“What happened?” Thibault asks.
“He says I cracked one of his ribs.”
Thibault has to turn around so Dev won’t see him smiling.
Ozzie crouches down and puts his hand on Dev’s shoulder. “Can you get up?”
“With a little help from my friends,” he says. His voice expresses his pain very clearly, making me feel even worse.
“I’m so sorry, Dev. Really. I shouldn’t have hit you so hard.”
He leans up with Ozzie’s help. “Don’t apologize.” He holds his hand on his ribs. “That was awesome. Told you . . . perfect cover.” He winces as he tries to move.
“Hospital?” Thibault asks Ozzie.
“Get him up first. Let me take a look.” Together they get Dev on his feet. It’s not an easy job since he’s at least a full foot taller than Thibault. Ozzie does most of the work. He runs his hands gently over Dev’s rib cage.
Dev stands slightly hunched over, still wincing.
“What happened, man?” Thibault asks him.
“She tricked me.”
My jaw drops open. “Tricked you? I did no such thing.” I point my stick at him. “He just jumped right into the training! No wax on, wax off, nothing—just whack, whack, whack! Block, evade, defend . . .”
“Deflect, not defend,” Dev says.
“Whatever! You came at me too fast! I didn’t have a choice.” I drop my gaze to the mat. I feel guilty. Why, I don’t know, since I was just defending myself. I’m just glad I didn’t have a Taser handy. I would have electrocuted him and whacked him with my stick.
“What’s going on?” Toni asks from the top of the stairs.
“Bo Peep got the drop on Dev,” Thibault explains.
Toni shakes her head in disgust and walks back into the room upstairs.
Great. Just what I needed—Toni pissed at me for this too.
“I don’t need to go to the hospital. I’m fine. I think it’s just bruised.” He stands up straight and then immediately bends a little again. “Maybe.”
Ozzie points to the warehouse door. “Get it X-rayed.”
Dev shuffles off, but he looks over his shoulder as best he can when he’s a few feet away. “Keep the stick. Practice. You won’t get so lucky a second time.”
“I’ll drive him,” Thibault says. He walks over to me and puts his hand on my upper arm. “Well done. Don’t beat yourself up about it. You won fair and square.”
I try to smile, but it comes out more like I have stomach pains. “Thanks, Thibault.”
He winks. “Don’t mention it. It’s not often we see the giant brought to his knees.”
I try not to feel proud about being the one who did it, but it’s kind of hard when he calls Dev a giant. He is pretty big. Our fight probably looked like the legendary David and Goliath death match.
I catch Ozzie watching me when Thibault is getting into the car with Dev.
“What?” I ask.
He shakes his head, his expression a mystery. “Nothing.”
“Can I go home now?” I say, almost pleading. I look over at my Sonic. “I need a shower, I need to change clothes, and I’m tired of all this fighting stuff.”
He walks over and puts his hand on the back of my neck, leaning down to look me in the eye. “Your home is here now, remember?”
I blink a few times but don’t reply. Mixed emotions overwhelm me. I’m happy, scared, and sad all at the same time. I think it’s possible I’m PMS-ing. “Oh, yeah. I forgot.”
“Go on up. Do whatever you need to do. The afternoon briefing starts in an hour.”
I nod. He’s probably going to want to review what I saw on the tapes today, so I guess my day isn’t over yet. I walk over to my car, but only to put the singlestick inside. I’ll practice later when I’m gone from here. Maybe I’ll have time to go see Jenny. She’ll get a kick out of the primitive weapon, and I know for a fact that Sammy will want to hit some trees or lawn furniture with it.
Getting up the stairs is an adventure. I have to use the railing to pull myself up. I’ve definitely overdone it. No sex for me tonight.
How is Ozzie going to feel about that? Does he expect sex from me now? Is he thinking about it too, the way I have been all day? He’s probably way cooler about it than I am. I’m sure he can handle working and living with me without losing his mind, unlike me.
Emotions rise up and start to overwhelm me. What in the hell am I doing here? I can’t live with Ozzie! I can’t get into stick fights with coworkers! This is ridiculous! I’m a wedding photographer, for God’s sake!
I pull my phone out of my pocket when I reach the top of the stairs and pull the door open. I need some sister therapy, stat.
Jenny picks up on the second ring, thank goodness. “Hello, little sister! What’s up?”
I walk through the kitchen without saying anything to Toni. “Just calling to chat.” I wait until I’m in the bedroom with the door shut before I start to cry.
CHAPTER FIFTY
Hey, hey, hey, what’s up with the tears?” she asks, making me cry harder. Whenever she acts like my momma, that’s what happens. Total boober baby, every time.
I talk around the weeping. “I don’t know. I just needed to hear your voice and have you tell me I’m not being a stupid idiot over here.”
“Over where, honey?”
She doesn’t know what happened last night and I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t tell her. She’ll make me move into her house, and I can’t do that. If there is a threat against me—which I highly doubt there is—I can’t bring it into her home. She really is a soccer mom. Or she will be when one of her kids decides to start playing that sport.
“I’m at work,” I explain.
“Why are you crying at work? Were they mean to you?”
I laugh through the tears. “No, they weren’t mean. They’re very nice.” Except for Toni, but we won’t mention her.
“So what’s the deal? Are you on your period?”
“No.” I wipe my nose with my hand and then look around for a tissue. I pull one from a box on the nightstand. “I spent the night here and had massive sex with Ozzie.”
“Whoa. Massive sex? Is that different than regular sex?”
“Duh. Obviously.” She’s already got me smiling. Tears are still coming, but at least I’m not sobbing anymore.
“Okay, so why is that making you cry?”
I sigh, trying to push through the sorrow. “Can I be honest with you?”
“Uhhhh, yeah?”
“I mean without you freaking out on me.”
There’s a three-second pause before she responds. “Did you do anal sex? Is that what this is about?”
“Jennifer Alexandria Wexler! No! That’s not what this is about!” When I get over my shock, I laugh again. She’s nuts.
“Okay, then what is it? Geez.” She giggles too.
I can’t explain to her why I’m upset if she doesn’t know the whole story. I hate that I have to tell her anything that might make her worry, but I don’t have a choice. I need advice because I don’t trust myself to make the right decision on my own. My heart is biased in favor of Ozzie.
“Last night my house alarm went off. There was an intruder on the property.”
“Oh no.” Her laughter stops, replaced by concern.
“Ozzie was with me. He handled the call to the alarm company after he made sure no one was there, but he said I needed to come to his place and stay until he could figure out what was going on.”
“Sure he did.” I can hear the smile in her voice.
“It’s not a joke, Jen.”
“No, of course not. I’m glad there wasn’t anyone trying to break in and that Ozzie was there for you. Continue.”
“One thing led to another and we had sex. Twice.”
“Hmmm . . .”