Jennifer Snow - Fighting for Keeps

Her stomach turned. She remembered all too well how badly hurt Lily had been when she’d arrived in Brookhollow.

Her car had run out of gas outside of town and Bailey had brought her to the medical center after picking her up in the tow truck. Frightened and frantic, Lily’d fought against receiving medical care, despite swollen black eyes, a busted lip and gashes on her right side from a knife attack. Damage caused by the husband she’d been fleeing.

One who was now thankfully in jail in Newark.

“You’re safe now,” she said, repeating what she’d repeated over and over to the scared woman while the doctors at the clinic had treated her wounds.

Lily nodded. “If you had told me a year ago I’d be free of him and living here with my own clothing store and amazing new friends, I never would have believed it.”

“Well, believe it.” She gave her hand a squeeze. “We’re all so happy you decided to stay.”

Especially her. Her reputation in town as being a gossip and a busybody was one she didn’t refute, but it made making real friends difficult—it always had. Lily didn’t seem to mind, accepting her for who she was.

The small bar grew louder as the fights started and while Lindsay refused to watch them, she could appreciate the physiques of the fighters as they disrobed to climb into the ring. Muscle from head to toe. Strong, alpha males were admittedly her thing—she just wished men with bodies like that didn’t come with inflated egos and empty minds.

“They are nice to look at, I’ll give them that,” she said, sipping her cosmo. An image of Noah’s sculpted biceps flashed in her mind.

Across the bar, the man himself caught her eye. In a pair of jeans that hugged his thighs and a black T-shirt with the UFC logo on the front, he looked comfortable, confident and relaxed. His easy you-lied-to-me smile made her glance away quickly.

She groaned.

She should have known with the limited choices for a night out in Brookhollow, he’d find out she’d been lying about having to work.

She reached for a menu. “We should eat,” she said to Lily, scanning it. She could feel Noah’s gaze still on her and her cheeks flushed. Why was he staring at her? She shot him a look. He laughed and took a mouthful of his beer, winking at her over the bottle.

Holy hotness.

She shook her head. What a waste. It was a shame really.

“What’s wrong?” Lily asked.

She snapped her attention back to her friend. “Nothing. Why?”

“Who were you looking at?” Lily turned in her seat, glancing toward the group of men watching the fights. “Ah...Noah.”

Lindsay’s eyes narrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s just a matter of time before he wears you down, you know.”

“I’ll have you know, he asked me out again today, and again I said no.”

She should be praised for her resolve. Since moving to Brookhollow the year before, Noah had asked her out several times and every time he came into the clinic, he asked for her. He was about as subtle as a brick to the forehead.

Lily cocked her head to the side.

“What?”

“I guess I just don’t get it.”

“Oh, come on. I’d never even consider dating Noah or any of those guys that train over at Extreme Athletics. I mean, sure they are among the hottest men anywhere, but you know how little respect I have for their career. I’m a nurse. I’ll never date a fighter.”

“Even though the chemistry between the two of you last weekend at Bailey and Ethan’s wedding rivaled that of the happy couple?”

Lindsay scoffed. “It was only a dance.”

“Four dances and, believe me, all eyes were on the two of you.”

She’d known dancing with Noah at the wedding would spark gossip all over town, but she was used to being a topic of conversation and she’d learned over the years that people believed what they wanted to believe. No amount of protest would convince them otherwise, so she’d given up trying.

“According to Nathan, all eyes were on the length of my dress,” she said, rolling her eyes. Her brother would find any excuse to criticize her. They’d once been close...but their differences made it difficult to be friends in adulthood. Her brother was a worrier and slightly uptight. He had trouble relaxing and enjoying life. She saw things differently, wanting to enjoy every moment, and short dresses and dancing the night away were a part of that. If her brother didn’t like it...too bad.

“Whatever. You have great legs. Why not show them off?”

“Would you have worn it?” She toyed with the stem of her wineglass. The opinions of others rarely mattered to her.

“No!”

“Great, so it was a T-shirt pulled down over my hips?”

Lily laughed. “Maybe. But who cares? You looked great in it... You know what? I may borrow it sometime.”

Lindsay laughed. “Yeah, right.” She couldn’t remember ever seeing Lily in a dress or anything that showed any amount of skin. She knew her friend was self-conscious about her scars, but she also suspected her ex-husband’s abuse had been more than just physical.

Heather approached the table with a round of drinks. “Compliments of the hottest man I’ve seen in here...ever,” she said, setting the drinks in front of them and nodding toward Noah.

He lifted his beer in greeting across the pool hall. Heather and Lily all but swooned. Lindsay smiled her thanks before placing her empty glass on Heather’s tray.

“Okay, so let me get this straight. You’ll dance with him, you’ll accept his free drinks, but you won’t date him.”

If she dated every man she’d ever flirted with, she’d have dated every man under forty in New Jersey.

She smiled at her friend. “Exactly.”

* * *

NOAH PARKED HIS motorcycle in the back parking lot at the community center late the next morning. The enormous space was home to a dozen after-school programs and summer camps throughout the year, and served as a host venue for weddings and holiday parties, as well. It was a staple in the community and the heart of Brookhollow.

As he took off his helmet, the door to the center opened and a tall, thin, teenage boy came out. “Hey, Dominic,” Noah said.

The kid’s face lit up. “Hey, Noah. I didn’t think you were going to make it today.”

Made him grateful he’d climbed his tired butt out of bed. “Of course. Sorry I’m late.” He secured his helmet to the bike and stripped out of his leather Rocket jacket in the hot, early June sun.

“When are you going to let me drive your bike?” Dominic asked, his admiring gaze on the Honda Cruiser.

“The day you get your motorcycle license. How did the permit test go?”

Dominic’s shoulders sagged. “Not so great.”

What a drag. He’d been hoping the boy’s third try would be a success. “Don’t worry about it. Next time. You got your road rules book here?”

Dominic nodded unenthusiastically.

“Great. We’ll work on it again today.” Wrapping an arm around the kid’s shoulders, he ushered him back inside the community hall.

To his right, a group of volunteers played basketball with some twelve-to fourteen-year-olds and on his left, at the computer stations, members of the Turnaround program were helping an older teen update his résumé.

Since starting the program nine months ago, they had placed eight kids with local jobs. Noah prayed the government funding for the program continued beyond this first term the city had agreed to as a test.

Brookhollow was a quiet, peaceful town, but that didn’t mean there was enough work to go around and that nobody had any problems.

Noah had grown up in a small town very much like this. He knew firsthand what it was like to be a kid from a family that never had enough. And to have parents who...well...who didn’t know how to cope with raising a child. He swallowed hard, squeezing Dominic’s shoulder before dropping his hand.