Page 55 of Forever my Love

ChapterEighteen

Reece was used to pre-fight jitters. What he wasn’t used to was the sheer size of the venue he was fighting in.

After all the technicalities were dealt with—weigh-ins were mainly just for show at this point—he sat in a back room that served as his locker room and chatted with Aaron and a few other men who followed him around during the entire process.

He didn’t stop to ask their names and really didn’t care. He was pumping himself up so he could do what he needed when it came time to fight.

When Amos Bernard and his two bodyguards strolled in, he held in a groan.

“There’s my boy,” Amos said, slapping him on the shoulder.

“Evening, Mr. Bernard.” He shook the man’s hand.

“So, how are you feeling?” The man ran his eyes over him.

“Ready to fight,” he assured him.

“Good, good.” The man tilted his head. “You make sure you take out Carrigan in the fifth round.”

Reece chuckled. “I’ll try.”

Amos smiled. “There’ll be an extra ten grand for you if you do.” He slapped him on the shoulder again and then walked over to chat with Aaron.

Reece sat down again and wondered if the man was being serious.

He was making bank on the fight already. Twenty-five thousand for a fight he would have paid to be in. More if he won. To him, the sport was something he enjoyed more than the win.

It wasn’t as if he needed the money either. To him, the challenge was what mattered. He wanted to see if he could take the guy out in the fifth round more than he cared about getting paid to do it.

After that, there was a parade of investors, the ones he’d met the night before. He’d never felt so on display as he did at that moment. The fact that he was only wearing his boxing shorts and the silk robe his mother had stitched his name in made him feel completely unprepared for the visits.

He was almost mentally exhausted by the time he was ready to walk out into the arena. He had to pump himself up and take a moment in the hallway to close his eyes and breathe until he felt settled back into place.

Thoughts of Hailey floated in the back of his mind, the life he hoped he’d have with her after all of this. When they’d return home together, see his dog, take long walks, continue just being with one another every night.

He loved her. There wasn’t a doubt about that anywhere in his mind.

To him, the next steps would be to slowly convince her to marry him. Raise a family together.

He’d witnessed his parents living their happy-ever-after lives, and so many other couples in the small town were also stupidly happy together.

It was a Pride thing. Everyone in town knew that the majority of townsfolk found love and stuck with it.

The divorce rate was so low in the small town that George Stevens, one of his buddies who was the town’s primary lawyer, boasted that he’d only had three divorce cases since returning home and opening up his practice.

He could see him and Hailey being happy together. Forever.

Still, part of him questioned if she felt the same powerful feelings for him that he had for her.

Did she want marriage in her future?

Since the night she’d opened up to him about her past, how her mother and her mother’s boyfriend had treated her and Harper, not once had she hinted she wanted any sort of future with him.

Maybe she was afraid of commitment?

She talked a lot about going back to the cabin once Fred was caught. Talked about how happy she was for Harper and Nick and that the cabin would seem empty without her sister.

Was that her way of telling him that whatever this was between them wasn’t as deep for her as it was for him?