Page 39 of Double Trouble
Instead, they took their sweet time giving me one beefy hug, both of them planting kisses on my cheek before leaving.
I hurried back to my workstation to avoid meeting Viola’s critical eye or having to talk to her. Although she caught up with me anyway. “Hyacinth?”
“Yes,” I said.
How many times had I told her that 99% of people called me Cin?
The expression in her eyes was unreadable, but her twisted scowl was clear enough. “Careful, now.”
I only nodded, turning away. I had only a few more steps before I reached the room I was stationed in, to get my thoughts in order. It wasn’t enough, of course.
All I knew was that I’d been overreacting earlier. That both twins had put my mind at ease. They really liked me – and I really liked them too. And it was scary and new territory. Maybe the best thing would’ve been to take it slower than we had been. But I could see in Jake’s eyes that he hadn’t said all that just to appease me; he really did care.
Back in the room, before getting to work, I sent him a text about his upcoming fight: I’ll be there.
27
Jake
Rodney looks like someone’s dad, was my first thought upon regarding him.
Someone’s mean dad, was my second.
While he had the perfectly circular bald patch and doughy middle, he also had a permanent-looking fuck-you glare. And a silver grill.
“Our deal still on?” he said when I was still a few feet away.
“It’s on,” I said. “I already agreed to it. Why meet here ahead of time to confirm it again?”
He gave me a long, hard look that I didn’t much like. I wondered how his already flat-ish pug nose would feel crunched under my fist. Not that it would need to come to that.
“I like to look a man in the eye when I make an agreement with him,” he said.
“You do that with my brother?”
His lips rose instead of his eyebrows. “You want to talk about your brother?”
“He’s good for it, I know he is,” I said to him. I still wasn’t quite sure how to wrap my head around the fact that Owen had borrowed money from a Neanderthal like this. Rodney only continued his long stare. Clearly, he didn’t see the need to justify my brother’s poor money habits.
Rodney turned around, apparently dismissing me. But I’d only moved a few steps away, when his growl reached me: “So tonight, I’ll be a very rich man.”
“Very rich,” I confirmed. My fists clenched.
If this was the right thing to do, then why did I feel so wrong about it? Telling Owen could backfire, though. I knew how he was about nobility and all that. He’d want to solve it himself, in whatever self-sacrificial stupid way that entailed. This way was easier. I could just explain to him after.
Back inside the boxing venue, Owen was waiting by the door.
“Where were you?”
“Doing my pre-match walk,” I said.
“Since when do you have a pre-match walk?”
“Since today.”
“Better be a damn lucky one. It’s only fifteen minutes until you’re supposed to start.”
Depends what your definition of luck is, I thought but didn’t say.
“Alright, alright,” I actually said.
Then I walked into the locker room.
28
Cin
Only seven more minutes, I thought as my gaze went to the dashboard clock.
Was I more excited or nervous? There was no way of telling.
All I knew was that I was gripping the steering wheel so tightly, my fingers were going white.
Sure, the past few days Owen had been texting and trying to set up a date that I couldn’t go on, thanks to Viola’s vengeful shitty shift schedule she gave me, but Jake had been almost completely silent. Did he change his mind on what he’d said?
Another glance at the clock – five more minutes.
Once I pulled up, I’d decided that my feeling was definitely nervous, not that that made it any better. No, coming to one of Jake’s fights like this only made the contrast between them all the more striking. The last time I’d come here, I’d hardly known the twins, hadn’t even kissed them, and now… now I definitely knew them – in more ways than one.
I’d barely stepped in the place, when Owen was wrapping a protective arm around my waist and leaning in to brush his lips against my ear. “You came.”
“Hello to you too,” I said, a bit flustered.
Jake was supposed to be the more devil-may-care one. But Owen was clearly in high spirits.
“Let’s get pizza,” he suggested, already conveying me that way.
I didn’t miss the envious looks I was getting from both men and women as the handsome twin swept me through the crowd.
It struck me just how much more the twins had to be sacrificing to be with me than I was to be with them. I mean, being in the big boxing leagues, in the public eye at all, meant they probably had girls flinging themselves at them on a semi-regular basis. And yet, they’d picked me, and had all appearances of being ecstatic about the choice.
