Something to Someone (Someone, Somewhere #2)

Chapter 3

THREE

THE MORNING AFTER

Ryder

With how much I drank the night before, I wasn’t surprised to wake up face down on my bed with a raging headache. At least I’d made it back to my bed.

Last night withstanding, I wasn’t a huge partier. I had the occasional night out during my four years in college, and I enjoyed a beer or two with friends, but clubs were not my scene. Unless it’s my birthday, and then I guess I was more likely to give into peer pressure.

I groaned, lifting my head and blinking the sleep from my eyes so I could reach for my phone which was miraculously plugged into the charger on my bedside table. It was almost noon, but it felt like I’d only been asleep for a few hours. If I remembered correctly, we’d stumbled into my apartment just past two in the morning.

I managed to roll onto my back and dug the heels of my palms into my eyes. I needed water and meds and something greasy and?—

There was a knock on my door, and I opened my eyes enough to see Theo step into my room. With the glorious items he held in his hands.

“Oh my gosh, I could fucking kiss you.” I pushed myself up until I was sitting upright against the headboard and swallowed down some mild nausea.

He shook his head and set the plate, water, and medicine bottle on the table beside me. “No, you wouldn’t, I’m not your type. I’m not blond.”

I looked back fondly on the people I’d dated before. And although I didn’t have a preference when it came to someone’s gender, they did usually have blond hair. Weird.

“You’re right,” I agreed and grabbed the water and meds first, swallowing those down before I grabbed the plate and gazed down at the hearty breakfast sandwich. I took a bite and groaned in satisfaction. ‘Thank you so much,” I said around a mouthful of food.

Theo cringed but nodded all the same. “I knew you’d feel like shit.”

“Why did you let me drink so much?”

“Me?” He pointed to his chest like he was offended by the insinuation. “I had nothing to do with that. That was all Connor. And when I did try to stop it, you told me to ‘ let loose’ and ‘ stop acting like a grandpa.’ ”

“Hmm,” I hummed. “Not sure I remember that, but it does sound like something I’d say.”

He gave me an unimpressed look, and I smiled.

“What else happened that I might not remember?”

He sighed and leaned back in the chair that I thought I remembered him sleeping in the night before. I stowed that question away to ask later.

“Well, after you bought everyone in our vicinity shots, you told us you had to make a very important call and that you’d be right back. Only you were gone for twenty minutes and left me with Connor.”

My hands stopped the sandwich midway to my mouth. That I reme mbered. Shaking off the memories that rushed back and deciding they would also be dealt with later, I quickly took a bite and put the sandwich back on the plate.

“So, what happened?” Theo asked, and I pointed to my mouth, slowly chewing my food so I could consider how to answer.

Theo knew exactly what I was doing, but I wasn’t going to tell him that I walked out of the club to call Caroline just so I could hear her voice for a few minutes.

“I don’t remember,” I lied. Theo braced his elbows on the arms of the chair and pressed his fingers to his lips, probably trying to decide if he wanted to pry for more information. But Theo wasn’t a big talker, so he let it slide.

“Right, well, now that I know you’re alive, I’m going home.”

“Oh yes, I’m sure my mom misses you,” I muttered as he stood.

He ran a hand through his hair and stopped halfway to the door. “I thought we’d moved past that. Are you still?—”

I shook my head and rolled off the bed. My entire body was sore, and I swore my kidneys ached, but I crossed to him at the foot of my bed. “No, we’re good. Just tired still, and you know I like to give you shit.”

For a while I couldn’t comprehend their relationship—my best friend and my mom were the last people I expected to fall in love, but they had. It had been almost two years, and I still had my moments where it was a little odd. Like when I saw them showing each other affection or remembered that they were living together.

But they were the happiest I’d ever seen them, and being two of my favorite people in the world, it was easier to accept.

I opened my arms, and he knew what was coming. He half-heartedly sighed and let me hug him. It didn’t last long, though. A second later, he was shimmying out of it and pointing toward the bathroom .

“Go shower, you reek of liquor,” he instructed. He didn’t wait for me to respond before he walked out of my room.

“Love you, too!” I called after him. The front door closed a second later, and I walked into the living room to lock it behind him. I was expecting a bigger mess, but there were only a few cups left on the kitchen counter and the couch was a wreck.

I reached to start cleaning, but then I smelled myself and realized exactly what Theo had been talking about. A shower had to happen before anything else.

I stripped as I walked to the bathroom and deposited my dirty clothes in the laundry hamper in my closet. When I turned on the shower and impatiently waited for it to warm up, more memories flooded back from the night before, particularly of my short yet very memorable conversation with Caroline.

Just the thought of her had my blood heating. I stepped under the still-cool water to try to douse the reaction before it could take over, but it wasn’t so simple.

My crush had started so long ago, I couldn’t remember what it was like not to want Caroline Grant.

My mom dragged me to a Fourth of July party in our neighborhood. I was only fifteen at the time, so everything felt like a chore, and that party was the last thing I wanted to do. But I went, and that was the first time I’d laid eyes on her.

She was nothing less than perfect. With precise recollection, I remembered every single thing about that moment. She was wearing a red, white, and blue bikini which was peeking out from beneath her open white button-down shirt. Her cutoff shorts were light blue and fraying at the hem.

But it was her smile, the joy radiating off her that made me stop in my tracks.

And my crush hadn’t waned in the past eight years, it had morphed into something more than a schoolboy crush on the hot older woman. There was more to it than that.

Which was how I wound up confessing those feelings to her in the middle of her kitchen a year and a half ago. I’d found out about my mom and Theo a week before, so my emotions were raw. Caroline had also been paramount in keeping me from going off the rails.

It was the perfect storm, and I couldn’t keep my feelings locked up any longer. An eleven-year age difference didn’t feel like it was insurmountable, and with my mom and best friend shacking up, why couldn’t I pursue who I wanted, too? Even if she was my mom’s best friend.

So, I took a leap and stopped holding my tongue. I’d always been a little flirty—it was hard not to be with Caroline especially when the banter was so good—but I crossed that line I’d been careful to tiptoe next to for so long.

And her response had been nothing like I expected. The second she told me I was dangerous, I was done for. She couldn’t admit it then, but I knew she would eventually—everything I felt, she felt it, too.

I wasn’t the type of guy to keep pushing when it wasn’t reciprocated or wanted, though. That was gross. So, I took a step back. Went back to casually flirting when the opportunity arose, but I was still intent on keeping myself at the front of her mind.

I was careful until recently, and especially until this weekend. I was a case study on how easily alcohol could lower your inhibitions.

And yet again, her response was nothing like I expected. She pretended to be annoyed, but it was just that, an act. She could have hung up the phone at any moment, but she didn’t. I gave her an out, but she stayed on the line.

And she was taking a fucking bath? How cruel was the universe?

I braced my hands on the shower tiles and let my head hang as the spray streamed down my back. Straightening, I started my normal shower routine, grabbing the shampoo and lathering it in my hair. Rinse and repeat.

But the monotony of the motions did little to help the direction of my thoughts. I could control them as well as I could contro l my raging hard-on. I ran my soaped-up hands over my arms and chest, continuing down my stomach until they were hovering above my cock. I gritted my teeth and finally gave in to the need.

A quick jerk just to take the edge off. That was all I needed.

I wrapped my fingers around my shaft and let the soap guide my hand up and down. But when I closed my eyes and braced my free hand against the wall, it was Caroline’s slender fingers encircling me. I bet she would grip me hard and enjoy the twinge of pain that it would elicit before the sensation transformed into pleasure.

So, I tightened my own hold, my hand shaking with the excitement of impending release. Blood pounding, my cock swelled and leaked, thinking about the possibility of her touching me that way. My eyes dropped, and I watched the fat head push through my fingers. I was leaking everywhere and fantasizing that it was her fingers, her pussy that was squeezing around me.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck ,” I moaned as I shot against the wall and all over my hand.

Trying to catch my breath, I straightened and washed away the proof. It felt good, of course it did, but it didn’t curb the craving like I wanted it to.

I had a feeling little would have that desired effect. Nothing except her.