“I don’t like it,” she says with a sniff. “You’ll hurt her.”
“What? No…” I start to explain.
“Her feelings for you have always run deep, while I would take a guess and say yours are…more of the fleeting type,” she remarks while glancing briefly at my shorts again.
“That’s not it at all,” I assure her when I cross my arms over my chest. “I love Cassidy and want to spend the rest of my life with her.”
“That will be quite a feat since you’re still married to another woman.”
Gritting my teeth, I tell her, “Technically, yes, but my divorce will be finalized soon.”
“Divorced men are not known for their stability.”
“I made a mistake; one I won’t ever repeat again.”
“So you won’t ever marry my daughter?” she huffs. “Is that what you’re saying?”
“Of course I would. I meant, I won’t marry a woman I don’t love,” I argue.
“Guess we’ll see.”
“Look, I understand that you’re worried about Cass and don’t want her to get hurt,” I say on a heavy exhale. “But that is not going to happen! She’s the most amazing, beautiful, loyal person I’ve ever met. I was an idiot not to see it sooner. Now that I have, though? I won’t ever let her go. And if you even think about filling her head with a bunch of doubts about us, about me, you’ll regret it.”
That has her blinking her eyes at me in surprise. “Now that I believe,” she finally says just as Cassidy comes strolling down the stairs, practically floating on air.
“Hello, Mother,” Cass says when she reaches the bottom and wraps her arms around my waist. “You really should call before you come by. Xavier lives here now, and I prefer to keep him naked.”
“Apparently,” Mrs. Brooks remarks, eyeing me and then her daughter in shock. “Well, I’ll show myself out and call you to do lunch one day.”
“Fine,” Cass agrees. “Good night.”
“Good night,” her mother says before she hurries out.
As soon as the door shuts, Cass looks up at my face and says, “Sorry you had to deal with her on your own. Did she give you a hard time?”
“Nope, not at all.”
“Good,” she replies with a smile. “So, are you ready for dinner?”
“Absolutely,” I agree.
Nothing and no one is going to ruin the good thing Cass and I finally have, not even her own mother.
Chapter Twenty-One
Xavier
For five months, I’ve been busting my ass in the weight room and in the cage training to get ready for tomorrow – my first official IFC fight. Coach Briggs has kept me away from the media, only issuing a press release about the basic details of the contract when it was first signed. He said he didn’t want me to get distracted by the publicity. Now I know exactly what he was referring to as I sit at the table in front of rows of cameras and microphones for the press conference before we weigh in for tomorrow’s fight. The sweats I’m wearing are a little too hot under the spotlight as I sweat bullets anticipating the barrage of tough questions.
My opponent, an enormous giant named Vinny Rivera, is sitting to my left, cracking his knuckles. He’s got about fifteen pounds on me, but I have an inch or two of height on him.
“Xavier, as you head into your first fight, do you feel pressure to succeed and follow in your father and uncle’s footsteps to be world champions?” one of the reporters asks.
“Of course,” I say when I lean forward to speak into the microphone. Finding Cass in the crowd where she’s sitting with my family, who are all beaming up at me like I’m the only one who can save the entire world, I try to drink her in and calm my nerves. Cass will love me win or lose and won’t let me wallow in self-pity for more than a day before she encourages me to move on. “Who wouldn’t come from such a legendary family of fighters and not feel pressure?” I remark. “And by the way, you forgot to mention my sister Macy, who is well on her way to a title fight.” My sister pumps her arms in the air with a smile on her face. “But I’ve let all of that pressure motivate me each and every day as I worked my ass off to become better.”
“You haven’t been training for long, though, have you?” another reporter quickly follows up. “Weren’t you practicing law just a few months ago?”
“I was, in fact, but I still hit the gym and put in hours every day after leaving the office,” I answer.
“Vinny, no one has seen Xavier fight publicly, which means there were no films for you to watch and prepare. Does that concern you?” a reporter asks my opponent.
“Not at all,” he grunts into his microphone. “If you ask me, I think this little stunt is just a mid-life crisis and nothing more. No one will remember the one and only fight the son of Jax Malone had after tomorrow night when I beat him in the first round. In fact, I brought him a gift,” the asshole says with a chuckle. He pulls out a red silk tie from his pocket and tosses it to me. “Keep your day job, buddy. You’re gonna need it.”
That inner rage I have to focus on finding each day during training bubbles up to the surface at record-breaking speeds as some of the audience members, mostly ones from Vinny’s coaching staff, laugh at his attempt to be funny.
I toss the tie back over to the arrogant prick and tell him, “Thanks, man, but you better keep it. Might need it for job interviews after I embarrass you so badly in the cage that you have to find a new career.”
More people laugh at my jab than his before the reporters move on to more questions.
When the question and answer session is finally over, we get up from our seats and head over to the
