Page 55 of The Fighter

Tav was a disgusting eater. As he bit into his burger, chunks of lettuce and tomato spilled out the other end into a sloppy, ketchup-y pile on his plate. Juice dripped down his hand, and his tongue snaked out to lap it up from the base of his thumb before he grabbed the escaped tomato off his plate with pinched fingers. He tossed his head back and dropped it on his tongue, chewing it along with the food already in his mouth. He’d managed to get mayonnaise on his chin, and a tomato seed on his cheek.

And I enjoyed every minute of his culinary pleasure. I couldn’t believe how Tav managed to make me like this, fucking lovesick over a man who ate like a Neanderthal. There was something about seeing him so pleased and taken care of and utterly besotted by a good meal that soothed my soul.

“Tav.”

He glanced up, his mouth open. “Wha?—?”

I handed him a napkin. “You have…” I waved a hand at my face. “Like all over.”

He grinned at me, lettuce in his teeth. I swooned.

Earlier, after driving both of us a little crazy before putting a moratorium on orgasms for both of us—I believed in fairness—Tav took a nap on the couch rather than go to the gym, mainly because Sam had greatly frowned upon exercise. As soon as he’d woken up, he’d asked for my phone to check on his sister and nephew. After reading minute by minute reports of their day, he’d been in a great mood, and that meant I was in a good mood too. He’d made us burgers, and I had to admit they were very good. He’d only burned a few, and luckily I had plenty of meat as backup. When I’d mentioned that to him, he’d laughed long and loud. And then made jokes about my plentiful meat.

“So is this a cheat meal?”

He gulped his water. “I guess so. Cheat meals for me were less about the calories and more about the cost of the food.” He ran his fingers over the condensation on his glass. “Protein’s expensive.”

“I’ll fill this whole apartment with protein for you. I want you to eat.”

“I’ve already eaten more today than I usually do. Even before…” he poked at his plate. “Even before, my coach had me on a strict diet. Training program. Curfews and shit like that.”

My heart lurched, and I reached for his hand. “I don’t want to control you that way. Only for now, while your safety and your sister’s are at risk.”

He blinked at me and smiled. “Yeah, I know that now. Even if you show it in weird ways sometimes.”

“Relationships are new to me too.” I was winging it as much as him, but I didn’t want him to know just how shaky our foundation was. I’d build it brick by brick until it could withstand anything.

“You talk now,” he said as he reached for another burger. That would be his third.

I spun my wine glass. “About what?”

“I told you what I was like as a kid. What about you?”

He squeezed an ungodly amount of ketchup onto his burger, slapped the top back on, and crammed half of it in his mouth. After only a few chews and a big gulp—he didn’t masticate nearly enough—he said, “Were you always ordering people around?”

“I don’t order people around. I delegate.”

He raised an eyebrow.

I sighed. “Like you, my mother was a drug addict, but she didn’t overdose. She just… existed in my trailer kind of like a blonde, glazed-eye ghost. I couldn’t control her, and she couldn’t control me, but I could controlmyself, so I was particular about what little I had. I liked my room neat, and I chose my friends—Ben and Devlin.”

Tav chewed the rest of his burger and swallowed before gulping down nearly a third of his water. He leaned back, resting his arms on his stomach, which had sufficiently bulged since he just inhaled three burgers. I found it adorable, and that was ludicrous.

“And crime was just something we did in our shithole town.” Ben’s home life had been a lot like mine, but Devlin’s father had been a violent bastard. I was glad he was dead. “The only thing I could control was how good we were at it. And we were good. We didn’t get caught. Sometimes I think—” I clenched my jaw.

“You think what?” Tav gave me his full attention.

“That I taught Devlin too much.”

To my surprise, Tav barked out a laugh. “Come on, Con. You were that good of a teen delinquent that you spawned the Detroit Devil himself?”

I smiled at that and shook my head. “You sound like Nik. Maybe Iama narcissist, and I think everything’s about me.”

He reached for the hand holding my wineglass and wrapped his fingers around it. “I don’t think that, but I do think you’re not giving Devlin enough credit.”

“Suddenly you’re a therapist?” I had meant for it to be a quip, a barb. But my voice came out shaky with zero heat.

All Tav did was smile. “Maybe I’ve learned a lot from you in the last few days.” He scratched at his stomach like a middled-aged dad with a beer belly, and I once again found myself attracted to this.What’s wrong with me?But I knew the answer. Tav.Tavwas what was wrong with me. Everything he did was perfect. He could probably pull his toenails off with his teeth, and I’d still worship him.