, unsuspecting young woman only to use her for what they think she’s worth and then dump her. There’s almost always a story in the tabloids about how the woman was “crazy” or “clingy” when all that happened was that the woman was dumb enough to say “yes” when a man like this one came through the door.
The thing a guy like Nick Scipio banks on is that whatever woman he’s talking to is going to be so stupidly impressed by how much money he has that she’ll start thinking it’d be worth it to get treated like that. After all, the guy’s loaded, right?
Most people would do any number of things to be thrown away by a man like this.
Well, not me. Either he’s just screwing with me now, or he’s trying to screw me a different way half an hour from now. Either way, I’m not interested.
I mean to tell him all of this, but the only thing I manage to get out of my mouth is, “Uh…”