Free Secured Sparks by Charity Parkerson

had been laid bare. She held his stare, refusing to be the first to look away. He rose and moved to sit in the empty seat next to her. Bob was preoccupied with his mom and Dominic leaned closer as not to be overheard. “He has already forgiven you. You should forgive yourself and allow yourself to love Bob the way he deserves.”
    Lily stared at him in shock but the surgeon came in, cutting off her attempts to question Dominic.
    Jazz had dressed the part perfectly for his hospital visit, ensuring the trust of the staff there, but he was back in his usual black attire for his visit with Shannon Smith. He found him immersed in a stack of paperwork inside his office at Smith Brothers Fight Club. Shannon glanced up as Jazz entered the office, and his eyebrows rose in surprise. “Can I help you?”
    “I’m looking for Shannon Smith.”
    “Well you found him,” Shannon said smiling radiantly. He shined with an inner light that Jazz had only seen once before in Kera’s father, Dan.
    He held out his hand for Shannon to shake. He really hated for anyone other than his family to touch him, but exceptions had to be made when dealing with normal people who were accustomed to such interaction. “My name is Jazz Anderson, and I run a charitable organization that puts together major events in order to raise money for families who have no place to stay while their children undergo treatment for cancer.” It was a huge lie of course, but he figured God would forgive him since he would make sure every penny did indeed go to that charity if he was forced to actually put the event together. “As I understand it, you used to have a man that fought for you professionally by the name of Weave Sparks. I am putting together a match, and, since he had a huge fan following before he dropped off the map, I think he would be a real draw to my event if he would be willing to fight again for the first time there, but I was unsure if he was still represented by your organization.”
    Shannon sat back looking thoughtful as if he hadn’t considered Weave returning to the ring before Jazz had put the idea in his head, which was the point. “As far as I know he isn’t fighting any longer, and his wife is extremely sick right now so I don’t know if he would even be willing to consider it, but if you leave me your information I’ll ask him.” He looked away for a moment as if the idea was really beginning to take root. “He’s still in fighting shape,” he added absently.
    Jazz wrote his cell phone number on a sticky note and the name of a fake corporation while making a mental note to get Dan started on making the company look real. If Weave accepted, they had a lot of work ahead of them making this lie into the truth.
    Bob’s parents offered to take Kyle before leaving the hospital and Bob was quick to accept their help. Now that they knew Kera was going to pull through, Lily and he had some things they needed to work out. They rode in silence until Lily finally broke it. “If you don’t mind, you can just drop me off at the fight club. I’ll call Aunt Alyssa and see if it’s okay for me to stay with her and Uncle Walt until I can get a flight back home.”
    Bob’s heart sank at her words. He had thought that after their kiss she might be slowly warming up to him, and she had been more than loving to his son, but apparently it was only human kindness that he had been witnessing. He tried to wrap his mind around it. He tried to force his heart to accept it but a block from the club he slammed on the brakes, jerking the wheel until they were sitting parked on the shoulder of the road. Horns blared and people cursed, but Bob didn’t care; they were having this out now.
    “Why,” he growled. Checking his tone he started over. “Why are you leaving me again? Why are you always fucking leaving me?”
    “You never asked me to stay,” she told him calmly, and the truth of her words slammed into him as his mind raced to remember every word