“How’s he rigged it?” Mac asked.

“Well, there’s the rub,” replied Danny. “It’s in six weeks’ time.”

“Fuck!” pretty much all of them muttered.

“How is that possible?” I asked.

“That’s how he’s rigged it, sunshine. It’s long enough between fights for surface bruises to heal. On the outside, I’ll look fight ready, but my body won’t have fully recovered from the last fight,” O’Connell explained.

He looked as grim and thoughtful as the rest of the room.

“So what are you going to do?” I asked.

I HAD JUST PLATED UP A SMALL mountain-sized portion of pasta when O’Connell got on my last nerve. Walking over to him, I put both hands on his chest.

“Baby, stop,” I told him.

He’d been training relentlessly since the meeting this morning, and after the few days we had off together, one day of hardcore training wasn’t nearly enough to calm the torrent raging inside him. Since he’d come home half an hour ago, he’d dumped his training bag and jumped into the shower. He’d then spent the last ten minutes pacing the length of our tiny apartment.

“What do you think I should do, Em?” he asked me.

“I think you should sit down and eat your dinner. Then we’re going to climb into bed and talk about it.”

He nodded his head and relaxed his shoulders. After a long day of questioning whether or not to take the fight, he seemed relieved to have someone take a decision out of his hands, even if it was a minor one. An hour later, after he’d wolfed down his meal and we’d washed the dishes side by side in the tiny little kitchenette, I laid on his chest as he ran his fingers absentmindedly through my hair. At least now, he seemed calmer and a little more centred.

“What does Danny think?” I asked him.

“I had a word with him after the boys left. He thinks I can do it; he just wants me to change my game plan. Instead of wearing Calvari down, he wants me to go for the knockout. Calvari’s had losses before, but he’s never been knocked out. It’s a big gamble. If I go at him all guns blazing and I don’t knock him out, I might not have enough left in the tank for a win at all. But if I do, then I’ll be in much better shape for the second fight.”

“What does Kier think?” I asked him, knowing that he valued Kieran’s opinion almost as much as Danny’s.

“He doesn’t want me to take the Ramos fight. He thinks that the purse and the exposure aren’t worth the risk of me losing the fight and fucking up my stats. It would probably make more sense for me to cancel the Calvari fight, but I’m under contract. Even if I could get out of it, I’d get a bad rep if I tried to pull from the fight last-minute.”

“What do YOU want to do?” I asked.

“Honestly? I want a crack at them both. I’ve seen them fight, and I think I can do it, too.”

“Then take both fights. Train like you’ve never trained before and take both fights.”

“You don’t mind? We’re only just married, and I’d be training every waking hour of the day. We’ll barely see each other.”

“Look, I’ll start helping out more at the gym, maybe do a bit of cleaning to help Danny out before I go back to school. We won’t be together, but at least I’ll get to see you during the day. Besides, it’s only for six weeks. It will only be a few weeks after the last fight until half term, so maybe we can away for a few days together then. Sort of like a mini honeymoon.”

“I like the sound of that. Not the cleaning part, though. Those lazy bastards can clean up after themselves. But I like the rest of it.”

“Then get some sleep and stop worrying about it, love. You’ve decided what you’re going to do, so stop questioning yourself.”

“Kieran won’t be happy,” he told me.

“He might not agree with you, but he’ll support your decision. He’ll always be your corner man, you know that.”

We lay together trying to sleep, but ten minutes later, I could still feel the tension radiating off him. Propping myself up on my elbows to peer down at him in the darkness, I kissed his abs gently.

“What’s wrong?”

“Frank hasn’t surfaced yet.”

“Did you think he would?” I asked.

“I sort of hoped. I have a lot of pent-up rage I’d like to direct his way.”

“If he’d gotten my address from the burglary, we’d have seen him by now. We just have to assume I’m safe and move on. You’re going to have to direct all that rage into your fights. Just pretend that Calvari and Ramos are Frank.”

“That will work for the knockout,” he snorted.

“Don’t borrow worry. Just focus on one thing at a time. You know you can do this. Just be the cocky bastard that I married.”

“You’re right, sunshine. I do have this in the bag. As long as you’re watching, I can’t lose.”

He couldn’t see my face in the dark, but I made a good show of convincing him with confidence that I didn’t feel. The truth was that he took my heart with him every time he climbed into the ring, and he didn’t give it back until he climbed out again safely. I wouldn’t rest until his last fight was over, but until then I would keep my fears to myself and hold onto my faith that everything would turn out for the best.

DANNY FOUND ME THE NEXT day cleaning out the bathrooms at the gym. To be fair, they weren’t quite as disgusting as I’d feared they’d be, but they were still pretty grim. I’d always been able to use the bathroom next to the office, which wasn’t nearly as much of a health hazard.

“What the feckin’ hell do you think you’re doing?” shouted Danny.

I turned back to look at him but didn’t stop scrubbing.

“Cleaning the bathroom,” I explained though I would have thought it was patently obvious from the bucket of hot soapy water and scrubbing brush.

“Yes, I can see that. But why?” he growled.

I leaned back on my heels and dropped the scrubbing brush back into the water.

“Look, O’Connell has training every day for the next six weeks. He’s already getting nervous and jumpy about not seeing me for so long, let alone about the fights. I don’t have any uni work until I go back after the Calvari fight, so I told him I’d hang around the gym more so we could at least see each other.”