Broken Lion by Devon Hartford Page A

She didn’t wear makeup, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off her mouth. Every time she laughed or smiled, which she did all day long, all I could think about was kissing that mouth. I had ample opportunity on some of the rides to make a move, but I was going to honor our agreement to stay just friends.
    Good thing I had willpower to spare.
    I was glad Dan was with us. He was a great distraction from drooling over Brigid. I really liked the kid. It took him a while to warm up to me, but once he did, we were cracking jokes all day. When we walked through the Despicable Me Super Silly Fun Land, we were talking about farts, so I started making fart noises by blowing raspberries into my hand, Dan started busting up.
    “Do you have to do that?” Brigid groaned.
    “It’s funny, Mom,” Dan giggled.
    “Everyone is staring,” she hissed and glared at me.
    I pointed at the nearest actor in a yellow Minion costume and said, “It wasn’t me. It was that guy.” The Minion heard me and pretended to act embarrassed. I made another fart noise and the Minion hopped up in the air like he’d just farted. With the wacky eye goggles and goofy smile permanently fixed on his face, he looked like he was in on the joke too.
    Dan laughed so hard he bent over and put his hands on the ground.
    “You two are terrible.” Brigid laughed, but you could tell she was trying not to, which made me and Dan laugh even more.
    “Don’t deny it, Irish. You’re loving this.”
    “No I’m not,” she laughed.
    Damn if that laugh didn’t make me want to marry her on the spot every time I heard it. I lifted my shades so she could see my eyes. She locked hers on mine. I felt a jolt go straight to my dick. Seeing her have a good time was a total turn on. She was so damn serious the rest of the time. Watching her let down her guard was better than if she’d unzipped that hoodie and pulled her tits out. Not that I would’ve complained if she had. But not here with a million people around.
    “Hey, aren’t you Lion Maxwell?” The guy asking wore a Tapout shirt. He had some woman with him.
    “That’s him,” the woman said. “You’re Lion Maxwell.”
    I smiled at them. I should’ve worn a ball cap to go with the shades. Today was supposed to be about Brigid and Dan, not me.
    “Dude, can we get a picture with you?”
    I wasn’t gonna be a dick and say no. “Sure.”
    The guy pulled out his smart phone and turned to Brigid. “Hey, uh, can you take the picture for us?”
    “Oh, okay,” she said.
    The dude and his woman stood on either side of me. I put my arms around their shoulders. “You guys ready?”
    “Yeah.”
    Brigid snapped the photo. “Let me take a couple more, just in case. Say cheese.” They didn’t but she took more pictures anyway then handed over the phone. “Here you go.”
    “Thank you so much, man,” the dude said. “I’m a huge fan of yours. How’s your knee doing?” He eyed my crutches and knee brace.
    “Getting better.”
    “When do you think you’ll fight again?”
    “Once the doctors fix my ACL. I still need surgery. Then plenty of rehab. Could be a while.”
    “Man, that happened to my cousin playing soccer. He couldn’t play for a year.”
    I ended up talking to the guy for another five minutes. He knew all about my fight career and my fighting style. Really knowledgable about MMA. When it was obvious his woman was getting bored, I did my best to ease the conversation to a finish. The guy thanked me again for the photos and him and his woman wandered off, both smiling from ear to ear. It was the least I could do to brighten their day.
    “Sorry about that,” I said to Brigid.
    “That’s okay. I forget you’re a celebrity.”
    “Not really. Just in the MMA world.” I always felt weird when people came up to me. I breathed the same air they did and shit like everybody else. I wasn’t special.
    After that, I did buy a yellow Minion’s baseball cap with a picture of the goggles and the eyes. I got one