“Oh hell yeah,” Lacey whispered. “Showtime.”
She disappeared toward a table of young men before I could say anything. I couldn’t believe how forward she was being, but then again, you never knew with Lacey.
“Come on,” Cole grunted.
We made our way to the bar. Several people in the room gave Cole a nod of recognition, and he nodded back, though nobody came up to him. We sat down on stools and ordered drinks.
“How many people in here do you know?” I asked him.
“Most of them.”
“These are your people, then, I guess.”
“Used to be.”
We got our drinks and I looked at him, interested. There seemed to be something bugging him, though he wasn’t saying what.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Since I was gone for so long, it’s like they all forgot about me.”
“You were gone a long time. You’ll get back into it.”
He nodded. “I know. It’s okay.”
“When do you fight again?”
I didn’t know why I asked, because I shouldn’t have cared. I just wanted my divorce and that was that. But being there, in that crowd, I suddenly had a new respect for what Cole did.
“Soon,” he said. “Very soon.”
I sighed, sipping my drink. He didn’t seem very talkative, and I didn’t feel like drawing him out all night. If this was his way of convincing me to stay married to him, he wasn’t doing a good job.
As I sat there looking around the room at all the interesting people, at the trophies lining the walls and the women in too-short dresses, I couldn’t help but wonder why he even wanted me around. The fight seemed so exciting, almost glamorous, and I was just a regular, boring girl. There didn’t seem to be any reason for him to want to mess with me so much. It wasn’t like he actually wanted to be my husband; I couldn’t imagine that was the case, at least.
“Are you sure it’s a good idea to leave your friend over there alone?” Cole grunted at me, breaking the silence.
“She’s a big girl. Plus, she does this a lot.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?”
“She doesn’t mean anything by it. If I really cared, I’d tell her.”
“Bet she doesn’t do it in a fighter bar much.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Means these aren’t your usual guys, sweetheart. She should be careful.”
I looked over and watched Lacey take a shot, laughing loudly with the group of guys. They seemed harmless enough, or at least they weren’t the scariest guys in the place. She was going to be fine.
“Since when do you care?” I asked, frustrated. “And what am I doing here, anyway?”
“Having a drink.”
“What’s your game?” I was about ready to get up and leave. I was suddenly frustrated again as the memories of the last year came back to me. It had all been pushed to the background because of the excitement of the fight, but I couldn’t hold it all back forever.
He gave me a long, penetrating look. I felt a shiver run down my spine. “See that guy over there?” Cole asked, nodding across the room.
I risked a glance in that direction and saw a man sitting at a table with an older woman.
“Sure,” I said.
“He’s a pimp and a drug dealer. And he’s one of the better trainers in the business.”
“Seriously?”
“And that guy,” Cole went on, “feeding a shot to your friend, he’s deadly as hell on his feet, an awesome striker. I’m pretty sure his fists could break concrete.”
I raised an eyebrow, watching the guy. He seemed so normal and harmless.
“That guy is a thief. That guy’s a drug addict. That guy can strangle you out in three seconds. That girl’s a fighter, too.”
I sighed, sipping my drink. “Okay, I don’t get this.”
“These are my people, Alex. This is who I am.”
“You’re not a pimp or a drug dealer.”
“No,” he grunted. “But I am a fighter.”
“So what?”
“So, I don’t belong in your world. You’re like my mother, clean and proper. I live my life fast and hard.”
I felt my anger rising again but forced it back down inside me. For as annoying as he could be, I was surprised by how open he was. It was like he was trying to bring me into his world but didn’t know how to do it.
And I didn’t know if I wanted to see it. Part of me wanted him to just be that guy from the vacation. I wanted him to stay a faceless and nameless force that I needed to exorcise from my life. I didn’t want to get to know him, because I was afraid that I was going to like what I found out.