by Josie Kerr
“Boy, talk about the pot calling the kettle black, Sullivan.” Ryan downed Pierce’s drink and blew out a breath.
“Pierce, he needs to go home. Something’s gotta give because he’s either going to hurt himself or someone else.” Meghan’s eyes were sad, but she held up her hands in surrender. “I’m done.”
Pierce and Ryan sat side by side, in silence, until Pierce said, “So you heard.”
“Yeah. I kinda figured since he’s been gone so long.”
“Look, Ryan—”
“Just stop, okay. I don’t need advice, or a phone number for a sponsor or a shrink. I just need . . . him. I just need him.”
“You want him.”
Ryan nodded. “I do. But he doesn’t want me, and I need to accept that. I just wish he’d told me himself, you know?”
Just then, five women tumbled out of the ladies room, whooping and hugging and generally causing a ruckus.
“Holy hell, what in the world is going on?”
Ryan sighed. “If I had to guess, someone’s knocked up.” He rubbed his hands over his face. “I need to go home.”
“Yeah, you probably do.” But Ryan kept sitting on the barstool, staring off into space.
“Damon!”
Pierce diverted his attention to Annie, who was hopping up and down and clapping. He held up one finger and then turned to Ryan. “You good?”
“No, but I will be. I’m gonna sober up a little and then get a cab. Pull myself together.”
Pierce patted Ryan’s back and then wandered over to Annie, whose bright smile had faded a bit.
Pierce caught her mouth in a soulful kiss. “Hey, beautiful.”
Annie’s smile perked up. “Hey, handsome. Is . . . he okay?”
“Not really. He found out that Bruce Pryde is coming on as head trainer.”
“Okayyyy. I guess I don’t know what that means.”
“That means Junior’s staying in Jersey, permanently.”
“You mean, Ryan and Junior have a . . . thing?”
Pierce laughed. “No one knows what’s going on or what’s gone on, but yeah, a ‘thing’ is a good description.”
“That’s so sad.”
“I agree.” Pierce sighed. “So, what was all the ‘women’s meeting’ stuff?”
“Oh, just secret girl stuff.” Her eyes shined with mischief.
“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”
“Nope. It’s secret girl stuff.”
“So, no one’s pregnant?”
Annie clapped her hands, her somber mood dissipated. “Oh my goodness, no! No, no, no.”
“Give me a hint—”
The sound of chairs crashing together intermingled with Rory’s shouts as he swung Ashley around.
Pierce barked a laugh. “Do they have anything to do with the secret girl stuff?”
“Oh, good grief. Ashley cannot keep a secret to save her life even when it’s her secret.” Annie shook her head.
“We’re finally fucking getting married!” Rory Doyle announced to the bar as he stood on a chair. “Yes! We’re officially going to be the Doyle-Richardses! Or Richards-Doyles! Or fuck, some other name that we’re gonna make up!” The big, red-headed man whooped and scooped Ashley over his shoulder and headed out the front door.
Pierce blurted a surprised laugh. “Wow.” He turned to Annie, who was chewing on her lip.
“What, Annie?”
“Damon, after I get back from moving Mom down, do you think . . . I mean, do you want to?”
Pierce grew very still. “Do I wanna what?”
Annie kept on looking at him, very intensely, with an expression he’d never seen before. She wrapped her fingers around his and moved into his space, so close to him.
“I’m ready,” she whispered in his ear.
Pierce couldn’t breathe, couldn’t look at her. He concentrated on her touch, on her hands on his, and then he took a deep breath and looked up.
“Annie Hedges, I definitely want to, and I’m definitely ready.”
And there she was, beaming at him, hopeful, fearlessly looking at him, seeing him. So he took her into his arms and hugged her tightly and vowed to never, ever let her go.
The End
Playlist
Bad Luck – Social Distortion
Better Man – Pearl Jam
God’s Gonna Cut You Down – Johnny Cash
Take Me to Church – Hozier
I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry – Hank Williams
Voices Carry – ’Til Tuesday
S.O.B. – Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats
I Always Get Lucky with You – George Jones
The Snakes Crawl at Night – Charley Pride
Setting the World on Fire – Kenny Chesney featuring P!nk
Kiss Me – Sixpence None The Richer
You can find the Brawler playlist, along with the DS Fight Club playlists on Josie’s Spotify station
Also by Josie Kerr
The Second Chance Neighbors series
A Bad Bit Nice
The Best Ever
The DS Fight Club Series
Fighter
Kicker
Trainer
Striker
Brawler
Cutman (Forthcoming 2017)
Matchmaker (Forthcoming 2017)
Clincher (Forthcoming 2017)
About the Author
Josie Kerr is a transplanted West Texan living on the edge of semi-profoundly rural Georgia, a.k.a. the southernmost edge of the northernmost county in Metro Atlanta.
She has an M.Ed. in Secondary English Education, but discovered that she hated high school more the second time than she did the first, so she decided to meld her love of technology with her background in education and became an Instructional Designer. When not writing articles about how to fire someone without getting sued or why you should really not apply for jobs using your [email protected] email address, she writes steamy romance novels that feature grown-up heroes and heroines.
Connect with Josie:
Website: www.josiekerr.com
Facebook: facebook.com/AuthorJosieKerr
Twitter: @AuthorJosieKerr
Pinterest: pinterest.com/AuthorJosieKerr
Spotify: AuthorJosieKerr
Amazon: Author.to/AuthorJosieKerr
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