One Wish Left

CHAPTER 28: DEAD

Jesse fucking loved seeing Laura wear his coat. It was almost as good as seeing her naked.

Almost.

He stood up in the ring, and thanking his lucky stars that everything in his life until now had required him to be physically fit, he stripped off his black T-shirt, leaving only his shorts. He'd already chucked his shoes and sweatpants when he ran back to the locker room to grab the coat.

As Chad stripped down in the opposite corner, Jesse did something very unlike himself and strutted, muscles flexed to their utmost, around the ring so that Laura could get a good look. If she was going to choose between them, he wanted her to know what she'd be missing.

As he peacocked around, he risked a glance down at Laura to see if she'd noticed, but she wasn't even looking. She was huddled closely with Kieran, talking.

When Jesse finally took in his opponent's physique, he had to laugh at himself. Of course Laura wouldn't take a second look at a body like his when she was used to seeing Chad in all his glory. Her boyfriend was one hefty dude, and it was all muscle. Jesse figured at six-three, he had about an inch or two on the guy height-wise, but he himself was much leaner, carrying most of his strength in his chest and shoulders as opposed to the thick legs and arms of a fighter like Chad. Though they had different body types, both men had weighed in at just over 200 pounds, landing in the light heavyweight category.

As Jesse settled back in his corner, Luke tossed him his shin guards, mouth guard, and gloves while Marco helped Chad gear up.

"Do you like to wear head gear for sparring, Reynolds?" Marco asked.

"Not usually, but it depends on who I'm fighting," Chad said, cocking his head quickly toward one shoulder after the other to loosen his neck.

"I hear that," Marco replied. "In this case, J is a born-and-bred boxer, so his fighting style is going to pack in more strikes than your average MMA fighter."

Luke hopped down from the ring and yelled up at Chad, "I recommend you wear the head gear, bro. You'll thank me later."

Jesse heard Kieran giggling from below, so he looked down and waggled his eyebrows at him.

Kieran gave him a thumbs up and shouted, "Good luck, Jesse Bean!"

Jesse stilled in surprise. He hadn't been called that since the day his father died. He could have been sad at the memory of it. He could have been nervous about what Laura would think, that she might figure out what her nickname meant. But he wasn't.

He felt like a million bucks.

Kieran knew exactly what it meant to call his cousin that name, and he did it anyway. Jesse could not love that child more than he did in that moment.

"Thanks, li'l mate," he said. But what he meant was, I love you, too.

"Okay, J." Marco made his way over to Jesse's corner. "Chad here says he was a wrestler in high school and college, and his MMA training focused on Judo and Muay Thai, so you've got a little overlap in skills, but he's gonna be much more of a sprawl-and-brawl style fighter." He lowered his voice and added, "He's been in MMA for a year or two longer than you have, but he's got nothing on you in terms of overall experience. You got this, bro."

Jesse nodded in thanks and started shadow boxing to get his blood flowing.

Walking back to the middle of the ring, Marco announced, "We've got two amateur fighters here, each fairly experienced, and each one looking to hone skills for upcoming fights. We're gonna call this a 'hard spar,' so while we don't want you going at each other 100 percent, we do want to see you put a little fire into it. We don't want anyone getting hurt, so no roundhouse kicks, no going for the KO's. We just want this to be helpful for you both. Everyone cool?"