Best Friend's Brother #5 (Best Friend's Brother Romance Series - Book #5) (3 page)

I got under the bag and with my hands open and close
to the
bag,
I started hitting in small circles,
letting my hand travel in circles through the air between each strike. Right,
right, left, left….I got into a rhythm and I did that for about three minutes.
I rested for one and did it again for another three. I was about to go again
when I heard, “Ian, what the hell are you doing here? You’re supposed to be
home sitting on your ass eating pasta.” It was Dean, my trainer. I turned to
look at him, knowing I was caught red-gloved. He was a big one for resting the
night before a big fight.

“Hey Dean.
Sorry, I was just a little antsy tonight. I needed to clear my head and get
some of this energy out or I’ll never be able to sleep tonight. That’ll be
worse, right?”

“I guess. Don’t over-do it though. This is your big
chance man. The scouts will be out in full-force. You don’t want to have to
cancel it because you pulled a muscle or something stupid.”

“I know,” I told him. “I’m not going to blow this. I
just seriously couldn’t relax tonight.”

Dean sighed and said, “How about some pad
training…light!”

“Sounds good,” I told him. He went and got the pads while
I put on my gloves.

“Okay, three minutes, alternate hands, go!”

I hit the pad with a cross then a jab, a hook and
uppercut and I switched hands and did it again. I switched up and did the
one-two fashion, focusing on striking the pad dead center each time. I went in
fast and hard for the last minute, just concentrating on my jabs. When the
alarm on Dean’s watch sounded I finished up with an uppercut.

He had me rest for a full two minutes and then we
started again. This time he moved the pads, up, down and side-to-side as I
threw the punches. We did another three minute round, a one minute rest this
time and we did it again. On the fourth one he said, “This is the last one,
then you go home and rest, okay kid?”

“Yep,” I agreed. I didn’t know about the rest part,
but I’d go home. I’ll rest better if I hear from Alexa and I know that all is
well with her and her dad.

I finished the work-out and thanked Dean. He
reminded me again how big tomorrow’s fight was. I tried not to get annoyed with
him. It was really his night too and if I won, it would be a win for him. He’d
been the one that took the time to teach me what I needed to know, going so far
as to scare me “straight” about the doping. He’d seen a lot of it before he
went to prison and even while he was there. He told me a lot of horror stories
about it that gave me nightmares. He was the one that taught me how to take
care of my body without putting anything artificial in it. I hoped he knew how
much I appreciated all that he’d done for me. If I ever did make it big, I was
taking him with me as far as he wanted to go.

I took a quick shower in the locker room and after I
got dressed I let myself check the phone again.
Nothing.
Damn. I wanted to call her, but I forced myself to leave it alone for now. The
last thing I’d want to do is interrupt her in the middle of that conversation.
I got in the car and went home. It was late and I really needed to at least try
and sleep. I got there, downed another bottle of water and headed for bed. I
checked the phone one more time…still no call. I sat it down on the nightstand
and took off my shoes and pulled off my shirt. I double checked that the ringer
was on and then I lay down. I reached for it again and finally just sent her a
text:

“Hey,
sorry to bug.
I just wanted to make sure all was okay.”

I sat there and stared at it. Less than a minute
went by and
she
text back:

“Everything
is fine. Thank you for worrying
.” It was followed by a
little smiley face. I guess that meant I should stop worrying. I suddenly realized
that I was exhausted. A lot of good sex and a little bit of working out makes
Ian a tired boy. I settled down into my bed, closed my eyes and was out in
minutes.

CHAPTER
FOUR

ALEXA

I realized when the movie ended and I still didn’t
go straight home that my “feet dragging” was getting ridiculous. What was I
afraid
of
? Was I afraid that he would say something
that had a point to it and make me not be with Ian
? Or, did
I just really not want to argue with him tonight? I stopped at the ice cream
parlor that Emma and I used to go to on our “date” nights and instead of
ordering my favorite kind, I ordered hers. I was stalling, but I was also
healing. I was beginning to accept that Emma was gone…slowly. I was able to do
that without being constantly in tears by doing things like this to keep her
memories alive…and talking to Ian about her. Spending time with Ian helped a
lot. But that was definitely not all it was about anymore, so I decided that I
needed to do things like this on my own.

I ate my ice cream slowly, taking a short walk as I
did. The night was warm and the moon was almost full, if I hadn’t had the
problems with Dad on my mind, it would have been really enjoyable. I finally
forced myself back to my car and ended up at home. I was about half way there
when Ian sent me a text asking if everything was okay. I thought it was sweet
that he was worried about me. I told him things were fine, although I hadn’t
talked to Dad yet. I was trying to let myself be confident that I would be. I
parked the car and noticed the lights were still on. I walked into the house
and even though it was late, I wasn’t surprised to find Dad up in the living
room…pretending to read. It was what he’d been doing since I was fifteen years
old. If I wasn’t mistaken, it was even the same book. He looked up at me as if
the time had gotten away from him and said, “Oh, there you are.” He glanced at
the clock, not even subtly and said, “I hadn’t heard from you. I wasn’t sure
you were coming home tonight.”

The guilt trip.
Good move, Dad. “Sorry. I guess I should have texted. I didn’t mean to make you
worry.”

“Where have you been?”

Here goes, “With Ian,” I said, taking a seat on the
couch. He was in the recliner and he snapped down the leg rest and sat up
straight. “I know that you tried to get him to dump me, Daddy. That’s not cool.
I thought we were finished with all of this back when I was in high school.”

He sighed. I could tell by the look on his face that
he was pissed…probably at Ian. He had a lot of nerve to do something like that
and then be mad at Ian for telling me. He wouldn’t have to worry about it if he
would just stop.

“I didn’t say, “Dump,” he said.
“
Did
he say I said, “dump”? Because if he did…”

“Stop it, Dad. Stop trying to turn this around on
him. You were in the wrong and you know it. You told him to leave me alone,
completely. You told him to walk away and break my heart now instead of in the
future. You know how much I like him. I don’t know why you would do that.”

“Because he’s not good for you,” he said. “He is
going to break your heart whether it’s tomorrow or next month.”

I tried to keep my voice steady and not let my
emotions get involved in this just yet as I said, “Daddy, I mean no disrespect
to you when I say this. I love you and I appreciate everything you’ve done for
me, and continue to do for me. But I’m a grown woman. You can’t tell people to
stay away from me because you’re afraid I’m going to get hurt. Ian is not Mom.
But if by some cosmic twist of fate he turns out to be, getting hurt is part of
life and I have to learn how to deal with getting hurt just like any other
adult. It’s part of life…part of growing up. What you’re doing is driving a
wedge between you and me by trying to control my life. I can’t stand that.
You’re making me not want to be here.”

“I’m doing that?” he said, angrily. “I’m trying to
protect you. That’s more than I can say for a man who takes advantage of a girl
who is grieving.”

“He didn’t and is not taking advantage of me! We
leaned on each other to deal with losing Emma…but it turned into more than
that. He didn’t do anything wrong. I’m not angry with Ian about this. I’m angry
with you.”

“That figures. But that’s okay Alexa, I’m used to
it. I figured he’d be a wimp about it and tell you anyways. I bet he just
couldn’t wait.”

“Actually Daddy, he tried not to. He was rude and
dismissive and for two days he wouldn’t tell me what was wrong. I wouldn’t
leave it alone. He finally broke down and told me and then apologized and felt
bad for you. I hope that makes you feel bad. You’re sitting here calling him
names and he was defending you and your motives for doing this. It makes me
furious.”

“I will never feel bad for protecting you no matter
what I have to do in order to accomplish that. It’s my job.”

Grr
!
“Daddy, I’m not sixteen any longer.”

“I realize that. I know how old you are to the
minute. I was there the day you were born and I will be there until the day I
die. Even when you’re forty, you will still be my daughter and I will still be
concerned with you getting hurt. I won’t ever walk out on you, even if you push
me away.”

“Daddy, if you don’t stop trying to control my life,
you are the one pushing me away.” He stood up out of the chair and threw his
arms in the air.

“Fine!” he said. “But tell me something,
Alexa…Explain it to me so I can understand…Why would you blindly walk into this
relationship knowing that it’s not going to work? Why would you set yourself up
to get hurt?”

“I know no such thing. I like him a lot. He likes
me. We get along well. We have a lot in common. Why would you even say that it
won’t
work? That hurts me.”

“He makes his living letting people hit him in the
face and the head. How long is a human supposed to go through that until it has
permanent
damage.
Have you seen Muhammad Ali lately?
He can barely speak, or walk because he’s had so many concussions. They blame
it on something else…but look at Mike Tyson. He’s a nut case….” He was
reaching, desperate to make me not want to be with Ian…or any man for that
matter. What Ian does is even more dangerous than what the old time boxers did.
They use their feet and judo and they choke each other…Alexa, he could end up
dead in the ring. Then what? Then you go through that heartbreak too on top of
losing your best friend. It’s not fair of him to ask that of you!” I suddenly
felt very sick to my stomach. I couldn’t believe that he was sitting here
trying to convince me that Ian might die to keep me from dating him. He put an
image in my head that I was going to have trouble shaking. How desperate was he
to keep me a little girl? I think he suddenly realized how harsh he’d been. His
face softened a little bit and he said, “Honey, there has always been a black
cloud that followed this family around. I’m just so afraid for you.”

“I’m done with this,” I told him. He was calling after
me, but when I got to my room I slammed the door. I didn’t want to hear
anymore. His words were ringing in my head…Ian, dead in the ring. I didn’t know
whether to be upset or pissed off. As it were, I was both.

I lay awake most of the night with my father’s
words, “He could die in the ring” running through my head. If Emma hadn’t died
just over a month ago, maybe I could have laughed it off. But the idea of
mortality never really held a place inside of me until recently. Now I think
about it probably more than is healthy, and thanks to my overprotective father
I was now
not only considering Ian’s mortality, but whether
or not I wanted to stay with someone who did something so dangerous. Damn him!
I spent the night playing out different scenarios in my head. In each scenario,
Ian was dead and I was grieving all over again. At one point, I had to get up
out of bed and go outside on the back porch for some fresh air. I felt like I
couldn’t breathe. All of these thoughts had brought on a panic attack. I remembered
the ones I’d had right after Emma died and I wondered…could I really go through
all of that
again?

CHAPTER
FIVE

IAN

I woke up the morning after spending the day with
Alexa, feeling great. That was good, because today was also my big championship
fight. I’d been working towards this day for a long time. I had trained hard
for it and pushed my body to its limits over and over again. I’m hoping and
praying that tonight all of that would pay off. I took a shower and then I
called Alexa. I didn’t think about how early it was until I heard the sleepy
sound of her voice when she said “Hello.”

“Good morning. Did I wake you up?”

“Um…yeah, I guess so. What time is it?”

“A little after seven,” I said. “I’m sorry. Did you
have a late night talking to your dad?”

“Not really. I just didn’t sleep very well,” she
said. She sounded like something was off.

“Did the talk go okay? Is he really upset that I
told you?”

“He’s fine, Ian. It went fine. I’m sorry. It’s just
so early…”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have woken you up. I just
woke up all psyched up about the fight tonight. I wanted to make sure you were
going to be there.”