“It’ll be okay, Luke. Don’t look anyone directly in the eye,” I quipped.
A small smile appeared, and he pushed out a heavy breath. “Whatever. I don’t like this many people in my space.” He scanned the crowd of reporters and people from Rodriguez’ team with his eyes.
“They’ll be gone soon. You should be used to this by now. This isn’t your first rodeo.”
He frowned as he pinned me with his gaze. “And I still don’t like ‘em. Reporters all ask the same questions. You’d swear they all shared one brain.”
“Please promise me you’re not going to lunge at any reporters today,” I said, wrapping my hand around his forearm.
He dropped his eyes to my hand. “I don’t make promises I don’t plan on keeping.”
“Luke.”
He grinned at me. “Don’t sweat it. These fuckers may share one brain cell but I’m not about to risk this fight on their simple asses.”
I let out the breath I’d been holding and released his arm. I watched as he turned and started for the front of the room. I moved to follow but movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention.
Turning my head, I caught Greyson staring at me through a slanted gaze. I noticed his stares more and more lately. The closer we got to the fight it seemed the more he realized he didn’t have a shot at being Luke’s trainer.
Dummy.If he had any sense at all, he would’ve tried to get on my good side, and asked to be a part of Luke’s training team. But he resorted to lame stares or scowling at me whenever I passed him.
I rolled my eyes at his pettiness and moved to the front of the room and taking a seat in one of the empty chairs. This press conference would drum up some anticipation for the fight. Butterflies stirred in my belly. Luke wasn’t the only one on edge due to this press conference.
Luke
“Luke, that was a tough loss you suffered at the hands of Ronaldo Caldwell more than five months ago. Can you tell us how you’ve trained differently to prepare for this next fight with Manuel?”
My gut tightened with slight tension. I hated being reminded of my losses, even those that happened months or even years earlier. But as I pushed out a breath, I turned my head and caught sight of Syd, staring at me. I relaxed my shoulders and let out a smile that I couldn’t hold back.
“I’ve learned to dance,” I said, confidently, still staring at Syd.
Her lips twitched and her gaze shone a little brighter at my comment.
“Uh, do you want to run that past us one more time? Dancing?” The same reporter questioned.
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell this guy to get lost, but I bit my tongue when Syd gave me a slight shake of her head.
Sighing, I ran my hand through my hair and answered, “I’ve changed up my training a lot. But I’m putting in some quality time in the gym and paying close attention to form and technique.” There that was a politically correct answer—one that sounded good but didn’t reveal too much.
When I turned to look back at Syd, the smile on her face warmed my insides. I let my gaze linger on those plump lips for a second longer than necessary.
“Anything else you care to tell us about your training?” Another reporter asked, drawing my attention.
“I’ve added a few changes to my regimen since the Caldwell fight, working on my weaknesses, and some dietary adjustments to aid recovery time.” I wasn’t about to go into detail for these buzzards. Give them too much information and they’d circle in on any one detail and pick it to death, analyze it and before you knew it, your opponent had your entire strategy pegged.
“Dietary changes? Such as?” Another reporter questioned.
I took a quick glance in Syd’s direction before answering, “Taking meat out.”
The commentator who stood at a podium in between the two tables nodded in my direction.
“Not eating meat. The hell type of training strategy is that?” Came from the table on the other side of the commentator. There were a few chuckles heard around the room.
“Manuel, did you have something to say?” The commentator questioned.
“I wanna know what type of bullshit training this guy’s doing?”
“Why don’t you bring your bitch-ass over here and find out?” I growled rising from my chair. That caused a number of other people from my side and Rodriguez’s side to get up and move in between the two of us.
