Lawless

by Teagan Kade

  “Your story is one that gives people hope on multiple levels. Wayward, misunderstood athlete does good after all. Finds love and is starting a family in front of millions cheering them on. That has to feel pretty spectacular, especially since you’re managing his whole career now, not just the PR. Shaun seems like he’s on top of the world.”

  “It just goes to show what one man can do when someone is truly in his corner,” I said with a small smile. My eyes still tracked Shaun, though. I wouldn’t admit it to anyone, especially him, but I was nervous about today’s fight. Even though it wasn’t a real fight like the ones on tour, just a friendly tournament match, he still hadn’t been in the ring for a year and a half. Not since the night that I confronted Nigel and we got back together.

  “So, how do you feel now that Nigel Ross is finally behind bars?” Jim asked. He was studiously taking notes trying to capture every word I said. There was also a small recorder in his hand. It was strange how freely I spoke to him now. We wanted to give the world a ringside seat to see how much Shaun had changed and to let people see the real man behind the boxer. This article was a key piece of that.

  “It was difficult for Shaun to testify against his previous manager and friend, as I’m sure you can imagine,” I said. “But once he found the records of how much money Nigel embezzled over the years, he was left with little choice. That affects Shaun’s ability to take care of his family.”

  “Not one to let bygones be bygones, eh?”

  I turned to Jim then and gave him a hard look to let him know I wasn’t about to tolerate any nonsense. “Jim, you and I go back awhile.”

  “We do,” he said.

  “You have an exclusive behind-the-scenes scoop about the man behind the gloves, plus you are getting a first-hand look inside our marriage and his re-entry into the boxing arena. Don’t fuck that up by asking stupid questions or giving me the slightest hint you’re trying to frame this story in any way that would be negatively viewed on Shaun.”

  “I didn’t mean to give that impression,” Jim started.

  “My husband was the victim of fraud and slander. He was manipulated to expose a human instinct all of us feel to varying degrees every day of our lives. He lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to the man who was supposed to be honestly managing his business finances. That would have been more than enough money to pay for his sister’s entire treatment after her last relapse. I’d say under those circumstances no one in the world would fault him for sending that man to jail.”

  Jim appeared contrite as his face flushed. “I didn’t mean to imply anything else. Of course that’s what I meant.”

  I nodded as I turned back to watching Shaun. My hands settled on my rounded stomach again. The following week we were due to find out if it was a boy or a girl. Based on the rather painful kicks I’d started to feel of late, I guessed it was a boy who was taking after his father. Shaun joked it had to be a girl, one that was fierce and uncompromising, just like her mother.

  “Shaun must be pretty excited to be back in the ring today,” Jim said.

  The crowd started to chant Shaun’s name as he made his way up the stairs and slid through the ropes. He moved with a lithe grace to the center of the ring and smiled, waving to his fans. The roar of the crowd answered him. Everywhere we went now, someone was asking for his autograph. We would stop whatever we were doing and Shaun would sign every one of them.

  Even though Shaun hadn’t had a scheduled fight in eighteen months, he’d hardly been idle. We sat down and started sketching out the next phase of his career. That included opening a boxing gym for kids. We scouted all over town and found the perfect location. It opened six months after everything happened with Nigel. Shaun wanted it to be perfect. After that, we developed a franchise strategy and started putting out feelers for interest. It looked like at least four more gyms were set to open around the country next year.

  Shaun wasn’t just a boxer anymore. Now he was an entrepreneur. He said it was important to make sure he planned for our family’s future, just in case something random happened to him. I didn’t like him talking like that, but I understood what he meant.

  “Shaun’s first love is the ring,” I said. “It has been since he was a kid. I’m happy he’s back doing what he loves.”

  “That might have been his first love, but it’s clear it’s not his only love anymore.”

  I clapped my hands and hooted with the rest of the crowd as Shaun made a quick pass around the perimeter of the ring. His eyes locked on mine as he came around to my side. He touched his glove to his heart and pointed his arm straight in my direction. I knew the gesture drew every eye and camera in the arena to me, and I didn’t care for one second.

  “It’s a one-of-a-kind thing, to find a love that satisfies every need and all the desires you didn’t even know you had,” I replied.

  I put my hand on my heart and stomach. I bought two fingers to my lips, kissed them, and shot my arm back out toward Shaun. He pretended to catch the kisses in his glove.

  The crowd went wild. My boxer and my love. I rubbed my stomach and whispered to our future child, “If you learn nothing else from Mommy and Daddy, it’s this. Never let go when you find the one you love. Not without one hell of a fight.”

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  About Teagan Kade:

  Teagan Kade thinks talking about yourself in the third person is silly, just like her collection of snow globes and rare manga. When she’s not being silly, she’s hanging out with her own Brock and two children in the south of Australia, dreaming of new characters and torturous ways they can get themselves into trouble. Teagan loves hearing from her readers, all of whom are as dear to her heart as salted caramel cookies. Shoot her an email at: teagankadeauthor@gmail.com. She doesn’t bite.

  READ ON FOR YOUR BONUS LAWLESS WEDDING SCENE!

  Lawless Wedding Scene

  WREN

  It’s spring at the cabin. the wildflowers are out, the weather mild. It’s the perfect day for a wedding.

  We’re gathered at a small clearing down the back of the property, the one I tease is an Indian burial ground. But there are no Indians to be seen, only one very dapper cowboy.

  Carter had floated the idea of having the ceremony at the Oatville Ice Palace. You can imagine how fast I shot down that idea. No, I suggested we keep it simple—the two of us, a priest, and our closest friends. I spot June and Tim up ahead, the twins tugging on her kick-ass Terani dress in bold lipstick red. I don’t know anyone else who would wear that to a wedding.

  Carter’s mom is here, the two having reconciled, our fathers absent. I see Louie and Steve, even Coach Williams and some of Carter’s former teammates who I heard gave him a hell of a time for his bachelor party last night. I’m really hoping I don’t strip him off later to find his pubes dyed neon pink.

  The simple strapless gown I’m wearing was made by a local designer I found on Etsy. It was a lot cheaper than the Vera Wang David made me wear for my first wedding, the one that should have come with an entourage to help you get to the bathroom.

  I feel light and free in this dress, a crown of lavender on my head, bellflowers before me. My dress is white, but the bottom has been dyed violet, the color fading upwards. It’s a beautiful mix of traditional and new.

  As I approach Carter, he wipes his right eye.

  I stand before him close to tears myself.

  “I think it was a fly,” he says, his smile lighting up his features.

  “Sure,” I reply with sarcasm, those assembled laughing along.

  “Shall we begin?” asks the priest.

  “I can’t wait another second,” replies C
arter, taking my hands.

  By the time we reach our vows, Carter’s eyes are glassy. Crusher White, the big bad king of the rink is going to blubber like a baby. I’m sure of it, but he manages to hold it together, taking out a piece of paper scrawled with handwriting.

  He tosses it away, smiling. “Fuck it.” He takes a breath. “Wren, you know you are the most extraordinary part of my otherwise ordinary life, but I want to promise to you, right here, right now, I’m here for you. I promise to protect you, to comfort you in times of sorrow, or when the ’Nucks are having a rough season.

  The crowd laughs.

  “I will always listen to you,” he continues, “even if we don’t see eye to eye, but most of all I promise to love you with everything I have, under whatever circumstances may come. Happy or sad, laughter or tears, I will love you forever.”

  “Woo! Go, Carter!” shouts June.

  Now it’s me who’s crying like a newborn, sniffing back another onslaught as the ceremony continues.

  When Carter places the ring onto my finger, taking up the place his brother’s once occupied, it starts all over again.

  Finally, we come to kiss, pressing ourselves together like horny teenagers, the stream that babbles behind us, the wildflowers that ring us, all forgotten as I kiss my new husband, the man I am to share my life and happiness with.

  “Enough,” shouts June, her hands around her mouth. “This is a wedding, not a porno.”

  “What’s a porno?” asks one of the twins.

  June claps her hands around his ears. “Something that’s going to happen later, honey, and nothing you need to know about for a long time.”

  Everyone laughs, throwing lavender petals over us as we run down the makeshift aisle.

  We eat back at the cabin, on long tables we hired from the hardware store, decorated with wildflowers and jam jars, lanterns… whatever we could get our hands on.

  We eat and we laugh, our small group, and when everyone has gone back to their hotels and homes, when it’s just Carter and I in bed, our marriage well and truly consummated, we laugh some more.

  “I can’t believe we’re here,” says Carter, stroking my spine. I snuggle into his side, watching his cock magically re-inflate. I don’t think it knows how to stay soft.

  “You should patent that thing, you know.”

  “What’s that?” he asks.

  “Wilson. That always-ready penis of yours.”

  “I told you. It belongs to you and you alone.”

  I swing myself over him, placing him into the slick heat between my legs. “Aren’t I a lucky girl?”

  He takes me by the hips, pulling me down upon him. “Luck’s got nothing to do with it.”