Page 68 of Ruck Me

Chapter21

AOIFE

An amazingly awesomeboyfriend who I loved and adored who also gave me mind-numbing orgasms on the regular? Check. Fantastic new roommates I’d immediately clicked with and whose company I genuinely enjoyed? Double check. An internship that was about more than fetching coffee and had led to an actual paying job following my graduation last week? Check, check, and check. In the game of life, I was winning … which was slightly discomfiting since I wasn’t used to so many things going my way atonce.

“What are you smiling about?” Brienne, a girl I’d interned with who’d also been hired, asked as she pulled up a chair next to me in our shared workspace. “Are you looking at those fine ass rugby boys again?”

With my chin resting on my palm, I shot her a shit-eating grin. “Can you believe they pay me to do this?” I asked, staring at the latest team shot that featured Eoin prominently front and center.

“Forget him,” Brienne replied, “I’ll take thatone.”

Of course she would. “That’s my brother, Declan.”

“You’re kidding!” she exclaimed, slapping my arm. “You lead a charmed life, my friend. A very charmed life,” she continued, staring at the screen with stars in hereyes.

“If it makes you feel any better, he’s horrible.”

“You only say that because you’re his sister.”

“Yeah, probably,” I laughed, “but he’s also taken.”

“Lucky bitch,” Brienne mumbled as she rolled her chair over to her computer and began tapping away at the keyboard.

“Actually, Sophie’s the lucky one,” I said, moving away from my desk. “Declan treated her horribly when they were kids and when she moved back to Ireland, I told him she was a lost cause. But my brother being a stubborn, pig-headed asshole refused to give up. He’s had a thing for her practically his entire life, but he had to work really hard to make her see that he’d changed.”

Brienne swiveled to face me, her work forgotten. “That’s so romantic,” she said, her face turning dreamy. “I swear, there must be something in the water in Ballycurra with all you childhood sweethearts living happily ever after.”

I laughed. “First of all, Eoin and I were not childhood sweethearts. We tormented each other most of the time, and he even dated my friend in school.”

“And you never had a crush on him?” she asked, raising her eyebrow.

“Honestly? No. We were always just friends. Good friends, but we never crossed that line until a couple of monthsago.”

“How’d you get together anyway? I don’t think you told me that story.”

I felt my face turn red and I squirmed in my seat. “Let’s just say I had a pretty big problem and when Eoin found out about it, he wouldn’t let anyone else help me out. At first I refused his assistance,” I continued, my lips hitching up in a smile, “but we started hanging out and the rest, as they say, is history.”

Abandoning her project altogether, Brienne rolled over to my desk. “Bring up the team photo. I want to look at it again.”

I glanced over my shoulder to make sure no one was monitoring our behavior, and then double clicked on the folder that contained the latest photos, taken just a few days ago in their new jerseys. When a picture of the team took up the entirety of my monitor, Brienne scanned it, her eyes moving at warp speed.

“There, do you know that one?” she asked, pointing at Aidan.

“I know most of them, you know,” I said, shooting her a look. “But yes, that’s Aidan Quark, he plays scrum-half.”

“He’shot.”

I zoomed in on his face and tried to look at him with impartial eyes. Shorter than Eoin and my brother both, he was leaner too, but that was pretty standard for guys who played that position. Green eyes and sandy blonde hair, with stubble that covered a bruise from the match they’d played a couple of days before the photo was snapped, I could admit Aidan was a good-looking guy. Even so, he really wasn’t my type. “He’s okay,” I said. “But he’s also involved with my friend Tanya.”

She sighed mournfully. “Of course heis.”

Brienne continued scanning the photo. “What about him?” Her finger landed on Liam Donnelly, the team’s starting hooker.

“That’sLiam.”

“Let me guess. He has a girlfriendtoo.”

“Not that I know of,” I answered, wracking my brain to place Liam with anyone and coming up empty. “Come to think of it, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him date anyone. Definitely a player, if memory serves.”

---