Knockout Read Online Free PDF Page A

will?”
    He grinned at me affectionately before wrapping his arm around my shoulders. “Nothing. Let’s watch our boy.”
    And we did. And it was magnificent.
    Kellen won the match. I was on pins and needles the whole time waiting to find out but when they announced him the winner and he held up his gloved hands, I jumped up and down cheering for him. He looked down at me with his flushed face, his brown hair dark with sweat and plastered to his forehead. Then he smiled. He smiled and he pointed one gloved hand right at me and I felt so connected to him having seen him in his hiding place from the world that I wanted to cry. Instead I laughed.
     
    ***
     
    “What is that?” I asked Kellen as we were leaving the gym.
    He was fresh from a shower, dressed in cargo shorts and the same hoody I’d seen him in the first time I met him. He was also bouncing a little when he walked, still springing with each step like he did in the ring. I imagined it took a long time to come down from an adrenaline rush like that. Especially after you won.
    “What? This? It’s my Amateur boxing license. I’m seventeen so I’m not a Junior boxer anymore. We have to have one of these to compete.”
    He flipped over the card in his hand to show it to me. There was a passport photo of Kellen wearing a black T-shirt and the angriest face I had ever seen on him before. It made me laugh.
    “You look like a serial killer!”
    He grinned. “That was the idea. You want to look like a fighter.”
    “Boxer,” I scolded. “You’re a boxer not a fighter.”
    Kellen slipped the card into his wallet before draping his arm over my shoulders, much the way my dad had in the gym. He pulled me in close to him as we walked toward the car.
    “I’m glad I’ve got you to remind me,” he said quietly.
    We went to Denny’s because Laney and mom weren’t there to tell us no. They would have wanted to go somewhere with fresh veggies and sautéed something or other. We just wanted some afternoon breakfast. Not brunch. Kellen said he’d lose a Man Card if he ever ate brunch and in his neighborhood, he needed a full deck.
    “What are you going to get, Jen?” dad asked, scanning the menu.
    “Moon Over My Hammy,” I said decidedly.
    Kellen chuckled. “You get that every time.”
    “Yep. Don’t even have to look at the menu. I know what I like.”
    “Lucky girl,” he grumbled.
    “Can’t decide?”
    “Don’t pressure me. I’ll get there.”
    “Do you think it will be today?”
    He flipped me off behind his menu where my dad couldn’t see.
    “What are you getting, dad?”
    Dad slapped his menu on the table. “Egg white omelet, whole wheat toast.”
    Kellen and I both stared at him blankly.
    “Really?” I asked.
    “Yeah, why? I’m getting old. I have to watch my health.”
    “Great, yeah. Good.”
    He rose from his chair. “Order for me, will you, Jen? I’m going to go wash my hands.”
    As I watched him go, noticing that his khakis were ironed with a tight line along the front and back of the leg, I sighed, “My mom is ruining him.”
    “Are you going to order him that meal?”
    I snorted. “Yeah, right. This is Denny’s. He’s getting something with bacon or we’re going home right now.”
    He produced his knuckles. I quickly bumped them.
    “Decide what you’re going to get yet?”
    “Yep,” Kellen replied confidently. “Philly Cheesesteak Omelet, baby!”
    I shook my head. “You hate mushrooms.”
    “They’re diced up small. I won’t even notice them.”
    “Okay then.”
    Not long after we ordered I started to wonder where my dad disappeared to. It was a very thorough hand washing or he was otherwise engaged.
    My phone beeped from my pocket with a message. I panicked for a second, irrationally worried it was my dad messaging me from the toilet.
    It was Laney.
    Where r u?
    “Is that your latest victim?” Kellen teased.
    ‘Victims’ was what he called all the boyfriends I didn’t have. One of his less hilarious moments