Chapter 20
Tori
By the time we got home, I was pretty sure Kai had told at least thirteen different strangers at the rec center I had ‘suplexed a woman built like a truck.’
Which was inaccurate.
It was actually a clean sweep and a hip toss.
But whatever.
Gran was sitting at the kitchen table doing a crossword with the confidence of someone who cheated regularly. Her glasses were perched on the tip of her nose and her feather boa was draped around her neck. Apparently it had become part of her daily wardrobe again.
The moment we walked in, Kai burst through the door first — because subtlety was not a trait bestowed upon him by the universe — and announced, “She smashed it!”
Gran’s head popped up. “My baby girl?”
Kai threw his arms out like he was describing a religious event. “Janet, she flipped a woman twice my size!”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “She was not twice your size—”
“She was terrifying,” Kai insisted. “Built like someone welded her in a factory. And Tori just—” He mimed an explosion. “Boom!”
Gran clasped her hands under her chin. “Oh, darling, I’m so proud.”
“So not what happened.”
Gran ignored me, focusing on Kai with a dangerous level of fondness. “Did she look elegant? Graceful? Like a killer gazelle?”
“Like a murderous ballerina!” Kai spoke with complete sincerity. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
I made a choking noise. “Stop talking.”
Neither of them listened, nor did they pay me any mind.
Gran stood up and padded barefoot toward me, her boa trailing dramatically behind her.
“My little champion!” She pulled me into a tight hug and I breathed in her soothing, familiar scent.
“I didn’t even fight a headliner. It was just a normal tournament,” I protested.
Kai scoffed. Actually scoffed. “Technicality. She won the important ones.”
“What is that even supposed to mean?” I threw my hands up in exasperation.
“The ones I saw.” He shrugged.
My face heated up so quickly, I worried steam might come out of my ears.
Gran eyed me with a slow, knowing smirk. “Oh. Oh.”
“Oh hell no,” I whispered, my eyes widening. “Don’t start.”
“Start what?” Kai had a smile on his face and looked clueless, which only made things worse.
Gran circled me like a shark scented blood. “So. Sounds like someone was pretty impressed by you…” She turned her head dramatically toward Kai.
Kai blinked, then furrowed his brows. “What? Of course I was impressed. You should’ve seen her!”
“You bragged like a man showing off his prize hog at the county fair,” Gran huffed, pointing a crooked finger at him. “Except your hog has better footwork.”
I wanted to die.
“Gran,” I hissed. “Stop.”
“What?” She shrugged. “You saw him. He came in here glowing like the Virgin Mary just descended and blessed his eyebrows.”
Kai frowned. “Are my eyebrows blessed?”
“Absolutely,” Gran declared. “By love.”
I wheezed audibly. “OH MY GOD. What is wrong with you two?”
Kai coughed and his ears turned red as he suddenly became unsure what to do with his hands. “I … uh … I was just impressed?”
Gran winked at him. “Of course you were, dear.”
Kai spluttered. “I’m—No! Hold on, I just think she’s … It was cool! She was—”
“Helpless,” Gran whispered loudly to me. “He is helpless.”
“I need to leave.” I blinked rapidly.
Gran blocked the hallway with her boa like a traffic arm. “No, no. We’re bonding.”
“This isn’t bonding,” I snapped. “This is psychological torture.”
Kai looked between us like he’d walked into a telenovela he didn’t know the plot of. “Should I … uh … go help with something? Dishes? Trash? The roof?”
Gran patted his cheek. “You’re fine, dear.”
Kai brightened. “Thanks, Janet.”
I groaned again because it was all too much — his smile, Gran's interference, and the warmth gathering in my chest like an uncontrollable storm.
She gave me a sideways glance. “You’re glowing too, you know.”
“I am not,” I protested, snapping my head to the side to glare at her.
“You are,” Kai interjected, oh so helpfully.
I picked up a dish towel and threw it at his head.
He caught it with one hand, smiling like a fool.
Gran crossed her arms, her eyebrows raised in triumph. “You see? Look at you two. You’re made for each other.”
“We’re not—” I started.
“We’re friends,” Kai said at the same time.
Gran laughed so hard she had to hold onto the counter for support. “Oh, lord, this is entertaining. I should charge admission.”
I glared at the floor, my cheeks blazing. Anything to avoid Kai’s eyes. Because if I met them, if I let myself see how proud he still looked, how happy, how bright — I’d crumble.
Eighty-seven is a plausible age to die of natural causes, right? No one would suspect a thing.
Gran stepped toward me, her voice taking on a softer edge. “Tori.”
I refused to look up.
“You know he adores you, right?” Her rings were cool against my skin as she laid a hand on my arm.
My throat tightened. “Gran—”
“You’re difficult to get to know,” she pressed on. “Not easy to get close to. But he did and he likes you because you’re you.”
My lungs stopped working for a second, and I lifted my gaze in silence, staring at her.
Kai shifted awkwardly. “Janet…”
She waved him off. “Don’t pretend, dear. You talk about her like she invented sunshine.”
Kai turned bright red, opening and closing his mouth, but no sound came out.
Something trembled inside my chest — a kind of aching, terrified longing.
Gran kissed my forehead. “Proud of you, darling.”
Then she turned and strutted away, boa fluttering behind her like she was the final boss of meddling grandmothers.
I shook my head in disbelief. No one would ever believe my stories once I was her age. I could vividly imagine the nurses at the nursing home patting my back patronizingly and looking at me like I’d gone crazy.
Kai and I were left alone in the kitchen and the silence stretched thick between us.
I kept my eyes on the counter, trying to muster up the courage to look at him.
Could this situation get any more complicated?
Kai cleared his throat. “So, uh … want leftovers?”
I exhaled shakily, thankful beyond relief he wasn’t going to make a big deal out of this. “Yeah. Sure.”
Was he doing this because he was embarrassed himself, or because he knew me well enough to realize I needed time to process this in my own head?
And yet … I couldn’t help but admit to myself how nice it felt to have someone in my corner like this, to have a boyfr— A FRIEND who showed up for me, unapologetically. Gran had always supported me, of course, but she kind of had to cheer me on.
There was an unspoken obligation on her part, but Kai literally showed me I was a priority by coming to support me.
Another piece of the wall around my heart collapsed, crushed to nothing but dust by this unexpected man.
Fuck.
Kai
She won.
My girl fucking won.
And I didn’t even try to hide what this did to me.
Watching her move in the cage was mesmerizing. Sweat shining on her cheekbones, her eyes focused and lethal.
Tori wasn’t just strong or skilled.
She was … unstoppable.
Something primal and idiotic in me — perhaps the same instinct making me throw myself into tackles at full speed — lit up like a stadium floodlight.
A feral beat thrummed through my body, penetrating my consciousness.
Look at her.
Look at what she can do.
Look at the woman I—
Nope.
But something had shifted inside me, something irreversible. The longer I watched her under those lights, the louder one thought pounded in my skull.
I want her.
Not the casual kind of want.
Not the warm-body-next-to-me kind.
Not even the hot, wild, can’t-keep-my-hands-off-her kind.
I wanted … her.
Her sharp tongue and soft heart.
Her stubborn independence and the way she softens when she forgets to guard herself.
Always her.
And that terrified me, because she wasn’t mine to keep.
She’d told me in fifty different ways I was temporary and the fact was, I would leave.
But nobody said she couldn’t come with me.
The intrusive thought hit me like a punch. It wasn’t a dirty fantasy, no, it was something far worse. It was a daydream so exquisite, it nearly took my breath away.
A life where she didn’t have to do everything alone.
A life where I didn’t have to leave her behind.
The thought sank its claws into me. What if we could build something together? What if she came with me?
It was selfish. Hopeless. Unfair, even.
But now it had entered my mind, it wouldn't stop haunting me. It was like a decision I hadn’t realized I’d already made, taking root in the depths of my being.
I wanted a future with her.