Most of the day he’d train methodically without ever falling off track. But when Roni got there in the evenings it was a different story. She’d been a little down still because of the whole Nellie thing.

He watched her now, trying to make out her mood. Abel jabbed him hard in the ribs making Noah flinch. Noah hadn’t even noticed him get back in the ring.

“Can I say something without you getting all stupid on me?” Abel glanced at Roni then back at Noah.

If this was about her he wasn’t promising shit. “What?”

“I hope to hell you don’t do what you did at your fight a few weeks ago.”

Noah punched his gloves together and frowned. He knew exactly what Abel was getting at but he rolled his neck as he walked around the ring and asked anyway. “What’s that?”

“Get all caught up watching her and lose focus on the fight.”

“I won’t.”

“Dude, the second she walks in here every night we may as well hang it up. You check out just like that. Yesterday you could barely concentrate whenever she walked through the room. You can’t do that fight night, Noah. You remember what happened last time?” Abel glanced away and looked out into the gym at nothing in particular. “Maybe it’s better if…”

Noah peered at him. “If what?”

“If she’s not there, Friday.”

“No!” Noah held back what he really wanted to say. That he needed her there. As crazy as that sounded and even though he’d been pissed and distracted with the guy carrying on with her during the fight, there’d been something so comforting about her being there. Even the ride there he’d felt so much more at peace than he ever had before any fight. And now after everything that had happened between them he knew that feeling would be even stronger. “Don’t worry about it.” He jabbed Abel playfully, his words a little calmer now. “I’ll focus. I promise.”

He could see Abel wasn’t impressed or convinced by his promises. “Yeah? Prove it. She’s got what? Twenty minutes left? Lets see how long you can go without looking her way. Show me now.” He jabbed Noah hard on the shoulder. “C’mon lover boy. Lets do this.”

Noah resented having to force himself to keep his attention away from Roni but he knew Abel had a point. Still, he decided to use the aggravation to his advantage and jabbed hard at Abel missing his chin by an inch. Abel laughed jumping in place now. “There you go. Focus. Maybe next time you’ll land that.”

“Asshole,” Noah muttered as he swung again harder this time but Abel blocked it. He swung again this time landing one on Abel’s side.

Abel laughed again, completely unfazed by the solid jab Noah landed. “Call me crazy, Noah, but I think this focusing shit really works for you.”

They went at it for a while before Abel called their sparring session done. First thing Noah did was glance over in Roni’s direction. She was standing by the treadmill drinking from her water bottle. When she finished she wiped her forehead with a towel. She glanced at him then smiled when she saw him looking.

“Geez, she’s as bad as you are.” Abel nudged Noah before stepping out of the ring.

Noah laughed, but didn’t say what he was thinking. He sure as hell hoped so.

~*~

Even though their routine had changed a little this week because of Noah’s extra training, once home in the evenings, everything was blissfully the same. Noah flipped the channels as Veronica laid on the sofa her head resting on his lap playing with his phone. She still couldn’t believe the amount of things she could do with it. Noah had even showed her an app that she could use to start her car. It was unreal.

She resized the picture she’d taken that weekend of the guys while they were completely engrossed in their game. It was so cute; they all looked like their actual lives depended on whatever it is they were concentrating so hard on. The app she was playing with would let her add thoughts over their heads. She was in the middle of adding thoughts above Noah’s head when she hit something and the screen switched over to an incoming text—from Rita.

Veronica’s stomach did that weird thing it’d done just about anytime there’d been mention of Rita. The same thing it did when she’d seen Noah hug the groupies after his fight. The text was bad enough.

Sorry I won’t make it to your fight this Friday, my week is going to be crazy. But before I forget I wanted to wish you luck even though I know you won’t need it. Kill’em baby MUUAH!

That alone was enough to light a fire inside Veronica. Had Noah asked her to come see him fight? He’d said they didn’t stay in contact after she left.

But it was the follow up photo-text that made her sit up slowly. It was a picture of Rita and Noah on his motorcycle. Her arms were wrapped around him and her hands strategically placed in his inner thighs right at his crotch area. Even though Noah’s smile was barely there, her entire body pushed up against him and the seductive smile she wore was that of woman who’d either just gotten laid or was about to. The text under the picture read simply: Aren’t we cute?

And the date—New Year’s day. The day after he’d told Veronica he loved her. The very day he’d sworn Rita had spent the entire time inside and nothing happened between them.

“Very cute,” she muttered tossing the phone at Noah.

Noah flinched in surprise but managed to catch it as she stood up. “What?”

She didn’t respond. She couldn’t. The boulder wedged at her throat made any ability to speak impossible. She had nothing to say to him anyway. This was her own damn fault. How many times did things like this have to happen before she learned to just stick with her initial gut feeling. Already this could cause a rift between them. The very thing she’d been so afraid of from the beginning.