Seaside Nights Part 26

Hunter turned, and when his eyes connected with Jana's, they nearly bugged out of his head. "Holy s.h.i.+t." He ran a hand down his face.

"You know him?" Of course she knew him. Hunter looked like he'd been caught with his pants down, and Sky imagined that wasn't far from the truth.

"Let's just say we've met." She smirked at Hunter.

"Should I worry?" Sky asked.

"Nah. Too much tequila a long time ago," Jana said.

Hunter mouthed, Sorry, and Jana turned away.

Brock walked in front of the ring and held his hands up to get everyone's attention. "Sawyer, Crane, you guys ready?"

Sawyer and his opponent, Crane, both nodded and went to opposite corners of the ring.

Sky's heart was already going a mile a minute. She reached for Blue's hand and squeezed it. Amy and the girls moved closer to her.

"You okay?" Amy whispered.

"For now," Sky said. She pressed her hand to Amy's belly. "Let me have some baby love. That'll calm me down."

"Baby surfer is sleeping today. Riding on my bladder."

Brock climbed into the ring and went over the rules with Sawyer and Crane.

"He's easily thirty pounds heavier than Sawyer," Grayson said to Pete.

"Sawyer's got this," Jana said. "He's smooth as b.u.t.ter. This guy's big, but slow." She lowered her voice. "He's also a first-cla.s.s a.s.shole. A real nasty loser."

The fight started, and Sky gripped Blue's hand tighter, thankful when she felt Grayson's hand land on her shoulder.

Crane moved in fast, throwing one unsuccessful punch after another. Sawyer deflected each one with fluid movements, barely breaking a sweat. Crane's feet moved forward and back, his ma.s.sive shoulders rounded forward. Each punch drew a sharp inhalation from the guys and caused Sky to close her eyes. She didn't mean to, but how was she supposed to watch? What if his fist connected with Sawyer's handsome face? She opened her eyes, needing to watch and make sure he was okay.

Sawyer moved fast as lightning, smooth as water, throwing multiple body punches, a right to the jaw, and another punch from beneath that put Crane on his back. All the guys cheered, but as Crane pushed up with his thunderous knees, he sneered at them through the ropes, silencing them all with an angry growl.

Sky held her breath as one round ended and the next began. Each round brought more tension, and by the fourth round she felt like her whole body was one big knot. Meanwhile, the guys were cheering, and Jana, Bella, Leanna, and Jenna were hollering, too. Amy clung to Sky's hand, while Blue moved up closer to the ring with the other men.

Sweat dripped from the boxers. Crane was breathing hard, tiring. Every punch packed power and fatigue as his ma.s.sive fists were intercepted time and time again by Sawyer. Crane's face grew tighter, his eyes narrower with each block. If smoke could come from a person's ears, it would be streaming from his. At the end of the round, Brock announced that the next was the final round, and Sky felt relief wash over her. During the next round, Brock stepped between Sawyer and Crane three times to say something to Crane that Sky couldn't hear, but each time the sneer on Crane's face made the hair on the back of Sky's neck stand on end.

Sawyer moved in swiftly, landing one punch after another and clocking Crane from the underside of his chin. Sweat spewed over the ropes as Crane flew backward, his broad shoulders landing against the ropes. He sprang right back up, swinging and missing, time and time again, making tortured, violent sounds that made Sky's blood curl.

She closed her eyes and squeezed Amy's hand.

"It's almost over," Amy a.s.sured her.

Sky couldn't respond. She couldn't move. She forced her eyes open, remembering her promise to herself to support Sawyer. Crane scared the s.h.i.+t out of her. She'd never seen someone so angry, and all that anger was bottled up inside the largest, most muscular man she'd ever seen. But it was the way he looked at Sawyer that frightened her most, like he wanted to kill him, not just win the fight. She wondered how anyone could watch this sport without having a heart attack. She felt like hers was going to explode. Her stomach was so tight she thought she might be sick, but she kept reminding herself that Sawyer was fighting for his father, and that was enough to keep her rooted in place, silently praying that the match would end without anyone getting hurt.

When Brock called the end of the final round and held up both fighters' hands, Sky finally exhaled. Sawyer's eyes found her, full of pride and full of love. He took a step toward her, and Amy placed a hand on Sky's back, urging her toward the ring, just as Crane spun around and clocked Sawyer in the side of his skull.

"No!" Sky screamed as Sawyer's eyes rolled back in his head and he fell, lifeless, to the floor.

Chapter Twenty-Five.

SKY HELD SAWYER'S hand, silently begging the powers that be to let him be okay. She couldn't stop shaking, even though Sawyer had already come to, but according to the doctor, it had taken longer than he would have liked. It had also taken Sawyer several minutes to relay basic information such as what he'd had for breakfast and what he'd done the day before. Sky didn't know much about being knocked out, but she knew from everything the doctor had said and the worried look in his eyes that this was not normal and far from a good sign. They were running all sorts of tests and waiting for results. Roach stood beside her with one hand on her shoulder, a steadying force in a sea of fear, handing her dry tissues every few minutes. The doctors wouldn't let any of the others in the room, and she knew they were probably going crazy with worry, but there was no way she was going to leave Sawyer's side.

The right side of Sawyer's head was swollen and already bruising.

"Sky," he rasped. "I'm okay. Don't cry."

"Don't cry? You got knocked out, and the doctor was worried that you weren't going to wake up." She swiped at her eyes and leaned over him, kissing the side of his face that wasn't stricken, his forehead, his mouth, everywhere she could. "You scared me so badly, Sawyer. I was wrong. I can't watch you fight again. I can't do it."

Sawyer wrapped his arms around her. "Okay. It's okay. I only have one more fight, and you don't have to watch."

The doctor came back into the room. He was a tall, older man with salt-and-pepper hair and serious eyes behind wire frames.

"I just got off the phone with your doctor." He s.h.i.+fted his eyes to Sawyer. "He says he's already told you not to fight."

Told you not to fight?

Sawyer's dark eyes held the doctor's gaze. "Dr. Malen gave me the same warning every doctor gives every fighter."

"Sawyer," Roach said in a husky voice.

Sky looked up at him as Sawyer released her. His eyes narrowed. "This is my fight, Roach."

Sky had never heard his voice so cold before.

"Perhaps there was some miscommunication," the doctor suggested. He folded his hands in front of him and said, "Although I know Dr. Malen well, and he's meticulously precise."

Sawyer's jaw clenched.

"Can he fight or not?" Roach asked.

Can he fight?

"Is he physically able? Yes," the doctor said. "Is it advisable? No. I would not send my own son into a ring after being concussed as Sawyer was. Nor would I have let him into the ring after having endured so many concussions prior to this one." He turned stern eyes to Sawyer. "It took you too long to come out of it, Sawyer. You got lucky. You're playing with fire. As Dr. Malen told you, you've had numerous concussions, and the next one could leave you permanently brain damaged or worse."

"Wait. What?" Sky looked at Sawyer. "You've had numerous concussions? Your doctor told you that already and you still fought?"

"Sky, all fighters get concussed. It's not as bad as it sounds. They've said that for as long as I can remember."

Her heart lodged in her throat, and it took all of her focus not to yell as she turned to the doctor and asked as calmly as she was able-which wasn't calmly at all-"Are you saying that his doctor already told him that he could get brain damaged, or worse, if he got knocked out again?"

"No," the doctor replied.

Sky let out a relieved breath.

"I'm saying that, according to Dr. Malen, he's told Sawyer that he could suffer brain damage or worse without losing consciousness. A simple blow to the head could be enough."

A simple blow to the head. Simple blow. What the h.e.l.l did that even mean? Her legs went weak, and she held on to the side of the bed, her whole body trembling, her mind reeling.

"Sky?" Sawyer's voice was muted through the rush of blood in her ears.

"Doctor, can you please give us a minute?" Sawyer sat up and swung his legs off the bed.

The doctor put a hand on his shoulder. "Do not get up. Try not to get riled up. I'll be back in a few minutes."

The doctor walked out the door, and Sawyer s.h.i.+fted his eyes to Roach. "Do you mind, Roach?"

"Remember what I told you, Sawyer. I'm not making that phone call to your mother." Roach laid a supportive hand on Sky's shoulder before turning and walking out of the room, leaving them alone.

"Sky." He reached for her, but her body was too shaky, her mind too chaotic, to be touched. She turned away.

SAWYER'S HEAD WAS pounding and his body ached from slamming into the floor when he fell, but nothing hurt as badly as the devastated look in Sky's eyes.

"Sky, listen to me. I have to fight. I have to do this for my father. He's not doing well. I don't have much time."

Tears streamed down her cheeks. "If you fight, you might be more right than you know, Sawyer, about not having much time. How can you even think about going back in a ring after what the doctor just said?"

He steeled himself against her words, as he'd done with Roach so many times in the past. "My parents need this win, Sky."

Her voice trembled as she reached for his hand. "And I need you. We've just found each other, Sawyer. You could have been injured for life today, and what's worse is that you knew this was a risk. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it's the same c.r.a.p they've been saying for years, Sky. They say it to everyone."

"It sure didn't seem that way, Sawyer." Her voice escalated. "Even Roach doesn't want you to fight. I can see it in his eyes."

"I'm fighting, Sky."

"Don't you care about us at all? Don't you care about your family? What about all that talk about a future? Was that all bulls.h.i.+t? You just decided to write with your father so you would have something with him for the future. The future, Sawyer. Remember how much you wanted that?" She pushed away from the bed and paced, her arms crossed over her chest as tears fell from her eyes.

"Of course I want a future with you. But I'm a fighter, Sky. It's who I am."

She stopped pacing and leveled him with a cold, teary-eyed stare. "You told me that fighting was what you did, not who you are."

"I was wrong. I have one thing to give to my parents. And this is it."

"Then you need to make a choice, Sawyer, because I love you too much to sit back and watch you suffer brain damage because of some a.s.shole who hits you upside the head on your way out of the ring-or worse, to watch you die."

"How can you ask me to choose between loving you and my father's well-being? My parents' entire future?" Anger brewed in his gut, for the brutality of the illness his father faced and the unfairness of the battle he and Sky were having.

"I'm not asking you to choose between me and your father. I'm asking you to love yourself enough to want to live a whole life, with all of your cognitive functions intact." She sucked in a breath through her tears. "And to have faith that together we'll find another way to make ends meet for your father's medical bills."

"Sky, you gave up your life to help your father get through rehab. You gave up your friends, your job, your apartment, and you moved back here to run his business. How can you not understand this?"

"It's different! I couldn't have died helping him." She was trembling so badly that he wanted to wrap her in his arms and make the pain go away-make the decisions go away. He wanted to reverse time to before he got hit in the head and pretend everything was just fine and that the doctor's warning didn't exist.

He'd pretended so well for so long.

"Sky." His voice was a thin thread as he tried to rein in his anger.

"No. No more Skys, Sawyer. I love you too much for this. I lost my mother to something she had no control over. You're losing your father to a fate that's out of his hands. Your fate-our fate-is in your hands. You once said that you didn't want to leave our future to chance. Well, Sawyer, that's what you're doing. If you don't love yourself, or us, enough to do what it takes to save yourself, then we have nothing left to talk about." She spun on her heel and walked out the door.

"Sky!" he called after her as he rose to his feet to go after her, but the room spun around him. He gripped the edge of the bed for stability, trying to make sense of what had just happened. He lifted his eyes to the door, and the room continued to spin. One step sent him off-balance, and he fell to his knees on the cold floor. His head and chest ached like never before. The ache of a broken heart, it turned out, was all consuming and ten times as bad as any punch could ever be.

Chapter Twenty-Six.

"SKY, IT'S BEEN two days. You have to do something," Bella urged. "Call him. Go see him. At least talk to him."

She and the girls were sitting on Bella's deck having breakfast, as they'd been doing for weeks-only it no longer felt as wonderful as it had just a few days ago, when Sky knew that any moment Sawyer would come jogging around the bend with Tony, Pete, or Caden. Over the last two days Sawyer had called her a number of times, asking to see her, but when she'd asked if he was still going to fight, he'd said he had to. They were at a standstill. She refused to see him and had even put her phone away, because if she had to see his picture on the screen when he called, or look into his eyes and see his love for her, the love she knew he had in his heart, she'd give in. And giving in meant opening a door to his getting hurt irreparably-and she couldn't do that to him or to herself.

"I can't," Sky said softly. "I've thought about it, and it's not fair of me to come between him and his parents' future. Sawyer was right about that, but d.a.m.n it..." She swallowed past the thickening in her throat, which seemed ever-present since she'd stormed out of the hospital. "He said he wanted a future with me, but he's not willing to protect that future. I just can't. I don't know what to do."

Amy leaned over and hugged her. "Honey, you're sure about what the doctor said?"

Sky leveled a narrow-eyed stare on Amy. They'd asked her the same question a hundred times. She wasn't an idiot. She'd heard the doctor loud and clear. "The problem isn't what I heard the doctor say, Amy. The problem is what Sawyer didn't say."

"You are truly between a rock and a hard place." Jenna held up her palm, as if she were weighing something. "Over here is his need to win that fight for his dad." She held up her other palm. "And over here is your relations.h.i.+p. How can he choose? Could you choose?"

Sky pushed away from the table. "I don't know, okay? The only thing I know is that I love him. I love him with every ounce of my soul-and when you love someone that much, you don't do something that might tear you away from them. And he's doing just that, which means he doesn't love me the same way I love him."

"Sky." Bella's voice turned serious. "Aren't you doing the same thing by walking away?"

She wiped tears from her eyes. "Whose side are you on?"

"I'm just saying that there's no right answer. That's his father. He loves him, and he loves you. How can the guy choose?"

"I. Don't. Know! I realize it makes me selfish to ask him to protect himself in this instance. I get that. I'm a selfish b.i.t.c.h, fine, whatever. I love him, Bella, and my heart tells me that something else can be done to get that money. There has to be another way. He wouldn't even consider the possibility of other options. There are other options. There has to be. Loans, other jobs, whatever." She stormed off the deck.

"I'm sorry. I'm a mess and not at all rational right now. I don't mean to yell at you guys, so I'm going to leave and go to work, where I can take out my frustrations on cleaning, or painting, or bury my heart in a tattoo."