“And you two?” I ask, pouring a glass of water and resting against the kitchen counter.
“Bri wants a girl but won’t admit it. We’re just happy all signs are pointing toward the baby being healthy. At least from what the ultrasound tells us.”
“You didn’t find out the sex of the baby?”
“Nope. We like the surprise.”
“She’s due this summer?”
“Yeah. Before the team comes back for practices. We’ll have a bit of time to get used to being outnumbered before I’m pulled in a million different directions. Did you hear my mom is passing on the interior decorating business to Maggie and Harper? She wants to be around to help with all the grandbabies. Hopes Harper will be needing her help to plan a wedding soon.”
Harper is Grady’s youngest sister and works for my dad at Balance while she finishes getting her degree in interior design. Maggie is his other sister and started working there right out of college. Maggie was just one year younger than me in high school and before my mom got together with her uncle, the man I now call dad, we dated. Turns out, when you’re somewhat related, that crush disappears pretty damn quickly. My dad’s sister is Tess, Grady’s mom. Tess runs an interior design firm while Grady’s dad, Barrett, runs a construction company with his best friend Josh. Grady’s older brother Cole is actually married to Josh’s daughter, Mia.
“That’s cool. Dad mentioned that Harper’s hoping Grayson proposes soon.”
“Yeah, we’re all hoping for that. Grayson’s a good guy. We like him.”
I think back to the conversation I was having with Dad last week about how it’s going to happen soon and smile to myself.
“That’s good. I was wondering if you wanted to get together tonight for dinner? I know that’s asking a lot with Bri home with the kids and being pregnant and all.”
“Actually that works pretty good. Your sister’s coming over tonight to work on a few things with Bri anyway. Okay with you if Drew comes?”
“A night with my brother-in-law? Sounds brutal,” I joke.
“I know, I know. The Flying Goat here in Liberty okay with you? I’m in the mood for a few dozen wings and maybe a couple beers to wash it down.”
“I’ll stop and pick you up. That way I can say hi to my sister and Bri and the boys.”
“Great. See you tonight. Six o’clock?”
“Perfect. And, Jack?”
“Yeah?”
“I expect to get the scoop on this Sierra girl.”
“Freaking small towns, man,” I grumble and he laughs.
“That and you know this family doesn’t keep secrets.”
He’s definitely right about that. His dad is the literal worst. The man should have been a news reporter for how much he enjoys spreading the news. Gossip? No. He waits until there’s truth first. But he loves being the man in the know.
I chuckle. “So true.”
“Be ready. I want to hear all about her.”
“Nothing to really tell,” I say, though I’m not sure I believe it.
“Not what I hear. Your dad likes her. Said she’s sassy and holds her own. He was a little bummed that she was taken, though.”
I drain the last of my water and put my glass in the sink. “That situation has changed.”
“Oh, really? Wow. Yeah, now I’m really looking forward to dinner tonight.”
“You’re as bad as your father.”
I go to my bedroom to change clothes. I have a client coming in to the gym this afternoon who is bringing her two teenage daughters with her to learn some basic self-defense.
“We’ll see you tonight.”
“Yeah. See ya soon.”
I hang up and quickly get into a pair of shorts. The rest of my gear is already at the gym so I head out to my Jeep and make my way to the gym.
Working with fighters is great but my real passion is working with battered women. Teaching them self-defense and how to gain their confidence back. It takes a lot of courage for them to step through the doors to the gym the first time but they’re always rewarded with a strength they didn’t know they possessed when they learn to fight back in a safe environment.
It was one of the things that helped my mom overcome her fears after she left her abusive husband and seeing other women get help from it makes me happy. Mom even comes to the gym to work with some of them, gives them a safe space and someone to talk to. My family also volunteers at a local women’s shelter. For a long time after we moved to Liberty, my mom didn’t tell anyone about her past. She was not just afraid that Vince would find us, but she was also embarrassed.
A lot of women have a hard time accepting that the abuser is the only one at fault for their actions. It takes time to recognize that they didn’t do anything wrong. Often times, they’ve been fed lie after lie about their worth by someone they thought they loved and could trust. It’s a yo-yo of emotions and unfortunately, I have firsthand experience. Hell, even I thought it was my fault that Vince was that way toward my mother.
The bell above the door chimes and I greet my new clients.
“Hi, I’m Jack. You must be Melody?”
“I am. And these are my daughters, Ashley and Lexi.”
I shake their hands, noticing how nervous Ashley appears. “Nice to meet you all. I’ll get you signed in then you can head to the locker room to store any of your belongings and get changed.”
“Thank you,” Melody says with a warm smile. Melody looks to be in her lower 40s and has short, cropped blonde hair. I think I’ve heard it called a pixie cut before — and the only reason I know that is because Maggie wore her hair that way for a while. Her daughters look around sixteen or seventeen and where Ashley seems to lack confidence, Lexi has it in spades. She’s walking around the room, commenting on all the equipment and asking questions. Lexi’s wearing skin tight clothes, the shirt low cut and showing an inappropriate amount of skin, leaning over the counter to talk to me and working hard to gain my attention. Ashley, on the other hand, is practically swimming in her oversized sweatshirt and sweatpants, wrapping her arms around herself and looking anywhere but at me.
“All set,” I say after Melody’s signed for the girls and she’s paid their fee, deciding on a month-long family membership rather than just for the day. It’s a little cheaper this way.
I quickly show them to the locker rooms and call Neil from the back room for his help.
“What’s up, boss?”
“We have some one-on-ones here for self-defense. Mother and her two teenage daughters.” I lower my voice when I explain further. “Things look a little off. Opposite sisters, one wants to hide and the other…”
“Doesn’t,” he finishes for me.
“Exactly. Melody is the mom. When she called she was pretty vague. Just said that with her daughters being in high school she wanted them to learn to protect themselves. No dad in the picture, she offered that bit of information, I didn’t ask.”
“Got it.” He nods once and throws on a long sleeve workout shirt with the gym logo on it and I do the same.
When the ladies return, I introduce them to Neil and pay special attention to Ashley’s reaction. It’s possible she’s simply a shy girl, which is completely okay. But if there’s something deeper, we are here to help her through it. Neil understands the importance of our jobs just as much as I do. He doesn’t have experience with it like I do, but he’s an empath and one of the most understanding people I’ve ever met.
“Ready?”
“I think so,” Melody says, looking to her daughters. “We’re a little nervous.”
“It’s normal,” I say with a smile. “We’ll start by just doing some mild stretches and warm-ups. Obviously if you’re in a situation where you’re going to use self-defense, you won’t have time to stretch first, but this helps.”
“Sounds good.”
“Alright. Just follow Neil and me.”
We lead them in a round of basic stretches then a few things to get our heart rates up.
Jumping jacks, skipping rope, lunges, then a couple more stretches. Before moving on, the three grab a drink
“Melody, you okay with starting with Neil? Ashley and Lexi, you can watch and I’ll explain what they’re doing. Then we’ll bring you in when you’re comfortable.”
They nod and Neil brings Melody in front of him, instructing her to lift her arms and follow his motions.
Neil looks at each girl directly in the eye, not for intimidation, but rather to make them feel more at ease and instructs, “One of the most important things to remember is to aim for the most sensitive parts of the body. The eyes, nose, throat, and groin areas. Avoid areas like the chest because it’s not often effective.”
“Really?” Melody asks. “You can’t just shove at them?”
Neil shakes his head. “You’d hope that’s all it would take but when they’re in a defensive position, especially if the attacker is bigger than you, that’s only going to make them take a step back. And that’s if you have enough strength to do it. There’s also the risk of him grabbing both of your hands.”
“Oh. Yeah, I guess that’s true,” Melody says and looks a little deflated, maybe embarrassed.
Neil picks up on it immediately and reassures her. “It’s a great question and often our first instinct. It’s not impossible for it to work, we just know there are other ways. That’s why we teach the more effective tactics.”
“Gotcha. Thanks.”
“No problem. Ask all the questions you want. So, this first one is the hammer strike. Now, it used to be that we could use our car keys but now that most of us have key fobs, keeping something similar in shape and size with you is smart and will do the trick.” He lifts up a key ring that has a StrikePen attached. “This is something we’ll send home with you. Our gift to you.” He smiles and the girls exchange glances with smiles of their own.
He goes on to show them all that the StrikePen can do and then hands one to each of them. “Like I said, this can be used in the hammer strike. You’ll want to hold it in your fist,” he says, showing them what he means, “and strike downward.”
Neil demonstrates the hammer strike with Melody, Ashley and Lexi watching closely. After the two go over it several times, I nod. “Good, good. Girls, let’s have you try, also.”
Ashley takes the lead, fisting her hand around her new StrikePen and twisting just slightly as she strikes downward in my direction. She doesn’t shy away from my touch when I demonstrate different ways that the action could go wrong, rather just shakes it off and tries again.
After the three seem to have it down, we continue on to other moves. “As I mentioned, the groin is going to be sensitive assuming you’re defending yourself from a male. Kneeing him should only be used if you’re already in close proximity. Be mindful of where his hands are so that he doesn’t grab hold of your foot in the process. Repetition and practice will help you feel confident if you’re ever in a situation where you need to lean on what we’re teaching you. Let’s go through both of those before we move on.”
I notice Ashley seems more confident when it comes to practicing than Lexi is and I wonder if I read the situation wrong.
After we’ve gone through the heel palm and elbow strikes, we finish up for the day. I’m happy to see how seriously both Lexi and Ashley took the class. That isn’t always the case with teenagers who think they’re invincible or know everything.
“Next time we’ll review these first before we teach you a few others. How to get out of a situation where your attacker has you in a bear hug or has your hands or head trapped in some way.”
“Holy crap,” Lexi whispers. “That. I want to know that.”
I look at her and see Neil paying close attention out of the corner of my eye. I want to pry and ask questions, but I’ve learned it’s best to let them open up on their own, if they even have anything to open up about. If someone would have outright asked my mother if she’d been abused by Vince, she would have denied it until she was ready to admit it to herself.
“Next week,” I promise her.
“Awesome. This was so much fun.”
“It was,” Ashley agrees. “Honestly when Mom told us we were coming I was kind of pissed but that was awesome.”
“Awesome, glad to hear it.” Neil chuckles at my use of the same word both girls just used.
“Totally awesome,” Melody agrees with a grin. Her daughters roll their eyes in tandem like they’re well-practiced at it.
“Girls, go on out to the car. I need to make sure we’re settled up with the payment.”
“Okay, Mom. Bye, guys. Thank you, again,” Ashley says, taking the keys from her mom.
“Yeah, it was great. Thanks!”
“See you soon,” I say to their backs as they walk out the door.
As soon as the door closes behind them, I turn to Melody. “What’s up? I know you’re settled for payment because we discussed it when you got here.”
“I wanted to thank you again. Ashley and Lexi, they’ve been through a lot in the last few months. Lexi was dating someone who… well, he only tried to use his size against her once. But that’s all it took. Thank God, Ashley was home and stopped anything from happening. Well, at least anything that couldn’t be undone,” she says with a quiver in her voice. Her eyes flood with tears and she looks away for a few moments, wiping a tear from her cheek.
“They were terrified to go anywhere alone for weeks, afraid that he would be around. Or his friends. He got a slap on the wrist because nothing actually happened,” she explains sardonically.
I resist the urge to clench my fists and put one through the wall. I hate that people can get away with being an asshole because of a technicality.
“And of course, it was Lexi’s fault because she showed him too much skin and teased him. She was asking for it. Ashley attacked him but pulled him off her. Then he said that if Lexi dressed like her frumpy sister, this wouldn’t have happened. That’s when Lexi attacked. My girls, they haven’t let each other out of their sight aside from when they’re in the bathroom. Today was the first time I saw them back to themselves. So thank you, Neil and Jack. In one hour you gave me back my girls.”
I swallow down the emotion clogging my throat. “It was our pleasure.”
If I shut down the gym today and never returned, I’d be satisfied. Bringing people back to themselves after someone knocked them down, that’s my purpose in life. It’s why I gave up my dream of becoming an executive chef at a five-star restaurant. Because this, right here, is all I need in life. Well, out of my career, anyway.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
JACK
“What’s up?”
“You mean since we talked this afternoon?” I joke.
“Drew wasn’t on the phone with us. Give us the update.”
“On what?” I ask, taking a large swig of my beer.
We’re settled around a table at The Flying Goat, a cool little bar and grill in Liberty. We sat down about ten minutes ago and ordered two different kind of boneless wings, a big platter of cheese fries, and a pitcher of beer.
“Sierra,” Drew says with a raise of his eyebrows. “Your dad told Lily and me that he likes her. Likes the way you are with her. She came into Balance yesterday. Harper got a look at her.”
“What?”
Drew nods and leans forward a little bit. “Yeah. So now Harper’s seen her because she waited on them, which means Aunt Tess and Uncle Barrett are ticked that they haven’t gotten a look at the first girl who finally got you to take a second look in so long no one can even remember.”
“That’s not entirely true,” Grady adds with a wince.
“What do you mean?” I ask, fearing the worst.
“Harper may or may not have taken a quick picture of her when she didn’t realize it.”
I groan and drop my head to the table. “I hate you all.” I raise my head and glare at Drew and Grady who are more friends than family. “Why? Why can’t you just let anyone in our family have their peace?”
Two pair of eyes stare back at me, blinking but not giving me any answers.
“I’m serious. What would she have thought if she’d seen some random waitress taking her picture? It’s a huge invasion of privacy and totally unacceptable. I have no idea when this family took it upon themselves to make every single minute of our days everyone’s business? I don’t even know if Sierra and I are going to turn into something or if we’ll remain only friends for the rest of our lives. And you know what? Having you all in our faces constantly isn’t going to help. So do me a favor, since everyone likes to share news so much, send a quick text and tell everyone to back off. Let me be. Let Sierra be. And if I hear of anyone contacting her or trying to find out any information before she or I are ready to share it, well, I have secrets of yours to share, too.”
Drew and Grady sit quietly for a few seconds before Grady clears his throat. “Jack, Harper didn’t mean anything by it. Neither did your dad. We’re just…”
“Happy for me. I know. That’s the only reason I’m not sending out the text myself to let them know just how shitty their actions are. I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal to you guys because you’re all used to how nosy this family is. But think of it from a newcomer’s point of view. People constantly talking about her? Not cool.”
Their chins drop along with their shoulders. “I’m beginning to see what you mean. I’m sorry, too.”
“You didn’t do anything, Drew.”
“Didn’t stop it, though. You’re right, I’m used to it but that’s not an excuse.”
“Same, Jack. I’m sorry. We’ll take care of it and make sure the family backs off a little. I can’t promise they’ll ignore the fact that you’re dating someone, but we’ll make sure you and Sierra have space to figure out what you want together.”
“Thanks. Sorry for snapping.”
Grady takes a drink of beer then lifts his glass in my direction. “You really like her, I get it. You’re afraid of something like this messing it up before you even begin.”
“Yeah,” I agree.
The Other Guy: A Textdoor Neighbor Romance Page 18
