by Lane Hart
“Seriously?” Sadie asks me with a huge grin. “Havoc?”
“Yeah, if I can get your dad to agree,” I tell her. “What about the owner?” I ask Linc.
“Jim’s an older guy who opened Evolution about twelve years ago as a straight boxin’ facility. He’s never really cared for MMA but rolled with it because of its popularity. After more than a decade, Senn and I are the only ones who’ve ever ranked,” Linc says, nodding to the biggest guy. He might be more trouble than I expected, but I can still beat him. “So for the right price you could probably own your very own gym.”
“Then let’s do this.” I laugh. “Line them all up, smallest to biggest, and we’ll see who can put their money where their mouth is with you acting as the sole judge and ref.”
“This is gonna be fun,” Linc agrees.
“Let’s call your dad tonight and see what he says,” I tell Sadie. I know she’s been avoiding him as long as she did me, but hopefully they can finally make amends.
…
Sadie
So at least Jude didn’t have to fight any of the guys when they came over. They all mean well and have become sort of protective of me. I think Jude shocked them enough to get them to back off when he said he might buy out their gym.
Now the two of us are sitting in his guest bedroom getting ready to call my dad. I haven’t talked to him in weeks but know it’s time for me to forgive him too.
Calling him from my replacement phone Jude had overnighted to the house, he picks up on the second ring.
“Sadie?” he answers.
“Hey, Dad.”
“Sweetie, it’s so good to hear your voice. I’ve tried to call you and tell you how sorry I am.”
“Yeah, Jude just bought me a new phone.” I look up at him where he’s sitting at the edge of the bed next to my outstretched legs.
“So how’ve you been? I’ve missed you and been worried about you.”
“I’m good. It’s hot down here, but I like it. And I’ve missed you, too.”
“Look, Sadie. You know I never meant to hurt you. It’s just…I had seen how you’ve looked at Jude for years, and he needed to find something to make him happy so he could put fighting in perspective. Despite how upset you might have been with me I don’t regret it. I’m sorry I hurt you, but that was never my intention.”
“I know. I was just…confused and unable to figure out what was real and what was manufactured as part of the deal. Now I know.”
“I’m glad, sweetie. So is Jude planning to stay down there with you?”
“Um, well, yeah and he was wondering how you’d feel about expanding Havoc down here to North Carolina?”
He chuckles into the phone. “Well I’ll be damned. I’ve never really thought about it since I didn’t want to travel more than I had to when you were growing up, but now…I think that’s a great idea.”
“All right, I’ll tell him and you two can work out the details while I’m away.”
“Away?” he asks and I remember I haven’t told him about that news.
“Yeah. I’ve got an internship at the coast with a sea turtle conservation group.”
“Oh, well that sounds fun. And I’m sure they’ll all love your tattoo.”
I gasp wondering how he found out. “How’d you…”
“I’m more perceptive than I look, sweetie.”
“I guess so,” I admit. When Jude’s hand makes a stroke up my leg I almost throw the phone down to pounce on him. But we agreed to take things slow. “Well Dad, I’m gonna go but I’ll talk to you later.”
“Okay. Tell Jude to call me so we can make plans.”
“I will. Love you.”
“Love you too, sweetie,” he says before I disconnect the call. I expect Jude to attack me and am disappointed when he doesn’t.
“So he said he’s all for you opening a facility down here and to call him to talk more about it.”
“Awesome,” Jude says with a dimpled smile. “Now all I have to do is beat a few jackasses in a couple weeks and we’ll have the perfect place.”
“Yeah, should be easy.”
“It will be,” he replies, sounding cocky. “Other than that big bastard, nothing to it.”
“Oh really?” I tease.
“Yeah, because here’s something they didn’t catch on to. I didn’t say anything about what weight class I’d fight at. I plan to bulk up over the next few weeks to one-eighty at least.”
“That’s sneaky, but only fair since Senn weighs more than two hundred.”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart, I’ve got this,” he says before getting up and reaching for my hand. “Come on. Let’s go find something to watch on TV.”
“TV?” I ask, when all I want is to spend time with him in this bed. Whose idea was it to go slow? Oh shoot, that’s right, it had been mine and he’s only respecting my wishes.
I give in and we head downstairs to sack out on the sofa. That’s when I notice how quiet it is.
“Where’s Linc?” I ask.
“Um, I think he said he was going to eat dinner with his parents or something,” Jude replies, and I understand right away exactly what’s going on. Linc likely made himself scarce in his own house to give us privacy so we can get it on.
Like usual, Jude picks up the remote and flips through channels at a rapid speed, not really seeing any of them before he finally comes to a stop on one. Ah, he’s found Linc’s unfortunate hobby.
“Is this…”
“Porn?” I finish for him right as the dude on the screen puts his dick in a naked woman’s waiting mouth. “Yeah, Linc is sort of an addict. I even suggested he join a twelve-step program.”
“It comes on in the middle of the afternoon?” Jude asks without his eyes ever leaving the screen.
“Oh yeah. Whatever subscription he has broadcasts it twenty-four hours a day. No telling how much he pays for this crap.”
“You...you watch it with him?” he asks hesitantly, not really sounding jealous but just curious.
“God no! But I go to bed a little earlier than him most nights and it’s no secret what he stays up watching. Or gets up early to watch.”
He’s always up before me, but one morning I couldn’t go back to sleep. I started down the stairs and made it halfway before I heard the moans and turned right back around.
On the screen another naked man walks on camera and reaches around to start fondling the woman working hard on her knees. Soon he’s fucking her from behind while holding her head down on the other man’s cock.
“Here,” Jude says, offering me the remote. “I-I don’t think I can turn it off.”
The tenting in his black nylon shorts tells me exactly how much he likes it.
“Then we don’t have to,” I respond.
Jude groans and throws his head back against the sofa cushion, closing his eyes at the same time his hand covers the protruding bulge that I want to take care of for him.
“Sadie,” he says my name in almost a groan. “When you said slow...how slow…”
“Not this slow,” I answer quickly. The words barely leave my mouth before he’s on top of me.
When our lips meet it ignites a frenzy. I’m quickly forced to my back, taking him down with me, my arms and legs locked around him. The kiss is so frantic that I think I bit his tongue, but Jude doesn’t slow down or seem to mind. His palms moving up my tank top are desperate to get handfuls of my breasts while I work on his bulge through his shorts before yanking them down and out of the way to get to his flesh.
“We should…we should go upstairs,” he says, his mouth moving down to suck on my exposed breasts.
“Okay,” I agree. At first I don’t think we’re gonna make it any further than the sofa, but Jude picks me up and we’re finally moving.
My legs around his waist put his hard cock right where I need him against the seam of my cotton shorts, making me moan.
“Oh God,” he groans. “Need a condom. Upstairs.”
“Still on b
irth control,” I say against his lips, and that’s all the confirmation he needs before he lowers me down onto the steps, jerks my shorts and panties off, and then shoves his cock into my throbbing and drenched pussy.
“Please, Jude. Harder. Oh!” I scream when my slick walls clench desperately around his thick length that’s buried deep inside of me. It’s been so long and I needed him so much that it only takes seconds for me to shatter into a million wonderful pieces in his arms.
“Sadie. God Sadie, I missed you so damn much,” he whispers against my ear while we start to catch our breath.
Despite how amazing and intense it was, I haven’t had enough.
“Take me to bed, Jude,” I tell him, running my hands through his longer, thicker hair. “And then I want you to make love to me until I have to leave next week.”
“Lookin’ forward to it, sweetheart,” he says with a big grin. Then after a quick kiss he carries me the rest of the way to the bedroom.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Jude
I make a right turn and then the GPS on my phone tells me I’ve arrived at my destination, eight-oh-one South Anderson Avenue, Sanibel, Florida. The directions bring me to the front of a store with a palm tree and a big yellow and blue sign that has the words “Ace Paddleboard” on it. I park my truck in the lot and after one last deep, calming breath I climb out and head inside.
A door chime dings in greeting and then I’m looking at rows of kayaks, life vests and swimming apparel.
“Hi, can I help you?” A young guy a few years older than me with shaggy, brown surfer hair, tee and shorts asks.
Here goes nothing.
“Yeah, I’m, ah, looking for Melanie. Is she working today?”
He blinks at me a few times and I worry I’ve blown my shot at this, but then he says, “She doesn’t really come in during the summers, so she can stay home with the kids.”
Kids. Damn, I didn’t even think about that shit.
“Oh, well um, I guess I’ll maybe try to stop back by this fall,” I say, not sure what else to do. It’s not like this kid’s going to come right out and give a complete stranger her home address.
“If you want to see her, our house is right next door. You’re Jude, right?” he asks with a smile. He follows up with an explanation before I can even ask how the hell he knows who I am. “You look just like her and we’ve always followed you and your brother’s careers.”
“Oh. So you’re…” The boy who ended a marriage. The guy that took our mother from us and had replacement kids with her. The jackass she left her old life for. I’m not sure how to finish my statement.
“Her husband, Reece,” he says, offering me his hand. “She talks about you all the time. There’s not a day that’s gone by that she hasn’t missed you.”
“What about Jax? Does she miss him, too?” I ask snidely before I can stop myself.
“Of course she does,” he says right away. “We’ve watched every televised fight the two of you’ve ever had and seen some live. We were in the arena in Fairfax July Fourth when you won the title. Mel’s so damn proud of you both.”
Mel. I remember my dad calling her that, too. Suddenly I’m not so sure that I can do this.
“Please don’t leave without seeing her,” he says when he notices me eyeing the door.
“She’s probably not going to like what I have to say to her,” I warn.
He nods. “I’m sure she deserves it, and it’ll be worth it for her to see you after all this time.”
I swipe my hand over my face, trying to figure out what to do.
“Just wait here and I’ll go get her. It won’t take but two minutes,” he says, heading for the back exit. “Please just wait.”
My heart starts racing before the door shuts. This is it. After nineteen years I’m gonna finally face the woman who should receive the shittiest mother of the century award. Surprising myself, I don’t leave, and a couple of minutes later, she walks through the door.
Seeing me, she gasps, stopping dead in her tracks. Her hand comes up to cover her mouth when her dark eyes water and she starts to sob. I guess her young husband wanted to surprise her.
“Jude? Oh my God!” she exclaims before coming closer. “It’s you…you’re really here?”
“It’s me,” I say, finding it hard to yell at her because she’s upset and looks so…young and pretty, more like mine and Jax’s older sister than our birth mother. Her wavy, jet-black hair falls past her shoulders, and she’s tall for a woman but lean, wearing a long, floral summer dress like something Sadie would like. Sadie, fuck I wish she was here with me.
“I’m so glad you’re here. Thank you. I know it probably wasn’t easy for you. That’s why I’ve never just shown up on your doorstep. I didn’t know…
“Whether or not I’d cuss you out and tell you to leave?” I offer.
“Yeah,” she says with a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry. I know that’s not adequate but nothing else is either.”
“I’m not the one you need to apologize to,” I tell her, finding more of my spine again since she’s not crying as heavy now.
“I know Jackson hates me. I mean, how could he not?” she says with her narrow shoulders sagging
“We both do,” I admit.
She lowers her eyes and sniffles. “I’d hoped one day you’d be able to forgive me, even if he couldn’t.”
“I actually forgave you for cheating on Dad and leaving him for someone else. You should’ve told him the truth instead of getting caught, but I know that when you love someone, sometimes you do stupid things,” I say with an exhale of breath to the ceiling. “What I hate you for is over the past nineteen years Jax has thought you didn’t give a shit about him. You devastated a ten-year-old boy with just a few words that still hurt him till this damn day.”
Her eyes close and more tears run down her cheeks, but I don’t feel guilty about my honest words and refuse to take them back.
“I’ve always regretted that day, and probably will until the day I die,” she finally says between more sniffles. “I was…torn. I felt guilty, of course, and didn’t know what to do. I hated myself for wanting someone I shouldn’t. I thought it’d be easier for Jax to hate me than miss me. I deserved to be hated for what I did to your father and to you boys. And for him to see it firsthand…I wish he hadn’t. Not because of your dad finding out, but because I can’t imagine how what I did scarred him.”
“Why haven’t you ever apologized or tried to talk to him?” I ask her, thinking of the yearly cards I get while he’s never gotten a single fucking thing from her.
“There’s nothing I can say to him to repair the damage I’ve done,” she says with a shake of her head.
“You could start by saying you’re sorry. The worst that could happen is he’ll call you a bitch and tell you to go to hell,” I say, offering her my cell phone.
She looks at me a second in question but then steps forward, taking the offered phone and scrolling through my contacts. I hope Jax won’t kill me for this. I didn't tell him where I was headed or what I was doing before returning home to Maryland to pack.
“Hey, bro, when you gonna be back to haul your shit to Carolina?” I hear him ask through the phone.
Our mother’s chin trembles before she finally says, “Jackson?”
“Sadie? Who the fuck is this?” he asks.
“Um, please don’t hang up. It’s your mom.” I hear the click right before she cringes and hands the phone back.
I redial his number and he answers without saying anything. “Jax, just hear her out, okay?” I ask, but get no response. Figuring he’s at least still on the line, I hand the phone back to her.
“Jackson, I’m so sorry for what I did…what I said. I know you’ll never forgive me…but I’ve loved you and missed you every single minute of every day,” she says between sobs. “I’m so proud of you and watch all of your fights. I was there…eight years ago…at your first championship fight in Las Vegas, and then your third in Calif
ornia. I watched all the coverage on your trial and was so happy when I heard you married the beautiful attorney and they dismissed those ridiculous charges. I saw in the tabloids that you had a little boy, and he’s adorable. He looks just like you and Jude when you were babies.”
My own stupid eyes water, hearing her quick confessions before he hangs up on her again. I hope this will give Jax some sense of peace after all this time.
“I’d love to see you and meet your family, but I know that’s probably too much to ask. Just please think about it. You have a half-brother and sister. Wyatt is eleven and Anna just turned sixteen. They’re both huge MMA fans. Wyatt wants to learn how to fight like his big brothers. He and Anna would freak out if they got to meet you and Jude.”
Holy shit. I have a brother and sister who I didn’t know about but apparently idolize me and Jax. If that’s not a slap in the face then I don’t know what is. Despite how much I hate our mother, which I have to admit is lessening every second, the kids are innocent in all this and deserve to know their half-brothers.
“I hope you’re still there, and I hope you’ll think about everything I said. I love you, Jackson. And your dad, too. He’s such a good man. I’m sorry I hurt him and you and Jude.” She hands me the phone back.
The time is ticking on the display window like he’s still on there, so I put it up to my ear. “Jax?”
I hear a sigh and what sounds like a sniffle. “I’m gonna kick your ass,” he says without venom, followed by, “I’ll talk to you later.” Then the line goes dead.
Our mother, Melanie, wipes her eyes with the heels of her hands. “Thank you, Jude.”
I just shrug, not knowing what to say after the emotional Oprah moment.
“Could I talk you into meeting Anna and Wyatt, or would that be asking too much too soon?”
“Yeah it would be, but I’d still like to meet them.”
“Thank you,” she says with a smile. “So I’ve been dying to know. Did you work things out with the pretty blonde girl from the fight?”
That causes me to bark out a laugh because it’s such a mom-ish thing to ask. “Yeah I did. In fact, I’m getting ready to move to North Carolina to be with Sadie while she goes to college.”
