Page 15 of Until We're More
“I…wouldn’t put it that way.”Get off, get off, get off.Those words were going to haunt me.
Red crept across her cheeks. “You know what I mean.”
The temptation to ask her to explain called to me, but I batted it away so I could focus on her needs. “Chels, you said yourself that you want to climb up the ladder…”
A fiery gleam entered her eye. “If you call me a monkey again and offer me a banana, I’m going to shove it up your—”
“Hey, hey.” I held my hands up in a soothing I-surrender gesture. “Save that feistiness for your coworkers.”
“Feisty, huh? This guy who hit me up after seeing my online dating profile said he assumed I’d be feisty because of my red hair, and I’m afraid I failed to impress him on that count. What if the same thing happens with the employees here?”
“You have an online dating profile?” Creepers were out there scrolling through her pictures and judging her? Probably sending her unimpressive dick pics, too. Because really, there was no such thing as an impressive one. Not that I’d received any, but Brooklyn had mentioned it was a different dating world out there, and the thought of my sister dealing with it had made me angry. The thought of Chelsea dealing with it… Anger was one of the emotions, for sure, along with that stupid pinch in my gut that kept happening whenever I thought of her with someone else.
Chelsea sighed. “Can we focus on the here and now?”
“Sure,” I said, even though I’d be circling back around to the online-dating thing. If she was going to be meeting with people from the internet, I was going to up her self-defense training, stat. “Today you march in there and you show them you can handle being in charge of a group of people. Demand respect. And if you need backup, I’m just a phone call away.”
“But the point is to have them respect mewithoutbackup.” She patted my arm. “Even though I appreciate the thought.” She dropped onto the barstool, scooped eggs into her mouth with her fork, and gave one sharp nod. “Okay. I can totally be a hard-ass.”
“You can be,” I said, because that was what she needed to hear. All it’d take was one sob story from a coworker and she’d fall for it hook, line, and sinker. Clearly I should’ve done more prep work on the bold and assertive front instead of getting caught up in the ease of hanging out with her and how much more I laughed whenever she was around. “And remember that most people are big liars. Especially in their online profile.” I couldn’t help it. It just popped out.
She rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh. “I was afraid that was going to come back to bite me. It’s hard to meet people, okay? And I’ve only gone on a few dates with guys I’ve met through there. Really I should be making fun of you—you’rethe one who needs to get with the times.”
I crossed my forearms on the counter, bringing me down to her eyeline level so I could peer into her big brown eyes. “How do you know I don’t have an online profile?”
She nearly spit out her orange juice. “Good one. All you have to do is step outside or go to a bar and you could meet a girl likethat.” She snapped her fingers.
Maybe the old me. And sure, the current me could, but there was a difference between being able to and having the desire to. I hadn’t done much of the casual hookup thing since my early twenties. Girls tended to want more than I could give, and I had way too much on my plate as it was. I didn’t have time for a full-blown relationship, and I’d only occasionally missed it until Chelsea moved. Without her to fill in the missing parts, life seemed to be constantly holding up a big old mirror and showing me how empty mine was.
Someday I’d deal with that, but for now I was going to enjoy having her here. Hell, I’d already talked more in the past few days than I usually did in an entire month. With the exception of barking out orders, I really only talked to my family, and how much depended on the day and if they were on one of theirpoint out how grouchy Liam iskicks.
“Thanks for breakfast. I better get going.” She scooted off her stool and rounded the counter so she was standing right in front of me, and it struck me as the type of domestic moment that would include a kiss goodbye.
Instead she dumped her plate in the sink. On her way past me, I got a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek, something I’d also missed. “Later, roomie.”
“Knock ’em dead,” I said, then I forced myself not to stare at her ass or think about the way those pants showed it off so nicely. Good thing I was headed to the gym, because I suddenly felt the need to expend a lot of energy.
…
“I heard Chelsea’s back in town and staying with you,” Dad said the second I stepped into his office. My siblings had big mouths.
Dad was another reason I’d stayed away from relationships in general. As much as I’d tried to stop it, I ended up more like him than I would’ve preferred. Not that he wasn’t a good guy, with a lot of admirable attributes. He was a hell of a fighter, a great coach, and he was dedicated to his sport and his gym. Often to the detriment of his family, something he was working on, but in spite of how much he wanted to change, old habits died hard. He and Brooklyn had come a long way in repairing their relationship, but it’d required a lot of patience on her part, and he’d still hurt her feelings a few times along the way.
I worried I was destined to do the same to people around me. Finn and Brooklyn would forgive me because they were family, but I could never seem to leave work behind, and I wouldn’t be satisfied until I won a belt. Until Team Domination became synonymous with winning, along with the Roth name. The career I’d chosen was all-consuming and brutal, and I’d be damned if I would drag someone I cared about through the same things my mom endured as she’d supported my dad. “Yeah, just for a month and a half.”
“Tell her to come in and say hi. I’d like to see her.”
“I’ll let her know.” At first Chelsea had been completely intimidated by Dad, the way most people instinctively were, but once she’d gotten to know him better, she saw his softer side. That didn’t mean he hadn’t sometimes spoken too harshly to her or hurt her feelings by calling her a “distraction.”
While I’d barely admitted it to myself, shehadbeen one leading up to one of my previous fights—a big, high-stakes fight, at that. We’d been having a ton of fun over Christmas break her senior year of college, and instead of stopping them, I’d let my thoughts fully stray towanting to kiss Chelseaterritory. I’d lost the edge on my focus, and it was painfully evident in the cage.
It’d taken me nearly a year after that loss to claw my way back to where I’d been, and if I wasn’t careful, I’d barter six weeks for the eighteen months it took to reach title contention.If I lose this next big fight, I probably won’t get another shot at the belt, not for a long time, anyway.
On top of being a waste of a lot of hard work, it’d be a huge blow to the gym, and I couldn’t stand the thought of my teammates’ and my family’s disappointment. It’d hurt enrollment, too. Why would anyone sign up to train with a coach who couldn’t clinch a win when it came to the big fights?
Everything in my life, including my fights, ran more smoothly when I kept Chelsea in the strictly friends category, and apparently my brain needed that reminder. “What’s the schedule like today?”
Dad gave me the rundown and reminded me it was my turn to take over tonight’s kickboxing class so Finn could keep his focus on his upcoming fight. Currently, Shane and I were trading off.
