“Are you serious?” he asks as he rights the car. “You were so close to taking the title! You would’ve won it if that asshole hadn’t cheated!”
“Yeah, probably,” I agree. “But I’ve been training for fifteen straight years. I’m exhausted.”
“You’re still recovering,” Dad says, his eyes straight ahead again. “Give it a few weeks before you do anything drastic, okay?”
“Okay,” I agree even though I’m not sure if I’ll change my mind.
The problem is, if I do decide to quit fighting, what the fuck will I do? Sure, I’ve saved up a decent pile of cash in the bank from my previous wins, but that money won’t last forever.
And if I want an actual life with a wife and kids, then I’ll need to figure out a way to support them.
Except, I’m not sure if a family is what I want either.
I try to think about how the ideal future looks while running on the treadmill, but it’s impossible to have more than a minute to myself when everyone wants to come up and talk to me.
“Yo, Sage. Glad to see you back and on the road to recovery!” Jude says when he hops on the treadmill next to mine and takes off running. He may not be as fast as he was when he was a legendary fighter who beat my dad, back before they became best friends and co-owners of Havoc, but that doesn’t stop him from trying to keep up with us young guys.
Seeing him, remembering the footage of the fight with my dad, of his current wife Sadie leaving with him and not Jude, I slow down to a jog to ask him something I’ve wondered for a long time. “Back in the day, did you and my dad fight over Sadie?”
It’s a good thing Jude had the red emergency stop clip attached to his t-shirt, because the next second he’s slamming face first on the running belt that immediately grinds to a halt.
“Fuck, that hurt!” Jude exclaims before he scrambles to his feet and plugs the clip back in to start jogging with a slight limp.
“You all right, old man?” I ask while biting back a chuckle.
“Oh yeah. I’m fucking great. Think anyone saw that?” he asks while glancing around the gym.
“Nah. You popped up pretty fast,” I assure him, unable to hide my grin. I make a mental note to pull the surveillance video later to show everyone, especially my dad and Jude’s teenage daughters. When he doesn’t say anything else, I ask, “Are you going to answer my question or not?”
“That shit happened so long ago…it’s hard to even remember it,” he says, sounding like he’s suddenly got selective amnesia.
“The reason I ask is, well, I think my brother and I love the same woman,” I admit.
“Oh yeah? Eden?” he looks over to me and asks. “FYI, Senn was in here looking for you earlier. He’s on the rampage. Hope you’re feeling good enough to outrun him.”
“Fuck,” I mutter because Eden’s dad is still a big ass heavyweight. “I didn’t mean to hurt her.”
“Yeah, we never mean to hurt the ones we love,” Jude agrees. “But that’s exactly what I did to Sadie, practically pushing her into Linc’s arms.”
“So, my dad and Sadie…”
“Fuck no. Never,” Jude quickly responds. “They were just friends. I thought they were more at the time, but he was just there for her after I hurt her. She eventually forgave me for being a dick to her, obviously. But it wasn’t easy. In fact, those few weeks without her were the worst ones of my life. Guess that’s why I’ve tried to forget them.”
“Yeah, I think I know the feeling,” I agree. The years without Eden have been awful.
Chapter Sixteen
Eden
“I’m fine, Dad. Really. You can go home now,” I tell my father, who has been here for going on six hours.
“Shut up and eat your Lucky Charms. Allie’s about to remember he’s her Noah,” he says as he hands the box back to me while we sit in my living room watching a marathon of old Nicholas Sparks’ movies.
Of course I can’t resist the sweet cereal or the sappy love stories, so I shove my hand into the box and grab a palm full of charms, cramming them into my mouth before I rest my head on my dad’s shoulder. I remember sitting just like this with him when I was a little girl, and we would watch cartoons on Saturday and Sunday mornings together.
So, even though I would rather be alone to wallow in misery, I’m glad he’s here.
If nothing else, one good thing about having him here is that I’ve at least stopped crying. I had to when Dad showed up at my door; because if he had seen a single tear, he would’ve probably found and killed Sage by now. Miriah sent me a message this morning telling me that Mace said my dad was at Havoc looking for Sage, who was thankfully still at his doctor appointment.
I haven’t heard from Tal to find out how that went even though I’ve texted and called him ten times.
And speak of the devil, Allie and Noah’s dance has to be paused with the remote control when there’s a knock on my apartment door.
“I’ll get it,” my Dad jumps up and says before I can protest. I don’t think I could have stopped him from barreling over to the door even if I had wanted to.
“Calm down. It’s probably just Tal,” I assure him as I quickly follow him to the door that he unlocks and whips open. I’m only a tad disappointed that it is Tal and not his brother. I don’t deserve his unwavering friendship.
“Senn!” Tal exclaims in surprise.
“That’s Mr. Duncan to you.”
“Dad, calm down!” I say as I grab his arm to pull him away
