Chapter Thirty-One
Shane
In some ways, this week had been the hardest week I’d had in years. And in others… My gaze drifted to Brooklyn, and she gave me a smile, followed by a look that meant stop being so obvious.
In others, it’d been the best fucking week of my life.
Don’t get me wrong, today’s workout made me long for death, but like a quick one, where I came back at the end of the day to see my girl. Weekends didn’t mean a whole lot in my line of work—or more like they meant the gym would be full of weekend warriors—so I either crowded in with them or got creative. Looking at Brooklyn, I could think up a lot of creative ways to expend some energy, and I decided that tomorrow I’d skip the gym. But first I had to mention it to my coach real quick and see if he popped a blood vessel.
“I’m thinking about taking my recovery day tomorrow,” I told Blake, who’d done the majority of today’s training. I didn’t know if it was punishment for standing up to him, or if he believed in me and wanted to take a more active role, but between his, Liam’s, and Finn’s rigorous workouts this week, there wasn’t a single muscle in my body that didn’t ache. “Then I’ll do a beach jog and some lighter drills on Sunday to get me through the weekend.”
The guy stared, hard and flat, giving me no clue as to what he thought of my plan. He expelled a breath. “I suppose that’s in order. It does no good to injure you, because we sure as shit don’t have spare time for recovery.”
In other words, we still had a lot of work to do. No fighter ever wanted to think they weren’t up to par, and I’d driven myself harder than I ever had, but I got it. Conrad’s nickname “Croc” hadn’t only come from combining his first and last name, but because he was notoriously hard to keep down. He always managed to roll his opponent and take control, and grappling was my weakest area. I’d been working my ass off to tip those scales in my favor, though.
“See you on Monday, then, when the gym’s less crowded and I’ve spent the weekend recouping.” Not that I was going to tell him, but Brooklyn was part of that. Whenever I was with her, things felt less heavy. The world calmed. Anything seemed possible, which had me tasting that future victory, making me want it that much more.
“You better be ready on Monday, bright and early. Stay up late and party all weekend, and you’ll regret it.”
Either way, I’d be pushing my body to the brink and sucking air Monday morning, but I didn’t plan on partying. Besides the night I’d slipped and had the Jack Daniels, I’d already cut out alcohol two weeks ago. The plan was to take Brooklyn to a barbecue my closest friends were throwing. I wanted her to meet them, and for them to meet her, and in spite of being sure it’d go smoothly, I was oddly nervous.
Brooklyn grew up in this gym, around rough and tumble guys, but there was a difference between trained-fighter-hard and street-hard, and my boys and I grew up in one of the rougher neighborhoods. It sometimes made me worry that I’d never be able to make her happy, not if I didn’t get my career back and hold on to it, even as I told myself it was way too soon to think about that.
The thought of us not being together made my lungs deflate. I might be getting in over my head.
Don’t overthink it. Tonight’s about fun, not forever. I walked up to her desk, working on keeping a straight face instead of giving her a goofy grin and bouncing around her feet like a dog who couldn’t wait to go for a walk. “You about done here?”
She glanced around and kept her voice low, like there might be hidden spy cams. “I need another half hour, maybe even a whole one. I’m so close to the bottom of this bill pile, but I can’t get things to balance right.”
“Want me to stick around?”
“No. We’d just get ourselves in trouble.” Her eyes ran down me and she sank her teeth into her lower lip. Evidently she wanted me sporting a hard-on at the gym—it’s not like sweats did a good job of hiding a situation like that, either.
“The sexy lip bite isn’t helping,” I said. “Need me to take over? I’d love to get my teeth on—”
“Hey, Liam!” Brooklyn’s voice was forced enthusiasm, to the point that even I suspected her of something, and I knew exactly what she was up to. Her brother walked up to the desk and parked himself right next to me. “Shane and I were talking about our weekend plans. Are you doing anything fun?”
Liam glanced from me to her, and speaking of suspicion, he clearly had some of his own. Lately I’d been thinking we should just drop the act and come clean. Undoubtedly, they wouldn’t like it, but I was over caring. It was frustrating when I couldn’t greet her with a good morning kiss, or a good-bye one. Or one to celebrate the middle of the day. The afternoon. When she scrunched her nose in that cute way she did when her figures on screen didn’t cooperate.
Plus, I wanted every other guy in the gym to know that she was mine.
Liam ran a hand through his hair. “Same thing I do every weekend. Try to catch up on work.” We all pushed ourselves hard here, but the tension practically radiated off him in waves, and he looked even more tired than usual.
“So no,” Brooklyn said. “You’re just ignoring your own advice that I threw back at you?”
“Yeah, why don’t you take some time off to paint, bro?” I nudged him with my elbow. “I’d like to see what you come up with.”
He actually cracked a smile. “I’m going to leave the art to Brooklyn.”
Speaking of, I still hadn’t seen any of Brooklyn’s paintings. I couldn’t wait to see what that beautiful brain came up with. I also wanted to get her gorgeous self out of here so that we could squeeze every last drop from the time we got to spend together. I knew training and the stress of an upcoming fight would only get more intense, so there was no time like the present.
Since it didn’t seem like Liam was going to leave his sister and me alone anytime soon, I decided to hit the road. That way I could swing by and check on Tammy. I’d kept her up to date on things over the phone, but I hadn’t stopped by in way too long. Another thing I was going to have to do a better job of balancing.
I hiked my duffel bag higher on my shoulder. “Well, I’ll see everybody later.” I reached up and tapped my ear, hoping that Brooklyn got the message to call me when she could. We hadn’t finalized arrangements, and I’d told Hector I’d be at his place around seven.
Liam said something, and her attention turned to him. My text chime went off as I pushed out the door.
Brooklyn: I’ll try to hurry, I promise. I’ll text you when I’m on my way to your place, and until then, just know you’re in my very inappropriate thoughts.
With messages like that, how the hell wasn’t I supposed to fall for her on the spot?