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“Thanks, brother.” I end the call and stare out the windshield for another long moment before finally growing a set of balls and jogging to the front door.
I raise my hand to knock, but it opens before I get a chance, and a kid half my size stands on the other side. He’s got dark eyes and dark hair like Mason did. He looks like he’s ten years old, tops. “Wasn’t sure if you were going to chicken out.”
“Neither was I.” I look around the room for Leona but come up empty. “Is Leona home?”
“Yeah. She’ll be out in a minute. She doesn’t like you very much,” he says with the brutal honesty only a kid has.
“To be fair, I don’t know if I like me very much either.”
“Daniel.” Leona steps into the living room and glares at the kid. “Would you give us a minute?”
“Sure, Mom.” He walks by Leona, and she runs a hand over his curly black hair as he goes.
“Mom?” I ask. They never mentioned Mason and Leona already having a kid.
She must recognize my unspoken question. “He isn’t biologically mine, but he’s mine in every way that matters.” She rubs her pregnant belly, then sits on the couch. “Why are you here, King?”
I run my hands over my face.
Jesus, this is hard.
“I’m not exactly sure. I guess I wanted to give you a chance to hate me in person. I thought maybe it would help you to be able—” I cut myself off midsentence. “I don’t know what I thought. But I guess I was hoping you’d let me tell you how sorry I am. I never meant—”
“To kill him?” she cuts me off, then laughs. “If it wasn’t you, it would have been the next opponent or the one after that. The doctor told me he was a walking time bomb. He just didn’t know it. It didn’t even have to happen in that damn cage.”
She wipes her eyes. “He was so excited to get to fight you. So proud of what he’d earned. Seems kind of fitting in a really fucked up way.”
“I wish...” I swallow, trying to keep my quickly disintegrating composure. “God, I’m just so fucking sorry.”
“You couldn’t have known. We didn’t even know.” A tear slips down her cheek, and my gut clenches. “He loved what he did, King. He loved it every single day. And he was a man who lived every single day full-out. No regrets. We can’t turn back the clock, no matter how much I wish we could. Life doesn’t work that way.”
“Do you need anything?” I ask, not sure what I could do for her.
“You can’t give me back what I need.” Her voice trembles. “But you can do something for me.”
“Name it.”
“Keep fighting. Mason would be so mad if he knew you stopped fighting. He followed your career for years. Hometown Philly guy fighting all over the world. Winning belts everywhere you went. The highlight of his career was having the chance to fight you. And now, the reports are you’re retiring.”
“I haven’t spoken to anyone about my plans yet. I haven’t made any decisions.” Retirement has crossed my mind every day since I heard the news, but I’d only shared that with Maddie and Cade.
“I don’t hate you, King. I hate the sport he loved. I hate the fates that took him from us. I hate you for winning because I wish he’d gotten that belt. But I don’t hate you. I don’t even know you.” She stands from the couch and walks to the door. “Don’t feel bad for me. I lived more every day that Mason loved me than most people do in a lifetime.”
I join her at the door. “Thank you for letting me stop by today, Leona. If you ever need anything, you’ve got my number.”
She nods and opens the door.
And as I slide behind the wheel of my car, my shoulders feel lighter than they have in a while.
I wasn’t expecting anything from Leona McGuire.
But what she just gave me was everything.
MADDIE
Cade let me cancel my classes last week, but after Hudson and I discussed it when he got home last night, we decided we’d both go back to the gym on Monday. For him, that was this morning. For me, it’s tonight, and it feels good to be back. This is my last week of classes until January. Cade always suspends classes during the holidays.
Usually, I get antsy, thinking about two weeks of not teaching.
