Entice (The Fighter Romance Series - Book #2) (7 page)

“Okay.” Once again it warmed my heart to know that
he cared.

I got up after he left and showered. I was still
lost in the afterglow of the previous night and couldn’t focus on much else so
I was moving kind of slow. I got a text from my mother telling me her bus would
be in at ten a.m. I got that knot back in the pit of my stomach that never went
away when she went around. I was always waiting to see what she was going to do
next. It was rarely ever good. I finished dressing and went out to clean up the
apartment. It wasn’t ever too messy with just me there, but I picked up my
clothes from the previous night out of the kitchen floor and as I did a chill
ran over me as I remembered the way he kissed me…and the way his hands felt on
my body when he leaned me up against the counter. I had to shake that off or
I’d have never gotten anything done. I finished straightening up the kitchen
and went in to make sure the extra room was all set up for my mother. I changed
the sheets although they weren’t really even slept on; it was the hostess in me
I guessed. Then thinking about all the sweat and sex, I changed mine while I
was at it. I dumped all the dirty stuff in the washer that I was still so happy
was working. I looked around, everything looked good. I looked at the clock, it
was time. With a heavy sigh I grabbed my purse and went to pick up my mother.

I felt bad that I so didn’t want her to come, but I
guessed as long as she didn’t know it that was okay. I timed my trip perfectly;
when I pulled up, her bus was just pulling into the depot. I got out and waited
until I saw her step off and then I went over to help her with her bags. My
mother was beautiful, and sometimes I thought that was to her detriment. Her
red hair was still as red as ever without so much as a trace of gray. She wore
it to her shoulders and the soft layers framed her face. I had to thank her for
the hair, at least. Her green eyes were the same color as mine, but hers were
huge and the first thing anyone ever noticed about her. Her skin was still
smooth and other than a few tiny little lines around her eyes, she seemed to
never age. She took care of her body and a few of her “boyfriends” had even
paid for things like breast enlargement and tummy tucks before they dumped her.
Her looks was what attracted them one right after the other, but her being able
to hang on to them was another story.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Hi, baby girl!” She only called me that when she
wanted something…or was for the moment grateful that I was going to let her
stay with me. We waited for her bags to come off the bus and then while she
carried her small overnight bag, I struggled with the roller bag and the
suitcase. We tucked them all into the trunk and got into the car.

As I started it I said, “So how was the bus trip?”

“Not too bad,” she said. “I really need a car. I
mean, I was only an hour away but I had to take a stupid, dirty bus to get
here.” I tried not to roll my eyes. I often thought that if these sorts of
things really bothered her all that bad, she’d get a job and start taking care
of herself. As I was pulling out of the parking lot she said, “I can’t believe
Tyler did this to me. I thought he was the one…I really did.”

Tyler was twenty-seven years old to my mother’s
forty-five. He was a singer in a band that played the seediest bars in Los
Angeles. He hung out with a rough crowd and he had at least three kids that my
mother knew of that he had fathered out of wedlock. Wow, I thought,
sarcastically, I couldn’t believe she’d let that one get away.

I was trying not to say anything, but I really
wanted to help make her feel better about it so I said, “You’re probably better
off.”

“Better off?” she said in that high-pitched voice
she used when she thought I was completely wrong about something. “How could I
be better off? I have to move in with my daughter. I had a home and I thought
he and I were going to be a family…” I sighed. She acted like losing a piece of
shit drunk that cared nothing about her and cheated on her to boot was the end
of the world. It was the dramatic component of it all that drove me crazy. She
set herself up for these things…sometimes I thought, just because she was
unable to live without the drama. Since I’d moved out on my own, I had lived as
drama-free as possible because of it…until recently, anyways. I glanced over at
her. I was sorry I did. She was tearing up as she said, “I think he cheated on
me.”

“Hmm,” I hoped that sounded sympathetic.

“I don’t think it’s the first time. He says he’s
playing sometimes and when I show up at the bar, he’s not there, or he sneaks
out from the back right before some little skank comes skulking out. Why? Tell
me why he would want to be with that trash when he has all this waiting for him
at home.” She actually held her arms out when she said, “All this.” She was
really something.

“
Mmm
,” I said.

“I think I’m just too good to them. I give them
everything they want…whenever they want it…however they want it, if you know
what I mean…” I did, and now I was nauseated. I kept silent. That one didn’t
even call for a sound. She didn’t mention what they had all done for her. “They
take it all and then they leave me…they all leave me in the end…”

Finally I said, “That’s too bad, Mom.” She continued
to ramble on for a while. It was all “woe is me.” She acted like everything
that happened to her was someone else’s fault. The universe was out to hurt
her…she never took responsibility for doing anything wrong…it’s the way she’d
always been. I should thank her…it made me go the opposite direction. I took responsibility
for everything, even things that I shouldn’t. I was relieved when my apartment
complex came into view. I was fed up with listening to her broken record.

We pulled up in my spot in the lot and she proved
she wasn’t done annoying me by saying, “Justin called me last night. He really
wants you to call him.”

“No! Damn it, Mom. Why are you even still taking his
calls? You said you’re not buying from him any longer…a recovering addict does
not need a dealer on speed dial, and I do not want to talk to him.”

“I don’t like the way you throw around that
word…addict. But anyways, he misses you, baby. I feel sorry for him. He’s not
trying to sell me anything. He just needs someone to talk to. He’s all
alone…you’re alone…”

“I’d rather be alone than with a man like that. God,
Mom! You of all people know what I went through with him.” I got out and
started taking her luggage out of the car. She came around to help and said,
“Do you have someone else, honey? Is that why you won’t at least call him?”

“No, I don’t have anyone, but that’s not the point
anyways. I do not want Justin and I’m just appalled that any mother on this
earth would try and force her daughter into a relationship with a drug dealer.
Even being his friend would be too much and you know it.” I grabbed the bags
and headed for the apartment. She followed me and when we were inside I dropped
them and she said, “I just hate to see you alone, honey. You’re so pretty. You
should have a man around to appreciate you…while you’re still young.”

“I don’t need a man in my life to define who I am,
Mother. I’m happy and I don’t feel lonely. I have a good life and lots of
friends. None of whom deal drugs. I have to go to work. The room is all ready
for you. Help yourself to whatever you want in the kitchen; I’ll be back in a
few hours.”

“Maybe you could just call Justin and say hello. You
don’t have to go out with him or anything if you’re with someone else….” I
closed the door behind me, cutting her off. She’d been in my presence for less
than an hour and I already wanted to kill her or myself. I wasn’t sure which.
It was probably good that I didn’t have a weapon right at that second, or we
may have found out.

I left her with her things in her new room and I
headed for work. I was thankful that it was the one place that I could get some
peace.

*******

I walked into my “peaceful place” just in time to
see Paul throwing a right hook at Mark. I was shocked for a few seconds,
wondering if it was a sparring match and maybe it had just gotten out of hand.
I saw Mark dodge it and throw one back. It almost connected with Paul’s jaw and
the look in Paul’s eyes as they focused on Mark’s face told me they weren’t
playing. I looked at Victoria who was standing behind the counter. She had a
helpless, horrified look on her face. “I didn’t know what to do; they just
hooked up all of a sudden.”

“Where the hell is everyone?”

“Greg’s in the back. Sam and Jeff aren’t here.”

The other gym patrons were watching as if it was an
MMA match. Three or four other grown-ass muscled-up men and no one was trying
to stop it. Idiots! I went over and called out to Paul. He didn’t answer me,
being as he was too busy taking an upper-cut to his chin. So I tried Mark who
was also otherwise occupied. Finally I just stepped between them and nearly took
Paul’s fist to my gut. Thank God for his quick reflexes. His face was bleeding
and he’d worked up a sweat. I could hear Mark panting behind me and talking
shit. “Damn it, Jessie! I almost hit you!” Suddenly I was the one being stupid.
Men!

“What the hell is going on?” I asked him. Paul
didn’t answer me. He wiped at the blood on his face with the back of his hand
and continued to glare at Mark. Making sure I stayed between them I turned and
looked at Mark. “You want to tell me what the hell this is about?” He chose the
silent glare as well. “Okay, fine. Mark, you go home. You’ve had your work-out.
You can come back tomorrow when you’ve cooled down. This is only going to keep
going if you stay here and someone is going to get hurt or in a lot of
trouble.”

“Why do I have to leave? He started it!”

“I wouldn’t have if you didn’t have such a
big-fucking mouth!” Paul said. They tried to go at each other again and I
pushed on Paul’s chest with all my might. He was so fucking solid that it was
like pushing against a wall. I finally succeeded in pushing him a step back.

Then as I kept my back against him so I could feel
if he moved, I turned back to Mark and said, “Go, home, Mark. Now! Otherwise
I’ll get Greg to deal with this and you’ll both lose your privileges altogether.
You know he won’t tolerate this shit. Come back tomorrow in a better mind-set
and we’ll forget this happened.”

Mark mumbled under his breath but I watched as he
picked up his towel and his water and got his bag and left. I turned back to
Paul who still hadn’t stopped glaring at him. He was even staring him down
through the glass window as Mark go into his car. I shook my head and said, “In
the office, now.” He started to argue but the look on my face must have told
him I was serious. He headed for the office and I followed him. I thought this
must be what it was like to be the principal at a boys’ school.
Way too much testosterone.
Victoria handed me the first aid
kit as we walked past. I thanked her and followed Paul into the office and
closed the door behind us.

“What the hell was that about?”

“Nothing,” he said. He looked like an insolent
child. I opened the first aid kit and found some sterile gauze. I opened the
package and poured saline from the bottle in the kit on it. Then I pressed it
to the cut on his cheek. He winced. I held it there until it stopped bleeding
and then while I was cleaning up the dried blood I tried again.

“I thought you and Mark were friendly?” He shrugged,
still like a pouting child. “What did he say that pissed you off so much?” He
shrugged again.
I sighed and pat his face dry with clean
gauze before applying a butterfly bandage to close the cut.
“I don’t
think it needs stitches.” I dropped down into the seat next to him and said,
“Please talk to me.”

“He’s just an idiot sometimes. I guess I shouldn’t
have gotten so mad.”

“You think? You can’t just punch people for pissing
you off.”

He rolled his eyes and said, “I know that. I was
just a little stressed out already and he started saying things about…”

“About what?”

“Nothing, it doesn’t matter. I shouldn’t have hit
him although I think he deserved it.”

“Tell me what he said.” I wanted to understand if
this was just an anger management problem or if Mark had really gone too far.

“He was just talking stupid shit about…he said something
about ‘tapping’ your ‘sweet ass.’”

“Me?” I was truly shocked. Mark rarely made lewd
comments to me. He was usually one of the more respectful clients.

“Yeah.
He said that he noticed we were spending a lot of time together and that when I
got to “tap it” if I hadn’t already, I should let him know how it was; if it
would be worth his time pursuing it.
Fucking moron.”

“Wow that surprises me. Thank you for defending me,
but truly, you shouldn’t have punched the guy.”

He sighed and with a genuinely remorseful look he
said, “I know.”

“Is it all the stress with Marie and Mitch?” I was
hoping that’s what it was. I hoped that he didn’t have a legitimate anger
problem.

“Yeah, that and trying to still concentrate on what
I need to do in order to win this championship title and you coming into my
life….”