Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Climb on, baby
Ryker
Fuck.
My first thought of the new year and that was it – fuck.
My head had a pulse of its own.
I took a deep breath, trying to piece together last night and figure out where it had all gone wrong. Probably when I’d stupidly ended up at a New Year’s Eve party at the hockey house.
As revenge for our bet, Grace had sent Levi and me on a wild goose chase across campus. She’d decided whoever found her first by midnight would win her and put an end to the wager once and for all.
Deep down, I knew it was Holloway she’d hoped would find her. I assume he had, because after leaving Levi on the landing, I hadn’t seen either of them.
It hadn’t bothered me in the way I’d expected. As I’d explained to Ruby, it wasn’t Grace I was hung up on, it was the idea of her. Not to mention I hated fucking losing to Holloway. We might be chummy enough now, but I was still competitive as hell.
After midnight, I’d allowed my teammates to feed me drinks to drown my sorrows. And if I remembered correctly, those sorrows had led me into Gretchen’s arms.
One glance at the scratches on my chest and the smudged makeup on my spare pillow was all the reminder I needed for it to come back to me, flooding my mind piece by piece.
We’d definitely fucked last night. In fact, I think she was – bingo. My shower had just turned on.
I dragged a hand over my face as an incessant noise nearby had my patience waning. What the hell was it – and could it shut the fuck up? My head was already knocking on death’s door, and this sure wasn’t helping.
I reached for my side table, fumbling for whatever it was. After knocking over a water bottle and empty box of condoms, I located the vibration – my phone.
Ruby’s face filled the screen, her name flashing with an incoming call.
Her caller ID was a goofy photo that I’d taken of her nearly a decade ago.
Beneath her braces, she was grinning toothily at the camera, her glasses teetering on the edge of her nose.
I’d taken plenty of photos of her since that I could update it to, but I couldn’t bring myself to swap it out. I loved the photo too much.
If the call had been coming from someone else, I would’ve screened it already. I was way too hungover to deal with anyone – except Ruby. She was always my exception.
Rolling onto my side, she beamed at me as I answered her call. Even though she was much older now, her smile was the same as it had been ten years ago.
“Happy New Year, Wheels.”
“Happy New Year, Rubz.”
Her brow lowered as she studied the screen. “It’s almost midday. What are you still doing in bed?”
“I had a late one. How was your night?”
Her smile fell. “Not great. Noah and I got in a massive fight. He just left and we didn’t really make up.”
“He left you in his frat house alone?”
“No. He ended up coming here to surprise me.”
I was nervous to overstep, worried about reigniting our last argument when it came to Noah. But I was assuming Ruby wouldn’t have brought it up if she didn’t want to talk about it.
“What did you fight about?”
“It doesn’t matter. It was stupid.”
“I doubt both of those things.”
“I don’t want to start the new year being a Debbie Downer.” Her shoulders fell with a heavy sigh. “I don’t want to start it with mental scarring either, so cover up, Wheels. Your sheet is almost too low for this conversation to remain PG-13.”
Snickering, I tugged the blankets safely up to my chest. They smelled like a combination of perfume and sex. I’d be chucking them in the laundry once I was up.
Ruby’s head tilted to the side, her eyes bright with curiosity. “Is that a hickey on your neck?”
I dumbly glanced down, but of course I couldn’t fucking see my own neck. Man, I must’ve been drunk if I allowed that to happen. The team would absolutely give me hell for it.
“I’m guessing you didn’t spend New Year’s Eve alone,” Ruby said.
“You guessed correctly.”
“Does that mean you’re over the hockey player’s girlfriend?”
I nodded. “Well and truly.”
And I meant it. There were honestly no hard feelings. I was happy they’d found each other. It must be something special given Levi had broken his no girlfriend rule for Grace.
The night we’d gotten drunk together after Grace discovered the bet, I’d realised then how much she meant to him. The guy was on another level. I’d never seen him so... shattered.
In the four years we’d been at Phil-U, Levi had never been anything other than confident. If that’s what love did to you, maybe I wasn’t ready for it.
The blank expression on my best friend’s face was another reason to avoid it. Even though she’d called me, Ruby’s thoughts were somewhere else entirely.
“When are you visiting me next?” I asked. “I haven’t seen you since last year.”
“You’re better than that, Wheels.”
“No. I’m not.”
With an amused roll of her eyes, Ruby fell back against her bed, her hair fanning across her pillow. “My upcoming roster is crazy. I’m spending the whole month as an attending theatre nurse to an anaesthetist.”
“That sounds intense.”
“It will be. Usually you need at least a full year of experience for something like this, but the head nurse recommended me.” For the first time today, Ruby’s eyes filled with something other than gloom.
“I’ll be assisting the nursing team that currently work with the anaesthetist. It’s a lot of responsibility, but I’m excited. ”
The thought of standing beside an anaesthetist while a surgeon cut open a person had me shuddering. Ruby confused my grimace for disinterest, her cheeks reddening slightly.
“Sorry. I’m boring you.”
“You could never bore me, Rubz. I could happily watch grass grow with you and it would still rank in my top ten moments of the year.” I nestled into my pillows, getting comfortable. “Tell me more.”
Over our friendship, Ruby had patiently listened to me drone on about football – I liked talking things through. As high school graduation had neared, I’d spoken to her non-stop about colleges, going over every pro and every con of every option. I wanted to be the person she came to for a change.
“The reason they’re pushing me into it early is because I’ll need to apply for a first-year position soon. And if that’s intraoperative nursing, then I’d need to enrol in a program that corresponds with a postgrad degree. But there are only a select few of–”
She stopped mid-sentence, her attention focussing intently on something in my background.
It took me a moment too long to realise the shower had turned off. My reaction times were below average today.
Gretchen was standing in the open bathroom doorway, a towel tied around her chest and her wet blonde hair dripping water down her steaming shoulders.
Ruby cleared her throat. “Sorry, Wheels. I’m being a cockblock. I’ll let you go.”
“Wait, Rubz. Don’t–”
Too late. The screen reverted to my wallpaper, which was a picture of Ruby and me from our high school homecoming. She’d gone to the dance with Noah, but I’d snuck in this picture with her. She had a printed copy on her nightstand back home.
Setting my phone down, I rolled to face Gretchen. “That was–”
She dismissively waved off my explanation before dropping the towel. My eyes widened in surprise before automatically roaming over her body. Everything was toned and taut, from her bouncy tits to her tight ass. I vaguely recalled spanking that ass last night and thinking shit, that’s hard.
Reaffirming my memory, as Gretchen rounded my bed, I could make out faint marks on her ass cheeks.
“I don’t care who it was, all that matters to me is riding you one more time.”
While my hazy brain hadn’t fully rebooted, my dick had, and it was springing to alert.
What better way to start the new year.
“Then climb on, baby.”