lawyers do.”
“And given all those bar fights, you’ve probably had a lot of experience with lawyers?”
“Yes.”
“I still can’t believe you’re telling me this.”
“Why wouldn’t I tell you?”
“Because admitting that you used to get in bar fights isn’t something that people usually do when first getting to know each other.”
“Okay,” he said. “But like I said, I don’t do that anymore.”
“What about the other night?”
“That was an MMA match. Mixed martial arts. It’s entirely different from what I used to do in the past.”
“It’s still fighting, isn’t it?”
“It’s a sport – like boxing or tae kwon do.”
She squinted at him. “Is MMA the one in the cage? Where anything goes?”
“Yes to the first, and no to the second,” he said. “There are rules. Actually, there are a lot of rules, even if it can be violent.”
“And you enjoy the violence?”
“It’s good for me.”
“Why? Because it helps to keep you out of trouble?”
“Among other things.” He smiled, and for the first time in a long, long while, she found herself utterly at a loss for words.
CHAPTER 5
Colin
C olin had witnessed reactions like Maria’s before, and he knew she was debating whether she should stick around. People generally had negative reactions to hearing about his past. While he no longer beat himself up for his mistakes, he wasn’t proud of them, either. He was who he was, warts and all, and he accepted that. Now it was her turn to make a decision.
He knew that Evan would have shaken his head at the way Colin had answered her questions, but aside from Colin’s desire to be honest, what Evan didn’t understand was that trying to hide the truth about his past was futile, even if he wanted to keep it hidden. People were both curious and cautious, and he knew that a quick Internet search using his name would yield a handful of newspaper articles about him, none of them good. And if he hadn’t laid it out there from the beginning? Either Maria or Serena may have Googled him the same way Victoria had.
He’d met Victoria at the gym a couple of years ago, and after chatting off and on for a few months, they’d fallen into occasionally working out together. He’d thought they were getting along well and considered her a good training partner until she’d suddenly begun to avoid him. She’d stopped returning his texts or calls and started working out in the mornings instead of the evenings. When he was finally able to talk to her about it, she’d revealed what she’d learned about him and insisted that he stop trying to contact her. She hadn’t been interested in excuses and Colin hadn’t offered any, but he did wonder why she’d conducted her Internet research in the first place. It wasn’t as though they’d been dating; he wasn’t sure they’d even reached the friendship stage yet. A month later, she’d stopped coming to the gym at all, and that was the last he’d seen of her.
She hadn’t been the only one who’d shied away after learning the truth about Colin, and while Evan might joke that Colin immediately volunteered his full history to anyone who asked, it wasn’t like that. It generally wasn’t anyone else’s business, and he kept it that way, unless someone was – or might become – part of his life somehow. Though it was way too early to tell whether Maria fell into that category, Serena was a classmate, and if she’d talked to him once, she just might talk to him again. He admitted that there was something about Maria that interested him, however. Part of it was the way she looked, of course – she was a more mature, more striking version of Serena, with the same dark hair and eyes – but at the bar, he’d noted her lack of vanity. Though she’d drawn stares from any number of men on the rooftop, she hadn’t been aware of it, which was extremely rare. But his initial impressions ran deeper than that. Unlike Serena – who was bubbly and
“And given all those bar fights, you’ve probably had a lot of experience with lawyers?”
“Yes.”
“I still can’t believe you’re telling me this.”
“Why wouldn’t I tell you?”
“Because admitting that you used to get in bar fights isn’t something that people usually do when first getting to know each other.”
“Okay,” he said. “But like I said, I don’t do that anymore.”
“What about the other night?”
“That was an MMA match. Mixed martial arts. It’s entirely different from what I used to do in the past.”
“It’s still fighting, isn’t it?”
“It’s a sport – like boxing or tae kwon do.”
She squinted at him. “Is MMA the one in the cage? Where anything goes?”
“Yes to the first, and no to the second,” he said. “There are rules. Actually, there are a lot of rules, even if it can be violent.”
“And you enjoy the violence?”
“It’s good for me.”
“Why? Because it helps to keep you out of trouble?”
“Among other things.” He smiled, and for the first time in a long, long while, she found herself utterly at a loss for words.
CHAPTER 5
Colin
C olin had witnessed reactions like Maria’s before, and he knew she was debating whether she should stick around. People generally had negative reactions to hearing about his past. While he no longer beat himself up for his mistakes, he wasn’t proud of them, either. He was who he was, warts and all, and he accepted that. Now it was her turn to make a decision.
He knew that Evan would have shaken his head at the way Colin had answered her questions, but aside from Colin’s desire to be honest, what Evan didn’t understand was that trying to hide the truth about his past was futile, even if he wanted to keep it hidden. People were both curious and cautious, and he knew that a quick Internet search using his name would yield a handful of newspaper articles about him, none of them good. And if he hadn’t laid it out there from the beginning? Either Maria or Serena may have Googled him the same way Victoria had.
He’d met Victoria at the gym a couple of years ago, and after chatting off and on for a few months, they’d fallen into occasionally working out together. He’d thought they were getting along well and considered her a good training partner until she’d suddenly begun to avoid him. She’d stopped returning his texts or calls and started working out in the mornings instead of the evenings. When he was finally able to talk to her about it, she’d revealed what she’d learned about him and insisted that he stop trying to contact her. She hadn’t been interested in excuses and Colin hadn’t offered any, but he did wonder why she’d conducted her Internet research in the first place. It wasn’t as though they’d been dating; he wasn’t sure they’d even reached the friendship stage yet. A month later, she’d stopped coming to the gym at all, and that was the last he’d seen of her.
She hadn’t been the only one who’d shied away after learning the truth about Colin, and while Evan might joke that Colin immediately volunteered his full history to anyone who asked, it wasn’t like that. It generally wasn’t anyone else’s business, and he kept it that way, unless someone was – or might become – part of his life somehow. Though it was way too early to tell whether Maria fell into that category, Serena was a classmate, and if she’d talked to him once, she just might talk to him again. He admitted that there was something about Maria that interested him, however. Part of it was the way she looked, of course – she was a more mature, more striking version of Serena, with the same dark hair and eyes – but at the bar, he’d noted her lack of vanity. Though she’d drawn stares from any number of men on the rooftop, she hadn’t been aware of it, which was extremely rare. But his initial impressions ran deeper than that. Unlike Serena – who was bubbly and
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