I Dare You (The Hook Up #1)(78)
“No son of mine is going to toss away a first class education and a high IQ to be a common laborer.”
I let out a resigned sigh and poked Blythe in the side, making her giggle. “You better go see your mum. It’s time for me to go.”
As usual, I’d made him angry. I just couldn’t be what he wanted.
I was never good enough just the way I was.
*
An hour later I was at my gym.
Built in the late seventies, it had been constructed in the historic part of town that was being revitalized. Several of the neighboring homes had been re-modeled and upgraded with young and hip families moving in.
No matter what my father said, the gym was a good investment.
Anybody can pop up a gym and say its MMA qualified, and it didn’t mean shit, but Front Street Gym would have real credentials. Max was one of my trainers, and although he’d got his start in traditional martial arts, he’d transitioned over to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, and Krav Maga in his later years.
As for me, my mum had put me in classes starting at four. I held a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and a blue belt in Judo.
Max had taught me everything else I knew.
I unlocked the double metal doors and stepped inside, my eyes taking in the updates the contractor had been working on for the past week, installing new plumbing in the restrooms and lockers, revamping the front office. The final step would be putting in a flat for me to live in. I was bleeding money to get this place opened—literally. I imagined Front Street with every punch and strike I took, knowing that in a few months this place would be open and running and I’d finally be free of my father.
I bent down and rubbed my hands across the new red sparring mats that had been delivered last week. Some of the new workout machinery had been installed as well, and I checked out everything carefully. I made the rounds of the building, checking the windows, outside doors, and smoke detectors. Paranoia ran high when I was this close to tasting happiness. And I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it was as if something was waiting out there in the darkness, panting its nasty breath, waiting for the right opportunity to yank away my slice of good.
Chapter 9
Elizabeth
Two days after the party, I drove a few miles down the road to meet my mom at a truck stop off the interstate.
I hadn’t seen her in nearly four months, and we only lived three hours apart.
The diner smelled like old grease and deep-fried onion rings, reminding me of my childhood when my mom would bring home takeout from the restaurant where she waited tables.
She waved at me from a red booth at the back.
I walked her way, feeling anxious.
Some people think God puts difficult people in our lives for a reason, to make us better people as we sharpen ourselves on the knife of their shortcomings. That was my mom. She’d destroyed my trust a million times as a child, and eventually I’d learned to stop counting on her. My kindergarten graduation, my first middle school dance, the day I got my acceptance letter to Oakmont Prep, the night with Colby … she’d been gone, off on an adventure with whomever she was seeing. Like a stray dog that whines for scraps, I’d been begging my mom to love me my whole life.
Yet out of my shitty childhood, a strong drive had been forged in my heart.
To be more.
More than the trailer I’d grown up in; more than my alcoholic mother and absent father.
Today she’d put extra effort in, hot-rolling her natural blond hair in big waves and pulling it back with a bejeweled butterfly clip. She wore a pink gingham sundress and her lips were painted a glossy pink. At thirty-nine, she still managed to look farm fresh.
She jumped up to greet me, a bright smile on her face.
“You’re too skinny,” I commented as she gathered me up in a hug, my hands feeling the bones of her spine poking through.
We pulled back, and I studied her face more closely, taking in the hollowed neckline. A tingle of foreboding went over me. It had been a year since her last rehab for alcohol and drugs, and I’d held out hope she’d last longer this time. “You clean?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Elizabeth, I’m fine. Right as rain.” She laughed at my frown. “Don’t worry. I can take care of myself.”
We sat down together.
Her eyes gleamed with a happiness I hadn’t seen in a long time. “I can’t wait for you to meet my new boyfriend, Elizabeth. He’s in the restroom right now, but he’s got real class and is the sexiest man I’ve ever dated.” She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I know I’ve said that before, but I mean it this time.” She squirmed in the booth, excitement written on her face. “He’s even going to take me on a one of those cruises to Mexico soon.”
“Fun.” I smiled through my disappointment. I’d thought it would just be us today. “Is he employed?”
She nodded. “And he has dental. What else could I ask for?”
“A washing machine maybe, or I don’t know, a home to live in?”
She’d sold her trailer a year ago and had been bouncing back and forth between boyfriends’ and friends’ houses.
An older man sauntered out of the restroom area in a flowery print Tommy Bahama–type shirt unbuttoned a quarter of the way down, wiry chest hairs poking out like crazy. He was so abundantly hairy I wouldn’t have been surprised if a small monkey lived inside his shirt and was reaching up to say hi.