As soon as they were in the comfort of the car waiting for them just outside the terminal and behind the safety of the tinted windows, Abel kissed Nellie as hard as her take charge manner made him. He held her face in his hands and spoke inches away from her lips now. “Do you know what a f**king turn on it is to see you deal with those reporters as effortlessly as you just did?”

She laughed as her bright eyes stared at him. “I actually should’ve just ignored them, right? Not tell them you weren’t available for comments?”

Abel shook his head. “No,” he said, kissing her softly this time. “You handled it perfectly.” He sat back now but held her hand, playing with her fingers. “In San Francisco, you said you’d handled your share of reporters before. I’m curious now. When and why?”

Her smile went a little flat, and she glanced out the window. “I told you my ex used to be a sportscaster on one of the bigger networks.” She shrugged. “He didn’t get there overnight. He had to do his share of sleazy reporting before he made it, and being sleazy was something that, in retrospect, came very easy to him. So I already had a taste and knew what reporters were like. Then when we divorced and news began to leak that he’d been unfaithful, the reporters came in droves.” She let out a humorless chuckle before continuing. “Even after I gave them a full account of why we’d separated, they were still relentless. They hounded me for weeks—months—wanting more details. I still get requests for interviews wanting to do where-are-they-now type pieces, but I’ve moved on from that part of my life. I know that, as much as they insist the story would be more about my life now, they’d still ask questions and want me to retell and in essence revive the story and the old me. That’s something I have no desire to ever do again. That person is dead and buried. The new me has moved on and is never looking back.”

Abel kissed her hand, staring at her somewhat strained expression. “I like the new you,” he offered, biting back the urge to use the stronger L word. Unbelievably, after the last few days with her, it was what he really felt like saying now.

Chapter 7

Two days. It’d been two days since Abel had seen Nellie. The very next day after getting back from San Francisco, he’d been at her place again. She told him about having pushed a few things aside on her schedule to make time for the unexpected trip and that she had her hands full now, making up for it. With the fight less than two weeks away now, Abel had heavy nonstop training that he had to make up as well. Between that and a few radio interviews he had to tape in the evenings, the last two days had been crazy, leaving no time for visits. He was doing his damnedest to keep his mind off her. Not wanting to blow it with her now that his feelings had changed so dramatically, he had to admit that what Noah had warned him about might happen. It was killing his concentration, and he knew more than anything how something like this could so easily throw his training out of whack.

The last-minute hustle with the major promotional appearances was all lined up as well. He’d do the late show in a few days, and then later that week, he’d be off to New York for the shows Andy had lined up for him and Felix to do together. Felix had just recently announced his next bout. It’d take place next year, but Andy said it was never too early to start promoting.

Of course, Abel’s first thoughts were to run it past Nellie. These next couple of weeks he’d be so damn busy training and promoting he knew his time with her would be very limited. Even after the fight, Andy had all kinds of shit lined up for him to do. This was exactly why, before he’d gotten involved with Nellie, he insisted he didn’t have time for a relationship—because he didn’t. But he was determined to make time for Nellie if she asked for it. He’d already asked her to come with him to New York. Unfortunately, she was busy meeting with some of the sponsors of the mixer she was coordinating on the same days he’d be in New York.

Both Gio and Noah had warned him in not so many words that he should shut down his social life from here on until the fight. It was what they all did when a fight was just around the corner, something Abel had always advised as well. Their concentration should be one-hundred percent on training, and they didn’t need anything distracting them from it. Noah had even told him to stop reading or even watching any of the tabloid shit. He didn’t have to ask Abel twice. He’d stopped reading the bullshit a long time ago. But cut Nellie out for that long? He couldn’t even bring himself to stop thinking about her now.

Even on his way to pick up Noah for their run, she was all he could think of. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could hide his feelings for her, but until he was sure she was feeling the same way and he was certain he wouldn’t be shooting himself in the foot by making her run in the opposite direction, he had to. When Abel had mentioned to Noah as casually as he could that Nellie would be joining him in San Francisco in place of Andy, he hadn’t missed the skeptical expression on his nervous friend’s face. He didn’t entirely buy that Abel had chosen her for her coordinating skills alone.

The very next day after Abel’s trip, Noah had annoyingly questioned where he was going. Once again, Abel hadn’t slipped into basketball shorts as he normally did when he was headed straight home. Abel knew it was partially concern about his needing to get as much rest as possible now that the fight was so close. But he also knew his questioning had to do with Noah’s continual concern over Abel’s involvement with Nellie. Abel wasn’t about to tell Noah that, after spending the last three nights with Nellie, he was off to her place again, so he referred to a date again leaving out who it was with. Noah hadn’t asked with whom, but the relief on his face was telling enough that he assumed it was with someone else.