The Will (The Magdalene Series) (Volume 1)(150)

I said nothing.

My eyes moved through the gym to Mickey, who was standing ringside, calling out to the two boys in it. They then moved to Junior, who had three boys working punching bags. Finally, I shifted my eyes back to Jake, who had his hands up in front of his face. They were curled into fists and he quickly dropped one, punching it in the air, then the other one dropped and he punched the air then he brought his right one up and jabbed it, also into the air, directly bringing his fists back up to mostly cover his face.

Then he dropped his hands and jerked his chin up to the boy.

The boy lifted his hands in front of his face, changed his stance and mimicked what Jake did.

When he finished, Jake smiled down at him and clapped him on the shoulder.

The boy beamed.

Already lost in that man, seeing all this, all he’d wrought for these kids who clearly loved it, I sent a prayer to God that He’d never let me be found.

“You need to sort his shit out, Josie. How he gets anything done is anyone’s guess. This place is a disaster zone,” Alyssa announced and I turned my eyes to her, taking in Jake’s office as I did.

It was, indeed, a disaster zone.

And the day before, when I informed Jake of this (however, I didn’t use the words “disaster zone” but instead “colossal mess”) after fully taking it in for the first time when we opened, I also informed him that I could organize it for him if he wished.

His reply was, “I am not a desk jockey, honey. You sort that shit, I’ll feed you so many tacos and give you so many orgasms, you won’t be able to move.”

Although both options (primarily the latter) sounded very good to me, I’d returned, “It’ll be difficult to sort your office if I can’t move.”

This got me a very long, very ardent kiss that was only interrupted when a member came in and shouted jovially, “Yo! Get a room!”

Thus, now I was in Jake’s office, sorting it with Alyssa who was there not only because Junior was but also because two of her sons were in the league.

“Josie?” she called when I said nothing.

“Do you think it’s possible to fall in love with a man knowing him only a few weeks?” I asked.

Her expression went from questioning to soft when she answered, “Yes.”

“I’m in love with Jake,” I announced.

“No shit?” she strangely replied.

“No shit,” I decided to answer.

Her lips curved up and she shifted so she was leaning against the desk close to where I was sitting in Jake’s rather tattered office chair.

She bent to me and shared, “Do you know how long it took me to fall in love with Junior?”

I shook my head.

“Thirty minutes,” she declared.

“Thirty minutes?” I asked, surprised for that was no time at all. In fact, that made my falling in love with Jake seem like it took years.

“He picked me up for our date, took me to The Eaves, sat across from me, and after I ordered, I looked at him and he said, straight out, that I was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. That did it for me. He put that right out there. He took me to a great place. He didn’t piss around with letting me know he was happy to be there with me. I looked into his eyes, saw how he was looking at me and knew right then that that was just the beginning. We’ve been together for nineteen fan-f*cking-tastic years. So I wasn’t wrong.”

“That’s beautiful, Alyssa,” I told her.

“It totally is, Josie,” she agreed.

“I’m happy you have that,” I went on.

“And babelicious,”—she lifted a hand and cupped my cheek, bending even closer—“after your totally f*cked up life, I’m freaking thrilled you finally have it too.”

So was I.

I was delighted.

Over the moon.

Walking on air.

My eyes got watery but my lips tipped up and even with my eyes watery, I saw hers were the same.

Suddenly, she dropped her hand and pulled away, announcing, “If we lose it like big goofball girls, we’ll probably be ejected.”

She was wrong. Jake would never eject me. Even for crying in a boxing gym. And he took boxing very seriously.

I didn’t share this.

I advised, “We should deep breathe.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

We deep breathed, making very loud noises doing it.

Then we burst out giggling.

“Woman!” Junior shouted. “There’s no giggling in boxing!”

We both looked out the window to Alyssa’s man and saw him smiling at us.

He didn’t mind the giggling.

In fact, he loved it and he also didn’t mind letting that show.

Yes, I very much liked Junior.

My eyes moved to Jake and I saw he wasn’t smiling, but he was looking into the office at me and his expression was warm and sweet.

I sent a smile his way.

He smiled back.

“Right, so giggling also could get us ejected. Nothing but serious from now on,” Alyssa said, taking my attention off Jake.

I looked to her and pulled a serious face. “Nothing but serious.”

She looked at my face and burst out laughing again.

I joined her.

Junior shouted, “What’d I say?”