She made a soft noise. “Arlo is...not you?”
“I’m not sure how I could be any clearer.”
“Huh, good for him, I guess. Must be a hell of a lay if you were driven out of the house.”
“I wasn’t driven out,” I said with a shake of my head as I took the bacon off and slid it onto a drip tray. “I had headphones. But you know, he should be able to have a date over without being afraid his brother might overhear or see something...again.”
“Again?”
“I didn’t see anything horrifying, but I heard something I definitely could have done without.”
“Are you being dramatic or justified right now?”
“His date was groping him and commented on his big stick.”
“Oh God.”
“See?”
“Justified, definitely justified,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “Do Arlo a favor and make sure neither Milo nor Mason learn about that. Mason will start calling him Roosevelt or something.”
“Who?”
“Former, very dead president who coined that phrase, if I remember right.”
“Good to know,” I said as I started toasting the bagel. “But yeah, that’s why I’m here instead of rooting around his kitchen like an unwanted raccoon.”
“Okay,nowyou’re being dramatic,” she said with a snort. “You’re not nearly chubby or cute enough to be a raccoon.”
“I’ll try to figure out if I’m insulted by that or not,” I said, pulling the bagel halves out of the toaster, grabbing a couple of mayo packets, and cracking a couple of eggs onto the flat top.
“Is this about your last match?” she asked, looking at me sharply, and I gave her a dirty look.
“Stop,” I warned her as the eggs bubbled and popped, adding their aroma to the faint smell of slightly burned bagel and the strong scent of bacon fat.
“What?”
“Stop trying to analyze me. It’s not because of my last match.”
“Hmm.”
“Quit.”
Now that she brought it up, Ihadgotten my ass kicked from one end of the mat to the other last week. This year had been rough, and honestly, last year hadn’t been all that better. Darren, my coach, was at a loss about what to do about my problem, mainly because neither of us could figure out what was wrong. Training sessions always seemed to go just like they had; I wasn’t slowing down or making mistakes that couldn’t be easily adjusted, and I was focused. By all measures, I should be doing just fine; I should be doing great in the ring.
Except...I wasn’t. I was missing hits that I should have landed, and I was taking hits that should have been blocked. My reaction times were noticeably delayed, and I never seemed to have my limbs in the right place. The translation from practice and training to an actual match was night and day, and no one, not me, not Darren, not even consultants he’d brought in out of desperation, could figure out what was going on.
“Okay, so you getting your ass kicked like you were new to the sport, fighting while drunk and possibly high hasn’t affectedyou in the slightest,” Moira said dryly. “Your entire career potentially in danger, the one thing you’ve focused on for years, since someone found you at a random boxing ring, is now being called into question. Reporters and articles are finding every way to infer that you might be at your limit, or even just plain washed up, and people wonder if it might be time for you to retire...but I’m sure that’s not affecting you.”
I scooped the eggs off the flat top, sprinkled the cheese on them, then slid them onto the bagels and into the salamander to brown the cheese. “Jesus Christ, Moira. Anything else you want to add? And people say Mason is the asshole of the family.”
“Mason wouldn’t touch this subject with a ten-foot pole unless forced to. He’s a jackass, but he’s not going to give you shit over your career.I’mbringing it up because someone needs to say it, because everyone else is going to avoid it because they’re scared of upsetting you.”
“Something you clearly do not suffer from.”
“What are you going to do? With the way you’ve been fighting lately, I could probably take you.”
“Ouch,” I said, but my protest was ruined when I laughed. She wouldn’t be able to take me in a straight fight, but she made a good point. “That’s not why I’m here making a sandwich, but you’ve made your point.”
