Free A Fighting Chance by Shannon Stacey Page A

about maintaining the status quo or about Brendan retiring from the cage, he didn’t know yet. He had a few weeks to figure it out.
    Turning the phone over and over in his hand, he pushed Jonathan to the back of his mind and thought about the drive ahead of him. Hours behind the wheel. And then days at the remotecabin in the Maine woods, with no telephone and no internet. That was usually part of its appeal, but right now all it meant was days without being able to talk to Del.
    He almost dropped the phone when it chimed in his hand, and his pulse kicked up a notch when he saw that it was a text message from her.
    We’re on our way to the same coffee shop you and I went to because I told them aboutthe cookies. Do you have a few minutes?
    Did he have a few minutes to say goodbye to her? Absolutely. But just the thought of saying the words made his stomach hurt. They hadn’t had enough time together yet, and he was afraid if he left now, it would be too easy to lose touch. Especially since it would be days before he had a chance to call her again.
    I’ll be right down.
    After replyingto Del, he called down to the desk and arranged to stay another night. He was going to have to move to another, smaller room because they were waiting to clean his for an impending arrival, but he didn’t mind. He’d already thrown everything in his bag anyway.
    After doing a sweep of the place to make sure he hadn’t missed anything, Brendan grabbed the bag and took the elevator down to thelobby level. As soon as he stepped out of the elevator bank, he heard Del’s laugh and spotted the three women.
    They were walking with their shoulders close and their hands moving as they talked, and the memory of spotting them at the campus party he’d crashed years ago made him smile. The moment had been almost the same. A laugh that turned his head. Three beautiful women, but only one thatmade his heart race.
    He was trying to decide if he should let them go inside and then text Del that he was there, just in case she hadn’t told them about him. But then she saw him and waved, so he met them in front of the coffee shop. Her friends didn’t look surprised to see him, nor did they look particularly happy about it.
    Then Kate extended her hand, which he shook. “Hi, Brendan.It’s been a while.”
    “A very long while,” Brittany added.
    “Too long,” he said, giving them what he hoped was a winning smile. “Do you mind if I borrow Del for a few minutes?”
    “Sure,” Kate said. “We’ll go order drinks and check out the cookie selection.”
    “Such a hardship,” Brittany added, giving him a tight smile before following the future bride into the coffee shop.
    “You’relimping a little,” Del said when they were gone. “Is your thigh really bad?”
    “It’s not great, but I’ll live. I should be one hundred percent by the time I show up at my mom’s for Christmas.” He glanced at the window and saw her friends staring at him through the glass. “I guess Kate and Brittany aren’t my biggest fans.”
    “Of course not. They’re my best friends, so they’re one hundredpercent Team Del.” She shrugged. “Trust me, I got an earful this morning about why it’s a bad idea to even talk to you. But just now they smiled and didn’t object to giving us some privacy, which comes back around to them being my friends. They want me to be smart, but they also want me to be happy.”
    This wasn’t his idea of privacy, so he laced his fingers through hers and moved away fromthe window. “I want you to be happy, too.”
    She smiled at him, squeezing his hand. “I’ve been very happy this weekend.”
    He had been, too. Happier than he’d ever thought he’d be again. “I wish we weren’t standing in a lobby right now so I could kiss you.”
    “It’s dumb because I’m here to have fun with Kate and Brittany, but I wish you didn’t have to go yet.”
    “Yeah, about that.I know you’re here for a weekend with your friends, but I