They couldn’t be more wrong. Boxing taught me a lesson: to win, you had to strategize. I’d stepped away from the sport and forgotten that. Being with Parker—who never let me get away with shit—these past weeks had reminded me.

Tucking my hands into my pockets, I leaned against the sun-warmed brick of my gym. “I’ve been researching too, Mr. Garret. Why don’t you come in and we can talk.”

His surprise was evident, but he brushed it off with another oily smile. “Sounds good.” He turned to his lackey. “Wait for me here, Kevin.”

I wasn’t going to fight Garret, but I didn’t have to like the guy, and my jaw was tight as I lead him past the studios where high school kids were doing stamina drills before stepping into the sparring ring. Carlos was shouting out encouragement—if you call “stop dragging your feet and move your lazy asses” encouragement.

“We’re offering beginners lessons for adults on Sundays, if you’re interested,” I told Garret.

He turned his attention away from the kids and back to me. “What makes you think I’m a novice?”

“You’re not?” I slowed by one of the mats currently unoccupied. “Want to give it a go then?”

Garret gave me a reluctant grin. “No thank you. I like my face as it is.”

Laughing, I headed for the office. Parker stepped out of the elevator at the same time. I greeted her with a kiss to the cheek. “This is Parker Brown,” I said to Garret as I opened my office door.

He held out a hand. “Kyle Garret. A pleasure.”

Parker gave him a polite smile and shook his hand. But she refrained from returning the sentiment. I bit back a grin.

“We’re going to have a quick meeting,” I told her. “Want to join us?”

The corners of her eyes crinkled as she searched my face. I knew she was wondering what I was up to. “I don’t know that I’d have anything to add to the conversation.”

“Stay anyway.” I wanted her to hear this. More importantly, I wanted her as part of my life. Taking her hand, I led us into the office.

“You’ve bought every property on this block,” I said to Garret as soon as everyone was settled.

“It’s public knowledge,” Garret replied with a causal shrug.

Humming in agreement, I rested my hands on my abs. “I’m doing a match for charity in a few weeks.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“The event has secured me enough sponsors to pay off the bills and keep this place in the green.”

Garret’s eyes narrowed. “Sure. But for how long?”

“For as long as it takes.” I leaned forward and set my forearms on Dad’s old desk. “I’m not going to sell to you, Garret. Not ever.”

His chin took on a mulish angle, and I held up a hand to forestall whatever he had to say.

“I get it. My gym is an eyesore and smack in the middle of your plan. You’re trying to gentrify this community and make a buck. There isn’t anything I can do about that. Just like you can’t do anything about me being here.”

Garret grunted. “What’s your point, Morgan?”

“You can either be pissed about it and lurk around on sidewalks, or you can do something constructive.” I held his gaze. “You can sponsor this place.”

At my side, Parker stirred, but she kept quiet.

Garret, on the other hand, snorted long and loud. “You’ve got brass, I’ll give you that. Why the hell would I help you when I want you to sell?”

“Because it will pretty this place up. You can use it as an enticement for all those young professionals you sell to. A world class boxing gym with pro instructors right in the heart of your safe but ‘urban’ community.”

The chair beneath Garret squeaked as he leaned back and steepled his fingers. He stared at me for a moment, then a slow smile spread. “And I suppose the added benefit of you reaping in all those new memberships is, what?”

“A symbiotic relationship in which we both win.”

“I’d win a lot more if I owned the gym outright.”

I simply stared, waiting him out. Parker remained silent, but I could feel her there, my loadstone.

Finally, Garret grinned. “Definite brass.” He stood, and I did as well, accepting his outstretched hand to shake. “Send your proposal over to my office. I’ll have my lawyers look it over.”

He nodded to Parker. “Ms. Brown.”

As soon as he was gone, Parker turned to me. Her smile glowed. “Would it be patronizing if I told you how very proud I am of you right now?”

For years, all I had was my own sense of pride. I never knew how good it would feel to be the recipient of it.

I opened my arms, and she stepped into them. “Just don’t stop being proud of me, all right?”

I could handle anything as long as she was in my corner.

Parker

One of the reasons I grew to love science and engineering so much was how theories could be proven and knowledge could be gained in this tangible way, uncomplicated by emotion or contradiction.

Life outside of science was messy and definitely contradictory. After Theo died, I wanted nothing but to avoid it.

Yet, if we’re honest, there are contradictions in science too. Take the moon, for example. Using uranium-lead dating, geologists dated fragments of the moon and determined it was 4.51 billion years old. But if you calculate the rate at which it is moving away from the earth and then reverse it, the moon would have been sitting on top of the earth only 1.55 billion years ago. A direct contradiction to the big bang cosmology.

So there were contradictions in life everywhere. Even in my beloved world of academia. I just hadn’t wanted to admit it. I wanted it to be safe from that. Yet, you can’t hide from life. It was messy and convoluted and emotional, and I was done cowering behind excuses.

Which was why I cycled to work the day after I confronted Rhys about Marcy with a dreamy expression on my face but an ache of guilt in my chest.

Since then Rhys and I did more than just have hot sex. Sometimes he made love to me. I knew it, lying beneath him as he gazed into my eyes and moved inside me. It was magical and stunning and stole my breath. So, of course, every time I thought about those moments, I couldn’t help my goofy goddamn grin.

However, I’d also every now and then get an image of the hurt on his face when I told him we were from different worlds. My guilt was real. I shouldn’t have had an entire conversation in my head about our relationship without him out of fear, and I’d spent the last few weeks since that night trying to show him that I wasn’t afraid to throw myself into this relationship.

As Rhys’s training intensified, there wasn’t a lot of time to revel in our newfound certainty in each other this past week, but I was there to show support—like I did when he so cleverly made his proposal to developer Kyle Garret—and to help with any last-minute details for the charity event.

Which was now upon us.

Tomorrow was the big fight, and I had prehistoric-sized butterflies in my belly about it.

Rhys had been avoiding Fairchild for the last few weeks and so far, the billionaire had not made any moves toward killing my career. There had been some coverage about him in the news lately that he was under possible investigation for tax evasion. Rumor had it, there was more to it than just that. The word “fraud” was being tossed around. My hope was that Fairchild would stay too preoccupied by his troubles to bother us.