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“To training? I don’t know. Maybe a few times a week. I need to work some weights into my routine, because my shoulder’s pretty weak. It was hard keeping it up to cover my face after a while.”
“Alright, babe. I’ve got you.” I work hard to separate husband from trainer. If a random person had come to me after similar injuries and asked for a workout routine to help regain strength and endurance, I’d have been all over it. But because it’s Kit, I’ve been so caught up in protecting her, that I’ve left her weak and vulnerable.
“Thank you.” She presses closer and nuzzles her face into my neck. “How was your session?”
“Good. It felt good to spar again.”
“I bet it did.” She throws my words back with a snicker. “Is Jimmy ready?”
“He will be. He’s doing really well.”
“Awesome. It’s kinda exciting, I’ll get to go to my first pro fight, and it’s to watch my brother-in-law. Jesus,” she sighs, “my life has changed.”
“Who said you were invited?” I poke her ribs gently. “I didn’t get you a ticket.”
She scoffs. “Then you better give me yours, because I’m not letting him go without me. He needs me.”
I laugh. She’s probably not wrong. “You’ll be there, baby. It’s tradition. The whole family goes. And now you’re my family…”
She sighs happily. “Are you nervous for your announcement?” She runs her fingers through my hair. “We’ll know before bedtime tonight.”
“Nah, I don’t really get nervous about that, but I’m excited to get a date.”
* * *
At seven on the dot, the guys roll in and transform our house from a quiet retreat for three, to the equivalent of a noisy train station. Five large men and three women talk over each other and get in each other’s way in a fight to get the best seats and best food first.
Jack walks into the living room and flops onto the couch with a fresh soda in his hands. “Are they announcing only your fight? Or a few?”
I look at him. Then the girls. Then back to him with a raised brow. “Excuse you, asshole. Did you offer the girls a drink? We’re at the fridge, we offer the girls a damn drink.”
He huffs with impatience and turns to the long couch to look at Kit, Tink, and Iz. “Do you perfectly capable ladies who also have two legs and a heartbeat want a drink?”
Someone’s in a pissy mood today.
Izzy smiles with attitude and pats her barely there stomach. “Yes please, Jack. I’m just so exhausted, I can barely stand.”
He grumbles and climbs out of his chair to fetch her soda, then she turns back to Kit. “Did you call Tina?”
“Yeah, I did, but she’s working. She can’t come.”
“Bummer. We should go see her soon.”
“Yeah, and I want to offer to babysit too, give her a night off.”
Aiden steps into the room with a beer in each hand. “Who are you talking about?” He passes me one bottle and sits on the coffee table in front of the girls, but before they can answer, the doorbell rings, so he jumps up to answer.
Guess he didn’t really care.
We follow him and Jon to the kitchen as the smell of sticky cheese and hot pepperoni call to us like the pied piper.
Sitting wherever we can fit, we flip the boxes open and inhale the doughy goodness. Before Kit can escape to sit by Iz, I pull her into my lap and grunt when she flops down lazily.
Iz and Jimmy sit by each other with soft smiles. They don’t touch, they don’t even have private little chats to the exclusion of the rest of us like they used to –Jesus, I was so blind– they simply sit beside each other platonically and watch the rest of us bicker.
He said he’d be her best friend. He said he’d be there for her.
He’s still hurting, but despite that baby’s DNA, he’s doing as he always promised. He’s her friend, her protector. And when the baby arrives, he’ll become the greatest uncle of all time – broken heart and all.
