Broken Lion (24 page)

“How about breakfast dates?”

“No. No dating. Just friends. You know what I mean.”

He nodded enthusiastically. “I can totally do that, Brigid. If I know you’re waiting for me too, I will be your friend for an entire year. And no sex. And I won’t be dating or screwing anybody else.” He paused for a moment, looking suddenly nervous. “What about you? Will you… you know…” He couldn’t finish his sentence but I knew where he was going. I couldn’t believe how incredibly sweet this man could be.

“Yes. I will wait for you. Heaven knows I’ve waited a lifetime for a man like you. I will wait.” I meant it with all my heart.

He smiled. “Best news I’ve heard all day. Make that all year.”

I smiled. “Yeah.”

He looked at Gwen. “You hear that, girl? Irish wants to be my girlfriend in a year. I can’t even believe it.” You’d think I’d agreed to have sex with him every day three times a day for forever, or give him daily blowjobs forever, or both, or I didn’t know what.

“You’re incredible, Lion Maxwell.”

“You too, Brigid Flanagan.”

Gwen meowed and looked up at him. We both laughed.

He said, “Now all we have to do is wait until the official unofficial amount of time passes, and we’ll be free to see each other. In public.” There was that adorable boyish grin of his. The one that told me I meant something to him and that everything would be all right.

We could make it. I knew we could.

I believed in Lion.

I believed in us.

Chapter 26

LION

I never thought I’d be able to keep my hands off Brigid after all the crazy sex we’d already had, but I surprised myself.

It wasn’t too difficult.

Mainly because she was so damn busy at the hospital. But when she did have time off, we always found something fun to do as a team. Her, Dan, and me. We agreed having Dan around was the easiest way to keep things in the friend zone. It was sure the most fun way I could think of.

I knew Brigid never got out much because of being a doctor, so I made sure everything we did was new for her and exciting.

First place I took them was the climbing gym I used. I’d always loved climbing as a way to develop finesse. Fighting wasn’t always about brute force. Neither was climbing. It was also something I could do with my knee still waiting for surgery. Low impact. By that time, my ribs were doing better, but I kept us on the easier routes for their sake and mine. Dan took to the wall like a monkey. Brigid was a lot better than I’d expected. She was super nervous at first, but by the end of our first day, she managed to scale a sustained 5.8 route all the way to the roof of the gym without hanging on the rope. She gave me a huge smile at the top and said, “I did it!”
I got the whole climbing gym clapping and cheering by telling the room it was her first day climbing. She blushed. I loved it when she blushed.

Our next day trip was surfing lessons out at Venice Beach. For once, I sucked ass as bad as Brigid and Dan. Surfing was one thing I’d never gotten into. East LA wasn’t exactly close to the beach and I didn’t have money for a board when I was young. It didn’t matter. Learning together made it ten times more fun. My knee did better than I expected. Probably because I spent most of the day paddling out or getting dumped in the water. We had a blast that day. As proof, I had the smiling pictures of the three of us standing in front of our boards with our arms crossed like the Lords Of Dogtown. I had some 8x10s printed and framed. They sat on the bookcase in my office next to the Harry Potter photo from Universal.

Another trip we took was to a gun range. Talking Brigid into that was nearly impossible. Dan was dying to do it. The guy behind the counter told her kids younger than Dan shot at the range all the time. That convinced her and she let Dan fire a .22 revolver. After she knew it wouldn’t blow up in his face, I convinced her to let him shoot a .38. He loved it. Damn good shot too.

Probably my favorite thing was hitting up the waterslides out at Blazing Waters in San Dimas. It was crazy fun. Dan was a bit scared of the high speed slides like Tower Falls, which got you going almost forty miles an hour, but I boosted his confidence to the point he went for it. Loved every second of it. The thing I loved most was seeing Brigid in a one-piece. She rocked that simple swimsuit like nobody else. It had been a few weeks since we’d last had sex, so seeing her in a wet bathing suit made it damn hard to honor our deal, but I enjoyed the tease. Half the time I was staring at her ass hanging out just right or her nips poking through the front of the suit. She caught me staring but she liked it. Like I said, it was a long hard day. Really fucking hard. I went home that night and fucked the shit out of my hand three times before I could sleep. Pictured that perfect ass of Brigid’s the entire time. Only 49 weeks and 3 more days until I hit that ass again for real. Yeah, I was counting. But I could wait. I already knew what I was missing and I wanted it back real bad.

A couple times, I considered sexting with her, but I didn’t want to bend the rules even an inch. Sure, it would’ve been a great way to blow off steam and blow my load, but I didn’t want to tempt either of us.

When I wasn’t with her, I was taking it easy at home, waiting for my knee to be ready for surgery. Spent that time putting the finishing touches on the wood carving of the three lions sitting in clover: papa, mama, and the baby. I couldn’t decide when to give it to her. At the end of a year? Now?

I’d figure it out.

All the swelling on my knee was completely gone. It was getting time to have my surgery. Yes, I had adapted to the chill life of teaching classes at the dojos all over town, staying home with my wood carving, or hanging with Brigid and Dan. But I was getting antsy thinking about my next fight. People were talking like I’d never fight again. They were wrong. Those who weren’t, wanted a shot at my title. Offers were coming in from the WMAA to set me up with various opponents after my rehab. I told them to be patient. The fans wanted a good fight, not one with me limping around the cage. I needed to be fully healed going in. That meant an entire year of rehab after surgery.

By then, Brigid and I would be back to some serious fucking.

I couldn’t decide which I wanted more, the fighting or the fucking.

Either way, a year from now, my life was going to be way different from what it was at the moment. Brigid and I would be that much closer, and my knee would be ready to rock.

I was looking forward to it.

Chapter 27

BRIGID

“I did a little digging on your boyfriend Lion Maxwell,” Donald said pettily.

“He’s not my boyfriend, Donald. We’re just friends,” I growled.

Not officially. Not even theoretically. Lion was a man I was friends with who I’d once had crazy amounts of incredible sex with. Sure, the sex stopped only a few weeks ago, but it was ancient history as far as I was concerned, almost like it never happened, which absolved me of all guilt. I wished things were different, but I could deal. Although we’d made a commitment to be together a year from now, that didn’t mean anything until it actually happened. As far as Donald was concerned, it meant Lion and I were just friends. That was all Donald needed to know. As far as any medical ethics committees went, there was nothing to talk about.

“Did you know that your friend is a two time felon?” Donald expected me to be shocked.

“Yes.” I rolled my eyes.

“And you’re okay with that?”

At the moment, we were at his parents’ house in Beverly Hills in the spacious backyard. I was here to pick up Daniel. The modern Tuscan style house with its columns and brick driveway and red tile roof was large by any standards. By LA standards, it was palatial, a sprawling complex. The Wrights had done well for themselves in the insurance business.

I took a moment to consider my words before responding, and I watched Grandpa Ronald playing tennis with Daniel on the Wright’s backyard tennis court. Ronald was lecturing Daniel on how to improve his backhand.

“You’re starting your swing too late,” Ronald grumbled, exasperated. He had the same annoying tone of superiority and disappointment I’d heard frequently from Donald during our marriage.

“I’m trying,” Daniel groaned.

The back and forth exchange of Ronald’s complaints and Daniel’s frustration had been going on for ten minutes and it was driving me crazy. I wanted to say something, but nobody told Ronald Wright what to do. Every time I had tried in the past, he would smile at me and act like I was speaking a foreign language he couldn’t understand. It was a very effective tactic.

Meanwhile, Daniel wasn’t having any fun on the tennis court, unlike when Lion taught him things.

Years ago, I’d grown used to Ronald and Donald’s annoying know-it-all approach to life and accepted it as the norm. At times like this, I thought of them as Ronald McDonald, the biggest ass-clown in town. I’d also dubbed Donald the Frown Clown because it was his most frequent facial expression. But now, hearing both Wright men parading their arrogance in my face at the same time was suddenly incredibly irritating.

“Well?” Donald said. “Aren’t you going to say anything about your felon boyfriend?”

I wanted to say,
Why don’t I invite my prison boyfriend to come over here and make you his bitch? While he’s at it, he can give your dad lessons in reaming someone. Oh, wait. Your dad is already an expert at that.
I smirked briefly before saying, “It was ten years ago, Donald.”

“Once a criminal, always a criminal.”

“That’s not true. He served his time.”

“And you think that didn’t have an effect on him?”

“Of course it did. But that doesn’t make Lion a bad person. He learned from his mistakes.”

“But did you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I snarled.

“It’s supposed to mean you’ve probably got your head buried so far in your work you’re missing what’s in front of your face.”

“Oh, what? Like you?” We both knew it was true, but I wouldn’t admit it when he was lecturing me.

“No, Brigid. I was thinking about our son. And the influence this criminal is having on him.”

“What influence?”

“The one where he took our son to a shooting range? Or were you not there for that? You’re not leaving our son alone with the criminal, are you?”

“Stop calling him that, Donald. And, I was there at the shooting range. It was perfectly safe.” Once I saw how Lion walked Daniel through all the safety precautions step by step, I was okay with it. Donald was trying to find petty reasons to criticize Lion. “And he’s not a criminal. He
was
a criminal.”

He sneered, “Is there a difference?”

I sneered back, “Are you a child?”

He frowned his Frown Clown frown. “You don’t have to go name calling, Brigid.”

“I wasn’t. It was a serious question. Are you a child?”

Confused, he chuckled. “I don’t see your point.”

“Please answer me, Donald,” I said calmly. “Are you a child? I should say, are you
still
a child?”

“No. I’m an adult.”

“But you were a child. At one point.”

“How is that at all relevant?”

“It’s relevant because you used to be a child. Now you’re not. You’re an adult. Lion used to be a criminal. Now he’s not.”

“It’s not the same thing.”

“It’s not? Prove it.”

He opened his mouth to argue, then deflated. “I’m not going to play your logic games, Brigid.” One truth in our marriage: I could always out-argue Donald and he knew it.

“It’s not a game, Donald. Lion changed. He’s not the person he was back then. Look at how many kids he helps for free. I don’t see you out in the world donating your time to charity.”

He smiled smugly. Donald was generous with his family and friends, but he didn’t do anything actually charitable that I knew of. “Charity has nothing to do with the people you’re exposing our son to.”

“It does when the person in question is charitable and a good person.”

He shook his head. “I’m not going to argue with you, Brigid.”
Good, because you’re already losing.
“But I don’t think you should allow our son to spend time around Lion Maxwell. Is that clear?”

“Do you want me to pull him out of karate class?”

“Maybe we should.”

On the tennis court, Daniel hit the ball straight into the net. Ronald shook his racket in the air. “No, Daniel! Not like that! You need more wrist! Like this! More! Wrist!”

“I was using my wrist!” Daniel moaned.

I scowled and mumbled to myself, “Maybe we should have your dad teach him karate.”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing. You know Daniel loves karate. He’s already made so many friends at the school. You know how hard it’s been for him to make new friends in the past two years.”
Since the divorce, hint, hint. “
And you want to pull him out because of some nonsense concern? None of the other parents have a problem with Lion.”

“Maybe they don’t know he’s a felon.”

Maybe no one knows you’re an asshole except me. No, anybody who knows you knows you’re an asshole. Except maybe yourself.
“That’s because it’s a non issue to everyone except you, Donald.”

“Maybe they don’t know.”

I suddenly tensed up. “Do you plan on telling them?”

He shrugged but smiled with superior joy.

“You wouldn’t.”

He smiled even bigger.

“You would sabotage someone’s livelihood because you’re jealous?”

“I’m not jealous.” Denial from an adult was always
so
charming.

“Lion isn’t hurting anybody, you know.”

“Except for the men he’s put in the hospital in his fights.”

“Come on, Donald! Every MMA fighter knows what they’re signing up for.”

“Who said anything about MMA fighters?”

I froze. Did he know about Lion’s fight at Universal Studios? If he did, Lion was in big trouble.

His eyes bored into mine. “What aren’t you telling me, Brigid?”

I stared back. If I said one wrong thing, he would know I was lying. Time to make something up and lie my heart out, for Lion’s sake. I suddenly remembered Lion’s YouTube documentary. “All those fights happened when Lion was a teenager.” It was possibly true, but I didn’t really know one way or the other.