Chapter 32 #2
For some reason, learning he’d said that publicly affected me more than I expected. It wasn’t as if he admitted anything, but after so long of pretending we didn’t matter to each other, hearing Rowan openly acknowledge that he cared about me felt like a big deal.
My phone started ringing before I could say any of that. I saw Marcos’s name on the screen and answered it. “Hey.”
“How’s your head?”
I closed my eyes. “Feels pretty crappy, but I’ll live.”
“That’s good. So …”
His tone immediately told me this wasn’t just a wellness check.
“I heard some things around the venue after you left last night.”
“What things?”
“Nothing major.” He paused. “Just enough to make me think I should call before someone else does.”
I glanced at Rowan, then said, “Sounds sort of major.”
“I guess that depends. Are you and Cross dating?”
At this point, there was little reason to lie. “We’ve still got things to work out, but yeah, I think so.”
“Okay.”
I blinked. “Okay?”
“Yeah.”
That wasn’t the lecture I’d been expecting. “That’s it?”
“What do you want me to say? I represent professional athletes; they usually date a lot. People did see some things backstage, and I wanted to remind you that you don’t need to let the media force you to make decisions before you’re ready.”
“Yeah, I don’t think either of us is ready to go public with anything. Not until we talk some more.”
“That’s understandable. I’ve got other clients whose personal lives became public before they wanted them to. Trust me, it’s easier when you control the timing. I’ll take care of a few things on my end, and you guys try to stay under the radar for now.”
“I think I’m going to hang out in my hotel room here in Austin for the next couple of days, so that shouldn’t be too hard.”
“Perfect. We’ll talk soon, but if you need anything, I’m just a call away.”
After we hung up, I lowered the phone and gave Rowan the rundown of what Marcos had said.
“Grant said basically the same thing,” he stated.
“Really?”
“Pretty much word for word.”
Apparently, we’d both made good choices in selecting managers, and I was grateful that neither of them demanded answers or pressured us to go public.
Rowan and I still had Florida, California, careers, and a hundred other questions waiting for us. But sitting there in a quiet hotel room with him, knowing we had time to figure it out, felt like the best news I’d gotten in months.
Recovery turned out to be pretty boring, but I wasn’t complaining.
After weeks of intense training, I wasn’t upset about being forced to take it easy, although it would’ve been nice if my headache had gone away sooner.
We ordered room service for lunch, ignored the television, and spent most of the afternoon talking.
At some point, the conversation drifted to the previous night.
“My parents didn’t come,” Rowan said.
I looked up from the burger I’d been slowly picking apart. “To the fight?”
He nodded. “I told them about it right after I signed.”
“And?”
He frowned. “My dad understood the career side of it. He didn’t like it that it was against you, but he understood it.”
“What about your mom?”
Rowan gave me a sad smile. “She wasn’t interested in watching two people she loved fight it out in a cage.”
Over the years, his parents had consistently proved they cared, but hearing that Dawn loved me still made me a bit emotional. “That’s understandable. Do they know we broke up?”
He let out a long breath. “Yeah.”
“What’d they say?”
“Not much. They were sad about it, but they never pushed. Although I could also tell they hoped we’d get back together, especially Mom. She wasn’t as subtle about it as she thought.”
“That’s good. It’d suck if they hated me and you had to tell them we were a couple again.” I winked.
“I don’t think there’s much you could do to make my parents hate you.”
“Maybe, but I don’t plan on testing that theory.” I smiled.
“That’s probably for the best.” Rowan stretched his legs out in front of him. “So, what happens when you get back to Sacramento?”
I shrugged. “I was planning to go apartment hunting.”
His eyes widened. “You’re moving out of the house?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I already moved out.”
“When?”
“Right after I signed the contract for our fight, I left Titan.”
“You left Titan?” He sounded genuinely stunned.
“I did.”
For a second, he just stared at me. “What happened?”
I leaned back against the headboard. “You were right about Devon.”
“He pitched the fight?”
“Yep. He thought it was what I needed.”
Rowan’s expression darkened. “He actually said that?”
“Pretty much. He admitted he noticed I was stuck after the breakup and said he thought fighting each other might force us to move forward.”
“That wasn’t his decision to make.”
“That’s what I said.”
“What happened after that?”
“Once I realized he was making decisions for me because he thought he knew what I needed, I couldn’t stay.”
“And that was it?”
“Yep. Coach managed to set me up at a gym in Rocklin. It definitely wasn’t the same setup as I was used to, but we made it work.”
“That’s wild. Where have you been living?”
“In a crappy month-to-month apartment.” I chuckled.
His eyebrows lifted. “How crappy?”
“The hot water only works half the time, and the AC isn’t much better.”
“Why didn’t you find something else?”
I grabbed my water from the nightstand. “The plan was to use some of the fight money.”
Understanding settled across his face. “You were waiting.”
“Yeah.” Not just for the money, but for the next step, for a life I hadn’t quite figured out yet.
Rowan’s fingers tightened around mine. “I’m happy that there’s an us again and we can figure all this out together.”
“Me too.”
I didn’t know where we’d be a month from now, which city we’d call home, or how many difficult conversations were still waiting once I was cleared to leave Austin, but for the first time in almost a year, nothing felt impossible.
Whatever came next, we’d figure it out together.