Brawler looks like he wants to argue, but he doesn’t. This fighter has the biggest heart out of everyone I know. He’ll forgive Johnny, eventually. If only because I ask him to, he will.
“Well,” he finally says. “If you’ll stop distracting me. Your phone is in my gym bag. You need to call your aunt before we leave here. I’ve been texting her. I hope that’s okay. I was pretending to be you, but she wants to hear your voice. I figured pretending to be you was better than having her send the police, considering you were gone for a long time.”
I move to my tiptoes to kiss him on the lips. “You’re the best.” I grip his shirt in my hands, tugging him even closer to me. Leaving my phone with Brawler was the best decision I could have made. I knew he would handle it.
I walk out of the office with a weight lifted off my shoulders. Connection is what we all need. A place for us to fit in. To feel like we belong somewhere that’s different than the shitstorm surrounding us.
22
Brawler rocks at texting because for once, the conversation I have with my aunt isn’t strained with accusations about how I’m not talking to them or how they’re worrying about what I’m doing. When I get off the phone with her, I have an actual smile on my face. So different from my normal wave of guilt that plagues me for the rest of the night.
In fact, I’m in such a good mood that I invite everyone over for dinner at my place.
“Um, Princess?”
I turn my head toward Oscar, just knowing by his asshole smirk that he’s two seconds from making me want to slap him. Lovingly, of course. “Yeah?”
“Aren’t you forgetting about Johnny?”
I crack an even bigger smile. “No, in fact, I’m thinking about Johnny and all of us. I’ll make dinner. We’ll watch movies and talk. It’ll be great.”
Brawler gazes at his feet while Oscar still stares at me as if I’ve lost my head. “Johnny isn’t one to have people over.”
“That’s because he’s usually up his dad’s ass. If we want to help him, we have to separate the two. Insert...us.”
“Insert us?” Oscar grins. “That’s your grand plan?” His voice takes on a high-pitched female quality as he says his next words. “Guess what, babe? I found you a new family, and now we can all be together.” He drops his facade. “That’s what’s going on in that pretty little head of yours?”
I barely contain the laugh bubbling up my throat, but I do. I also step forward and give him a playful shove in the chest. “Yes, asshole. The sooner he finds out he actually likes you guys the better. If he actually likes you guys.”
“Please,” Oscar scoffs. “I’m downright lovable.”
I roll my eyes into the back of my head. Literally. Well, okay, not literally, but I roll them as far as I fucking can. That Drego, always so full of himself. “Then you’ll have no problem winning him over.” I move to peek at Mag. “This is a good idea, right?”
He scratches his scruff. I’m beginning to think he does that when he’s nervous, or thinking, or hell, basically any time. “It could go either way.”
Footsteps approach us, and I glance at Finn who’s come out of the back room with fresh clothes on. They’re about to shut down the gym, and he’s dressed like he’s about to head out for the night. “What could go either way?”
“I’m inviting everyone over to my place for dinner. I’m cooking. You in?”
Finn beams, but Jax speaks up from behind him. “No.”
Finn spins. “What? Why?”
“We’re not going to the tower. Are you fucking crazy?”
“We were there to pick her up for the last fight.”
Jax shakes his head. “That was before someone tried to fucking bomb it.” He glances over at me. “Thanks for the invitation, but we’ll pass.”
I nod at his answer. I honestly can’t blame him for his reaction. He’s just trying to keep them safe. “I understand. Maybe some other time? We can all go out to eat or something.”
Jax throws his arm around Finn, discreetly squeezing his shoulders. “Yeah. Sounds good,” Finn says, though he doesn’t appear to agree with his brother at all.
I step up, throwing my arms around him for a quick hug. “Sometime, ‘kay?” He nods, and I pull away. “Thanks for the training sesh.”
“Same place, same time tomorrow, Princess,” Finn says, replacing his frown with his coach exterior.
Automatically, my gaze veers to my poster on the wall. Honestly, it’s fucking badass. I look fierce and determined. Basically, everything I hope I look like when my opponent stares me down from the opposite side of the ring just before the bell rings.
Finn follows my gaze. “Our enrollment is up thirty-five percent.”
Jax hits him upside the head. “Jesus. We don’t talk business in front of customers.”
“They’re not just customers, asshole,” Finn says, rubbing his head. “They’re our friends.”
Jax grinds his teeth together. He stops when he realizes I’m looking at him, and we stare one another down. I get his hesitation. I do. I’m just not used to it. Being feared in this way kind of sucks. “Well, we’re getting out of here,” I tell them. “See you guys tomorrow.”
We walk out. Oscar jumps on his bike, and Brawler gets in the car with Mag and I, taking up the backseat while I ride shotgun with the copper-haired badass hottie.
“We need to make a quick trip to the store,” I inform them.
Forty minutes later, we’re inside my apartment. I’ve already texted Johnny to tell him I’m cooking dinner for everyone tonight. He hasn’t written me back yet, but I’m not counting that as a tick in the “I shouldn’t have done this” column yet. There’s no telling why he isn’t writing back.
I make the guys sit in the living room while I start cutting up potatoes for scalloped potatoes and ham. My mother used to make this dish. Call me nostalgic because it sounds amazing. Magnum keeps sneaking into the kitchen while Oscar and Brawler find something to watch on TV. Every once in a while, they chuckle, and it makes my heart lift in my chest as if it’s suspended by bungee cords.
“So, real talk,” I say, staring at my phone again and not finding a response from Johnny. “Good idea or bad idea?”
“Good idea,” Mag says with authority. He reaches over and takes the knife and potatoes from me before cutting them just like I was. I smile up at him and start making the sauce that goes over them. “Johnny needs this. You think he’s ever known a family dinner that didn’t involve a bullet in a guy’s head? Like with Dunnegan? If he ever had it, he was probably too young to remember.”
“Do you think he’ll accept you guys?” I ask, gut twisting. I’m not sorry for what I’m doing, however I’m sorry that it might hurt Johnny. Even though, I don’t know, I believe he can be turned around. Everything that’s happening can’t be for nothing. It’s not as if I’m with Brawler and Oscar with the intention of leaving Johnny behind. I would never do that. It’s not even like I’m keeping the others from him because I’m trying to be a shady bitch. I’m not. This is just how it has to be right now, and I’ll fucking fight anyone who says otherwise.