by Alice Ward
Alive?
Wanting to see me?
Does she hate me?
There was too much, and all the emotion churned in my throat.
Hunter sighed, shoving a hand through his hair. “But she’s leaving. I don’t have time to explain more. I need you to come with me.”
The noise from the traffic speeding past dimmed and became a distant echo as the whole world narrowed to the three of us standing on the concrete.
“You’re going to pay for this later, Hunter. But for now, get in the fucking car.” I shot Cherry a glance when she took a step back. “You too.”
“I can—”
“I swear to god, if you say you can take the fucking bus I’m going to pick you up and stuff you in the car. Now get in.”
She narrowed her eyes, but she did what I said, and in seconds, I was following Hunter’s directions to Our Lady of Peace — mostly a mental health facility but one that had a short-term inpatient drug treatment program.
Despite my protests, Hunter and Cherry followed me inside. At the desk, the nurse wouldn’t give me any information. I didn’t like to do it, but I threw out my dad’s name and watched her entire countenance change.
She nodded. “One moment, sir.”
In school, I’d never given a second thought to the way the world opened up when my father’s name was uttered. I’d been spoiled to the fact that the name Birchmeir got me what I wanted. Once life changed after my mother’s death and Lillie’s disappearance, not even who we were would change those two things, and I began to resent every door that flung open each time someone found out who I was.
Now though, it was a blessing.
A few moments later, a woman in a suit escorted us to a hallway. “Please wait here. Your sister will be on her way out momentarily and you can have a word with her before she goes.”
I thanked her then turned to look out at the full parking lot, trying to get my emotions in check. I was going to get to speak to my sister, really speak to her, for the first time since we were teens.
There was the clicking of a door behind me, and I turned.
Lillie blinked up at me, the blue eyes that matched mine clear, not cloudy like they had been that day on the street. When she smiled, she looked like the girl I remembered, not the ravaged, skinny drug addict she’d been for the last decade.
Her name slipped from my lips, the two syllables holding all the torment and anxiety her disappearance had caused me.
“I’m sorry,” she said, tilting her head the way she always had when she knew she’d been in the wrong and wanted forgiveness.
I shook my head. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here. Sorry I went off to college. I should have stayed… it was my fault. I—”
“No.” She pressed her lips together and gave her head a quick shake, her blonde hair drifting over her shoulders. “Nothing was your fault. And I’m okay now. I’ll be okay. Thanks to you.”
She was clean and safe. For the moment, anyway. But none of that was because of me. In fact, I was afraid to get too close, afraid she would bolt again and this whole nightmare would begin anew.
“I’ve never stopped looking for you.”
“I know.” Her gaze went to Hunter and their eyes locked, an understanding passing between them. She smiled at me. “That day on the street, I’d come back here because I’d lost hope and just needed to be somewhere familiar. When I saw you, I couldn’t stand myself any more. I wanted to be able to be in your life but couldn’t let you see what I’d become.”
“You look wonderful.” The words gushed out of me, and the image standing before me, the one I’d waited to see for so long blurred.
“Don’t be mad at Hunter. Please.”
I looked at my friend, but he only had eyes for my sister. He’d helped her. How could I be pissed? “Okay.”
She sighed out a breath of relief. “He helped me get in here, encouraged me to keep going. Now, I’m going to a rehab in California that’s geared toward long-term addicts. It has a high success rate. I’ll be gone for a while.” Her eyes filled with tears, and she stepped closer, laid her palm on my face. “But I’ll be back. I promise to come back. In the meantime, write to me? Catch me up on the last ten years?”
Emotion flooded me, to have found her and be losing her so soon, but I nodded and joked, “I’ve just been using the Birchmeir name to skate through life.”
She laughed and flung her arms around me. The deep freeze that had taken permanent residence in my soul began to thaw as I wrapped my arms around my beloved sister and squeezed, inhaling the fruity scent of her hair that had always reminded me of sunshine and summer. I felt like the sun had been hiding behind a cloud and finally broke through.
All too soon, she stepped back, and the orderly who had been keeping a low profile near the door stepped forward. “Ready?”
She nodded and held out a hand to Hunter. “You write too. Pretty soon, we’ll all be together again, just like old times.”
He smiled, but I could tell it cost him, and I could see just how deep the feelings he’d harbored for her all these years were. My question was answered when he closed the distance between them, hooked his finger under her chin and pressed a quick kiss to her lips.
A hand gripped my bicep when I might have interrupted, and I looked over to see Cherry, tears streaming down her cheeks. A surge of something hit me so hard I nearly rocked backwards. It swelled in my heart.
God, I was in love with her.
I felt like I’d been asleep for ten years and just now woken.
I’d been a cold-hearted bastard, and I was surprised she was even standing here, lending her support.
When Hunter stepped back, Lillie’s complexion was flushed, and she looked so much like the girl who had ridden in the middle seat next to me that fateful night that it took my breath.
We said our goodbyes for now, and I watched her walk to a waiting car that would take her to the airport. I didn’t take my eyes off its taillights until they disappeared, scared out of my mind I’d never see her again.
“She’ll be okay now. She’ll be back.” Hunter clapped a hand on my shoulder.
I narrowed my gaze on him. “You have a little explaining to do.”
Hunter’s phone dinged in his pocket. When he took it out, he smiled as he read the text message. “Saved by the bell. The fight bell. This is Gary Duffy from the Titans Gym in Ohio. Says he has a fight scheduled that just had one of the opponents drop out. He heard about Cherry and would like to fill the slot if she’s available.”
I looked at Cherry, whose eyes had grown wide. She wasn’t saying anything, so I asked, “Is it a money fight?”
Hunter’s fingers flew over the screen then he gazed up at me, grinning. “Yep.”
Cherry let out a screech and did a bounce, clapping her hand over her mouth, her eyes big as plates. “Are you kidding me? The Titans gym wants me in a fight?”
“I told you,” I said, excitement leaking into me as well, filling up all the places that had been dark and empty for so long, “as soon as your first legitimate fight aired, everyone would be able to see what I spotted from the moment I saw you.”
She clapped her hands, folding and clasping them under her chin, looking like the girl she once was. “Oh my god. This is a dream come true.”
“Nope, it’s reality,” Hunter added as he continued texting. “The fight’s in three weeks.”
I wanted to reach over and caress her cheek, feel her skin heat under my thumb. Instead, I just said, “Seems like today is a day for dreams coming true.”
She flushed, and as if she couldn’t contain herself, bounced up and down on her toes like I’d seen her little sister, Honey, do.
I’d never been the touchy-feely type, but with Cherry, the whole world always turned upside down, because now I had the sudden urge to pick her up and spin her around. I held on to it, stuffed it back inside.
I didn’t want to pile the mess that we’d become on top of her glee.
C
HAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Cherry
“Slow your breathing.”
Andre watched as I looked in the mirror, into my own eyes, willing my nerves to settle.
The cheering of the crowd filtered in. The thump of the bass.
I pushed all of that out of my mind.
This was my first pro fight. This was what I’d been living for, for the past year… longer.
My stomach flipped into my throat, threatening to send up what little it held.
I couldn’t believe it’d been nearly four months since I first met Caleb. Time hadn’t moved so fast and so slowly in all of my life.
“There she is, Miss Sweet Cherry Pie.”
I gasped and spun around, knowing that voice anywhere. “Hawk!”
A smile cracked his face. “Told you you’d make it. Always gotta listen to the Hawk, girl.” He shook hands with Andre and looked around. “Where’s Mr. Birchmeir?”
His name alone was enough to raise goose bumps along my skin. Stop it, Cherry. This is no time to get distracted.
“I haven’t seen him yet.” He hadn’t been around the gym much.
I had worked so hard to get here, putting in full days of working out and training. It had been hard to not be reminded of him constantly. Practically everything I used, Caleb had provided. Reminding me of his hands on me, his tongue lighting a fire in my belly that spread out to all of my limbs.
“I need to check a few things. I’ll see you cage side,” Andre said to me as he nodded to Hawk on his way out.
“Mind if I follow along?” Hawk asked Andre, and when he got an affirmative answer, turned back to me. “Knock ‘em silly, my ferocious Cherry Bomb.”
“I’ll do it for you.” And my family. And Caleb. I would do this for him. I would make him proud whether he wanted to be with me or not.
I went into a low stretch, pushing my racing thoughts out with my breath.
A knock sounded on the door, and I sighed.
“You ready?” His voice was low as he opened the door, and a shiver made my muscles tense again as he stepped in and closed it behind him.
“As I’ll ever be,” I whispered, half afraid that, at any moment, reality might shatter like a dream, and I would still be an illegal fighter who got her nose busted regularly for chump change.
“You’re going to kill it out there. I know it.” His strong arm reached out and his fingers traced my cheek.
How I wanted to walk into the middle of those arms, rest my head on the swell of his muscled chest. I didn’t know if I’d have ever made it here without Caleb.
“You have to say that. You have a vested interest in me succeeding.”
“True.” He smiled, and I had to look away. “Did I mention my father was here?”
“What? Are you kidding me?”
He shook his head. “We’ve been spending some time together. He’s interested in seeing how my business venture is going.”
Business venture. That was me.
“Does he know anything about…” Us, I wanted to say.
“No, thankfully. I thought it wise to give him the chance to judge you for your own merits rather than cloud his thoughts with any superfluous facts.”
“Well, I’d hardly consider myself that interesting,” I objected.
“You are. That interesting.” His eyes dropped from my face, over my sports tank, tiny athletic shorts, then came back up, reflecting just how interesting he found me.
“Whatever you say. I couldn’t allow the feelings swelling in my chest to get the upper hand. Going into another deep stretch so I wouldn’t have to look at him, I said, “Now skedaddle so I can get ready to kick some ass.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He gave me a bow before finally exiting, but the air still crackled after he left, allowing for no chance to center myself.
There was a five-minute warning knock at the door.
Then a one-minute knock.
Now, my intro music was playing.
“You can do this. You will do this,” I said to my mirror self.
I jogged out, my specially printed robe with my name on the back swishing as I waved at the cameras. It was so surreal, to be waving one second and watching myself wave on the big screen the next.
The stadium was truly massive. Bigger than any I’d experienced before. It was hard not to let the size of the crowd overwhelm me, but I forced my focus to the ring. Only the ring.
My opponent was waiting there.
She was more experienced than I was, but she only had two legit fights under her belt. They were both wins, so I was very interested in relieving her of her undefeated title.
I couldn’t remember the last time I had fought or even trained with someone in my own weight class, and I was determined to completely dominate her. This was my big jump into the official MMA world, and I wanted to do just what my name implied.
The announcer’s spiel broke into my concentration. “Will Cherry Bomb be able to shake things up when she enters the ring, or will she just be dead on arrival for The Kat to carry home?”
I snorted and tuned the noise out as they discussed everything from my weight to my hair. Gave my opponent all my attention. The world narrowed to just the two of us as her green cat eyes locked with mine.
I could hear my family cheering. Mama, Sage, and Colby had come to Ohio to watch, the two girls deemed too young yet to witness their sister in the ring. If Mama knew Dad took me to fights when I was Clementine’s age, she would have a total fit.
Pride, warm and binding, flowed through me, filling my chest and making me feel like I was invincible.
The seconds passed, and like time had been thrown into fast-forward, I was in the ring, Andre shouting advice to me that I couldn’t hear through the buzzing in my ears.
The next second, Kat and I were standing across from each other while the referee had us bump knuckles.
Back in the corner, I took a deep breath, then—
Riiiiing.
I went on the offensive immediately, throwing punches and connecting with Kat’s gut, her ribs. That wasn’t usually my style, I often liked to sit back and learn from my opponent, let them attack a few times. But I figured I had enough of an advantage to press it.
My opponent was good, managing to block several hits, but every two or three attempts I would get through and knock her backwards.
I doled out kick after kick. To her credit, with each hit she recovered before I could take advantage of my blow and get her down to the mat or in a hold.
The bell rang, already signaling the end of the round.
I retreated to my corner, breathing hard, but in better shape than she was. I had to seal the deal soon, though. I couldn’t afford to draw it out.
Unlike boxing matches, which had a maximum of twelve rounds and an average of six, MMA fights had an incredibly strict maximum of five rounds total. And since I didn’t want this to end in a tie or a points-based win, I needed a memorable knockout or submission to live up to the hype built up around me.
The downside of having fame was that the more people who knew my name, the more people there were to disappoint if I messed up.
But I wasn’t going to mess up. It wasn’t even an option.
This was my story, and I was going to beat it to a pulp with my own two hands.
The bell shrieked. Round two.
I advanced, but Kat came at me with a fire she didn’t display in the first round. Instead of just defending, she threw out blow after blow, interrupting my rhythm. She’d hung back to learn my tactics, like I usually did.
I blocked her roundhouse and used the opportunity to back up several feet. Before she could fully recover, I ran at her as fast as I could given the short distance between us.
But instead of hitting her dead-on, I purposefully slid just past her. She was so surprised by the move that she didn’t know how to retaliate.
Perfect.
I moved so fast I was barely able to see my own limbs. Slid my left f
oot back between hers, and leaned back, slapping my butt right into the meat at the back of her thigh. At the same time, I brought my arm around — chop — right above her boobs. The combination of opposite forces knocked her off her center of gravity.
Then she was on the mat.
The crowd screamed.
I dropped down on her, to get into a mount.
She sent out a kick that caught me right in the neck. I fell back, choking, nausea burning up my throat. My head bounced off the mat, and for a moment, the arena went foggy.
Plenty of fighters didn’t get over such a blow. It would be understandable if I just stayed down and tried again next time.
I blinked up at the lights as my name drifted through the haze. Lots of voices calling my name.
One in particular called it in my dreams too.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Caleb
“Cherry!”
I gripped the railing in front of me so hard that I was surprised when it didn’t buckle.
There were so many delicate parts in the neck. Trachea, vocal cords, arteries.
My entire chest went cold, then my limbs, fingers. I wanted nothing more than to protect Cherry from the onslaught.
But it was too late. And I couldn’t anyway. This was her career, her dream, and I needed to believe in her. I knew that she was ready to make shockwaves in the fighting world, and if she was willing to accept all the beatings that came with that, then I needed to respect her strength and accept it too.
Right.
It wasn’t my nature to let those I loved be hurt. And I did love her. Although I still hadn’t said as much out loud. But between the training, the PR, and the interviews, I had yet to find a time that felt right.
I’d had to have it just right. If there was one thing that Cherry deserved, it was a genuine confession worthy of her. So I didn’t rush it.
And now she was lying on the mat not moving.
I should have told her I love her.
My heart about exploded when her chest rose, and she gasped for air.
I watched her carefully, more concerned with each beat of my heart. I had never felt this way about another human being.
Andre was shouting at her from outside the cage, but she wasn’t listening. Instead, her beautiful eyes slid toward me, the harsh lights of the arena reflecting off her hazel orbs.
