AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I sit next to him. “Yeah, son, it’s strange.”
We sit silently for a while, and then he says, “Did Molly say anything about me… about us?”
I’m unsure if that’s hope in his voice, as if hewantsher to have said something. I’ve been trying to lock away that in the deepest, darkest part of my mind, too. What if Ryan loves her? What if he’s struggling to let her go?
I can’t lie to him. “She told me some things, son, and I wasn’t too happy to hear them.”
I’m not looking at him, but I can feel his discomfort. It’s almost like a scent. He’s shifting, too, awkwardly moving on the spot as if he thinks I’ll tell him it’s time to spar again.
“It wasn’t a good relationship,” he says weakly.
“Was it a bad relationship, or didyoubehave badly?”
“I think…” He stands up, turns to me, and raises his hands. “I want to go again, Dad, but don’t hold back this time.”
I shake my head. “I’d kill you if I didn’t hold back. You’re not trained to defend yourself properly yet.”
He slips his mouthguard into his mouth. “How hard were you going before?”
“Maybe ten percent.”
Ryan flinches. “Really?”
I nod. “It’s a skill, Ryan. I’ve been training for twenty-eight years.”
“Go fifteen percent this time.” He looks at me with glistening eyes, and I hope he’s thinking about everything he said to Molly. Maybe this is his way of punishing himself. “I can take it. I’ll try the parry and slip you taught me. Icanbe better, Dad.”
It’s taken a lot to wake him up, but at least he’s trying now. He clearly doesn’t want to talk about Molly, which is good. I shouldn’t—don’t—want to talk about her, either.
“If you’re sure,” I say.
“I am.” He raises his gloves, sweat streaking down his face. “Let’s do it.”
I turn to set the timer, looking out the window again at the man and his woman. They’re holding hands, standing at the edge of the pond. Maybe some people think age gaps are gross, but they don’t look gross. They don’t look weird and wrong. They look happy, but I’m sure his son, if he has one, was never in a relationship with his woman. That’s the difference. That’s why this will never work.
The timer sounds. I raise my hands. “Let’s work.”
Ryan weaves to the side. I time a jab and catch him stiffly in the chin. He nods eagerly, wildly, and I’m sure of it now. He won’t talk about it yet, but he wants to suffer for the hurt he inflicted on Molly. He wants to taste just a bit of that pain for himself.
Maybe one day, I’ll sit him down and tell him what Molly said. I’ll force him to admit he was in the wrong. If I brought it up now, with the taste of Molly’s lips still so fresh in my memory, with the feel of her body, with the hope I had at the beginning of the date, I’d be going much harder than fifteen percent. I have to wait until I forget her. Goddamn, that’s funny.
Forget Molly? That’s never going to—
Ryan sticks me with a clean right, snapping my head back a little.
Then he raises his hands. “Oh, sorry, Dad.”
I laugh gruffly, circling him. “Don’t apologize. That’s the point, but for that, we’re on sixteen percent now.”
He laughs, eyes bright, reminding me of the little boy he was. Maybe we can make up for lost time and heal the wounds of the past. Just as long as I can let Molly go.
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
Molly
“Somebody’s following me,” I tell Rachael over the phone as I head toward the shopping mall.
“Wait… what?” Rachael says, her voice tight. “Do you think it’s them?”
