Brownwood: Tommy Boy Ch. 01

"Good," she said, letting a small smile escape.

"Still concerned about Erica's adventure to the men's room, Momma Bear?"

She turned and stared at me.

"None, Tommy Bear."

The rest of the show was a blast. Erica squealed and laughed and had a wonderful time. Sometime during the show, she crawled up in my lap and pulled my arms around her. I shot a quick glance over at Angie and saw a mixture of surprise and amusement.

After the show, I walked them to their car with Erica riding on my shoulders. I could feel her little body starting to list one direction then another as the munchkin was starting to fall asleep.

As I passed one of the store windows, I saw our reflection and froze. Angie came to an abrupt halt as well and peered around me to see what I was looking at.

I saw was big blond guy with a beautiful little blonde girl on his shoulders. Beside him was a stunning blonde woman who looked both casual and sexy as hell. It was an image that burned itself in the back of my mind.

When we finally got to Angie's car, I placed Erica in the back and secured her in her car seat. Her eyes were barely open.

"Goodnight, Tommy Bear," she mumbled and yawned.

"Goodnight, Goldilocks."

As I stood, I immediately realized Angie was now next to me. Her nearness surprised me and I froze.

"Thank you, Tommy Boy," Angie said softly as she reached up and kissed me gently on the cheek.

"It'll be a night she'll remember for a long time."

"You're welcome, Angie. She's a cute one, almost as pretty as her momma."

Angie grinned.

"Thank you," she said, then paused as if she was going to say something else before going around her car and getting into the driver's seat.

"Goodnight, Tommy Boy," she said, and closed the car door.

"Goodnight, Momma Bear," I muttered.

After they'd left, I weaved through the crowd heading to my car. When I got there I heard an unwelcome voice behind me.

"Hey, asshole, where ya going so fast?"

I turned around and saw Bill standing there with his two buddies. They didn't seem quite as drunk as before. Bill had a nasty bruise on his cheek and part of his right eye was swollen and starting to turn black. The look on his face told me he remembered exactly how he got it.

There's a simple fact not a lot of guys talk about growing up. If you fight dirty once, then you can expect your opponent to return the favor. It usually leads to taking a beating at some point. The object is to minimize it. I looked around the parking lot and saw several onlookers. That meant this was going to happen quickly and wouldn't last for very long before Event Security or the Brownwood police would be on the scene.

"I'm going to..." Bill roared as he stepped toward me with his fist drawn back.

He didn't finish the threat.

Like I said before, I'm no martial artist and certainly don't have military training, but I was in a hell of a lot better shape than I'd been in years. I was closer to my college playing weight now, and the flab had started turning into muscle again. I was also still very quick.

Bill's punch grazed the side of my head as I launched myself at him. I caught him with a forearm to his mouth and felt his head snap back as he fell. I then threw a straight right at his nearest buddy and caught him in the nose, knocking him to his knees.

The third guy hit me a couple blows to the head before I was able to bull rush him. He tried to sidestep me, but I clotheslined the asshole. I swear I saw one of his feet fly above his head.

I didn't get to revel in my initial victory for long. Bill's first buddy slammed into my legs and before I could throw him off Bill landed a haymaker to my right eye. Damn that son-of-a-bitch could hit!

I didn't go down with the first punch, but the second one put me there. From then on, it was basically trying to protect my face and balls as the three of them kicked the shit out of me. I vaguely heard some screams and shouting, then the whooping sound of a police siren.

All told, the fight probably lasted a minute or two. I'd received multiple blows and kicks but for the most part I came out of it pretty well. Other than Bill's two punches and a few kicks to the ribs, the rest of the damage simply resembled what I'd received during a typical football game back in college.

I knew I'd have to go to the ER and check out the ribs. I figured they were bruised, but I wouldn't take a chance. The cop who broke up the fight asked me if I needed an ambulance but I declined and told him I'd drive myself over to get checked out. I knew I probably looked worse than I actually felt, since my eye was quickly swelling shut.

My trip to the Sacred Heart ER was for the most part uneventful. I ran into a nurse I'd seen before. She was pretty hard to forget, even though she had to be around forty. She had almost orange hair and a little droop to one eye. Even with that, she was still beautiful. Not on Angie's level, but few women were.

Her name was Bree, and her husband used to work with my boss, Maria. I knew Maria still kept in contact with Bree and her husband, Zach, even though he still worked at Grymm Engineering Solutions.

When I asked her if she was the ER nurse, she laughed and said no, that she was only covering for someone. She said she was a head nurse up in the children's ward.

She got me signed in and into a cubicle. It didn't take long before an older doctor came in to see me. He was Indian or Pakistani and said his name was Dr. Kali. I started to make some smart-assed comment, but he beat me to it.

"So... fight much?" he said, as he poked around my damaged areas.

I grunted both in response and in pain.

"Forget to duck?" he said with a sly grin.

I started to laugh, but my ribs throbbed and I doubled over.

"We'll need to get those X-rayed," he said, his smile disappearing. "Other than that, it looks like you'll heal in time."

He went on about avoiding MMA matches and taking it easy for a few days, then I was wheeled out to X-ray. Ended up they were only bruised, like I'd suspected, but I did get some very good pain pills.

I spoke briefly with the cop again and I knew he had to file a report. It wasn't going to go anywhere, so it was basically a waste of time. With bruised ribs and an eye that was swollen shut, I made my way back to my apartment.

Hell of a night, I thought. I wonder what fireworks wait for me tomorrow?

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