Shifting Gears: The Complete Series (Sports Bad Boy Romance) (78 page)

“Nice to meet you too, Justin,” she said.
She shifted the Tupperware bowl to her left hand and shook his with her right.
They locked eyes again and I realized they’d all but forgotten I was there.

I cleared my throat and said, “What’s in
the bowl?”

Marie acted like she hadn’t remembered it
was there. She looked down at it and said, “Oh, lunch…for Paul…and you too,
Jessie if you want some. It’s baked chicken and steamed rice and vegetables. I
just feel so damned bad about what Mitch did…to both of you…”

“Hey, stop that,” I said. I glanced at
Justin, he was politely trying not to listen in. “Not your fault, remember?”

“I remember,” she said. “I just have to
keep telling myself that. I’m going to take this on it to him.”

“Good,” I said with a smile, “Then maybe
he’ll take a break to eat at least. I’ll be in in a few.”

“It was nice meeting you Justin,” she told
him again with another beautiful smile.

“You too,” he said, his smile just as
bright. When she’d stepped inside he looked at my face and said, “What?”

I laughed. “Nothing…but just so you know,
she’s single.”

He grinned, “And beautiful,” he said.

“Yeah, and that.”

CHAPTER
THREE

A few mornings later after several
restless nights for us both…because my stubborn boyfriend is in so much pain he
can’t turn over without groaning and grunting…Paul and I were having breakfast
together. After I put the whole grain waffles, oatmeal and fruit on the table I
went out to get the paper. When I came back inside I unrolled it and sat down
next to him.

“How is it?”

“Delicious,” he said with a smile, “Like
you.”

“You’re just kissing up because you want
to go back in and work-out and you don’t want me to nag you about it.”

“True, is it working?”

I glanced down at my paper while I ignored
him. I could see him grinning out of the corner of my eye. He was going in
whether I objected or not…the stubborn ass. As my eyes scanned the paper and I
worried about Paul a familiar name caught my eye. “I’ll be damned,” I said.

“What?”

“Listen to this,” I told him, reading the
article out loud.
“Local police detective
Mitch (XXX) was arrested on Monday for assault with a deadly weapon. He was
booked into the L.A. County jail. It was discovered by this reporter that the
detective had been released on bail that morning after being booked in only a
week earlier for…you guessed it, assault. The question on my mind is this…Does
the L.A.P.D. have different standards for one of their own? I can’t answer
that, but what I can tell you is that Judge Hal Young who he went in front of
today and our county District Attorney Dean Lane have no sympathy for him. He
was charged today with not only felony assault for the first assault, but
stalking, assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder for the second.
It’s nice to know the judicial system has our back.”

“Awesome!” Paul said, finally that son of
a bitch will get what’s coming to him. Although I would have loved to kick his
ass myself…”

“I hate to say this, but I’m glad you
didn’t get that chance. You know how it goes; you would have ended up in jail.”

“Yeah, I know,” he said. “I’m happy just
knowing he’ll be gone long enough for my sister and her son to have a life for
a change.”

“And you,” I told him.

“Yeah, and me…and you,” I told him.

He drained his juice glass and said, “I’m
ready.”

I rolled my eyes again. I gave up trying
to convince him not to work out; it was a waste of energy. I did draw the line
at helping him. Sam and Greg were taking turns, but they both seem a little
wary around me now, like they’re afraid I’ll unleash on them. I just let them
think it was a possibility. It was more fun that way. I put down the paper and
he helped me straighten up the kitchen before we left. We were alternating
apartments, but we’d been together nearly every night and day since I got out
of the hospital. I liked it…a lot.

******

When we got to the gym, Paul went into the
back and I worked with Justin up front. I liked not even being able to see him
when he was wincing and doubling over in pain.

“Body weight squats?” I asked Justin when
he came out of the locker room.

Laughing he said, “I’m doing well today,
Jessie…thank you so much for asking.”

“I’m sorry. How are you Justin?”

“I’m doing well today, Jessie…thank you so
much for asking.”

“Okay smart guy, body weight squats, on
the mat, now.”

He stood on the mat and I told him, “Move
your right foot out a little bit…there you go. Have them both just in line with
your hips and make sure your toes are facing forward. Good.”

Justin got into position and hen he knew
what to do. He acted like he was sitting down into a chair that wasn’t there.
“Keep your knees out past your toes,” I told him. He adjusted and sat back
until his knees were at a ninety degree angle. Then he came back up. “Good,
one…”

With a grunt as he did the next one he
said, “How many are we doing?”

“We’ll do twelve without weight and then
we’ll add weight and do eight,” I told him. “That’s two.”

He grunted again as he went down a third
time. “So Marie is single?” he said. I laughed. It just seemed like an odd time
for him to ask. I could only assume that she’d been on his mind.

“Yep she’s single and now that her creepy
ex is in jail she’s available as well.”

“I look at her and it’s hard for me to
imagine what she would ever see in a guy like that.”

I thought about my drug-dealer Justin and
said, “Sometimes it takes a while before the monster within reveals itself and
by that time you feel trapped. That’s five.”

“I don’t know if I’d want to be a woman,”
he said.

I laughed and said, “Good to know. You’d
be a really tall woman.”

Laughing and grunting at the same time he
said, “Funny. You know what I mean. So, did you put in a good word for me?”

“That’s seven. No, sorry. I didn’t know
you wanted me to.”

“That’s eight, actually. You’re not paying
attention.”

“Excuse me. I will put a word in for you
next time I see Marie. That’s nine.”

“Thanks,” he said completely his next
squat. “That’s ten.”

“How are you with kids? You know she comes
as a package deal.”

“I saw that, cute kid.” He completed his
last squat and said, “Twelve.”

“Yeah, Victor is a great kid. Let’s do the
next set with the bar.”

“Just the bar?”

“No. Put some weight on it.” I was shaking
my head at him and he was grinning.

I watched as he added weight to the bar
and then said, “I like kids.”

“Okay, if you’ll focus the rest of the
work-out, I’ll call her tonight and tell her so.”

“Deal,” he said with a thousand-watt
smile. Now I was a match maker.

*****

Justin and I finished up in about an hour
and I went back to check on Paul. He was in the ring today with Greg, both of
them with headgear on and mouth guards in. I walked over by Sam who was
standing next to the ropes and said, “Are they making contact?”

Sam looked like he didn’t want to tell me.
Finally he said, “Yeah, Paul insisted. He’s favoring that right side. He says
he wants to practice fighting and he doesn’t want Greg to even pretend like he
knows that he’s hurting.”

“He’s an idiot. Why did Greg agree to
that?”

Sam laughed. Paul’s determined. He will
find someone to do it if he says no. Greg won’t hurt him, no matter what he
tells him. You know that.”

“Yeah, I know,” I told him. I watched for
a minute. Paul was blocking too much on his right side, leaving the left wide
open. If he fought Trent like that he wouldn’t win. Trent would use his
weakness to his advantage…any good fighter would. Greg connected a kick on
Paul’s left-side and he almost went down. I watched him stumble and wince as he
struggled upright. I couldn’t stand it. “When he’s finished, tell him to call
me. I have some errands to run. I can’t watch this.”

Sam winked at me. “He’s going to be okay.”

“I know he’s a tough guy. I’m just not
tough enough to watch him struggle like this.” I left, ran my errands and came
back a little over an hour later. He had just finished his shower and he was
ready to go. The first thing I noticed was that he looked like he could hardly
even stand up straight. As we walked out to the car, I took his arm. I pretended
like I just wanted to touch him, but I was really afraid that he was going to
fall over.

Once at home, he picked at his dinner and
avoided talking to me about his pain at all costs. We went to bed early and
once again, neither of us could go to sleep. It was different though, his
winces were almost cries that startled me out of a dead sleep.

Finally at about midnight I said, “This is
ridiculous. We have to take you to the hospital, Paul.”

He must have been hurting worse than ever,
because he agreed. I helped him to the car and on the way to the hospital he
said, “You know they’re not going to do anything. They’ll give me more pain
meds and muscle relaxers…”

“Let’s just wait and see what they say,
okay?”

“Okay,” he agreed.

I signed him in when we got there.
Thankfully there weren’t many people ahead of us. I knew that if we’d had to
wait a long time he would have tried to get me to leave. We were taken in back
and put into a room.

The doctor came in and introduced himself
and asked Paul, “So what’s going on tonight?”

“I’m having a lot of pain in my right
side,” he told him.

“Is this new?”

“Yeah, it started about a week ago.”

“Any fever?”

“He got hit in the ribs with a crowbar,” I
said. Paul gave me a look.

“Well, there’s your problem. Ribs don’t
like crowbars.”

Paul laughed and winced. The doctor
examined him and Paul tried hard not to wince every time he touched him…but it
was obvious that it hurt. When he finished, the doctor said, “I’m going to send
you to get some x-rays and I’ll meet you back here in a bit.”

Paul went for his x-ray and about a
half-hour later the doctor came back in. He hung the x-ray film up in the
little light box on the wall and said, “You see this?” He was pointing at a
jagged line that ran down along three of Paul’s ribs. “You have some cracked
ribs, two of them to be exact, that explains the pain.”

Paul wouldn’t look at me. He knew I would
have an “I told you so,” look on my face although I was really trying not to.
“So what can we do for them?” Paul asked. He knew the answer just like I did.
Mine were still sore.

“We take it easy and let them heal,” the
doctor said. “No vigorous activity, okay?”

“Okay,” Paul said. I was trying hard to
see his face. I wanted to see if he was lying or not, but he still wouldn’t
look at me.

“I’ll write you a prescription for some
pain medications and muscle relaxants. No more crow bars, no running, jumping,
playing…you can get an abdominal binder if you want. The pressure helps. If
anything changes…if you have trouble breathing…come back in. Follow up with
your regular doctor in about two weeks, okay?”

“Okay. Thanks doc.” The doctor smiled at
me and left the room. Paul got up to put his shirt back on and I finally got a
look at his face. He had an “I told you so,” look of his own. After slipping on
his t-shirt he looked at me and said, “Ready?”

“Yeah.”
 
We picked up his prescriptions at the front desk and I quietly followed
him out to the car. Once we were headed home I had to ask, “Are you going to
listen to the doctor?”

“About what,” he said.

“Seriously, Paul? You heard what he said,
no vigorous activity…”

He grinned and winked at me, “Don’t worry
baby, we can do other things…”

“Paul Delport! You know darn good and well
what I’m talking about. You shouldn’t be working out and you really shouldn’t
be fighting. What if he kicks you in the ribs that are already broken?”

He looked at me and said, “We don’t have
to decide this right now, okay?”

I didn’t agree. I had a really strong
feeling that he wasn’t going to even try and relax…and I would bet my next
paycheck that he wasn’t going to forfeit the fight.

We drove silently the rest of the way
home. By the time we got there it was after three in the morning. I was
exhausted and I knew he had to be too. I got ready for bed for the second time
that night and tried to convince myself not to bring it up again. The only
problem was I knew he was going to get up early and go for a run and then go to
the gym…

“You really need to listen to him,” I said
once we were side by side in bed.