TKO (A Bad Boy MMA Romance) Read Free Page A

orphan.
     
    So I had immediately cancelled my summer plans, putting my career on indefinite hold, and returned home to arrange the funeral and take over guardianship of my sister. Since then, it had been a back-and-forth struggle to become financially stable and keep Alice in line. For a while after Dad died, Alice just shut down, spending hours in bed just motionless and silent. Both of us got grief counselling. I couldn’t afford to lose Alice, too, so I did everything I could to draw her back out of her shell. I loved her so intensely and unconditionally, refusing to let her recoil from the world, until slowly but surely she returned to her former self. In fact, she even picked up a surprising new hobby: ice skating.
     
    Now the two of us were the best of friends, and even though it was a struggle, we had settled into a kind of routine that worked for us. I was content to split my time between Alice and my work at Fighting Chance, the latter of which gave me a chance to still be involved in sports, even if I couldn’t be the star athlete I wanted to be. I still kept myself in great shape, though. I mean, how could I possibly gain the trust and respect of a client if I didn’t walk the walk?
     
    Even though I was impossibly tired, I couldn’t let today be any different. So I held my head high and tried to perk myself up as I walked into the gym. My best friend and fellow physiotherapist, Trina Thompkins, came out of a side office and fell into step beside me. She gave me a welcoming smile and nudged my arm.
     
    “You look a little tired, Gemma. You okay?” she asked, perpetually concerned about me. She was my closest confidante, besides Alice, and she knew how hard I worked. I was new to Fighting Chance, the youngest and least experienced of the therapy team, and Trina was a seasoned professional, several years older than me. She was tall and leanly muscled, with gorgeous cinnamon-brown skin, thick black braids that fell to her mid-back, and friendly eyes.
     
    “Late night,” I replied, trying to wave her worries off with my hand. I had to prove myself tough and resilient enough to handle this job alongside my duties as Alice’s guardian. But I should have known by then not to worry about proving myself to Trina. She already knew what a hard worker I was. She was constantly trying to get me to take days off and relax a little.
     
    “Alice?” she commented, raising an eyebrow.
     
    I laughed weakly. “Yeah. As usual. Art history project.”
     
    “Due today?”
     
    “Naturally.”
     
    Trina shook her head sympathetically. She had two kids of her own, both young boys, so she understood just how much effort went into parenting. However, she was also lucky enough to have a doting, attentive husband who was an ex-fighter and a former Marine. He had struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder a year ago when he returned from Kuwait, but apart from that, he was a model husband and father. Dequan Thompkins was still somewhat of a legend around here, and every time he came in to work out or just to surprise Trina with a visit from him and their kids, at least one person came up to shake his hand. I loved the Thompkins and regarded them almost like extended family. Alice sometimes babysat the little boys, Jayden and Trey for pocket money when Trina and Dequan wanted a night out for themselves.
     
    I hadn’t even been here at Fighting Chance very long, but I was already treated like a valued member of the family. And my boss, Danny Gilchrist, was a fantastic supervisor, always looking out for his employees and clients alike. Ever since he found out that Alice and I were on our own, I think he kind of subconsciously adopted us as his surrogate daughters. I certainly wasn’t going to complain about that. It was nice to have an older guy around who genuinely cared about me and my sister, without some shady ulterior motive.
     
    Back when I first entered physiotherapy training a few months after my father’s