Once she had calmed herself, she climbed out of the shower and dried herself off, getting ready for the day and forcing herself to think of anything but the man lying in her bed in the next room. She opened the cabinet beneath the sink and stopped short, staring into it as another realization hit her.
She was looking at a box of tampons and it slowly dawned on her that she hadn’t had her period in a while. Thinking back over the days and weeks that had passed, she began to count and as she did so, she leaned back against the wall of the bathroom and slowly slid her back down it until she was sitting on the floor staring at the open cupboard before her.
Lisa told herself that it wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be. She did the math again, and she stared at the new, unopened box of tampons, and she realized that there was every probability that it could be. She sat there still and quiet for a long while, until the chaos of panic and fear had subsided in her. Slowly, she pushed herself up off of the floor, dried herself off, and got dressed.
Without a word or a sound, she left her bedroom and left Jake sleeping soundly in her bed, and drove to the pharmacy not far from her house. Lisa wasn’t sure which test to buy, so she bought four different brands and then drove directly to Bonnie’s house.
Bonnie was home that morning, and Lisa could not have been more grateful for her stroke of luck. When Bonnie answered the door, she took one look at the expression on Lisa’s face, and pulled her inside, wrapping her arms tightly around her in a big hug. Lisa hadn’t felt any kind of release until Bonnie held her, and in that safe place, she let all of the stress, worry, and emotion surface, spilling out from her eyes and rolling down her cheeks. Bonnie held her until her weeping had quieted a little, and then she stood back and looked at her friend.
“What is it?” she asked worriedly. “Did Jake drive you crazy already?” she asked, looking as if she hoped it wasn’t something too serious.
Lisa couldn’t say it; not out loud. Instead, she held the bag from the pharmacy up and Bonnie took it from her, her face turned downward in confusion. After looking inside of it, her eyes widened immediately and her mouth fell wide open. She looked back up at Lisa and clamped her mouth shut, grabbing Lisa’s hand in hers. Without a word, she pulled Lisa behind her to the bathroom, where she opened all of the boxes and left the four test sticks on the counter with simple instructions on how to use them.
“I’ll be right out here, let me know when you’re done and I’ll come in and wait for the results with you,” Bonnie told her kindly. Lisa closed the door and a few minutes later, she opened it again. Bonnie was waiting almost in the doorframe. The moment she could get inside, she went, taking Lisa’s hand and standing beside her as they both looked down at the test strips together.
It took no time at all for all four of them to turn blue. Lisa gasped as terror gripped her, and Bonnie sighed and shook her head, looking up at her best friend.
“Well, it’s official.” She reached her hand up and rubbed Lisa’s back as she took her into another hug, holding her while Lisa cried again. The tears flowed from them both for a little while, until finally Bonnie was able to walk Lisa into her living room and sit her down with a cup of hot tea.
“You’re going to be fine. You are. I know this is not the ideal starting point for a baby, or for you, but you’re employed and you’ll always have the dojo, you own your own home, you are a very capable woman, and this is an unexpected change that you’ll be able to handle. I have absolute faith in you. You’re going to be alright. I know it. I also promise you that I will be with you every step of the way. You and I will be sitting at this kid’s graduation from college someday. You’re not alone; not by a long shot, and I don’t want you to worry, because everything is going to be alright,” Bonnie reassured her.
Lisa leaned her head backward and rested it on the back of the sofa, staring up at the ceiling. “How in the world did I let this happen? I’m so much more responsible than this! How could I be so stupid?”
“You aren’t stupid. You’re lucky. You’re going to have a little one and you’re going to be a great mom. That’s a really lucky kid you’re carrying.” Bonnie nodded at her.
Lisa pulled her head up as if it was a heavy weight that she was trying to maneuver, and she turned to Bonnie with disbelief in her eyes. “How can you say that?”
“Because it’s true. You’ll be amazing. I’ll be an amazing aunt, and you have Masahiro, as you always have, and definitely Koichi.” She reached her hand forward and rested it on Lisa’s arm. “Truly, you are going to be fine. There are worse things that could have happened. That’s for certain.”
“Yeah?” Lisa asked worriedly, “What about Jake?” Her instinct told her that she was going to have a difficult time with what lay ahead of them both.
Bonnie sighed. “I can’t tell you anything about Jake; I don’t know enough about him.”
Lisa thought about it and rubbed her hands over her face. “Well, I can tell you this. He’s got that huge competition coming up in a couple of weeks. I can’t tell him this. Not now. It’ll wreck his concentration and he won’t be able to fight or win. He can’t have anything this big on his mind leading up to that fight.
So, right away I know I’m going to have a couple of weeks to try to think this through before I do or say anything about it. In fact,” she turned and looked directly into Bonnie’s eyes, “let’s just keep this between us for now, please? Don’t say anything to anyone. Just you and me… please? Promise?” she pleaded.
Bonnie nodded. “I can do that. No problem. In the meantime, you take really good care of yourself. Lots of rest, lots of water, prenatal vitamins, and for heaven’s sake go see a doctor. Make sure that everything is alright with you and the baby. That’s priority number one. Everything else is second to that, okay? Promise me that?”
Lisa nodded. “I promise.”
They spent a little more time together and then Lisa left her to go to the doctor’s office and get checked out. The doctor confirmed it for her. She was definitely pregnant, and when they figured out the timeline together, she realized that she had gotten pregnant the very first time she and Jake had made love; the night he had walked out of the shower and kissed her in the hallway in nothing but a towel. Right from the start. She couldn’t believe it, and she had no idea what she was going to do, but Bonnie’s words comforted her. She knew that she wasn’t going to have to do it alone, and that was a huge reassurance.
Jake stopped in to her office to see her later in the day and asked her why she had left the house so early. She told him that she had a doctor’s appointment to go to for a checkup and he let it go. She asked him about his training and kept him focused on that, but all the while she was thinking in the back of her mind about the child she carried that they had created, and she wondered how he would react when she told him and what would happen. They were at the start of a mock engagement, and with a baby in the picture, things were definitely going to change.
The Final Chapter
Jake worked harder than he had ever worked for anything over the two weeks leading up to the national competition, and Koichi put him through more rigorous training than he had ever imagined could be learned.
He knew that he was ready for it when the weekend finally came. Masahiro, Koichi, Lisa, and Jake all took the train from New York City to Washington D.C., and checked into their hotel. Lisa and Jake shared a room, knowing that it was part and parcel of the façade of their engagement.
She had kept her news to herself, never even hinting that there might be anything wrong or different, or that they needed to talk about. Everything she kept him focused on had to do with the fights he had coming up. She wanted all of his attention on the event and on winning. It was why she had found him and taken him to the dojo to begin with.
Jake’s only distraction was her, and she knew that the flames of desire that burned between them every night were a form of not only pleasure for him, but were also a form of release for the tension and stress that sh
e knew he was feeling. She let herself be taken over by her need for him, knowing that it made no difference to their future at all, no matter what happened, and in that knowledge, there was freedom to make love as much as they wanted to, with abandon and happiness.
The newness and fire had not lessened for them living together; they still made love every night, more than once a night, and now and then in the mornings as well. It felt as though the experience had bonded them together tightly, and she found great comfort in their connection. Jake felt himself both lost and found in her, and he didn’t think about where it would go, he only lived in the moment, as he always had, loving what they shared together.
Saturday morning came very early for them; it was still dark outside when they got up and readied for the competition. Lisa knew that he was feeling nervous, though he wouldn’t admit to it. He would only let himself think of defeating Corbin and winning.
The four of them arrived at the massive arena, and Jake was stunned by the size of the place and by the huge numbers of people who would be in attendance, as well as all of the fighters who had come to compete. Koichi showed him the way that it all worked as they stood on the stairs in the stands and looked out over the main floor where eight different mats were set up.
“You’ll be fighting in that corner at the front. This competition is designed for every level and class of martial arts experience. More people are interested in the experienced and skilled fighting, so the mat where you’ll be competing is situated closer to the front for better viewing by the audience. You will be fighting in the black belt class, and you will have seven fights today. It will be about one every hour and after the first three fights, you will have an hour break for a lunch and a rest, and then you return for the last four fights of the day.” Koichi turned to look and Jake and continued to explain.
“This is a hierarchy competition, so you have to win each match to progress to the next fight. If you win every one of your fights today, you go on to the second round tomorrow. You’ll have three fights in the morning tomorrow, and then an hour lunch, and if you win all three of those fights, then you will face the champion from last year in the final match.” Koichi looked at him pointedly.
Jake’s expression hardened. “Corbin.”
Koichi nodded. “You’ll face Corbin.”
Looking out over the area before him as it began to buzz with people moving in every direction, and as he watched the fighters warming up on the mats and people beginning to fill the seats, he felt a wave of peace come over him. It seemed to strengthen him. He knew that it was all up to him.
“Well,” he looked at Koichi seriously, “I know what I need to know to win, and I know that if I stay focused and do my best, I can win. So I guess it’s up to me.” He drew in a breath and lifted his chin. “I’m going to do it.”
He bowed low to Koichi and then turned and did the same for Masahiro. At last he faced Lisa, and she wrapped her arms around him in a big hug.
“I know you can do this. Stay focused, stay balanced, and do your best. Don’t let anyone or anything distract you. We’ll be right there in the second row near the mat you’re fighting on,” she said with an encouraging smile.
He hugged her back and spoke softly in her ear. “None of this ever would have happened without you. Not any of it. I’m so grateful for everything you’ve done for me. Thank you. This means the world to me. It’s my whole life, my future, everything. Thank you.” He kissed her cheek, and then he took her face in his hands and gently kissed her mouth. Giving her a smile in return, he left them, and the three of them went to their seats to wait and watch.
When he reached the floor, he looked back up at them and saw that Evan and Muldoon had found seats close to his mat. He waved at them and they hooted and waved, cheering him on. He breathed a little easier knowing that there were so many people who cared about him there to support him. He thought of his mother and hoped that she could see him somehow, and know that he had worked hard to get where he was and to become a success.
The first match that Jake faced seemed to be an easy one for him. His opponent was younger than him; a man in his early twenties who seemed more nervous than Jake was. He never touched Jake, and he almost didn’t seem to know what had happened before Jake had him laid out on the mat. He won the match in less than ten minutes.
He was flooded with relief that he had won, but more so that he had another fight experience under his belt; something that would give him a better understanding of the competition he was in and what it was like to face his opponents. He looked over at Koichi and Masahiro and saw pride and encouragement on their faces, and that gave him strength. Glancing up at Muldoon and Evan, he could see their excitement for him, and he was glad for it, giving them a thumbs up sign.
He hadn’t told Evan about the fake engagement to Lisa. He wanted to get through the competition before he thought about anything else. He knew Evan would understand.
In his second match, he faced a man who was the same age as him, and he could tell that the man’s skills were not as honed as his own, but he didn’t take anything for granted. He continued to treat the match as if he were fighting Corbin. Like the match before it, his second fight also lasted less than ten minutes. His opponent never got a strike in on him.
He breathed another sigh of relief and began to wonder if he was fighting the men who he should be fighting. He almost felt over-qualified to fight them, but it wasn’t something that bothered him; he had eight more fights in front of him and skating through as many as he could was a blessing in disguise to him.
Jake was sitting in a chair near the ring when he saw Koichi beckon him over. He went and the two of them stood off to the side of the mat where no one could hear them speaking.
“You have two wins, and they were easy wins for you. That’s good, but you must not let that give you too much confidence. You must remember that you will be facing opponents who could easily take you down, and you must be ready for them. Do not become complacent in the face of success and lose your focus. You must be totally present at every moment.
Your whole outcome could change in an instant if you aren’t watching and being very careful. These men did not make it this far because they aren’t good competitors. You just have to be better than all of them. More focused. More determined. You keep yourself intent on every single moment that you are in until each fight is done.” Koichi looked into Jake’s eyes as if he was looking through him.
Jake nodded. “I understand. I’ll concentrate.”
“Each match is a stepping stone to Corbin. Do not stumble along the way or you won’t reach him.”
Once more, Jake nodded. Koichi gave him a pat on the shoulder and then returned to his seat. Jake went back to his own seat and kept his thoughts focused on the match ahead of him. He watched the other fights, hoping to learn more and see what kind of mistakes were made so that he could avoid them in all of his own fights.
His third match was a little more difficult, and he was ready for it. It was obvious that the man he fought had been in other competitions and knew exactly what he was doing. Jake watched him like a hawk, and though the man never touched Jake, the win didn’t come for him right away; he had to work for it. The match was longer than his first two, but he won it finally, and he began to realize just how fine the line would be between him winning and losing.
Koichi took him aside for lunch and did not let him see or speak to anyone else. He gave Jake a light meal and some hot tea and told him that they were going to find a quiet corner and meditate together for the time that remained during the lunch break. When they were done, Jake was glad they had done it that way.
“How do you feel?” Koichi asked, looking at him pointedly.
Jake let out a deep breath. “I’m good. I feel focused and rested. I’m ready. That was the best way to spend the break. Thank you, Koichi.”
Koichi nodded and returned to his seat, and Jake went to the mat for his fourth match. He felt prepared, and he wa
s extra grateful that he had rested over the lunch break, because it was only a matter of moments into his fight that he realized he might not make it forward to the next round. His opponent was fast and was extremely well skilled in his martial arts. Then felt like a true competition to him.
He blocked and dodged nearly everything that the other man directed at him, but suddenly out of the blue he felt a strike; the man had kicked him and Jake had expected another move. It wasn’t a hard kick, but it was an immediate wake up call. It was the first time he had been struck since he had begun the competition, and he knew that he was going to have to give each and every fight all that was in him if he was going to win them and move forward. After the hit, he focused with everything in him and defeated his opponent.
Jake looked over at Koichi and Masahiro, who both gave him a questioning look. He nodded to them reassuring them that he was on target and that he would be careful in his matches. Lisa smiled at him and warmth spread through him. He was enormously glad to have her there, and he let the happiness she always gave him wash over him. She had a calming effect on him, which he knew that he needed as he headed into the next match.
The fifth match was another very young man. Jake actually wondered if he was even twenty one years old yet. It was as easy for Jake to win as his first two matches of the day, and although he won it in a matter of minutes, he knew full well that he could not take the win for granted.
It was that concentration and awareness that kept him from losing his sixth match that afternoon, though it did not keep him from getting struck by his opponent a few times. He wasn’t hurt, but he was hit, and panic gripped him during the fight in a tense moment when he realized that he might not win it. He focused with everything in him and with the most careful tactics that he could think of, he got his opponent onto the mat and won the fight.
Brooklyn's Baddest: A Bad Boy Fighter Romance Page 15
