“You, me, Kier, and Danny will train and everyone else stays with Em. We make ourselves as close and accessible as possible until we fight and she stays with me for every minute she’s not in court,” I said. Earnshaw ran his hand back and forth through his hair as he contemplated something, and I guessed he did that a lot.

“Here’s the thing. Temple has one of the best boxing training facilities in the world, and its public knowledge. They don’t want the underdog claiming that Temple’s had unfair advantages, so they’re offering you a state-of-the-art training camp in the US where you can train for the fight and acclimatize.”

“We’re not going,” I told him. “It’s bad enough we’re missing the trial. I won’t miss having her by my side every night,” I explained.

“We’re not set up here to train for this kind of fight, Con,” Kier reasoned with me, but I wasn’t hearing it.

“Years ago, there was none of these state-of-the-art fancy gyms. We ain’t from money, and we don’t need it to get where we’re going. If we’re doing this, then we’re doing it old school,” barked Danny, which was pretty much the first contribution he’d made to this discussion, and the last word on the subject.

Chapter 11

We stood in what once passed as a kitchen. The sink had been taken out, and the plumbing capped. The floor was torn up, and the concrete exposed, and there wasn’t a single door on the filth-laden cabinets at our backs.

“Right, lads,” I said, raising my bottle of beer in the air. “Here’s to one last weekend, for me at least, of beer, marital relations, and unhealthy eating before I hand Danny my balls and get training. I know you could be doing anything you want this weekend, and I thank you for spending it helping me fix up our place.”

“Sláinte,” I toasted, tapping my bottles against theirs.

“Any idea where to start?” asked Tommy¸ as he kicked at a loose floor tile.

I tipped my bottle toward Liam. “You’re the expert. What do you think?”

“We’ve got two Dumpsters out front. Let’s gut and clean this place to give us our blank canvas. Then next week when you’re training, Tommy and his dad can start the plumbing and Big Joe can take a look at the electric. I’m a fair hand at plastering, so I can get cracking when they finish. By the time the fight’s done, you should be ready for carpentry and decorating so you can take over.” Liam laid it all out, but a part of me worried that this whole thing would stand still while I was training but Liam caught my eye, pulling me out of my own head.

“Listen, Con, I can see you stressing already¸ and we ain’t even started. Me and the lads, we got your back. You gotta job to do, and that job is to put Rico Temple on his arse and win us some money.”

“Huh?” I grunted stupidly. From his back pocket, Liam pulled out a betting slip. “Soon as news of the fight went live, bookies started posting odds, and we all went down.” Looking around, they all pulled out their betting slips.

“No pressure then,” I said, touched that they believed in me enough to risk what little money they had.

“No pressure at all,” said Liam with a grin. “We all bet on the other guy so we couldn’t give a shit whether you train or sit around for three months getting fat. In fact we’re actively encouraging Em with her baking.”

“Fuck off,” I told him playfully. “You guys can sit back and become fat arses. I’ve got work to do.”

“Of course we bet on you, brother,” said Kieran. “But you’re not doing this for us, or for Danny or Em. You do this for yourself.”

He was right but that didn’t change the fact that I wouldn’t be standing here on the brink of a life-changing opportunity without them.

“Of course that don’t mean we’re not gonna make the most of it when you do win. Ringside seats in Vegas with a hot girl on each arm sounds like a bloody good plan to me,” Tommy chipped in.

“Shouldn’t you be getting those STDs cleared up before you go on the hunt for more hotties?” warned Kieran.

“Fuck you and your fucking STDs,” grumbled Tommy.

“Take your frustration out on the house, my little friend,” Kier teased Tommy as he patted him condescendingly. “You can roll around with me when you’re feeling better,” he told him.

“I’d like to beat the shit out of you,” Tommy told him.

“Beat the shit out of, roll around, it’s the same difference. You wanna get hot and sweaty and jump all over me. I’m not gay but I understand your feelings. It’s just the effect I have on people. You’re not made of wood,” Kieran told him matter-of-factly.

“Whatever arse munch. I’ve got a sledgehammer and I’m going upstairs so you’d best stay out of my way,” he warned Kier.

“Trust me, little man, I have no interest in coming upstairs to see your big hammer,” Kier retorted.

“You need help,” grumbled Tommy, as he walked away and we fell about pissing ourselves laughing.

I glanced quickly at Liam to see if their gay references had made him feel uncomfortable but he looked as bemused as ever with them both. Mentally I chastised myself for thinking he’d be any different. The lads wouldn’t change who they were or how they acted because he was gay, and he wouldn’t want or expect them to. In fact, he’d probably kick their arses if they did. My only concern for him was that he was still keeping it a secret. I know he worried the news would spread when it got out, but he needed his friends around him. His parents were stanch Catholics, and as much as they loved him, when they found out there’d be fucking hell to pay.

* * *

The steam rose up from the hot bath in waves and rolled decadently up to the ceiling. The slight ache in the muscles I didn’t train regularly felt good. For the first time ever, I felt like I was building something. For a guy who hadn’t achieved a whole lot up until this point, a couple of days hard graft on our first real home gave me a hunter-gatherer feeling that was pretty heady.

“How’s it coming on?” Em asked from the doorway.

“Looks beautiful, darlin’,” I told her, watching the steam making her hair curl even tighter.

“In one weekend, you made our house a palace?” she teased.

“I wasn’t talking about the house,” I said. Beckoning her over, I waited until she was almost beside me before hauling her by the hips and pulling her over the edge of the tub into my lap.