The Fighter's Secretary by Ann Mayburn

Author:Ann Mayburn [Mayburn, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter 5

Dallas sat on the edge of the dock looking out over glowing lights of Miami reflecting off the water with unseeing eyes, his mind wrapped up in the past. His father had been one of the most selfish people God had ever created, a man solely devoted to his own pleasure and happiness. When Dallas had been young he’d worshiped him, seeing him through the eyes of a child as a hardworking salesman who managed to make it home to his family once or twice a month. His mother had always made up excuses for his father’s absence, always reminding the boys how lucky they were to have a dad who provided for them.

His mother, bless her heart, always wanted to believe the best in people. They’d lived in a somewhat safe section of Chicago, but as the years had gone on Dallas had realized that every time his dad returned home from a “trip” with presents and expensive gifts, he was actually bribing his mother, not giving her things because he loved her. Then, when Dallas was eleven, he’d gone through his father’s suitcase, looking for a present, and had instead found pictures of his dad having sex with dozens of different women. It had sickened him so much he’d lost his mind and had tried to kick his father out of the house.

Instead of leaving, his father beat him and, for the first time in his life, his mother had stood up to his father, telling him to get the hell out and not come back. Soon after that the financial support dad had given them vanished just like the man and his uneducated mother from a small town in Texas had found herself alone, raising three teenage boys who had more than their fair share of anger. Luckily they belonged to a good church which not only gave his mother a job, but a few of the men who belonged to the congregation also took Dallas, Austin, and Huston from then on, acting almost as surrogate fathers. One of them, an old black man with a face as wrinkled and dried out as a raisin, ran a boxing school in their neighborhood. It was there that the Ortega boys had learned to fight, learned to channel their bottomless anger into something productive.

But tonight his anger had slipped its leash and he’d lashed out at the only woman who’d ever made him feel complete.

He was such a fuckup.

Dallas must have said those words aloud because a moment later Amanda’s voice came from behind him. “Well, I don’t know if you’re a total fuckup. Maybe just a little bit.”

Disbelief filled him and he had trouble taking a deep breath as she sat down next to him and swung her legs over the edge of the dock. Her hair was still down and it floated about in the soft breeze coming off the ocean. He wanted to tell her he was sorry, that he didn’t mean what he’d said, but his usual easy charm had vanished, leaving him silent like a tongue tied teenager.

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