Boxing Day

I never got tired of watching this man use his tongue.

“Do you like it?” I murmured. My gaze zeroed in on his mouth, glued to the way his tongue dragged dangerously over his bottom lip.

And I would let him. I’d watch him lick up every last drop until we were both exhausted. Until there was nothing left.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

His grin spread wide across his mouth. “Oh, I’m happy to prove it to you. You keep giving me these treats and I’ll—”

“Millie!”

I snapped to attention, whipping my head around to where Saffy raised her brows at me from behind the register. A line snaked from the counter almost out the door of the bakery.

“A little help?” Her eyes flicked to Leo, who sat across the table from me, the cupcake he’d been eating frozen in his hands. “Unless you’re too…busy?”

I hadn’t even noticed the customers flooding into the shop, that’s how much of a trance Leo had put me in. And who could blame me? He was the dictionary definition of a silver fox.

A full head of hair just beginning to gray at the temples, the same little silver threads lacing through his beard and mustache. It all connected neatly around his strong jaw, making his full lips stand out.

Not to mention his body, which was all hard lines and sculpted muscle from being a boxing coach. He could eat everything in this bakery, and he’d still look like he’d been chiseled from stone.

“Coming!” I called to Saffy, then shot Leo an apologetic look. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” he laughed, wiping frosting from the corner of his mouth. “I’ve monopolized you enough. Duty calls.”

“See you tomorrow?” I asked hopefully, though I didn’t need to confirm it. Every morning, at the exact same time, ever since the day I opened my bakery, Leo came in to try my latest creation.

It was the best part of my day. Especially on an awful day like today, when I’d spent the last twelve hours crying over what my boyfriend did.

Leo smiled. “Same time, same place.”

We both stood at the same time, our knees knocking together. I blushed at the brush of his hands on my waist as we moved around the little table. They were so strong and firm against the softness of my middle.

Too much of me was soft and malleable. There was too much of me in general.

We both reached for the second half of his cupcake on the table, and Leo’s fingers tangled with mine.

“Sorry,” he said. “I just…”

“Wanted to hold my hand?” I said, shocking myself with my own confidence. My body had practically turned to jelly watching Leo eat that cupcake a second ago, but then he touched me, and something instinctual took over.

He laughed and gave my fingers a squeeze. “Caught me. Now I might not give it back.”

I looked down at his hand in mine. The way he laced his fingers through my own as if to double down. Was he just being nice because he felt sorry for what happened to me last night? Or was he…flirting?

“I might not want you to,” I teased back, the words off my tongue before I could stop them. As soon as they left my mouth, I blanched.

I was a gross mess, the streaky, batter-splotched evidence of my morning in the kitchen covering me from head to toe. I had no right to be entertaining a world where I could flirt with someone like Leo.

I quickly went to pull my hand away, but Leo clenched it tighter. My breath hitched as the heat of his body leaked into mine, pooling in a specific center.

Leo looked like he was about to speak when the door swung open, the tinkling bell cutting off his words before they could leave his lips. I instantly recognized the big, muscular build and messy mop of blond hair that came.

Ryan. My cheating ex.

I sucked in a breath and snatched my hand out of Leo’s grip.

Leo spun to see what I was staring at, then eyed me with a frown. He’d definitely heard about my breakup—I’d kicked Ryan out after finding those texts on his phone last night, and he’d gone to stay at my sister Astrid’s.

She couldn’t keep a secret to save her life, so within minutes, my whole family had found out. Leo had been sweet enough not to mention it when he’d come in this morning, but I could see in his eyes that my dad had told him.

Ryan strode straight to me, forcing his way through the crowd of customers, but Leo stepped between us before he could get too close.

“What are you doing here, Ryan?”

Ryan’s eyes dropped to the half cupcake Leo was still holding. He sneered. “Relax, Trigger. I’m not here to steal your guilty pleasure.”

Trigger was what my family called Leo. He used to be a sniper in the army, and they said his left hook was as quick as a bullet. So that was his name to them.

He had always been Leo to me, though. Like the star sign he was named after.

Leo narrowed his eyes at Ryan. “Then why are you?”

“To put these up.” He held up a flyer with his own face plastered all over it.

I stepped closer and squinted at it. “A boxing tournament?”

It was a holiday fundraiser—a boxing contest to find the best male and female amateur fighters in town, with the ticket funds going toward supporting the gym. All skill levels were welcome to compete in the qualifying rounds, and the finals would take place on Boxing Day.

And the star participant, of course, was my ex. A picture of him in his gloves was splashed across the top.

Angry tears prickled my eyes. “Are you serious?” I said through gritted teeth. “First I find out you’ve been cheating on me for God knows how long, and now you want me to put your face in my window?”

“Of course not,” I muttered under my breath. “Nothing ever is.”

I shouldn’t have been surprised, and yet, it still hurt like hell. Ryan was the star boxer at my family’s gym, the golden boy who my dad had practically bribed to date me. No wonder he’d taken Ryan’s side now that we were broken up.

He clearly didn’t care that Ryan had cheated on me. He hadn’t said anything to me last night after Astrid broke the news that we’d split.

Once again, Ryan had the support of my family and I didn’t.

“Now is not the time for this,” Leo said lowly. His eyes shot daggers at Ryan.

But Ryan just shrugged and turned to me.

“Coach said that if you put up a fight, I should remind you that your due date is coming up. He’ll take check or cash.”

“It wasn’t him who loaned me the money for this bakery,” I practically spat. “It was Mom.”

I’d always intended to pay the loan back, but when Mom died, I could barely get out of bed, let alone fulfill a hundred cake orders a month. I had a decent amount of customers now, but it had taken a while to build up my regulars, and I’d been playing catch-up on bills ever since then.

I definitely didn’t have any money in savings. If Dad wanted me to pay the loan in full, it would be curtains for the bakery.

“Same difference, Millipede,” Ryan sing-songed. “So you better not get on his bad side. Unless you want to give up your little diabetes den here.” He swirled a finger through the air, gesturing at the bakery.

My hands balled into fists, the tears welling up in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall in front of him.

“Fine,” I snapped. I reached for the flyer, being careful not to touch Ryan as I slid it from his hands. “I’ll put it up.”

“Millie,” Leo started, but I waved him off.

He couldn’t protect me from my dad, as much as he tried.

I grimaced and went to the window. As I put the flyer up, my heart ached.

Would this earn me even a smidge of approval with my dad? Unlikely.

But maybe it would keep him from kicking down my door until I figured out how to pay back that loan.

“There,” I said, turning back to Ryan. “Happy?”

He gave me a shit-eating grin. “Nice seeing you, Millie.”

As soon as he was out the door, the tears spilled out, and I wiped furiously at my eyes. I’d already cried over Ryan all last night and this morning, and now he was doing this.

God, how had I ever convinced myself he was a good guy?

I didn’t see Leo’s hand move toward my face until his thumb was already on my cheek, brushing away my tears.

“Hey,” he said softly. His skin was so warm against mine. “You can fight back, you know. You don’t have to just take that shit.”

I gave a hiccuping laugh. “Fight back how?”

Leo’s eyes drifted to the poster hanging in the window. “By joining the tournament.”

“What?!” I squawked. A few people in the bakery turned toward us, including Saffy, who raised her brow in question. I dropped my voice. “I must be hallucinating, because I know you didn’t just suggest that I put on a pair of boxing gloves and make an even bigger fool of myself than I already have.”

Leo’s eyes glinted with challenge. “You could if I trained you.”

My mouth went as dry as a desert. “Train me?”

Leo nodded, looking downright excited. “There’s more than a month until Boxing Day, and the female boxers at the gym are all beginners. You’d be an underdog, but you could do it. Win the women’s category and show your whole family what you’re made of. I know you’ve got it in you, Millie.”

I stared at him, shell-shocked. He really thought I could win a boxing tournament? When I’d never stepped foot in a ring my entire life?

“I think that cupcake went to your head,” I said, turning back toward the register, where Saffy was still ringing up the line. “I’ve got to go help.”

But before I could take more than a step away, Leo caught my wrist.

My skin instantly heated where he touched me.

“Just think about it, okay? If you win, you might even be able to give Ryan the punch in the face he deserves.” His eyes were wide, encouraging.

He really believed in me.

I had no idea why.

“Okay,” I said limply, and watched as he pushed through the door, the little bell above it tinkling as he went.

I scoffed to myself, imagining a world where I put on a pair of boxing gloves.

But then my mind went somewhere hotter—to an image of Leo in the ring, sweaty and shirtless and touching my bare skin as he showed me how to fight.

I flushed at the thought, my whole body ticking up a few degrees.

The reality of training for the tournament wasn’t pretty, but I sure loved the fantasy of it.