Totaled (18 page)

Sue just sat there in silence. I’d never seen her so shocked before. “Oh my God, Bree.”

“I know, right?” I practically yelled. “I mean, am I crazy?”

“No. I don’t think so. I actually thought you were about to kiss me, and while I think you’re gorgeous and all, I don’t bat for that team,” she deflected with jokes. “In all seriousness, though, if that is really how it went down, I would be confused too.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I got nothing. I have no idea what to tell you.”

“And that’s not even all of it. We walked back to the gym, mostly in an awkward state of silence, and when he said goodbye and started to walk to his car, he actually turned around to catch me staring at his ass and
winked
at me.”

She burst out into laughter. “He winked at you?”

“This isn’t funny. I’m mortified. I just can’t win with this guy. I’m either assaulting him, being bitchy for no reason, or getting caught staring. I’m embarrassing myself,” I griped. “I just need to go away for a while. I need a vacation.”

“Yeah, right. You and me both, but we don’t have the time or money for that nonsense. I’m afraid you’re just going to have to get your big girl panties on and deal with this. I don’t even know what advice to give you. I need to meet this guy, though, for sure!” she insisted.

“I’m sure you’ll meet him at shrimp fest,” I offered. “Anyway, I’m exhausted. And the next few days are going to be busy. I better get going.”

“Okay, girl. Call me if you need me for anything. Otherwise, I’ll pick you up on Friday morning and we’ll head downtown,” Sue reminded as she gave me a hug.

I drove home from Sue’s house feeling not only confused but defeated. While I had a hundred things to do before the shrimp festival and wasn’t looking forward to any of them, I was eager for it to be here. I loved the yearly town tradition. It was full of history and fun and amazing food. I loved walking around and seeing everyone having a good time. I looked forward to everything, even the corny Ms. Shrimp Festival beauty pageant and the pirate takeover. It was all such fun. I remembered my mother taking us every single year and how much I loved watching the parade with Liam.

As I closed my eyes that night, I smiled, remembering sweet childhood memories. I wish I could just go back to a day when everything was innocent and joyful. I missed my mom so much some days. I wished she was here to give me advice about my first kiss. She would know just what to say.

Chapter Twenty

DREW

“Harder! Hit me harder, Liam!” I yelled, my words coming out garbled through my headgear and mouthpiece. “Hit me like you’re really pissed at me!”

“I’m hitting you as hard as I can. We’ve been doing this for a long time. I’m getting tired,” Liam replied, winded.

I glanced up at the wall clock above the water table and sure enough, it had been over an hour of Liam pounding into the bag I had pushed up against my abdomen. It seemed like five minutes had gone by. For some reason¸ I was enjoying the pain. Kneeling, I held the thick bag tightly over my stomach and looked up at Liam. “A few more, please. And then we’ll stop for the day.”

He nodded and I contracted my abs, awaiting the impact. Liam punched and kicked me repeatedly, in rapid succession. It hurt. My muscles quivered in exhaustion. It was painful and satisfying. My coach in Arizona taught me this training exercise. He always said that no matter how many crunches and sit ups you do, nothing can prepare you for blows to the body better than taking blows to the body. You have to teach your body how to respond to pain. Evolution at its finest, he would say. Survival of the fittest. Learn to adapt. Train yourself to get hit so you’ll be prepared. Learn what the pain feels like and learn that you don’t want to feel it again, so you get faster. You mustn’t allow yourself to suffer that pain again. At the time, I kind of thought he was looney, but today, I just wanted to feel the pain. I needed a physical reminder of the turmoil that was going on in my head and in my heart.

“Okay, okay…I’m good. Enough,” I said to Liam, waving him off with my hand. I moved to get up and barely could. I knew I’d overdone it, but I didn’t care. We had been in the gym for three hours already when I asked Liam to body shot train with me. If I wasn’t so nauseated from the beating I’d just voluntarily subjected myself to, I’d probably be starving. I packed my things up and unraveled my hand tape. Liam was heading to the back of the gym and I yelled, “Thanks for today, Liam! Good workout. Same time tomorrow?”

“No, not tomorrow. We’re going to the festival!” he announced with an excited grin. “No one will be here tomorrow.”

Shit. I’d almost forgotten about the festival being tomorrow. Mick was coming today, probably any minute, and here I am, at the gym all afternoon, being a selfish ass. I had to get home.

I could feel the bruising already coming on as I drove away from the gym.
Fucking idiot.
Pulling up to the house, sure enough, there were two bags resting on the front steps. Mick was already here. But where was he? I walked into the house, bringing his luggage in with me, and looked out the oceanside windows. I didn’t see anyone at first, but then I noticed one lone person in the water. He was pretty far out, just floating on his back. He almost looked dead. I hustled out to the beach and yelled out to him. It took a couple shouts, but he finally peaked his head up and smiled. He swam towards me, body surfing the waves all the way into the shore, hooting and laughing the whole time like a little kid. He walked up to me, dripping wet, and came in strong for the hug. I was soaked but didn’t care. I needed a shower anyway after my workout.

“What’s up, man? How long have you been here?” I asked him.

“Oh, ‘bout an hour, I recon. Figured I’d just go for a swim. Haven’t been to the beach since, well, since last year, I guess. I thought you might be at the gym. You stink like a locker room,” he informed me with a chuckle.

“Yeah, sorry. I just lost track of time. I’m sorry you had to wait on me. I feel bad. C’mon, there’s towels on the deck and I brought your stuff in already,” I said, welcoming him back to the house.

“What time is it? We gotta hurry up and get showered off,” Mick said as he rushed back to the house.

“It’s a little after five o’clock. Why? Do you have plans?” I questioned.

“
We
have plans. We’re goin’ to the Murphys’ place for supper. Pat called and invited us. We’re due there at six,” he declared.

“Oh, ok,” I said, looking at my feet. “Well, you go ahead. I’ll just stay here. I’m pretty beat anyway,” I tried to decline.

“Hogwash. You’re coming,” he insisted. “Bree’s almost a better cook than my sweet Joan,” he said with a wink. “Now show me around real quick so I can shower off and get myself right.”

I laughed at his insistence and gave him a tour of the house. He loved it. I showed him to his guest room that had an en suite bathroom and told him to holler when he was out of the shower so I could hop into mine. I didn’t want to steal his hot water.

We cleaned up pretty fast and made our way over to the Murphys’ house with just minutes to spare. I pulled up behind her SUV in the driveway and immediately felt nervous. This was either going to be awesome or awkward and disastrous.

Mick trotted on up to the front door and rang the bell. I stood behind him with my head down. I knew before I even looked up that she had opened the door. I could sense her. She immediately enveloped Mick into a hug, and looking behind him, met my eyes. Her expression betrayed her surprise at seeing me, which I didn’t understand. Did Mick not tell her I was coming with? Was the invitation not for both of us?

She ushered us in and never having been inside before, I followed Mick’s lead. “I didn’t realize you were coming to dinner too, Drew. Good thing I made enough to feed an army,” Bree said snarkily, almost announcing it to the whole house. “Make yourself at home. It is so good to see you, Mick. How’s Joan?” she asked, leading him into the kitchen where he sat on a barstool at the island.

I looked around and saw Liam sitting on the couch in the adjacent living room and decided to join him. “Hey. What are you watching?” I asked him.

“It’s a survival show. This guy just picked up elephant poop and squeezed the water out of it to drink. Pretty sick, huh?” he asked, amused.

“Seriously? Yeah, that’s pretty sick. And by sick I mean gross. Not exactly the best thing to watch right before dinner,” I joked.

“Oh, it doesn’t bother me. How are you feeling? I’m already sore, so I know you’re hurting.”

“I’m sore,” I replied, stretching at the mention of muscles. “I’ll be okay, though. Thanks again. I’m sorry I kept you there so long, but I appreciate you staying with me.” Noticing that he was obviously focused on watching the dung-eating man’s survival show and wasn’t interested in conversing with me, I turned to leave. “I’m going to go grab a drink. You want one?” I offered.

“No, thanks. Dinner should be ready soon,” he declined, entranced in his show.

I slowly walked around the corner heading into the kitchen to overhear Pat talking to Bree. “Well, he is staying with Drew,” Pat said crossly, “I couldn’t just invite Mick over and not Drew.”

“It’s fine,” an agitated Bree replied, “I just would’ve appreciated a little heads up.”

I cleared my throat as I walked around the corner. “It sure smells great, Bree,” I enthused with a huge smile. “Thank you so much for letting me tag along with Mick.”

Caught off guard, a pinkness rose into her cheeks. “Oh sure,” she replied softly. “No problem. It’s actually ready. Everyone can have a seat now. I’ll serve it up.”

I waited for everyone to file in and took the last seat available, the one directly across the table from Bree. In front of me on the table were two huge shepherd’s pies. My mouth was literally watering. Mick grabbed my left hand and offered to say grace. Pat, seated to my right at the head of the table, grabbed my other hand and bowed his head.

“Lord, we thank ya for this beautiful day and that ya brought us here safely so we’re able to gather with family and friends. Please bless this food and the hands that helped to harvest and prepare it for us to enjoy. Please bless it to the nourishment of our bodies so that we may better serve you, Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen,” Mick concluded.

Everyone followed with their own “Amen” and started dishing out their servings. I brought my first forkful to my nose, inhaling the scent of my absolute favorite meal, and placed it into my mouth with care and purpose. I closed my eyes, savoring it, rolling it around on my tongue slowly to allow each element and spice to caress my palate. I may have even released a groan. It was the very best shepherd’s pie that I’d ever tasted in my life, even better than my own mother’s. When I opened my eyes, Bree was looking right at me. She grinned, chewing on her dinner. I grinned back and thanked her with my admiring and gratified expression. She understood our silent exchange but for added measure, I mouthed “amazing” after swallowing my first bite.

Dinner was better than I imagined, the conversation relaxed and hilarious. I really got to know Pat and Liam even more and was surprised at how funny Liam was. Mick was his usually country bumpkin self, which was humorous in itself, but it was really cool to hear them all reminisce about old times when he still lived in Fernandina. Pat bragged to Mick about my fighting and how promising I looked to enter the professional circuit sooner rather than later. He didn’t say the same about Liam, though, which I knew had to bother him. When everyone got up from the table and started clearing their plates, I made my way to the bathroom down the hall. After relieving myself of the three full glasses of sweet tea that I had during dinner and washing my hands, I stared at myself in the mirror. I was so extremely sore. It almost hurt to take a deep breath, especially now with a full belly. I lifted my shirt up to reveal my torso in the mirror and sure enough, I had fresh black and blue bruises forming all over my abdomen, worse on the left side of my stomach. Right then, the door swung open and there was Bree, entering the bathroom.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t know you were in here,” she apologized in embarrassment. And then I could see it register. “Oh my God, Drew. What happened?” she asked, horror in her eyes.

As I tried to tell her it was nothing, that I would be fine, she approached me and took it upon herself to lift my shirt up even more. She looked at the bruises with pity and brought her right hand down to lightly graze over my abdominal muscles. The soothing contact of her soft hands on me sent a shock through my body and made my cock twitch to life. She didn’t take her hands off of my stomach, but looked up at my face. Scrunching her brows together, she paused to look into my eyes and pleaded in a whisper, “Who did this to you?”

“Things just got out of hand during training today. It’s really nothing. I’ll be fine,” I reassured her, grabbing her hands and removing them from me. I took a few seconds too long to let go of her hands, liking the way they felt, fitting perfectly in mine.

“Don’t move!” she instructed. “I’ll be right back.”

She returned a few seconds later with two bags of frozen peas and a bottle of ibuprofen. She set them on the bathroom counter and squatted down to look into the cabinets under the sink. She rose with an elastic bandage. She turned and reached out to grab my shirt again. I caught her hands and held them in mine, stopping her.

“I’m really okay. You don’t have to help me. It will be better tomorrow,” I explained. “Really.”

“Please?” she begged. “Please let me do this. You need to put ice on it.”

I let go of her hands and reached for my shirt behind my neck to pull it off over my head. Setting it on the bathroom counter, I turned back to her and lowered my hands in acceptance of her offer. She smiled and brought the first bag of frozen peas to the left side of my abdomen. I winced and sucked air through my teeth at the cold impact.

“Hold this here,” she directed me. She placed the other bag on the right side over the biggest spot of bruising and pressed it into me. I held that one in place too as she grabbed the elastic wrap and placed it over my ribs. She held the end to me gently but firmly and wrapped the roll around my torso. She wound it around and around, securing the bags of frozen vegetables over my bruises. As she walked back and forth and reached around my body, I could feel the heat radiating from her, could smell the sweet flowery scent of her hair, and I couldn’t mistake the feel of her breasts lightly making contact with my back through her shirt when she was behind me reaching forward with the elastic bandage. When she was out of length of the wrap, she secured the end with a safety pin behind me and came around to face me. “There. Is that okay? It’s not too tight, is it?” she asked.