AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Man, I’ve got to give it to you, Romeo. You’ve sure managed to piss off some powerful people.” Lincoln shook his head as he sipped his mimosa because he was a bougie fucker who happened to be in the off-season at the moment.
Demi pulled out a protein shake from her little carry-on cooler and handed it to me, which earned her even more laughs. “Drink up, Champ. You had a hard run this morning.”
“Yeah, you keep laughing, brother, while you drink your bubbly and enjoy the moment.”
“I plan on it. So, how is he handling the pressure? I know the training is going well. But the bullshit with the senator’s grandson and now Leo taunting both of you. It’s a bit relentless, yeah?”
“Hey, why are you acting like I’m not sitting right next to her?”
“Because I want to hear it from her. You keep telling me you’re fine, and I need to know if it’s true. You spend all your free time with Demi, so I think she would know.”
I shook my head and drank my shake and huffed beside her. Everyone was so fucking worried about how I was handling the heckling. I grew up with a father who was an addict and went to prison. I had thick skin. I’d spent months in a juvenile detention center, surviving things most kids couldn’t begin to fathom.
My concern was my girl.
Her getting overwhelmed by it.
I could handle anything. But I hated that I’d dragged her into my shit.
Her hand found mine, and she intertwined our fingers. “He’s handling it all really well. I don’t think it’s pleasant by any stretch of the word, but he shakes it off. He’s been working incredibly hard, and it’s inspiring to see someone push themselves, day in and day out, to the brink.”
“It must run in the family,” Lincoln said as he waggled his brows at me, and I flashed him the bird.
“I’m impressed, Romeo. You’ve stepped up to the challenge. And what Leo is doing says a lot more about him than it does about you. You’re training while he’s doing a lot of talking.”
“I don’t think Leo is too worried about this fight. The truth is, the dude is a badass, and he knows it. So, he spends a lot of time getting into his opponent’s head. It’s a strategy. One that probably works often.”
“Is it working this time?” Lincoln asked.
“I don’t like him talking about Demi,” I said. That was really all there was to say. The other shit was just water under the bridge. He wasn’t saying anything I hadn’t heard before.
My girlfriend turned to look at me, her gaze wet with emotion. “Well, I don’t like him talking about you, so we’re even.”
“Damn. You two are so freaking cute. I can barely stand it,” Brinkley said, fanning her face. “So, Romeo told us a little bit about the stuff that happened with your father, and I’m sorry that you’re going through that. And obviously, all that happened with Ronny Waterstone sounds like it was pretty scary, as well. Trust me when I tell you, I can spot a slimeball a mile away. And that guy is a slimeball.”
“She’s not kidding. She’s got a gift for reading people.”
“That’s right, Captain. I read you like a freaking book, didn’t I?” Her voice was all tease as she leaned against my brother, who wrapped an arm around her.
Demi watched them with a wide grin on her face. “You guys are pretty freaking cute yourselves. And the stuff that happened with my family was hard on Romeo and River. No one else. It’s probably hard to fathom right now, but my father is not all bad. There’s a decent man beneath all of this, so I think that’s what hurts the most. There is goodness there, but it’s clouded over right now by these awful things that he’s done. And his lack of remorse is what gets me most.”
My chest squeezed at her words. She hadn’t told me much about her meeting with her father, just that it hadn’t gone well. Iassumed that meant he had a problem with me, and she wasn’t going to be okay with that.
That didn’t sit well with me. I loved Demi, and I knew her family meant a lot to her. I worried this would be something that would eventually come between us at some point, but I was trying to keep my mouth shut. The truth had come out, and she had to process it and move forward however she wanted to. I didn’t need to make amends with her father or her brother, but I didn’t know ifshewould need that from me when push came to shove.
If all of us being one big, happy family was the end goal for her, I didn’t want to be the one to break it to her that it wouldn’t be happening.
At least, I didn’t see a way that we would ever get there.
I cleared my throat. “Our father, the man Lincoln never knew, made a lot of mistakes. I’ve shared that with all of you. But there was a good man beneath all of that. He had a big heart. He loved his family. He just didn’t always feel worthy of love, so he punished himself over and over. Numbed himself and then struggled to escape that.” I glanced out the window; white clouds swirling in blue skies surrounded us. “But I understand what you’re saying. Our last few years together were good. He supported my boxing career, and he adored Tia. He deeply regretted what he did to Linc. So… just try to remember the good things your dad has done, you know? It helps when you allow yourself to remember that there is good with the bad.”
Brinkley tilted her head to the side and smiled at me. Lincoln had been staring out the window and looked over at me and nodded. And Demi, she thought it over, and then her lips turned up in the corners.
“He did have his attorney threaten to sue Ronny, so let’s focus on that.”
My brother and Brinkley both laughed, but I didn’t. A lot of the shit happening to Demi right now was because of me. Ronny’s story wouldn’t be getting all this attention if Leo hadn’t jumped on board. Hell, I was the reason everything with Ronny had even gone public.
I’d pulled this girl into all my shit, and it was a heavy weight to bear.
