Survivor (First to Fight #2)(17)

The springy mat bounces as my nephew Cole lunges under the ropes and sprints toward me. “I’ll save you, Dad!” he shouts. Then he pounces, landing squarely on my stomach and knocking the wind from my lungs.

Livvie and Ben, the traitors, burst out laughing while Cole scrambles to trap me in a hold. After a few minutes of pretending to put up a fight, I tap the mat. “I give, I give,” I wheeze.

Cole rolls off, shaking with laughter, a huge grin splitting his face. Ben ruffles his hair and scoops him up. “That’s my boy.”

I glare at him. “You’re an *.”

“Jack,” Livvie exclaims and leans over the ropes to cover Cole’s ears. “I have a hard enough time with this one’s dirty mouth. Y’all gotta stop.”

Ben leans over to kiss her on the cheek. “I thought you liked my dirty mouth?”

“And on that note, it’s time for me to get back to work.” I get to my feet and slap Ben on the back. “Thanks man, I needed that. Next time, keep your filth at home, though.”

He slaps Livvie on the butt and I look skyward. “Kiss ass. I’m here to give you a good beat down whenever you need it, man.”

“Keep telling yourself that. You owe me a beer,” I add as I weave through the ropes and jump from the ring.

“Bullshit,” he replies. “It was a tie, we’ll split.”

“This isn’t a date, we’re not going dutch.”

“You just can’t find a good man anymore,” Ben tells Livvie, who snorts.

“You’re the one who never returns my calls,” I reply.

“Okay you two,” Livvie says between laughs.

I give her a hug and tug on Cole’s nose. “You take care of your Momma, ‘kay, little dude? Tell her to bring you by next week. We’ll work on that right hook.”

“So,” Livvie says, in a tone that I know from experience won’t lead to anything good. “Sofie and the boys came by for dinner. You should have stopped by to say hi.”

“Livvie,” Ben warns.

She holds her hands up. “Well, I’m just saying.”

Ben rolls his eyes.

I point a finger at her. “None of that, now. I just got finished kicking your husbands ass for talking shit. Mind your own business, little sister.”

Livvie play-frowns. “If you say so.”

“I do.” I back away in the direction of my office. Call it a tactical retreat. “Now scram. I’ve got work to do.”

“See you later, man,” Ben says with a wave of his hand.

I hold two fingers up in acknowledgment. “Later.”

“Come over sometime this week for dinner,” Livvie adds.

But she and I both know it’s a ploy, so I ignore it. “Goodbye, you nut.”

Ben throws an arm around Livvie’s shoulders and pulls her into his side. I can hear peels of Cole’s laughter as they head through the double doors that lead into the parking lot. A lot of happy memories were made in this place. A lot of memories like these.

My smile falls as their shadows disappear around the corner of the building. Alone now, the rest of the gym empty of members except for a couple in the locker rooms, all those thoughts I’d pushed away while in the ring with Ben come flooding back.

The thought of her being so close shouldn’t affect me the way it does. My fingers shouldn’t itch to grab my keys and speed over to her place. I shouldn’t ache to pull her in my arms or want to crack a joke just to see her face brighten with a smile.

Nassau never seemed like the small town that it is, at least not to me. It’s always been home base, the place that I go to chill out—or used to between deployments. Now it feels like a weight around my neck. The business that I can’t seem to get on track no matter how many promotions or reduced memberships I offer. The girl who I planned to marry, but haven’t really spoken to in years. But most of all, the itch beneath my skin telling me it’s time to leave, time to move, do something where I’m needed, something meaningful.

The gym grows quiet as a couple of my regulars shout goodbyes from the locker rooms and then follow Ben and Livvie out the door. This gym had been in my family for decades—it was my father’s dream when he retired from the Marines. After my mother died, it became his baby. If he wasn’t at the cabin or fishing on the lake, he was here, shaping up-and-coming mixed martial arts talent or teaching a kid’s class. This place breathed life back into him after my mother’s death nearly killed him.

When he had a stroke a few years back and my contract came back up for reenlistment, I couldn’t find it in me to leave him here alone. Livvie was still away at college and there would be no one to take care of the gym with him so sick. Leaving my guys, my brothers, hadn’t been an easy decision, but they understood. Even though it killed me to leave them behind, I moved back home to help Dad out while he recuperated. Then, after he died, the responsibility to keep it running fell to me and I didn’t want to let him down.

I worried about it, though. Even now, as I flick the lights for the main room and lock the front doors, I worry about it. The walls of my office are plastered with pictures of my team, of my graduating class from boot. There’s even a photo of Sofie mixed in, though I do my best to avert my eyes as I settle in my dad’s old scarred up desk.