Axel:A Bad Boy Romance(5)

Marie said nothing. She looked down and traced a scratch in the floor with her shoe.



"Don't you worry, dear," the other woman said, putting her hand on  Marie's shoulder. "Sometimes you need a change of pace and Harksburg's  the perfect place for starting over. We're a good town and we look out  for each other here. You don't need to worry or feel unsafe. You're part  of the Harksburg family now and you're part of my family. I love this  old house, so you better get used to seeing me around."



"I'm really glad to hear that," Marie said with a smile as she heard  Cate running around her new bedroom. She took a deep breath, and looked  around at the apartment. She was already fixing it up her mind. She  would add white curtains and there would always be fresh flowers on the  dining room table. She was going to cover the walls with pictures of  Cate and her drawings. She was going to make it her own.





Chapter Five



He jogged to the gym. It was four miles from his mother's house making  it a perfect warm-up run for someone in as good shape as Axel was. With a  kiss on the cheek and a promise he would be back soon, Axel left her  and took off down the street. His headphones were pounding punk rock  into his ears and his pace matched the rhythm of his music. His heels  slammed into the dirt on every downbeat.



A mile in, he stopped for fifty push-ups. Two miles in he stopped for  fifty squats. By the time he was on Main Street his heart was pounding  steadily and sweat was gathering on his face and chest.

"Axel! Axel!" The voice was loud enough that he could hear it over his  music and it had that tone of someone who would not be ignored. With a  sigh Axel stopped and removed his headphones turning around to face  Ingrid Michele's.



"Morning, Ingrid," he said. "How's the historical society today?" He  should have known better than to stop. Ingrid was like a dog with a bone  when it came to certain things. To his own chagrin Ingrid had talked  Axel into buying a bench in the town's square. He had been guiled and  bullied into buying it. There were relentless phone calls from Ingrid  who knew every trick in the manipulation book. He had at least been able  to put his mother's name on it instead of his own. Now that he had  stopped and acknowledged her presence, whatever it was she wanted, he  would inevitably have to give her.



"Everything at the historical society is wonderful," she said giving a  little skip as she hurried up to him. She was wearing yoga pants and a  sweater, out for her daily speed walk no doubt. Axel slowed down so he  was walking next to her. Ingrid's speed walking matched up with Axel's  normal pace and he fell into step beside her as she pumped her arms and  continued to move.         

     



 



"You find someone to live in that creepy house?"



"It's not creepy," Ingrid chided him.



"Didn't a lot of people die in that house?"



"Back in the old days it was normal for people to die at home. People  passed peacefully in their beds in that home. It was perfectly normal  and we should be so lucky."



"So who is living there?"



"A lovely young woman named Marie. She just moved here from Arizona with  her very sweet young daughter and I think she's going to fit in just  fine. You'll have to meet her soon. She doesn't know anyone in town and I  don't want her to be lonely."



"I'm sure she won't be lonely in this town. There's never a moment's  peace here. Everybody knows everybody and you can't do anything without  running into someone you know."



"Well now, things are different for you, Axel. You're our town celebrity  and everyone knows you. But she's just a nice girl. I'm sure she'll be  able blend right in."



"Let's hope so, for her sake."



"We're going to have the annual fundraiser soon. I'm sure I can depend  on you to buy some tickets." It wasn't a question. "I'll talk to your  mother about it."



There it was. Axel's mother was a sucker for any history, especially the  Hawks family. The Hawk patriarch, the founder of the town, was from  Ireland and his mother claimed a special attachment to the man. She was  on the historical society board, which basically meant Axel was, too.



"Great talking to you, Ingrid," Axel said and with a nod he took off on a  jog down the lane leaving Ingrid behind. He would have to find some way  to get out of the fundraiser. Those historical society functions were  so boring. Tickets were a hundred bucks a pop and all it got was a cheap  dinner in a hotel ballroom. The same forty people came every year. They  gave each other awards for things like Member of the Year, Best  Volunteer, but really it was given to whoever donated the most. His  mother had never won and it broke her heart every year to see statues go  to someone else. .



He jogged past the brightly lit windows of his gym and saw rows of  treadmills filled with early morning gym goers. He went into the  entrance and waved at the trainer sitting at the desk as he made his way  downstairs to the boxing gym.



The air in the basement was different than upstairs. Upstairs was bright  and friendly. It was filled with young hipsters in expensive working  gear on complicated machines. The basement was darker. There were no  amateurs down here. There were professional boxers and their trainers  working out in every corner. The uneven rhythms of fists hitting mats  and pads echoed in the air around him. The air was fresh, something he  demanded. Fresh air pumped in and the temperature kept at a comfortable  seventy-two degrees.



Axel jogged down the stairs and found his trainer and the manager of his  gym standing and waiting for him. Hayden Walker had been Axel's best  friend since the ninth grade. They had done everything together. They  had both taken up boxing in school, but Axel was the one to stick with  it. Hayden just couldn't keep up. He was slower and shorter. He had  trouble recovering from a hit and eventually he quit. But he had learned  enough in that time to become a damn good trainer and now he spent his  time helping Axel. After his first big win Axel finally made enough to  officially hire Hayden as his coach. When Axel bought the gym, he made  Hayden the manager.



"You're late," Hayden said as Axel took the last step down onto the floor.



"Sorry, got held up on the way in," Axel said. "What's new?"



"The match-ups came in for the Northeast Supreme Belt."



"When?"



"About two minutes ago."



Axel and Hayden stepped into the office and closed the door behind them.  Axel's heart was pounding and it wasn't from the run. He didn't let it  show, though. He kept his face blank doing his best to ignore the  emotions roiling inside of him. Hayden pulled up the website for the  fight and they scanned until they reached Axel's name.



"It's on the twelfth, which we knew. And you'll be fighting Danny Castellano."



Axel saw the image of his opponent on the screen. He saw Danny's blocky  face, his nose that bore the marks of being broken more than once, his  short dark hair. He knew the guy. He had fought Danny before. He was  good. Small, but wiry and fast. The guy could take a punch and he could  give one.



"We're gonna have to improve your footwork," Hayden said, shaking his  head. "You can beat this kid, but we'll need to train hard. For the next  two months this fight is the only thing you think about. Your head  needs to be in the game. Is your head right?" Hayden demanded.         

     



 



"Yeah, I got this," Axel said. He nodded at the screen. He could do  this. He could beat Castellano. He would focus and train and, in two  months, he was going to take home the belt and his entire life was going  to change. Hayden was right. He needed to keep his mental game in tact;  he needed to keep his head clear. But that wouldn't be too hard. He was  back in his hometown with only the historical society fundraiser to  distract him. There were no late night parties with models, no  hundred-dollar-a-plate sushi dinners, just the diner and the arcade.  There was nothing else he wanted to do other than train.



"I'm gonna put together a training regiment and a meal plan for you. For  the next two months we are hardcore training. No coffee, no booze, no  junk food, no late nights, no women, there is only the gym for you."  Axel nodded. He wasn't going to argue. "We train eight hours a day. Two  hours cardio, two hours weightlifting, three in the ring, and then an  hour for recovery."



Hayden kept rambling away at his list while Axel nodded, but he wasn't  listening. He could hear the roar of the crowd; he could see that belt  sitting on his mantle. He could taste the five hundred thousand dollars  he was going to win. He had been out of the ring for almost three  months, but he had been on a winning streak. He had knocked out his last  three opponents. He was ready for the fight; he was ready to get back  to it.