Page 34 of Mother Parker
I tried to remind myself it wasn’t her fault she didn’t know me. That she didn’t realize that was how I spoke and it had nothing to do with my mood or the situation.
We hadn’t lived together or near each other for over a decade. It wasn’t her fault.
But despite that, I still felt a pinch in my chest. She was my sister, damn it. She should know me better. Yes, I was a grump—and who wouldn’t be after all the crap life had dealt me—but this was also who I was.
“Okay. So, what do we do first?” she asked, putting her hands up as if she were about to box.
“First of all, this is self-defense, notKarate Kid,” I told her and lowered her hands.
“Okay. What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you learn how to defend yourself, not attack. And second, unless you go walking around covering your face, this won’t do you any good. In fact…” I narrowed my eyes and rubbed my chin. “You’ll probably look weird. Actually, scratch the probably.”
Autumn gasped and shook her head.
“Would you look at that? Parker Hawkinsdoeshave a sense of humor after all. If only it wasn’t aimed at his poor sister.”
“Poor?”
“What? I’m awittledefenseless girl,” she said, lifting her shoulders and making a face.
“You know that hasn’t worked since you were four, right?”
“Fine,” she said and relaxed her body. “So what now?”
I stood opposite her and tried to find a starting point.
“Right, first things first, whenever someone tries to get you, your first move should always be to take control of the situation. Act now, panic later sort of thing. You usually want to lower your center of gravity to avoid injury and to destabilize the aggressor. For example…”
I then went on to demonstrate how she would escape someone who tried to grab her from behind by having her grab me from behind and then asking her to do it to me.
“So, how was working with Hwan? He’s a great guy, isn’t he?” she asked as we practiced the moves.
I didn’t want to overwhelm her in the first lesson, so I was only going to show her two more techniques and practice those for the rest of the hour. If she was learning to protect herself, she needed to act on instinct. So repetition would be our friend.
“He’s fine,” I said.
His bright, smiley image assaulted my mind and waved at me.
“Just fine?” she asked, elbowing my stomach and getting her back leg behind me.
I thought back to our training and how vivid he had been demonstrating everything, not getting deterred by my gruff responses or short temper, and my chest hurt.
Autumn lifted my legs and threw me to the ground on my back, and I groaned.
“Oh my God. I can’t believe I tackled a fucking SEAL,” she said and jumped excitedly.
“You do know I’m not using all my power on you?” I told her as I got back up.
My chest still hurt, and I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t from falling on my back. But it couldn’t be. It had been aching all day. Especially since I’d been in the same room with my new boss.
“Way to knock my confidence, douche,” she said.
“You’re right. I’m sorry,” I told her and put my hands up.
“Why aren’t you using your full strength? I thought this technique was supposed to work no matter how big and strong the attacker is,” she said.
“Because I could hurt you,” I said.
