Page 39 of Surrender
“I guess that’s my answer, huh?” I muttered, looking up at the sky. I wasn’t one for believing there was some bastard up there in the clouds controlling our fate in this world. But I couldn’t help but hope that if there was, James would be sitting beside him, making sure he didn’t fuck mine up.
“Hope there’s room up there for me, man,” I told him as I walked across the grass to my ride. “Just in case your sister decides to use that newfound fire within her to light me up.”
Chapter Fifteen
DARCY
“I’ll keep in touch with your loan progress, okay?”
“Thanks so much, Maggie,” I said, slumping back into the seat of my car. “Hopefully, I’ll hear from you soon.”
I ended the call, letting out the breath I’d been holding.
Maggie was my mortgage broker, and I was so damn thankful to have someone else handling all that because if I had to deal with that and things with Parker right now, I think I’d probably lose it.
I’d been an anxious mess since Parker dropped me off at Lucy’s last night, wondering whether he was keeping tabs on me or if he had someone watching. I’d even circled the block a couple of times before pulling into the parking lot at Backroads, where I’d been sitting for the past twenty minutes, to make sure I wasn’t being followed.
It was ridiculous.
So fucking ridiculous.
But while part of me was scared thinking about what Parker might do to me if he found out I was meeting Nate, the rest of me couldn’t help being more scared of what he might do to Nate. That thought finally forced me out of the car, and I slammed the door behind me before marching toward the front of the sports bar.
My stomach was already in my throat as I stepped inside. The short interaction we’d had a few days ago had been a rollercoaster of emotions that I hadn’t been prepared to ride. There was so much anger and resentment I’d built up over the years, and conversations I’d had with him in my mind, telling him how much I needed him.
How much I hated him for leaving me.
Then, to find out that maybe he never really had.
Maybe he’d been there the whole time.
I wasn’t sure whether that was worse or better, but either way, I was about to come to him with a problem that impacted us both, meaning we were going to have to work through this shit between us, in one way or another.
The bar was bustling with people, the multitude of screens scattered around the space preparing for some kind of huge fight later tonight. The build-up fights were already playing on the screen, and with every punch the boxers took, there were gasps, boos, and raised voices arguing over who was their favorite and why they were going to win.
I stepped up to the bar, watching in awe at how smoothly the bartenders moved—the way they ducked around each other and tossed bottles, looking almost choreographed.
I could probably do that.
Maybe.
“Hey, hun,” a beautiful young woman greeted, leaning in so she could hear me. “What can I get you?”
I shook my head. “Um… I’m actually looking for someone. Is Nate here?”
Her brow pinched in confusion. “I’m sorry, I don’t know a Nate.”
I’d run by Brawler’s before coming here, and this was where they’d said he would be.
God help me if those boys sent me to the wrong place.
“He runs the boxing gym?” I tried to add, desperately scrambling for any other identifying details. “Lots of tattoos. Permanent scowl.”
Her eyes shot wide open. “Oh! You mean Blue?” I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could get a word out, she gasped, and a slow, knowing smile spread across her face. “Waita minute. Are you Darcy?”
My breath caught, my brain firing off a hundred questions at once.
How did she know my name?
