“Do you wanna…” She hesitates. “What are you doing for the next eighty years?”
“You need the title? Like when you asked if I was your boyfriend?” I press another kiss to her lips. Her cheek. Her eyelids when they flutter closed. “Well, for the rest of the year, I think I’ll keep this girlfriend. She’s hot, and kind, and dynamite in bed.”
She lets out a bubbling snicker.
“Maybe you’ve heard of her? Her last name is Turdsky.”
She nods. “I’ve heard of her. She’s pretty cool.”
“Uh huh. Then I figure, sometime next year, we could change her name to something else.”
She shoots back and studies my eyes.
She’s terrified. But hopeful. Scared. But adventurous.
“To Blair? Because Mac’s kinda hot.”
“No!” I squeeze her tight. “Something much cooler. Something that really means something to us. Something my grandpa was set on making mean something more than trailer trash.”
Her cheeks warm and draw me down to press another kiss to her lips.
“I love you, Madilyn.”
“I love you, too.”
“Spend the rest of your life with me?”
She nods. “Will you…” She frowns and sends the pulse in her throat racing. “Bry, will you quit racing?”
“Really?”
I ignore the shouts when Ben’s hand is lifted in the air in victory. When Evie runs at him the moment the cage door is opened. The awkward snickering when Shane Turdsky retrieves his fighter and walks him out of the cage past my dad and grandma. I ignore the nerves that settle through the room as Mac and Iowa prepare to step in for their final fight. The winner becomes the new champion, while the loser goes home to suffer a year of teasing from the rest of us.
“You don’t like it when I race?”
She nibbles her bottom lip and shakes her head. “It’s dangerous. It’s useless. The people who go there are poison and only want to make trouble. You race just for the fun, and not to pay bills. So…” She frowns. “Stay home with me instead. Stay home, and we’ll make our own fun. Quit the tracks for me?”
“Sure.”
I smile as her eyes widen in surprise.
“You thought I would argue?” I tease.
Hesitantly, she nods.
“I only go there to bag the pretty girls anyway.” I bark out a laugh when she slams her fist into my stomach. “Now I got you, and an open invitation to make our own fun. There’s no need to go there.”
“Thank you.” She steps in and rests her cheek against my bare chest.
Ben and Jackson have fought, which means after Mac’s fight, it’s my turn. For one and a half million dollars, a belt, and bragging rights against the groom who is too arrogant for his own good, it’s almost my turn to show my girl what it’s like to date a winner.
“I love you, Turdsky. There are no limits to what I would do for you.” I tuck her back under my arm and squeeze tight enough to make her groan, but I can’t help the adrenaline that zings through my blood as Mac and Iowa step toward each other.
Mac’s surgery scar, though faded over the years, still stands out in stark contrast when the club lights shimmer against the sweat already coating his skin. He chews his purple mouthguard as the referee steps out from between them and prepares to start the fight.
The moment the ref drops his arm, Mac dives forward and slams Iowa to the canvas.
“Mac’s buying our dinner tonight,” I hold Maddi close and smile. “Save space in your belly to eat all the expensive shit.”
Nelly
An Afterthought
“Chantelle, wait.”
I turn just ten paces from the Stacked Deck entrance, and meet the eyes of a man I once knew too well.
Shane hasn’t aged well. He’s bigger now, heavier, and wears pockmarked skin. His chin hangs in low jowls that his tie tries to tuck away and hide.
But it doesn’t take more than a cursory glance to know he’s not led a happy life.
“Shane.” I step to the side as fighters move and shout around us. I fold my arms, and smile for the man I pity. It’s such a shame that bitter men get to live forever, but the good kind are taken much too soon. “You look…” I clear my throat. “Older.”
“You look amazing.” He steps closer. Closer. And makes it so my lungs are filled with his cologne. “How have you been?” he asks. “Have you been well?”
“Uh huh.” I step back, and grin when a fighter I know by sight but not name slows at Shane’s back, and narrows his eyes.
Every fighter in this club knows who my family is. They know who I am. And considering the tension between my family and Shane’s tonight, they know that a meeting between Stacked Deck’s grandma and this man isn’t sanctioned.
He doesn’t intrude, but he’s here to stand guard, just in case.
“I’ve been well,” I answer Shane. “Very well, actually. I heard you grew to become a bitter old man who doesn’t know love from a horse’s ass.”
“You– I–” he blusters. “What?”
“I would have gone the rest of my life never speaking to you, Shane. Lord knows I’d be happy to never see your face again, but you hurt my granddaughter, and that doesn’t sit well with me.”
“Your granddaughter?” he puffs. “That wedding was none of my—”
“Oh, no.” I smile. “Not Evie. She enjoyed her trailer trash wedding. I was speaking of Madilyn.”
His eyes widen.
“She’s mine now. Thanks, though.”
“That’s my granddaughter!” He grabs my arm when I turn to walk away. “Mine!”
“Mine now.” I slide my arm from his grasp when a heavy hand slams down onto his shoulder.
Shane freezes up under the fighter’s touch, swallows when he squeezes.
“You let Maddi go, Shane. You let her walk away like she meant nothing to you.” I shrug. “Your loss is my gain. Thank you for creating such an amazing woman for us to love.”
I turn away with a pitiful scoff, and exit the club to the lovely chorus of Jackson Price being awarded for the best and fairest fight of this year’s tournament.
It would not normally be an insulting award, but tonight, while my grandson gets to hold Madilyn Tosky close, it’ll be considered the greatest insult.
Smiling, I leave the club behind, climb into my car, and head back to my home to walk among the memories I made with my Bryan. Because I’d rather spend time with photographs and recollections than with the horrible, bitter man Shane Tosky has become.
…
Join us for more Stacked Deck fun in BLUFF!