“Lily.” Candace held her hand for me to take. A part of me wanted to decline the gesture. “Congrats on the knockout win.”

“Thank you,” I said, leaning my back up against the cool brick wall. “I don’t remember accepting any interviews with the MMA Journal?”

She had this laugh that sounded condescending, which caused me to already feel pissed off. I was starting to question my decision to give her the time of day. Where I really should be is back in my locker room celebrating the win with my team.

“You didn’t.” She tapped a few times on her phone and brought up what looked like the voice memo app to record something. “I was in the audience and thought I would see if you could talk for a moment.” Then just as I thought, she hit the red button at the bottom of the screen, and I could see movement on the graph with every sound made.

“Candace, I don’t have time for this tonight.” I turned to head back to my team.

“Do you have time to discuss the relationship between your father and Julian Moore?”

It took less than a second to register I needed to avoid showing any emotion. “Julian and my father knew each other. Why do you feel that is some secret?” I wanted to pat myself on the back for that split-second reaction. Of course I didn’t; instead, I turned to complete the distance to my locker room and then placed my hand on the door handle. “Is there anything you wanted to chat about, Candace?”

She had this look on her face that was easy to make out. I had just thrown her off the Lily Waters train wreck plans she had so perfectly created. “No, that’s all, Lily. Go celebrate.”

I nodded my head and opened the door to screams. “Oh, I plan to party my ass off tonight,” I said, slamming the door shut behind me. “Does this mean I can share that Champagne with you? Or are you planning to drink it all?” I didn’t really plan to drink much, but a few sips wouldn’t hurt.

Julian stepped up beside me. “What did Candace want?”

“Oh, you know, the usual. She did congratulate me, though.”

“Shocking,” he teased.

“Right,” I leaned up on my tippy toes and kissed him lightly on the lips. “I won,” I whispered.”

He grabbed me around my waist and spun me around in a circle. “You fucking won.” He set my feet back on solid ground. “I knew you would.”

I reached my hands up and wrapped them around his neck. Staring into his eyes, I realized at that moment there were a lot of secrets between Julian and myself. Dad gave a few hints but avoided the full conversation. Julian never even initiated a conversation regarding the relationship between him and my dad or if there was one.

My body was still on high, and it was not ready to be brought down just yet. I knew whatever was between my dad and Julian, it could hold until morning.

Tonight was about celebrating.

“So,” Julian said in a husky voice.

“So.” I giggled. He had his hands wrapped around my waist and was forcing me to walk backward. “Should I be afraid of my legs running into a table or something?”

I decided back at the MGM Hotel and Casino where the fight took place that whatever happened between my dad and Julian was their story to tell. Well, Julian would have to tell me now. My dad was a good man and would never do anything to hurt another person. So in my mind, they were probably good friends. What could be so wrong about that, right?

“Let’s prevent that from happening.” He lifted my body up and threw me over his shoulder. I let out the loudest scream. “I want to hear you scream like that when you come for me in like twenty minutes.”

“You do, huh?”

“I plan to ensure you have a few post-win orgasms.”

My head was bobbing up and down. “You may cause me to have an orgasm on the way to your room.”

He stopped dead in his tracks. “What?”

I burst out laughing, reached my hands down, and slid them below his pants line. “You’re taking too long to get up to your room.” My voice sounded whiny, which was intentional. “We haven’t tested out that couch yet.” I pointed to the front sitting room where a long over-stuffed leather couch was pushed up against the wall.

“As tempting as that is, we are going up stairs for this main event.”

“No prelims needed?”

“All we need is the main show, baby.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled into my phone.

“Have your read the news yet?” Charlie said quietly.

“Um, no. Should I?” I sat up and reached my hand over to quickly realize the bed was empty.

“Lils, you may be pissed off. That’s just a fair warning.”

I stood up and grabbed one of Julian’s T-shirts to throw on. “Okay, hold on.” While Charlie was still on the phone, I opened the app for the MMA Journal. The first article that popped up on the screen had a picture of my dad and Julian at Fight It Out. The headline read, “The Punisher Helped Julian Moore Start His Gym.”

The air was sucked out of me. “Wait.” The phone was not at my ear, and I could hear Charlie agreeing with my reaction. I went back to the phone call. “I’m completely confused now.”

“Right? Me, too.”

Just as I was about to say something, Julian appeared in the doorway holding two steaming mugs of coffee. “You’re up.” He beamed.

Apparently he had not read the news yet either. In a split-second decision, I said, “Charlie, I will be right there.” I hung up the phone and made my way over to the top drawer in Julian’s dresser. For some reason, I wasn’t ready to get my own dresser yet. Maybe it was sign. My apprehension toward getting a dresser and now this news headline flashing across MMA Journal’s social media feed. “I’m going to run home.” I had no plans to tell him why. He could find out for himself.

He set the coffee mugs on the end table by the bed. “Do you want breakfast first?”

“Nah, I’ll grab some with Charlie.” I sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled my leggings up. “She just has women talk that needs to commence the moment I step foot through the door.” I stood up and started heading out.

“Sounds important.” He wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed my neck.

My body ignited at his touch, even though I felt unsure if I could trust him. That thought caused my emotions to run in every direction. I needed to get out of his house. Give myself some distance to think.

I was careful and made sure to keep a calm face with a big smile and then kissed his temple. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“I’ll see you at the gym, right?”

“I think I may take an actual day off. Which is crazy, I know.”

He placed his palm on my forehead. “You feeling okay?”

“Ha ha, very funny.” I squeezed his hand and paused before letting it go.

“You okay, Lily?” This time you could hear the concern in his voice.

I threw my purse over my shoulder and looked back one more time. “Yeah, why?”

“I don’t know. You seem off but I can’t put my finger on it.”

“Julian, I won a big fight yesterday. I’m tired.” I smiled. “Stop overthinking. I’ll call you later.”

Before he could respond, I quickly made my way down the stairs. When I reached the door to leave, I glanced up and enjoyed his gorgeous frame towering over the banister. I smiled and blew him a kiss.

A part of me wondered if I would be back.

Would the information I found out be more than I was prepared to hear?

As I sat down in the driver seat, I sent a silent message to my dad, wishing he could’ve been more forthcoming about Julian.