Slowly Dean’s expression lightened. “It could work.” He paced the other way, both of us wearing a groove in the floorboards. His stride grew quicker as he mulled over what I’d said.

“It could work, Rhys.” He sounded excited now. “But I have no clue how to get something like that started. Do you?”

I stopped next to the kitchen counter. In my mind, I could still see Parker standing there, pretty as a sunrise, her eyes alight as she watched me get ready to cook. I’d been falling for her from the first. She gave me hope, made me want to reach further, raise my head a little higher.

I didn’t know shit about organizing a fundraiser, but I was fairly certain she did. I met my brother’s eyes and smiled. “We need Parker.”

I needed her. That was the truth. I needed her in more ways than one.

I grabbed my phone and called her, filled with satisfaction that I could do that. Shit, I missed her already. I wanted her. I wanted her so bad, I felt like I was missing something when she was gone.

She answered with a breathless voice. “Hey, you.”

A goofy smile pulled at my mouth as my head went hazy with lust. “Hey, Tink. What are you up to?”

“Thinking about you.”

Jesus. I was so gone on this girl.

“Good answer.” I grinned, then told myself to focus. “Can you come over? I need you.”

“It’s like that, is it?” She sounded cheeky, and sexy as hell.

I laughed. “It’s always like that where you’re concerned, babe.”

At my back, Dean gagged. And I shot him a look before focusing on Parker. “Ahem. I need that too. But Dean’s here right now.”

“You told him, didn’t you?” Pride filled her voice. Pride for me.

“Yeah. And we got to talking about the fight. I have a plan. Want to help me with it?”

She didn’t hesitate. “I’ll be right over.”

Because she was my girl. My right-now girl. And, right now, it was enough for me.

Nineteen

Parker

Zoe was a terrible liar.

I watched her warily as we walked up the front steps of Rhys’s gym. Her dark, intelligent gaze took in the building, her frown deepening as we walked through the doors.

Under the guise that she wanted to be in on the meeting between Rhys and the event manager, Fiona, for Zoe’s charity Street Warriors, she was tagging along to Lights Out.

Considering Zoe let Fiona have free rein as event manager, we both knew Zoe was really using this as an excuse to meet Rhys. However, since Ren and the guys had already met my boyfriend (yes, I was calling him that in my head now), I wasn’t going to quibble with my best friend over this.

That didn’t mean I wasn’t nervous as heck to see what she’d think of Rhys, and I didn’t want him feeling any pressure either. He already had enough stress in his life.

Two weeks ago, he’d called me to his place after his discussion with his brother. Not surprisingly, Dean had learned about the loan when he dug into the gym’s finances. Upon finding out the extent of the debt and whom it was owed to, Dean proved himself to be a good brother. He immediately began brainstorming with Rhys and they’d come up with the idea of a charity fight.

I hated that it meant Rhys would still have to fight, but he seemed content with the idea since it would be on his terms. They required my help so I went into full battle-plan mode.

Rhys had already held a meeting with Fiona at Street Warriors; this was their second meeting to finalize details. Since we didn’t have a lot of time, I’d called in Easton to help, as well as my mother. With both my sister and my mom’s knowledge of society, we picked a date in the social calendar that we knew most people would be able to attend. The event would be held at Rhys’s gym. The idea had been to bring the gym the exposure it needed in the hopes of gaining sponsorship from some of the more exalted guests, but to our delight a few of my parents’ friends involved in community development programs had already visited the gym with my mom to offer sponsorship.

The fight hadn’t even occurred and already a lot of the pressure was off for Rhys.

To lure people to the event, Rhys had called in a favor and had gotten ex-heavyweight world champion Jarrod “The Thunder” Johnson to fight him. Jarrod was a little older than Rhys, and although they were friends, they’d never fought each other. Which meant this exhibition fight was a huge draw for sports fans amongst the elite. We’d already secured ticket sales from Diana Crichton Jones—the billionaire I’d met at Fairchild’s garden party—and her fiancé, as well as Adriana Bellington, the owner of Sportsbox.

She wanted to air the charity fight on her network, and we were donating the rights payment to Street Warriors. The free promotion would only help us out by gaining more of those sponsorships.

Easton and my mother were the best at organizing receptions, so I’d put them in charge of organizing catering for an after-fight party on the gym’s second level. My quick-talking mom had convinced a caterer and party planner to donate their time and work with us as a tax write-off, so we didn’t have to pay for that either.

Fiona was in charge of ticket sales, so she was meeting with Rhys today to give him an update on where we were at with those. The fight was in three weeks. Although Rhys and I spent time with one another the past few weekends, I hadn’t seen him as much as I’d like because he was in training mode.

“This place is sad,” Zoe murmured as we walked across the glass-fronted atrium and through the double doors to the public gym. There were only a few people working out. “A redecoration overhaul is definitely needed.”

“Hence the charity fight,” I reminded her. “This way.”

Since dating Rhys for real, I’d visited the gym a few times and knew my way around. I led Zoe to the back stairwell that would take us directly to the second-floor corridor that housed Rhys’s office.

At my knock, Rhys called, “Come in.”

His voice sent a thrill through me, and I reached to push open the door.

Zoe’s groan halted my action.

“What?” I frowned.

“You are sickeningly in love,” she whispered, smirking.

My heart lurched at the word. “Take that back.”

“Nah.” She shook her head, pushing Rhys’s door open. “I only speak the truth.”

Attempting to squash the heat her words caused in my cheeks, my eyes darted to Rhys who was standing by his desk with Fiona at his side. Dean and Carlos were also in the room. My gaze flickered from them back to Rhys whose face split into a wide grin.

“Hey, Tink.”

Ignoring Zoe’s disturbing last words, I crossed the room with a small smile and went up on my tiptoes as Rhys bent down to kiss me. Everything about him—his smile, the contented expression in his eyes when he looked at me, his cologne, the feel of him under my hands—caused a score of pleasure pain across my chest. His arm moved around my waist, drawing me to his side.

“Hey.”

He grinned at me for a long moment and then looked up. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

Oh, dammit.

I looked over at my best friend and blushed at the expression on her face.