Letting Lox In

by S. M. Donaldson

  I shake my head. “Fine. I will.”

  I trudge back out to the crowd, but I really want to go with Sly to the hospital. As fighters, we are always aware of the risks that come from getting hit in the head one too many times. I just hope that isn’t the case here.

  CHAPTER 10

  SLOAN

  Those fights were intense. I’ve watched a couple of these type matches on TV but I’ve never been to one, much less sat in the first rows.

  Kara looks over to me, smiling and giddy. “So did you enjoy the fights?”

  I shrug. “Yeah, it’s a little intense and scary.”

  She nods, looking around. “I wonder what’s taking them so long to come out of the locker room?”

  “Well, I’m sure they have to fix up Sly’s head. That one spot was bleeding pretty badly.”

  “Yeah, I guess.” She’s standing on her tip toes and looking towards the locker room. “Listen, I’m supposed to go out with Sly after the fight tonight. I gave him my number the other day and well, you know.”

  I shake my head. “You’ve got to be kidding me. You’re my ride. How am I supposed to get home?”

  She shushes me. “I’ll leave you my car.” She’s still trying to see the locker room door. “Look, here comes Lox, maybe Sly will be behind him.”

  A couple of minutes later, Lox is standing in front of us. “Hey, ladies. Sly wanted me to walk you guys out. He’s going to get his head checked at the hospital. He took a pretty good lick and Marco and the medic think it would be best for him to get it looked at. It’s one of those things you can never be too careful about.” He looks at Kara. “He asked that you give him a rain check.”

  She looks sad. “I guess.” She grabs her bag. “Come on, Sloan. Let’s get out of here, I’m starving.”

  He grabs my bag for me. “Come on, I’d rather walk you guys out. It gets kinda crazy around here after fights.”

  I turn to him. “Thanks.”

  As we make it out to the parking lot, Kara walks around unlocking and getting in her car. I look at him. “Thanks again for walking us out, Lox, and carrying my bag.”

  He gives me a flirty smirk. “You’re welcome. So where are you girls gonna go grab food?”

  “I don’t know.” I lean down in the car, looking at Kara. “Hey, where are we gonna grab food?”

  She looks through the car to Lox. “I don’t know. How long do you think it will take them with Sly?”

  He shrugs. “Shit, a while probably. Why?”

  “Well, I was just thinking maybe we could grab some pizzas and take them up there. I know you guys must all be starving if we are.” Kara is in true southern fashion, feed them and take care of them while they’re down.

  “Yeah, that might work. We don’t typically do a lot of pizza and stuff, but tonight I could eat just about anything.” He grabs his cell phone and hands it to me. “Put your number in here, I’ll check the status at the hospital and keep in touch with you guys.”

  Kara smiles. “Sounds good.”

  I sit down in the passenger seat of her little HHR. “What do you have up your sleeve, devil woman?”

  She shrugs. “Nothing.” She grins. “Well, maybe I can play nurse with Sly being the patient in a little while. You know, foreplay.”

  I shake my head. “You are nuts. You know that, right?”

  “Yeah. Isn’t it great?” She says with a huge grin.

  An hour later, we are pulling up to a small house with a few large pizzas. After we’d ordered all of the food, Lox texted me their address and said they made it through the hospital rather quickly. So I guess we just got invited over to their house instead. My nerves are officially on edge now. It’s crazy. Normally things never get to me, but something about Lox gets to me. Besides the fact that he’s incredibly hot. I see hot guys every day. I mean Lucas was the most sought after guy on campus and he didn’t make me this nervous. I would say it’s because I’ve been out of the scene for several years now, but that’s not it. It’s something else, I just can’t put my finger on it. After grabbing the pizzas from the back seat, we make our way to the front door.

  Kara rings the door bell and a moment later, Sly swings it open. He grins. “Well, hey there, sexy ladies. I heard you guys were bringing food. Which, might I add, is completely awesome since I’m starving.”

  Kara grins. “Well, we can’t have that happen now, can we? I decided to come see if you needed a nurse.”

  He steps aside, letting us walk through and grabbing the pizzas from us. “Here, I’ll help you with those.”

  Huck steps into the room with a beer in his hand. “You girls want a beer?”

  We both nod and say, “Sure.”

  I make my way into the living room and see Lox dropping something in a terrarium.

  “What are you feeding?”

  “Flex, my turtle.”

  “Your turtle? That’s kind of an odd pet.”

  He shrugs. “Not really. He’s cool, he walks around the house sometimes, but mostly just hangs out in his pad. We can’t have a dog and we’re not fish people so a turtle just came natural to us.”

  Huck walks in the room and hands me a beer. “Is he telling you all about Flex?”

  I laugh, “Just that he’s an awesome pet.” I gesture to him with the beer, “Thanks.”

  “No problem.”

  They both motion for me to sit down as Sly and Kara come back into the room with pizza and plates.

  Huck glances at me. “So, Lox told me about the idea you had the other day. That was a great idea. We even expanded on it a little.”

  I’m kinda shocked. “Wow. Really? What do you mean?”

  Lox finally sits down and actually takes the seat next to me. “Well, we decided to offer the kid’s class at the same time as the mom’s for free, and give the moms who take the self-defense class a discount.”

  I smile. “That is really great.”

  “Well, the three of us come from single moms. Lox’s mom pretty much raised all three of us. She counted every penny and we know how hard she worked. We thought making it more affordable would help.” Huck shrugs like it’s not a big deal.

  I almost get misty eyed. “That’s awesome, you guys. Now tell us what you,” I point to Sly, “had to go to the hospital for.”

  He takes a bite of pizza and then starts talking. “Well, I took a pretty good lick to the head tonight. I had to get a scan to make sure everything was okay.”

  Lox glares at Sly. “Really man, if you don’t stop talking with your mouth full like that, you’re going to choke.”

  I chuckle at Lox. “But you’re going to be okay, right?”

  Sly nods. “Yeah. The doctor just said I should take a couple of weeks off from fights and one week off from training.” He winks. “Thanks for worrying about me though.”

  Kara grins and I laugh. “Well, this was my first time going to a fight. I have to say, I was really nervous to start off. I didn’t really know what to expect, but by the end of each round, I was screaming along with everyone else.”

  Huck gives me a deep chuckle. “Yeah, I noticed that. I felt sorry for you to start off. You looked like you were about to turn and run out of the building. By the end of it you looked like a seasoned fan though.”

  “I guess I just never realized that it was such a big thing around here. That it had such a following. The crowd when y’all came in though, they were insane. I mean I went to UF and attended almost every home game while I was attending, the crowd there is insane. This was almost as intense.”

  Lox nods. “Well, we all grew up here. Marco has had us under his wing since we were ten, I think. So yeah, a lot of locals follow us.”

  Huck’s phone pings and he glances at it. “Thanks for the pizza, girls, but I gotta go.” He takes his trash to the kitchen. “See you girls at the gym,” he says as he walks back through to the front door.

  Lox pipes up, “Don’t forget lunch at Mom’s tomorrow.”

  Sly grins and yells, “Don’t fo
rget condoms!”

  “Got it.” He calls back.

  CHAPTER 11

  LOX

  Sloan is here. She’s at my house. I haven’t been this worked up over a girl in a long damn time.

  Sly yawns. “As much as I love hanging out with you girls, I need my beauty rest.” He winks at Kara. “Unless you wanna tuck me in?”

  She stands up and reaches for his hand. “Well come on then.”

  He has a shocked look on his face, he’s not used to people calling his bluff. He stands up, stretches and grabs her hand, pulling her behind him down the hallway. I hear her giggle as they go in his room.

  I look over to see Sloan looking nervous and as if she feels out of place. I hate seeing her feel that way. I need to do something, anything to make her feel better.

  “So what made you decide on massage therapy? You said you attended UF. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you decided on massage therapy, but you could’ve went several places for that other than UF.” I’m rambling. I’m rambling like a teenage boy the first time he has a girl over.

  I see her body relax the tiniest bit, which makes me relax a little. “Well, my plan was to go into sports medicine. I had scholarships and I was an honor student. I started dating a guy from my hometown that also went to UF, he was a couple of years older than me. Then my sophomore year, I found out I was pregnant with Sage. I needed something I could finish quicker and that I could make decent money at to raise my child. So I looked into massage therapy and most of my pre-requisites were out of the way. It was a good decision. Don’t get me wrong, I still work on a tight budget, but I’m able to provide for my son. That is the important thing.”

  “So you said his dad isn’t in the picture?”

  She shakes her head. “No. His dad didn’t want me to have him. He asked me to have an abortion but I didn’t want to. His career was just about to take off, he didn’t want kids, so he just left. Which I’d pretty much told him to go to hell so it really wasn’t a big deal. Sage and I are just fine without him or his money.”

  I nod. “I understand. My mom and I were always just fine without my dad. Then after I made friends with Huck and Sly, she took care of all of us.”

  “What’s the story with their family? You’ve made comments several times about your mom raising all three of you. I was just wondering if you guys are related or something.”

  I shrug. “Their mom isn’t the world’s best mom. She’s an addict. Their dad died when they were toddlers and their mom lost it little by little. They lived down the street from me when we started school. They came to play with me one day and my mom fell in love with them. They’ve been great brothers to me.” I shrug.

  She smiles. “That’s great. I don’t know what I would do, or have done, without my brother. My parents are great people too, it’s just there’s something about having my brother there. I know he always has my back. You know?”

  “Yeah. I know.” I reach for the remote, glad I feel a little more comfortable. “Do you wanna watch some TV?”

  She smiles that soft, sensual smile she doesn’t even know she has. “Yeah, that’s fine. Just please don’t make me watch any reality TV. I hate reality TV.”

  I laugh. “Well, do you like Grey’s Anatomy?”

  She smiles. “Yes, it’s my addiction. Well, that and True Blood.”

  I look confused. “True Blood? Is that one of those vampire shows?”

  She laughs. “Yeah, but it’s a little more than that. It’s my guilty pleasure. It’s kind of like soft core porn.”

  That jolts my attention from the TV. “Damn. Maybe we should start watching that.”

  She grins. “So you guys like Grey’s Anatomy? That’s not something I would have picked for you guys.”

  I laugh and tell her about us starting out on Lifetime and then watching it on Netflix.

  She’s laughing. “I just…it’s not what I expected. So what season are you guys up to now? Just so I make sure I don’t spoil it for you.”

  “We have just started season 9. They’ve had the plane crash and now we are seeing what all happened.”

  “Wow, so you guys are getting close to catching up. It’s the middle of the 11th season now. Will they get pissed for you watching it with me?”

  I laugh. “Yes. If I don’t tell them though, they won’t know.”

  “You don’t have to cheat. We can just watch a movie or something.”

  That’s funny. “I’m not cheating on them.”

  She shakes her head, silently laughing. “Yes. Yes, you are.”

  “Fine. How about we look to see what movies are on?”

  She nods and pulls her feet up on the couch.

  I wake up alone early in the morning, still on the couch. I see a small note scribbled on a scrap of paper on the coffee table.

  Lox,

  I had a good time. Thanks for the conversation. See you for your appointment.

  Sloan

  Sly walks into the living room in his boxers with his hair still wet from his shower. He grins at me still on the couch in my clothes from last night. “So I’m taking it you struck out with the massage therapist?”

  I toss a pillow at him. “I wasn’t trying to score. What about you and Kara?”

  He raises his eyebrows. “Oh, now she’s a little hell cat. She was very attentive to my needs.” He slumps down on the couch beside me.

  I cock my head to the side. “Now please tell me you told her you don’t do serious. Because I have to see these girls all the time and you will too once they come to the gym. We don’t need you fucking this up.”

  He puts his hands up like he’s surrendering. “Dude, she knows and she’s okay with it. She doesn’t want anything serious either. She just wanted to have some fun.”

  About that time, Huck comes slamming through the front door, mumbling and cussing about something as he goes down the hallway to his room.

  Sly and I look at each other with raised eyebrows. Sly turns his head to look down the hall. “Dude, I wonder what crawled in his vagina last night.”

  I shrug and sigh. “Well, we better get ready to go to Mom’s. I think she needed some help with a few things today.”

  Sly nods. “Yeah, I told her I would check the pump house and make sure it was ready for when it starts to get cooler.”

  “Yeah, I told her I would check something in the attic, too. I’ll go grab a shower, see if you can talk Mr. Grumpy Pants into doing the same.”

  He nods. “Sure. I always like having bodily harm threatened upon me first thing in the morning.”

  “You probably get off on it with as many chicks as you’ve pissed off the morning after.”

  He flips me off and starts down the hall.

  I think back to last night as I step into my shower. How cute Sloan looked on my couch with her feet tucked under her like a little ball. Eventually she relaxed enough to lean against me. I think that’s when I dozed off. It was so comfortable, so natural.

  CHAPTER 12

  SLOAN

  Waking up snuggled beside Lox was something I can’t seem to get out of my head. We were watching a movie and I guess we dozed off. The next thing I knew, it was four in the morning and Kara’s smug ass was waking me up to sneak out and go home.

  In her car headed home, she’s laughing. “I’m serious, you guys looked so cute. You were snuggled together. It was precious.”

  I shake my head. “We fell asleep watching a movie. Nothing happened, we were just hanging out. What about you and Sly?”

  She rolls her shoulders. “What about me and Sly? He’s a cute guy. Great in the sack, but I’m not looking for a commitment from him or anything. I’m not ready for that and neither is he.”

  “So you guys are just friends with benefits?”

  She scrunches her lips. “Maybe. I don’t know. Last night was just about last night. We didn’t make any plans for the future. Come on, don’t act like you haven’t had fun just for a night.”

  I shrug. “No, not rea
lly. I mean besides Sage’s dad, I was only with one other person. That was the guy I dated in high school during my junior and senior year. He got a scholarship to UGA so we decided to part as friends. Since Sage’s dad, I really haven’t had the time or the urge to hook up.” I look back out the window.

  “Oh my God! How have you not killed someone? I would break people in half without a release from time to time.”

  I laugh and shake my head. “I have my release, I just have to take care of it myself. Well, with the help of the greatest boyfriend in the world, BOB.”

  She puts her hand to her chest. “Oh honey. Not that I’m not proud of you for being willing to take things into your own hands, but a man can help you so much more.”

  “Not really, they just complicate things.”

  “Do you know where Sage’s donor is?”

  I let out an exhausted laugh. “Yeah, me and most of the country.”

  She looks at me confused. “What do you mean? Who is his dad? It’s not some old ass politician or anything, is it?”

  I sigh and look out the window. I shake my head. “No. No one like that. It’s - Lucas Smith.”

  She lets out a scream. “Holy shit! The Lucas Smith? As in the Jacksonville Panthers’ newest player?”

  I nod. “That would be the one.”

  As we pull into my driveway, she looks over at me. “He’s never paid child support or anything?”

  I shake my head. “Nope and I’ve never asked either. He made it clear he wanted nothing to do with us.”

  “What a piece of shit. I’ll never watch one of his games again. I think he just pissed me off enough to want to trade my favorite NFL team. I really agree with your mom now, that he needed his ass kicked.”

  I shrug. “It’s in the past, I try not to think about him. Sage doesn’t know who his dad is so he doesn’t ask.”

  She shakes her head but I put up my hand. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. It’s not something I discuss. The only people who know about Sage’s dad are my family, him and now you. Let’s just drop it, okay?”