Actually Love - Jessie & Zach (37 page)

Z
ach sat on the table, legs hanging off the side. Lloyd had just finished taping his hands, and he’d left Zach alone so he could get in the zone. His earphones were blasting music in his ears. He closed his eyes to tune everything around him out. This was the time that he needed the rest of the world to disappear.

But it wasn’t.

In the past, even when he’d been worried about his mom, once it had gotten this close to a fight, he’d been able to erase the world and just focus on getting his mind right. This time, nothing he could do erased the sound of Jessie saying, “
Tell Mr. Courtland you’ll call him back after our strategy meeting and let him know what the game plan is.”

He knew he should have told her about his past the first night they’d made love. It wasn’t fair that she’d been blindsided like that. She needed control, not surprises. And in Jessie’s world, both professionally and personally, knowledge equaled control. He’d taken that away from her when he hadn’t disclosed his past.

Zach lived on his instincts. But right now, his instincts were telling him to get on a plane, find Jessie, and somehow make her understand everything. He’d only gotten about three hours of sleep, but when he’d woken up, he’d seen that he’d missed four calls from her. She’d only left one voice message and it had simply asked him to call her. That was it.

She hadn’t sounded angry, just upset. Zach had been trying to get ahold of her all day even though he knew that he was probably just going to be broken up with when he did. The eternal optimist in him still held on to the hope that, if he could just see her face to face, he could make her see that none of his past mattered. All that mattered was her. Them. Now.

That wouldn’t be easy over the phone, so his plan, although he’d never been able to execute it because she never answered, was to convince her not to do anything or make any decisions until they could sit down and talk about it face to face. It might be a long shot, but Jessie was a reasonable person. She dealt in logic, facts. He just needed to make her see what his logic had been. What the facts of the situation were from him, not from Maxi or someone else. From him.

A hand waving caught his eye, and he looked up to see Maxi, dressed in a black pantsuit, standing in front of him, looking like she needed to talk to him.

He removed his earphones. “Hey.”

“Hi,” she smiled brightly. “Okay, I know you need to focus, but I just wanted to let you know that the interview just finished airing and Twitter is going
crazy
with support for you. You’re trending on Yahoo and Google, and we’ve been flooded with interview requests. Also, you did so well on camera that we’ve had several network offers for correspondence gigs.”

Damn
. Deep down, that had always been where he’d wanted his career to lead after he was done fighting. He just never even allowed himself to go there because he tried not to look too far into the future. Until he’d met Jessie.

“Anyways, I’ll let you do your thing. I just wanted to give you an update.”

Maxi turned to leave.

“Have you talked to Jessie today?” Zach asked. He knew that he wasn’t even being kind of subtle, but he didn’t care. That was the only update he wanted.

When Maxi turned slowly back around, she was still wearing a smile, but this one did not ring as true as the original. “Not today,” she said slowly. Then, speeding up her speech, she added, “But she’s probably still asleep. I would be surprised if she got to bed before six a.m. Yesterday was crazy. She didn’t just multitask, she multitasked squared. I was there and still don’t know how she kept everything straight. She’d be sending an email while talking to someone on her headset and reading copies of press releases for approval. Martin and I were throwing questions at her left and right and she was lobbing them out of the park. I mean, she is seriously
incredible
.”

“I know,” Zach agreed. If she’d said all that to make him feel better, it hadn’t worked.

Maxi sighed. Reaching out, she touched Zach’s shoulder. “And she was doing all of that for you.”

Zach nodded and put his earphones back in. Jessie had done all that for Mr. Courtland, her client, not Zach, her boyfriend. Not that he didn’t appreciate it. He did. But it didn’t make him feel better about where he stood with her. Until he talked to her, nothing could make him feel better.

*     *     *

Zach could still hear the crowd cheering, “Playboy! Playboy!” as he made his way through the tunnel of hallways, back to the dressing room. His breaths were coming in short pants as adrenaline still pumped through his system. He usually didn’t come down for about four hours after a fight. Hopefully he’d be headed home by then.

He knew that he had interviews he was obligated to do and that getting out of Vegas would be a nightmare on New Year’s Eve, but he didn’t care. Maxi could reschedule the interviews and he would rent a car and drive back to Chicago if he couldn’t get a flight out. He’d come here and done what he’d needed to do professionally. Now he needed to get back to Jessie and do what he needed to do personally.

“Congratulations!”

“Way to go, champ!”

“Man, that was a good fight!”

“Playboy!”

Every person he passed called out to him with congratulations. Lloyd was walking quickly beside him. Charlie was on his other side. The fight had ended in the sixth round by knockout. He’d landed a clean right on Reynolds’s jaw in the fourth round and Zach had seen that it had shaken him. He stayed up for two more rounds, but Zach had just been wearing him out so that, when he saw his opening, he could deliver the final blow. Which he had.

Reynolds threw the left he was feared for. Zach juked it and landed another right. This time, it took Reynolds down to his knees. When he couldn’t stand back up, the ref started counting it. When he got to one, the crowd erupted in cheers and Zach retained his title and belt. He could now pay off a good chunk of his mom’s medical bills and make sure his mom was paid up at Avalon for a few years.

His accountant had given him the numbers for either scenario, win or lose. He couldn’t remember exactly how far ahead this put him, but he knew it was a lot further than if he hadn’t gotten the ‘W’.

Turning down the hall where the dressing room was, he stared down at the reflection of the overhead lights on the linoleum as he came up with his exit strategy. He knew that Maxi would be waiting inside, wanting to brief him on interviews, appearances, etc. He knew she wasn’t going to like his plan to take a quick shower and get out of dodge. But that’s what was happening.

Lloyd pushed the door open and Zach lifted his head, ready to let Maxi know from the jump that he wasn’t sticking around. But instead of Maxi, he found Jessie standing in the middle of the room. She was wearing a blue t-shirt and jeans, and her hair was up in a ponytail. She looked adorable.

“Give us a minute,” he said to Lloyd and Charlie, who had both walked in beside him.

“Sure thing,” Lloyd said, already on his way out.

“You got it.” Charlie tipped his hat to Jessie as he followed behind Lloyd.

The door shut, and Zach knew he should say something to her, but he was having a hard time believing that she was actually here. In the flesh.

He began moving towards her. “Jessie—”

Holding up her hand, she stopped him. “Zach. I am so sor—” After reaching back, she held on to the table behind her as she went pale.

“Jessie.” He rushed towards her.

“Blood,” she said weakly as she closed her eyes and breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth.

Shit
. Of course he was bloody.

“Sit down,” he instructed as he guided her to the large, black leather couch that sat against the wall, her eyes still closed. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”

“Okay,” she said as she continued her breathing and nodded her head.

After rushing to the back, he tore the tape off of his hands, stripped down, and took the fastest shower he’d ever taken in his life. In fact, he wished the Guinness Book of World Records people had been there to witness it because Zach was sure he’d broken the world record for fastest showering. He dried off just as quickly, grabbed his sweats and a shirt, and was back sitting on the couch with her in under a minute. Or at least it had felt that fast to him.

“How are you feeling,” he asked as he brushed a loose strand of hair off her forehead.

“Better,” she said as she opened her beautiful brown eyes. “Congratulations. I heard the fight on the radio.”

“Thanks.” Zach was trying to let Jessie set the pace of this conversation, but it was really difficult for him not to take over and tell her all the things he’d wanted to tell her since the story broke.

Her eyes softened, and she reached out and touched his face. Leaning into her touch, he closed his eyes and covered her hand with his.

“I’m so sorry, Zach.” Her voice sounded shaky.

His eyes opened and he saw tears forming behind her lids. He wasn’t sure where this was going, but he hoped it wasn’t an ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ talk. Trying to lighten the mood, he said, “That’s okay. I know you and blood don’t do well together.”

“No, not that. I mean, yes I am sorry for that, but that’s not what I was apologizing for.” Turning to face him fully, she said, “I’m sorry I didn’t take your call yesterday or call you back. I should hav—”

“No, I’m the one who’s sorry, Jess. I should have told you about my past. You shouldn’t have found out that way. That wasn’t right. I just didn’t know how to… I almost told you that first night, but…I don’t know. I just didn’t. I thought about it, but I didn’t.”

Her face spread in a smile that began loosening the tight knot that had been in his chest since yesterday morning. “We did things all kinds of backwards. There wasn’t really a good time to tell me about that. I know that. I get it.” Lifting her finger, she said with a teasingly warning tone, “But if there is anything else—”

“I smoked weed in high school and got busted egging cars when I was fourteen,” Zach quickly confessed.

“Hmmm…” Looking up like she was giving something careful consideration, she pursed her lips before she once again met his stare. “I think I can live with that.”

“So we’re good?” he asked, wanting to hear her confirm it.

Winding her arms around his neck, she pressed her soft lips to his and said, “If you forgive me, we’re good. I love you, Zach.”

“I love you so much, Jessie.” Cupping her face with his hands, he kissed her, pouring all of the love he had for her into it.

Reaching down, he slipped his hands around her waist. Needing to be closer to her, he pulled her onto his lap. Needing to touch her skin to skin, he started taking off her t-shirt before she said, “Did you really mean that you would marry me tomorrow if you could?”

Zach froze. Had he heard her right?

“Yes,” he answered, trying not to get his hopes up, but who was he kidding? They were up.

“We
are
in Vegas.” She lifted her hands and gestured around the room.

He would take her to the nearest chapel in a second if he really believed that was what she wanted. But he’d just been to one of her family’s weddings. There was no way a quickie elopement could really be what she wanted.

“Don’t you want your dad to walk you down the aisle? Your sisters to be bridesmaids?” Zach ran his hands up and down her jean-clad thighs before once again slipping his hands around her waist.

“No.” She shook her head and tightened her grip around his neck as she stared into his eyes. “I really don’t. I don’t want all those people looking at me. I just want you and me. When we get home, we can have a party. My parents will understand. They know I do things my own way.” Then her face scrunched in alarm. “Wait. What about your mom? You’re her only son. She’ll want to be here.”

Zach shook his head as he pulled her tighter against him. “All my mom has ever wanted was for me to be happy. To find my place in this world. I used to think it was boxing, but it’s not. You’re my place, Jessie. And you being my wife would make me the happiest man in the world.”

Her eyes lit up with excitement as she smiled bigger than he’d ever seen her smile before. “So we’re
really
going to do this?”

Zach just had to make sure of one thing first. “Are you really sure that you’re okay with the stripping, Jessie? That it won’t bother you that your husband was a stripper? That it won’t bother your family?”

Her lips pursed and she shook her head slightly as tears filled her eyes once again.

Shit
. He should have just let it go.

A tear slipped down her face as she spoke with a shaky voice. “Nothing would make me prouder than to be your wife. The wife of a man who I know would do
anything
it took to take care of me and our family. My mom told me that love is messy. And it isn’t about finding the perfect person, because they don’t exist. Love is about finding the person who’s perfect for you and then being there for each other when life gets messy.
You
are the person who I want by my side when life gets messy. You are my perfect person.”