Priest (A Standalone Bad Boy Romance Love Story) (73 page)

“Hey! The whole point is to use your legs
to get in and out of punching range. You’re backing out too far and giving him
the chance to rush at you.” He looked at Sam and the big man gave him a subtle
nod. I found that a little insulting. “Excuse me. You asked for my input.”

He spit his mouth guard into his glove and
said, “And I appreciate it.”

“Good answer,” I told him. “Then don’t run
it by Sam. Take it to heart. I’m not a boxer but I did study this stuff. I know
what I’m talking about.”

“I know you do, babe,” he said with a
grin. It was the first time he’d called me that in front of anyone. I felt my
face go hot and I glanced quickly at Sam. He was being polite but I could see
the traces of a smile at the corners of his mouth.

I watched again for a few minutes before
saying, “Okay, see right there. He was coming forward with his arm. You weren’t
moving yet. You were on your toes and going nowhere. Always time your footwork
so that when he’s punching, you’re moving.”

Paul spit out the guard again and said,
“What about when I’m punching? Won’t he be moving?”

“Yes, and so will you. Use your footwork
going in for the punch and moving away from it as well. In other words, never
stop moving. Just do it in a way that doesn’t use all your stamina in the first
round.”

He winked at me and said, “Baby you know I
have stamina to go for days.” He slid his mouth guard back in and left me with
a red face, I’m sure. I’ve never seen him so relaxed and playful. I guess
having Mitch out of the picture really did do wonders for him. I liked this
side of him, a lot.

I shook off my embarrassment and started
talking to him as he was moving in and out. “Okay good; create space as he
throws the punch. Just back step enough so that you’re out of range. Don’t run,
just step back! That’s it. Now, what do you do?”

He didn’t take the mouth guard out that
time but I heard him say, “Create space again.”

“Exactly. It’s easy, just keep doing the
same steps over and over…not working too hard but making him work harder.”

“Hi Jessie!” I turned around and saw
Victor and Marie coming towards us.

“Hey kid! How are you?”

“I’m good. Are you okay?” Victor asked me
with a concerned look on his face.

“I’m doing great. Teaching your uncle a
few moves.” Marie walked up behind him and I saw a subtle wince when she looked
at my face. It looked a hundred times better than it did, but evidence of the
cuts and bruises were still there, faded but still evident when I wasn’t
wearing make-up.

 
“Hi
Marie.”

“Hey Jessie. It’s good to see you.”

“You too, and you!” I told Victor.

“Hey Jessie…I’m sorry for what my dad did
to you.” Victor said it so sweetly that I felt worse for him than I did me. It
was the first time since what I’ve dubbed “AM” “After Mitch” that I felt like I
wanted to kill that SOB myself. This sweet little boy should never feel like he
has to apologize for something that monster does.

I sat on the edge of the ring with the
ropes behind me so that we were eye to eye and said, “You have nothing to be
sorry for. Grown-ups are supposed to know how to handle themselves without
using violence. Unfortunately, some of them don’t learn that so well. You’re a
great kid. We can all only be responsible for ourselves. I like you and
consider you my friend. I don’t hold you responsible for anything that anyone
else has done.”

He smiled at me and his little freckled
nose wrinkled as he did. I found myself hoping that someday Paul and I had one
just like him. I was beginning to accept that even with all the drama I wanted
to keep him around. Kids are so resilient and I saw that in the next instant
when Victor said, “Hey Uncle Paul, can I spar the winner?”

Sam laughed and took out his guard and
pulled off his headgear. “He already won,” he told the boy. “Come on up.”

I got one of our smaller head gears and a
new mouthpiece for him. Then Marie and I watched while the two of them went at
it. Neither of them was really throwing punches, but at one point they hooked
arms and Paul took him down to the mat.

They wrestled until Victor was on top and
he held up his arms and said, “I am the champion!”

Paul reached up and tickled him underneath
his arms, knocking him to the mat in peals of laughter. I looked over at Marie
and saw the love for both of the in her eyes. She finally looked at peace.
 
I was happy for her…for all of them. If
anyone deserved some, it was this little family.

Victor and Paul played for a couple of
hours and Marie and I talked, getting to know each other more as I cleaned the
machines and finished cleaning up the things from my party. She was like
Victor, apologetic and feeling bad about what Mitch did to me.

“I know that I of all people shouldn’t
have a hard time believing he did that to you. He gave me a few beatings when
we were together that I thought I wasn’t going to see the other side of. I’m
just so damned sorry that you got caught up in our nightmare.”

“And I’ll tell you the same thing I told
Victor: There is only one person responsible for what happened to me and that
is Mitch.” I looked over at Paul and said, “I wouldn’t go back and change any
of my choices about letting any of you into my life.”

“We’re lucky to have you in ours,” she
said. “You’re good for my brother. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so happy or
so at peace. He’s been wound up inside since he was fourteen years old.”

“Thanks. He told me that his teen years
were pretty rough.”

“Yeah they were. A lot of it was or dad,
but a lot of it was worry over me too. He couldn’t get his own life on track
because of it all. I’m so praying that will all change now that Mitch is going
to be out of the picture…at least for a while. The night that Paul told me he
was in jail I slept through the entire night for the first time in six years,”
she told me.

I shook my head. “I can’t even imagine how
you’ve done this for so long. You’re a lot stronger person than me, that’s for
sure.”

She laughed and said, “Are you kidding? My
ex-creep is a moose. You tangled with him and the fact that you’re standing
here today and he’s in jail says that you won. You have to be incredibly strong
to walk away from what he did to you and just go back to your usual routine.
You look great and again, I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

“Thanks, Marie. I guess we all just do
what we have to do.” I was glad that everyone saw me as strong and brave. I
liked that. I never wanted to be seen as weak or incapable of taking care of
myself. The truth was though that inside; I wasn’t the same person I used to
be. The paranoia I’d been feeling before Mitch attacked me had turned into full
blown panic attacks sometimes when I was at home alone. I hadn’t told anyone…I
was sure it would pass eventually and again, I didn’t want anyone to look at me
like I was a “victim.”

CHAPTER
SIX

Paul and I stayed at the gym until closing
time and he continued to work on his skills while I helped out where I could.
He was determined to win that title and I was determined to do anything I could
to help him. It could be life-changing for him and I wanted that for him more
than anything. When it was time to leave and we walked out into the dark I
could feel the tiniest bit of anxiety beginning to take hold in my chest.

“You want to leave your car here for
tonight and take mine. We can get a movie on the way home?”

I liked the way he said “home,” like it
was where we both lived. Most of all, I liked that he was planning on staying
with me tonight. The anxiety was gone as quickly as it had come on.

“Sure, I have stir fry vegetables and
pork; I can make us dinner…”

“Nope,” he said as he closed the car door
on my side and went around to the other side.

He got in and I said, “You don’t like my
cooking?”

Smiling as he started the car he pat his
flat belly and said, “I love it…too much. But tonight I’m going to take care of
you. I’ll cook.”

“You cook?”

He laughed. “Yes, I can cook. As a matter
of fact, I’m so good at it that if this MMA thing doesn’t work out, I was going
to be a chef.”

He said it completely serious so I wasn’t
sure if he was kidding or not. I waited a few beats and said, “Really?”

Laughing he said, “No, not really. But I
can cook.”

We stopped at a Redbox on our way home and
Paul asked me what I wanted to watch. “I don’t care,” I told him. “Whatever you
think looks good.” He looked over at me and wiggled an eyebrow.

“I think you look pretty damned good. Will
you entertain me?”

“You know I will. After you make me dinner
and show me a movie.”

“Women, always with strings attached,” he
said. “Do you like Mark Wahlberg?”

“Yeah, he’s hot.”

He made a face and said, “That wasn’t what
I was asking, but thanks for sharing.”

I laughed. “Sorry, but he is.” Trying to
straighten the smile out of my face I said, “Why yes, Mark Wahlberg is an
amazing actor. Why do you ask?”

He rolled his eyes and said, “Have you
ever seen The Fighter?”

“Nope. What’s it about?”

“Micky Ward and his brother who trained
him…”

“Who’s Micky Ward?”

He was shaking his head at me. “I will
never know how a girl who knows so much about boxing can know so little about
it at the same time.”

“So who is he?”

“You’ll see when we watch the movie. I
know you’ll pay attention because Mark Wahlberg plays him and he’s “Hot.” He
said “hot” in a girlie voice. It was cute.

He got the movie and we went back to my
apartment. I took a shower and put on my comfy pajama bottoms and tank top
while he cooked the dinner since he ordered me out of the kitchen. The first
thing I realized when I got out was how good it smelled. As I came down the
hall I saw him putting the plates on the table filled with brown rice and
stir-fried vegetables. He left out the pork, but as it turned out, that was
okay. After my first bite I was in love, both with the dish and the chef.

“Oh my God, this is delicious.”

He smiled. “Thank you. See, I could be a
chef.”

“I didn’t doubt it for a second. I think
you can be anything that you want to be.” The last part just came out but he
looked like he was touched by it.

“What about an MMA champion? I go up
against Trent in two weeks. Beating him is probably going to be the biggest
challenge I’ve faced in the ring yet.”

“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.

When we got ready to leave, Mom hugged me
and thanked me for coming and for “everything,” she said. Then she whispered,
but not in the least bit quietly, “He’s hot baby and I like him. He’s a keeper,
I think.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

“Paul Delport, give me a hug,” she said.
Paul obliged and when he pulled back she said, “Thank you for coming to meet me
today. I hope it’s not too weird for you to meet Jessie’s mother in a place
like this.”

“No ma’am. It wasn’t weird at all. It was
really nice to meet you. I wish you the best of luck.”

“It was wonderful to meet you. In case you
wondered, I approve Jessie’s choice of a boyfriend. I think you just might be
what the doctor ordered for my girl. Take care of her for me, will you?”

“I will do that,” he said. He looked a
little sad then and I suspected he was thinking about Mitch. I didn’t think of
what that creep did to me as his fault, but I think Paul was carrying around a
lot of guilt over it. I hoped that Mitch didn’t get out for a long time mostly
because I was so afraid of what Paul was going to do to him when he did. I
wouldn’t care what he did if I wasn’t worried about what the consequences would
be for Paul. The last thing I wanted was for him to ruin his life defending me.

When we finally broke away from Mom and I
left this week’s payment at the front desk, we stepped out into the sunlight
and I said, “Thank you for today. Thank you for being so good to her. She
doesn’t experience men who treat her with respect very often.”