Shifting Gears: The Complete Series (Sports Bad Boy Romance) (75 page)

“Anything,” I said again. “Most definitely
an MMA champion.” He was searching my eyes; I think to see if I was laying it
on thick or if I really believed it. He looked satisfied by what he saw there
and took another bite of his dinner. “Are you nervous?” I asked him. This fight
was huge for him. It was what he’d been fighting towards all along.

I’m not sure what I expected, but I didn’t
think that he would actually admit that he was. I took it as a sign that we
were growing closer when he looked me in the eyes and said, “I’m nervous as
hell. I can’t afford to screw this up. I’m twenty-six years old. This might be
my last chance.”

Twenty-six was on the older side for a UFC
fighter, but he was in outstanding shape and although I teased him about it,
his form and skills were impeccable. “You got this,” I told him. “Just keep
moving your feet.”

He smiled and winked at me. We finished
our dinner as I told him about my latest conversation with my mom and how well
she was doing.

“She doesn’t regret going in?” he asked
me.

“She doesn’t seem like it. She’s quoting
things to me right out of the NA bible,” I laughed. “She is a little obsessive
about things so I don’t doubt I’ll know as much about recovery as she does
eventually. It’s good though, that way I can help her.”

“It’s good that she has you. Someone else
might have turned their back on her after all she put you through.”

I shrugged and said, “I won’t say I
haven’t come close a few times. But the thing is, no matter what happened in
the past, she’s still my mother and I still love her.”

He reached over and touched my face.
“She’s lucky,” he said. I almost blurted out, “I love you too!” but I held back
again. It still wasn’t time.

After we finished eating we cleaned up the
kitchen together and we moved into the living room to watch the movie. It was
good and now I know who Micky Ward is. It was also good to watch an example of
a family as dysfunctional as or even more so than ours. It’s nice to know
you’re not alone, that was one thing that I never realized until recently. And just
for the record, Mark Walberg is hot, but he’s no Paul Delport.

*****

Paul spent the night with me again and it
was so nice to wake up in his arms. I was almost afraid that I was getting too
used to it. We had a light breakfast together and then he went out for his run.
While he was gone I took a shower and got ready to go see my mom. It would be
the first time I saw her since she went in and I was a little nervous. I talked
to her on the phone a lot and she sounded good, but I was going to worry until
I saw her in the flesh. She had definitely passed on some of her obsessive
genes to me.

I put on a little bit of make-up after the
shower. I don’t usually wear much during the day but I wanted to make sure the
yellow of the old bruises didn’t show. I didn’t want to give her anything more
to worry about than getting clean and learning how to stay that way. I threw on
a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and by that time, Paul was back.

“Where are you going?” I hadn’t told him
because I got the phone call and the all-clear from the facility after he left
this morning.

“To visit my mom,” I said. Her therapist
said she could have visitors beginning today. She’s been doing so well. I’m
looking forward to seeing her. Are you going to see Marie and Victor today?”

“Not until later. I was going to take them
dinner tonight.”

“Oh, so what do you have going on today?”

“I guess nothing since I wasn’t invited to
go see your mom. You’re probably ashamed of me…embarrassed to introduce me to
her…”

I smiled and rolled my eyes. “Like I’d
ever be embarrassed to introduce you to anyone. Everyone there would be jealous
that you’re with me and not them,” I told him.

“That’s a good answer,” he said. “I like
that. How about I go with you and make them all jealous?”

“Really, you want to go with me?”

“I’d like to, if you don’t mind.”

“No, I don’t mind. I’d love for you to
go.”

“Good. Give me a few minutes to shower.”
He kissed me and went to get ready. While he was doing that, I was thinking
that this was a pretty big deal. He was not only willing to meet my mother, he
suggested it. If he didn’t want me to fall in love with him, he was going about
it all wrong.

The rehab facility was on the West side of
Los Angeles. It was in one of the older residential areas of the city and it
just looked like a big old Victorian house. It was painted light blue with
white trim. The day I took her, the therapist that talked to us told me that it
was all decorated in what they called “calming colors.” Everything inside was
painted a “calm” shade of beige or pale yellow.

We went in and told the lady at the front
who we were and who we were here to see. While we sat and waited for them to
let us go back I said, “You remember what I told you about her the first time
we talked, right? She’s not like other moms.”

He smiled and squeezed my hand. “Don’t
worry. It’ll be fine.”

“I’m not worried,” I said, not exactly
honestly. “I just wanted you to be fair warned. She’s going to ask you a bunch
of silly questions and tell you how nice looking you are and…”

“Okay,” he said, still smiling but
interrupting my tirade. “I consider myself warned.”

“For Lynn?” the nicely dressed lady from
the front desk was calling us in. We followed her into a comfortably decorated
living area. It had the old big windows surrounding it and letting the sun
shine in on us. It had a nice “homey” feel to it and I could see why Mom liked
it here. She was sitting in one of the window seats looking outside. She jumped
up when she saw us come in.

“There’s my girl!” she held her arms out
and I went into them. She felt thinner to me but when I pulled back and looked
at her face I could see that her eyes were clear and her skin was glowing.

“Hi Mom. You look great. How are you? Have
you been eating okay?”

“I’m real good, baby. I eat fine. They
serve healthy food here and I’m not eating take-out and fast food so I’m losing
weight. It’s good; I was getting a little fluffy. I like it here, but missed
you terribly.” Then suddenly changing tracks, she looked at Paul and said, “You
brought a friend…who is this?”

Paul smiled at her and held out his hand.
I could see in my mother’s eyes that it was love at first sight…but who could
blame her? “Paul Delport,” he said.

“Well hello Paul Delport.” She was using
her husky, flirty voice. When I was a teenager it used to bother me a lot
because she really was prettier than me and I never knew what she would do.
Now, it’s a little embarrassing, but amusing at the same time. “It’s nice to
finally meet the man in my daughter’s life. The real one,” she said with a sly
glance in my direction. “Sit down, both of you,” she said.

Mom and I sat on the couch and Paul sat
across from us in a wing-backed chair. It was perfect actually…the sun was
streaming in on his face and he looked like he was under a spotlight…which from
the look on my mother’s face, I had a feeling he was about to be.

“So Paul, what do you do, honey?”

“Mom…”

“I’m a fighter,” he said. “Mixed-martial
arts.”

“Well, I guess that explains all the
muscles,” she said, again in a flirtatious voice.

I decided to try and save him. “Mom, we
came to see how you were doing. I don’t think Paul really wants to…”

“How long have you been seeing my Jessie?”
she cut me right off. She wasn’t going to be denied her interrogation.

“Mom…” I tried again. This time I was cut
off by Paul who looked at me and smiled. He turned back to my mom and said, “A
few months…off and on.”

“Off and on, huh? Why off?”

“Mother!”

“It’s okay,” Paul said, still smiling.
“I’ve had some family stuff going on that kind of got in the way. I think we’re
back on track now.”

“Well, that’s good to hear on both counts.
Family should always come first, and my Jessie needs a good man in her life.” I
didn’t bother trying to get her attention that time. I just sat back and
watched the train wreck happen. “So tell me, Paul…what is it that you like
about my girl?”

Looking amused he looked over at me and
grinned. “There are so many things. I almost don’t know where to start.”

“Like what?” she asked. She was a dog with
a bone. Who asks these kinds of questions about their grown-up children?

“She has really pretty hair,” he said.
“And her eyes are gorgeous.” That made me feel warm inside. My mother of course
had to take credit. Rehab does not a personality change.

“Thank you,” she said. “She got those both
from me.”

“I can see that,” he said with one of his
most charming smiles. He was good, I’ll give him that.

“What else?” She wanted more that she
could take credit for.

“Her smile, I definitely love that smile.”

“Me again!” And there you go!

“Okay, well that was fun. Mom, let’s talk
about how things are going here.”

“Things are good, honestly. The people
here are nice and I’m actually paying attention in group and individual therapy
and I’m learning a lot about myself and why I do the things that I do. I’ve
even made a friend or two and you know how hard that is for me. Female
friends!” she seemed proud of that, so I smiled. Then she was back on a roll
saying, “You know Paul; I wasn’t a very good mother…”

“Mom…”

“How’s is your relationship with your
mother?” My head was going to explode.

“It’s…complicated I guess I’d say.” Paul
was doing so well with all of this; I was humiliated and proud of him at the
same time.

Mom laughed. “That’s a very polite way to
put it. I can only hope Jessie is that diplomatic when people ask her about
me.”

“I give you only glowing reviews, Mom.”

She laughed again. “Do you have your own
place?” she asked him.

“Um…yeah, sort of,” he said.

She raised an eyebrow. “Sort of?”

“I’m looking for a new place right now,”
he said. “I had to move from the last one sort of unexpectedly.”

“You weren’t evicted were you?”

“Mom!” She acts like she never was. I
can’t even count the times.

“No ma’am. I had to leave because of the
traveling I was doing to help out my family.”

“Oh, well that’s too bad but I’ll bet
they’re glad to have you. What kind of money do you make boxing or fighting…whatever
you call it?” I sighed, loudly and rolled my eyes. Paul still looked amused.

“It’s mixed martial arts,” he told her.
“And I guess it just depends on the bout. We get paid a percentage of what the
tickets bring in and then we have to split that with our managers or trainers
or both. It’s not a lot at first. You have to do a lot of tournaments to make a
living at it. But, for UFC fights, the non-televised ones the winner makes
around fifteen grand and the loser gets about half that much. If you’re really
good and you gain one of the titles then you get endorsements and things like
that and make a lot more.”

“MMA, isn’t that the one that does all
that pay-per-view stuff?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Have you been in one of those fights?”

“Not yet ma’am, but I intend to be
someday.”

The rest of the visit, the entire hour
went about like that. My mother’s questions got even more intrusive and
embarrassing. The worst was when she said, “You two are being careful…not
making babies yet, right?”

“Jesus, mother! That’s it. No more
questions.”

“I’m just getting to know Paul. Isn’t that
why you brought him?”

“Yes mother but you don’t have to know
everything in one sitting…and some things you never really need to know.”

She looked like she had no idea what I was
talking about and went on with her line of questioning. The good news was that
Paul handled them like a champ. He was great at giving her an answer without
too much information. I could tell that it made my mother feel good that he was
listening so intently to her questions and then actually taking the time to
answer them. I was impressed with how he handled it. He didn’t even break a
sweat. I did though when she said, “So do you think you and Jessie will be
ready to move in together?”

“Mom, please! We aren’t even close to that
point yet. You’re embarrassing him.”

“Am I embarrassing you, Paul?”

He looked at me and said, “No ma’am, but
your daughter’s face is awfully red. I think she might be a little
embarrassed.”

Mom looked at me and said, “Yeah, but
Jessie embarrasses easily. I’ll bet the first time you two did it she made you
leave the lights off.”

“Mother! That’s it! Enough!”

She laughed heartily and said, “That one
was a joke, honey. I really don’t want to hear about your sex life.” I saw her
wink in Paul’s direction as if they shared a secret. He winked back. I rolled
my eyes…again.