Sucker Punch (TKO #4) (12 page)

Chapter 22

Austin

It’s almost nine in the evening and I’m still waiting for Paige to answer my text from earlier. I yawn and climb under my comforter. I didn’t do much today as far as sparring. I mainly sat around, which is unlike me. I just wasn’t feeling it today. My eyes begin to grow heavy. My guess is she’s not going to reply tonight. I hope she’s okay, but I don’t want to bug her.

My phone dings and I jump up immediately to see what it is. With my luck it’ll just be some email notification, but I look and it’s Paige. I sigh as I open her message.

Paige: Hey, sorry it took me so long to answer.

Austin: I was getting worried about you.

Paige: Don’t be. I’m okay. I had some things to take care of after work.

Austin: Do you maybe want to get dinner tomorrow?

Paige: Sounds good, but I can’t. I’ve got plans.

Austin: Oh. Okay. I’ll talk to you later then. I’m about to go to bed.

Paige: I’m sorry, Austin.

Austin: Don’t be.

I toss my phone back onto my nightstand and close my eyes. They open as quickly as they closed. I’m agitated now. Maybe I’m misreading the entire conversation, but it just seems so out of place for her. She’s acting strange, almost like she’s hiding something. My phone dings again and I debate on whether or not I’m going to pick it up and read whatever it is. I know it’s her. Because I want to put myself through this misery, I pick the phone up.

Paige: I’m sorry. I’ve just had a really long day.

Austin: It’s fine, Paige.

Paige: I wasn’t trying to upset you, I promise.

Austin: I know.

Paige: Goodnight, Austin.

Austin: Night.

This time, I set the phone down for good and when I close my eyes, they don’t reopen.

***

The next day at the gym is better than the yesterday. I’m actually sparring and it feels so good to be in action. Garrett tells me Raegan is making tacos for dinner tonight and invites me over. Lance laughs and tells him it’s not Tuesday, but he’ll be there too.

“Really? You do know it doesn’t have to be Tuesday to have tacos,” Garrett tells him.

“It’s called Taco Tuesday, dude. You eat tacos on Tuesday,” Lance argues.

“Well, I for one love tacos and I can eat them any day of the week,” I chime in.

Garrett grins before turning to Lance. “See, he has no issues. I’m heading home. Y’all can come now if you want or whenever.”

“I’m going to get Hilary and the kids, then I’ll be over,” Lance says as he walks out the door.

“I’ll follow you there,” I tell Garrett. I’m hoping maybe I’ll catch a glimpse of Paige. If not, I may text her and ask if I can see her when I leave Raegan and Garrett’s.

As I pull into a parking spot, I notice her car. I walk with Garrett to his apartment and follow him inside. I hear voices as we step inside. My ears must be playing tricks on me because I swear I hear Paige. Man, I really do have it bad for the girl.

I hear a little girl call for her mommy, and just as Garrett walks from in front of me to grab a beer out of the refrigerator, I see Paige scoop a child up into her arms. What the hell is going on?

“Paige?” I ask as I walk towards her.

Her eyes widen when she sees me and she looks as though she may cry. “H-hey, Austin.”

“Mommy, who is this?” the little girl asks her.

I turn away and notice Raegan’s eyes are wide too. Garrett whispers something to her and she leans back and whispers something else. Suddenly I feel like I don’t need to be here. At least not unless someone tells me what is going on.

“This is a friend of Mommy’s. His name is Austin,” Paige tells the little girl. Then she looks at me and takes a deep breath. “Austin, this is my four year old daughter Darla.”

She’s terrified right now. I can see it in her eyes. She’s probably scared I’m going to freak out. I can’t lie, I’m upset she didn’t tell me about this sooner, but I can quickly get over it.

“Hi, Darla, it’s nice to meet you.” I grab the little girl’s hand and give it a kiss.

“What happened to your arm?” she asks innocently. Paige gasps but I shake it off. She’s only four years old, she doesn’t know any better.

“The doctor had to take it off,” I tell her.

“You had an owie? I get owies sometimes. Mommy makes them better.”

I laugh. “Yeah, I had a bad owie.”

“Darla, why don’t you go play, sweetie?” Paige tells her as she sets her down.

I watch as the little girl runs away from us before looking back at Paige. “So this is why you wouldn’t make many plans with me?”

She nods her head slowly. “I understand if you’re upset with me. I was going to tell you about her, I promise.”

“You should have told me, Paige,” I whisper to her.

“I wanted to, but I needed to protect her. She’s all I have.”

“So that ex, he’s her dad?” I ask.

She nods. “She doesn’t know him, though, and he’s about to move, so please don’t say anything out loud.”

“I won’t. I understand why you didn’t tell me.” I swallow.

Raegan walks up, breaking into our conversation, and I’m a little glad about that. “You guys okay?” Her eyebrow is raised and I understand her concern.

“Yeah, we’re good,” I tell her.

We break away from our little circle as Lance and Hilary come walking in with the kids. Everyone starts talking and it’s easy to forget Paige just dropped a bomb on me. I have nothing against kids. I’ve never thought of dating a girl with a kid, but dating
Paige
with a kid, that feels different.

Chapter 23

Paige

When Raegan invited Darla and me over for dinner, the thought never came to mind Austin would be there too. That was the very last thing I’d imagined. For a moment, I forgot he even knows everyone here. I forgot until he said my name and I turned around.

The secret I had been trying to keep since I met him is out. All I can do is pray he doesn’t run away. I really like him.

Lance and Hilary coming in with their kids eases some of the tension. Although Austin told me he was okay with Darla, I can’t help but think he’s just saying that because there are people around. I’m almost positive when this night is over, he’ll tell me how he really feels and once he does it’s back to being alone again. Hell, I’ve been alone for the past few years, so it’s not like I’m not already used to it.

This is why I didn’t want to introduce Darla to anyone. Now I can just hope she forgets about him.

My phone vibrates in my back pocket and I pull it out to see a text from Brendan.
I’ll check it later
, I think as I stick the phone back into my pocket.

“Everything okay?” I glance up to see Austin standing beside me. I thought he had joined Lance, but apparently he’s been standing beside me the entire time.

“Y-yeah. It’s great,” I lie.

“Do you need to read that message?” he asks, pointing to my back pocket.

I gulp, praying he didn’t see the name that was on my phone. “No, it’s probably not important.”

“Okay. Your daughter is cute,” Austin tells me.

I plaster a fake smile on my face as I thank him. I look to where Darla is playing. She stops and migrates over to where Hilary sits with her son, Tyler. Darla and Hilary’s daughter, Laney, are standing around watching him drink a bottle. I smile, watching Darla. I bet one day she’d make a great big sister. I refuse to even think about bringing another child into this world until I’m settled down with a man who will accept anything that happens.

“You okay?” Austin asks me quietly.

With my lips pursed together, I nod. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Taco time!” Raegan calls out. Lance gets ready to knock people out of the way to go eat when she interrupts him, “Kids first.”

“What? I’m just going to fix Laney’s plate.” He grins. We all know good and well he wasn’t going to fix Laney’s plate. He is now, though, since he brought it up.

I take this as my chance to step away from Austin and go fix Darla a taco. I laugh as I notice Lance putting about five tacos on the plate. Obviously little Laney isn’t going to eat all of those. Garrett pops up on the other side of him and glances at the plate.

“Really, Lance? Laney’s going to eat that much?” He raises his eyebrow.

“Laney is a growing girl, for your information.” Lance grins as he takes a small handful of cheese and throws it in Garrett’s face.

I burst out laughing and they both turn to look at me before joining in. I grab one taco shell and begin to fill it up with meat and cheese. I step around them carefully and call Darla to the table. I notice Austin is in line to fix his tacos, so I grab my phone out of my pocket to read the message Brendan sent.

Brendan: I thought a lot about our conversation earlier and I wanted to ask you something.

I gulp. I’m curious what he’s going to ask. I look around to make sure no one can see me. No one is paying attention, though.

Paige: What is it?

Brendan: Before I move, I’d like to meet Darla, if that’s okay with you. I’ve been shitty and I understand if you say no.

I can feel tears welling up in my eyes but I can’t cry here. There’s too many people around. I wish he had said something like this sooner. With him getting ready to move, this makes it so hard. I want Darla to meet him but then he’ll be gone and she’ll probably never see him again. Then I’ll really have to live with questions.

Paige: Are you sure?

Brendan: Positive.

Paige: Let me know when and we can make it happen.

Brendan: What are you doing tonight?

Paige: I’m over at my neighbors’ eating dinner.

Brendan: Oh, well I’ll call you tomorrow or something, okay?

Paige: Sounds good.

I put my phone back up and my stomach growls. I take that as my cue to go fix my own food. Laney and Darla are at the table and all the adults are standing around the counter eating. I wedge myself between Raegan and Hilary, who welcome me immediately.

“Laney and Darla seem to get along really well.” Hilary smiles at me.

“Yeah they do. I’m glad she has someone to play with. We don’t know too many people with kids,” I admit to her.

“I understand that. Well, now that we all know each other, we can have play dates with all of our kids,” she says.

Raegan smiles. “Yes we definitely can! Plus I could use pointers from both of you.”

Garrett walks over and steals Raegan away. It’s so cute how he kisses her forehead. Hilary and I continue to talk. I wish I could confide in her and know it wouldn’t get back to anyone else, but I barely know her. I really could use someone to talk to with all of this sudden chaos erupting in my life.

Chapter 24

Austin

I caught myself looking over at Paige interacting with her daughter a few times. The little girl is a spitting image of her mom. I kind of kept my distance, not trying to be mean, but this is all new to me. Who am I to just barge in on something I knew nothing about to begin with? We didn’t talk too much. Paige stayed glued to Hilary and Raegan, but I understand that. Girls stick together just like the guys do.

I watch as she packs up Darla’s things and starts telling everyone bye. I check my phone and see it’s almost nine in the evening. I imagine she needs to get her little girl to bed. I approach her slowly, not wanting to scare her.

“Can I walk you to your apartment?” I ask her with a hopeful tone to my voice.

She just picked up a very sleepy looking Darla and she’s holding her on her hip. “Yeah, you can.”

I tell everyone bye and thank you all at the same time. It sure is great to have friends that get together like this. Ruston and Tamilyn are my friends too, but this is just different. Not that I don’t belong around them, but I belong with these guys.

I offer to grab something from Paige’s arms as we walk out of Raegan and Garrett’s apartment, but she politely declines. She’s used to doing this all on her own so I understand. As she approaches her door, she fishes the key out of her pocket; continuing to hold Darla tightly. I notice the little girl’s eyes are closing, poor thing is exhausted. Paige opens the door and turns to face me. “Well, I guess I’ll talk to you later. I need to get her changed and in bed.”

“O-Oh okay,” I stammer. I don’t know why I was thinking she was going to invite me inside. I guess I can’t blame her.

She steps inside and closes the door before I can say another word to her. I’m a little disappointed. I guess you can say disappointment has just filled this entire night. I learned she’s been keeping something big from me. Kids are a very big deal. They require so much out of you.

I hang my head and walk solemnly to my car. I really do have a lot to think about now. This could change so much. I finally meet another girl I like and it seems now this may fail me too. Thoughts of my short-lived fling with Tamilyn float through my mind. I can’t go through that again. Last time it nearly killed me.

I get in my car and drive straight home. I notice Tamilyn’s car isn’t there, but Ruston is. I kind of need him right now so I’m glad. I walk straight into the apartment and toss my keys onto the counter. Ruston is sitting on the couch watching some action movie. He notices I’m not in the best mood and turns the volume down.

“Hey Austin, what’s up?” he asks.

“You’re going to regret asking that.” I chuckle as I sit beside him on the couch.

Ruston raises his eyebrow before replying, “I doubt it’s that bad.”

“Paige has a four year old daughter,” I blurt out. I watch as his eyes widen and his jaw drops. I told him he was going to regret asking me what was up.

“She told you?” he asks me.

“No, she didn’t, and I guess that’s what’s bothering me. I mean, I get why she didn’t tell me right away, but it was still a shock when I just saw it for myself when I went to Raegan and Garrett’s for dinner. She lives like right by them and they invited her too,” I explain.

“Well, how do you feel about this?”

“I’m not sure. I mean, I’m not against kids. I’m just more upset, like I said, that she didn’t tell me to begin with. The father has never been in the kid’s life. Paige does everything herself. I walked her to her apartment after dinner but she pretty much walked in, said see you later and shut the door.”

“It’s probably scary for her. I imagine she was going to eventually tell you,” he says, probably trying to help me feel better.

“I know. I just, well, it makes me wonder. Is she going to shut me out completely? Or will she let me into their lives?” I run my hand through my hair. “The little girl was so cute too. She looks just like her mom. She asked me where my arm was.”

“What did you tell her?”

“I told her the doctor had to take it off. Then she asked, all sweet, if I had an owie.” I chuckle at the memory.

“You think you could handle being around a kid, man?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never been in this position, but I like Paige so much, I’d be willing to try if she’d let me,” I admit.

“Give her some time to maybe think about this. It’s huge for her. You’re not just going to be around her, but her daughter, and the kid will most likely get attached to you. Then, if something goes south with the relationship, it’s not only Paige that has to deal with the repercussions but also the kid,” Ruston tells me. Right now, I’m actually glad I decided to sit down and talk with him.

“Thanks, man. I admit I was a little freaked out earlier. I just never expected anything like this.”

“It’s going to be okay, man,” Ruston says as he places his hand on my shoulder. “Get you some rest and I bet everything is going to work out.”

I stand up and tell him thank you one more time before walking to my room. I lie in bed and wait for a few minutes to see if Paige is going to text. When about thirty minutes pass and nothing has appeared on my phone, I decide against texting her. I’ll do what Ruston said and give her a little time. I close my eyes and let myself fall into a troubled sleep. My mind is so full of things I’m barely able to rest.