Battlescars (22 page)

She shook away the thoughts, determined that what she didn’t already know, Dyson could teach her. They could create some great chemistry between the sheets if only she were open and willing to learn – and she definitely was.

But there were other things she needed to talk to him about before they got to his house.

“I’ve made a decision,” she said.

“Yeah?”

Kayla took a deep breath. “I decided not to contact my father.”

Dyson didn’t say anything for a long moment. His hands had tightened a bit on the wheel. “Okay. Why did you come to that decision?”

Kayla didn’t quite know how to put it all into words. A part of her wanted to find her father so badly that she could almost hear his voice in her ear already. That part of her wanted to ask questions, to perhaps tell him off, to make it clear what he had done to her. She wanted to make him pay in ways that the law never could, by appealing to his sense of remorse and guilt – assuming he had the ability to feel either emotion, of course. That part of her wanted to cry and throw things and beg him to tell her why he did the things he did, even though she knew, deep down, that he didn’t have those answers for her. He didn’t even have those answers for himself.

But another part of her just wanted to let him go completely. That part of her was the more reasonable one that said he wasn’t worth the time she spent thinking about him, and that he had had more than his fair share of time he didn’t deserve already. That part of her wanted to walk away and never look back, write him off as something from her past that was best forgotten.

She was realistic enough to know that she couldn’t do that, however. He was a part of her, whether she liked it or not. His blood ran through her veins, and her childhood had been influenced by everything he did. Her greatest loss in life had come from him, and she had almost lost Dyson to her confusion concerning everything that she had struggled with for so many years. Her father had made her who she was, and she had to accept that fact.

But she was the one who could now choose the direction of her life. She was the one who could choose to let his influence harm her or help her. As she looked at Dyson, she realized that she was already well on her way to overcoming the negative and filling her future with only the positive.

“I decided to focus on better things,” she said simply.

At that moment, Dyson stopped the truck. They looked at Dyson’s house from the street – the house his parents had bought together, the house that Dyson had grown up in – and they looked at each other. They were taking a step toward starting a life together, and Kayla realized that this moment would be one she remembered forever.

“I love you,” he said, and she felt the flutter of happiness in her chest.

“I love you too,” she said, and they stepped out of the truck to start their new adventure.

D
yson watched Kayla as she put groceries away in the kitchen, and he looked at his house as if he’d never really seen it before. She had changed the house for him, made it brighter and more cheerful. It even seemed like more light came through the windows since she’d agreed to move in. The hardwood floors were cool under their feet as helped her with the groceries.

Dyson had offered Kayla the spare bedroom when she’d moved in, but he’d hoped that she’d turn him down. When he saw her hanging her clothes in the space he’d cleared in his bedroom closet, the sight of her dresses and skirts hanging next to his clothes brought him unexpected joy. Now, after a month of living together, their toothbrushes shared a tumbler in the bathroom, and his things were nestled next to hers in the quaint medicine cabinet. In the living room, they got comfortable on his old leather couch while they put their feet up on her antique coffee table, a flea-market find. Dyson couldn’t remember ever being happier.

He had been very pleased to find that Kayla was just as serious about order as he was. The sheets were folded neatly in the closets, everything in the kitchen had its place, and the bathroom was tidy, even though she’d moved all of her toiletries in. Dyson liked order, and he had been worried that they might not be compatible in terms of housekeeping. Kayla had told him that her mother always kept a very nice home, even when it was tough to do so with all the beer bottles and broken furniture that her father left in his wake.

Dyson had kissed her and promised she would never have to worry about such things.

He had been very worried that her concerns about her father would come back to haunt them, but so far, so good. Though she still had her moments of darkness, when she would think about the terrible things that had happened and her mood would head south faster than a spring thunderstorm rolling in, she was always able to overcome it with a little cajoling and cuddling from Dyson. He knew that he would never completely understand the things that had happened to her, and he knew that she might never tell him all the details, but they were at least on the right track to putting it behind them.

She had become much more accepting of his work, too. Now it was just that – work. It was no longer a hobby. That had ended the night he won the big fight in front of 10,000 people and camera crews from all over the world. Somehow the fact that it was a job for him now seemed to make Kayla more accepting of what he was doing. Though she still didn’t like seeing him get hurt during the fights, she really loved the moments when he won, and she especially loved the clear victories, when he handily whipped someone’s ass while she screamed her encouragement from the sidelines.

And always, no matter what, she was the one in the locker room at the end of it all, speaking to him in her quiet way while she tended to his wounds.

Those moments between them were very important. Dyson knew that each time she came to him after a fight, she might be reliving some of what she went through with her father. Each time she tended his wounds, she thought about other wounds she had tended, her own and her mother’s. But he knew that it was getting easier for her, and that every time she touched his bruises and cuts and marks, she was coming to believe even more firmly that those days of pain were over for her. Dyson would never lay a hand on her. He knew it, and he was confident that now, she knew it too.

That was the cherry on top of the big, delicious sundae that his fighting had become since that fateful night.

He had an undefeated record so far. It hadn’t been that long since the big fight that had put him on the national stage, and he knew his record wouldn’t last forever. Right now he was a fresh and new fighter, going up against people who had never fought him before or even studied what he did in the ring. But over time that would change, and he knew the day was coming when he would be the one to go down at the end. In the meantime, though, he was going to ride the wave as far as it would carry him.

Dyson couldn’t believe how much his life had changed in such a short period of time. He was now a big name in the MMA world, and that meant sponsorships. He had always wondered how they worked, and now he knew more than he ever dreamed he would. He also knew how it felt, because every time he left the house he was wearing something that was emblazoned with a sponsor’s name. Every picture taken of him showed off the sponsors. Dyson still had to pinch himself when he checked his bank balance. There were more digits than he’d ever hoped to see in his account, courtesy of those sponsors who wanted their name all over him. For that kind of money, Dyson was more than happy to oblige.

In fact, it was more money than either Dyson or Kayla had seen in their entire life. They could have blown so much of it, but they had made the decision early on that they would take only a very small amount and spend it on themselves. The rest they would save. They hadn’t yet talked about what they would save it for, but Dyson had caught Kayla looking at a wedding magazine at one point. As for himself, he had wandered into the baby aisle at the department store and started getting ideas. Though he hadn’t brought it up to Kayla, he knew that the direction his mind and heart were heading was a good one. He just hoped that she would agree when the time came to ask those very important questions and make the life-changing decisions that he knew were on the horizon.

But in the meantime, they did take that little bit of money – a few thousand dollars – and splurged. The sheets on their bed were Egyptian cotton and had a ridiculously high thread count. The television in the living room was huge, bigger than they needed, but perfect for watching his fights in high definition. Besides, Kayla had found it on clearance. The woman had a knack for saving money, even on things that were extravagant.

She also had a great knack for numbers, and rather than hire someone to handle the money that was rolling in, he turned to her. She had chosen sound investments for the cash, and they had formed a budget that would be easy for both of them to keep. He was completely confident in her abilities, to a point where he asked her to join the attorneys when they negotiated sponsorship contracts. It was a gorgeous sight, to see his woman sitting at the table next to him, putting her steadfast accountant face on and checking every bit of financial information before she gave the okay. He watched her during those moments and was grateful for her financial protection.

Not only was she taking good care of him, she was also taking care of his mother. Her willingness to embrace everything concerning his mom surprised him, but the more he thought about it, maybe he shouldn’t have been surprised after all. If it had been Kayla’s mother in the residential home, she would have done all those same things. She was simply showing love and affection on a woman who was as close to her mother as she could ever get.

He knew that Kayla had very carefully negotiated the new contract for his mother’s stay, and she had made sure that the investments took into account that his mother might live a very long time yet. Kayla was steering them in the right financial direction, and she had often said to him that he would never have to worry about his mother’s well being, as long as they didn’t do anything stupid with the bank accounts.

With Kayla at the helm, he couldn’t imagine doing anything like that. Dyson was deeply satisfied with the track their life together was on, and he looked forward to the day that they’d finally take the next step together.

Though they slept in his bed each night together, they still hadn’t gone any further physically than kissing and snuggling. The restraint wasn’t easy for Dyson, and he had resorted to taking out his sexual frustration on the speed bag at the gym. He’d told Kayla that the pace was up to her, and he figured that if investing a few weeks or months in making her feel completely safe and secure was what he had to do, then do it he would.

Kayla finished putting away the dishes from dinner and turned to see Dyson standing there, staring at her. “Hey,” she said softly, then walked into his open arms. He held her close, burying his face in her hair, and thought about all the things that had brought them together, and all the things the future held.

Suddenly Kayla moved back and looked up at him with alarm. “Aren’t you going to be late?”

“Not going in today, darling. The gym is closed for some big event.”

Kayla broke into a smile. “I’m glad you chose to volunteer with the self-defense classes, but I have to admit, I miss you when you’re gone.”

Dyson laughed and squeezed her even tighter. He had Kayla in mind when he and Chester set up a self-defense class for kids. It was the right thing to do, to give back to the community that had supported his journey to MMA for so long, but it was also something that he felt a deep need to do. He liked the idea of teaching kids to protect themselves from anyone who might want to hurt them or their loved ones. He often wondered how life might have been different if Kayla had known how to fight back. If she had been able to land a few good ones on her old man, would he have left her and her mother alone? If she had been able to fight him off a few times, would he have decided it wasn’t worth the effort and then put his negative energy toward something else?

He would never know. But he did know that what he was doing might make a difference for one of the kids in his class, and he liked to think of paying it forward every time he taught a child something new. He hoped that not a single one of them had to deal with what Kayla had seen, but if they did, at least they would have the tools to fight back to the best of their ability.

He also liked to think that he was giving the kids something even more important than the ability to defend themselves. He talked to them about the things in life that mattered, about how to treat people, about honor and respect and honesty. He talked to them about these things in the hopes that if they ever grew up and put on a uniform, if they ever went into a foreign land and dealt with those who lived by a lesser code of honor, they would know when to stand up for themselves. Dyson knew that not everyone went through what he did, but he also knew that it wasn’t an isolated incident. If he could make an impression on one child, and when that child grew up and had to make some tough calls, Dyson would be very happy to know that kid did the right thing.