He was quiet for moment. “Please tell me that giving into your curiosity about seeing those photos is the only thing you regret about last night.”
“Well . . .”
“Well, what?”
There was that harsh tone again, the same one he’d used when he’d walked in on her looking at his photos. So she spoke quickly. “I don’t regret what happened in the library, but maybe I do regret being so eager and willing.” She felt her face warm and turned to make sure her door was closed, lowering her voice. “I mean”—she laughed nervously—“where was my modesty?”
“Are you kidding me?” His harsh tone was a much more amused one now. “That was the best part. I would’ve never expected that from you. You can’t take that back now. I loved it!” He laughed nervously now too. “All right, I need to stop thinking about it. I’m about to leave, and I’ll be in pain the whole drive if I don’t.”
Her face went even hotter, but she loved that he was so comfortable talking to her this way even if it did turn her insides on fire. She’d let him in on the fact that he wouldn’t be the only one in pain since she was still a little sore herself, but she wasn’t quite there yet with being so comfortable talking about this as he was.
Felix told her about where he had to be that day. They were finalizing the contract for his rematch with Grecco. “You’ll be at the gym tonight?”
“Until four,” she said, already excited about seeing him again.
“Shit. I’m busy all day. As soon as this is a done deal, I got all kinds of meetings with my agent, the promoters, and my publicist. I won’t be free until later in the evening. Maybe I can pick you up at your place when I’m all done?”
“Okay,” she said, keeping her voice from sounding as dreadful as she felt.
Ella had already opened her big mouth more than once about her dad being a huge fan. When Memo had come down to the gym and she introduced them, it was one of the things he’d gone on and on about. Felix would likely offer to come inside—meet her dad. Ella still hadn’t even told her dad she was friends with Felix much less seeing him. She didn’t want Felix to know that, even though she’d decided to go ahead with this, a very small part of her still had her doubts it would truly work out in the long run. With this being such a high-profile relationship, things could get hairy if anything went wrong. Her dad had bigger issues he needed to focus on right now. She didn’t need to add any more anxiety that might make those issues worse. She’d planned on talking to Felix about it last night and asking him if he’d be okay if they kept things as hushed as possible at least for a while. But then things ended the way they had.
When she got off the phone with him, she immediately called Carmen. She quickly managed to switch with her, and now she’d be going in for the last class of the night. Next she called her brother. She couldn’t believe this might really happen, but she knew her brother would only reaffirm that this was the right thing to do and he did. Once she got off the phone with Memo, she walked out of her room and into the back room where her dad slept now and had been sleeping for years.
After thoroughly checking his wound, asking how he was feeling and if he’d taken his meds, she got right to it. “Remember that Cold Duck cruise Grayson told us about?”
Her father looked at her strangely, obviously not expecting such a drastic change in subject, but he nodded. Ella smiled. “Remember they were sold out? He got extra tickets for it.”
“Oh yeah? When is it?”
“Next week. It’s a three-day thing. His cousin needs to unload the extra tickets or he’ll get stuck with them. Grayson remembered you wanted to go, so he came by to tell me.” She smiled bigger. “We can go together. I think it’ll be fun.”
Ella reminded herself that everyone was in agreement that this was the right thing to do. She would not feel guilty about sitting here smiling sweetly at him as his eyes brightened a bit. Last night could’ve been so much worse, and he’d agreed things needed to change.
“Let me think about it. I wasn’t planning on a vacation and next week—”
“No, Daddy, if you wait, the tickets might be gone,” she said suddenly, even more determined now that this would happen. “And this isn’t a vacation. It’s only three days. Grayson said it was very casual. You don’t need to buy anything special. Just dress comfortably.” Before he could come up with any other excuses, she stood up. “I wanna go. I’m telling him yes.”
“But wait—”
She gave him a warning look. “We haven’t gotten away and done anything like this in forever.”
They really hadn’t, not since her mother had gotten sick. That seemed to quiet him and he nodded. “Is Memo going?”
She smiled, liking where this was going. “I’ll ask Grayson how many tickets he has and then check with Memo to see if he can go.”
Her call to Grayson went on a lot longer than she’d anticipated. There was far more strategizing about how this would be done than she’d first thought. She’d also likely have to see Grayson a few more times before then to make sure they got everything straight. But at least this would finally be taken care of.
With thoughts of her dad and the cruise finally settled, she got in the shower and thought of what she really wanted to think about: her new boyfriend, the incredibly sexy famous boxer—Felix Sanchez. It still felt too good to be true.