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We watch him leave with his little skip-step of excitement, and as soon as he steps through the door and walks out of sight, Iz turns back to me with a conspiratorial grin. “I thought he’d never leave. Are you ready?”
“Yep.” With a matching smile, I grab my gear from the car, lock it up, and skip inside with Iz, desperately excited to get back to training.
Six months off is too long.
“I’ve set up a circuit, then we can spar at the end until the guys finish up.”
“Awesome.” I practically vibrate with excitement, so unlike the first time I walked in here to train. I vibrated as I walked then, too. But that was with nerves and dread and a little nausea. “It’ll be so good to get back.”
She snorts. “Tell me that again when you’re in the thick of the circuit.”
* * *
The training room doors fly open ninety minutes later and slam against the wall with a solid boom. “What the hell are you two doing?”
Iz and I jump with a squeak at Bobby’s shout. Sweat drips into my eyes, and my heart skitters in my chest. I was warm and limber and smiling as we sparred, and now he’s undone my concentration and replaced it with nerves.
Jimmy steps in close behind with a similar face contorted with rage. “Izzy? What the fuck? You can’t do this anymore.” He rushes to her side and looks her over from head to toe.
Geez, you’d think I was standing here with a baseball bat cocked and loaded near her head.
She steps back from his hands and scowls. “The hell I can’t! I’m fine, Jim. It’s my body and I know what I can and can’t do. And she…” She snaps her finger in my direction and glares at Bobby, “is a grown-ass woman who knows what she wants and is capable of.”
“But, babe.” Bobby grabs my arms gently and turns us away. “Why are you training? You’re not ready to come back.”
“Sheisready, B. She’s been off since before Christmas. Her physical therapist said she could try again. Her doctors cleared her. Her surgeon cleared her!Shewants to try again. You’re the only one saying no.”
“But–” His sad eyes come back to mine. I’ve hurt him. “Babe…”
“We didn’t go hard. We just wanted a light session. I didn’t hurt myself.”
“But your shoulder…”
“Is fine,” I sigh. “Babe, I’ve been talking about coming back since before the wedding. I’m ready. We’ve been going for an hour and a half now, we went easy, and neither of us are hurting.”
“The baby–” Jimmy begins.
“Is also fine,” Iz cuts him off. “It’s not like Kit was practicing her knees. Relax. We know what we’re doing. Both of us.”
I bring my gloves to my face to rip the Velcro open with my teeth. We’re done for today, anyway, but Bobby stops me and opens them himself. “Can we talk about this?” he murmurs. “Later?”
“Bobby–”
“I’m not going to argue, baby. I promise. I just wanna talk it out.”
I stare into his eyes for a moment. I really don’t want to argue with him, and I feel like a jerk for not telling him my plans. Even if I think my request is fair, I hurt him by not being completely truthful. “Alright. I’m sorry.” I place a kiss on his stubbled chin.
“Don’t be sorry. We’ll talk.” He returns my kiss softly. “We came in to find you girls. I got a call from the commission–”
“Did you get a date?” Iz asks excitedly.
He pulls me into his chest and scratches my temple with his soft stubble. “No date yet, but they’re announcing tonight.”
“They won’t tell you in advance?”
“No. They’re still in negotiations. Thomlassen’s camp aren’t agreeing on December, but they’ve been given a deadline, or it won’t go ahead. They want it to go ahead; there’s way too much money in it for them. They’ll let us know at the last second, no doubt.”
“So when would you fight?”
