Page 87 of Ours to Lose
I dropped my chin to her ear and let my desire scrape through my voice, low enough only she could hear. “Thanks, Aubs.”
I felt her shiver before she let go, her fevered stare connecting with mine a second before my dad tugged me in for his own hug.
Colin slapped my shoulder next. “Looking good, man,” he said. “You must have a great sparring partner.”
“Hell yes, I do.”
“And hey, one down. Only three more to go.”
I clasped his hand, then scanned the back wall, trying to catch Evan’s eye. I found the spot where he’d been standing.
He was already gone.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Aubrey
“So he won?”Jase asked as he pulled ingredients from the box he’d brought to the prep kitchen.
“He crushed it,” I said, still buzzing from the excitement of yesterday’s fight. “Watching him, you’d never guess he retired.” So much so a part of me wondered if maybe Gabe would decide to come out of retirement for good. He was on the older side for the sport, but nothing unheard of. As long as he was strategic with his fights and didn’t push too hard, it was entirely possible he could still do it.
If the frantic sex we’d had last night at his gym was any indication, he was feeling up to it.
And boxing was his love the way cooking was mine. His heart had been broken for a while, but maybe this tournament would be what mended it.
It twisted something inside me to think about. The knowledge boxing again would make him happy the way nothing else could, and the bitterness that it would likely mean him leaving Philly again.
I was pretty sure Evan felt the same twist of emotions. The comfort of watching his brother box the way he had growing up colliding with the possibility it could take him away again. The push and pull of joy and hope, grief and spite wrestling within one heart.
“Hopefully, he’ll win tonight so I can see him tomorrow,” Jase said. He’d worked at the restaurant during last night’s fight and had to again tonight. But Saturday’s and Sunday’s fights were in the afternoon, so if Gabe made it to the final, Jase could see him both days.
“Dani and Robin are going tonight?” I asked.
He nodded and blew out a laugh. “I’m pretty sure Robin is expecting something out of the WWE, so you may have to remind her not to throw any chairs into the ring.”
I grinned. “I feel like she would excel at roller derby.”
“I’m going to leave that one for you to bring up with her at your own risk.”
“It could be fun. We could get bright wigs to wear under our helmets and have a team name like ‘Crème Brû Slayers.’”
“And the part where you get tackled on rollerblades?”
Admittedly less appealing. “I’ll just play the bench. Be moral support for Robin and Kelly.” Those two were a dangerous combination if the few times I’d hung out with them and Dani were anything to go by.
Jase moved the empty box off the counter. “Ready to do this?”
I straightened, my eyes falling to the two cutting board stations he’d set up with identical ingredients.
“You know the drill,” he said. “The guys each picked one ingredient. I had Neela pick the fourth. Appetizer or entrée?”
It was an exercise we’d started a few months before I moved to catering, one Jase got the idea for from some reality cooking competition Dani had gotten him into. Each person in the kitchen picked one ingredient, and we’d get a set amount of time to make a dish incorporating all four. Or sometimes, there was only one ingredient, and we had to make a dish incorporating it in as many different ways as possible. The tight timeframe meant no chance for overthinking. Just cooking on pure instinct.
“Appetizer,” I said.
“Twenty minutes it is.” He pulled out his phone and set the timer. “Ready?”
I set my knife on my cutting board and stretched my neck. “Ready.”
