Page 16 of Falling for the Knockout

“Yep, I’d love to come watch Tony work out,” she teased.

“Great,” Jonesy said, “see you both in about an hour then.”

“Wait, what happened to later today?” Tony asked.

“Well, I figure that we have a lot of work to do to get your shit together, so let’s start early.” Aurora giggled and waved to Jonesy as he walked out of the kitchen.

Tony waited until he heard the front door close before he pulled his cell phone from his pocket.

“What are you doing?” Aurora asked.

“I’m calling my grandfather. I need to talk to him about this fight. I always discuss my fights with Nonno.”

“It’s only six-thirty,” Aurora reminded.

“Right, better to go over to his place. He probably had his ringer down if he was sleeping. He’ll hear me banging on the door though,” Tony said.

“You can’t be serious,” Aurora drawled.

“I am,” Tony said. “If we hurry and get dressed, we’ll be able to stop by Elio’s and then get to the gym on time. I don’t want to piss Jonesy off first thing. He’ll never let me forget it if we’relate.”

“Fine, but the only reason I’m agreeing to this is because I get to see Elio—well, and you are all sweaty in just your gym shorts.” Tony watched as Aurora got up and left the kitchen and he wished that they had more time before they had to leave. He’d just have to make sure to save some energy for when they got back home because he planned on working Aurora out today too.

Tony parked in Elio’s extra parking space, happy that they had gotten to him before the home health care nurse. Parking at that place was tricky at best, and using Nonno’s extra space would give him a few more seconds to spend with his grandfather. He just hoped that Nonno would take his news well because he hated leaving him when he was already going through so much.

“Are you sure that you don’t mind tagging along everywhere with me today?” Tony asked Aurora.

“Of course, I don’t mind,” she insisted. “It sure beats having to sit around the house and wonder if my life would ever go back to normal.” Hearing her say that she wanted to go back to her old life—her normal life hurt his feelings.

“I must be horrible to live with, judging by how much you want to get away from me,” Tony grumbled.

“It’s not like that,” Aurora insisted. “I just don’t want to put you out any more than I already have.”

“We’ve been over this before, honey. You’re not a burden. I mean, I can understand you wanting to get back to a routine and daily activities. Sitting around my place isn’t as exciting as Ithink it might be.”

“Your place is great,” Aurora insisted.

“Then why don’t you stay?” Tony asked. “I mean, I have the room, and you said yourself that apartments are scarce right now.” A part of him felt bad that he made her give up her place, but he wouldn’t want her going back there anyway. It was in an awful neighborhood, and besides that fact, he wanted her to stay with him.

“Um, I can give your offer some thought, but shouldn’t we do what we came here to do? You don’t want to be late to meet with Jonesy.”

He looked her over as though trying to decide if he believed her or not. He had a feeling that Aurora wasn’t going to think over his offer at all. Tony could tell by her expression that she wasn’t going to give him any more than what she already had.

“Okay, I’ll let you evade my questions and change the topic, but we will be revisiting this conversation later.” She nodded and hummed as though she had no intention of revisiting their conversation at all.

“Let’s go in to talk to my grandfather,” Tony ordered. She followed him into the apartment complex, and he knocked on Nonno’s door. He learned the hard way never to just walk into his grandparents’ place when he was in his early twenties. He had just moved out of the home his grandparents had lived in for over fifty years, and he stopped by to pick up the last of his things. Instead of knocking, he just walked in, figuring that was okay since he still had a key. But he was wrong—so wrong. He walked into the kitchen and found his grandparents having sex. After his initial shock and disgust, he ran out of that house sofast that his head spun. From then on, he knocked and would continue to do so.

Elio pulled the door open, shouted at him to hold his horses, and motioned for Tony and Aurora to come in. “I thought that you might be my nurse,” Elio said. “She ran out to pick up my groceries and medications, and I thought that she’d be back by now.”

“Would you like me to call her to see if she’s okay?” Aurora offered.

“No,” Elio said, “she probably added on a few other stops. She likes to bring me little treats, and I don’t want to rush her if that’s the case.” Aurora giggled at his grandfather and sat down next to him on the sofa.

“It sounds like she speaks your love language,” Aurora teased. “You do love your little treats, Elio.”

“Yep,” he agreed, “so, what brings you two by on your day off?” He was always one step ahead of Tony, even when he was a teenager, and his Nonno didn’t miss anything.

“I have news,” Tony said, sitting down in the chair across from his grandfather.

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