I rest an arm against the cage for support. I lost the shirt an hour ago and my shorts stick tight, becoming an additional layer of skin. “Why so many damn jabs? My cross is more powerful.”
“Your jab is your most important hit. It’s your closest punch and it’s not going to throw you off balance.”
Maybe because I’m too damn tired to think, I shake my head to let her know I’m not getting it. She gestures with her head for me to straighten and when I do, she wiggles her fingers at my cross. I rub my arm against my forehead. “What about the pads?”
I’ve never thrown a punch straight at Haley before and the thought twists my stomach.
“You’re not going to hit me,” she says. “If you want, mock throw it and you’ll still get the point.”
My pretend girlfriend is cocky. “All right.” I widen my stance and “throw” a cross. Haley’s arm snaps out and deflects the hit and in a second her cross is frozen at my chin.
“You’re leaning,” she says.
I am. My body tilted with her deflection. Damn.
“If my cross struck you, you would have been off balance and I’d have the upper hand. All hits are good, West, especially if they connect, but a jab is your bread and butter.”
Haley picks up my wrists and shifts them near my temples. “You need to keep your guard up at all times. Drop it for a second and you’ll get the hell pounded out of you.”
“I know.” I start to lower it, but she keeps a firm grip on my wrist.
“No.” Haley becomes the only thing I see in the small gap between my gloves. “I need it to be ingrained, not a useless tidbit of information to be discarded as trash.”
With her delicate fingers holding on to me, we stay that way, silent, as the music continues to play. After a second, she says, “What are you scared of?”
Failing her like I’ve failed Rachel. Getting my ass handed to me in the cage. Being kicked out for good after graduation. I go to drop my wrists, but Haley keeps them in place.
“Tell me,” she says.
“Nothing.”
“No, you keep messing with your guard. If you do hold it up, you’re not keeping it tight near your temples. You move it out— Why?”
I stare at Haley through the small crack. “I can’t see anything else.”
“Can you see me?”
“Yes.” The top of her cle**age is exposed by her tank top and small pieces of her hair fall from her ponytail. She’s an erotic mess that my hands itch to roam.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“I feel blinded like this.” With my guards by my temples, it obstructs my peripheral vision. “I can’t see what’s going on.”
“You’re seeing everything you need to see. You’re not getting jumped by a gang—you’re fighting one person. For three rounds of three minutes each, you get to ignore everything else in the world and focus on the one thing in front of you. Think of it as a gift. How many other times in your life will you be allowed that type of focus?”
Haley—that’s the gift in front of me. A girl who’s trusted me with her secrets and has protected me from the elements. Possibly one of the few people who likes me for me and not because of my last name.
She steps closer and her fingers glide against my skin. Haley turns my wrist toward my face and my gloves block her out. “If you’re overpowered, a tightly held guard can be your best defense.”
She repositions my wrist back out and consumes my line of sight again. “And when you’re ready to attack, you simply open up and take the swing.”
When our eyes meet, her breathing hitches. If I kissed Haley, would she kiss me back? Desire slams into me as hard as it did when I wrapped my arms around her three weeks ago and allowed my lips to brush against her skin. In the darkness, she became an angel bent on saving my soul. She angled her neck and I knew I could kiss her without an ounce of hesitation on her part, but I didn’t because Haley doesn’t know who I am—she doesn’t know I’m a Young.
“See.” Haley mock swings and nudges her fist against my glove. “You’re protected. I can’t hurt you.”
Yes, she can. Haley can learn who I am, who my family is, and hate me. I can let her down and, once again, be a failure. Haley has no idea how much I need this last shot at redemption and how much I need her.
She drops her hands and I lower my arms to my sides.
“But here’s the important part.” She waggles her eyebrows. “You’re never going to win a fight unless you take a chance and actually engage.”
“What about you?” I ask.
Haley’s eyes jump to mine. “What about me?”
“When are you going to engage?”
Her forehead wrinkles and her dark eyes harden. She’s sexy as hell pissed. “What is that supposed to mean?”
It must mean that I don’t mind angering her enough that she’ll cut off my balls. It means that when I give her roses, she tells me maybe we’ll talk. “You keep telling me what I need to do, then, instead of going for a blow, you show me shadow boxing.”
Haley lifts her chin, almost daring me to challenge her again. “Do you have a problem with how I’m training you?”
“No, but it doesn’t take a head shrink to figure out that you’re holding back.”
She leans into me just like the night we first met. “I am not holding back.”