Fight for Her by Kelly Favor (classic children's novels txt) 📕

to prove her worth to him. Meanwhile, he was never going to truly be impressed with her, no matter how hard she worked.

Drew Ellis was only out for himself. He played a zero sum game and everyone else always lost.

Well, she was going to tell him what she thought of his business practices.

Except that her call kept going straight to voicemail.

So just do it on a message, she thought. Tell him to go screw and be done with it.

But somehow that didn’t seem right. Then she would be almost as bad as him. She wanted to say it to his face—or at least to his voice.

Gunner was finishing up with his fans, so Krista texted Drew Ellis and told him to call her back as soon as possible. Then she put her phone away, as Gunner sat back down.

“Sorry about the distractions,” he said, watching as the small crowd dispersed.

“It’s totally fine.”

“Funny how people are,” Gunner said, smiling a little. “I’m aware that most everyone thinks I’m a total coward for pulling out of this fight. But in real life, everyone around here treats me with nothing but respect. They don’t say all that nasty shit to me.

It’s only on the Internet that people are calling me a loser and all of that nonsense.”

Krista realized that she’d been operating off the assumption that people would be treating Gunner disrespectfully, but in actuality she was seeing that regular folks were happy to get an autograph or a picture—they appreciated him.

Maybe she’d been wrong about a lot of things. Maybe his legacy wouldn’t be destroyed simply because he had walked away from one fight.

One poor decision didn’t define anyone—not even her. Maybe Gunner would appreciate that more than most.

Cole brought their breakfast over—hash and eggs for Gunner and a broccoli and cheese omelet for her.

“So when your car finally gets repaired and you go back,” Gunner said, after a few bites of his meal, “will I see you again?”

Krista looked at him, surprised that he even needed to ask. “Of course. You didn’t think I’d want to see you again?”

“I don’t know.” He smiled at her and his eyes were warm and kind. “I just know how I feel.”

Krista was stunned by how much had changed in such a short time between them.

All she knew was that she was thankful he felt it too.

“I can’t wait to see you again,” she said. “Even though I’m seeing you right now.”

“So it’s settled, then.”

She nodded, taking another bite of her eggs. “Definitely.”

Gunner said, raising his cup but not drinking just yet. “I want to take you on a real date.”

She felt her cheeks flush. “You do?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Like, when we see each other again.”

“Definitely. I can fly back from Vegas anytime, and we can…” she stopped cold, shocked at her own stupidity.

Gunner was looking at her, his cup still raised halfway to his lips. He squinted at her, like she was some strange new creature he’d never seen before. “Wait a second. Did you just say, fly back from Vegas? Why would you be in Vegas?”

She stuttered, her words babbling, nonsense. She tried to formulate a response, but the lies were piling up in her mind like a car crash. She didn’t even want to lie.

She’d wanted to say the truth—just…not like this.

“Krista,” he said, his voice lowering. “Please tell me why you would be flying here from Vegas. Tell me why.”

She looked down at her plate. She could already feel tears stinging behind her eyes. Her hands twisted against each other nervously. “I wanted to tell you this before now,” she said. “But I just…I got confused.”

“Confused about what? Confused about where you live?” He put his cup down.

“I don’t understand what’s going on. You live in Boston, right?”

She couldn’t meet his eyes. So she just shook her head no. “I live in Las Vegas.”

“Why did you lie to me about that?” He sat back in his chair. “Look at me, Krista. Look at me, at least.”

She forced herself to meet his gaze. He looked as though she’d just hit him with a sledgehammer. “I’m not a journalist student,” she said. “I don’t go to Boston University.”

He continued staring at her, his face growing pale. “I don’t get it.”

She took one last, deep breath, and exhaled, knowing the time was now. “I work for Drew Ellis and the UFF,” she said. “I was sent here to see if I could convince you to come back and fulfill your obligations to the company for the pay-per-view fight with Zane Davis.”

Gunner’s eyes filled with a look of disgust, hurt and betrayal. She’d never seen such a complex range of emotions cross someone’s face in such a short time. And then his expression hardened, turned to stone. There was nothing there, no emotion—Gunner King was gone and whoever replaced him wasn’t someone she recognized.

“Thanks for the info,” he said, and his lips twitched. “I guess that’s it for me—

my appetite’s kind of spoiled.”

“Gunner, please, I need to explain. I’m quitting my job. I care about you. Let me—just give me a chance to explain how it happened.”

He took out his wallet and threw forty dollars on the table. “This is like a total déjà vu moment,” he marveled. Didn’t I basically do this exact same thing the last time you and I were in this restaurant?” He shook his head.

“Please, don’t leave,” she said. “Please, Gunner.”

People were starting to stare.

“Listen, just so you know, your car is ready,” he told her. “Ryder fixed it up, but I told him to hold off on giving it back because I wanted more time with you.” Gunner said it as if he was disgusted even with himself for feeling that way. “I’ll call him and tell him to bring the car here so you can leave town as soon as humanly possible.”

“Don’t do this.” She felt her whole body trembling. He was going to ruin everything because he wouldn’t let her explain, but if he would only just