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.