Page 38 of If I Didn’t Have You

“Yeah,” I laughed. “He’s practicing, huh?”

She nodded enthusiastically, already wiggling to get out of my arms. “I gonna be a boxer, too!”

Setting her down, she ran flat out for the ring, reaching to get to the mat, and climb in to see her uncle. Luckily, she wasn’t quite tall enough to get in on her own.

“She’s a handful,” I laughed as Sam put a halt to the fight just so he could say hi to his niece.

“She is, and Sam loves her so much. I think my other brothers are jealous of his relationship with her.”

“Well, then I guess they’ll have to move here as well.”

Blake barked out a laugh at that. “Fat chance. I don’t think they could handle the cold.”

“Well, I’m glad we have at least one of your brothers here.”

“So, what brings you to town?”

“Just some shopping. Nothing too exciting.”

“Krista said you went to an art show yesterday. How was that?”

I thought back to Ben’s reaction when I walked in the house, and held back the grimace that threatened to spill across my face. “It was great—nice to get away from town.”

From the look on her face, I hadn’t fooled her. “Uh-oh. Do I smell trouble?”

“Nothing like that.”

“You know, when Michael gets on my nerves, I just toss him through a window.”

Blake always had a way of making me laugh at the worst of times. “Well, I don’t think I have the strength to push Ben through a window.”

“That’s just because you don’t know how to do it. Come on.”

Before I could protest, she tugged me over to the ring, pulled my purse off my shoulder, and was tugging me through the ropes.

“Really, I don’t even know how to punch!”

“That’s why we’re going to teach you,” she grinned.

“But this isn’t for me. Really, I…” My words were lost as she tugged a pair of boxing gloves over my hands. I stood there helplessly in a summer dress, in the middle of a boxing ring, looking like a complete idiot.

“Alright, now, the first thing you need to do is learn how to correctly throw a punch.”

“Honestly, when would I ever need to know this?”

“Oh, I’m sure there will come a time,” she grinned.

I didn’t believe her, but I let her position my body, take me through the motions, and teach me how to use my strength to maximize all my energy. It was interesting, but seriously, what would all of this do for me?

“Okay, now, take everything I just told you and slam your fist into the pad Sam’s holding.”

Sighing, I held up my fists and got into position. “This is ridiculous.”

“It is not. Now come on! Let’s do this!”

Sam was smirking at me, nearly taunting me with that charming smile. I didn’t want to punch him. In fact, I didn’t want to punch anyone. But I went through everything Blake said and I landed a hit right on the mat.

“There you go! That was awesome!” Blake cheered. “Another!”